The Iliad, Homer [big screen ebook reader .txt] 📗

and the armed warriors on the plain slept soundly,
but Jove was wakeful, for he was thinking how to do honour to Achilles,
and destroyed much people at the ships of the Achaeans. In the end he
deemed it would be best to send a lying dream to King Agamemnon; so he
called one to him and said to it, "Lying Dream, go to the ships of the
Achaeans, into the tent of Agamemnon, and say to him word for word as I
now bid you. Tell him to get the Achaeans instantly under arms, for he
shall take Troy. There are no longer divided counsels among the gods;
Juno has brought them to her own mind, and woe betides the Trojans."

The dream went when it had heard its message, and soon reached the
ships of the Achaeans. It sought Agamemnon son of Atreus and found him
in his tent, wrapped in a profound slumber. It hovered over his head in
the likeness of Nestor, son of Neleus, whom Agamemnon honoured above
all his councillors, and said:--

"You are sleeping, son of Atreus; one who has the welfare of his host
and so much other care upon his shoulders should dock his sleep. Hear
me at once, for I come as a messenger from Jove, who, though he be not
near, yet takes thought for you and pities you. He bids you get the
Achaeans instantly under arms, for you shall take Troy. There are no
longer divided counsels among the gods; Juno has brought them over to
her own mind, and woe betides the Trojans at the hands of Jove.
Remember this, and when you wake see that it does not escape you."

The dream then left him, and he thought of things that were, surely not
to be accomplished. He thought that on that same day he was to take the
city of Priam, but he little knew what was in the mind of Jove, who had
many another hard-fought fight in store alike for Danaans and Trojans.
Then presently he woke, with the divine message still ringing in his
ears; so he sat upright, and put on his soft shirt so fair and new, and
over this his heavy cloak. He bound his sandals on to his comely feet,
and slung his silver-studded sword about his shoulders; then he took
the imperishable staff of his father, and sallied forth to the ships of
the Achaeans.

The goddess Dawn now wended her way to vast Olympus that she might
herald day to Jove and to the other immortals, and Agamemnon sent the
criers round to call the people in assembly; so they called them and
the people gathered thereon. But first he summoned a meeting of the
elders at the ship of Nestor king of Pylos, and when they were
assembled he laid a cunning counsel before them.

"My friends," said he, "I have had a dream from heaven in the dead of
night, and its face and figure resembled none but Nestor's. It hovered
over my head and said, 'You are sleeping, son of Atreus; one who has
the welfare of his host and so much other care upon his shoulders
should dock his sleep. Hear me at once, for I am a messenger from Jove,
who, though he be not near, yet takes thought for you and pities you.
He bids you get the Achaeans instantly under arms, for you shall take
Troy. There are no longer divided counsels among the gods; Juno has
brought them over to her own mind, and woe betides the Trojans at the
hands of Jove. Remember this.' The dream then vanished and I awoke. Let
us now, therefore, arm the sons of the Achaeans. But it will be well
that I should first sound them, and to this end I will tell them to fly
with their ships; but do you others go about among the host and prevent
their doing so."

He then sat down, and Nestor the prince of Pylos with all sincerity and
goodwill addressed them thus: "My friends," said he, "princes and
councillors of the Argives, if any other man of the Achaeans had told
us of this dream we should have declared it false, and would have had
nothing to do with it. But he who has seen it is the foremost man among
us; we must therefore set about getting the people under arms."

With this he led the way from the assembly, and the other sceptred
kings rose with him in obedience to the word of Agamemnon; but the
people pressed forward to hear. They swarmed like bees that sally from
some hollow cave and flit in countless throng among the spring flowers,
bunched in knots and clusters; even so did the mighty multitude pour
from ships and tents to the assembly, and range themselves upon the
wide-watered shore, while among them ran Wildfire Rumour, messenger of
Jove, urging them ever to the fore. Thus they gathered in a pell-mell
of mad confusion, and the earth groaned under the tramp of men as the
people sought their places. Nine heralds went crying about among them
to stay their tumult and bid them listen to the kings, till at last
they were got into their several places and ceased their clamour. Then
King Agamemnon rose, holding his sceptre. This was the work of Vulcan,
who gave it to Jove the son of Saturn. Jove gave it to Mercury, slayer
of Argus, guide and guardian. King Mercury gave it to Pelops, the
mighty charioteer, and Pelops to Atreus, shepherd of his people.
Atreus, when he died, left it to Thyestes, rich in flocks, and Thyestes
in his turn left it to be borne by Agamemnon, that he might be lord of
all Argos and of the isles. Leaning, then, on his sceptre, he addressed
the Argives.

