He darted forward among the first ranks and shouted saying, "Argives, shall we let Hector son of Priam have the triumph of taking our ships and covering himself with glory?
This is what he says that he shall now do, seeing that Achilles is still in dudgeon at his ship; we shall get on very well without him if we keep each other in heart and stand by one another.
Now, therefore, let us all do as I say.

Let us each take the best and largest shield we can lay hold of, put on our helmets, and sally forth with our longest spears in our hands; I will lead you on, and Hector son of Priam, rage as he may, will not dare to hold out against us.

If any good staunch soldier has only a small shield, let him hand it over to a worse man, and take a larger one for himself." Thus did he speak, and they did even as he had said.

The son of Tydeus, Ulysses, and Agamemnon, wounded though they were, set the others in array, and went about everywhere effecting the exchanges of armour; the most valiant took the best armour, and gave the worse to the worse man.
When they had donned their bronze armour they marched on with Neptune at their head.

In his strong hand he grasped his terrible sword, keen of edge and flashing like lightning; woe to him who comes across it in the day of battle; all men quake for fear and keep away from it.
Hector on the other side set the Trojans in array.