Discreetly did Meriones reply:— “Idomeneus, whose sovereign counsels rule The well-armed Cretans, I am come to seek A spear if one be left within thy tents. I broke the one I bore, in hurling it Against the shield of fierce Deïphobus.”
The Cretan chief, Idomeneus, rejoined:— “If spears thou seek, there stand within my tent Twenty and one against the shining walls. I took them from slain Trojans. ’Tis my wont Never to fight at distance from the foe, And therefore have I spears, and bossy shields, And helms, and body-mail of polished brass.”
Then spake in turn discreet Meriones:— “Within my tent are also many spoils Won from the Trojans, and in my black ship; But they are far away. I do not think That I forget what valor is. I fight Among the foremost in the glorious strife Where’er the battle calls me. Other men Among the well-armed Greeks may not have seen What I perform, but thou must know me well.”
Idomeneus, the Cretan leader, spake:— “I know thy courage well. What need hast thou To speak as thou hast done? If all of us, The bravest of the Greeks, were set apart To form an ambush;—for an ambush tries And shows men’s valor; there the craven, there The brave, is known; the coward’s color comes And goes; his spirit is not calm within His bosom, so that he can rest awhile And tremble not; he shifts his place; he sits On both his feet; his heart beats audibly Within his breast; his teeth at thought of death Chatter; the brave man’s color changes not, Nor when with other warriors he sits down In ambush is he troubled, but he longs To rise and mingle in the desperate fray;— For thee, in such an ambush, none could blame Thy courage or thy skill. If there the foe Should wound thee from afar, or smite thee near, The weapon would not strike thy neck behind, Or pierce thy back, but enter at thy breast Or stomach, as thou wert advancing fast Among the foremost. But enough of this. Come! Stand we here no longer, idiot-like, Lest someone chide us sharply. Hasten thou, And bring a sturdy javelin from the tent.”