Nor was that cry by Nestor unperceived Though drinking, who in words wing’d with surprise The son of Æsculapius thus address’d. Divine Machaon! think what this may bode. The cry of our young warriors at the ships5 Grows louder; sitting here, the sable wine Quaff thou, while bright-hair’d Hecamede warms A bath, to cleanse thy crimson stains away. I from yon eminence will learn the cause. So saying, he took a shield radiant with brass10 There lying in the tent, the shield well-forged Of valiant Thrasymedes, his own son (For he had borne to fight his father’s shield) And arming next his hand with a keen lance Stood forth before the tent. Thence soon he saw15 Foul deeds and strange, the Grecian host confused, Their broken ranks flying before the host Of Ilium, and the rampart overthrown. As when the wide sea, darken’d over all Its silent flood, forebodes shrill winds to blow,20 The doubtful waves roll yet to neither side, Till swept at length by a decisive gale;[1] So stood the senior, with distressful doubts Conflicting anxious, whether first to seek The Grecian host, or Agamemnon’s self25 The sovereign, and at length that course preferr’d. Meantime with mutual carnage they the field Spread far and wide, and by spears double-edged Smitten, and by the sword their corselets rang. The royal Chiefs ascending from the fleet,30 Ulysses, Diomede, and Atreus’ son Imperial Agamemnon, who had each Bled in the battle, met him on his way. For from the war remote they had updrawn Their galleys on the shore of the gray Deep,35 The foremost to the plain, and at the sterns Of that exterior line had built the wall. For, spacious though it were, the shore alone That fleet sufficed not, incommoding much The people; wherefore they had ranged the ships40 Line above line gradual, and the bay Between both promontories, all was fill’d. They, therefore, curious to survey the fight, Came forth together, leaning on the spear, When Nestor met them; heavy were their hearts,45 And at the sight of him still more alarm’d, Whom royal Agamemnon thus bespake. Neleian Nestor, glory of the Greeks! What moved thee to forsake yon bloody field, And urged thee hither? Cause I see of fear,50 Lest furious Hector even now his threat Among the Trojans publish’d, verify, That he would never enter Ilium more Till he had burn’d our fleet, and slain ourselves. So threaten’d Hector, and shall now perform.55 Alas! alas! the Achaians brazen-greaved All, like Achilles, have deserted me Resentful, and decline their fleet’s defence. To whom Gerenian Nestor thus replied. Those threats are verified; nor Jove himself60 The Thunderer can disappoint them now; For our chief strength in which we trusted most That it should guard impregnably secure Our navy and ourselves, the wall hath fallen. Hence all this conflict by our host sustain’d65 Among the ships; nor could thy keenest sight Inform thee where in the Achaian camp Confusion most prevails, such deaths are dealt