do some mischief to the sons of the Greeks. For the anger of a
Jove-nurtured king is great; his honour too is from Jove, and
great-counselling Jove loves him."

But on the other hand, whatever man of the common people he chanced to
see, or find shouting out, him would he strike with the sceptre, and
reprove with words:

"Fellow, sit quietly, and listen to the voice of others, who are better
than thou; for thou art unwarlike and weak, nor ever of any account
either in war or in council. We Greeks cannot all by any means govern
here, for a government of many is not a good thing;[93] let there be but
one chief, one king,[94] to whom the son of wily Saturn has given a
sceptre, and laws, that he may govern among them."

[Footnote 93: See Aristot. Polit. iv. 4, and Cicer. de Off. i. 8.
This true maxim has been often abused by tyrants, as by Dion
(Corn. Nepos, Dion, Sec. 6, 4), Caligula (Sueton. Cal. 22), and
Domitian (id. 12).]

[Footnote 94: On the aristocratic character of Homer's poetry,
see Mueller, Gk Lit. iv. Sec. 2.]

Thus he, acting as chief, was arranging the army. But they again rushed
with tumult from the ships and tents to an assembly, as when the waves
of the much-resounding sea roar against the lofty beach, and the deep
resounds.

The others indeed sat down, and were kept to their respective seats. But
Thersites alone, immediate in words, was wrangling; who, to wit, knew in
his mind expressions both unseemly and numerous, so as idly, and not
according to discipline, to wrangle with the princes, but [to blurt out]
whatever seemed to him to be matter of laughter to the Greeks. And he
was the ugliest man who came to Ilium. He was bandy-legged,[95] and lame
of one foot; his shoulders were crooked, and contracted towards his
breast; and his head was peaked[96] towards the top, and thin woolly
hair was scattered over it. To Achilles and Ulysses he was particularly
hostile, for these two he used to revile. But on this occasion, shouting
out shrilly, he uttered bitter taunts against noble Agamemnon; but the
Greeks were greatly irritated against him, and were indignant in their
minds. But vociferating aloud, he reviled Agamemnon with words:

[Footnote 95: See Buttm. Lexil. p. 540, Sec. 8.]

[Footnote 96: See Buttm. p. 537, who derives [Greek: phozos] from
[Greek: phogein], _to dry_, as if [Greek: phoxos], _warped by
heat_.]

"Son of Atreus, of what dost thou now complain, or what