Twice forty sable ships their leader own’d.690 Came Agamemnon with a hundred ships, Exulting in his powers; more numerous they, And more illustrious far than other Chief Could boast, whoever. Clad in burnish’d brass, And conscious of pre-eminence, he stood.695 He drew his host from cities far renown’d, Mycenæ, and Corinthus, seat of wealth, Orneia, and Cleonæ bulwark’d strong, And lovely Aræthyria; Sicyon, where His seat of royal power held at the first700 Adrastus: Hyperesia, and the heights Of Gonoëssa; Ægium, with the towns That sprinkle all that far-extended coast, Pellene also and wide Helice With all their shores, were number’d in his train.705 From hollow Lacedæmon’s glen profound, From Phare, Sparta, and from Messa, still Resounding with the ring-dove’s amorous moan, From Brysia, from Augeia, from the rocks Of Laas, from Amycla, Otilus,710 And from the towers of Helos, at whose foot The surf of Ocean falls, came sixty barks With Menelaus. From the monarch’s host The royal brother ranged his own apart, and panted for revenge of Helen’s wrongs,715 And of her sighs and tears.[24] From rank to rank, Conscious of dauntless might he pass’d, and sent Into all hearts the fervor of his own. Gerenian Nestor in thrice thirty ships Had brought his warriors; they from Pylus came,720 From blithe Arene, and from Thryos, built Fast by the fords of Alpheus, and from steep And stately Æpy. Their confederate powers Sent Amphigenia, Cyparissa veiled With broad redundance of funereal shades,725 Pteleos and Helos, and of deathless fame Dorion. In Dorion erst the Muses met Threïcian Thamyris, on his return From Eurytus, Oechalian Chief, and hush’d His song for ever; for he dared to vaunt730 That he would pass in song even themselves The Muses, daughters of Jove Ægis-arm’d. They therefore, by his boast incensed, the bard Struck blind, and from his memory dash’d severe All traces of his once celestial strains.735 Arcadia’s sons, the dwellers at the foot Of mount Cyllene, where Æpytus sleeps Intomb’d; a generation bold in fight, And warriors hand to hand; the valiant men Of Pheneus, of Orchomenos by flocks740 Grazed numberless, of Ripe, Stratia, bleak Enispe; Mantinea city fair, Stymphelus and Parrhasia, and the youth Of Tegea; royal Agapenor these, Ancæus’ offspring, had in sixty ships745 To Troy conducted; numerous was the crew, And skilled in arms, which every vessel brought, And Agamemnon had with barks himself Supplied them, for, of inland realms possessed, They little heeded maritime employs.[25]750 The dwellers in Buprasium, on the shores Of pleasant Elis, and in all the land Myrsinus and the Hyrminian plain between, The rock Olenian, and the Alysian fount; These all obey’d four Chiefs, and galleys ten755 Each Chief commanded, with Epeans filled. Amphimachus and Thalpius govern’d these, This, son of Cteatus, the other, sprung From Eurytus, and both of Actor’s house. Diores, son of Amarynceus, those760 Led on, and, for his godlike form renown’d,