As when a hungry lion suddenly Springs on a herd of kine that crop the grass By hundreds in the broad moist meadow-grounds, Beneath the eye of one who never learned To guard his hornèd charge from beasts of prey, But ever walks before them or behind, While the grim spoiler bounds into the midst And makes a prey of one, and all the rest Are scattered in affright, so all the Greeks Were scattered by the will of heaven before Hector and Father Jove. Yet only one, Young Periphoetes of Mycenae, fell, The son of Copreus. Once his father went An envoy from Eurystheus to the court Of mighty Hercules. The son excelled The father in all gifts of form and mind, In speed, in war, in council eminent Among the noblest of his land. His death Brought Hector new renown; for as he turned, Stepping by chance upon his buckler’s rim, That reached the ground⁠—the buckler which had been His fence against the enemy’s darts⁠—he fell Backward, his helmet clashing fearfully Around his temples. Hector saw, and came