who stood around him in his last moments, "We owe a cock
to AEsculapius; give it without delay."

ULYSSES, king of Ith{)a}ca, was the son of Laertes, or Laertius and
Anticl{=e}a. His wife Penel{)o}pe, daughter of Icarius brother of
Tynd{)a}rus king of Sparta, was highly famed for her prudence and
virtue; and being unwilling that the Trojan war should part them,
Ulysses to avoid the expedition, pretended to be mad, and not only
joined different beasts to the same plough, but sowed also the furrows
with salt.

Palam{=e}des, however, suspecting the frenzy to be assumed, threw
Telemachus, then an infant, in the way of the plough, to try if his
father would alter its course. This stratagem succeeded; for when
Ulysses came to the child he turned off from the spot, in consequence of
which Palam{=e}des compelled him to take part in the war. He accordingly
sailed with twelve ships, and was signally serviceable to the Greeks.

To him the capture of Troy is chiefly to be ascribed, since by him the
obstacles were removed, which had so long prevented it. For as Ulysses
himself was detected by Palam{=e}des, so he in his turn detected
Achilles, who, to avoid engaging in the same war, had concealed himself
in the habits of a woman, at the court of Lycom{=e}des, king of Scyros.
Ulysses there discovered him, and as it had been foretold that without
Achilles Troy could not be taken, thence drew him to the siege.

He also obtained the arrows of Hercules, from Philoct{=e}tes, and
carried off that hero from the scene of his retreat. He brought away
also the ashes of Laom{)e}don, which were preserved in Troy on the
Scoean gate. By him the Palladium was stolen from the same city; Rhesus,
king of Thrace, killed, and his horses taken before they had drank of
the Xanthus. These exploits involved in them the destiny of Troy; for
had the Trojans preserved them, their city could never have been
conquered.

Ulysses contended afterwards with Telamonian Ajax, the stoutest of all
the Grecians, except Achilles, for the arms of that hero, which were
awarded to him by the judges, who were won by the charms of his
eloquence. His other enterprises before Troy were numerous and
brilliant, and are particularly related in the Iliad. When Ulysses
departed for Greece, he sailed backwards and forwards for twenty years,
contrary winds and severe weather opposing his return to Ith{)a}ca.

During this period, he extinguished, with a firebrand, the eye of
Poly