83] and all Argos.[84] Leaning upon this, he spoke words
amongst the Greeks:

[Footnote 79: The dative here implies direction, [Greek: epi]
increasing its force, according to Stadelmann and Kuehner, who are
followed by Anthon. I have restored the old interpretation, which
is much less far-fetched, and is placed beyond doubt by Virgil's
imitations.--"_per_ florea rura," AEn. i. 430; "floribus insidunt
variis." AEn. vi. 708. "Among fresh dews and flowers, Fly to and
fro."--Milton. P.L. i. 771.]

[Footnote 80: _I. e._ over the flowers in the spring-time, when
bees first appear. See Virg. l. c. Eurip. Hipp. 77, [Greek:
melissa leimon' erinon oierchetai].--Nicias, Anthol. i. 31,
[Greek: era phainousa melissa].--Longus, i. 4.]

[Footnote 81: Observe the distributive use of [Greek: kata]. Cf.
Od. iii. 7.]

[Footnote 82: Mercury. Cf. Ovid. Met. i. 624. sqq.]

[Footnote 83: On the extended power of Agamemnon, see Thucyd. i.
9.]

[Footnote 84: On this sceptre, the type of the wealth and
influence of the house of the Atrides, see Grote. vol. i. p.
212.]

"O friends, Grecian heroes, servants of Mars, Jove, the son of Saturn,
has entangled me in a heavy misfortune. Cruel, who before indeed
promised to me, and vouchsafed by his nod, that I should return home,
having destroyed well-fortified Ilium. But now he has devised an evil
deception, and commands me to return to Argos, inglorious, after I have
lost many of my people. So forsooth it appears to be agreeable to
all-powerful Jove, who has already overthrown the citadels of many
cities, yea, and will even yet overthrow them, for transcendent is his
power. For this were disgraceful even for posterity to hear, that so
brave and so numerous a people of the Greeks warred an ineffectual war,
and fought with fewer men; but as yet no end has appeared. For if we,
Greeks and Trojans, having struck a faithful league,[85] wished that
both should be numbered, and [wished] to select the Trojans, on the one
hand, as many as are townsmen; and if we Greeks, on the other hand, were
to be divided into decades, and to choose a single man of the Trojans to
pour out wine [for each decade], many decades would be without a
cupbearer.[86] So much more numerous, I say, the sons of the Greeks are
than the Trojans who dwell in the city. But there are spear-wielding
auxiliaries from many cities, who greatly stand in my way, and do not
permit me