Agamemnon replied, "For this cause be not thou more kind than wise to any
woman. Let not thy words express to her at any time all that is in thy
mind, keep still some secrets to thyself. But thou by any bloody
contrivances of thy wife never needst fear to fall. Exceeding wise she is,
and to her wisdom she has a goodness as eminent; Icarius's daughter,
Penelope the chaste: we left her a young bride when we parted from our
wives to go to the wars, her first child sucking at her breast, the young
Telemachus, whom you shall see grown up to manhood on your return, and he
shall greet his father with befitting welcomes. My Orestes, my dear son, I
shall never see again. His mother has deprived his father of the sight of
him, and perhaps will slay him as she slew his sire. It is now no world to
trust a woman in. But what says fame? is my son yet alive? lives he in
Orchomen, or in Pylus, or is he resident in Sparta, in his uncle's court?
As yet, I see, divine Orestes is not here with me."

To this Ulysses replied that he had received no certain tidings where
Orestes abode, only some uncertain rumours which he could not report for
truth.

While they held this sad conference, with kind tears striving to render
unkind fortunes more palatable, the soul of great Achilles joined them.
"What desperate adventure has brought Ulysses to these regions," said
Achilles; "to see the end of dead men, and their foolish shades?"

Ulysses answered him that he had come to consult Tiresias respecting his
voyage home. "But thou, O son of Thetis," said he, "why dost thou
disparage the state of the dead? Seeing that as alive thou didst surpass
all men in glory, thou must needs retain thy pre-eminence here below: so
great Achilles triumphs over death."