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THE
ILIAD OF HdtER.
TRANSLATED BY
ALEXANDER POPE,
%YITH NOTES AND INTRODUCTION BY REV. THEODORE
ALOIS BUCKLEY, M.A.
bos Ai^Gebes
]V[ 61:501710 LiikrGcrY
bos An<^eles, Cal.
NEW YORK:
A. L. BURT, PUBLISHER.
PA
sq
{0
*>2.
CONTENTS.
BOOK I. „^^„
PAGE
Tlie Contention of Achilles and Agamemnon 61
BOOK II.
The Trial of the Army, and Catalogue of the Forces 85
BOOK III.
The Duel of Menelaiis and Paris 115
BOOK IV.
Tlie Breach of the Truce, and the First Battle 131
BOOK V.
The Acts of Diomed 148
BOOK VI.
The Episodes of Glaucus and Diomed, and of Hector and
Andromache 1^6
BOOK VII.
The Single Combat of Hector and Ajax 194
BOOK VIII.
The Second Battle, t^nd the Distress of the Greeks 209
BOOK IX.
The Embassy to Achilles 228
BOOK X.
The Night Adventure of Diomed and Ulysses 250
BOOK XI.
The Third Battle, and the Act.s of Agamemnon 267
iv CONTENTS.
BOOK XII. PAGE
The Battle at the Grecian Wall 291
BOOK XIII.
The Fourth Battle Continued, in which Neptune Assists the
Greeks — The Acts of Idomeneus 305
BOOK XIV.
Juno Deceives Jupiter by the Girdle of Venus 330
BOOK XV.
The Fifth Battle, at the Ships; and the Acts of Ajax 346
BOOK XVI.
The Sixth Battle; the Acts and Death of Patroclus 368
BOOK XVII.
The Seventh Battle, for the Body of Patroclus — The Acts of
Menelaiis , 394
BOOK XVIII.
The Grief of Achilles, and New Armor Made Him by Vulcan . . 415
BOOK XIX.
The Reconciliation of Achilles and Agamemnon 434
BOOK XX.
The Battle of the Gods, and the Acts of Achilles 446
BOOK XXL
The Battle in the River Scamander 461
BOOK XXII.
The Death of Hector „ 479
BOOK xxni.
Funeral Games in Honor of Patroclus 495
BOOK XXIV.
The Redemption of the Body of Hector 531
INTRODUCTION.
Skepticism is as much the result of knowledge, as
knowledge is of skepticism. To be content with what
we at present know, is, for the most part, to shut our
ears against conviction; since, from the very gradual
character of our education, we must continually forget,
and emancipate ourselves from, knowledge previously
acquired; we must set aside old notions and embrace
fresh ones; and as we learn, we must be daily unlearn-
ing something wliich it has cost us no small labor and
anxiety to acquire.
And" this ditficulty attaches itself more closely to an
age in which progress has gained a strong ascendency
over prejudice, and in which persons and things are,
day by day, finding their real level, in lieu of their
conventional value. The same principles which have
swept away traditional abuses, and which are making
rapid havoc among the revenues of sinecurists, and
stripping the thin, tawdry veil from attractive supersti-
tions, are working as actively in literature as in society.
The credulity of one writer, or the partiality of an-
other, finds as powerful a touchstone and as wiiolesome
a chastisement in the healthy skepticism of a temperate
class of antagonists, as tlie dreams of conservatism, or
the impostures of pluralist sinecures in the Church.
History and tradition, whether of ancient or compara-
tively recent times, are subjected to very diiferent
handling from that which the indulgence or credulity
of former ages could allow. Mere statements are jeal-
ously watched, and the motives of the writer form as
important an ingredient in the analysis of his history,
as tiie facts lie records. Probability is a powerful and
troublesome test; and it is by this troublesome standard
that a large poi'tion of historical evidence is sifted.
(Jonsistency is no less pertinacious and exacting in its
demands. In brief, to write a history, we must know
more than mere facts. Human nature, viewed under
an induction of cxtonde<l experience, is the best lie!p
to the criticism of human history. Historical charac-
Q TNTRODUCTION.
ters can only be estimated by the standard which human
experience, whether actual or traditionary, has fur-
nished. To form correct views of individuals we must
regard them as forming parts of a great whole — we
must measure them by their relation to the mass of
beings by whom they are surrounded, and, in contem-
plating the incidents in their lives or condition which
tradition has handed down to us, we must rather con-
sider the general bearing of the whole narrative, than
the respective probability of its details.
It is unfortunate for us, that, of some of the greatest
men, we know least, and talk most.' Homer, Socrates,
and Shakespere* have, perhaps, contributed more to
the intellectual enlightenment of mankind than any
other three writers who could be named, and yet the
history of all three has given rise to a boundless ocean
of discussion, which has left us little save the option
of choosing which theory or theories we will follow.
The personality of Shakespere is, perhaps, the only
thing in which critics will allow us to believe without
controversy; but upon everything else even down to the
authorship of plays, there is more or less of doubt and
* " What," says Arclideacon Wilberforce, " is tlae natural root
of loyalty as distinguished from such mere selfish desire of per-
sonal security as is apt to take its place in civilized times, but
that consciousness of a natural bond among the families of men,
which gives a fellow-feeling to whole clans and nations, and thus
enlists their affections in behalf of those time-honored representa-
tives of their ancient blood, in whose success they feel a personal
interest ? Hence the delight when we recognize an act of nobility
or justice in our hereditary princes.
" ' Tuque prior, tu parce genus qui ducis Olympo,
Projice tela manu sanguis meus.'
" So strong is this feeling that it regains an engrafted influence
even when history witnesses that vast convulsions have rent and
weakened it; and the Celtic feeling toward the Stuarts has been
rekindled in our own days toward the granddaughter of George
the Third of Hanover.
" Somewhat similar may be seen in the disposition to idolize
those great lawgivers of man's race, who have given expression,
in the immortal language of song, to the deeper inspirations of
our nature. The thoughts of Homer or of Shakespere are the
universal inheritance of the human race. In this mutual ground
every man meets his brother; they have been set forth by the
providence of God to vindicate for all of us what nature could
effect, and that, in these representatives of our race, we might
recognize our common beuefactars." — Doctrine of the Incarnation,
pp. 9, 10.
INTRODUCTION. 7
uncertainty. Of Socrates we know as little as the con-
tradictions of Plato and Xenophon will allow _ns to
know. He was one of the dramatis 2i&>'sonce in two
dramas as nnlike in principles as in style. He appears
as the ennnciator of opinions as different in their tone
as those of the writers who have handed them down.
When we have read Plato or Xenophon, we think we
know something of Socrates; when we have fairly read
and examined both, we feel convinced that we are
something worse than ignorant.
It has been an easy, and a popular expedient, of late
years, to deny the personal or real existence of men
and things whose life and condition were too much for
our belief. This system — which has often comforted
the religious skeptic, and suhstituted the consolations
of Strauss for those of the New Testament— has been
of incalculable value to the historical theorists of the
last and present centuries. To question the existence
of Alexander the Great would be a more excusable act ■
tlktm to believe in that of Romulus. To deny a fact
related in Herodotus, because it is inconsistent with a
theory developed from an Assyrian inscription which
no two scholars read in the same way, is more pardona-^
ble than to believe in the good-natured old king whom
the elegant pen of Florian has ideaMzed—Suma Fom-
pilius.
Skepticism has attained its culminating point with
respect to Homer, and the state of our Homeric knowl-
edge may be described as a free permission to believe
any theory, provided we throw overboard all written
tradition concerning the author or authors of the Iliad
and Odyssey. AVhat few authorities exist on the sub-
ject are" summarily dismissed, although the arguments
ajjpear to run in a circle. "This cannot be true, be-
cause it is not true; and that is not true, because it
cannot be true." Such seems to be the style in which
testimony ujion testimony, statement upon statement,
is consigned to denial and oblivion.
It is, hownvor, unfortuiiate that the professed biogra-
phies of Hoiiiur are partly forgeries, partly freaks of
ingenuity and imagination, in which truth is the requi-
site most wanting, iicroro taking a brief review of the
Homeric theory in its present conditions, some notice
must be taken of the treatise on the Life of Homer
which has been attributed to Herodotus.
8 INTRODUCTION.
According to this docnment, the city of Cnmae in
/Eolia, was, at an early period, the seat of frequent
immigrations from various parts of Greece. Among
the immigrants was Menapolus, the son of Ithagenes.
Although poor, he married, and the result of the union
was a girl named Critheis. The girl was left an orphan
at an early age, under the guardianship of Cleanax, of
Argos. It is to the indiscretion of this maiden that we
"are indebted for so much happiness." Homer was
the first fruit of her juvenile frailty, and received the
name of Melesignes, from having been born near the
river Meles, in Boeotia, whither Critheis had been
transi^orted in order to save her reputation.
"At this time," continues our narrative, "there lived
at Symrna a man named Phemius, a teacher of litera-
ture and music, who, not being married, engaged Cri-
theis to manage his household, and spin the flax he
received as the price of his scholastic labors. So satis-
factory was her performance of this task, and so modest
her conduct, that he made proposals of marriage, de-
claring himself, as a further inducement, willing to
adopt her son, who, he asserted, woukl become a clever
man if he were carefully brought up."
They were married; careful cultivation ripened the
talents which nature had bestowed, and Melesigenes
soon surpassed his schoolfellows in every attainment,
and, when older, rivaled his preceptor in wisdom.
Phemius died, leaving him sole heir to his property,
and his mother soon followed. Melesigenes carried on
his adopted father's school with great success, exciting
the admiration not only of the inhabitants of Smyrna,
bnt also of the strangers whom the trade carried on
there, especially in the exportation of corn, attracted
to that city. Among these visitors, one Mentes, from
Leucadia, the modern Santa Maura, who evinced a
knowledge and intelligence rarely found in those times,
persuaded Melesigenes to close his school, and accom-
pany him on his travels. He promised not only to pay
his expenses, but to furnish him with a further stipend,
urging, that, "While he was yet young, it was fitting
that he should see with his own eyes the countries and
cities which might hereafter be the subjects of his dis-
courses." Melesigenes consented, and set out with his
patron, "examining all the curiosities of the countries
they visited, and informing himself of everything by
INTRODUCTION. 9
interrogating those whom he met." We may also sup-
pose, that he wrote memoirs of all that he deemed
worthy of preservation.* Having set sail from Tyr-
rhenia and Iberia, they reached Ithaca. Here Mele-
sigenes, who had already snlfered in his eyes, became
much worse; and Mentes, who was about to leave for
Leucadia, left him to the medical superintendence of a
friend of his, named Mentor, the son of Alcinor. Un-
der his hospitable and intelligent host, Melesigenes
rapidly became acquainted with the legends respecting
Ulysses, which afterward formed the subject of the
Odyssey. The inhabitants of Ithaca assert, that it was
here that Melesigenes became blind, but the Colopho-
nians make their city the seat of that misfortune. He
then returned to Smyrna, where he applied himself to
the study of poetry. f
But poverty soon drove him to Cum^. Having passed
over the Hermaean plain, he arrived at Neon Teichos,
the New Wall, a colony of Cumte. Here his misfor-
tunes and poetical talent gained him the friendship of
one Tychias, an armorer. ''And up to my time," con-
tinued the author, "the inhabitants showed the place
where he used to sit when giving a recitation of his
verses; and they greatly honored the spot. Here also
*EiMoi Se Miv fjv xai i.iv7]i.i66vva Tcdvrojy ypdcpedOat.
Vit. Horn, in Scbweigb. Herodot. t. iv. j). 299, sq. i^ 6. I may-
observe tbat this Life bas been parapbrased in En^rlisb by my
learned younfij friend, Kennetb R. H. Mackenzie, and appended
to my prose translation of tbe Odyssey. Tbe present abridgment,
however, will contain all tbat is of use to tbe reader, for tbe
biograpbical value of tbe treatise is most insignificant.
f /. e. botb of composing and reciting verses, for, as Blair ob-
serves, " Tbe first poets sang tbeir own verses." Sextus Empir.
adv. Mus. p. 360. ed. Fabric. Ov ajufXEi yj rot Hal oi
notrjral /.leXoTtoiol XeyovTcxi, Hal rd 'QjiiTJpov sv:?/ rd TtdXat
Ttpoi Xvpav ijoero.
