“Haste hither, O my friends, and bring me aid. I stand alone, in dread of the approach Of swift Aeneas, who comes fiercely on, Powerful to slay, and in his prime of youth, The highest vigor of the human frame. Yet, were our years the same, that chief or I Would quickly triumph at the other’s cost.”
He spake, and all with one accord drew near And stood by him, with shields obliquely held Upon their shoulders. On the other side Aeneas cheered his comrades on. He fixed His look on Paris, and Deïphobus, And nobly born Agenor, who, like him, Were leaders of the Trojans. After these The soldiers followed, as the thronging flock Follow the ram that leads them to the fount From pasture, and the shepherd’s heart is pleased. So was Aeneas glad at heart to see The multitude of warriors following him.
Then mingled they in battle hand to hand Around Alcathoüs, with their ponderous spears, And fearfully upon their bosoms rang The brass, as through the struggling crowd they aimed Their weapons at each other. Two brave men, Aeneas and Idomeneus, the peers Of Mars, conspicuous o’er their fellows, strove With cruel brass to rend each other’s limbs. And first Aeneas cast his spear to smite Idomeneus, who saw it as it came, And shunned it. Plunging in the earth beyond, It stood and quivered; it had left in vain The Trojan’s powerful hand. Idomeneus Next smote Oenomaüs: the spear brake through His hollow corselet at the waist; it pierced And drank the entrails: down amid the dust He fell, and grasped the earth with dying hand. Idomeneus plucked forth the massy spear, But, pressed by hostile weapons, ventured not To strip the sumptuous armor from the dead; Since now no more the sinews of his feet Were firm to bear him rushing to retake His spear, or start aside from hostile spears.