In the other part of the camp, near the main gate, where Hector had
first effected an entrance, the Greeks were still fighting with
indomitable spirit under Telamonian Ajax, and his namesake, the son of
Oileus. These two held together, and battled side by side, like two
stout oxen yoked to the same plough, and toiling from dawn till sunset,
while the sweat streams without ceasing from the roots of their horns:
so stood they side by side, and bore the brunt, all through that long
and bitter fray. And behind them were arrayed the bowmen and slingers
of Locris, whose captain was the lesser Ajax, and kept up such a shower
of arrows and leaden bullets that the Trojans at length began to waver,
and broke their ranks.
When Polydamas, the wisest head among the Trojans, saw that the great
assault, which had begun so boldly, was beginning to flag, he called
Hector aside, and said to him: "Hector, thou art strong of hand, but
weak of head. Seest thou not that we are wasting our valour, by
fighting thus in scattered parties, with no settled plan of attack?
Now, hearken to me, and do as I shall say, if thou wouldst not have us
driven back in shameful rout upon the town. Gather all our parties
into one strong phalanx, and charge with them all at once on one point
in the Grecian line. Thus, and thus only, may we hope to prevail,
outnumbered as we are by two to one."
Hector saw that the advice was good, and, leaving Polydamas to hold the
Greeks in check, he went in search of Asius, Deiphobus, and the rest,
who were fighting on the left. Sore were the gaps which now appeared
in that gallant company, and many a hero, whom he called by name, was
lying cold in death. Gathering such as remained, he formed them into
one body with those whom he had left in the charge of Deiphobus, and
with the powerful column thus formed made repeated charges, which were
sustained with undaunted firmness by Ajax and his men.