Neither through pity, or o'erstrain'd respect Flatter me, but explicit all relate Which thou hast witness'd. If my noble Sire E'er gratified thee by performance just Of word or deed at Ilium, where ye fell So num'rous slain in fight, oh, recollect Now his fidelity, and tell me true. Then Nestor thus Gerenian Hero old. Young friend! since thou remind'st me, speaking thus, 130 Of all the woes which indefatigable We sons of the Achaians there sustain'd, Both those which wand'ring on the Deep we bore Wherever by Achilles led in quest Of booty, and the many woes beside Which under royal Priam's spacious walls We suffer'd, know, that there our bravest fell. There warlike Ajax lies, there Peleus' son; There, too, Patroclus, like the Gods themselves In council, and my son beloved there, 140 Brave, virtuous, swift of foot, and bold in fight, Antilochus. Nor are these sorrows all; What tongue of mortal man could all relate? Should'st thou, abiding here, five years employ Or six, enquiring of the woes endured By the Achaians, ere thou should'st have learn'd The whole, thou would'st depart, tir'd of the tale. For we, nine years, stratagems of all kinds Devised against them, and Saturnian Jove Scarce crown'd the difficult attempt at last. 150 There, no competitor in wiles well-plann'd Ulysses found, so far were all surpass'd In shrewd invention by thy noble Sire, If thou indeed art his, as sure thou art, Whose sight breeds wonder in me, and thy speech His speech resembles more than might be deem'd Within the scope of years so green as thine. There, never in opinion, or in voice Illustrious Ulysses and myself Divided were, but, one in heart, contrived 160 As best we might, the benefit of all. But after Priam's lofty city sack'd, And the departure of the Greeks on board Their barks, and when the Gods had scatter'd them, Then Jove imagin'd for the Argive host A sorrowful return; for neither just Were all, nor prudent, therefore many found A fate disast'rous through the vengeful ire Of Jove-born Pallas, who between the sons Of Atreus sharp contention interposed. 170 They both, irregularly, and against Just order, summoning by night the Greeks To council, of whom many came with wine Oppress'd, promulgated the cause for which They had convened the people. Then it was That Menelaus bade the general host Their thoughts bend homeward o'er the sacred Deep, Which Agamemnon in no sort approved. His counsel was to slay them yet at Troy, That so he might assuage the dreadful wrath 180 Of Pallas, first, by sacrifice and pray'r. Vain hope! he little thought how ill should speed