"Tbe voice," oljserves Ileeren, "was always accompanied by
some in.strument. Tbe bard was provided with a barp, on wbicli
be played a prelude, to elevate and inspire bis mind, and with
wbicb be accompanied tbe song wben begun. His voice probably
preserved a medium bc^twecn singing and recitation: tbe words,
and not tbe mtdody, were regarded Ijy tbe listeners; bence it was
necessary for biin to remain intcliigil)le to all. In countries
wbere notbing similar is found, it is dillicult to represent siicb
scenes to tbe mind: l)ut wboever bas bad an opportunity of listen-
ing to tbe improvisatori of Italy, can easily form an idea of Demo-
docusand I'li'-mius."— /incie/t< Greece, p. ill.
10 INTRODUCriON.
a poplar grew, which they said had sprung up ever
since Melosigenes arrived."*
But poverty still drove him on, and he went by way
of Larissa, as being the most convenient road. Here,
the Cunians say, he composed an epitaph on Gordius,
king of Phrygia, which has, however, and with greater
probability, been attributed to Cleobulus of Lindus.f
Arrived at Cumae, he frequented the converzationesX
of the old men, and delighted all by the charms of his
poetry. Encouraged by this favorable reception, he
declared that, if they would allow him a public main-
tenance, he would render tlieir city most gloriously re-
newed. They avowed their willingness to support him
in the measure he proposed, and procured him an audi-
ence in the council. Having made the speech, with
the purport of which our author has forgotten to ac-
quaint us, he retii-ed, and left them to debate respect-
ing tlie answer to be given to his proposal.
The greater part of the assembly seemed favorable to
the poet's demand, but one man observed that '"if they
were to feed Homers, they would be encumbered with
a multitude of useless people." "From this circum-
stance," says the writer, "Melesigenes acquired the
name of Homer, for the Cumans call blind men Ho-
mers.'" % With a love of economy, which shows how
*" Should it not be, since my arrival ?" asks Mackenzie, ob-
serving that, " poplars can hardly live so long." But, setting
aside the fact that we must not expect consistency in a mere
romance, the ancients had a superstitious belief in the great age
of trees which grew near places consecrated by the presence of
gods and great men. See Cicero de Legg. ii. i, sub init., where
he speaks of the plane tree under which Socrates used to walk,
and of the tree at Delos, where Latona gave birth to Apollo. This
passage is referred to by Stephanas of Byzantium, s. «. N. T.
p. 490, ed. de Pinedo. I omit quoting any of the dull epigrams
ascribed to Homer, for, as Mr. Justice Talfourd rightly observes,
" The authenticity of these fragments depends upon that of the
pseudo-Herodotean Life of Homer, from which they are taken."
Lit. of Greece, pp. 38, in Encyl. Metrop. Cf. Coleridge, Classic
Poets, p. 317.
f It is quoted as the work of Cleobulus, by Diogenes Laert. Vit.
Cleob. p. 62, ed. Casaub.
XI trust I am justified in employing this as an equivalent for
the Greek Xe6xai.
%'fLi £1 rovi'OjuTjpov; (5d?ez rpsqpsiv avroK, outXov itoWov
rEKalax(iE6ivjiov6iv,ivTEv<iEv Se ual rovvofia O^n^poZ
ETtEKpdzTtde Ton MF.Xy]6iyEl dito rfji 6v)xq)opi/<; oi yap Kvjua'iot
TuvS TvcpXovi' Ofnjpovi Xeyovoiv. Vit. Houi. I. c. p. 311. The
etymology has been condemned by recent scholars. See
Welcker, Epi.sche Cyclus, p. 127, and Mackenzie's note, p. xiv.
INTRODUCTION. H
similar the world has always been in its treatment of
literav}' men, the pension was denied, and the poet
vented his disappointment in a wish that Cnmcea might
never produce a poet capable of giving it renown and
glory.
At Phocoea, Homer was destined to experience an-
other literary distress. One Thestorides, who aimed at
the reputation of i:)oetical genius, kept Homer in his
own house, and allowed him a pittance, on condition of
the verses of the poet passing in his name. Having
collected sufficient poetry to be profitable, Thestorides,
like some would-be-literary publishers, neglected the
man whose brains he had sucked, and left him. At
his departure. Homer is said to have observed: "0
Thestorides, of the many thiiigs hidden from the knowl-
edge of man, nothing is more unintelligible than the
human heart." *
Homer continued his career of difficulty and distress,
nntil some Chian merchants, struck by the similarity
of the verses they heard him recite, acquairted him
with the fact that Thestorides was pursuing a profitable
livelihood by the recital of the very same poems. This
at once determined him to set out for Chios. No ves-
sel happened then to be setting sail thither, but he
found one ready to start for Erythrre, a town of Ionia,
which faces that island, and he prevailed upon the sea-
men to allow him to accompany them. Having em-
barked, he invoked a favorable wind, and prayed that
he miglit be able to expose the imposture of Thestori-
des, who, by his breach of hospitality, had drawn down
the wrath of Jove the Hospitable.
At Erythrfe Homer fortunately met with a person
who had known him in Phoccpa, by whose assistance he
at length, after some difficulty, reached the little ham-
let of Pithys. Here he met with an adventure, which
we will continue in the words of our author. "Having
set out from Pitliys, Homer went on, attracted by the
cries of some goats that were pasturing. The dogs
barked on his approach, and he cried out. Glaucus
* SeoTOfjiSffs, OFf/rtJdiy avaoidvoov itoXecov Ttspy oiSiv
aq>pa6T6TFfj()V neXtrai vo<w nvOpMTtmoiy. Ibid. p. 315.
iMirinj,' liis htiiy at \'\i(>i<i-.\, lloiiior is i^md to liave coini)<)sed tlie
Little Iliad, and the I'lioca-id. See Mailer's Hist, of Lit. vi. ^ 3.
AVeJcker, I. c. pp. 132, 272, 308, sqq., and Mure, Gr. Lit. vol. ii.
p. 284, sq.
12 INTRODUCTION.
(for that was the name of the goat-herd) heard his
voice, ran up quickly, called oil his dogs, and drove
them away from Homer. For some time he stood won-
dering how a blind man should have reached such a
place alone, and what could be his design in coming.
He then went up to him, and inquired who he was, and
how he had come to desolate places and untrodden
spots, and of what he stood in need. Homer, by re-
counting to him the whole history of liis misfortunes,
moved him with compassion; and he took him, and led
him to his cot, and liaving lit a fire, bade him sup.*
The dogs, instead of eating, kept barking at the
stranger, according to their usual habit. Whereupon
Homer addressed Glaucus thus: " Glaucus, my friend,
prythee attend to my behest. First- give the dogs
their supper at the doors of the hut: for so it is better,
since, while they watch, nor thief nor wild beast will
approach the fold."
Glaucus was pleased with the advice, and marveled
at its author. Having finished supper, they banquetedf
afresh on conversation. Homer narrating his wander-
ings, and telling of the cities he had visited.
At length they retired to rest; but on the following
morning Glaucus resolved to go to his master, and ac-
quaint him with his meeting with Homer. Having
left the goats in charge of a fellow-servant, he left
Homer at home^ promising to return quickly. Having
arrived at Bolissus, a place near the farm, and finding
his mate, he told him the whole story respecting Homer
and his journey. He paid little attention to what he
said, and blamed Glaucus for his stupidity in taking in
and feeding maimed and enfeebled persons. However,
he bade him bring the stranger to him.
* This is so pretty a picture of early manners and hospitality,
that it is almost a pity to find that it is obviously a copy from the
Odyssey. See the fourteenth book. In fact, whoever was the
author of this fictitious biography. he showed some tact in identify-
ing Homer with certain events described in his poems, and in
elicting from them the germs of something like a personal narra-
tive.
f Aid yoyoov idrtcsvro. A common metaphor. So Plato calls
the parties conversing dairv/iovs?, or edridropsi, Tim. i. p. 522.
A. Cf. Themist. Orat. vi. j). ]08, and xvi. p. 374, ed. Petav. So
8n]y7jfxa6t 6o$oii bf-iov Hal znpnvoh r/Sioo rijv fJoivj/y roh
£6riojjis vol's ETtoiEi, Choricius in Fabric. Bibl. Gr. T. viii. p.
851. Xoyoii yap e6tia, Athenseus, vii. p. 275, A.
INTRODUCTION. 13
Glaucus told Homer what l^ad taken place, and bade
him follow him, assuring him that good fortune would
be the result. Conversation soon showed that the
stranger was a man of much cleverness and general
knowledge, and the Chian persuaded him to remain,
and to undertake the charge of his children.*
Besides the satisfaction of driving the impostor Thes-
torides from the ishmd. Homer enjoyed considerable
success as a teacher. In the town of Chios he estab-
lished a school where he taught the precepts of poetry.
"To this day," says Chandler, f "the most curious re-
maining is that which has been named, not without
reason, the School of Homer. It is on the coast, at
some distance from the city, northward, and apjiears to
have been an open temple of Cybele, formed on the top
of a rock. The shape is oval, and in the center is the
image of the goddess, the head and an arm wanting.
She is represented, as usual, sitting. The chair has a
lion carved on each side, and on the back. The area
is bounded by a low rim, or seat, and above five yards
over. The whole is hewn out the mountain, is rude,
indistinct, and probably of the most remote antiquity."
So successful was this school, that Homer realized a
considerable fortune. He married, and had two daugh-
ters, one of whom died single, the other married a
Chian.
The following passage betrays the same tendency to
connect the personages of the poems with the history
of the poet, which has already been mentioned:
"In his poetical compositions Homer displays great
gratitude toward Mentor of Ithaca, in the Odyssey,
whose name he has inserted in his poem as the com-
panion of Ulysses, J in return for the care taken of him
* It was at Bolissus, and in the bouse of this Chian citizen, that
Homer is i;ai<l to liave written tlie Batrachomyoniachia, or Battle
of the Frogs and Mice; tlie Eplcichlidia, and some other minor
works.
f Chandler, Travels, vol. i. p, 61, referred to in the Voyage
Pittoresque dans la (irece, vol. i. p. 92, where a view of the spot
is given, f)f which tin; author candidly says, " .Je ne puis rt'i>oiidre
d'une exactitude scrujjuieuse dans la vue grnerale (]ue j'cn donne;
car etantalh' s<miI ])our I'examiner, je perdis mon crayon, vX je fus
obligt' de m'en (ier il ma mi'moire. Je no crois cependant pas
avoir trop a uie ])iaindre d'elle en cette occasion."
X A more prohalde reason for this companionship, and for the
character of Mentor itself, is given by the allegorists, viz.: the
14 INTROD UCTION.
when afflicted with bliiiduess. He also testifies his
gratitude to Pheinius, who had given him both suste-
nance and instruction,"
His celebrity continued to increase, and many per-
sons advised him to visit Greece, whither his reputation
had now extended. Having, it is said, made some ad-
ditions to his poems calcuhited to please the vanity of
the Athenians, of whose city he had hitherto made no
mention,* he set out for Samos. Here being recog-
nized by a Samian, who had met with him in Chios,
he was handsomely received, and invited to join in
celebrating the Apaturian festival. He recited some
verses, which gave great satisfaction, and by singing
the Eiresioue at the New Moon festivals, he earned a
subsistence, visiting the houses of the rich, with whose
children he was very popular.
In the spring he sailed for Athens, and arrived at
the island of los, now Ino, where he fell extremely ill,
and died. It is said chat his death arose from vexa-
tion, at not having been able to unravel an enigma
proposed by some fishermen's children. f
Such is, in brief, the substance of the earliest life of
Homer we possess, and so broad are the evidences of
its historical worthlessness, that it is scarcely necessary
to point them out m detail. Let us now consider some
of the opinions to which a persevering, patient, and
learned — ^but by no means consistent — series of investi-
gations has led. In doing so, I profess to bring for-
ward statements, not to vouch for their reasonableness
or probability.
