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 fold, and then laid the raw flesh upon them. And they roasted them upon leafless billets. Next, having pierced the entrails with spits, they held them over the fire. But then, after the thighs were roasted, and they had tasted the entrails, they cut the rest of them into small pieces, and fixed them on spits, and roasted them skilfully, and drew them all off [the spits]. But when they had ceased from labour, and had prepared the banquet, they feasted; nor did their soul in anywise lack a due allowance of the feast. But when they had dismissed the desire of drink and food, them the Gerenian knight Nestor began to address: “Most glorious son of Atreus, Agamemnon, king of men, let us now no longer sit prating 115 here, nor let us long defer the work which the deity now delivers into our hands. But come, let the heralds of the brazen-mailed Greeks, summoning the people, assemble them at the ships, and let us thus in a body pass through the wide army of the Greeks, that we may the sooner awaken keen warfare.” Footnote 115: (return) See Buttm. Lexil. p. 398, Anthon, and Arnold. Thus he spoke, nor did Agamemnon, king of men, refuse compliance. Immediately he ordered the clear-voiced heralds to summon the waving-crested Greeks to battle. These then gave the summons, and they were hastily assembled, and the Jove-nurtured kings, who were with the son of Atreus, kept hurrying about arranging them. But amongst them was azure-eyed Minerva, holding the inestimable ægis, which grows not old, and is immortal: from which one hundred golden fringes were suspended, all well woven, and each worth a hundred oxen in price. With this she, looking fiercely about, 116 traversed the host of the Greeks, inciting them to advance, and kindled strength in the breast of each to fight and contend unceasingly. Thus war became instantly sweeter to them than to return in the hollow ships to their dear native land. As when a destructive 117 fire consumes an immense forest upon the tops of a mountain, and the gleam is seen from afar: so, as they advanced, the radiance from the beaming brass glittering on all sides reached heaven through the air. Footnote 116: (return) See Liddell and Scott. Footnote 117: (return) Literally “invisible.” Hence “making invisible, destructive.” Cf. Buttm. Lex. s. v. ἀΐδηλος.