seen in the sky above, and not a ripple on the glassy face of the deep.
All the ships had been put in order, new vessels had been built, the
warriors had burnished their armor and overhauled their arms a thousand
times; and yet no breeze arose to waft them across the sea. And they
began to murmur, and to talk bitterly against Agamemnon and the chiefs.

At last Agamemnon sent for Calchas, the soothsayer, and asked him in
secret how the anger of the huntress queen might be appeased. And the
soothsayer with tears and lamentations answered that in no wise could
it be done save by the sacrifice to Artemis of the king's daughter,
Iphigenia.

Then the king cried aloud in his grief, and declared that though Troy
might stand forever, he would not do that thing; and he bade a herald
go through the camp, and among the ships by the shore, and bid every
man depart as he chose to his own country. But before the herald had
gone from his tent, behold, his brother, Menelaus, stood before him
with downcast eyes and saddest of hearts.

"After ten years of labor and hope," said he to Agamemnon, "wouldst
thou give up this enterprise, and lose all?"

Then Odysseus came also into the tent, and added his persuasions to
those of Menelaus. The king hearkened to him, for no man was more
crafty in counsel; and the three recalled the herald, and formed a plan
whereby they might please Artemis by doing as she desired. Agamemnon,
in his weakness, wrote a letter to Clytemnestra his queen, telling her
to bring the maiden, Iphigenia, to Aulis, there to be wedded to the
bravest of all the Greeks.