many. And then Ajax addressed Menelaus, good in the din of war:
"O my friend, O Jove-nurtured Menelaus, no longer do I expect that even we ourselves will return from battle. Nor do I fear so much about the dead body of Patroclus, which will quickly satiate the dogs and birds of the Trojans, as much as I fear for my own head, lest it suffer any thing, and for thine, for Hector, that cloud of war, overshadows all things; while to us, on the other hand, utter destruction appears. But come, call the bravest of the Greeks, if any one will hear."
Thus he spoke; nor did Menelaus, good in the din of war, disobey; but he shouted, crying with a loud voice to the Greeks:
"O friends, leaders and chieftains of the Greeks, ye who with Agamemnon, the son of Atreus, and Menelaus, drink the public wine,[1] and command each his forces; but honor and glory follows from Jove. Difficult would it be for me to look to each of the leaders, for so great a strife of battle burns. But let some one advance, and let him be indignant in his mind, that Patroclus should become a sport to Trojan dogs."
Thus he spoke; but quickly the swift Oïlean Ajax heard, and first advanced opposite, running through the battle; after him Idomeneus, and Meriones, the armor-bearer of Idomeneus, equal to man-slaughtering Mars. But who in his mind could recount the names of the others as many as afterward aroused the battle of the Greeks? But the Trojans, in close array, first made the onset, and Hector led them on.
But as when, at the mouths[2] of a river flowing from Jove, the great wave roars against the stream, while around the lofty shores resound, the wave being ejected [upon the beach], with so loud a clamor did the Trojans advance; but the Greeks stood round the son of Menœtius, having one spirit, protected by their brazen shields; while over their shining
