Is gold thy wish? More gold? A ransom brought By some chief Trojan for his son’s release Whom I, or other valiant Greek may bind? Or wouldst thou yet a virgin, one, by right Another’s claim, but made by force thine own?280 It was not well, great Sir, that thou shouldst bring A plague on the Achaians, as of late. But come, my Grecian sisters, soldiers named Unfitly, of a sex too soft for war, Come, let us homeward: let him here digest285 What he shall gorge, alone; that he may learn If our assistance profit him or not. For when he shamed Achilles, he disgraced A Chief far worthier than himself, whose prize He now withholds. But tush,—Achilles lacks290 Himself the spirit of a man; no gall Hath he within him, or his hand long since Had stopp’d that mouth,[9] that it should scoff no more. Thus, mocking royal Agamemnon, spake Thersites. Instant starting to his side, 295 Noble Ulysses with indignant brows Survey’d him, and him thus reproved severe. Thersites! Railer!—peace. Think not thyself, Although thus eloquent, alone exempt From obligation not to slander Kings.300 I deem thee most contemptible, the worst Of Agamemnon’s followers to the war; Presume not then to take the names revered Of Sovereigns on thy sordid lips, to asperse Their sacred character, and to appoint305 The Greeks a time when they shall voyage home. How soon, how late, with what success at last We shall return, we know not: but because Achaia’s heroes numerous spoils allot To Agamemnon, Leader of the host,310 Thou therefore from thy seat revilest the King. But mark me. If I find thee, as even now, Raving and foaming at the lips again, May never man behold Ulysses’ head On these my shoulders more, and may my son315 Prove the begotten of another Sire, If I not strip thee to that hide of thine As bare as thou wast born, and whip thee hence Home to thy galley, sniveling like a boy. He ceased, and with his sceptre on the back320 And shoulders smote him. Writhing to and fro, He wept profuse, while many a bloody whelk Protuberant beneath the sceptre sprang. Awe-quell’d he sat, and from his visage mean, Deep-sighing, wiped the rheums. It was no time325 For mirth, yet mirth illumined every face, And laughing, thus they spake. A thousand acts Illustrious, both by well-concerted plans And prudent disposition of the host Ulysses hath achieved, but this by far330 Transcends his former praise, that he hath quell’d Such contumelious rhetoric profuse. The valiant talker shall not soon, we judge, Take liberties with royal names again.[10] So spake the multitude. Then, stretching forth335 The sceptre, city-spoiler Chief, arose Ulysses. Him beside, herald in form, Appeared Minerva. Silence she enjoined To all, that all Achaia’s sons might hear, Foremost and rearmost, and might weigh his words.340 He then his counsel, prudent, thus proposed. Atrides! Monarch! The Achaians seek To make thee ignominious above all In sight of all mankind. None recollects His promise more in steed-famed Argos pledged,345