consider and give ear
to my counsel, for the word that I say may not be neglected lightly.
Divide your men, Agamemnon, into their several tribes and clans, that
clans and tribes may stand by and help one another. If you do this, and
if the Achaeans obey you, you will find out who, both chiefs and
peoples, are brave, and who are cowards; for they will vie against the
other. Thus you shall also learn whether it is through the counsel of
heaven or the cowardice of man that you shall fail to take the town."

And Agamemnon answered, "Nestor, you have again outdone the sons of the
Achaeans in counsel. Would, by Father Jove, Minerva, and Apollo, that I
had among them ten more such councillors, for the city of King Priam
would then soon fall beneath our hands, and we should sack it. But the
son of Saturn afflicts me with bootless wranglings and strife. Achilles
and I are quarrelling about this girl, in which matter I was the first
to offend; if we can be of one mind again, the Trojans will not stave
off destruction for a day. Now, therefore, get your morning meal, that
our hosts join in fight. Whet well your spears; see well to the
ordering of your shields; give good feeds to your horses, and look your
chariots carefully over, that we may do battle the livelong day; for we
shall have no rest, not for a moment, till night falls to part us. The
bands that bear your shields shall be wet with the sweat upon your
shoulders, your hands shall weary upon your spears, your horses shall
steam in front of your chariots, and if I see any man shirking the
fight, or trying to keep out of it at the ships, there shall be no help
for him, but he shall be a prey to dogs and vultures."

Thus he spoke, and the Achaeans roared applause. As when the waves run
high before the blast of the south wind and break on some lofty
headland, dashing against it and buffeting it without ceasing, as the
storms from every quarter drive them, even so did the Achaeans rise and
hurry in all directions to their ships. There they lighted their fires
at their tents and got dinner, offering sacrifice every man to one or
other of the gods, and praying each one of them that he might live to
come out of the fight. Agamemnon, king of men, sacrificed a fat
five-year-old bull to the mighty son of Saturn, and invited the princes
and elders of his host. First he asked Nestor and King Idomeneus, then
the two Ajaxes and the son of Tydeus, and sixthly Ulysses, peer of gods
in cou