"My friends," he said, "heroes, servants of Mars, the hand of heaven
has been laid heavily upon me. Cruel Jove gave me his solemn promise
that I should sack the city of Priam before returning, but he has
played me false, and is now bidding me go ingloriously back to Argos
with the loss of much people. Such is the will of Jove, who has laid
many a proud city in the dust, as he will yet lay others, for his power
is above all. It will be a sorry tale hereafter that an Achaean host,
at once so great and valiant, battled in vain against men fewer in
number than themselves; but as yet the end is not in sight. Think that
the Achaeans and Trojans have sworn to a solemn covenant, and that they
have each been numbered--the Trojans by the roll of their householders,
and we by companies of ten; think further that each of our companies
desired to have a Trojan householder to pour out their wine; we are so
greatly more in number that full many a company would have to go
without its cup-bearer. But they have in the town allies from other
places, and it is these that hinder me from being able to sack the rich
city of Ilius. Nine of Jove's years are gone; the timbers of our ships
have rotted; their tackling is sound no longer. Our wives and little
ones at home look anxiously for our coming, but the work that we came
hither to do has not been done. Now, therefore, let us all do as I say:
let us sail back to our own land, for we shall not take Troy."

With these words he moved the hearts of the multitude, so many of them
as knew not the cunning counsel of Agamemnon. They surged to and fro
like the waves of the Icarian Sea, when the east and south winds break
from heaven's clouds to lash them; or as when the west wind sweeps over
a field of corn and the ears bow beneath the blast, even so were they
swayed as they flew with loud cries towards the ships, and the dust
from under their feet rose heavenward. They cheered each other on to
draw the ships into the sea; they cleared the channels in front of
them; they began taking away the stays from underneath them, and the
welkin rang with their glad cries, so eager were they to return.

Then surely the Argives would have returned after a fashion that was
not fated. But Juno said to Minerva, "Alas, daughter of aegis-bearing
Jove, unweariable, shall the Argives fly home to their own land over
the broad sea, and leave Priam and the Trojans the glory of still
keeping Helen, for whose sake so many of the Achaeans have died at
Troy, far from their homes? Go about at once among the host, and speak
fairly to them, man by man, that they draw not their ships into the
sea."

Minerva was not slack to do her bidding. Down she darted from the
topmost summits of Olympus, and in a moment she was at the ships of the
Achaeans. There she found Ulysses, peer of Jove in counsel, standing
alone. He had not as yet laid a hand upon his ship, for he was grieved
and sorry; so she went close up to him and said, "Ulysses, noble son of
Laertes, are you going to fling yourselves into your ships and be off
home to your own land in this way? Will you leave Priam and the Trojans
the glory of still keeping Helen, for whose sake so many of the
Achaeans have died at Troy, far from their homes? Go about at once
among the host, and speak fairly to them, man by man, that they draw
not their ships into the sea."

Ulysses knew the voice as that of the goddess: he flung his cloak from
him and set off to run. His servant Eurybates, a man of Ithaca, who
waited on him, took charge of the cloak, whereon Ulysses went straight
up to Agamemnon and received from him his ancestral, imperishable
staff. With this he went about among the ships of the Achaeans.

Whenever he met a king or chieftain, he stood by him and spoke him
fairly. "Sir," said he, "this flight is cowardly and unworthy. Stand to
your post, and bid your people also keep their places. You do not yet
know the full mind of Agamemnon; he was sounding us, and ere long will
visit the Achaeans with his displeasure. We were not all of us at the
council to hear what he then said; see to it lest he be angry and do us
a mischief; for the pride of kings is great, and the hand of Jove is
with them."

But when he came across any common man who was making a noise, he
struck him with his staff and rebuked him, saying, "Sirrah, hold your
peace, and listen to better men than yourself. You are a coward and no
soldier; you are nobody either in fight or council; we cannot all be
kings; it is not well that there should be many masters; one man must
be supreme--one king to whom the son of scheming Saturn has given the
sceptre of sovereignty over you all."

Thus masterfully did he go about among the host, and the people hurried
back to the council from their tents and ships with a sound as the
thunder of surf when it comes crashing down upon the shore, and all the
sea is in an uproar.

The rest now took their seats and kept to their own several places, but
Thersites still went on wagging his unbridled tongue--a man of many
words, and those unseemly; a monger of sedition, a railer against all
who were in authority, who cared not what he said, so that he might set
the Achaeans in a