[For a moment it seems as if Achilles will not budge: his arm trembles from the strain placed upon his muscles, and his scar throbs as if threatening to split open, but he descends no closer to the stone. Their arms are as a set of bronze scales that has found a tentative balance and each side stays suspended in the air.

Then just as one side of the scales must eventually tip beneath the weight of its burden, so too does Achilles' arm falter. The descent is at first slow, and his teeth scrape one against another, but at last his arm flattens against the rock, collapsed of strength.

Achilles looks surprised for what has happened, but then although he has lost he cannot help but grin.]

It seems to me you were right to have called this the impossible challenge - for even I who have no equal among the war-loving Achaeans could not defeat the strength of your iron grey arm.