Page:The Iliad and Odyssey of Homer (IA iliadodysseyofho02home).pdf/58

50 Which thou hast witness'd. If my noble Sire E'er gratified thee by performance just Of word or deed at Ilium, where ye fell So num'rous slain in fight, oh, recollect Now his fidelity, and tell me true. Then Nestor thus Gerenian Hero old. Young friend! since thou remind'st me, speaking thus, Of all the woes which indefatigable We sons of the Achaians there sustain'd, Both those which wand'ring on the Deep we bore Wherever by Achilles led in quest Of booty, and the many woes beside Which under royal Priam's spacious walls We suffer'd, know, that there our bravest fell. There warlike Ajax lies, there Peleus' son; There, too, Patroclus, like the Gods themselves In council, and my son beloved there, Brave, virtuous, swift of foot, and bold in fight, Antilochus. Nor are these sorrows all; What tongue of mortal man could all relate? Should'st thou, abiding here, five years employ Or six, enquiring of the woes endured By the Achaians, ere thou should'st have learn'd The whole, thou would'st depart, tir'd of the tale. For we, nine years, stratagems of all kinds Devised against them, and Saturnian Jove Scarce crown'd the difficult attempt at last. There, no competitor in wiles well-plann'd