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about attacking the ranks of the enemy with spear and sword and with
great handfuls of stone, but when the blood had ceased to flow and
the wound grew dry, the pain became great. As the sharp pangs which
the Eilithuiae, goddesses of childbirth, daughters of Juno and dispensers
of cruel pain, send upon a woman when she is in labour-­‐ even so sharp
were the pangs of the son of Atreus. He sprang on to his chariot,
and bade his charioteer drive to the ships, for he was in great agony.
With a loud clear voice he shouted to the Danaans, "My friends, princes
and counsellors of the Argives, defend the ships yourselves, for Jove
has not suffered me to fight the whole day through against the Trojans."
With this the charioteer turned his horses towards the ships, and
they flew forward nothing loth. Their chests were white with foam
and their bellies with dust, as they drew the wounded king out of
the battle.
When Hector saw Agamemnon quit the field, he shouted to the Trojans
and Lycians saying, "Trojans, Lycians, and Dardanian warriors, be
men, my friends, and acquit yourselves in battle bravely; their best
man has left them, and Jove has vouchsafed me a great triumph; charge
the foe with your chariots that. you may win still greater glory."
With these words he put heart and soul into them all, and as a huntsman
hounds his dogs on against a lion or wild boar, even so did Hector,
peer of Mars, hound the proud Trojans on against the Achaeans. Full
of hope he plunged in among the foremost, and fell on the fight like
some fierce tempest that swoops down upon the sea, and lashes its
deep blue waters into fury.