of aegis-bearing
Jove, unweariable, shall the Argives fly home to their own land over
the broad sea, and leave Priam and the Trojans the glory of still
keeping Helen, for whose sake so many of the Achaeans have died at
Troy, far from their homes? Go about at once among the host, and speak
fairly to them, man by man, that they draw not their ships into the
sea."

Minerva was not slack to do her bidding. Down she darted from the
topmost summits of Olympus, and in a moment she was at the ships of the
Achaeans. There she found Ulysses, peer of Jove in counsel, standing
alone. He had not as yet laid a hand upon his ship, for he was grieved
and sorry; so she went close up to him and said, "Ulysses, noble son of
Laertes, are you going to fling yourselves into your ships and be off
home to your own land in this way? Will you leave Priam and the Trojans
the glory of still keeping Helen, for whose sake so many of the
Achaeans have died at Troy, far from their homes? Go about at once
among the host, and speak fairly to them, man by man, that they draw
not their ships into the sea."

Ulysses knew the voice as that of the goddess: he flung his cloak from
him and set off to run. His servant Eurybates, a man of Ithaca, who
waited on him, took charge of the cloak, whereon Ulysses went straight
up to Agamemnon and received from him his ancestral, imperishable
staff. With this he went about among the ships of the Achaeans.

Whenever he met a king or chieftain, he stood by him and spoke him
fairly. "Sir," said he, "this flight is cowardly and unworthy. Stand to
your post, and bid your people also keep their places. You do not yet
know the full mind of Agamemnon; he was sounding us, and ere long will
visit the Achaeans with his displeasure. We were not all of us at the
council to hear what he then said; see to it lest he be angry and do us
a mischief; for the pride of kings is great, and the hand of Jove is
with them."

But when he came across any common man who was making a noise, he
struck him with his staff and rebuked him, saying, "Sirrah, hold your
peace, and listen to better men than yourself. You are a coward and no
soldier; you are nobody either in fight or council; we cannot all be
kings; it is not well that there should be many masters; one man must
be supreme--one king to whom the son of scheming Saturn has given the
sceptre of sovereignty over you all."

Thus masterfully did he go about among the host, and the people hurr