When they had thus armed, each amid his own people, they strode
fierce of aspect into the open space, and both Trojans and
Achaeans were struck with awe as they beheld them. They stood
near one another on the measured ground, brandishing their
spears, and each furious against the other. Alexandrus aimed
first, and struck the round shield of the son of Atreus, but the
spear did not pierce it, for the shield turned its point.
Menelaus next took aim, praying to Father Jove as he did so.
"King Jove," he said, "grant me revenge on Alexandrus who has
wronged me; subdue him under my hand that in ages yet to come a
man may shrink from doing ill deeds in the house of his host."

He poised his spear as he spoke, and hurled it at the shield of
Alexandrus. Through shield and cuirass it went, and tore the
shirt by his flank, but Alexandrus swerved aside, and thus saved
his life. Then the son of Atreus drew his sword, and drove at the
projecting part of his helmet, but the sword fell shivered in
three or four pieces from his hand, and he cried, looking towards
Heaven, "Father Jove, of all gods thou art the most despiteful; I
made sure of my revenge, but the sword has broken in my hand, my
spear has been hurled in vain, and I have not killed him."

With this he flew at Alexandrus, caught him by the horsehair
plume of his helmet, and began dragging him towards the Achaeans.
The strap of the helmet that went under his chin was choking him,
and Menelaus would have dragged him off to his own great glory
had not Jove's daughter Venus been quick to mark and to break the
strap of oxhide, so that the empty helmet came away in his hand.
This he flung to his comrades among the Achaeans, and was again