The Fraud Practised on Jupiter by Juno
Consultation of Agamemnon with Nestor, Diomed, and Ulysses—Proposal of Agamemnon to withdraw from Troy by night opposed by Ulysses—Visit made by these wounded chiefs to the battlefield, in order to encourage the army—The cestus of Venus borrowed by Juno, who decoys Jupiter to her chamber, where he falls asleep—Neptune meanwhile actively aids the Greeks, who commit great slaughter—Hector wounded by Ajax.
The mighty uproar was not unperceived By Nestor’s ear, who, sitting at the wine, Addressed the son of Aesculapius thus:—
“Noble Machaon, what will happen now? Bethink thee: for the clamor grows more loud From our young warriors at the ships. Stay here And drink the purple wine, while for thy limbs The fair-haired Hecamede warms the bath And washes the dark blood away, and I Will climb the watch-tower, and will know the worst.
He spake, and took a buckler, fairly wrought, Glittering with brass, and left within the tent By Thrasymedes, his own knightly son, Who to the war had borne his father’s shield; He grasped a ponderous spear, with brazen blade, And stood without the tent, and saw a sight Of shame—the routed Greeks, and close behind The haughty Trojans putting them to flight, And the Greek wall o’erthrown. As when the face Of the great deep grows dark with weltering waves, That silently forbode the swift descent Of the shrill blast, the yet uncertain seas Roll not to either side, till from the seat Of Jupiter comes down the violent wind— So paused the aged chief, uncertain yet Of purpose—whether he should join the throng Of Greeks, with their swift coursers, or repair To sovereign