Hector
leaped from the chariot to rescue his friend, and Patroclus also
descended to complete his victory. Thus the two heroes met face to
face. At this decisive moment the poet, as if reluctant to give
Hector the glory, records that Phoebus took part against
Patroclus. He struck the helmet from his head and the lance from
his hand. At the same moment an obscure Trojan wounded him in the
back, and Hector, pressing forward, pierced him with his spear. He
fell mortally wounded.
Then arose a tremendous conflict for the body of Patroclus, but
his armor was at once taken possession of by Hector, who retiring
a short distance divested himself of his own armor and put on that
of Achilles, then returned to the fight. Ajax and Menelaus
defended the body, and Hector and his bravest warriors struggled
to capture it. The battle raged with equal fortunes, when Jove
enveloped the whole face of heaven with a dark cloud. The
lightning flashed, the thunder roared, and Ajax, looking round for
some one whom he might despatch to Achilles to tell him of the
death of his friend, and of the imminent danger that his remains
would fall into the hands of the enemy, could see no suitable
messenger. It was then that he exclaimed in those famous lines so
often quoted,
"Father of heaven and earth! deliver thou
Achaia's host from darkness; clear the skies;
Give day; and, since thy sovereign will is such,
Destruction with it; but, O, give us day.
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