"Homer appeared. The history of this poet and his
works is lost in doubtful obscurity, as is the history of
many of the first minds who have done honor to hu-
manity, because they rose amid darkness. The majestic
stream of his song, blessing and fertilizing, flows like
the Nila, thrc.igh many lands and nations; and, like
the sources of the Nile, its fountains will ever remain
concealed."
assumption of Mentor's form by tlie guardian deity of the wise
Ulysses, Minerva. The classical reader may compare Plutarch,
0pp. t. ii. p. 880; Xylaud. Heraclid. Pont. Alleg. Hom. p. 531-5,
of Gale's Opusc. Mythol. Dionys. Halic. de Horn. Poes. c. 15;
Apul. de Deo Socrat. s. f.
* Vit. Hom. § 28.
f The riddle is given in § 35. Compare Mackenzie's note,
p. XXX.
INTROD UCTION. 1 5
Snch are the words in which one of the most judi-
cious German critics lias eloquently described the un-
certainty in which the whole of the Homeric question
is involved. With no less truth and feeling he pro-
ceeds:
"It seems here of chief iuiportanoe to expect no
more than the nature oi things makes possible. If the
period of tradition in history is the region of twilight,
we should not expect in it perfect light. The creations
of genius always seem like miracles, because they are,
for the most part, created far out of the reach of observ-
ation. If we were in possession of all the historical
tesimonies, we never could wholly explain the origin
of the Iliad and the Odyssey; for their origin, in all
essential points, must have remained the secret of the
poet." *
From this criticism, which shows as much insight
into the depths of human nature as into the minute
wire-drawings of scholastic investigation, let us pass on
to the main question at issue. Was Homer an individ-
nal?f or were the Iliad and Odyssey the result of an
ingenious arrangement of fragments by earlier poets?
Well has Landor remarked: "Some tell us there
were twenty Homers; some deny that there ever was
one. It were idle and foolish to shake the contents of
a vase, in order to let them settle at last. We ai'e per-
petually laboring to destroy our delights, our composure,
our devotion to superior power. Of all the animals on
earth we least know what is good for us. My opinion
is, that wiiat is best for us is our admiration of good.
Mo man living venerates Homer more than I do." |
But greatly as we admire the generous enthusiasm
which rests contente<l with the poetry on which its best
impulses had been nurtured and fostered, without seek-
ing to destroy the vividness of first impressions by mi-
nute analysis — our editorial office compels us to give
some attention to the doubts and diiliculties with which
the Homeric question is beset, and to entreat our
reader, for a brief period, to ])refer liis judgment to his
imagination, aiul to condescend to dry details,
JJefore, however, entering into particulars respecting
* rie«;ren'.s Ancient Circfcft, p. 96.
•f (V)in{iare Sir E. \j. liuhvcr'H Caxtftiis, v. i. p. 4.
t Pericles aud Aspasia, Letter Jxxxiv., Works, vol. ii. p. 387.
IG INTRODUCTION.
the question of this unity of the Homeric poems (at
least of the Iliad), I nmst express my sympathy with
the sentiments expressed in the following remarks:
"AVe cannot but tiiink the universal admiration of
its unity by the better, the poetic age of Greece, almost
conclusive testimony to its original composition. It
was not until the age of the grammarians that its prim-
itive integrity was called in question; nor is it; injustice
to assert, that the minute and analytical spirit of a
grammarian is not the best qualification for the pro-
found feeling, the comprehensive conception of an har-
monious whole. The most exquisite anatomist may be
no judge of the symmetry of the human frame: and we
would take the opinion of Chantrey or Westmacott on
the proportions and general beauty of a form, rather
than that of Mr. Brodie or Sir Astley Cooper.
"There is some truth, though some malicious exag-
geration, in the lines of Pope:
" ' The critic eye — tliat microscope of wit —
Sees hairs and pores, examines bit by bit;
How parts relate to parts, or tV.ey to whole.
The body's harmony, the beaming soul.
Are things which Kuster, Burmann, Wasse, shall see,
When man's whole frame is obvious to a flea.' "*
Long was the time which elapsed before any one
dreamed of questioning the unity of the authorship of
the Homeric jDoems. The grave and cautious Thucy-
dides quoted without hesitation the Hymn to Apollo, f
the athenticity of which has been already disclaimed
by modern critics. Longinus, in an oft-quoted passage,
merely expressed an opinion touching the comparative
inferiority of the Odyssey to the Iliad ;J and, among a
* I
Quarterly Review, No. Ixxxvii. p. 147.
f Viz., the following beautiful passage, for the translation of
which I am indebted to Coleridge, Classic Poets, p. 286:
" 'Origias, farewell! and oh! remember me
Hereafter, when some stranger from the sea,
A hapless wanderer, may your isle explore,
And ask you, maid, of all the bards you boast,
Who sings the sweetest, and delights you most —
Oh! answer all — ' A blind old man, and poor —
Sweetest he sings — and dwells on Chios' rocky shore.' "
See Thucyd. iii. 104.
|Longin. de Sublim. ix. § 26. ^'OOsv kv Tfj,0^v66eia
TtapsiKcxGai rz? av HcxTaSvof^isvoo rov O/njpvo rj Xiao, oS Sixoc
zr/i d'Podftorr/Toi Ttapa/xivEi to rjiyeOoi.
INTRODUCTION. 17
mass of ancient authors, whose very names* it would
be tedious to detail, no suspicion of the personal non-
existence of Homer ever arose. So far, the voice of
antiquity seems to be in favor of our early ideas on the
subject: let us see what are the discoveries to which
more modern investigations lay claim.
At the end of the seventeenth century, doubts had
begun to awaken on the subject, and we find Bentley
remarking "that Homer wrote a sequel of songs and
rhapsodies, to be sung by himself, for sn)all comings
and good cheer, at festivals and other days of merri-
ment. These loose songs were not collected together,
in the form of an epic poem, till about Peisistratus'
time, about five hundred years after." f
Two French writers — Iledelin and Perrault— avowed
a similar skepticism on the subject; but it is in the
"Scienza Nnova" of Battista Yico, that we first meet
with the germ of tlie tlieory, subsequently defended by
Wolf with so much learning and acuteness.
Indeed, it is with the Woltian theory that we have
chiefly to deal, and with the following bold hypothesis,
which we will detail in the words of Grote:J
"Half a century ago, the acute and valuable Prolego-
mena of F. A. Wolf, turning to account the Venetian
Scholia, which had then been recently published, first
opened philosophical discussion as to the history of the
Homeric texc. A considerable part of that dissertation
(though by no means the whole) is employed in vindi-
cating the position, previously announced by Bentley,
among others, that the separate constituent portions of
the Iliad and Odyssey had not been cemented together
into any compact body and unchangeable order, until
the days of Peisistratus, in the sixth century before
Ciirist. As a step toward that conclusion Wolf main-
tained that no written copies of either poem could be
*See Tatian, quoted in Fabric. Bib). Gr. v. II. t. ii. Mr.
Maciienzie lias j^iven three brief but elaborate papers, on the dif-
ferent writi-rs on the subject, wliicli deserve to be consulted. See
Xote.s and (Queries, vol. v. pp. J>9, 171 and 221. His own views
are moderate, and perhaps as satisfactory, on tlie whole, as any of
tlie hypf)theses hitherto j)ut forth. In fact, they consist In an
atleinjjt to blend those hypotheses into soiuethinf( like consistency,
rather than in advocaliuf^ any individual theory.
{Letters to IMiilehnttli. Lips.
History of Ureece, vol. ii. \>. 191, sqq.
18 INTRODUCTION.
sliown to have existed during the earlier times, to
which their composition is referred ; and that without
writing, neither the perfect symmetry of so complicated
a work could have been originally conceived by any
poet, nor, if realized by him, transmitted with assur-
ance to posterity. The absence of easy and convenient
writing, such as must be indispensably supposed for
long manuscripts, among the early Greeks, was thus
one of the points in Wolf's case against the primitive
integrity of the Iliad and the Odyssey. By Nitzsch,
and otlier leading opponents of Wolf, the connection of
the one with the otiier seems to have been accepted as
he originally put it; and it has been considered incum-
bent on those who defended the ancient aggregate
character of the Iliad and Odyssey, to maintain that
they were written poems from the beginning.
"To me it appears, that the architectonic functions
ascribed by Wolf to Peisistratus and his associates, in
reference to the Homeric poems, are nowise admissible.
But much would undoubtedly ioe gained toward that
view of the question, if it could be shown, that, in
order to controvert it, we were driven to tlie necessity
of admitting long written poems, in the ninth century
before the Christian era. Few things, in my opinion,
can be more improbable; and Mr. Payne Knight, op-
posed as he is to the Wolfian hypothesis, admits this
no less than Wolf himself. The traces of Avriting in
Greece, even in the seventh century before the Chris-
tian era, are exceedingly trifling. We have no remaining
inscription earlier than the fortieth Olympiad, and the
early inscriptions are rude and unskillfully executed;
nor can we even assure ourselves whetlier Archilochus,
Simonides of Amorgus, Kallinus, Tyrtteus, Xanthus,
and the other early elegiac and lyric poets, committed
their compositions to writing, or at what time the prac-
tice of doing so became familiar. The first positive
ground which autliorizes us to presume the existence
of a manuscript of Homer, is in the famous ordinance
of Solon, with regard to the rhapsodies at the Panathe-
na?a; but for what length of time previously manuscripts
3iad existed, we are unable to say.
"Those who maintain the Homeric poems to have
been written from the beginning, rest their case, not
upon positive proofs, nor yet upon the existing habits
of society with regard to poetry — for they admit gen-
INTRODUCTION. 19
erally tliat the Iliad and Odyssey were not read, liut
recited and heard — hut upon the supposed necessity
that there must have been manuscripts to ensure the
preservation of the poems — the unassisted memory of
reciters being neither sufKcient nor trustworthy. But
here we only escajje a smaller difficulty by running into
a greater; for the existence of trained bards, gifted
Avith extraordinary memory,* is far less astonishing
than that of long manuscripts, in an age essentially non-
reading and non-writing, and when even suitable instru-
* " It is, indeed, not easy to calculate the lieiglit to -which the
memory may be culti%-ated. To take an ordinary case, we might
refer to that of any first-rate actor, who must be prepared, at a
very short warning, to ' rhapsodize,' night after night, parts
which, when laid together, would amount to an immense number
of lines. But all this is nothing to two instances of our own day.
Visiting at Naples a gentleman of the highest intellecitual attain-
ments, and who held a distinguished rank among the men of
letters in the last century, he informed us that the day before he
had passed much time in examining a man, not highly educated,
who had learned to repeat the whole Uierusalemme of Tasso; not
only to recite it consecuti%'ely, but also to repeat those stanzas iu
utter defiance of the sense, either forwards or backwards, or from
the eighth line to the first, alternately the odd and even lines; in
short, whatever the passage required, the memory, which seemed
to cling to the words umch more than to the sense, had it at such
perfect command, that it could produce it under any form. Our
informant went on to state that this singular being was proceed-
ing to learn the Orlando Furiosa in the same manner. But even
this instance is less wonderful than one as to which we may
appeal to any of our readers that lia])pened some twenty years ago
to visit the town of Stirling, in Scotland. No such person can
have forgotten the poor, uneducated man. Blind Jamie, who could
actually repeat, after a few minutes' consideration, any verse re-
quired from any part of the Bible — even the obscurest and most
unimportant enumeration of mere proper names not excepted.
Wa do not mention these facts as touching the more difficult part
of the question before us; but facts they are; and if we find so
umch ditliculty in calculating the extent to which the mere
memory may be cultivated, are we, in these days of multifarious
reading, and of countless distracting affairs, fair judges of the
perfection to which the invention and the memory coiiil)ined may
attain in a simfder age, and among a more single-minded peoi)leV"
— QiKirtrrli/ J.'cvu'ir, I. c, p. 14',j, s(|(].
lleereu steers between tlie two opinions, observing that, " The
Dschungariade of the Calimicks is said to surpass the poems of
Homer in length, as much as it stands beneath them in merit;
and yet, it exists only iu the memory of a jx^jple which is not
acquainted witli writing. But the songs of a nation are ))robably
tlie last tilings wliich art; coMimitted to writing, i»v the very
reason that they are lemembered." — Ancient Greece, p. 100.
20 INTRODUCTION.
ments and materi;ils for the process are not obvious.
