Mnemosyne — Classical Greek Myth Library

Hector and Paris rejoined the fight; Athena and Apollo, meeting by the oak, agreed to halt general slaughter with a single combat. Helenus read the gods’ will and sent Hector to challenge the best of the Achaeans. The Argives hung back until Menelaus rose, then Nestor shamed nine champions into lots—Agamemnon, Diomedes, the two Ajaxes, Idomeneus, Meriones, Eurypylus, Thoas, Odysseus. The lot fell to Telamonian Ajax. He armed with the great tower-shield and faced Hector through the day: spears cast, stones hurled, swords at close quarters. Ajax wounded Hector in the neck with a spear-thrust that did not fell him; Hector struck Ajax’s shield-boss with a stone. Night came; heralds Idaeus and Talthybius parted them. They exchanged gifts—Hector his sword, Ajax a war-belt—and parted in mutual respect. In council that night Antenor urged giving Helen and the goods back; Paris refused Helen but offered the treasures and more. The Achaeans rejected the offer yet agreed to a truce to burn the dead. Both sides gathered corpses, wept, and lit pyres. Nestor advised a fortified camp; the Achaeans built a wall and ditch before the ships, with gates for chariots. Zeus thundered ill omens over the wine at evening. The duel settles nothing strategically, but it crowns Ajax as Achilles’ stand-in and marks the wall that will frame the next crisis.