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While the Trojans watched with good hope, the Greeks were filled with / fear. And King Agamemnon was troubled beyond all others. He bade / the heralds call every man to the assembly. Gloomily they sat, and / when the King rose up to speak, his tears dropped down, as the waters / drop down a steep cliff-side from some spring which the sunshine / toucheth not. Thus he spake: "O friends, lords and leaders of the / Greeks, verily Zeus dealeth ill with me. Once he promised that I / should take the city of Troy and so return home; but now he hath / deceived me, bidding me go back dishonoured, having lost much people. / Therefore let us flee with our ships to the land of our fathers, for / Troy we may not take."
Long time the chiefs kept silence, for they were out of heart; but at / the last rose Diomed, and spake: "Be not wroth, O King, if I contend / with this thy madness. Thou hast called me laggard and coward; / whether I be so indeed the Greeks know well, both young and old. But / to thee Zeus hath given lordship and the power of the sceptre above / thy fellows; but courage he hath not given, and courage is best of / all. Now if thine heart be bent upon return, go thou; the way is / nigh, and thy ships are by the sea; but all the other Greeks will / abide till they have taken Troy. Yea, and if these also will go, / then we two, I and Sthenelus, will abide and fight till we make an / end of the city, for it was the gods that sent us hither."