making his men face the enemy and form up in line and take breath, and
was encouraging them, for they had retreated from the wall of the Greeks
across the whole plain, past the hill that was the tomb of Ilus, a king
of old, and past the place of the wild fig-tree. Much ado had Hector to
rally the Trojans, but he knew that when men do turn again they are hard
to beat. So it proved, for when the Trojans had rallied and formed in
line, Agamemnon slew a Thracian chief who had come to fight for Troy
before King Rhesus came. But the eldest brother of the slain man smote
Agamemnon through the arm with his spear, and, though Agamemnon slew him
in turn, his wound bled much and he was in great pain, so he leaped into
his chariot and was driven back to the ships.

Then Hector gave the word to charge, as a huntsman cries on his hounds
against a lion, and he rushed forward at the head of the Trojan line,
slaying as he went. Nine chiefs of the Greeks he slew, and fell upon the
spearmen and scattered them, as the spray of the waves is scattered by
the wandering wind.

Now the ranks of the Greeks were broken, and they would have been driven
among their ships and killed without mercy, had not Ulysses and Diomede
stood firm in the centre, and slain four Trojan leaders. The Greeks
began to come back and face their enemies in line of battle again, though
Hector, who had been fighting on the Trojan right, rushed against them.
But Diomede took good aim with his spear at the helmet of Hector, and
struck it fairly. The spear-point did not go through the helmet, but
Hector was stunned and fell; and, when he came to himself, he leaped into
his chariot, and his squire drove him against the Pylians and Cretans,
under Nestor and Idomeneus, who were on the left wing of the Greek army.
Then Diomede fought on till Paris, who stood beside the pillar on the
hillock that was the tomb of old King Ilus, sent an arrow clean through