ied
back to the council from their tents and ships with a sound as the
thunder of surf when it comes crashing down upon the shore, and all the
sea is in an uproar.

The rest now took their seats and kept to their own several places, but
Thersites still went on wagging his unbridled tongue--a man of many
words, and those unseemly; a monger of sedition, a railer against all
who were in authority, who cared not what he said, so that he might set
the Achaeans in a laugh. He was the ugliest man of all those that came
before Troy--bandy-legged, lame of one foot, with his two shoulders
rounded and hunched over his chest. His head ran up to a point, but
there was little hair on the top of it. Achilles and Ulysses hated him
worst of all, for it was with them that he was most wont to wrangle;
now, however, with a shrill squeaky voice he began heaping his abuse on
Agamemnon. The Achaeans were angry and disgusted, yet none the less he
kept on brawling and bawling at the son of Atreus.

"Agamemnon," he cried, "what ails you now, and what more do you want?
Your tents are filled with bronze and with fair women, for whenever we
take a town we give you the pick of them. Would you have yet more gold,
which some Trojan is to give you as a ransom for his son, when I or
another Achaean has taken him prisoner? or is it some young girl to
hide and lie with? It is not well that you, the ruler of the Achaeans,
should bring them into such misery. Weakling cowards, women rather than
men, let us sail home, and leave this fellow here at Troy to stew in
his own meeds of honour, and discover whether we were of any service to
him or no. Achilles is a much better man than he is, and see how he has
treated him--robbing him of his prize and keeping it himself. Achilles
takes it meekly and shows no fight; if he did, son of Atreus, you would
never again insult him."

Thus railed Thersites, but Ulysses at once went up to him and rebuked
him sternly. "Check your glib tongue, Thersites," said be, "and babble
not a word further. Chide not with princes when you have none to back
you. There is no viler creature come before Troy with the sons of
Atreus. Drop this chatter about kings, and neither revile them nor keep
harping about going home. We do not yet know how things are going to
be, nor whether the Achaeans are to return with good success or evil.
How dare you gibe at Agamemnon because the Danaans have awarded him so
many prizes? I tell you, therefore--an