Iliad by Homer - Join iZDOT

Homer’s Iliad
will cease attacking and keep turning their eyes towards them;
your counsel, therefore, Sir captain, would be our destruction.”
Agamemnon answered, “Ulysses, your rebuke has stung me to the
heart. I am not, however, ordering the Achaeans to draw their ships
into the sea whether they will or no. Some one, it may be, old or
young, can offer us better counsel which I shall rejoice to hear.”
Then said Diomed, “Such an one is at hand; he is not far to seek, if
you will listen to me and not resent my speaking though I am
younger than any of you. I am by lineage son to a noble sire,
Tydeus, who lies buried at Thebes. For Portheus had three noble
sons, two of whom, Agrius and Melas, abode in Pleuron and rocky
Calydon. The third was the knight Oeneus, my father’s father, and
he was the most valiant of them all. Oeeneus remained in his own
country, but my father (as Jove and the other gods ordained it)
migrated to Argos. He married into the family of Adrastus, and his
house was one of great abundance, for he had large estates of rich
corn-growing land, with much orchard ground as well, and he had
many sheep; moreover he excelled all the Argives in the use of the
spear. You must yourselves have heard whether these things are
true or no; therefore when I say well despise not my words as
though I were a coward or of ignoble birth. I say, then, let us go to
the fight as we needs must, wounded though we be. When there,
we may keep out of the battle and beyond the range of the spears
lest we get fresh wounds in addition to what we have already, but
we can spur on others, who have been indulging their spleen and
holding aloof from battle hitherto.”
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