FIFTH STAVE

A COUNCIL OF THE ACHAIANS: THE EMBASSY OF ODYSSEUS

Now calleth he assembly of the chiefs,

Princes and kings and captains, them whose griefs

To ease his own like treasure had been lent;

Who came and sat at board within the tent

Of him they hailed host-father and their lord

For this adventure, in aught else abhorred

Of all true men. He sits above the rest,

The fox-red Agamemnon, round his crest

The circlet of his kingship over kings,

And at his thigh the sword gold-hilted swings

Which Zeus gave Atreus once; and in his heart

That gnawing doubt which twice had checkt his start

For high emprise, having twice egged him to it,

As stout Odysseus knew who had to rue it.

Beside him Nestor sat, Nestor the old,

White as the winter moon, with logic cold

[46]

Instilled, as if the blood in him had fled

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