clus is lying dead in my tent, all hacked
and hewn, with his feet to the door, and his comrades are mourning
round him. Therefore I can take thought of nothing save only slaughter
and blood and the rattle in the throat of the dying."

Ulysses answered, "Achilles, son of Peleus, mightiest of all the
Achaeans, in battle you are better than I, and that more than a little,
but in counsel I am much before you, for I am older and of greater
knowledge. Therefore be patient under my words. Fighting is a thing of
which men soon surfeit, and when Jove, who is war's steward, weighs the
upshot, it may well prove that the straw which our sickles have reaped
is far heavier than the grain. It may not be that the Achaeans should
mourn the dead with their bellies; day by day men fall thick and
threefold continually; when should we have respite from our sorrow? Let
us mourn our dead for a day and bury them out of sight and mind, but
let those of us who are left eat and drink that we may arm and fight
our foes more fiercely. In that hour let no man hold back, waiting for
a second summons; such summons shall bode ill for him who is found
lagging behind at our ships; let us rather sally as one man and loose
the fury of war upon the Trojans."

When he had thus spoken he took with him the sons of Nestor, with Meges
son of Phyleus, Thoas, Meriones, Lycomedes son of Creontes, and
Melanippus, and went to the tent of Agamemnon son of Atreus. The word
was not sooner said than the deed was done: they brought out the seven
tripods which Agamemnon had promised, with the twenty metal cauldrons
and the twelve horses; they also brought the women skilled in useful
arts, seven in number, with Briseis, which made eight. Ulysses weighed
out the ten talents of gold and then led the way back, while the young
Achaeans brought the rest of the gifts, and laid them in the middle of
the assembly.

Agamemnon then rose, and Talthybius whose voice was like that of a god
came to him with the boar. The son of Atreus drew the knife which he
wore by the scabbard of his mighty sword, and began by cutting off some
bristles from the boar, lifting up his hands in prayer as he did so.
The other Achaeans sat where they were all silent and orderly to hear
the king, and Agamemnon looked into the vault of heaven and prayed
saying, "I call Jove the first and mightiest of all gods to witness, I
call also Earth and Sun and the Erinyes who dwell below and take
vengeance on him who