Moreover, tliere is a strong positive reason for believing
that the bard was under no necessity of refreshing his
memory by consulting a manuscript; for if such had
been tiie fact, blindness would have been a disqualifica-
tion for the profession, which we know that it was not,
as well from the example of Demodokus, in the Odyssey,
as from that of the blind bard of Cliios, in the Hymn
to the Delian Apollo, whom Thucydides, as well as the
general tenor of Grecian legend, identifies with Homer
himself. The author of that hymn, be he who he may,
could never have described a blind man as attaining
the utmost perfection in his art, if he had been con-
scious that the memory of the bard was only maintained
by constant reference to the manuscript in his chest.
The loss of the digamma, that crux of critics, that
quicksand upon which even the acumen of Bentley was
shipwrecked, seems to prove beyond a doubt, that the
pronunciation of the Greek language had undergone a
considerable change. Now it is certainly difficult to
suppose that the Homeric poems could have suffered
by this change, had written copies been preserved. If
Chaucer's poetry, for instance, had not been written,
it could only have come down to us in a softened form,
more like the effeminate version of Dryden, than the
rough, quaint, noble original.
"At what period," continues Grote, 'Hhese poems,
or indeed any other Greek poems, first began to be
written, must be matter of conjecture, though there is
ground for assurance that it was before the time of
Solon. If, in the absence of evidence, we may venture
upon naming any more determinate period, the ques-
tion at once suggests itself. What were the purposes
which, in that state of society, a manuscript at its first
commencement must have been intended to answer?
For whom was a written Iliad necessary? Not for the
rhapsodes; for with tliem it was not only planted in
the memory, but also interwoven with the feelings, and
conceived in conjunction with all those flexions and
intonations of voice, pauses, and otlier oral artifices
which were required for emphatic delivery, and which
the naked manuscript could never reproduce. Not for
the general public — they were accustomed to receive it
with its rhapsodic delivery, and with its accompani-
ments of a solemn and crowded festival. The only
introduction: 21
persons for whom the written Iliad would be suitable
would be a select few; studious and curious men; a
class of readers capable of analyzing the complicated
emotions which they had experienced as hearers in the
crowd, and who would, on perusing the written words,
realize in their imaginations a sensible portion of the
impression communicated by the reciter. Incredible
as the statement may seem in an age like the present,
there is in all early societies, and there was in early
Greece, a time when no such readiiig class existed. If
we could discover at what time such a class first began
to be formed, we should be able to make a guess at the
time when the old epic poems were first committed to
writing. Now the period which may with the greatest
probability be fixed upon as having first witnessed the
formation even of the narrowest reading class in Greece,
is the middle of the seventh century before the Chris-
tian era (b.c. 660 to B.C. 630), the age of Terpander,
Kallinus, Archilochus, Simon ides of Amorgus, etc. I
ground this supposition on the change then operated
in the character and tendencies of Grecian poetry and
music — the elegiac and the iambic measures having
been introduced as rivals to the primitive hexameter,
and poetical compositions liaving been transferred from
the epical past to the affairs of present and real life.
Such a change was important at a time when poetry
was the only known mode of publication (to use a mod-
ern phrase not altogether suitable, yet the nearest ap-
proaching to the sense). It argued a new way of look-
ing at the old epical treasures of the people as well as a
thirst for new poetical effect; and the men who stood
forward in it, may well be considered as desirous to
study, and competent to criticize, from their own indi-
vidual point of view, the written words of the Homeric
rhapsodies, just as we are told that Kallinus both no-
ticeil and eulogized the Thebais as the production of
Homer. There seems, therefore, ground for conjec-
turing that (for the use of this newly-formed and im-
portant, but very narrow class), manuscripts of the
Homeric poems an<l other old epics — the Thebai's and
tl)e Cypria, as well as the Iliad and the Odyssey— l)ogan
to be "compiled toward the middle of the seventh cen-
tury (\\j). I); and the opening of Kgvpt to Grecian
conunorco, which took place aljout the same ])eriod,
would furnish increased facilities for obtaining the retj-
22 INTRODUCTION.
uisite papyrus to write upon. A reading class, when
once formed, would doubtless slowly increase, and the
number of manuscripts along with it; so that before
tlie time of Solon, fifty years afterward, both readers
and manuscripts, though still comparatively few, might
have attained a certain recognized authority, and
formed a tribunal of reference against the carelessness
of individual rhapsodes." *
But even Peisistratus has not been suffered to remain
in possession of the credit, and we cannot help feeling
the force of the following observations:
"There are several incidental circumstances which,
in our opinion, throw some suspicion over the whole
history of the Peisistratid compilation, at least over
the theory, that the Iliad was cast into its present
stately and harmonious form by the directions of the
Athenian ruler. If the great poets, who flourished at
the bright period of Grecian song, of which, alas! we
have inherited little more than the fame, and the faint
echo; if Stesichorus, Anacreon, and Simonides were
employed in the noble task of compiling the Iliad and
Odyssey, so much must have been done to arrange, to
connect, to harmonize, that it is almost incredible, that
stronger marlis of Athenian manufacture should not
remain. Whatever occasional anomalies may be de-
tected, anomalies which no doubt arise out of our own
ignorance of the language of the Homeric age; however
the irregular use of the digamma may have per23lexed
our Bentleys, to whom the name of Helen is said to
have caused as much disquiet and distress as the fair
one herseif among the heroes of her age; however Mr.
Knight may have failed in reducing the Homeric lan-
guage to its primitive form; however, finally, the
Attic dialect may not have assumed all its more marked
and distinguishing characteristics — still it is difficult to
suppose that the knguage, particularly in the joinings
and transitions, and connecting parts, should not more
clearly betray the incongruity between the more an-
cient and modern forms of expression. It is not quite
in character with such a period to imitate an antique
style, in order to piece out an imperfect poem in the
character of the original, as Sir Walter Scott has done
in his continuation of Sir Tristram.
* Vol. ii. p. 198, sqq.
INTRODUCTION. 23
"If, howe\er, not even such faint and indistinct
traces of Athenian compilation are discoverable in the
hinguage of the poems, tlie total absence of Athenian
national feeling is perhaps no less worthy of observa-
tion. In later, and it may fairly be suspected in earlier
times, the Athenians were more than ordinarily jealons
of the fame of their ancestors. But, amid all the tra-
ditions of the glories of early Greece embodied in the
Iliad, the Athenians play a most subordinate and insig-
nificant part. Even the few passages which relate to
their ancestors, Mr. Knight suspects to be interpola-
tions. It is possible, indeed, that in its leading out-
line, the Ilaid may be true to historic fact; that in the
great maritime expedition of western Greece against
the rival and half-kindred empire of the Laomedondi-
adge, the chieftain of Thessalv, from his valor and the
number of his forces, may have been the most impor-
tajit ally of the Peloponnesian sovereign: the preemi-
nent value of the ancient poetry on the Trojan war
may thus have forced the national feeling of the Athe-
nians to yield to their taste. The songs which spoke
of their own great ancestor were, no doubt,of far inferior
sublimity and popularity, or, at first sight, a Theseid
would have been much more likely to have emanated
from an Athenian synod of compilers of ancient song,
than an Achilleid or an Olysseid. Could France have
given birth to a Tasso, Tancred would have been the
hero of the Jerusalem. If, however, the Homeric bal-
lads, as they are sometimes called, which related the
wrath of Achilles, with all its direful consequences,
were so far superior to the rest of the poetic cycle, as
to admit no rivalry — it is still surprising, that through-
out the whole poem the calUda junctura should never
betray the workmanship of an Athenian hand ; and that
the national spirit of a race, who have at a later period
not inaptly been compared to our self-admiring neigh-
bors, the French, should submit with lofty self-denial
to tiie almost total exclusion of their own ancestors —
or, at least, to the questiojiable dignity of only having
produced a leader tolerably skilled in the military tac-
tics of his age." *
To retnnuto the AVolfian theory. "While it is to be
confessed, that Wolf's objections to the primitive in-
• Quarterly Review, I. c. p. 131, sq.
24 INTROD UCTION:
tegrity of the Iliad and Odyssey have never been wholly
got over, we cannot help discovering that they have
failed to enlighten ns as to any substantial point, and
that the difliculties with which the whole subject is
bdset, are rather augmented than otherwise, if we admit
his hypothesis. Nor is Lachman's* modification of his
theory any better. He divides the first twenty-two
books of the Iliad into sixteen different songs, and
treats as ridiculous tlie belief that their amalgamation
into one regular poem belongs to a period earlier than
the age of Peisistratus. This, as Grote observes, "ex-
plains the gaps and contradictions in the narrative, but
it explains nothing else." Moreover, we find no con-
tradictions warranting this belief, and the so-called
sixteen poets concur in getting rid of the following
leading men in the first battle after the secession of
Achilles: Elphenor, chief of the Euboeans; Tlepolemus,
of the Khodians; Pandarus of the Lycians; Odius, of
the Halizonians; Pirous and Acamas, of the Thracians.
None of these heroes again make their appearance;
and we can but agree with Colonel Mure, that "it
seems strange that any number of independent poets
should have so harmoniously dispensed with the serv-
ices of all six in the sequel." The discrepancy, by
which Pylsemenes, who is represented as dead in the
fifth book, weeps at his son's funeral in the thirteenth,
can only be regarded as the result of an interpolation.
Grote, although not very distinct in stating his own
opinions on the subject, has done much to clearly show
the incongruity of the Wolfian theory, and of Lach-
mann's modifications with the character of Peisistratus.
But he has also shown, and we think with equal suc-
cess, that the two questions relative to the primitive
nnity of these poems, or, supposing that impossible,
the unison of these parts by Peisistratus, and not before
his time, are essentially distinct. In short, "a man
may believe the Iliad to have been put together out of
pre-existing songs, without recognizing the age of Peis-
istratus as the period of its first compilation." The
friends or literary employees of Peisistratus must have
found an Iliad that was already ancient, and the silence
of the Alexandrine critics respecting the Peisistratic
* Betracbtungen iiber die Ilias. Berol. 1841. See Grote,
p. 204. Notes and Queries, vol. v. p. 221.
INTRODUCTION. 35
"recension, " goes far to prove that, among the numer-
ous manuscripts they examined, tliis was either want-
ing, or thought unworthy of attention.
"Moreover," he continues, "the whole tenor of the
poems themselves confirms what is here remarked.
There is nothing, either in the Iliad or Od3'ssey, which
savors of modernism, applying that term to the age of
Peisistratus — ■nothing which brings to our view the
alterations brought about bv two centuries, in the
Greek language, the coined money, the habits of writing
and readingjthe despotisms and republican governments,
the close military array, the improved construction
of ships, the Amphiktyonic convocations, the mutual
frequentation of religious festivals, the Oriental and
Egyptian veins of religion, etc., familiar to the latter
epoch. These alterations Onomakritus, and the other
literary friends of Peisistratus, could hardly have failed
to notice, even without design, had they then, for the
first time, undertaken the task of piecing together
many self-existent epics into one large aggregate.
Everything in the two great Homeric poems, both in
substance and in language, belongs to an age two or
three centuries earlier than Peisistratus. Indeed, even
the interpolations (or those passages which on the best
grounds are pronounced to be such) betray no trace of
the sixth century before Christ, and may well have
been heard by Archilochus and Kallinus — in some cases
even by Arktinus and Hesiod — as genuine Homeric
matter.* As far as the evidences oil the case, as well
internal as external, enable us to judge, we seem war-
ranted in believing that the Iliad and Odyssey were
recited substantially as they now stand (always allow-
ing for partial divergences of text and interpolations,
in 770 B. c, our first trustworthy mark of Grecian
time; and this ancient date, let it be added, as it is the
best-authenticated fact, so it is also the most important
attribute of the Homeric poems, considered in refer-
ence to Grecian history; for they thus afford us an in-
sight into the anti-historical character of the Greeks,
enabling us to trace the subsefjuent forward march of
the nation, and to seize instructive contrasts between
their former and their later condition." f
* Prolegg. pp. xxxii., xxxvi., etc.
f Vol. ii. p. 214, sqq.
