"Now, O King," he said, "the Greeks are shaming thee, abiding no more by their promise which they made thee coming from Argos; that they would not return till they had taken the city of Troy. Truly there is toil enough here to make us sick of heart and wishful to return. For a man will feel weary if he be kept but a single moon from his wife by winter winds and stormy sea, and we have lingered here for twelve moons nine times told. But it is not well to tarry long and come back empty-handed, after all. Ye all remember the prophecy that was given when we set sail from Greece,—all whom death hath not carried away,—that for nine years we should make war, and in the tenth we should take the fair city of Troy. Remain, therefore, ye Greeks, till ye have taken Priam's mighty town."

So he spake, and all the Greeks shouted in assent; and the ships sent back the shout as if it had been thunder.

Then King Agamemnon stood up, and said: "Go now to your meal, and afterwards we will join the battle. Let every man whet well his spear, and fit his shield, and feed his horses abundantly, and look to his chariot, that all day long we may fight, and cease not, even for a little space, till night shall come and separate the hosts. Truly the band of the shield shall grow wet, and the hand be weary that holdeth the spear, and the horse shall sweat that draweth the polished chariot. And whoever holdeth back from the fight, tarrying at the ships, nothing shall save him from feeding the dogs and the fowls of the air."

Then the Greeks shouted again. Quickly did they scatter themselves among the ships and the tents, and make their meal. And Agamemnon made a feast, and called thereto the chiefs, Nestor and Idomeneus, and Ajax the Greater and Ajax the Less, and Diomed, and Ulysses; but Menelaus came uncalled, knowing that he would be welcome.

I-do'-me-neus. Di'-o-med.

Then King Agamemnon stood up and prayed: "O Zeus, let not the sun set and the darkness fall before I humble Priam's roof in the dust, and burn his doors with fire, and rend the coat of Hector on his breast!"

So he prayed, but Zeus hearkened not.

And when the feast was ended, the chiefs marshalled their hosts for the battle; and Athene in the midst swept through the host, urging them to the conflict; and in every heart she roused the delight of battle, so that there was no man but would have chosen war rather than to return to his home. As is the flare of a great fire when a wood is burning on a hilltop, so was the flash of their arms and their armour, as they thronged to the field. And as the countless flocks of wild geese or cranes or swans now wheel and now settle in the great Asian swamp, or as the bees swarm in the spring, when the milk-pails are full, so thick the Greeks thronged to the battle in the great plain by the banks of the Scamander.

Sca-man'-der.