Page 75 - the-iliad

words and said, ‘Son of Atreus, tell no lies, for you can speak
truth if you will. We boast ourselves as even better men
than our fathers; we took seven-gated Thebes, though the
wall was stronger and our men were fewer in number, for
we trusted in the omens of the gods and in the help of Jove,
whereas they perished through their own sheer folly; hold
not, then, our fathers in like honour with us.’
Diomed looked sternly at him and said, ‘Hold your peace,
my friend, as I bid you. It is not amiss that Agamemnon
should urge the Achaeans forward, for the glory will be his
if we take the city, and his the shame if we are vanquished.
Therefore let us acquit ourselves with valour.’
As he spoke he sprang from his chariot, and his armour
rang so fiercely about his body that even a brave man might
well have been scared to hear it.
As when some mighty wave that thunders on the beach
when the west wind has lashed it into fury—it has reared
its head afar and now comes crashing down on the shore; it
bows its arching crest high over the jagged rocks and spews
its salt foam in all directions—even so did the serried pha-
lanxes of the Danaans march steadfastly to battle. The chiefs
gave orders each to his own people, but the men said never
a word; no man would think it, for huge as the host was, it
seemed as though there was not a tongue among them, so
silent were they in their obedience; and as they marched
the armour about their bodies glistened in the sun. But the
clamour of the Trojan ranks was as that of many thousand
ewes that stand waiting to be milked in the yards of some
rich flockmaster, and bleat incessantly in answer to the

The Iliad