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have me do; I do so of my own free will, neither shall I take the
name of heaven in vain. Let, then, Achilles wait, though he would
fain fight at once, and do you others wait also, till the gifts come
from my tent and we ratify the oath with sacrifice. Thus, then, do
I charge you: take some noble young Achaeans with you, and bring from
my tents the gifts that I promised yesterday to Achilles, and bring
the women also; furthermore let Talthybius find me a boar from those
that are with the host, and make it ready for sacrifice to Jove and
to the sun."
Then said Achilles, "Son of Atreus, king of men Agamemnon, see to
these matters at some other season, when there is breathing time and
when I am calmer. Would you have men eat while the bodies of those
whom Hector son of Priam slew are still lying mangled upon the plain?
Let the sons of the Achaeans, say I, fight fasting and without food,
till we have avenged them; afterwards at the going down of the sun
let them eat their fill. As for me, Patroclus is lying dead in my
tent, all hacked and hewn, with his feet to the door, and his comrades
are mourning round him. Therefore I can take thought of nothing save
only slaughter and blood and the rattle in the throat of the dying."
Ulysses answered, "Achilles, son of Peleus, mightiest of all the Achaeans,
in battle you are better than I, and that more than a little, but
in counsel I am much before you, for I am older and of greater knowledge.
Therefore be patient under my words. Fighting is a thing of which
men soon surfeit, and when Jove, who is wars steward, weighs the upshot,
it may well prove that the straw which our sickles have reaped is
far heavier than the grain. It may not be that the Achaeans should