26 INTRODUCTION.
On the wliole, I am iucliiied to believe that the labors
of PeidistratuB were wholly of an editorial character,
although, I must confess, that I can lay down nothing
respecting the extent of his labors. At the same time,
so far from believing that the composition or primary
arrangement of these poems, in their present form,
was the work of Peisistratus, I am rather persuaded that
the fine taste and elegant mind of that Athenian* would
lead him to preserve an ancient and traditional order
of the poems, rather than to patch and reconstruct
them according to a fanciful hypothesis. I will not
repeat the many discussions respecting whether the
poems were written or not, or whether the art of writ-
ing was known in the time of their reputed author.
SuflBce it to say, that the more we read, the less satis-
fied we are upon either subject.
I cannot, however, help thinking, that the story
which attributes the preservation of these poems to
Lycurgus, is little else than a version of the same story
as that of Peisistratus, while its historical probability
must be measured by that of many others relating to
the Spartan Confucius.
I will conclude this sketch of the Homeric theories,
with an attempt, made by an ingenious friend, to unite
them into something like consistency. It is as follows:
"No doubt the common soldiers of that age had, like
the common sailors of some fifty years ago, some one
qualified to 'discourse in excellent music' among them.
Many of these, like those of the negroes in the United
States, were extemporaneous, and allusive to events
passing around them. But what was passing around
them? The grand events of a spirit-stirring war; oc-
currences likely to impress themselves, as the mystical
legends of former times had done, njDon their memory;
besides which, a retentive memory was deemed a virtue
of the first water, and was cultivated accordingly in
those ancient times. Ballads at first, and down to the
beginning of the war with Troy, were merely recita-
tions, with an intonation. Then followed a species of
*"Who,"«ays Cicero, de Orat. iii. 84, "was more learned in
that age, or whose eloquence is reported to have been more per-
fected by literature than that of Peisistratus, who is said first to
have disposed the boolcs of Homer in the order in which we now
have them?" Compare Wolf's Prolegomena 33. §
INTRODUCTION. ^^
recitative, probably with an intoned burden. Tune
next followed, as it aided the memory considerably.
''It was at this period, about four hundred years
after the war, that a poet flourished of the name of
Melesigenes, or JMoeonides, but most probably the for-
mer. He saw that these ballads might be made of great
utility to his purpose of writing a poem on the social
position of Hellas, and, as a collection, he published
these lays, connecting them by a tale of his own. This
poem now exists, under the title of the 'Odyssea.'
The author, however, did not affix his own name to
the poem, which, in fact, was, great part of it, remod-
eled from the archaic dialect of Crete, in which tongue
the ballads Avere found by him. He therefore called it
the poem of Homeros, or the Collector; but this is
rather a proof of his modesty and talent, than of his
mere drudging arrangement of other people's ideas;
for, as Grote has finely observed, arguing for the unity
of authorship, *a great poet might have re-cast pre-
existing separate songs into one comjii'ehensible whole;
but no mere arrangers or compilers would be competent
to do so.'
''\Vhile employed on the wild legend of Odysseus,
he met with a ballad, recording the quarrel of Achilles
and Agamemnon. His noble mind seized the hint that
there presented itself, and the Achilleis* grew under
his hand. Unity of design, however, caused him to
publish the poem under the same pseudonym as his
former work: and the disjointed lays of the ancient
bards were joined together, like those relating to the
Cid, into a chronicle history, named the Hiad. Mele-
sigenes knew that the poem was destined to be a lasting
one, and so it lias proved; but, first, the poems were
destined to undergo many vicissitudes and corruptions,
by the people who took to singing them in the streets,
assemblies, and agoras. However, Solon first, and
then Peisistratus, and afterward Aristoteles and others,
revised the poems, and restored the works of Melesi-
genes Homeros to their original integrity in a great
measure." \
* " Tlie first book, topetber witb tbe eigbtb, and tbe books
from tbe elevciitb to tlie twenty-second inclusive, seems to form
tbe primary <>r;;anization of tbe poetry tbeu properly an Acbillei's."
— Orote, vol. ii. p. 2o5.
\ K. i{. 11. Mackenzie, Notes and Queries, p. 222, sqq.
28 INTRODUCTION.
Having thus given some general notion of the strange
theories which have developed themselves respecting
this most interesting subject, I must still express my
conviction as to the unity of the authorship of the Ho-
meric poems. To deny that many corruptions and in-
terpolations disfigure them, and that the intrusive hand
of the poetasters may here and there have inflicted a
wound more serious than the negligence of the copyist,
would he an absurd and captious assumption; but it is
to a higher criticism that we must appeal, if we would
either understand or enjoy these poems. In maintain-
ing the authenticity and personality of their one author,
be he Homer or Mdesigenes, quocwique nomine vocari
eum jus fasque sit, I feel conscious that, while the
whole weight of historical evidence is against the hy-
pothesis which would assign these great works to a plu-
rality of authors, the most powerful internal evidence,
and that which springs from the deepest and most im-
mediate impulse of the soul, also speaks eloquently to
the contrary.
The minutiae of verbal criticism I am far from seek-
ing to despise. Indeed, considering the character of
some of my own books, such an attempt would be gross
inconsistency. But, while I appreciate its importance
in a philological view, I am inclined to set little store
on its esthetic value, especially in poetry. Three parts
of tlie emendations made upon poets are mere altera-
tions, some of which, had they been suggested to the
author by his Mfficenas or Africanus, he would probably
have adopted. IMoreover, those Avho are most exact in
laying down rules of verbal criticism and interpretation,
are often least competent to carry out their own pre-
cepts. Grammarians are not poets by profession, but
may be so ^;er accidens. . I do not at this moment re-
member two emendations on Homer, calculated to sub-
stantially improve the poetry of a passage, although a
mass of remarks, from Herodotus down to Loewe, have
given us the history of a thousand minute points, with-
out which our Greek knowledge would be gloomy and
jejune.
But it is not on words only that grammarians, mere
grammarians, will exercise their elaborate and ofteii tire-
some ingenuity. Binding down an heroic or dramatic
poet to the block upon whic'h they have previously dis-
sected his words and sentences, they proceed to use the
INTRODUCTION. 29
axe and the pruning knife by wholesale; and incon-
sistent in everything but their wish to make out a case
of unlawful ateliution, they cut out book after book,
passage after passage, till the author is reduced to a
collection of fragments, or till those, who fancied they
possessed the works of some great man, find that they
have been put oil with a vile counterfeit got up at sec-
ond hand. If we compare the theories of Knight,
Wolf, Lachmaun, and others, we shall feel better satis-
fied of the utter uncertainty of criticism than of the
apocryphal position of Homer. One rejects what an-
other considers the turning-point of his theory. One
cuts a supposed knot by expunging what another would
explain by omitting something else.
Nor is this morbid species of sagacity by any means
to be looked upon as a literary novelty. Justus Lip-
sius, a scholar of no ordinary skill, seems to revel in
the imaginary discovery, that the tragedies attributed
to Seneca are hy four different authors.* Now, I will
venture to assert, that these tragedies are so uniform,
not only in tlieir borrowed phraseology — a phraseology
with which writers like Boethius and Saxo Grammati-
cus were more charmed than ourselves — in their free-
dom from real poetry, and last, but not least, in an
ultra- refiued and consistent abandonment of good taste,
that few writers of the present day would question the
capabilities of the same gentleman, be he Seneca or
not, to produce not only these, but a great many more
equally bad. With equal sagacity. Father Hardouin
astonished the world with the startliug announcement
that the .Eueid of Virgil, and the satires of Horace,
were literary deceptions. Now, without wishing to say
one word of disrespect against the industry and learn-
injT — nay, the refined acuteness — which scholars, like
Wolf, have bestowed upon this subject, I must express
my fears, that many of our modern Homeric theories
will become matter for the surprise and entertainment,
rather than the instruction, of posterity. Nor can I
help thinking, that the literary history of more recent
times will account for many jjoiuts of dilhculty in the
transmission of the Iliad and Odyssey to a period so
remote from that of their first creation.
*See his Eitistle to Raphelingius, iu Scbroeder'a edition, to. 4,
DelpLis, 172b.
30 INTRODUCTION.
I have already expressed my belief that the labors of
Peisistratus were of a purely editorial character; and
there seems no more reason why corrupt and imperfect
editions of Homer may not have been abroad in his
day, than that the poems of Valerius Flaccus and Ti-
bullus should have given so much trouble to Poggio,
Scaliger, and others. But, after all, the main fault in
all the Homeric theories is, that they demand too great
a sacrifice of those feelings to which poetry most power-
fully appeals, and which are its most fitting judges.
The" ingenuity which has sought to rob us of tlie name
and existence of Homer, does too much violence to
that inward emotion, which makes our whole soul yearn
with love and admiration for the blind bard of Chios.
To believe the author of the Iliad a mere compiler, is
to degrade the powers of human invention; to elevate
analytical judgment at the expense of the most enno-
bling impulses of the soul; and to forget the ocean in
the contemplation of a polypus. There is a catholic-
ity, so to speak, in the very name of Homer. Our
faith in the author of the Hiad may be a mistaken one,
but as yet nobody has taught us a better.
While, however, I look upon the belief in Homer as
one that has nature herself for its mainspring; while I
can join witli old Ennius in believing in Homer as the
ghost, who, like some patron saint, hovers round the
bed of the poet, and even bestows rare gifts from that
wealth of imagination which a host of imitators could
not exhaust — still I am far from wishing to deny that
the author of these great poems found a rich fund of
tradition, a well-stocked mythical storehouse from
whence he might derive both subject and embellish-
ment. But it is one thing to use existing romances in
the embellishment of a poem, another to patch up the
poem itself from such materials. What consistency of
style and execution can be hoped for from such an at-
tempt? or, rather, what bad taste and tedium will not
be the infallible result?
A blending of popular legends, and a free use of the
songs of other bards, are features perfectly consistent
with poetical originality. In fact, the most original
writer is still drawing upon outward impressions — nay,
even his own thoughts are a kind of secondary agents
which support and feed tiie impulses of imagination.
But unless there be some grand pervading principle —
INTRODVCTION. 31
some invisible, yet most distinctly stamped archetypiis
of the great whole, a poem like the Iliad can never
come to the birth. Traditions the most picturesque,
episodes the most pathetic, local associations teeming
with the thoughts of gods and great men, may crowd
in one mighty vision, or reveal themelves in more sub-
stantial forms to the mind of the poet; but, except the
power to create a grand whole, to which these shall be
but as details and embellishments, be present, we shall
have nought but a scrap-book, a parterre filled with
flowers and weeds strangling each other in their wild
redundancy: we shall have a cento of rags and tatters,
which will require little acuteness to detect.
Sensible as 1 am of the difficulty of disproving a neg-
ative, and aware as I must be of the weighty grounds
there are for opposing my belief, it still seems to me
that the Homeric question is one that is reserved for a
higher criticism than it has often obtained. We are
not by nature intended to know all things; still less, to
compass the powers by which the greatest blessings of
life have been placed at our disposal. Were faith no
virtue, then Ave might indeed wonder why God willed
our ignorance on any matter. But Ave are too well
taught the contrary lesson; and it seems as though our
faith should be especially tried touching the men and
the events which have wrought most influence upon
the condition of humanity. And there is a kind of
sacredness attached to the memory of the great and the
good, which seems to bid us repulse the skepticism
which would allegorize their existence into a pleasing
apologue, and measure the giants of intellect by an
homeopathic dynameter.
Long and habitual reading of Homer appears to fa-
miliarize our thoughts even to his incongruities; or
rather, if we read in a right spirit and with a heartfelt
appreciation, we are too much dazzled, too deeply
Avrapped in admiration of the Avhole, to dwell upon the
minute spots which mere analysis can discover. In
reading an heroic poem we must transform ourselves
into heroes of the time being, we in imagination must
fight over tlie same battles, woo the same loves, burn
Avith tiio same sense of injury, as an Achilles or a Hec-
tor. And if we can but attain this degree of enthusiasm
(and less enthusiasm will scarcely sufticc for the read-
ing of Homer), Ave shall feel that the poems of Homer
S'Z INTRODUCTION.
are uot only the work of one writer, but of the greatest
writer that ever touched the hearts of men by the
power of song.
