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 ODYSSEUS

What bold scheme could inspire such reckless daring?

ATHENA

By night he meant to steal on you alone.

ODYSSEUS

Did he come near us? Did he reach his goal?

ATHENA

He stood already at the two chiefs' doors.

ODYSSEUS

What then withheld his eager hand from bloodshed?

ATHENA

'Twas I restrained him, casting on his eyes

O'ermastering notions of that baneful ecstasy,

That turned his rage on flocks and mingled droves

Of booty yet unshared, guarded by herdsmen.

Then plunging amid the thronging horns he slew,

Smiting on all sides; and one while he fancied

The Atreidæ were the captives he was slaughtering,

Now 'twas some other chief on whom he fell.

And I, while thus he raved in maniac throes,

Urged him on, drove him into the baleful toils.

Thereafter, when he had wearied of such labours,

He bound with thongs such oxen as yet lived,

With all the sheep, and drove them to his tents,

As though his spoil were men, not hornèd cattle.

Now lashed together in the hut he tortures them.

But to thee too will I expose this madness,

That seeing thou mayst proclaim it to all the Greeks.

Boldly await him here, nor apprehend

Mischance; for I will turn aside his eyes,

Foiling his vision lest he see thy face.

Hearken, thou who art pinioning with cords

The wrists of captives; hither, I bid thee, come.

Thou, Aias, hear me: come to thy tent's door.