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The brother of the overlord of all Greece beseiged Troy, and the kings and princes of his land came to help him. Many came from afar, but none from a more distant kingdom than Odysseus. Wife and child and old father he left behind him and sailed away with his black-prowed ships to fight in Troyland.
No man shall slay me ere the time appointed for my death hath come. Go home and busy thyself with loom and distaff and see to the work of thy maidens. But war is for us men, and of all those who dwell in Troyland, most of all for me." So spake Hector, and on his head again he placed his crested helmet.
Nine years have we stayed in this land, and small wonder is it that we long for our homes again. Yet shameful would it be to wait so long and to return with empty hands. Be of good heart, my friends, and wait a little, for surely Troy shall be ours. Do ye forget, on the day that we set sail for Troyland, the mighty portent that we saw?
And up from the sea came the Greek host, and in fire and in blood fell the city of Troy. Yet did not Helen perish. Back to his own kingdom by the sea Menelaus took her, to reign, in peace, a queen, she who had brought grief and death to so many, and to the city of Troy unutterable woe. While Odysseus was fighting far away in Troyland, his baby son grew to be a big boy.
Then did the little City King's father and his sweet mother laugh aloud, and on the ground Hector laid his helmet, and taking his little son in his arms he kissed him and gently dandled him. And as he did so, thus Hector prayed to Zeus and all the gods: "O Zeus and all ye gods, grant that my son may be a brave warrior and a great king in Troyland.
Then the old Trojans, watching from the walls, cried: "This is no mortal maiden but a Goddess, and to-day she will burn the ships of the Greeks, and they will all perish in Troyland, and see Greece never more again." Now it so was that Aias and Achilles had not heard the din and the cry of war, for both had gone to weep over the great new grave of Patroclus.
And Chalcas, our soothsayer, told us then the meaning of the sign. 'Nine years, said he for nine birds did the snake slay 'shall ye fight in Troyland, but in the tenth year the city shall fall before you. So then, let us abide here, until we have taken the great city!" When Odysseus had ceased to speak, the Greeks shouted aloud, until the ships echoed the praises of the goodly Odysseus.
And from far and wide did the Greek hosts gather, until a hundred thousand men and eleven hundred fourscore and six ships were ready to cross the seas to Troyland. Many were the heroes who sailed away from Greece to punish Paris and his kin, and to bring back fair Helen to her own land.
What more dost thou want? Soft fools, women, not men, are ye Greeks, else would ye return home now with the ships, and leave this fellow here in Troyland gorging himself on the spoils for which he himself hath never fought. To brave Achilles hath he done dishonor, a far better man than he!" Straight to the side of Thersites came the goodly Odysseus. "Hold thy peace," he sternly said.
Then she could bear it no longer, and, weeping, she said to the minstrel: "Sing some other song, and do not sing a song of return from Troyland to me, whose husband never returned." Then Telemachus, in a new and manly way that made her wonder, spoke to his mother: "Blame not the minstrel, dear mother," he said.
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