yourself--take the best man of those that have
offered, for many would now go with you. Do not through delicacy reject
the better man, and take the worst out of respect for his lineage,
because he is of more royal blood."

He said this because he feared for Menelaus. Diomed answered, "If you
bid me take the man of my own choice, how in that case can I fail to
think of Ulysses, than whom there is no man more eager to face all
kinds of danger--and Pallas Minerva loves him well? If he were to go
with me we should pass safely through fire itself, for he is quick to
see and understand."

"Son of Tydeus," replied Ulysses, "say neither good nor ill about me,
for you are among Argives who know me well. Let us be going, for the
night wanes and dawn is at hand. The stars have gone forward,
two-thirds of the night are already spent, and the third is alone left
us."

They then put on their armour. Brave Thrasymedes provided the son of
Tydeus with a sword and a shield (for he had left his own at his ship)
and on his head he set a helmet of bull's hide without either peak or
crest; it is called a skull-cap and is a common headgear. Meriones
found a bow and quiver for Ulysses, and on his head he set a leathern
helmet that was lined with a strong plaiting of leathern thongs, while
on the outside it was thickly studded with boar's teeth, well and
skilfully set into it; next the head there was an inner lining of felt.
This helmet had been stolen by Autolycus out of Eleon when he broke
into the house of Amyntor son of Ormenus. He gave it to Amphidamas of
Cythera to take to Scandea, and Amphidamas gave it as a guest-gift to
Molus, who gave it to his son Meriones; and now it was set upon the
head of Ulysses.

When the pair had armed, they set out, and left the other chieftains
behind them. Pallas Minerva sent them a heron by the wayside upon their
right hands; they could not see it for the darkness, but they heard its
cry. Ulysses was glad when he heard it and prayed to Minerva: "Hear
me," he cried, "daughter of aegis-bearing Jove, you who spy out all my
ways and who are with me in all my hardships; befriend me in this mine
hour, and grant that we may return to the ships covered with glory
after having achieved some mighty exploit that shall bring sorrow to
the Trojans."

Then Diomed of the loud war-cry also prayed: "Hear me too," said he,
"daughter of Jove, unweariable; be with me even as you were with my
noble father Tydeus when h