Page 304 - the-iliad

urge others to do so. They may be successful for the moment
but if we fight as we ought they will find it a hard matter to
take the ships.’
Teucer then took his bow and put it by in his tent. He
hung a shield four hides thick about his shoulders, and on
his comely head he set his helmet well wrought with a crest
of horse-hair that nodded menacingly above it; he grasped
his redoubtable bronze-shod spear, and forthwith he was by
the side of Ajax.
When Hector saw that Teucer’s bow was of no more use
to him, he shouted out to the Trojans and Lycians, ‘Trojans,
Lycians, and Dardanians good in close fight, be men, my
friends, and show your mettle here at the ships, for I see
the weapon of one of their chieftains made useless by the
hand of Jove. It is easy to see when Jove is helping people
and means to help them still further, or again when he is
bringing them down and will do nothing for them; he is
now on our side, and is going against the Argives. Therefore
swarm round the ships and fight. If any of you is struck by
spear or sword and loses his life, let him die; he dies with
honour who dies fighting for his country; and he will leave
his wife and children safe behind him, with his house and
allotment unplundered if only the Achaeans can be driven
back to their own land, they and their ships.’
With these words he put heart and soul into them
all. Ajax on the other side exhorted his comrades saying,
‘Shame on you Argives, we are now utterly undone, unless
we can save ourselves by driving the enemy from our ships.
Do you think, if Hector takes them, that you will be able

0