Thus he; but Saturn’s son his pray’r denied; Receiv’d his off’rings, but his toils increas’d. Their pray’rs concluded, and the salt cake strewed Upon the victim’s head, they drew him back, And slew, and flay’d; then cutting from the thighs The choicest pieces, and in double layers O’erspreading them with fat, above them plac’d The due meat-off’rings; these they burnt with logs Of leafless timber; and the inward parts, First to be tasted, o’er the fire they held. The thighs consum’d with fire, the inward parts They tasted first; the rest upon the spits Roasted with care, and from the fire withdrew. Their labours ended, and the feast prepar’d, They shared the social meal, nor lacked there aught. The rage of thirst and hunger satisfied, Gerenian Nestor thus his speech began: “Most mighty Agamemnon, King of men, Great Atreus’ son, no longer let us pause, The work delaying which the pow’rs of Heav’n Have trusted to our hands; do thou forthwith Bid that the heralds proclamation make, And summon through the camp the brass-clad Greeks; While, in a body, through the wide-spread ranks We pass, and stimulate their warlike zeal.” He said; and Agamemnon, King of men, Obedient to his counsel, gave command That to the war the clear-voic’d heralds call The long-hair’d Greeks: they gave the word, and straight From ev’ry quarter throng’d the eager crowd. The Heav’n-born Kings, encircling Atreus’ son, The troops inspected: Pallas, blue-ey’d Maid, Before the chiefs her glorious aegis bore, By time untouch’d, immortal: all around A hundred tassels hung, rare works of art, All gold, each one a hundred oxen’s price. With this the Goddess pass’d along the ranks, Exciting all; and fix’d in every breast The firm resolve to wage unwearied war; And dearer to their hearts than thoughts of home Or wish’d return, became the battle-field. As when a wasting fire, on mountain tops, Hath seized the blazing woods, afar is seen The glaring light; so, as they mov’d, to Heav’n Flash’d the bright glitter of their burnish’d arms. As when a num’rous flock of birds, or geese, Or cranes, or long-neck’d swans, on Asian mead, Beside Cayster’s stream, now here, now there, Disporting, ply their wings; then settle down With clam’rous noise, that all the mead resounds; So to Scamander’s plain, from tents and ships, Pour’d forth the countless tribes; the firm earth groan’d Beneath the tramp of steeds and armed men. Upon Scamander’s flow’ry mead they stood, Unnumber’d as the vernal leaves and flow’rs.