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do we need shrewd and prudent counsel, for the foe has lit his watchfires
hard by our ships. Who can be other than dismayed? This night will
either be the ruin of our host, or save it."
Thus did he speak, and they did even as he had said. The sentinels
went out in their armour under command of Nestor's son Thrasymedes,
a captain of the host, and of the bold warriors Ascalaphus and Ialmenus:
there were also Meriones, Aphareus and Deipyrus, and the son of Creion,
noble Lycomedes. There were seven captains of the sentinels, and with
each there went a hundred youths armed with long spears: they took
their places midway between the trench and the wall, and when they
had done so they lit their fires and got every man his supper.
The son of Atreus then bade many councillors of the Achaeans to his
quarters prepared a great feast in their honour. They laid their hands
on the good things that were before them, and as soon as they had
enough to eat and drink, old Nestor, whose counsel was ever truest,
was the first to lay his mind before them. He, therefore, with all
sincerity and goodwill addressed them thus.
"With yourself, most noble son of Atreus, king of men, Agamemnon,
will I both begin my speech and end it, for you are king over much
people. Jove, moreover, has vouchsafed you to wield the sceptre and
to uphold righteousness, that you may take thought for your people
under you; therefore it behooves you above all others both to speak
and to give ear, and to out the counsel of another who shall have
been minded to speak wisely. All turns on you and on your commands,
therefore I will say what I think will be best. No man will be of