“O warriors Ajax, leaders of the Greeks In brazen armor, I enjoin you not To rouse the courage of your soldiery. Such word would ill become me, for yourselves Have made your followers eager to engage In manful combat. Would to Jupiter, To Pallas, and Apollo, that there dwelt In every bosom such a soul as yours! Then would the city of King Priam fall At once, o’erthrown and levelled by our hands.”
Thus having said, he left them and went on To others. There he found the smooth of speech, Nestor, the Pylian orator, employed In marshalling his squadrons. Near to him Alastor and the large-limbed Pelagon, Chromius, and Haemon, prince among his tribe, And Bias, shepherd of the people, stood. The cavalry with steeds and cars he placed In front. A vast and valiant multitude Of infantry he stationed in the rear, To be the bulwark of the war. Between He made the faint of spirit take their place, That, though unwillingly, they might be forced To combat with the rest. And first he gave His orders to the horsemen, bidding them To keep their coursers reined, nor let them range At random through the tumult of the crowd:—
“And let no man, too vain of horsemanship, And trusting in his valor, dare advance Beyond the rest to attack the men of Troy, Nor let him fall behind the rest, to make Our ranks the weaker. Whoso from his car Can reach an enemy’s, let him stand and strike With his long spear, for ’tis the shrewder way. By rules like these, which their brave hearts obeyed, The men of yore laid level towns and towers.”
The aged man, long versed in tasks of war, Counselled them thus. King Agamemnon heard, Delighted, and in wingèd words he said:—
“O aged man, would that thy knees were firm As is thy purpose, and thy strength as great! But age, the common fate of all, has worn Thy frame: would that some others had thy age, And thou wert of the number of our youths!”