Homer, The Iliad
Samuel Butler, Ed.

Then Glaukos son of Hippolokhos looked fiercely at Hektor and rebuked him sternly. "Hektor," said he, "you make a brave show, but in fight you are sadly wanting. A runaway like yourself has no claim to so great a glory [kleos]. Think how you may now save your town and citadel by the hands of your own people born in Ilion; for you will get no Lycians to fight for you, seeing what thanks they have had for their incessant hardships. Are you likely, sir, to do anything to help a man of less note, after leaving Sarpedon, who was at once your guest and comrade in arms, to be the spoil and prey of the Danaans? So long as he lived he did good service [kharis] both to your city and yourself; yet you had no stomach to save his body from the dogs. If the Lycians will listen to me, they will go home and leave Troy to its fate. If the Trojans had any of that daring fearless spirit which lays hold of men who are engaging in the struggle [ponos] for their land and harassing those who would attack it,

we should soon bear off Patroklos into Ilion. Could we get this dead man away and bring him into the city of Priam, the Argives would readily give up the armor of Sarpedon, and we should get his body to boot. For he whose squire [therapôn] has been now killed is the foremost man at the ships of the Achaeans - he and his close-fighting followers [therapontes]. Nevertheless you dared not make a stand against Ajax, nor face him, eye to eye, with battle all round you, for he is a braver man than you are."

Hektor scowled at him and answered, "Glaukos, you should know better. I have held you so far as a man of more understanding than any in all Lycia, but now I despise you for saying that I am afraid of Ajax. I fear neither battle nor the din of chariots, but Zeus' will [noos] is stronger than ours; Zeus at one time makes even a strong man draw back and snatches victory from his grasp, while at another he will set him on to fight. Come hither then, my friend, stand by me and see indeed whether I shall play the coward the whole day through as you say, or whether I shall not stay some even of the boldest Danaans from fighting round the body of Patroklos."

As he spoke he called loudly on the Trojans saying, "Trojans, Lycians, and Dardanians, fighters in close combat, be men, my friends, and fight might and main, while I put on the goodly armor of Achilles, which I took when I killed Patroklos."

With this Hektor left the fight, and ran full speed after his men who were taking the armor of Achilles to Troy, but had not yet got far. Standing for a while apart from the woeful fight, he changed his armor. His own he sent to the strong city of Ilion and to the Trojans, while he put on the immortal armor of the son of Peleus, which the gods had given to Peleus, who in his age gave it to his son; but the son did not grow old in his father's armor.

When Zeus, lord of the storm-cloud, saw Hektor standing aloof and arming himself in the armor of the son of Peleus, he wagged his head and muttered to himself saying, "A! poor wretch, you arm in the armor of a hero, before whom many another trembles, and you reck nothing of the doom that is already close upon you. You have killed his comrade so brave and strong, but it was not according to the order [kosmos] of things that you should strip the armor from his head and shoulders. I do indeed endow you with great might now, but as against this you shall not return from battle to lay the armor of the son of Peleus before Andromache."

The son of Kronos bowed his portentous brows, and Hektor fitted the armor to his body, while terrible Ares entered into him, and filled his whole body with might and valor. With a shout he strode in among the allies, and his armor flashed about him so that he seemed to all of them like the great son of Peleus himself. He went about among them and cheered them on - Mesthles, Glaukos, Medon, Thersilokhos, Asteropaios, Deisenor and Hippothoos, Phorkys, Chromios, and Ennomos the augur. All these did he exhort saying, "Hear me, allies from other cities who are here in your thousands, it was not in order to have a crowd about me that I called you hither each from his several city, but that with heart and soul you might defend the wives and little ones of the Trojans from the fierce Achaeans. For this do I oppress my people with your food and the presents that make you rich. Therefore turn, and charge at the foe, to stand or fall as is the game of war; whoever shall bring Patroklos, dead though he be, into the hands of the Trojans, and shall make Ajax give way before him, I will give him one half of the spoils while I keep the other. He will thus share like honor [kleos] with myself."

When he had thus spoken they charged full weight upon the Danaans with their spears held out before them, and the hopes of each ran high that he should force Ajax son of Telamon to yield up the body - fools that they were, for he was about to take the lives of many. Then Ajax said to Menelaos, "My good friend Menelaos, you and I shall hardly come out of this fight alive. I am less concerned for the body of Patroklos,