rborem
contemplatus est, actutum sua divinitate et tempestates flexit,
et classem deduxit, et decennium praedixit."]

[Footnote 104: _I. e._ for nine. It is remarkable that so little
notice has been taken of this story by the later poets. But the
sacrifice of Iphigenia was a more attractive subject for tragedy
or episode, and took the place of the Homeric legend.]

Thus he [Ulysses] spoke, and the Greeks loudly shouted, applauding the
speech of divine Ulysses; but all around the ships echoed fearfully, by
reason of the Greeks shouting. Then the Gerenian[105] knight Nestor
addressed them:

"O strange! assuredly now ye are talking like infant children, with whom
warlike achievements are of no account. Whither then will your compacts
and oaths depart? Into the fire now must the counsels and thoughts of
men have sunk, and the unmixed libations, and the right hands in which
we trusted; for in vain do we dispute with words, nor can we discover
any resource, although we have been here for a long time. But do thou, O
son of Atreus, maintaining, as before, thy purpose firm, command the
Greeks in the hard-fought conflicts; and abandon those to perish, one
and both,[106] who, separated from the Greeks, are meditating [but
success shall not attend them] to return back to Argos, before they know
whether the promise of aegis-bearing Jove be false or not. For I say that
the powerful son of Saturn assented on that day, when the Argives
embarked in their swift ships, bearing death and fate to the Trojans,
flashing[107] his lightning on the right, and showing propitious signs.
Let not any one, therefore, hasten to return home before each has slept
with a Trojan wife, and has avenged the cares[108] and griefs of Helen.
But if any one is extravagantly eager to return home, let him lay hands
upon his well-benched black ship, that he may draw on death and fate
before others. But do thou thyself deliberate well, O king, and attend
to another; nor shall the advice which I am about to utter be discarded.
Separate the troops, Agamemnon, according to their tribes and clans,
that kindred may support kindred, and clan. If thou wilt thus act, and
the Greeks obey, thou wilt then ascertain which of the generals and
which of the soldiers is a dastard, and which of them may be brave, for
they will fight their best,[109] and thou wilt likewise learn whether it
is by the divine interposition that thou art destined not to dismantle
the