“Hear me, ye mighty throng of our allies, Dwellers of nations round us! Not to make Our army vast in numbers did I send To summon you, each from his native town, But that your willing valor might defend The wives and children of the sons of Troy From the assailing Greeks. I therefore give Most freely of our substance in large gifts And banquets, that ye all may be content; And now let some of you move boldly on To do or die, which is the chance of war. To him who from the field will drag and bring The slain Patroclus to the Trojan knights, Compelling Ajax to give way—to him I yield up half the spoil; the other half I keep, and let his glory equal mine.”
He spake, and all that mighty multitude With lifted lances threw themselves against The Grecian ranks. They hoped to bear away The dead from Ajax, son of Telamon. Ah, idle hope! that hero o’er the dead Took many a Trojan’s life. Then Ajax thus To Menelaus, great in battle, spake:—
“O friend, O Menelaus, reared by Jove, No longer now I hope our safe return From battle. Not the greatest of my fears Is for Patroclus, whom the dogs of Troy And birds of prey full quickly will devour, But for my life and thine. That cloud of war, Hector, o’ershadows all, and over us Impends the doom of death. Yet let us call Our mighty men, if they perchance may hear.”
He spake, and Menelaus, great in war, Obeyed his wish and shouted to the Greeks:—
“O friends, the princes and the chiefs of Greece, Who at the public feasts with Atreus’ sons— King Agamemnon and his brother chief— Drink wine—who each command a host, and hold Your honors and your state from Jove—my eyes Cannot discern you in the thick of fight; But some of you, who cannot bear to leave Patroclus to the dogs of Troy, draw near!”