ished metal first stayed it, and under this my cuirass and the
belt of mail which the bronze-smiths made me."

And Agamemnon answered, "I trust, dear Menelaus, that it may be even
so, but the surgeon shall examine your wound and lay herbs upon it to
relieve your pain."

He then said to Talthybius, "Talthybius, tell Machaon, son to the great
physician, Aesculapius, to come and see Menelaus immediately. Some
Trojan or Lycian archer has wounded him with an arrow to our dismay,
and to his own great glory."

Talthybius did as he was told, and went about the host trying to find
Machaon. Presently he found standing amid the brave warriors who had
followed him from Tricca; thereon he went up to him and said, "Son of
Aesculapius, King Agamemnon says you are to come and see Menelaus
immediately. Some Trojan or Lycian archer has wounded him with an arrow
to our dismay and to his own great glory."

Thus did he speak, and Machaon was moved to go. They passed through the
spreading host of the Achaeans and went on till they came to the place
where Menelaus had been wounded and was lying with the chieftains
gathered in a circle round him. Machaon passed into the middle of the
ring and at once drew the arrow from the belt, bending its barbs back
through the force with which he pulled it out. He undid the burnished
belt, and beneath this the cuirass and the belt of mail which the
bronze-smiths had made; then, when he had seen the wound, he wiped away
the blood and applied some soothing drugs which Chiron had given to
Aesculapius out of the good will he bore him.

While they were thus busy about Menelaus, the Trojans came forward
against them, for they had put on their armour, and now renewed the
fight.

You would not have then found Agamemnon asleep nor cowardly and
unwilling to fight, but eager rather for the fray. He left his chariot
rich with bronze and his panting steeds in charge of Eurymedon, son of
Ptolemaeus the son of Peiraeus, and bade him hold them in readiness
against the time his limbs should weary of going about and giving
orders to so many, for he went among the ranks on foot. When he saw men
hasting to the front he stood by them and cheered them on. "Argives,"
said he, "slacken not one whit in your onset; father Jove will be no
helper of liars; the Trojans have been the first to break their oaths
and to attack us; therefore they shall be devoured of vultures; we
shall take their city and carry off their wives and c