The Story of the Iliad

When the next day dawned, King Agamemnon called the Greeks to battle. And on the other side Hector set in order the men of Troy. As a baleful star now shineth from the clouds, and now is hidden, so Hector now shone among the foremost ranks, and now ordered the rearward.

Then the men of Troy and the Greeks leapt upon each other. As reapers reap in a rich man's field, making the barley and the wheat fall in long swathes, so did the Trojans and the Greeks slay one another. So long as the day was waxing, the battle was equal, and the people fell alike on either side; but at noon, the Greeks brake the Trojan line, and Agamemnon leapt first into the breach. As a fire falleth on a wood, and sweepeth it away, so Agamemnon fell upon the men of Troy, and swept them before him. Past the Tomb of Ilus, and past the wild fig tree in the plain, they fled, and the King followed hard upon them, shouting aloud. But when they came to the Scean gate they turned and stood, and the battle was renewed.