And it was this supposed unity of authorship which
gave these poems their powerful influence over the
minds of the men of old. Ileeren, who is evidently
little disposed in favor of modern theories, finally
observes:
"It was Homer who formed the character of the
Greek nation. No poet has ever, as a poet, exercised
a similar influence over his countrymen. Prophets,
lawgivers, and sages have formed the character of other
nations; it was reserved to a poet to form that of the
Greeks. This is a feature in their character which was
not wholly erased even in the period of their degen-
eracy. When lawgivers and sages appeared in Greece,
the work of the poet had already been accomplished;
and they paid homage to his superior genius. He held
up before his nation the mirror, in which they were to
behold the world of gods and heroes no less than of
feeble mortals, and to behold them reflected with purity
and truth. His poems are founded on the first feeling
of human nature; on the love of children, wife, and
country; on that passion which outweighs all others,
the love of glory. His songs were poured forth from a
breast which sympathized with all the feelings of man;
and therefore they enter, and will continue to enter,
every breast which cherishes the same sympathies. If
it is granted to his immortal spirit, from another heaven
than any of which he dreamed on earth, to look down
on his race, to see the nations from the fields of Asia
to the forests of Hercynia, performing pilgrimages to
the fountain which his magic wand caused to flow; if it
is permitted to him to view the vast assemblage of
grand, of elevated, of glorious productions, which had
been called into being by means of his songs; wherever
his immortal spirit may reside, this alone would suffice
to complete his happiness." *
Can we contemplate that ancient monument, on
which the '^Apotheosis of Homer" f is depictured, and
* Ancient Greece, p. 101.
f The best description of this monument will be found in Vaux's
" Antiquities of tlie British Museum," p. 198. sq. The monument
itself (Towneley Sculptures, No. 123) is well known.
INTRODUCTION. 33
not feel how much of pleasing association, how much
t-hat appeals most forcibly and most distinctly to ouv
minds, is lost by the admittance of any theory but our
old tradition? The more we read, and the more we
thinli — think as becomes the readers of Homer — the
more rooted becomes the conviction that the Father of
Poetrv gave ns this rich inheritance, whole and entire.
Whatever Avere the means of its preservation, let ns
rather be thankful for the treasury of taste and elo-
quence thus laid open to our use, than seek to make it
a mere center around which to drive a series of theories,
whose wildness is only equaled by their inconsistency
with each other.
As the hymns, and some other poems usually ascribed
to Homer, are not included in Pope's translation, I will
content myself with a brief account of the Battle of
the Frogs and Mice, from the pen of a writer who has
done it full justice: *
"This poem," says Coleridge, "is a short mock-heroic
of ancient date. The text varies in dilferent editions,
and is obviously disturbed and corrupt to a great de-
gree; it is commonly said to have been a juvenile essay
of Homer's genius; others have attributed it to the
same Pigrees, mentioned above, and whose reputation
for humor seems to have invited the appropriation of
any piece of ancient wit, the author of which was un-
certain; so little did the Greeks, before the age of the
Ptolemies, know or care about that department of crit-
icism employed in determining tiie genuineness of an-
cient writings. As to this little poem being a youth-
ful prolusion of Homer, it seems sufficient to say that
from the beginning to the end it is a plain and palpable
parody, not only of the general spirit, but of the nu-
merous passages of the Iliad itself; and even, if no
such intention to parody were discernible in it, the ob-
jection would still remain, that to suppose a work of
mere burlesque to be the primary etfort of poetry in a
simple ago, seems to reverse that order in the develop-
ment of national taste, which the history of every other
people in Europe, and of many in Asia, has almost ascer-
tained to bo a law of the human mind; it is in a state
of society much more retined and permanent than tliat
described in the Iliad, that any popularity would attend
t Coleridge, Classic Poets, p. 276.
34 INTRODUCTION.
such a ridicule of war and the gods as is contained in
this poem; and the fact of there having existed three
other poems of the s;ime kind attributed, for auglit we
can see, with as much reason to Homer, is a strong in-
ducement to believe that none of them were of the
Homeric age. Knight infers from the usage of the
word Seyroi, "writing tablet," instead of SiSOepa,
"skin," which, according to Herod. 5, 58, was the
material employed by the Asiatic Greeks for that pur-
pose, that this poem was another offspring of Attic
ingenuity; and generally that the familiar mention of
the cock (v. 191) is a strong argument against so an-
cient a date for its composition."
Having tluis given a brief account of the poems com-
prised in Pope's design, I will now proceed to make a
few remarks on his translation, and on my own pur-
pose in the present edition.
Pope was not a Grrecian. His whole education had
been irregular, and his earliest acquaintance with the
poet was through the version of Ogilby. It is not too
much to say that his whole work bears the impress of
a disposition to be satisfied with the general sense,
rather than to dive deeply into tiie minute and delicate
features of language. Hence his whole work is to be
looked upon rather as an elegant paraphrase than a
translation. There are, to be sure, certain conven-
tional anecdotes, which prove that Pope consulted
various friends, whose classical attainments were
sounder than his own, during the undertaking; hut it
is probable thnt these examinations were the result
rather of the contradictory versions already existing,
than of a desire to make a perfect transcript of the
original. And in those days, what is called literal
translation was less cultivated than at present. If
something like the general sense could be decorated
with the easy gracefulness of a practised poet; if the
charms of metrical cadence and a pleasing fluency
could be made consistent with a fair interpretation of
the poet's meaning, his words were less jealously sought
for, and those who could read so good a poem as Pope's
Iliad had fair reason to be satisfied.
It would be absurd, therefore, to test Pope's transla-
tion by our own advancing knowledge of the original
text. We must be content to look at it as a most de-
lightful work in itself — a work wliich is as much a part
INTROD rCl ION 35
of English literature as Puiner himself is of Greek.
We must not be torn from our kindly associations with
the old Iliad, that once was onr oiost ch-^rished 'com-
panion, or our most looked-fo?" prize, merely oecanse
Buttmann, Loewe, and Liddell have made ns so much
more accurate as to djuixvTceAAov being an adjective,
and not a substantive. Far be it from us to defend the
faults of Pope, especially when we think of Chapman's
fine, bold, rough old English; far be it from us to hold
up his translation as what a translation of Homer might
be. But we can still dismiss Pope's Iliad to the hands
of our readers, with the consciousness that they must
have read a very great number of books before they
have read its fellow.
As to the Notes accompanying the present volume,
they are drawn up without pretension, and mainly with
the view of helping the general reader. Having some
little time since translated all the works of Homer for
another publisher, I might have brought a large amount
of accumulated matter, sometimes of a critical charac-
ter, to bear npon the text. But Pope's version was no
field for such a display; and my purpose was to touch
briefly on antiquarian or mythological allusions, to no-
tice ocasionally some departures from the original, and
to give a few parallel passages from our English Homer,
Milton. In the latter task I cannot pretend to novelty,
but I trust that my other annotations, while utterly
disclaiming high scholastic views, will be found to con-
vey as much as is wanted; at least, as far as the neces-
sary limits of these volumes could be expected to admit.
To write a commentary on Homer is not my present
aim; but if I have made Pope's translation a little
more entertaining and instructive to a mass of miscel-
laneous readers, I shall consider my wishes satisfactorily
accomplished.
Theodore Alois Buckley.
Christ Church.
•;'•:'•'
1 « c
c
r c
t "
POPE'S PREFACE TO THE ILIAD OF HOMER
Homer is universally allowed to have harl the great-
est invention of any writer whatever. The praise of
judgment Virgil has justly contested with him, and
others may have their pretensions as to particular ex-
cellences; but his invention remains yet unrivaled.
Nor is it a wonder if he has ever been acknowledged
the greatest of poets, Avho most excelled in that which
is the very foundation of poetry. It is the invention
that, in difEereut degrees, distinguishes all great gen-
iuses: the utmost stretch of human study, learning,
and industry, which masters everything besides, can
never attain to this. It furnishes art with all her ma-
terials, and without it judgment itself can at best but
•'steal wisely:" for art is only like a prudent steward
that lives on managing the riches of nature. Whatever
praises may be given to works of judgment, there is
not even a single beauty in them to which the inven-
tion must not contribute: as in the most regular gar-
dens, art can only reduce beauties of nature to more
regularity, and such a figure, which the common eye
may better take in, and is, therefore, more entertained
with. And, perha])s, the reason wiiy common critics
are inclined to prefer a judicious and methodical genius
to a great and fruitful one, is, because they find it
easier for themselves to pursue their observations
through a uniform and bouixded walk of art, than to
comprehend the vast and various extent of nature.
Our author's work is a wild ])aradise, where, if Ave
cannot see all the Ijeautios so distinctly as in an ordered
garden, it is only because the number of them is infi-
nitely greater. It is like a copious nursery, which
contains the seeds and first jiroductions of every kind,
out of whifdi those who followed liim have but selected
some partifuilar plants, each according to liis fancy, to
cultivate and Ixtaiitify. If smiK! things are too luxui'iant
it is owing to tiie richness of the soil; and if others are
nf)t arrived to perfection or maturity, it is only because
38 PREFACE.
they are overran and oppressed by those of a stronger
nature.
It is to the strength of this amazing invention we
are to attribute that unequaled fire and rapture which is
so forcible in Homer, that no man of a true. .poetical
spirit is master of himself while he reads him. What he
writes is of tlie most animated nature imaginable; every-
thing moves, everything lives, and is put in action. If
a council be called, or a battle fought, you are not coldly
informed of what was said or done as from a third per-
son; the reader is hurried out of himself by the force
of the poet's imagination, and turns in one place to a
hearer, in another to a spectator. The course of his
verses resembles that of the army he describes,
Oi<5' ap l'6av, (Jidei rs nvpl x^^''^ itada vapioiTo.
"They pour along like a fire that sweeps the whole
earth before it." It is, however, remarkable, that his
fancy, which is everywhere vigorous, is not discovered
immediately at the beginning of his poem in its fullest
splendor: it grows in the progress both upon himself
and others, and becomes on fire, like a chariot-wheel,
by its own rapidity. Exact disposition, just thought,
correct elocution, polished numbers, may have been
found in a thousand; but this poetic fire, this ^'vivida
vis animi," in a very few. Even in works where all
those are imperfect or neglected, this can overpower
criticism, and make ns admire even while we disap-
prove. Nay, where this appears, though attended with
absurdities, it brightens all the rubbish about it, till
we see nothing but its own splendor. This fire is dis-
cerned in Virgil, but discerned as through a glass, re-
flected from Homer, more shining than fierce, but
everywhere equal and constant: in Lucan and Statius
it bursts out in sudden, short, and interrupted flashes:
in Milton it glows like a furnace kept up to an uncom-
mon ardor by the force of art: in .^hakspeare it strikes
before we are aware, like an accidental fire from heaven :
but in Homer, and in him only, it burns everywhere
clearly and everywhere irresistibly.
I shall here endeavor to show how this vast invention
exerts itself in a manner superior to that of any poet
through all the main constituent parts of his work: as
it is the great and peculiar characteristic which dis-
tinguishes him from all other authors.
PREFACE. 39
This strong aud ruling faculty was like a powerful
star, which, in the violence of its course, drew all
things within its vortex. It seemed not enough to
have" taken in the whole circle of arts, and the whole
compass of nature, to supply his maxims and reflec-
tions; all the inward passions and affections of mankind,
to furnish his characters; and all the outward forms
and images of things for his descriptions: but wanting
yet an ampler sphere to expiate in, he opened a new
and boundless walk for his imagination, and created a
world for himelf in the invention of fable. That
which Aristotle calls "the soul of poetry," was first
breathed into it by Homer. I shall begin with consid-
ering him in his part, as it is naturally the first; and I
speak of it both as it means the design of a poem, and
as it is taken for fiction.
Fable may be divided into the probable, the allegor-
ical, and the marvelous. The probable fable is the
recital of such actions as, though they did, not
happen, yet might, in the common course of na-
ture; or of such as, though they did, became fables
by the additional episodes and manner of telling
them. Of this sort is the main story of an epic poem,
''The return of Ulysses, the settlement of the Trojans
in Italy," or the like. That of the Iliad is the "anger
of Achilles," the most short and single .subject that
ever was chosen by any poet. . Yet this he has supplied
with a vaster variety of incidents and events, and
crowded with a greater number of councils, speeches,
battles, and episodes of all kinds, than are to be found
even in those poems whose schemes are of the utmost
latitude and irregularity. The action is hurried on
with the most vehement spirit, and its whole duration
employs not so much as fifty days. Virgil, for want
of so warm a genius, aided himself by taking in a more
extensive subject, as well as a greater length of time,
and contracting tlje design of both Homer's poems into
one, which is yet but a fourth part as largo as his.
