The sceptred rulers lead; the following host, Pour'd forth by thousands, darkens all the coast. As from some rocky cleft the shepherd sees Clustering in heaps on heaps the driving bees, Rolling and blackening, swarms succeeding swarms, With deeper murmurs and more hoarse alarms; Dusky they spread, a close embodied crowd, And o'er the vale descends the living cloud. So, from the tents and ships, a lengthen'd train Spreads all the beach, and wide o'ershades the plain: Along the region runs a deafening sound; Beneath their footsteps groans the trembling ground. POPE, _Iliad_, Book II. The whole Greek army being thus assembled, with the exception of the wrathful Achilles and his Myrmidons, Agamemnon then addressed them, leaning on his scepter. He told them he now believed that Troy could not be taken, and that Jupiter, who before promised victory to the Greeks, now commanded them to return to Argos. "Let us therefore," said he, "get ready our ships and hasten to set sail for our dear native land, where our wives with our beloved children sit within their dwellings expecting us." The proposal was received with a loud shout of joy, and the moment the king finished speaking, the vast multitude began at once to make preparations for launching the vessels into the sea. So was the whole assembly swayed; they ran With tumult to the ships; beneath their feet Rose clouds of dust, and each exhorted each To seize the ships and drag them to the deep. BRYANT, _Iliad_, Book II. But Juno, from her seat on high Olympus, was watching these movements, and she resolved that the war against the hated Trojans should not thus come to an end. She therefore sent Minerva down with a message to Ulysses. The azure-eyed goddess, as Minerva is often called by Homer, hastened to the Grecian camp, and approached the Ithacan king, who was standing near his ships, much grieved at seeing his countrymen preparing to depart. Minerva addressed him in earnest words, begging him to use his influence with the Greeks and persuade them not to go. "It cannot be," said she, "that you, brave chiefs, will leave to Priam the glory of victory, and to the Trojans possession of Helen, on whose account so many of your people have perished, far from their native land." Ulysses knew the voice of the goddess, and promptly he complied with her request. He went among the ships and talked to the leaders, reminding them that it was not Agamemnon's wish that they should give up the war, and entreating them to set an example of courage to their followers. "Warriors like you, with strength and wisdom bless'd, By brave examples should confirm the rest." POPE, _Iliad_, Book II.