and remounted: then he lashed the horses onwards, and they flew
forward nothing loth towards the ships as though of their own
free will. Nestor was first to hear the tramp of their feet. "My
friends," said he, "princes and counsellors of the Argives, shall
I guess right or wrong?--but I must say what I think: there is a
sound in my ears as of the tramp of horses. I hope it may Diomed
and Ulysses driving in horses from the Trojans, but I much fear
that the bravest of the Argives may have come to some harm at
their hands."

He had hardly done speaking when the two men came in and
dismounted, whereon the others shook hands right gladly with them
and congratulated them. Nestor knight of Gerene was first to
question them. "Tell me," said he, "renowned Ulysses, how did you
two come by these horses? Did you steal in among the Trojan
forces, or did some god meet you and give them to you? They are
like sunbeams. I am well conversant with the Trojans, for old
warrior though I am I never hold back by the ships, but I never
yet saw or heard of such horses as these are. Surely some god
must have met you and given them to you, for you are both of you
dear to Jove, and to Jove's daughter Minerva."

And Ulysses answered, "Nestor son of Neleus, honour to the
Achaean name, heaven, if it so will, can give us even better
horses than these, for the gods are far mightier than we are.
These horses, however, about which you ask me, are freshly come
from Thrace. Diomed killed their king with the twelve bravest of
his companions. Hard by the ships we took a thirteenth man--a
scout whom Hector and the other Trojans had sent as a spy upon
our ships."

He laughed as he spoke and drove the horses over the ditch, while
the other Achaeans followed him gladly. When they reached the
strongly built quarters of the son of Tydeus, they tied the
horses with thongs of leather to the manger, where the steeds of
Diomed stood eating their sweet corn, but Ulysses hung the
blood-stained spoils of Dolon at the stern of his ship, that they
might prepare a sacred offering to Minerva. As for themselves,
they went into the sea and washed the sweat from their bodies,
and from their necks and thighs. When the sea-water had taken all
the sweat from off them, and had refreshed them, they went into
the baths and washed themselves. After they had so done and had
anointed themselves with oil, they sat down to table, and drawing
from a full mixing-bowl, made a drink-offering of wine to
Minerva.



BOOK XI

In the forenoon the fight is equal, but Agamemnon turns the
fortune of the day towards the Achaeans until he gets
wounded and leaves the field--Hector then drives everything
before him till he is wounded by Diomed--Paris wounds
Diomed--Ulysses, Nestor, and Idomeneus perform prodigies
of valour--Machaon is wounded--Nestor drives him off in
his chariot--Achilles sees the pair driving towards the camp
and sends Patroclus to ask who it is that is wounded--This
is the beginning of evil for Patroclus--Nestor makes a long
speech.

AND now as Dawn rose from her couch beside Tithonus, harbinger of
light alike to mortals and immortals, Jove sent fierce Discord
with the ensign of war in her hands to the ships of the Achaeans.
She took her stand by the huge black hull of Ulysses' ship which
was middlemost of all, so that her voice might carry farthest on
either side, on the one hand towards the tents of Ajax son of
Telamon, and on the other towards those of Achilles--for these
two heroes, well-assured of their own strength, had valorously
drawn up their ships at the two ends of the line. There she took
her stand, and raised a cry both loud and shrill that filled the
Achaeans with courage, giving them heart to fight resolutely and
with all their might, so that they had rather stay there and do
battle than go home in their ships.

The son of Atreus shouted aloud and bade the Argives gird
themselves for battle while he put on his armour. First he girded
his goodly greaves about his legs, making them fast with ankle-
clasps of silver; and about his chest he set the breastplate
which Cinyras had once given him as a guest-gift. It had been
noised abroad as far as Cyprus that the Achaeans were about to
sail for Troy, and therefore he gave it to the king. It had ten
courses of dark cyanus, twelve of gold, and ten of tin. There
were serpents of cyanus that reared themselves up towards the
neck, three upon either side, like the rainbows which the son of
Saturn has set in heaven as a sign to mortal men. About his
shoulders he threw his sword, studded with bosses of gold; and
the scabbard was of silver with a chain of gold wherewith to hang
it. He took moreover the richly-dight shield that covered his
body when he was in battle--fair to see, with ten circles of
bronze running all round it. On the body of the shield there were
twenty bosses of white tin, with another of dark cyanus in the
middle: this last was made to show a Gorgon's head, fierce and
grim, with Rout and Panic on either side. The band for the arm to
go through was of silver, on which there was a writhing snake of
cyanus with three heads that sprang from a single neck, and went
in and out among one another. On his head Agamemnon set a helmet,
with a peak before and behind, and four plumes of horse-hair that
nodded menacingly above it; then he grasped two redoubtable
bronze-shod spears, and the gleam of his armour shot from him as


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