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With these words he put on his armour; and then, O Menelaus, your
life would have come to an end at the hands of hands of Hector, for
he was far better the man, had not the princes of the Achaeans sprung
upon you and checked you. King Agamemnon caught him by the right hand
and said, "Menelaus, you are mad; a truce to this folly. Be patient
in spite of passion, do not think of fighting a man so much stronger
than yourself as Hector son of Priam, who is feared by many another
as well as you. Even Achilles, who is far more doughty than you are,
shrank from meeting him in battle. Sit down your own people, and the
Achaeans will send some other champion to fight Hector; fearless and
fond of battle though he be, I ween his knees will bend gladly under
him if he comes out alive from the hurly-­‐burly of this fight."
With these words of reasonable counsel he persuaded his brother, whereon
his squires gladly stripped the armour from off his shoulders. Then
Nestor rose and spoke, "Of a truth," said he, "the Achaean land is
fallen upon evil times. The old knight Peleus, counsellor and orator
among the Myrmidons, loved when I was in his house to question me
concerning the race and lineage of all the Argives. How would it not
grieve him could he hear of them as now quailing before Hector? Many
a time would he lift his hands in prayer that his soul might leave
his body and go down within the house of Hades. Would, by father Jove,
Minerva, and Apollo, that I were still young and strong as when the
Pylians and Arcadians were gathered in fight by the rapid river Celadon
under the walls of Pheia, and round about the waters of the river
Iardanus. The godlike hero Ereuthalion stood forward as their champion,
with the armour of King Areithous upon his shoulders-­‐ Areithous whom
men and women had surnamed 'the Mace-­‐man,' because he fought neither