taining, as before, thy purpose firm, command the Greeks in the hard-fought conflicts; and abandon those to perish, one and both,[1] who, separated from the Greeks, are meditating [but success shall not attend them] to return back to Argos, before they know whether the promise of ægis bearing Jove be false or not. For I say that the powerful son of Saturn assented on that day, when the Argives embarked in their swift ships, bearing death and fate to the Trojans, flashing,[2] his lightning on the right, and showing propitious signs. Let not any one, therefore, hasten to return home before each has slept with a Trojan wife, and has avenged the cares[3] and griefs of Helen. But if any one is extravagantly eager to return home, let him lay hands upon his well-benched black ships that he may draw on death and fate before others. But do thou thy self deliberate well, king, and attend to another; nor shall the advice which I am about to utter be discarded. Separate the troops, Agamemnon, according to their tribes and clans, that kindred may support kindred, and clan clan. If thou wilt thus act, and the Greeks obey, thou wilt then ascertain which of the generals and which of the soldiers is a dastard, and which of them may be brave, for they will fight their best, [4] and thou wilt likewise learn whether it is by the divine interposition that thou art destined not to dismantle the city, or by the cowardice of the troops, and their unskillfulness in war."
But him answering, king Agamemnon addressed: "Old man, now indeed, as at other times, dost thou excel the sons of the Greeks in council. For, would, O father Jove, Minerva, and Apollo, that I were possessed of ten such fellow-counselors among the Greeks! So should the city of Priam quickly fall, captured and destroyed by our hands. But upon me hath ægis-bearing Jove, the son of Saturn, sent sorrow, who casts me into unavailing strifes and
- ↑ Proverbially meaning a few, but probably referring to Achilles and Thersites. See the Scholiast.
- ↑ Observe this bold change of constructian, and compare Valck. ou Lesbonax, at the end of his edition of Ammonius, p. 188.
- ↑ Hesych. ορμήματα, μερίμναι Etym. M. ἐνθυμήματα, ϕροντίδες. See Buttm. Lexil. p. 440, sqq. Helen certainly shows some repentanco in iii. 176.
- ↑ "Pro virili parte," Wolf. Cf. i. 271.
