ried rugs, and, in addition to these, as many tunics; and having
weighed it, he took out ten whole talents of gold. He took out beside
two glittering tripods, and four goblets, and a very beautiful cup,
which the Thracian men had given him when going on an embassy, a mighty
possession. Nor now did the old man spare even this in his palaces; for
he greatly wished in his mind to ransom his dear son. And he drove away
all the Trojans from his porch, chiding them with reproachful words:

"Depart, wretched, reproachful [creatures]; is there not indeed grief to
you at home, that ye should come fretting me? Or do ye esteem it of
little consequence that Jove, the son of Saturn, has sent sorrows upon
me, that I should have lost my bravest son? But ye too shall perceive
it, for ye will be much more easy for the Greeks to destroy now, he
being dead; but I will descend even to the abode of Hades, before I
behold with mine eyes the city sacked and plundered."

He spoke; and chased away the men with his staff; but they went out, the
old man driving [them]. He indeed rebuked his own sons, reviling
Helenus, Paris, and godlike Agathon, Pammon, Antiphonus, and Polites,
brave in the din of battle, Deiphobus, Hippothous, and renowned Dius. To
these nine the old man, reproaching, gave orders:

"Haste for me, O slothful children, disgraceful; would that you had all
been slain at the swift ships, instead of Hector. Ah me! the most
unhappy of all, since I have begotten the bravest sons in wide Troy; but
none of whom I think is left: godlike Mestor, and Troulus, who fought
from his chariot, and Hector, who was a god among men, for he did not
appear to be the son of a mortal man, but of a god. These indeed has
Mars destroyed to me; but all these disgraces remain, liars,
dancers,[785] most skilled in the choirs, and public robbers of lambs
and kids. Will ye not with all haste get ready my chariot, and place all
these things upon it, that we may perform our journey?"

[Footnote 785: Cicero pro Muraena, vi., "Saltatorem appellat L.
Muraenam Cato Maledictum est, si vere objicitur, vehementis
accusatoris." Cf. AEn. ix. 614.]

Thus he spoke; but they, dreading the reproach of their father, lifted
out the well-wheeled, mule-drawn chariot, beautiful, newly built, and
tied the chest[786] upon it. They then took down the yoke for the mules
from the pin, made of box-wood, and embossed, well fitted with rings,
and then they brought out the yoke