You fill me with contempt –
what are you saying? With the forces poised to clash
you tell us to haul our oar-swept vessels out to sea?
Just so one more glory can crown these Trojans –
god help us, they have beaten us already –
and the scales of headlong death can drag us down.
Achaean troops will never hold the line, I tell you,
not while the long ships are being hauled to sea.
They’ll look left and right – where can they run? –
and fling their lust for battle to the winds. Then,
commander of armies, your plan will kill us all!
– Homer
The Iliad, Book 14, lines 117-127. Odysseus attacks the weakness of Agamamnon’s leadership. He believes he is a terrible commander, because time and again he considers quitting the war. His troops will never hold the line while the ships are being hauled to sea and one more glory given to the Trojans, Odysseus warns. Odysseus expresses contempt for Agamemnon, whose plan he predicts will end up killing them all.