So spake Hector, and on his head again he placed his crested helmet. And his wife went home, many times looking back to watch him she loved going forth to battle, with her eyes half blinded by her tears.
Not far behind Hector followed Paris, his armour glittering like the sun, and with a laugh on the face that was more full of beauty than that of any other man on earth. Like a noble charger that has broken its bonds and gallops exultingly across the plain, so did Paris stride onward.
‘I fear I have delayed thee,’ he said to his brother when he overtook him.
‘No man can speak lightly of thy courage,’ answered Hector, ‘only thou hast brought shame on thyself by holding back from battle. But now let us go forward, and may the gods give the Greeks into our hands.’
So went Hector and Paris together into battle, and many a Greek fell before them on that day.
CHAPTER VI
THE FIGHT BETWEEN HECTOR AND AJAX
From Olympus did Athene mark with angry heart how Greek after Greek fell dead before the spears of Hector and of Paris.
Then did she plot with Apollo, her brother, how best she might discomfit these men of Troy.
And into the heart of Hector did they put the wish to make the Trojans and the Greeks cease from battle, while he challenged the bravest Greek of the host to meet him, man to man, in deadly combat.
Then did Hector and Agamemnon make the fighting cease, and with gladness did Hector call upon the Greeks to send forth their bravest champion that he might fight with him, hand to hand.