loveth and cherisheth
you both alike. Draw not thy sword; but use bitter words, even as thou
wilt. Of a truth, I tell thee that for this insolence of to-day he will
bring thee hereafter splendid gifts, threefold and fourfold for all that
he may take away. Only refrain thyself and do my bidding."

Then Achilles answered, "I will abide by thy command for all my wrath, for
the man who hearkens to the immortal gods is also heard of them." And as
he spake he laid his heavy hand upon the hilt, and thrust back the sword
into the scabbard, and Athene went her way to Olympus.

Then he turned him to King Agamemnon, and spake again, for his anger was
not spent. "Drunkard, with the eyes of a dog and the heart of a deer!
never fighting in the front of the battle, nor daring to lie in the
ambush! 'Tis a race of dastards that thou rulest, or this had been thy
last wrong. But this I tell thee, and confirm my words with a mighty
oath--by this sceptre do I swear. Once it was the branch of a tree, but
now the sons of the Greeks bear it in their hands, even they who maintain
the laws of Zeus; as surely as it shall never again have bark, or leaves,
or shoot, so surely shall the Greeks one day miss Achilles, when they fall
in heaps before the dreadful Hector; and thou shalt eat thy heart for
rage, to think that thou hast wronged the bravest of thy host."

And as he spake he dashed the sceptre, all embossed with studs of gold,
upon the ground, and sat down. And on the other side Agamemnon sat in
furious anger. Then Nestor rose, an old man of a hundred years and more,
and counseled peace. Let them listen, he said, to his counsel. Great
chiefs in the old days, with whom no man now alive would dare to fight,
had listened. Let not Agamemnon take away from the bravest of the Greeks
the prize of war; let not Achilles, though he was mightier in battle than
all other men, contend with Agamemnon, who was sovereign lord of all the
hosts of Greece. But he spake in vain. For Agamemnon answered,--

"Nestor, thou speakest well, and peace is good. But this fellow would lord
it over all; yet there are some, methinks, who will not obey him. For if
the immortal Gods have made him a great warrior, do they therefore grant
him leave to speak lawless words? Verily he must be taught that there is
one here, at least, who is better than he."

And Achilles said, "I were a slave and a coward if I owned thee as my
lord. Not so; play the master over others, but think