With words like these he filled their hearts anew With strength and courage. On the other side Ajax exhorted thus his warrior friends:—
“Shame on you, Greeks! We perish here, unless We rescue with strong arms our host and fleet. Think ye that, should the crested Hector seize Our galleys, ye may reach your homes on foot? Hear ye not Hector’s voice, who, fiercely bent To burn our ships with fire, is cheering on His warriors? To no dance he summons them, But to the battle. Nought is left for us, And other counsel there is none, save this: Close with the foe; let every hand put forth Its strength; far better’t were to die at once, Or make at once our safety sure, than thus To waste away, in lingering fight, beside Our ships, destroyed by weaker arms than ours.”
So spake the chief, and all who heard received Courage and strength. Then Hector put to death Schedius, the son of Perimedes, prince Of the Phocaeans. Ajax also slew Laodamas, Antenor’s honored son, A chief of infantry. Polydamas Struck down Cyllenian Otus, who had come, The comrade of Phylides, at the head Of the high-souled Epeians. Meges saw, And rushed upon Polydamas, who sprang Aside unharmed, for Phoebus suffered not The son of Panthoüs thus to be o’erthrown, Fighting among the foremost. But the spear Of Meges wounded Croesmus in the breast; He fell with clanging arms. The slayer stripped The corpse; but Dolops, son of Lampus, skilled To wield the spear, leaped on him in the act. Lampus, the father, best of men, was son Of king Laomedon, and eminent For warlike prowess. Dolops struck the shield Of Meges in the midst; the corselet stayed The blade with its close jointed plates, and saved The warrior’s life. That corselet Phyleus brought From Ephyrè, beside the Selleis, Given by his host, Euphetes, king of men, For his defence in battle, and it now Preserved his son from death. Then Meges smote With his sharp spear the helm that Dolops wore, And from its summit struck the horse-hair crest, New-tinged with purple, and the cone entire Fell midst the dust. While Meges, standing firm, Fought thus, and hoped the victory, to his aid Came warlike Menelaus, unobserved,