THE TAKING OF ILIOS 



bridle inlaid with ivon' and silver-flashing bronze. 

 And when he had A\Toug,ht all the warlike horse, 

 he set a well-spoked wheel under each of its feet 

 that when dragged over the plain it might be 

 obedient to the rein, and not travel a difficult path 

 under stress of hands. 



So the horse flashed with terror and great beauty, 

 wide and high ; not even Ares, lord of horses," would 

 have refused to drive it, had he found it alive. And 

 great wall was driven about it, lest any of the 

 Achaeans should behold it beforehand and fire the 

 snare revealed. And beside the ship of Agamemnon 

 from Mycenae the kings of the Achaeans gathered 

 to council, avoiding the din and tumult of the 

 stirring hosts. Then impetuous Athena took the 

 likeness of a clear - voiced herald and stood by 

 Odysseus to counsel him, daubing a man's voice 

 M-ith honeyed nectar. And, revolving his mind in 

 godlike counsels, at first he stood like a man of 

 empty wits * fixing on the ground the gaze of his 

 unturning eye ; but suddenly he opened his lips and 

 delivered him of everflowing speech and thundered 

 terribly, and poured, as from an airy spring, a great 

 torrent of honey-dropping snow. 



" O friends, now is the secret ambush prepared, 

 by human hands but by the counsels of Athena. 

 Do ye which have most trust in the might of your 

 hands, heartily follow me with valiant mind and 

 enduring soul ; for it is not seemly that we should 



wiles arose, he would stand and look downward, fixing his 

 eyes upon the ground, and his staif he moved neither back 

 nor fore, but held it steadfast ,- thou wouldst have deemed 

 him simply sulky and silly. But when he uttered his great 

 voice from his breast, and words like snowflakes in winter, 

 then could no other mortal vie with Odysseus." 



589 



