Patroclus bade the attendant men and maids Strew with all speed a soft and ample bed For Phoenix. They obeyed, and spread the couch With skins of sheep, dyed coverlets, and sheets Of lawn; and there the old man lay to wait The glorious morn. Meantime Achilles slept Within the tent’s recess, and by him lay Phorbas’s daughter, whom he carried off From Lesbos⁠—Diomede, rosy-cheeked. Upon the other side Patroclus lay, With slender-waisted Iphis by his side, Given by the great Achilles when he took Scyros the tall, where Enyeus ruled.

Now when the ambassadors were come within The tent of Agamemnon, all the chiefs Rose, one by one, and, lifting up to them Their golden goblets, asked the news they brought; And first Atrides, king of men, inquired:⁠—

“Renowned Ulysses, glory of the Greeks! Tell me, will he protect our fleet from flames, Or does he, in his wrath and pride, refuse?”