bled Chiefs
Arrived, with utterance clear them thus address'd. 455
Ye sons of Atreus, and ye Chiefs, the flower
Of all Achaia! Priam and the Chiefs
Of Ilium, bade me to your ear impart
(If chance such embassy might please your ear)
The mind of Paris, author of the war. 460
The treasures which on board his ships he brought
From Argos home (oh, had he perish'd first!)
He yields them with addition from his own.
Not so the consort of the glorious prince
Brave Menelaus; her (although in Troy 465
All counsel otherwise) he still detains.
Thus too I have in charge. Are ye inclined
That the dread sounding clamors of the field
Be caused to cease till we shall burn the dead?
Then will we clash again, 'till heaven at length 470
Shall part us, and the doubtful strife decide.
So spake Idaeus, and all silent sat;
Till at the last brave Diomede replied.
No. We will none of Paris' treasures now,
Nor even Helen's self. A child may see 475
Destruction winging swift her course to Troy.
He said. The admiring Greeks with loud applause
All praised the speech of warlike Diomede,
And answer thus the King of men return'd.
Idaeus! thou hast witness'd the resolve 480
Of the Achaian Chiefs, whose choice is mine.
But for the slain, I shall not envy them
A funeral pile; the spirit fled, delay
Suits not. Last rites can not too soon be paid.
Burn them. And let high-thundering Jove attest 485
Himself mine oath, that war shall cease the while.
So saying, he to all the Gods upraised
His sceptre, and Idaeus homeward sped
To sacred Ilium. The Dardanians there
And Trojans, all assembled, his return 490
Expected anxious. He amid them told
Distinct his errand, when, at once dissolved,
The whole assembly rose, these to collect
The scatter'd bodies, those to gather wood;
While on the other side, the Greeks arose 495
As sudden, and all issuing from the fleet
Sought fuel, some, and some, the scatter'd dead.
Now from the gently-swelling flood profound
The sun arising, with his earliest rays
In his ascent to heaven smote on the fields. 500
When Greeks and Trojans met. Scarce could the slain
Be clear distinguish'd, but they cleansed from each
His c