ll thy
counsel be injurious, O leader of the people."

But him Agamemnon, the king of men, then answered: "Much, O Ulysses,
hast thou touched me to the soul with thy severe reproof; yet I
commanded not the sons of the Greeks against their will to draw the
well-benched ships down to the sea. But now would that there were one,
either young or old, who would deliver an opinion better than this; it
would be to my joy." [456]

But among them Diomede, valiant in the din of battle, also spoke: "The
man is near, we need not seek far, if indeed ye are willing to be
persuaded; and do not find fault each through wrath, because I am by
birth the youngest amongst you; for I boast that my race is from a noble
sire, Tydeus, whom the heaped-up earth[457] covers at Thebes. For to
Portheus were born three distinguished sons, and they dwelt in Pleuron
and lofty Calydon: Agrius and Melas, but the third was the knight oeneus,
the father of my father, who was conspicuous among them for valour. He
indeed remained there, but my father, as an exile, dwelt at Argos, for
so Jove willed and the other gods. But he married [one] of the
daughters[458] of Adrastus, and he inhabited a mansion opulent in
resources, and corn-bearing fields were his in abundance, and there were
many rows[459] of plants around him. Numerous were his herds, and he
surpassed the Greeks in the use of the spear; but these things ye ought
to know, since it is a truth. Do not, therefore, dispute the opinion
freely delivered, which I give advisedly, deeming that I am base by
birth, and unwarlike. Come, then, let us go to battle, wounded as we
are, from necessity. There, then, let us ourselves approach the combat,
out [of the reach] of weapons, lest any one receive wound upon wound;
and, encouraging others, we will urge them on, who hitherto, gratifying
their souls, have stood apart, nor fought."

[Footnote 456: For this use of the dative, cf. Plato Phaedon, Sec.
24. So Tacit. Agric. "Quibus bellum volentibus erat."--Kennedy.
Cf. AEsch. Prom. s.i., [Greek: asmeno de soi E poikileimon nuz
apokrypei phaos].]

[Footnote 457: See my note on Od. ii. p. 21, n. 35, ed. Bohn, and
an admirable dissertation on these classic barrow-tombs in
Stephen's notes on Saxo-Grammaticus, pp. 90-92.]

[Footnote 458: Deipyle. See Scholiast.]

[Footnote 459: Not "gardens." Schol. Theocrit. i. 48. [Greek:
Orchaton ten epistichon phyteian ... kai Aristophanes to metaxy