Page 325 - the-iliad

folded him round about.
Thus did these chieftains of the Danaans each of them
kill his man. As ravening wolves seize on kids or lambs, fas-
tening on them when they are alone on the hillsides and
have strayed from the main flock through the carelessness
of the shepherd—and when the wolves see this they pounce
upon them at once because they cannot defend themselves—
even so did the Danaans now fall on the Trojans, who fled
with ill-omened cries in their panic and had no more fight
left in them.
Meanwhile great Ajax kept on trying to drive a spear
into Hector, but Hector was so skilful that he held his broad
shoulders well under cover of his ox-hide shield, ever on the
look-out for the whizzing of the arrows and the heavy thud
of the spears. He well knew that the fortunes of the day had
changed, but still stood his ground and tried to protect his
comrades.
As when a cloud goes up into heaven from Olympus, ris-
ing out of a clear sky when Jove is brewing a gale—even
with such panic stricken rout did the Trojans now fly, and
there was no order in their going. Hector’s fleet horses bore
him and his armour out of the fight, and he left the Trojan
host penned in by the deep trench against their will. Many
a yoke of horses snapped the pole of their chariots in the
trench and left their master’s car behind them. Patroclus
gave chase, calling impetuously on the Danaans and full
of fury against the Trojans, who, being now no longer in a
body, filled all the ways with their cries of panic and rout;
the air was darkened with the clouds of dust they raised,

The Iliad