205
Shall seek again their country, leaving here,
To be the vaunt of Ilium and her King,
Helen of Argos, in whose cause the Greeks
Have numerous perish’d from their home remote? 
Delay not.  Rush into the throng; by force 210
Detain them of thy soothing speech, ere yet
All launch their oary barks into the flood. 
She ceased, whom by her voice Ulysses knew,
Casting his mantle from him, which his friend
Eurybates the Ithacensian caught, 215
He ran; and in his course meeting the son
Of Atreus, Agamemnon, from his hand
The everlasting sceptre quick received,
Which bearing, through Achaia’s fleet he pass’d. 
What King soever, or distinguish’d Greek 220
He found, approaching to his side, in terms
Of gentle sort he stay’d him.  Sir, he cried,
It is unseemly that a man renown’d
As thou, should tremble.  Go—­Resume the seat
Which thou hast left, and bid the people sit. 225
Thou know’st not clearly yet the monarch’s mind. 
He proves us now, but soon he will chastize. 
All were not present; few of us have heard
His speech this day in council.  Oh, beware,
Lest in resentment of this hasty course 230
Irregular, he let his anger loose. 
Dread is the anger of a King; he reigns
By Jove’s own ordinance, and is dear to Jove,
But what plebeian base soe’er he heard
Stretching his throat to swell the general cry, 235
He laid the sceptre smartly on his back,
With reprimand severe.  Fellow, he said,
Sit still; hear others; thy superiors hear. 
For who art thou?  A dastard and a drone,
Of none account in council, or in arms. 240
By no means may we all alike bear sway
At Ilium; such plurality of Kings
Were evil.  One suffices.  One, to whom
The son of politic Saturn hath assign’d
The sceptre, and inforcement of the laws, 245
That he may rule us as a monarch ought.[8]
With such authority the troubled host
He sway’d; they, quitting camp and fleet again
Rush’d back to council; deafening was the sound
As when a billow of the boisterous deep 250
Some broad beach dashes, and the Ocean roars. 
The host all seated, and the benches fill’d,
Thersites only of loquacious tongue
Ungovern’d, clamor’d mutinous; a wretch
Of utterance prompt, but in coarse phrase obscene 255
Deep learn’d alone, with which to slander Kings. 
Might he but set the rabble in a roar,
He cared not with what jest; of all from Greece
To Ilium sent, his country’s chief reproach. 
Cross-eyed he was, and halting moved on legs 260
Ill-pair’d; his gibbous shoulders o’er his breast
Contracted, pinch’d it; to a peak his head
Was moulded sharp, and sprinkled thin with hair