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long and jointed with rings. As a man skilled in feats of horsemanship<br />

couples four horses together and comes tearing full speed along the<br />

public way from the country into some large town-­‐ many both men and<br />

women marvel as they see him <strong>for</strong> he keeps all the time changing his<br />

horse, springing from one to another without ever missing his feet<br />

while the horses are at a gallop-­‐ even so did Ajax go striding from<br />

one ship's deck to another, and his voice went up into the heavens.<br />

He kept on shouting his orders to the Danaans and exhorting them to<br />

defend their ships and tents; neither did Hector remain within the<br />

main body of the Trojan warriors, but as a dun eagle swoops down upon<br />

a flock of wild-­‐fowl feeding near a river-­‐geese, it may be, or cranes,<br />

or long-­‐necked swans-­‐ even so did Hector make straight <strong>for</strong> a dark-­‐prowed<br />

ship, rushing right towards it; <strong>for</strong> Jove with his mighty hand impelled<br />

him <strong>for</strong>ward, and roused his people to follow him.<br />

And now the battle again raged furiously at the ships. You would have<br />

thought the men were coming on fresh and unwearied, so fiercely did<br />

they fight; and this was the mind in which they were-­‐ the Achaeans<br />

did not believe they should escape destruction but thought themselves<br />

doomed, while there was not a Trojan but his heart beat high with<br />

the hope of firing the ships and putting the Achaean heroes to the<br />

sword.<br />

Thus were the two sides minded. <strong>The</strong>n Hector seized the stern of the<br />

good ship that had brought Protesilaus to Troy, but never bore him<br />

back to his native land. Round this ship there raged a close hand-­‐to-­‐hand<br />

fight between Danaans and Trojans. <strong>The</strong>y did not fight at a distance<br />

with bows and javelins, but with one mind hacked at one another in

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