Black Ships Before Troy

Paris catches up with Hector and they both rejoin the fight. The Trojans almost manage to push the Greeks back onto their ships. Athene notices that many Greeks have died and decides to stop the fight for the day. Despite the soothsayer’s instructions and Hecuba’s offering to Athene, the goddess is still firmly on the side of the Greeks and “paid no heed to the jeweled robe newly laid across the knees of her statue in the great temple of the high city of Troy” (41). Athene gives Hector the idea for a duel: Hector and Ajax of Salamis will duel to end the battle. Hector and Ajax are an even match; they both wound the other and they fight until they are exhausted and the sun sets. They part with a sense of respect for the other. Hector gifts Ajax a sword as a sign of friendship; Ajax returns the gesture by gifting Hector a rich purple belt. The armies call a truce the next day; they gather their dead to burn on funeral pyres.

The day after, the Greeks dig a ditch and drive stakes into the sand to defend their camp.