Glaucus son of Hippolochos looked fiercely at Hector and rebuked him. "Hector, you make a brave show, but you forget your allies. Sarpedon lies abandoned for dogs and birds, and you fear Aias. How will you save a lesser man, when you left your guest-friend to be spoil for the Argives?"
Hector scowled and answered that he was no coward. Zeus turned victory now one way and now another. "Come — stand by me and watch my work." He ran after the men carrying Achilles' armor toward the city, caught them, stripped off his own gear, and put on the deathless armor of the son of Peleus.
Zeus saw him standing apart and arming himself in that gear, and shook his head in pity. Hector had no thought of death, which was already near; he had killed Achilles' gentle comrade and put on armor he should not wear. Yet for this day Zeus would give him great strength, since he would not come home from battle, and Andromache would never take those arms from his hands.
Hector fitted the armor to his body, and Ares entered him and filled his limbs with fury. He went among the Trojans and allies calling by name to Mesthles, Glaucus, Medon, Thersilochos, Asteropaios, and the rest, promising half the spoils to the man who could drag Patroclus away from Aias.
The Trojans closed in with raised spears. Aias told Menelaus they must call the best of the Argives, or they would lose both the body and their own lives. Menelaus shouted to the chiefs for shame and courage, and the Aiantes, Idomeneus, Meriones, and others gathered until Patroclus was ringed with bronze.
The fight settled around the corpse like fire in a dry mountain glen when wind drives the blaze every way. Neither side would yield. Dust and bronze rose in a cloud, and the ground ran with blood around the fallen man.