First looking keenly round, with his bright spear, From which the Trojans shrank as they beheld The hero cast it. Not in vain he threw The weapon, for it struck upon the breast Brave Melanippus, Hicetaon’s son; Beneath the pap it smote him as he came. He fell with ringing arms; Antilochus Sprang toward him like a hound that springs to seize A wounded fawn, which, leaping from its lair, Is stretched disabled by the hunter’s dart. So sprang the stout Antilochus on thee, O Melanippus!—sprang to spoil thy limbs Of armor; but the noble Hector saw, And, hastening through the thick of battle, came Against him. Mighty as he was in war, Yet ventured not Antilochus to wait His coming; but as flees a savage beast, Conscious of guilty deed, when, having slain Herdsman or hound, that kept the pastured kine, He steals away before a crowd of men, So fled the son of Nestor. On his rear The Trojans under Hector poured a storm Of weapons, and the din was terrible. Yet when he reached the serried ranks of Greece He turned and stood. Meanwhile the Trojan host, Like ravening lions, fiercely rushed against The galleys, that the will of Jupiter Might be fulfilled; for now he nerved their limbs With vigor ever new, while he denied Stout hearts and victory to the Greeks, and cheered Their foes with hope. His purpose was to give The victory to Hector, Priam’s son, Till he should cast upon the beaked ships The fierce, devouring fire, and bring to pass The end for which the cruel Thetis prayed.
Therefore did Jove the All-disposer wait Till from a burning galley he should see The flames arise. Then must the Trojan host— Such was his will—retreating from the fleet, Yield to the Greeks the glory of the day. For this he moved the already eager heart Of Hector, son of Priam, to attack The roomy ships. The hero was aroused To fury fierce as Mars when brandishing His spear, or as a desolating flame That rages on a mountain-side among The thickets of a close-grown wood. His lips Were white with foam; his eyes from underneath His frowning brows streamed fire; and as he fought, Upon the hero’s temples fearfully The helmet nodded. Jupiter himself Sent aid from his high seat, and heaped