Enter Odysseus.
Ch. King Odysseus, know that thou hast come in season, if thou art here, not to embroil, but to mediate.
Od. What ails you, friends? Far off I heard loud speech of the Atreidae over this brave man's corpse.
Ag. Nay, King Odysseus, have we not been hearing1320 but now most shameful taunts from yonder man?
Od. How was that? I can pardon a man who is reviled if he engage in wordy war.
Ag. I had reviled him; for his deeds toward me were vile.
Od. And what did he unto thee, that thou hast a wrong?
Ag. He says that he will not leave yon corpse ungraced by sepulture, but will bury it in my despite.
Od. Now may a friend speak out the truth, and still, as ever, ply his oar in time with thine?
Ag. Speak: else were I less than sane;1330 for I count thee my greatest friend of all the Greeks.
Od. Listen, then. For the love of the gods, take not the heart to cast forth this man unburied so ruthlessly; and in no wise let violence prevail with thee to hate so utterly that thou shouldest trample justice under foot.
To me also this man was once the worst foe in the army,—from the day that I became master of the arms of Achilles; yet, for all that he was such toward me, never would I requite him with indignity, or refuse to avow that, in all our Greek host which came to Troy,1340 I have seen none who was his peer, save Achilles. It
