to my abhorred and miserable
self."
The old man marvelled at him and said, "Happy son of Atreus, child of
good fortune. I see that the Achaeans are subject to you in great
multitudes. When I was in Phrygia I saw much horsemen, the people of
Otreus and of Mygdon, who were camping upon the banks of the river
Sangarius; I was their ally, and with them when the Amazons, peers of
men, came up against them, but even they were not so many as the
Achaeans."
The old man next looked upon Ulysses; "Tell me," he said, "who is that
other, shorter by a head than Agamemnon, but broader across the chest
and shoulders? His armour is laid upon the ground, and he stalks in
front of the ranks as it were some great woolly ram ordering his ewes."
And Helen answered, "He is Ulysses, a man of great craft, son of
Laertes. He was born in rugged Ithaca, and excels in all manner of
stratagems and subtle cunning."
On this Antenor said, "Madam, you have spoken truly. Ulysses once came
here as envoy about yourself, and Menelaus with him. I received them in
my own house, and therefore know both of them by sight and
conversation. When they stood up in presence of the assembled Trojans,
Menelaus was the broader shouldered, but when both were seated Ulysses
had the more royal presence. After a time they delivered their message,
and the speech of Menelaus ran trippingly on the tongue; he did not say
much, for he was a man of few words, but he spoke very clearly and to
the point, though he was the younger man of the two; Ulysses, on the
other hand, when he rose to speak, was at first silent and kept his
eyes fixed upon the ground. There was no play nor graceful movement of
his sceptre; he kept it straight and stiff like a man unpractised in
oratory--one might have taken him for a mere churl or simpleton; but
when he raised his voice, and the words came driving from his deep
chest like winter snow before the wind, then there was none to touch
him, and no man thought further of what he looked like."
Priam then caught sight of Ajax and asked, "Who is that great and
goodly warrior whose head and broad shoulders tower above the rest of
the Argives?"
"That," answered Helen, "is huge Ajax, bulwark of the Achaeans, and on
the other side of him, among the Cretans, stands Idomeneus looking like
a god, and with the captains of the Cretans round him. Often did
Menelaus receive him as a guest in our house when he came visiting us
from Crete. I see, moreov
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