The Embassy to Achilles
Agamemnon’s Proposal to raise the siege opposed by Diomed and Nestor—A council—Ulysses, Ajax, and Phoenix sent to Achilles to request a reconciliation—Their reception, their persuasions, and their ill success.
The Trojans thus kept watch; while through the night The power of Flight, companion of cold Fear, Wrought on the Greeks, and all their bravest men Were bowed beneath a sorrow hard to bear. As when two winds upturn the fishy deep— The north wind and the west, that suddenly Blow from the Thracian coast; the black waves rise At once, and fling the sea-weed to the shore— Thus were the Achaians troubled in their hearts.
Atrides, deeply grieving, walked the camp, And bade the clear-voiced heralds call by name To council all the chiefs, but not aloud. The king himself among the foremost gave The summons. Sadly that assembly took Their seats; and Agamemnon in the midst Rose, shedding tears—as down a lofty rock, Darkening its face, a fountain’s waters flow— And, deeply sighing, thus addressed the Greeks:—
“O friends! the chiefs and princes of the Greeks! Saturnian Jove hath in an evil snare Most cruelly entangled me. He gave His promise once that I should overthrow This strong-walled Ilium, and return; but now He meditates a fraud, and sends me back To Argos without glory, and with loss Of many warriors. Thus doth it seem good Doubtless to Jove Almighty, who hath cast The towers of many a city down to earth, And will cast others down—his might excels All other might. But let us now obey, As I shall counsel you, and in our ships Haste to our own dear country; for I see That Troy with its broad streets can ne’er be ours.”