; round
A murmur follow'd from the circling crowd.
Till up the chief of Ithaca arose;
His eyes (awhile cast down) rais'd from the earth;
The chiefs with anxious look'd-for sounds address'd:
Nor grace was wanting to persuasive words.
"O Grecians! had your prayers and mine been heard,
"Owner of what such cause of strife affords
"Were now not dubious: thou, Pelides, still
"These arms possessing, we possessing thee.
"But since unpitying fate, to you, to me,
"Denies him"--(here as weeping, o'er his eyes
His hand he draws)--"who with so just a right
"Can great Achilles now succeed, as he
"Who great Achilles brought the Greeks to join?
"Let it not aid his cause, that fool he seems,
"Or stupid is indeed; nor aught let harm
"The ingenuity I claim, to mine:
"Which, O, ye Argives! still has aided you.
"Let not my eloquence, if such I boast,
"And words, whose 'vantage often you have prov'd,
"Now for their author, move invidious thoughts:
"Nor what each claims his proper gift, refuse.
"Scarce can we call our ancestry, our race,
"Or deeds by them perform'd, merits our own:
"Yet since of grandsire Jove this Ajax boasts,
"I too, can boast him author of my line:
"Nor more degrees remov'd. My sire was nam'd
"Laertes; his Arcesius; and from Jove
"Arcesius came direct: nor in this line,
"E'er any exil'd or condemn'd appear'd.
"Cyllenius too, his noble lineage adds
"Through my maternal stock. Each parent boasts
"A god-descended race. Yet claim I not
"The arms contested, merely that I spring
"Maternally more noble; nor them claim
"That from a brother's blood my sire is free:
"By merits solely you the cause adjudge.
"These only none to Ajax, that his sire,
"And Peleus brethren were, e'er grant. The prize
"Desert, and not propinquity of blood,
"Should gain. If kindred, then the hero's heir
"Demands it: Peleus still survives, his sire;
"And Pyrrhus is his son. Where Ajax' right?
"To Phthia, or to Scyros be it borne.
"Nor less is Teucer cousin than himself;
"Yet does he ask, or does he hope the arms?
"But since the obvious contest is by deeds
"Perform'd, though mine outnumber far what words
"Can easy compass; yet will I relate
"In order some:--

"The Nereid mother knew
"His future fate; her offspring's dress disguis'd;
"And all, ev'n Ajax, the fallacious robes
"Deceiv'd. With female wares I mingled arms,