, and the island of Aegina, and Mases,--these
followed strong-voiced Diomedes, son of Tydeus, who had the spirit
of his father the son of Oeneus, and Sthenelus, dear son of famous
Capaneus. And with these two there went a third leader, Eurypylus,
a godlike man, son of the lord Mecisteus, sprung of Talaus; but
strong-voiced Diomedes was their chief leader. These men had eighty
dark ships wherein were ranged men skilled in war, Argives with linen
jerkins, very goads of war.' [3706]

This praise of their race by the most famous of all poets so exceedingly
delighted the leading Argives, that they rewarded him with costly gifts
and set up a brazen statue to him, decreeing that sacrifice should be
offered to Homer daily, monthly, and yearly; and that another sacrifice
should be sent to Chios every five years. This is the inscription they
cut upon his statue:

'This is divine Homer who by his sweet-voiced art honoured all proud
Hellas, but especially the Argives who threw down the god-built walls of
Troy to avenge rich-haired Helen. For this cause the people of a great
city set his statue here and serve him with the honours of the deathless
gods.'

After he had stayed for some time in Argos, he crossed over to Delos,
to the great assembly, and there, standing on the altar of horns, he
recited the "Hymn to Apollo" [3707] which begins: 'I will remember and
not forget Apollo the far-shooter.' When the hymn was ended, the Ionians
made him a citizen of each one of their states, and the Delians wrote
the poem on a whitened tablet and dedicated it in the temple of Artemis.
The poet sailed to Ios, after the assembly was broken up, to join
Creophylus, and stayed there some time, being now an old man. And, it is
said, as he was sitting by the sea he asked some boys who were returning
from fishing:

'Sirs, hunters of deep-sea prey, have we caught anything?'

To this replied:

'All that we caught, we left behind, and carry away all that we did not
catch.'

Homer did not understand this reply and asked what they meant. They then
explained that they had caught nothing in fishing, but had been catching
their lice, and those of the lice which they caught, they left behind;
but carried away in their clothes those which they did not catch.
Hereupon Homer remembered the oracle and, perceiving that the end of his
life had come composed his own epitaph. And while he was retiring from
that place, he slipped in a clayey place and fell upon