Book 13
to ease your anguish, that I may be given
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into your power, that you may shed my blood;
and though you wait your turn and chance at me;
still I will undertake the quest and will
try all my skill to bring you back with me.
If my good fortune then will favor me,
I shall obtain your arrows; as I made
the Trojan seer my captive, as I learned
the heavenly oracles and fate of Troy,
and as I brought back through a host of foes
Minerva's image from the citadel.
“And is it possible, Ajax may now
compare himself with me? Truly the Fates
will hold Troy from our capture, if we leave
the statue. Where is valiant Ajax now,
where are the boasts of that tremendous man?
Why are you trembling, while Ulysses dares
to go beyond our guards and brave the night?
In spite of hostile swords, he goes within
not only the strong walls of Troy but even
the citadel, lifts up the goddess from
her shrine, and takes her through the enemy!
If I had not done this, Telamon's son
would bear his shield of seven bull hides in vain.
That night I gained the victory over Troy—
'Twas then I won our war with Pergama,
because I made it possible to win.
“Stop hinting by your look and muttered words
that Diomed was my partner in the deed.
The praise he won is his. You, certainly
fought not alone, when you held up your shield
to save the allied fleet: a multitude
was with you, but a single man gave me
a fighting man can not gain victory
so surely as the wise man, that the prize
is given to something rarer than a brave right hand,
he would himself be a contender now
for these illustrious arms. Ajax the less
