Page 347 - the-iliad

Hector scowled at him and answered, ‘Glaucus, you
should know better. I have held you so far as a man of more
understanding than any in all Lycia, but now I despise you
for saying that I am afraid of Ajax. I fear neither battle nor
the din of chariots, but Jove’s will is stronger than ours; Jove
at one time makes even a strong man draw back and snatch-
es victory from his grasp, while at another he will set him
on to fight. Come hither then, my friend, stand by me and
see indeed whether I shall play the coward the whole day
through as you say, or whether I shall not stay some even
of the boldest Danaans from fighting round the body of Pa-
troclus.’
As he spoke he called loudly on the Trojans saying, ‘Tro-
jans, Lycians, and Dardanians, fighters in close combat, be
men, my friends, and fight might and main, while I put on
the goodly armour of Achilles, which I took when I killed
Patroclus.’
With this Hector left the fight, and ran full speed after
his men who were taking the armour of Achilles to Troy,
but had not yet got far. Standing for a while apart from the
woeful fight, he changed his armour. His own he sent to the
strong city of Ilius and to the Trojans, while he put on the
immortal armour of the son of Peleus, which the gods had
given to Peleus, who in his age gave it to his son; but the son
did not grow old in his father’s armour.
When Jove, lord of the storm-cloud, saw Hector standing
aloof and arming himself in the armour of the son of Pele-
us, he wagged his head and muttered to himself saying, ‘A!
poor wretch, you arm in the armour of a hero, before whom

The Iliad