Apollo Bring Down Wall

Then man slew man as the fight was scattered. Hector laid low Stichius and Arcesilaus, the one a leader of the brazen-coated Boeotians, and the other a trusty comrade of great-souled Menestheus; and Aeneas slew Medon and Iasus. The one verily, Medon, was a bastard son of godlike Oïleus, and brother of Aias, but he dwelt in Phylace far from his native land, for that he had slain a man of the kin of his stepmother, Eriopis that Oïleus had to wife; and Iasus was a captain of the Athenians, and was called the son of Sphelus, son of Bucolus. And Mecisteus did Polydamas slay, and Polites slew Echius in the forefront of the fight, and Clonius was slain of goodly Agenor. And Deïochus did Paris smite from behind, as he fled amid the foremost fighters, upon the base of the shoulder, and drave the bronze clean through.

While they were stripping the armour from these, meanwhile the Achaeans were flinging themselves into the digged trench and against the palisade, fleeing this way and that, and were getting them within their wall perforce. And Hector shouted aloud, and called to the Trojans:Speed ye against the ships, and let be the blood-stained spoils. Whomsoever I shall mark holding aloof from the ships on the further side, on the very spot shall I devise his death, nor shall his kinsmen and kinswomen give him his due meed of fire in death, but the dogs shall rend him in front of our city."

So saying, with a downward sweep of his arm he smote his horses with the lash, and called aloud to the Trojans along the ranks; and they all raised a shout, and even with him drave the steeds that drew their chariots, with a wondrous din; and before them Phoebus Apollo lightly dashed down with his feet the banks of the deep trench, and cast them into the midst thereof, bridging for the men a pathway long and broad, even as far as a spear-cast, when a man hurleth, making trial of his strength. Therethrough they poured forward rank on rank, and before them went Apollo, bearing the priceless aegis. And full easily did he cast down the wall of the Achaeans, even as when a boy scattereth the sand by the sea, one that makes of it a plaything in his childishness, and then again confounds it with hands and feet as he maketh sport: so lightly didst thou, O archer Phoebus, confound the long toil and labour of the Achaeans, and on themselves send rout. So then beside their ships the Danaans halted, and were stayed, calling one upon the other, and lifting up their hands to all the gods they made fervent prayer, each man of them; and most of all prayed Nestor of Gerenia, the warder of the Achaeans, stretching forth his two hands to the starry heaven: "O father Zeus, if ever any man of us in wheat-bearing Argos burned to thee fat thigh-pieces of bull or of ram with the prayer that he might return, and thou didst promise and nod thy head thereto, be thou now mindful of these things, and ward from us, O Olympian god, the pitiless day of doom, nor suffer the Achaeans thus to be vanquished by the Trojans."

So he spake in prayer, and Zeus the counsellor thundered aloud, hearing the prayer of the aged son of Neleus.

But the Trojans, when they heard the thunder of Zeus that beareth the aegis, leapt yet the more upon the Argives and bethought them of battle. And as when a great billow of the broad-wayed sea sweepeth down over the bulwarks of a ship, whenso it is driven on by the might of the wind, which above all maketh the waves to swell; even so did the Trojans with a great cry rush down over the wall,—they in their cars, but the Achaeans high up on the decks of their black ships to which they had climbed, fought therefrom with long pikes that lay at hand for them upon the ships for sea-fighting,-- jointed pikes, shod at the tip with bronze.

And Patroclus, so long as the Achaeans and Trojans were fighting about the wall aloof from the swift ships, even so long sat in the hut of kindly Eurypylus, and was making him glad with talk, and on his grievous wound was spreading simples to assuage his dark pangs. But when he saw the Trojans rushing upon the wall, while the Danaans with loud cries turned in flight, then he uttered a groan, and smote his two thighs with the flat of his hands, and with wailing spake, saying: "Eurypylus, in no wise may I abide longer with thee here, albeit thy need is sore; for lo, a mighty struggle hath arisen. Nay, as for thee, let thy squire bring thee comfort, but I will hasten to Achilles, that I may urge him on to do battle. Who knows but that, heaven helping, I may rouse his spirit with my persuading? A good thing is the persuasion of a comrade."


- Homer, The Iliad, Book 15