So the Trojans kept watch, but Panic, companion of cold Flight, seized the Achaeans. The best men were pierced by grief past bearing, as two winds stir the fish-filled sea from Thrace and heap the dark water high. Agamemnon was struck at heart and ordered the heralds to call each man by name, not to shout aloud.
The chiefs assembled in grief. Agamemnon stood weeping like a black-water spring that pours down a cliff, and said Zeus had deceived him. The god had once promised he would sack Troy, but now ordered him home dishonored after losing many men. He urged them to flee with the ships to their own country, for they would not take broad-wayed Troy.
All sat silent until Diomedes spoke. He rebuked Agamemnon first, as was his right in assembly.
Zeus had given the king the scepter and honor, but not courage. If Agamemnon's heart longed for flight, the road was open and his ships stood ready. The rest of the long-haired Achaeans would stay until Troy was sacked; if all others sailed, Diomedes and Sthenelus would fight on until they reached the end of Ilios, for a god had brought them.
The sons of the Achaeans shouted approval, amazed at Diomedes' word. Nestor rose and said no man could fault the son of Tydeus in battle or counsel, though he was young. He urged Agamemnon to set guards by the ditch, then make a feast for the elders, because the king had the stores and the duty to lead wise counsel.
Guards were chosen and placed between the wall and ditch, led by Thrasymedes and Askalaphos and Ialmenos, Meriones, Aphareus, Deipyros, and Lykomedes. Each captain took a hundred young men with long spears. They went to keep watch while the elders gathered at Agamemnon's shelter.
At the feast the old horseman Nestor began the counsel. He told Agamemnon that the trouble began when he dishonored Achilles against the will of all. If there was any way to soften Achilles with gifts and gentle words, they must try it now.