Asios alone refused to leave his horses and chariot. He drove them toward the gates, hoping to break through at once, but he would not return rejoicing. He found the gates open, for two mighty Lapiths, Polypoites and Leonteus, stood there like high oaks on a mountain, trusting in their hands and spears.
Asios shouted that the Achaeans were foolish to think they could hold him back. He drove straight in, and many Trojans followed with a cry. But the Lapiths stood firm, and from the wall men hurled stones on the attackers. The noise was like snow falling thick from clouds when Zeus sends a winter storm.
Polypoites struck Damasos through the bronze-cheeked helmet, and the spear point broke the bone within. He killed Pylon and Ormenos too. Leonteus, equal to Ares, killed Hippomachos with the spear and drew his sword on Antiphates, Menon, Iamenos, and Orestes, laying them one on another on the earth.
The dead fell in heaps while Asios groaned and slapped his thighs. He cried that Zeus was a liar if the Trojans could not break the ships after all, when two men at the gate held them like wasps by a roadside nest, defending their young against boys who stir them.
Elsewhere the other companies pressed hard. Zeus was giving Hector glory and meant him to break the wall first, but the Achaeans still held on. They fought from the towers, striking Trojans with stones as large as men could lift, while the Trojans battered the battlements below.
Then a bird appeared to the left of the Trojans as they strained to cross: an eagle flying high, carrying a blood-red snake in its talons. The snake was still alive and twisted back, biting the bird by the breast. The eagle dropped it among the crowd and flew away crying on the wind.