Page:The World's Famous Orations Volume 1.djvu/49

 HIS REPLY TO THE ENVOYS

(LEGENDARY)

son of Laertes, Odysseus of many wiles, in openness must I now declare unto you my saying, even as I am minded and as the fulfilment thereof shall be, that ye may not sit before me and coax this way and that. For hateful to me, even as the gates of hell, is he that hideth one thing in his heart and uttereth another: but I will speak what me seemeth best. Not me, I ween, nor the other Danaans, shall Agamemnon, son of Atreus, persuade, seeing we were to have no thank for battling with the foeman ever without respite. He that abideth at home hath equal share with him that fightest his best, and in like honor are held 3