He sprang forward along the line and cheered his men. Let not the Trojans keep you at arm's length, Achaeans — go at them and fight them man for man. However valiant I may be, I cannot chase so many and fight them all. Even Ares or Athena would shrink from flinging into such jaws of war alone; yet so far as in me lies I will show no slackness of hand or foot, and I will break their ranks.
Hector called the Trojans not to fear Achilles. Words he could match with gods; spears were another matter. Still Achilles's deed would fall short of his boast. Hector would go against him though his hands were fire and his strength iron.
The Trojans raised the cry and flung into the ranks. Apollo came to Hector and forbade single combat with Achilles: keep under cover of the others, or he will spear you or cut you down close.
Hector drew back into the crowd, afraid when he heard the god.
Then Achilles sprang on the Trojans with a terrible cry, clothed in valor as in a garment. First he killed Iphition son of Otrynteus, a leader of many people whom a naiad nymph had borne under snowy Tmolus. He struck him full on the head as he came on and split it clean in two, then vaunted over him by the Gygaean lake. Achaean chariot wheels cut him up in the front of battle.
He killed Demoleon son of Antenor through temple and helmet, shedding the brain; then Hippodamas in the midriff as he fled his chariot, who gasped like a bull dragged to Poseidon's altar at Helice.