Of course I myself know all this, but I do not
think that I yet see how the two men were parasites
to Agamemnon.
Remember, my friend, those lines that Agamemnon
himself addresses to Idomeneus.
What lines?
Your beaker has alwaysStood full, even as mine, to be drunk when the spirit should move you.Iliad4, 262-263.
For in saying there that the beaker “always stood
full,’ he did not mean that Idomeneus’ cup stood full
under all circumstances, even when he fought or
when he slept, but that he alone was privileged to
eat with the king all the days of his life, unlike
the rest of the soldiers, who were invited only on
certain days.
As for Ajax, when he had fought gloriously in
single combat with Hector,
they brought him to
great Agamemnon,Iliad7, 312.
Homer says, and by way of
special honour, he was at last counted worthy of
sharing the king’s table. But Idomeneus and Nestor
dined with the king daily, as he himself says.
Nestor, indeed, in my opinion was the most workmanlike and efficient parasite among the kings; he
began the art, not in the time of Agamemnon, but
away back in the time of Caeneus and Exadius,
Two generations earlier ; Iliad1, 250, 264.
and by all appearances would never have stopped
practising it if Agamemnon had not been killed.
He was a doughty parasite, I grant you. Try to
name some more, if you know of any.