The other gods and the horse-crested fighting men slept through the night, but sweet sleep did not hold Zeus. He kept turning over how to honor Achilles and kill many men beside the Achaean ships. This plan seemed best to him: he would send a ruinous Dream to Agamemnon son of Atreus.
Zeus called the Dream and sent it to the swift ships. “Go to Agamemnon’s shelter,” he said, “and tell him exactly what I command. Tell him to arm the long-haired Achaeans with all speed, for now he could take the broad-streeted city of Troy. The immortals are no longer divided; Hera has bent them all, and sorrows are fastened on the Trojans.”
The Dream went quickly, found Agamemnon asleep, and stood over his head in the likeness of Nestor, the elder whom he honored most. In Nestor’s form it told him not to sleep all night when so many peoples were in his charge. It said it came from Zeus, who cared for him even far away, and repeated the command to arm the host because Troy could now be taken.
The Dream flew away and left him thinking what would not be fulfilled. He believed he would take Priam’s city that day, not knowing the works Zeus meant to bring: still more pains and groans for Trojans and Danaans through hard fighting. Agamemnon woke with the divine voice around him, dressed, took the ancestral scepter, and went down along the ships.