1. At once Agamemnon sent out a summoner
Calling all the chieftains to muster the host and its chiefs

2. In loudest of voice he called them and soon they came
Trooping in numbers beyond count and reckoning.

3. And round about Atreus’ son were ranks of huntsmen
Setting their lines, and keen hounds above every hand,

4. Raising the courage of ranks, rousing among souls
The plunging onset through dread and dire peril.

5. They made the hearts quake with the flicker of eyes
And stood out in that place of conclave that lasts forever.

6. Reach the troops and find them in armor that shone
Above frost for the loftiest peak of the skin.

7. They snort with passion for wives and children
Till it seemed grimmer than war with its beds and its babes.

8. He moves before them in mail that glittered
Over bleakness aloft to the dome of the skull

9. Like fire blazing a wood on a mountain
And brightness streamed out from it on and on.

10. They left the camp and vessels with benches and upon
That space were scattered in raiment of emerald.

11. As the birds of the upland come thronging together,
Cranes and pegions and ospreys of distinguished breed,

12. They bustle in the Asius’ meadow by Caÿstrius
Out of each glen bands of the young on their shoulders,

13. Clashing in mighty medley—the orchards thundering
To it with thronging battalions in thickest array.

14. To the buskins and harnesses clatter and clang
Shattering stalwart limbs into pieces of flint.

15. So to the shore of Schoeneus’ Scamander they stood
Numbered like leaves in an orchard in flowery spring.

16. They occupied its banks in a series that dimmed
Men’s eyes, as they lit inward fires of anguish.

17. Like the flies when spring has appeared and the goatherd’s attention is turned
To his flock, attacking the pails without end or number,

18. Each chieftain stood with his troop, a shepherd
Among sheep that a shepherd alone understands.

19. At one he collects them when they mix pell-mell
Amid thousands on land, if he wants them aright.

20. Between them flaunting the insignia of pride,
Atreides took his stand in pride with lofty pillars.

21. His eyes flashed fire and his high helm swayed—
Zeus-fostered bosom and Ares-mighty limbs.

22. That whetter of thunder decreed on that day
None to match him in valor amid all the host’s ranks

23. For he towered among all the bulls as a stallion
Will rear his head high over the herds that he leads.