The other epic poets have used the same practice, but
generallv carried it so far as to superinduce a multi-
plicity of fables, destroy the unity of action, and lose
their readers in an unreasonable length of time. Nor
is it only in the main design that they have boon un-
ablo to add to his invention, but they have followed
him in every episode and part of story. If he has given
40 PREFACE.
a regular catalogue of an ariny, they all draw up their
forces in the same order. If he has funeral games for
Patroclus, Virgil has the same for Anchises; and
Statins (rather than omit them) destroys the unity of
his actions for those of Archemorus. If Ulysses visit
the shades, the ^neas of Virgil and Scii^io of Silius are
sent after him. If he be detained from his return by
the allurements of Calypso, so is J^lueas by Dido, and
Einaldo by Armida. If Achilles be absent from the
army on the score of a quarrel through half the poem,
Einaldo must absent himself just as |ong on the like
account. If he gives his hero a suit of celestial armor,
Virgil and Tasso make the same present to theirs.
Virgil has not only observed this close imitation of
Homer, but, where he had not led the way, supplied
the want from other Greek authors. Thus the story
of Sinon, and the taking of Troy, was copied (says
Macrobius) almost word for word from Pisander, as the
loves of Dido and ^neas are taken from those of Medea
and Jason in Apollonius; and several others in the
same manner.
To proceed to the allegorical fable. If we reflect
upon those innumerable knowledges, those secrets of
nature and physical philosophy which Homer is gener-
ally supposed to have wrapped up in his allegories,
what a new and ample scene of wonder may this con-
sideration afford us! How fertile will that imagination
appear, which was able to clothe all the properties of
elements, the qualifications of the mind, the virtues
and vices, in forms and persons; and to introduce them
into actions agreeable to the nature of the things they
shadowed! This is a field in which no succeeding poets
could dispute with Homer; and whatever commenda-
tions have been allowed them on this head, are by no
means for their invention in having enlarged his circle,
but for their judgment in having contracted it. For
when the mode of learning changed in the following
ages, and science was delivered in a plainer manner, it
then became as reasonable in the more modern poets to
lay it aside, as it was in Homer to make use of it. And
perhaps it was no unhappy circumstance for Virgil,
that there was not in his time that demand upon him
of so great an invention as might be capable of furnish-
ing all those allegorical jjarts of a poem.
The marvelous fable includes whatever is supernat-
PREFACE. 41
oral, and especially the machines of the gods. If
Homer was not the first who introduced the deities (as
Herodotus imagines) into the religion of Greece, he
seems the first who brought them into a system of ma-
chinery for poetry, and such a one as makes its greatest
importance and dignity: for we find those authors who
have been offended at the literal notion of the gods,
constantly laying their accusation against Homer as
the chief support of it. But whatever cause there
might be to blame his machines in a philosophical or
religious view, they are so j^erfect in the poetic, that
mankind have been ever since contented to follow
them: none have been able to enlarge the sphere of
poetry beyond the limits he has set: every attempt of
this nature has proved unsuccessful; and after all the
various changes of times and religions, his gods con-
tinue to this day the gods of poetry.
We come now to the characters of his persons, and
here we shall find no author has ever drawn so many,
with so visible and surjorising a variety, or given us
such lively and affecting impressions of them. Every
one has something so singularly his own, that no painter
could have distinguisiied them more by tlieir features,
than the poet has by their manners. Nothing can be
more exact than the distinctions he has observed in the
different degrees of virtues and vices. The single
quality of courage is wonderfully diversified in the sev-
eral characters of the Iliad. That of Achilles is furious
and intractable; that of Diomede forward, yet listening
to advice, and subject to- command; that of Ajax is
heavy and self-confiding; of Hector, active and vigi-
lant: the courage of Agamemnon is inspirited by love
of empire and ambition; that of Menelaus mixed with
softness and tenderness for his people: we find in Ido-
meneus a plain, direct soldier; in Sarpedon a gallant
aiul generous one. Nor is this judicious and astonish-
ing (iivorsity to be found only in the principal quality
which constitutes the main of each character, but even
in the under ])arts of it, to which ho takes care to give
a tincture of that ])rincii)al one. For example: the
main characters of Ulysses and Nestor consist in wis-
dom; and they are distinct in this, that the wisdom of
one is art! tidal aJid various, of the other natural, open,
and regular. Hut they have, bosides, characters of
courage; and this quality also takes a different turn in
42 PREFACE.
each from the difference of his prudence; for one in
the war depends still upon caution, the other upon ex-
perience. It would bo endless to produce instances of
these kinds. The characters of Virgil are far from
striking us in this open manner; they lie, in a great
degree, hidden and undistinguished; and, where they
are marked most evidently alfect us not in proportion
to those of Homer. His characters of valor are much
alike; even that of Turnus seems no way peculiar, but,
as it is, in a superior degree; and we see nothing that
differences the courage of Mnestheus from that of
Sergestus, Cioanthus, or the rest. In like manner it
may be remarked of Statins' heroes, that an air of im-
petuosity runs through them all; the same horrid and
savage courage appears in his Capaneus, Tydeus, Hip-
pomedon, etc. They have a parity of character, which
makes them seem brothers of one family. I believe
when the reader is led into this tract of reflection, if
he will pursue it through the epic and tragic writers,
he will be convinced how infinitely superior, in this
point, the invention of Homer was to that of all others.
The speeches are to be considered as they flow from
the characters; being perfect or defective as they agree
or disagree with the manners of those who utter them.
As there is more variety of characters in the Iliad, so
there is of speeches, than in any other poem. "Every-
thing in it has manner" (as Aristotle expresses it); that
is, everything is acted or spoken. It is hardly credible,
in a work of such length, how small a number of lines
are employed in narration. In Virgil the dramatic
part is less in proportion to the narrative; and the
speeches often consist of general reflections or thoughts,
which might be equally just in any person's mouth
upon the same occasion. As many of his persons have
no apparent characters, so many of his speeches escape
being applied and judged by the rule of propriety.
We oftener think of the author himself when we read
Virgil, than when we are engaged in Homer; all which
are the effects of a colder invention, that interests ns
less in the action described: Homer makes us hearers,
and Virgil leaves us readers.
If, in the next place, we take a view of the senti-
ments, the same presiding faculty is eminent in the
sublimity and spirit of his thouglits. Longinus has
given his opinion, that it was in this part Homer priu-
PREFACE. 43
cipally excelled. What were alone sufficient to prove
the grandeur and excellence of his sentiments in gen-
eral, is, that they have so remarkable a parity with
those of the Scripture. Duport, in his Gnomologia
Homerica, has collected innumerable instances of this
sort. And it is with justice an excellent modern writer
allows, that if Virgil has not so many thoughts tliat are
low and vulgar, he has not so many that are sublime
and noble; and that the Roman author seldom rises
into very astonishing sentiments where ho is not fired
by the Iliad.
If we observe his descriptions, images, and similes,
we shall find the invention still predominant. To what
else can we ascribe that vast comprehension of images
of every sort, where we see each circumstance of art,
and individual of nature, summoned together by the
extent and fecundity of his imagination; to which all
things, in their various views presented themselves in
an instant, and had their impressions taken off to per-
fection at a heat? Nay, he not only gives us the full
prospects of things, but several unexpected peculiari-
ties and side views, unobserved by any painter but
Homer. Nothing is so surprising as the descriptions
of his battles; which take up no less than half the
Iliad, and are supplied with so vast a variety of inci-
dents, that no one bears a likeness to another; such
dilferent kinds of deaths, that no two heroes are
wounded in the same manner; and such a profusion of
noble ideas, that every battle rises above the last in
greatness, horror, and confusion. It is certain there is
not near that number of images and descriptions in
any epic poet; though every one has assisted himself
with a great (juantity out of him; and it is evident of
Virgil especially, that he has scarce any comparisons
which are not drawn from his master.
If we descend from iience to the expression, wo see
the bright imagination of Homer shining out in tlie
most enlivened forms of it. We acknowledge him the
father of poetical diction; the first who taught that
"language of the gods" to men. His expression is like
the coloring of some great masters, which discovers it-
self to be laid on boldly, and executed with rai)idity.
It is, in<leed, the stroTigost and most glowing imagina-
ble, ami touched with the greatest spirit. Aristotle
had reason to say, he was the only poet who has found
44 PREFACE.
out "living words:" there are in him more daring fig-
ures and metaphors than in any good author whatever.
An arrow is "inii)atient" to be on the wing, a weapon
"thirsts" to drink the blood of an enemy, and the like;
yet his expression is never too big for the sense, but
justly great in proportion to it. It is the sentiment
that swells and tills out the diction, which rises with
it, and forms itself about it; for in the same degree
that a thought is warmer, an expression will be brighter;
as that is more strong, this will become more perspicu-
ous; like glass in the furnace, which grows to a greater
magnitude, and refines to a greater clearness, only as
the breath within is more powerful, and the heat more
intense.
To throw his language more out of prose. Homer
seems to have affected the compound epithets. This
was a sort of composition peculiarly proper to poetry;
not only as it heightened the diction, but as it assisted
and filled the numbers with greater sound and pomp,
and likewise conduced in some measure to thicken the
images. On this last consideration I cannot but attrib-
ute these also to the fruitfulnessof his invention; since
(as he has managed them) they are a sort uf supernu-
merary pictures of the persons or things to which they
were joined. We see the motion of Hector's plumes
in the epithet KopyKpaioXo?^ the landscape of Mount
Neritus in that of EivodBvXXoi^ and so of others; which
particular images could not have been insisted upon so
long as to express them in a description (though but of
a single line) without diverting the reader too much
from the principal action or figure. A§ the metaphor
is a short simile, one of these epithets is a short de-
scription.
Lastly, if we consider his versification, we shall be
sensible what a share of praise is due to his invention
in that also. He was not satisfied with his language as
he found it settled in any one part of Greece, but
searched through its different dialects with this partic-
ular view, to beautify and perfect his numbers: he
considered these as thev had a o-reater mixture of vow-
els or consonants, and accordingly employed them as the
verse required either a greater smoothness or strength.
What he most affected was the Ionic, which has a
peculiar sweetness, from its never using contradictions,
and from its custom of resolving the diphthongs into
PREFACE. 45
two syllables, so as to make the words open themselves
with a more spreading and soncrous fluency. With
this he mingled the Attic contractions, the broader
Doric, and the feebler ^olic, which often rejects its
aspirate, or takes off its accent; and completed this
variety by altering some letters with the license of
poetry. Thus his measures, instead of being fetters to
his sense, were always in readiness to run along with
the warmth of his rapture, and even to give a further
representation of his notions, in the correspondence of
their sounds to what they signified. Out of all these
he had derived that harmony which makes us confess
he had not only tlie richest head, but tlie finest ear in
the world. This is so great a trntli, that whoever will
but consult the tune of his verses, even without under-
standing them (with the same sort of diligence as we
daily see practised in the case of Italian operas), will
find more sweetness, variety, and majesty of sound,
than in any other language of poetry. The beauty of
his numbers is allowed by the critics to be copied but
faintly by Virgil himself, though they are so just as to
ascribe it to the nature of the Latin tongue: indeed
the Greek has some advantages, both from the natural
sound of its words, and the turn and cadence of its
verse, which agree with the genius of no other language.
Virgil was very sensible of this, and used the utmost
diligence in working up a more intractable language to
whatsoever grace it was capable of, and in particular,
never failed to bring the sound of his line to a beauti-
ful agreement with its sense. If the Grecian poet has
not been so fre(|uently celebrated on this account as the
Roman, the only reason is, that fewer critics have un-
derstood one language than the other. Dionysius of
Halicarnassus has pointed out many of our author's
beauties in this kind, in his treatise of the Composition
of AVords. It suflices at present to observe of his num-
bers, that they flow with so much case, as to make one
imagine Homer had no oilier care than to transcribe as
fast as the Muses dictated, and, at the same time, with
so much forf;o and inspii'itiiig vigor, that thoy awaken
and raise us like the sound of a trumjict. They roll
along as a plentiful river, always in motion and always
full; wliile we are borne away by a tide of verso, the
most rapid, and yet the most smooth imaginable.
