Aeneas made reply: “Priamides, Why dost thou bid me, when thou knowest me Unwilling, meet in combat Peleus’ son, The mighty among men? It will not be For the first time if I confront him now. He chased me once from Ida with his spear⁠— Me and my fellows, when he took our herds And laid Lyrnessus waste and Pedasus. But Jove, who gave me strength and nimble feet, Preserved me; I had else been slain by him And by Minerva, for the goddess went Before him, giving him the victory And moving him to slay the Leleges And Trojans with the brazen spear he bore. ’Tis not for mortal man to fight the son Of Peleus, at whose side there ever stands One of the immortal gods, averting harm. And then his weapon flies right on, nor stops Until it bites the flesh. Yet were the god To weigh the victory in an equal scale, Achilles would not vanquish me with ease, Though he might boast his frame were all of brass.”