Page 242 - the-iliad

them till the time came when Jove gave the greater glory to
Hector son of Priam, who was first to spring towards the
wall of the Achaeans. When he had done so, he cried aloud
to the Trojans, ‘Up, Trojans, break the wall of the Argives,
and fling fire upon their ships.’
Thus did he hound them on, and in one body they rushed
straight at the wall as he had bidden them, and scaled the
battlements with sharp spears in their hands. Hector laid
hold of a stone that lay just outside the gates and was thick
at one end but pointed at the other; two of the best men in a
town, as men now are, could hardly raise it from the ground
and put it on to a waggon, but Hector lifted it quite easily
by himself, for the son of scheming Saturn made it light for
him. As a shepherd picks up a ram’s fleece with one hand
and finds it no burden, so easily did Hector lift the great
stone and drive it right at the doors that closed the gates
so strong and so firmly set. These doors were double and
high, and were kept closed by two cross-bars to which there
was but one key. When he had got close up to them, Hector
strode towards them that his blow might gain in force and
struck them in the middle, leaning his whole weight against
them. He broke both hinges, and the stone fell inside by
reason of its great weight. The portals re-echoed with the
sound, the bars held no longer, and the doors flew open, one
one way, and the other the other, through the force of the
blow. Then brave Hector leaped inside with a face as dark
as that of flying night. The gleaming bronze flashed fiercely
about his body and he had two spears in his hand. None but
a god could have withstood him as he flung himself into the

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