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Take then the whip and reins, while I go down from the car and fight.
Alcimedon sprang on to the chariot, and caught up the whip and reins,
while Automedon leaped from off the car. When Hector saw him he said
to Aeneas who was near him, "Aeneas, counsellor of the mail-­‐clad Trojans,
I see the steeds of the fleet son of Aeacus come into battle with
weak hands to drive them. I am sure, if you think well, that we might
take them; they will not dare face us if we both attack them."
The valiant son of Anchises was of the same mind, and the pair went
right on, with their shoulders covered under shields of tough dry
ox-­‐hide, overlaid with much bronze. Chromius and Aretus went also
with them, and their hearts beat high with hope that they might kill
the men and capture the horses-­‐ fools that they were, for they were
not to return scatheless from their meeting with Automedon, who prayed
to father Jove and was forthwith filled with courage and strength
abounding. He turned to his trusty comrade Alcimedon and said, "Alcimedon,
keep your horses so close up that I may feel their breath upon my
back; I doubt that we shall not stay Hector son of Priam till he has
killed us and mounted behind the horses; he will then either spread
panic among the ranks of the Achaeans, or himself be killed among
the foremost."
On this he cried out to the two Ajaxes and Menelaus, "Ajaxes captains
of the Argives, and Menelaus, give the dead body over to them that
are best able to defend it, and come to the rescue of us living; for
Hector and Aeneas who are the two best men among the Trojans, are
pressing us hard in the full tide of war. Nevertheless the issue lies