The Trojans return to the ships

Zeus, furious, dispatches Iris and Apollo. Iris is sent to Poseidon with the order to leave the battlefield immediately; Poseidon sulks, considers defying his brother, and finally yields. Apollo is sent to find the wounded Hector. He finds him recovering by the river, fills him with new strength, restores him to the field. Hector returns to the line.

The Greeks see Hector come back and waver. Apollo himself walks ahead of him, holding the dread aegis of Zeus, and the Greek wall — which they had just rebuilt — comes down again under his hand "like a child kicking down a sandcastle on the beach." The Trojan line pours forward. The Greeks are pushed back, past the wall they had thought safe, and again toward the ships.

Hector reaches the first Greek ships and calls for fire. Ajax, alone, climbs onto the prow of a ship with a long boarding-pike and holds off the Trojans by main force, killing a dozen men who try to climb up with torches. He shouts for help; none comes. The book ends with the first ships beginning to burn and Ajax still on the prow, fighting alone. Patroclus, watching from the medical tent, has seen enough. He runs back toward Achilles. The decision he is about to make will cost him his life.