The venerable King observing next Ulysses, thus inquired. My child, declare Him also. Shorter by the head he seems Than Agamemnon, Atreus’ mighty son, But shoulder’d broader, and of ampler chest;230 He hath disposed his armor on the plain, But like a ram, himself the warrior ranks Ranges majestic; like a ram full-fleeced By numerous sheep encompass’d snowy-white. To whom Jove’s daughter Helen thus replied.235 In him the son of old Laërtes know, Ulysses; born in Ithaca the rude, But of a piercing wit, and deeply wise. Then answer thus, Antenor sage return’d. Princess thou hast described him: hither once240 The noble Ithacan, on thy behalf Ambassador with Menelaus, came: Beneath my roof, with hospitable fare Friendly I entertained them. Seeing then Occasion opportune, I closely mark’d245 The genius and the talents of the Chiefs, And this I noted well; that when they stood Amid the assembled counsellors of Troy, Then Menelaus his advantage show’d, Who by the shoulders overtopp’d his friend.250 But when both sat, Ulysses in his air Had more of state and dignity than he. In the delivery of a speech address’d To the full senate, Menelaus used Few words, but to the matter, fitly ranged,255 And with much sweetness utter’d; for in loose And idle play of ostentatious terms He dealt not, thhugh he were the younger man. But when the wise Ulysses from his seat Had once arisen, he would his downcast eyes260 So rivet on the earth, and with a hand That seem’d untutor’d in its use, so hold His sceptre, swaying it to neither side, That hadst thou seen him, thou hadst thought him, sure, Some chafed and angry idiot, passion-fixt.265 Yet, when at length, the clear and mellow base Of his deep voice brake forth, and he let fall His chosen words like flakes of feather’d snow, None then might match Ulysses; leisure, then, Found none to wonder at his noble form.270 The third of whom the venerable king Inquired, was Ajax.—Yon Achaian tall, Whose head and shoulders tower above the rest, And of such bulk prodigious—who is he? Him answer’d Helen, loveliest of her sex.275 A bulwark of the Greeks. In him thou seest Gigantic Ajax. Opposite appear The Cretans, and among the Chiefs of Crete stands, like a God, Idomeneus. Him oft From Crete arrived, was Menelaüs wont280 To entertain; and others now I see, Achaians, whom I could recall to mind, And give to each his name; but two brave youths I yet discern not; for equestrian skill One famed, and one a boxer never foiled;285 My brothers; born of Leda; sons of Jove; Castor and Pollux. Either they abide In lovely Sparta still, or if they came, Decline the fight, by my disgrace abash’d And the reproaches which have fallen on me.[14]290 She said; but they already slept inhumed In Lacedemon, in their native soil. And now the heralds, through the streets of Troy Charged with the lambs, and with a goat-skin filled With heart-exhilarating wine prepared295 For that divine solemnity, return’d. Idæus in his hand a beaker bore