coming failure of the enterprise Athena stirred up Odysseus to check
the mad impulse. Taking from Agamemnon his royal sceptre as the sign
of authority, he pleaded with chieftains and their warriors, telling
them that it was not for them to know the counsel in the hearts of
Kings.

"We are not all Kings to bear rule here. 'Tis not good to have many
Lords; let there be one Lord, one King, to whom the crooked-counselling
son of Cronos hath given the rule."

Thus did Odysseus stop the flight, bringing to reason all save
Thersites, "whose heart was full of much unseemly wit, who talked
rashly and unruly, striving with Kings, saying what he deemed would
make the Achaeans smile".

He continued his chatter, bidding the Greeks persist in their homeward
flight. Knowing that argument with such an one was vain, Odysseus laid
his sceptre across his back with such heartiness that a fiery weal
started up beneath the stroke. The host praised the act, the best of
the many good deeds that Odysseus had done before Troy.

When the Assembly was stilled, Odysseus and Nestor and Agamemnon told
the plan of action; the dream bade them arm for a mighty conflict, for
the end could not be far off, the ten years' siege that had been
prophesied being all but completed. The names of the various
chieftains and the numbers of their ships are found in the famous
catalogue, a document which the Greeks treasured as evidence of united
action against a common foe. With equal eagerness the Trojans poured
from their town commanded by Hector; their host too has received from
Homer the glory of an everlasting memory in a detailed catalogue.