70
To godlike honors in all Trojan hearts,
And Polybus, with whom Antenor’s sons
Agenor, and young Acamas advanced. 
Hector the splendid orb of his broad shield
Bore in the van, and as a comet now 75
Glares through the clouds portentous, and again,
Obscured by gloomy vapors, disappears,
So Hector, marshalling his host, in front
Now shone, now vanish’d in the distant rear. 
All-cased he flamed in brass, and on the sight 80
Flash’d as the lightnings of Jove AEgis-arm’d. 
As reapers, toiling opposite,[7] lay bare
Some rich man’s furrows, while the sever’d grain,
Barley or wheat, sinks as the sickle moves,
So Greeks and Trojans springing into fight 85
Slew mutual; foul retreat alike they scorn’d,
Alike in fierce hostility their heads
Both bore aloft, and rush’d like wolves to war. 
Discord, spectatress terrible, that sight
Beheld exulting; she, of all the Gods, 90
Alone was present; not a Power beside
There interfered, but each his bright abode
Quiescent occupied wherever built
Among the windings of the Olympian heights;
Yet blamed they all the storm-assembler King 95
Saturnian, for his purposed aid to Troy. 
The eternal father reck’d not; he, apart,
Seated in solitary pomp, enjoy’d
His glory, and from on high the towers survey’d
Of Ilium and the fleet of Greece, the flash 100
Of gleaming arms, the slayer and the slain. 

    While morning lasted, and the light of day

Increased, so long the weapons on both sides
Flew in thick vollies, and the people fell. 
But, what time his repast the woodman spreads 105
In some umbrageous vale, his sinewy arms
Wearied with hewing many a lofty tree,
And his wants satisfied, he feels at length
The pinch of appetite to pleasant food,[8]
Then was it, that encouraging aloud 110
Each other, in their native virtue strong,
The Grecians through the phalanx burst of Troy. 
Forth sprang the monarch first; he slew the Chief
Bianor, nor himself alone, but slew
Oileus also driver of his steeds. 115
Oileus, with a leap alighting, rush’d
On Agamemnon; he his fierce assault
Encountering, with a spear met full his front. 
Nor could his helmet’s ponderous brass sustain
That force, but both his helmet and his skull 120
It shatter’d, and his martial rage repress’d. 
The King of men, stripping their corselets, bared
Their shining breasts, and left them.  Isus, next,
And Antiphus he flew to slay, the sons
Of Priam both, and in one chariot borne, 125
This spurious, genuine that.  The bastard drove,
And Antiphus, a warrior high-renown’d,
Fought from the chariot; them Achilles erst