“Idomeneus, above all other Greeks, In battle and elsewhere, I honour thee; And in the banquet, where the noblest mix The ruddy wine for chiefs alone reserved, Though others drink their share, yet by thy side Thy cup, like mine, still new replenished stands To drink at pleasure. Up then to the fight, And show thyself the warrior that thou art.” To whom the Cretan King, Idomeneus: “In me, Atrides, thou shalt ever find, As at the first I promis’d, comrade true; But go, and stir the other long-haired Greeks To speedy battle; since the Trojans now The truce have broken; and defeat and death Must wait on those who have their oaths forsworn.” He said, and Agamemnon went his way Rejoicing; through the crowd he pass’d, and came Where stood th’ Ajaces; them, in act to arm, Amid a cloud of infantry he found; And as a goat-herd from his watch-tow’r crag Beholds a cloud advancing o’er the sea, By Zephyr’s breath impell’d; as from afar He gazes, black as pitch, it sweeps along O’er the dark ocean’s face, and with it brings A hurricane of rain; he, shudd’ring, sees, And drives his flock beneath the shelt’ring cave: So thick and dark, about th’ Ajaces stirr’d, Impatient for the war, the stalwart youths, Black masses, bristling close with spear and shield. Well pleas’d, the monarch Agamemnon saw, And thus address’d them: “Valiant chiefs, to you, The leaders of the brass-clad Greeks, I give (’Twere needless and unseemly) no commands; For well ye understand your troops to rouse To deeds of dauntless courage; would to Jove, To Pallas and Apollo, that such mind As is in you, in all the camp were found; Then soon should Priam’s lofty city fall, Tak’n and destroy’d by our victorious hands.” Thus saying, them he left, and onward mov’d. Nestor, the smooth-tongu’d Pylian chief, he found The troops arraying, and to valiant deeds His friends encouraging; stout Pelagon, Alastor, Chromius, Haemon, warlike Prince, And Bias bold, his people’s sure defence. In the front rank, with chariot and with horse, He plac’d the car-borne warriors; in the rear, Num’rous and brave, a cloud of infantry, Compactly mass’d, to stem the tide of war, Between the two he plac’d th’ inferior troops, That e’en against their will they needs must fight. The horsemen first he charg’d, and bade them keep Their horses well in hand, nor wildly rush Amid the tumult: “See,” he said, “that none, In skill or valour over-confident, Advance before his comrades, nor alone Retire; for so your lines were easier forc’d; But ranging each beside a hostile car, Thrust with your spears; for such the better way; By men so disciplin’d, in elder days Were lofty walls and fenced towns destroy’d.”