275
  So we, although with mighty force we burst
  Both gates and barrier, and although the Greeks
  Should all retire, shall never yet the way
  Tread honorably back by which we came. 
  No.  Many a Trojan shall we leave behind 280
  Slain by the Grecians in their fleet’s defence. 
  An augur skill’d in omens would expound
  This omen thus, and faith would win from all. 
    To whom, dark-louring, Hector thus replied. 
  Polydamas!  I like not thy advice; 285
  Thou couldst have framed far better; but if this
  Be thy deliberate judgment, then the Gods
  Make thy deliberate judgment nothing worth,
  Who bidd’st me disregard the Thunderer’s[2] firm
  Assurance to myself announced, and make 290
  The wild inhabitants of air my guides,
  Which I alike despise, speed they their course
  With right-hand flight toward the ruddy East,
  Or leftward down into the shades of eve. 
  Consider we the will of Jove alone, 295
  Sovereign of heaven and earth.  Omens abound,
  But the best omen is our country’s cause.[3]
  Wherefore should fiery war thy soul alarm? 
  For were we slaughter’d, one and all, around
  The fleet of Greece, thou need’st not fear to die, 300
  Whose courage never will thy flight retard. 
  But if thou shrink thyself, or by smooth speech
  Seduce one other from a soldier’s part,
  Pierced by this spear incontinent thou diest. 
    So saying he led them, who with deafening roar 305
  Follow’d him.  Then, from the Idaean hills
  Jove hurl’d a storm which wafted right the dust
  Into the fleet; the spirits too he quell’d
  Of the Achaians, and the glory gave
  To Hector and his host; they, trusting firm 310
  In signs from Jove, and in their proper force,
  Assay’d the barrier; from the towers they tore
  The galleries, cast the battlements to ground,
  And the projecting buttresses adjoin’d
  To strengthen the vast work, with bars upheaved. 315
  All these, with expectation fierce to break
  The rampart, down they drew; nor yet the Greeks
  Gave back, but fencing close with shields the wall,
  Smote from behind them many a foe beneath. 
  Meantime from tower to tower the Ajaces moved 320
  Exhorting all; with mildness some, and some
  With harsh rebuke, whom they observed through fear
  Declining base the labors of the fight,
    Friends!  Argives! warriors of whatever rank! 
  Ye who excel, and ye of humbler note! 325
  And ye the last and least! (for such there are,
  All have not magnanimity alike)
  Now have we work for all, as all perceive. 
  Turn not, retreat not to your ships, appall’d