Book VI - Page 2

but Agamemnon

came running up to him and rebuked him. "My good Menelaus," said

he, "this is no time for giving quarter. Has, then, your house

fared so well at the hands of the Trojans? Let us not spare a

single one of them--not even the child unborn and in its mother's

womb; let not a man of them be left alive, but let all in Ilius

perish, unheeded and forgotten."

Thus did he speak, and his brother was persuaded by him, for his

words were just. Menelaus, therefore, thrust Adrestus from him,

whereon King Agamemnon struck him in the flank, and he fell: then

the son of Atreus planted his foot upon his breast to draw his

spear from the body.

Meanwhile Nestor shouted to the Argives, saying, "My friends,

Danaan warriors, servants of Mars, let no man lag that he may

spoil the dead, and bring back much booty to the ships. Let us

kill as many as we can; the bodies will lie upon the plain, and

you can despoil them later at your leisure."

With these words he put heart and soul into them all. And now the

Trojans would have been routed and driven back into Ilius, had

not Priam's son Helenus, wisest of augurs, said to Hector and

Aeneas, "Hector and Aeneas, you two are the mainstays of the

Trojans and Lycians, for you are foremost at all times, alike in

fight and counsel; hold your ground here, and go about among the

host to rally them in front of the gates, or they will fling

themselves into the arms of their wives, to the great joy of our

foes. Then, when you have put heart into all our companies, we

will stand firm here and fight the Danaans however hard they

press us, for there is nothing else to be done. Meanwhile do you,

Hector, go to the city and tell our mother what is happening.

Tell her to bid the matrons gather at the temple of Minerva in

the acropolis; let her then take her key and open the doors of

the sacred building; there, upon the knees of Minerva, let her

lay the largest, fairest robe she has in her house--the one she

sets most store by; let her, moreover, promise to sacrifice

twelve yearling heifers that have never yet felt the goad, in the

temple of the goddess, if she will take pity on the town, with

the wives and little ones of the Trojans, and keep the son of

Tydeus from falling on the goodly city of Ilius; for he fights

with fury and fills men's souls with panic. I hold him mightiest

of them all; we did not fear even their great champion Achilles,

son of a goddess though he be, as we do this man: his rage is

beyond all bounds, and there is none can vie with him in prowess"

Hector did