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Polites says the Trojans are grazing their horses outside of the city. He saw them let several out last evening through the northern gate. A small guard was with the horses, and these Trojans mingled with some local villagers who were watching livestock of their own.

I reported this to Odysseus after breakfast, and he didn’t seem very surprised. He told me that he has a plan to capture some of these horses. I guess that he has been formulating this plan with the Argosian general Diomedes. He asked that I get a list of about a dozen men whom he can take with him. I assume that he wants to do this soon.

I have a feeling that this is just another way of Odysseus sticking it to Ajax. It was really embarrassing to Ajax that one of his traded horses had been captured during Hector’s raid. Odysseus capturing more Trojan horses would just be a way to rub his face in it.

I asked Polites that he go on this raid, since he is the one that knows where the horses are at. -He isn’t too thrilled about it.

To make him feel better, I told him that he could decide which other Ithacans would go with him.

Everything else is pretty quiet.

Today was the seventieth birthday of Nestor, King of Pylos. I had to go with Odysseus to a banquet in his honor tonight.

The food was great, but it was terribly boring. Nestor is an ancient guy. He looks much older than seventy.

Anyway, he was one of the guys that went with Jason looking for the Golden Fleece. I guess that is pretty wild, but I didn’t really want to listen to him talk for four hours. The guy kept going on about all of his exploits, and Agamemnon and all of the other commanders kept toasting him and kissing his ass. –I thought it would never end.

Odysseus thinks that he is the best.

I am not saying that he isn’t a great guy or anything, but it really wasn’t the way that I wanted to spend my evening.

I still have a bunch of stuff to get finished before I can get to sleep.