Leaving me, On his return he slew with his long spear Full many a Trojan, and in safety reached The Argive camp with tidings for the host.
Then wept aloud the Trojan dames, but I Was glad at heart, for I already longed For my old home, and deeply I deplored The evil fate that Venus brought on me, Who led me thither from my own dear land, And from my daughter and my marriage-bower, And from my lawful spouse, in whom I missed No noble gift of person or of mind.”
Then fair-haired Menelaus said to her:— “All thou hast spoken, woman, is most true. Of many 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.”
Then spake discreet Telemachus again:— “Atrides Menelaus, reared by Jove, Ruler of tribes! the harder was his lot, Since even thus he could not shun the stroke Of death, not though a heart of steel were his. But now dismiss us to our beds, that there, Couched softly, we may welcome balmy sleep.”