“ ‘O long haired Greeks,’ he said, ‘why stand ye thus In silence? All-foreseeing Jupiter Hath sent this mighty omen; late it comes And late will be fulfilled, yet gloriously, And with a fame that never shall decay. For as the snake devoured the sparrow’s brood, Eight nestlings, and the mother-bird the ninth⁠— So many years the war shall last; the tenth Shall give into our hands the stately Troy.’

“So spake the seer; thus far his words are true. Bide ye then here, ye well-greaved sons of Greece, Until the city of Priam shall be ours.”