Agamemnon et Menelaus Atrei filii cum ad Troiam oppugnandam coniuratos duces ducerent, in insulam Ithacam ad Ulixem Laertis filium venerunt, cui erat responsum, si ad Troiam isset, post vicesimum annum solum sociis perditis egentem domum rediturum.
Itaque cum sciret ad se oratores venturos, insaniam simulans pileum sumpsit et equum cum bove iunxit ad aratrum.
Quem Palamedes ut vidit, sensit simulare atque Telemachum filium eius cunis sublatum aratro ei subiecit et ait "Simulatione deposita inter coniuratos veni."
Tunc Ulixes fidem dedit se venturum; ex eo Palamedi infestus fuit. |
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When the sons of Atreus, Agamemnon and Menelaos, were taking command of the chiefs who had taken the oath to make war on Troy, they came to the son of Laertes, Ulysses, on the island of Ithaca; to him it had been foretold that, if he were to go to Troy, he would return home alone at the end of the twentieth year, in need of help and having lost all his companions.
So when he heard that the emissaries were coming, he feigned insanity, donned a felt cap and yoked a horse with an ox to his plough.
However Palamedes, on seeing this, realised he was faking and, snatching his son Telemachus from his cradle, dropped him in front of the plough and declared "Drop this pretence and come and join the oath-takers".
So Ulysses gave his word that he would come; from then on he was always hostile to Palamedes.
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