Hector told them to obey him. They should eat now through the army, bring in oxen and sheep from the city, and fetch sweet wine from their houses. Let many fires burn through the night, so no Achaean could slip away over the sea in darkness.
He ordered the young men and old men of Troy to keep watch on the walls, and the women to light great fires in their halls. The allies would camp in ranks, each man by his horses and chariot, waiting for Dawn, while he hoped to fight at the ships and see whether Diomedes would drive him back or he would kill Diomedes and carry his bloody spoils.
Hector prayed that he might be deathless and ageless like Athena and Apollo, if only this day would bring evil on the Argives. He told the Trojans that in the morning they would learn whether any man at the ships could withstand his spear.
The Trojans shouted approval. They loosed the sweating horses from the yoke and tied them by the chariots, then brought cattle, sheep, bread, and wine from the city. They gathered much wood, and the savor of offerings rose from the plain into heaven, though the blessed gods did not accept them because sacred Ilios and Priam's people had become hateful to them.
All night the Trojans sat high in hope along the bridge of war, and their fires blazed thickly. As stars shine bright around the moon when the air is windless and every peak and headland shows, so many fires burned between the ships and the streams of Xanthos.
A thousand fires burned on the plain, and by each fire sat fifty men in the glare of flame. The horses stood beside the chariots, eating white barley and spelt, and waited for Dawn on her beautiful throne.