98Let the Ithacan set against these Rhesus and unwarlike Dolon and Priam's son Helenus, captured along with the stolen Pallas: nothing was done by daylight, nothing with Diomedes away. 101If once you give those arms for such cheap services, divide them, and let Diomedes' part in them be the greater! 103Yet what use are these to the Ithacan, who always acts in secret, always unarmed, and deceives the unwary enemy by stealth? 105The very gleam of the helmet, shining with bright gold, will betray his ambushes and reveal him in his hiding. 107But neither will the Dulichian's head bear so great a weight beneath Achilles' helmet, nor can the spear from Pelion fail to be heavy and burdensome for unwarlike arms, nor will the shield, embossed with the image of the vast world, suit a timid left hand born for theft: why do you seek a gift that will only weaken you, you rogue?
113And if the error of the Achaean people grants it to you, it will be a reason for the enemy to strip you, not to fear you, and flight, the one thing, most cowardly of men, in which you surpass everyone, will be slow for you as you drag so great a load. 117Add that this shield of yours, which has so rarely endured battles, is unmarked: mine, which gapes with a thousand gashes from bearing weapons, must have a new successor. 120Finally (what need is there of words?), let us be judged by action! 121Let the arms of the brave hero be thrown into the midst of the enemy: order them to be fetched from there, and adorn the man who brings them back with what he brings!' 123The son of Telamon had finished, and a murmur from the crowd had followed his last words, until the Laertian hero stood up, and, raising to the chieftains his eyes, which had lingered a little on the ground, he opened his lips with the speech they awaited; 127nor is grace lacking from his eloquent words.
128'If my prayers had prevailed along with yours, Pelasgians, the heir to so great a contest would not be in doubt, and you would possess your arms, Achilles, and we would possess you. 131But since unjust fates have denied him to me and to you' (and at the same time he wiped his eyes with his hand as if they were weeping), 'who better succeeds great Achilles than the man through whom great Achilles joined the Danaans? 135Only let it not help him that he seems, as indeed he is, dull-witted, nor let it harm me that my intelligence has always been of service to you, Achaeans; and let this eloquence of mine, if I have any, which now speaks for its owner and has often spoken for you, be free from ill will, and let no one reject his own good qualities.
140For birth and ancestors and the things we did not do ourselves, I scarcely call those ours; 141but since Ajax has declared that he is the great-grandson of Jupiter, Jupiter is the founder of my blood too, and we stand removed from him by the same number of steps. 144For Laertes is my father, Arcesius his, Jupiter his, and none of these was ever condemned and exiled. 146Through my mother too the Cyllenian god is added to me, a second nobility: there is a god on each side of my parentage. 148But it is not because I am nobler by my mother's birth, nor because my father is innocent of a brother's blood, that I seek the arms on offer: weigh the case by merits, provided that the fact that Telamon and Peleus were brothers is not counted as merit in Ajax, and that not the order of blood but the honour of valour is looked to in these spoils!
154Or if nearness of kin and the first heir is what is required, Peleus is his father, Pyrrhus is his son. 156What place is there for Ajax? 156Let these be carried to Phthia or to Scyros! 157Nor is Teucer any less Achilles' cousin than he is: yet does he claim them? 158If he did claim them, would he carry them off? 159Therefore, since the contest is held as a bare one of deeds: I have done more, indeed, than it would be easy for me to encompass in words; 161yet I shall be guided by the order of events. 162His Nereid mother, foreknowing his coming death, disguises her son by his dress, and the deceit of the clothing he had put on had deceived everyone, among them Ajax.
165Among women's wares I put arms that would stir a man's spirit, and the hero had not yet thrown off his girl's garb when, as he held shield and spear, I said, "Son of the goddess, Pergamum, doomed to perish, is keeping itself for you! 169Why do you hesitate to overthrow mighty Troy?" 170and I laid my hand on him and sent the brave man to brave deeds. 171So his deeds are mine: it was I who conquered Telephus as he fought with the spear, and restored him when beaten and begging; 173that Thebes fell is mine; believe that I took Lesbos, I Tenedos and Chryse and Cilla, cities of Apollo, and Scyros; consider that the walls of Lyrnesus were shaken by my right hand and fell to the ground; and, to say nothing of others, it was I, of course, who gave the man who could destroy savage Hector: through me famous Hector lies low.
179With those arms by which Achilles was discovered I seek these arms: I gave them to him living, after his death I ask them back. 180— When the grief of one man reached all the Danaans and a thousand keels filled Euboean Aulis, the winds, long awaited, were either none or contrary to the fleet, and harsh oracles order Agamemnon to sacrifice his innocent daughter to cruel Diana. 186Her father refuses this and is angry with the gods themselves, and, though a king, he is still a father. 187It was I who by my words turned the gentle nature of the parent to the public good. 189Now indeed (I confess it, and may Atreus' son forgive the confession!) I won a difficult case before a biased judge.
191Yet the advantage of the people moves him, and his brother, and the supreme power of the sceptre given him, to weigh glory against blood. 193I am sent also to the mother, who was not to be persuaded but deceived by cunning: had Telamon's son gone to her, our sails would even now be bereft of their winds. 196I am sent too as a bold envoy to the Ilian citadel, and I saw and entered the senate-house of lofty Troy (and it was still full of men), and fearlessly I pleaded the case that all Greece had entrusted to me, and I accuse Paris and demand back the plunder and Helen, and I move Priam, and Antenor who sat with Priam.
202But Paris and his brothers and those who had joined in the theft under him barely held back their impious hands (you know this, Menelaus), and that day was the first of the danger we shared.