g against an
out-jutting rock; for this the billows from all kinds of winds never
forsake, when they may be here or there. And rising up, the people
hastened forth, scattered from ship to ship, and raised up smoke among
the tents, and took repast. And one sacrificed to some one of the
immortal gods, and [another to another,] praying to escape death and the
slaughter of war. But king Agamemnon offered up a fat ox, of five years
old, to the powerful son of Saturn, and summoned the elder chiefs of all
the Greeks, Nestor first of all, and king Idomeneus, but next the two
Ajaxes,[112] and the son of Tydeus, and sixth Ulysses, of equal weight
with Jove in council. But Menelaus, valiant in the din[113] of war, came
of his own accord,[114] for he knew his brother in his heart, how he was
oppressed. Then they stood around the ox, and raised up the pounded
barley cakes: and king Agamemnon, praying amidst them, said:

[Footnote 110: Schol. [Greek: eutrepisato].]

[Footnote 111: These shields were so large, that they covered
nearly the whole person.]

[Footnote 112: One the son of Telamon, the other the son of
Oileus.]

[Footnote 113: This translation is, I think, far bolder than
"loud-voiced," or "good in the battle-shout." [Greek: Boe]
contains the whole idea of the tumultuous noise heard in the heat
of battle, and thence the battle itself. Thus the Schol. [Greek:
o en to polemo gennaios]; and Hesych. [Greek: kata ten machen
andreios].]

[Footnote 114: Opposed to [Greek: kletos], as in Oppian, Hal.
iii. 360, [Greek: kletoi t' auto moloi te]. See Plato Sympos. p.
315, G. Laem. Why Menelaus did so, is no matter to us, and
probably was no mystery to his brother.]

"O Jove, most glorious, most great dark-cloud-collector, dwelling in the
air, may not the sun set, nor darkness come on, before I have laid
prostrate Priam's hall, blazing, and consumed its gates with the hostile
fire; and cut away Hector's coat of mail around his breast, split
asunder with the brass; and around him may many comrades, prone in the
dust, seize the earth with their teeth."

Thus he spoke, nor as yet did the son of Saturn assent, but he accepted
the offering, and increased abundant toil. But after they had prayed,
and thrown forward the bruised barley, they first drew back [the neck of
the victim,] slew it, and flayed it, then cut out the thighs, and
covered them in the fat, having arranged it in a double