Then huge Ajax donned his bright armor of bronze, and came forth like the war-god Mars when he goeth to battle.  The Achaians were glad, but the Trojans trembled; and even the brave Hector felt his heart beat quicker in his breast.  But he would not shrink from the combat, seeing that he had himself challenged all the Achaians.  And Ajax came on, bearing a mighty shield, like a tower, which Tychius, the cunning leather-worker, had made for him, of sevenfold hides of lusty bulls, all overlaid with bronze.  And he stood near godlike Hector, and spake:  “Now shalt thou see what manner of men the Greeks have among them, even now when Achilles, the lion-hearted, hath left us in his wrath.  But do thou begin the fight!”

And Hector answered him, “Great Ajax, son of Telamon, sprung from Zeus! speak not to me as if I were a poor weak boy, or a woman! for I too have knowledge of war and slaughter.  I know how to charge into the midst of the chariots, or, at close quarters, to join in the wild dance of Mars.”  He said, and hurled his long-shafted spear, and struck the sevenfold shield of Ajax; it passed through six folds, but was stopped by the seventh.

Then Ajax, sprung from Zeus, threw his ponderous lance at the shield of mighty Priam’s son.  It passed right through the bright shield, and through the well-wrought corselet, and rent his tunic; but he swerved aside, and escaped gloomy death.  Then the two fell upon each other, like ravening lions or wild boars; and Hector smote the shield of Ajax with his spear, but the sharp point was turned by the stout buckler.  Then Ajax leapt upon him, and drove his spear at Hector’s neck, making a wound from which the dark blood flowed.

But Hector, undismayed, took up a great stone from the ground, and with it smote the boss of Ajax’s shield.  And Ajax heaved up a far bigger stone and threw it on the buckler of Hector, and it fell on him like a huge millstone, and stretched him on his back!  But Apollo raised him, and set him on his legs again.

Then they would have furiously attacked each other with their swords, had not the Achaian herald, Talthybius, and the Trojan herald, Idaius, intervened and stopped the fight, holding their staves of office between the godlike warriors; and Idaius spake to them:  “Fight no longer, brave youths; for Zeus loveth you both; and we know well what gallant warriors ye are.  Night is upon us, whose commands it behooveth us to obey.”

And the Telamonian Ajax answered, “Let Hector say those words; for it was he who challenged us.”

And Hector of the shining helmet said, “Ajax, since thou hast received strength and wisdom from the Gods, and dost excel all the Achaians in the fight, let us now cease from battle for the day, and hereafter we will fight again, until the Gods shall give victory to one of us.  Go now, and rejoice thy friends and kinsmen by the ships, and I will gladden the hearts of Trojan men and long-robed dames in the holy city