Answered him Aison’s son, and in courteous wise spake he:
‘Ah, friend, of a truth ’twas a bitter word that thou spakest to me,
When thou saidst in the midst of us all that a traitor I was unto him
Who to me was a friend!—yet I will not nurse wrath brooding grim,
Though vexed was my soul at the first; since not as for flocks of sheep {1340}
Didst thou chafe and wast wroth, nor for hoarded wealth of a treasure-heap,
But all for a comrade’s sake. I were fain thou wouldst champion so
Even me, if need should be ever, against another foe.’
He spake, and they sat them down, as in days overpast made one.
But their lost—by the counsel of Zeus, Polyphemus Eilatus’ son