And trust me, furious though he be, the son
  Of Priam flies.  Ye then who feel your hearts
  Undaunted, but are arm’d with smaller shields,
  Them give to those who fear, and in exchange
  Their stronger shields and broader take yourselves. 455
    So he, whom, unreluctant, all obey’d. 
  Then, wounded as they were, themselves the Kings,
  Tydides, Agamemnon and Ulysses
  Marshall’d the warriors, and from rank to rank
  Made just exchange of arms, giving the best 460
  To the best warriors, to the worse, the worst. 
  And now in brazen armor all array’d
  Refulgent on they moved, by Neptune led
  With firm hand grasping his long-bladed sword
  Keen as Jove’s bolt; with him may none contend 465
  In dreadful fight; but fear chains every arm. 
    Opposite, Priameian Hector ranged
  His Trojans; then they stretch’d the bloody cord
  Of conflict tight, Neptune coerulean-hair’d,
  And Hector, pride of Ilium; one, the Greeks 470
  Supporting firm, and one, the powers of Troy;
  A sea-flood dash’d the galleys, and the hosts
  Join’d clamorous.  Not so the billows roar
  The shores among, when Boreas’ roughest blast
  Sweeps landward from the main the towering surge; 475
  Not so, devouring fire among the trees
  That clothe the mountain, when the sheeted flames
  Ascending wrap the forest in a blaze;
  Nor howl the winds through leafy boughs of oaks
  Upgrown aloft (though loudest there they rave) 480
  With sounds so awful as were heard of Greeks
  And Trojans shouting when the clash began. 
    At Ajax, first (for face to face they stood)
  Illustrious Hector threw a spear well-aim’d,
  But smote him where the belts that bore his shield 485
  And falchion cross’d each other on his breast. 
  The double guard preserved him unannoy’d. 
  Indignant that his spear had bootless flown,
  Yet fearing death at hand, the Trojan Chief
  Toward the phalanx of his friends retired. 490
  But, as he went, huge Ajax with a stone
  Of those which propp’d the ships (for numerous such
  Lay rolling at the feet of those who fought)
  Assail’d him.  Twirling like a top it pass’d
  The shield of Hector, near the neck his breast 495
  Struck full, then plough’d circuitous the dust. 
  As when Jove’s arm omnipotent an oak
  Prostrates uprooted on the plain, a fume
  Rises sulphureous from the riven trunk,
  And if, perchance, some traveller nigh at hand 500
  See it, he trembles at the bolt of Jove,
  So fell the might of Hector, to the earth
  Smitten at once.  Down dropp’d his idle spear,
  And with his helmet and his shield himself
  Also; loud thunder’d all his gorgeous arms. 505