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the augur. All these did he exhort saying, "Hear me, allies from other
cities who are here in your thousands, it was not in order to have
a crowd about me that I called you hither each from his several city,
but that with heart and soul you might defend the wives and little
ones of the Trojans from the fierce Achaeans. For this do I oppress
my people with your food and the presents that make you rich. Therefore
turn, and charge at the foe, to stand or fall as is the game of war;
whoever shall bring Patroclus, dead though he be, into the hands of
the Trojans, and shall make Ajax give way before him, I will give
him one half of the spoils while I keep the other. He will thus share
like honour with myself."
When he had thus spoken they charged full weight upon the Danaans
with their spears held out before them, and the hopes of each ran
high that he should force Ajax son of Telamon to yield up the body-­‐
fools that they were, for he was about to take the lives of many.
Then Ajax said to Menelaus, "My good friend Menelaus, you and I shall
hardly come out of this fight alive. I am less concerned for the body
of Patroclus, who will shortly become meat for the dogs and vultures
of Troy, than for the safety of my own head and yours. Hector has
wrapped us round in a storm of battle from every quarter, and our
destruction seems now certain. Call then upon the princes of the Danaans
if there is any who can hear us."
Menelaus did as he said, and shouted to the Danaans for help at the
top of his voice. "My friends," he cried, "princes and counsellors
of the Argives, all you who with Agamemnon and Menelaus drink at the
public cost, and give orders each to his own people as Jove vouchsafes