Peter Paul Rubens [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

From The Iliad

“As he spoke he drew the keen blade that hung so great and strong

by his side, and gathering himself together be sprang on Achilles

like a soaring eagle which swoops down from the clouds on to some

lamb or timid hare–even so did Hector brandish his sword and

spring upon Achilles. Achilles mad with rage darted towards him,

with his wondrous shield before his breast, and his gleaming

helmet, made with four layers of metal, nodding fiercely forward.

The thick tresses of gold with which Vulcan had crested the

helmet floated round it, and as the evening star that shines

brighter than all others through the stillness of night, even

such was the gleam of the spear which Achilles poised in his

right hand, fraught with the death of noble Hector. He eyed his

fair flesh over and over to see where he could best wound it, but

all was protected by the goodly armour of which Hector had

spoiled Patroclus after he had slain him, save only the throat

where the collar-bones divide the neck from the shoulders, and

this is a most deadly place: here then did Achilles strike him as

he was coming on towards him, and the point of his spear went

right through the fleshy part of the neck, but it did not sever

his windpipe so that he could still speak.”