Dawn went up to Olympus to announce light to Zeus and the immortals. Agamemnon ordered the clear-voiced heralds to call the long-haired Achaeans to assembly; first he seated the council of elders beside Nestor’s ship and told them the dream.
He said the dream had looked like Nestor and had commanded him from Zeus to arm the host. Then he laid out his test: first he would tell the people to flee home with their many-benched ships, while the other leaders, each in his place, were to hold them back with words.
Nestor rose and said that if any lesser Achaean had told the dream they would call it false, but the man who saw it claimed to be best of the Achaeans. So the elders rose, and the people streamed to assembly like swarms of bees pouring from a hollow rock in spring.
Rumor, Zeus’s messenger, drove them on. The earth groaned under their feet; the assembly roared until nine heralds quieted the people. Agamemnon stood holding the scepter passed down from Zeus through Hermes, Pelops, Atreus, Thyestes, and finally to him, so he might rule many islands and all Argos.