Book IV

a valiant warrior I have known The counsels and the purposes, and far Have roamed in many lands, but never yet My eyes have looked on such another man As was Ulysses, of a heart so bold And such endurance. Witness what he did And bore, the heroic man, what time we sat, The bravest of the Argives, pent within The wooden horse, about to bring to Troy Slaughter and death. Thou earnest to the place, Moved, as it seemed, by some divinity Who thought to give the glory of the day To Troy. Deiphobus, the godlike chief, Was with thee. Thrice about the hollow frame That held the ambush thou didst walk and touch Its sides, and call the Achaian chiefs by name, And imitate the voices of the wives Of all the Argives. Diomed and I Sat with the great Ulysses in the midst, And with him heard thy call, and rose at once To sally forth or answer from within; But he forbade, impatient as we were, And so restrained us. All the Achaian chiefs Kept silence save Anticlus, who alone Began to speak, when, with his powerful hands, Ulysses pressed together instantly The opening lips, and saved us all, and thus Held them till Pallas lured thee from the spot.”