e
the full moon; and he stood up and spake: "Friends and Counselors of the
Argives! can ye see the horses as I do? To me, there appeareth a new
chariot and horses; and the mares which led at the start I can no longer
see."

Then the son of Oileus, Ajax, rebuked him in boorish fashion: "Idomeneus,
why chatterest thou before the time? Thou art not one of the youngest, nor
are thine eyes of the sharpest. The same mares of Eumelus are still
leading, and he is standing up in the chariot."

And the great chief, Idomeneus, answered in great wrath, "Ajax, ever ready
to abuse, inconsiderate slanderer! thou art in all respects inferior to
the other Argives, for thy mind is rude."

Thus spoke the Cretan hero. And the son of Oileus rose again, to reply
with scornful words; but Achilles himself stood forward and said, "No
longer, Idomeneus and Ajax, bandy insulting words with one another; for it
is not meet! Sit ye still, and watch; and soon will ye know which horses
are leading." He spake; and straightway Tydides came driving up in his
fair chariot, overlaid with gold and tin, which ran lightly behind the
horses, and scarcely left a trace in the fine dust of the plain. Checking
his horses in the middle of the crowd, he leapt to the ground and claimed
the splendid prize; and the gallant Sthenelus made no delay, but gave to
his victorious comrade the woman and the tripod to bear away.

Next to Diomedes came the son of Nestor, Antilochus, who had passed by
Menelaus by a clever stratagem, though his horses were inferior; but even
so, Menelaus had pressed him hard, and was behind him only so far as a
horse is from the wheel of the chariot which he draweth.

But Meriones, the brave charioteer of Idomeneus, came in about the cast of
a lance behind Menelaus; for his horses were the slowest, and he was
himself but a sluggish driver. Last of all came Eumelus, the son of
Admetus, dragging his broken chariot. The swift-footed Achilles, son of
Peleus, pitied him, and spake winged words to the chiefs: "Lo! the best
man of all comes last; but let us give him a prize--the second! And let
Tydides bear away the first!"

All the Achaians heard him, and shouted applause; and the noble Achilles
would have given him the mare had not Antilochus, son of the wise and
glorious Nestor, stood up in defense of his claim: "O Achilles!" he said,
"justly shall I be wroth with thee, if thou takest away the prize which I
have fairly won. Thou thinkest only of