Atrides – well we know how far you excel us all:
No one can match your strength at throwing spears,
You are the best by far!
Take first prize and return to your hollow ships
While we award this spear to Meriones.
If that you please your heart. That’s what I propose.
– Homer
The Iliad, Book 23, lines 986-991. When the spear throwing competiton begins, Achilles makes this gesture of reconciliation and forgiveness in his quarrel with Agamemnon, saying that the king is the greatest spearman of them all and the contest is already his. So Agamemnon is automatically awarded first prize, which he gives away to his herald.