Thus on whatever side we contemplate Homer, what
46 PREFACE.
principally strikes us is his invention. It is that which
forms the character of each part of his work; and ac-
cordingly we rind it to have made his fahie more exten-
sive and copious than any other, his manners more
lively and strongly marked, his s})eeches more affecting
and transported, his sentiments more warm and snb-
lime, his images and descriptions more full and ani-
mated, his expression more raised and daring, and his
numbers more rapid and various. I hope, in what has
been said of Virgil, with regard to any of these heads,
I have no way derogated from his character. Nothing
is more absurd or endless, than the common method of
comparing eminent writers by an opposition of particu-
lar passages in them, and forming a judgment from
thence of their merit upon the whole. We ought to
have a certain knowledge of the principal character
and distinguishing excellence of each: it is in that we
are to consider him, and in proportion to his degree in
that we are to admire him. No author or man ever
excelled all the world in more than one faculty; and
as Homer has done this in invention, Virgil has in
judgment. Not that we are to tliink that Homer
wanted judgment, because Virgil had it in a more emi-
nent degree; or that Virgil wanted invention, because
Homer possessed a larger share of it; each of these
great authors had more of both than perhaps any man
besides, and are only said to have less in comparison
with one another. Homer was the greater genius,
' Virgil the better artist. In one we most admire the
man, in the other the work. Homer hurries and trans-
ports us with a commanding impetuosity; Virgil leads
us with an attractive majesty; Homer scatters with a
generous profusion; Virgil bestows with a careful mag-
niricence; Homer, like the Nile, pours out of his riches
with a boundless overflow; Virgil, like a river in its
banks, with a gentle and constant stream. When we
behold their battles, methinks the two poets resemble
the heroes they celebrate. Homer, boundless and re-
sistless as Achilles, bears all before him, and shines
more and more as the tumult increases; Virgil, calmly
daring like ^Eneas, appears undisturbed in the midst
of the action; disposes all about him, and conquers
with tranquillity. And when we look upon their ma-
chines. Homer seems lilvC his own Jupiter in his terrors,
shaking Olympus, scattering tlie lightnings, and firing
PREFACE . 47
the heavens: Virgil, like the same power in his benev-
olence, counseling with the gods, laying plans for em-
pires, and regularly ordering his whole creation.
But after all, it is with great parts, as with great vir-
tues, they naturally border on some imperfection; and
it is often hard to distinguish exactly where the virtue
ends, or the fault begins. As prudence may sometimes
sink to suspicion, so may a great judgment decline to
coldness; and as magnanimity may run up to profusion
or extravagance, so may a great invention to redun-
dancy or wildness. If we look upon Homer in this
view, we shall peceive the chief objections against him
to proceed from so noble a cause as the excess of this
faculty.
Among these we may reckon some of his marvelous
fictions, upon which so much criticism has been spent,
as surpassing all the bounds of probability. Perhaps it
may be with great and superior souls, as with gigantic
bodies, which, exerting themselves with unusual
strength, exceed what is commonly thought the due
proportion of parts, to become miracles in the whole;
and, like the old heroes of that make, commit some-
thing near extravagance amid a series of glorious and
inimitable performances. Tiius Homer has his ''speak-
ing horses;" and Virgil his "myrtles distilling blood,"
where the latter has not so much as contrived the easy
intervention of a deity to save the probability.
It is owing to the same vast invention, that his simi-
les have been thought too exuberant and full of cir-
cumstances. The force of this faculty is seen in noth-
ing more, than in its inability to confine itself to that
single circumstance upon which the comparison is
grounded: it runs out into embellishments of addi-
tional images, which, however, are so managed as not
to over[)ower the main one. His similes are like pic-
tures, where the principal figure has not only its pro-
portion given agreeable to the original, but is also set
off with occasional ornaments and prospects. The
same will account for his manner of heajiing a number
of comparisinis together in one breath, when his fancy
suggested to him at once so many various and corre-
spondent images. The reader will easily extend this
observation to more ol)je(!tions of the same kind.
If there are others wliicli seem rather to charge him
with a defect or narrowness of genius, than an excess of
48 . PREFACE.
it, those seemicg defects will be found npon examina-
tion to proceed wholly from the nature of the times he
lived in. Such are his grosser representations of the
gods; and the vicious and imperfect manners of his
heroes, but I must here speak a word of the latter, as
it is a point generally carried into extremes, both by
the censurers and defenders of Homer. It mnst be a
strange partiality to antiquity, to think with Madame
Dacier,* "that those times and manners are so much
the more excellent, as they are more contrary to ours."
Who can be so prejudiced in their favor as to magnify
the felicity of those ages, when a spirit of revenge and
cruelty, joined with the practice of rapine and robbery,
reigned through the world: when no mercy was shown
but for the sake of lucre; when the greatest princes
were put to the sword, and their wives and daughters
made slaves and concubines? On the other side, I
would not be so delicate as those modern critics, who
are shocked at the servile offices and mean employments
in which we sometimes see the heroes of Homer en-
gaged. There is a pleasure in taking a view of that
simplicity, in opposition to the luxury of succeeding
ages: in beholding monarchs without their guards;
princes tending their flocks, and princesses drawing
water from the springs. When we read Homer, we
ought to reflect that we are reading the most ancient
author in the heathen world ; and those who consider
him in this light, will double their pleasure in the pe-
rusal of him. Let them think they are growing ac-
quainted with nations and poeple that are now no more;
that they are stepping almost three thousand years
back into the remotest antiquity, and entertaining
themselves with a clear and surprising vision of things
nowhere else to be found, the only true mirror of that
ancient world. By this means alone their greatest ob-
stacles will vanish; and what usually creates their
dislike, will become a satisfaction.
This consideration may further serve to answer for
the constant use of the same epithets to his gods and
heroes; such as the "far-darting Phcrbus," the "blue-
eyed Pallas," the "swift-footed Achilles," etc., which
some have censured as impertinent, and tediously re-
peated. Those of the gods depended upon the jDowers
* Preface to lier Homer.
PREFACE. 49
and offices then believed to belong to them; and bad
contracted a weight and yeneration from the rites and
solemn devotions in which they were used: they "were
a sort of attributes with which it was a matter of reli-
gion to salnte them on all occasions, and which it was
an irreverence to omit. As for the epithets of great
men, Mons. Boileau is of opinion, that they were in
tbe nature of surnames, and repeated as such; for the
Greeks, having no names derived from their fathers,
were obliged to add some other distinction of each per-
son; either naming his parents expressly, or his place
of birth, profession, or the like: as Alexander the son
of Philip, Herodotus of Halicarnassus, Diogenes the
Cynic, etc. Homer, therefore, complying with the
custom of his country, used such distinctive additions^
as better agreed with poetry. And, indeed, we have
something parallel to these in modern times, such as
the names of Harold Harefoot, Edmund Ironside, Ed-
ward Longshanks, Edward the Black Prince, etc. If
yet this be thought to account better for the propriety
than for the repetition, I shall add a further conjec-
ture. Hesiod, dividing the world into its different
ages, has placed a fourth age, between the brazen and
the iron one, of "heroes distinct from other men; a
divine race who fought at Thebes and Troy, are called
demi-gods, and live by the care of Jupiter in the islands
of the blessed." * Now among the divine honors which
were paid them, they might have this also in common
with the gods, not to be mentioned without the solem-
nity of an epithet, and such as might be acceptable to
them by celebrating their families, actions or qualities.
What other cavils have been raised against Homer
are such as hardly deserve a reply, but will yet be taken
notice of as they occur in the course of the work.
.Many have been occasioned by an injudicious endeavor
to exalt Virgil; which is mucli the same, as if one
should think to raise the superstructure liy undermin-
ing the foundation: one would imagine, by the whole
course of their parallels, tliat these critics never so
much as heard of ilonicr's having written lirst; a con-
sideration wiiich whoever couipares these two poets
ought to have always in his eye. Some accuse him for
the same tilings which they overlook or praise in the
* Hesiod. Opp. et Dier. Lib. I. vers. 155, etc.
50 PREFACE.
Other; as wlien tliey prefer the fable and moral of the
^Eiieis to those of the Iliad, for the same reasons which
might set the Odyssey above the ^neis; as that the
hero is a wiser man, and the action of the one more
beneficial to his country than that of the other; or else
they blame him for not doing what he never designed;
as because Achilles is not as good and perfect a prince
as zEneas, when the very moral of his poem required a
contrary character: it is thus that Eapin judges in his
comparison of Homer and Virgil. Others select those
particular passages of Homer which are not so labored
as some that Virgil drew out of them: this is the whole
management of Scaliger in his Poetics. Others quarrel
wi(h what they take for low and mean expressions,
sometimes through a false delicacy and refinement,
ofteuer from an ignorance of the graces of the original,
and then triumph in the awkwardness of their own
translations: this is the conduct of Perrault in his Par-
allels. Lastly, there are others, who, pretending to a
fairer proceeding, distinguish between the personal
merit of Homer, and that of his work; but when they
come to assign the causes of the great reputation of
the Iliad, they found it upon the ignorance of his
times, and the prejudice of those that followed; and
in pursuance of this principle, they make those acci-
dents (such as the contention of the cities, etc) to be
the causes of his fame, which were in reality the conse-
quences of his merit. The same might as well be said
of Virgil, or any great author whose general character
will infallibly raise many casual additions to their repu-
tation. This is the method of Mens, de la Mott: who
yet confesses upon the whole that in whatever age
Homer had lived, he must have been the greatest poet
of his nation, and that he may be said in his sense to
be the master even of those who surpassed him.
In all these objections we see nothing that contra-
dicts his title to the honor of the chief invention: and
as long as this (which is indeed the characteristic of
poetry itself) remains unequaled by his followers, he still
continues superior to them. A cooler judgment may
commit fewer faults, and be more approved in the eyes
of one sort of critics : but that warmth of fancy will carry
the loudest and most universal applauses which holds
the heart of a reader under the strongest enchantment.
Homer not only appears the inventor of poetry, but
PREFACE. 51
excels all the inventors of other arts, in this, that he
has swallowed up the honor of those who succeeded him.
What he has done admitted no increase, it only left
room for contraction or regulation. He showed all the
stretch of fancy at once; and if he has failed in some
of his flights, it was but because he attempted every-
thing. A work of this kind seems like a mighty tree,
which rises from the most vigorous seed, is improved
with industry, flourishes, and produces the finest fruit;
nature and art conspire to raise it; pleasure and profit
join to make it valuable: and they who find the justest
faults, have only said that a few branches which run
luxuriant through a richness of nature, might be lopped
into form to give it a more regular appearance.
Having now spoken of tlie beauties and defects of
the original, it remains to treat of tlie translation, with
the same view to the chief churacteristic. As far as
that is seen in the main parts of the poem, such as the
fable, manners, and sentiments, no translator can prej-
udice it but by willful omissions or contractions. As it
also breaks out in every particular image, description,
and simile, whoever lessens or too much softens those,
takes off from this chief character. It is the first grand
duty of an interpreter to give his author entire and un-
maimed; and for the rest, the diction and versification
only are his proper province, since these must be his
own, but the others he is to take as he finds them.
It should then be considered what methods may afford
some equivalent in our language for the graces of these
in the (ircek. It is certain no literal translation can
bo just to an excellent original in a superior language:
but it is a great mistake to imagine (as many have done)
that a rash jiaraphrase can make amends for this gen-
eral defect; which is no less in danger to lose tlie spirit
of an ancient, by deviating into the modern manners
of expression. If there be sometimes a darkness, there
is often a light in antiquity, which nothing better pre-
serves than a version almost literal. I know no liber-
ties one ought to take, but those which are necessary
to transfusiiig the spirit of tlio original, ami supporting
the poetical style of tlie translation: and 1 will venture
to say, there have not been more men misled in foi-mer
times by a servilo, dull adherence to the letter, than
have been deludod in ours l)y a chimori(;al, insolent
hope of raising and improving their author. It is not
62 PREFACE.
to be doubted, that the fire of the poem is what a
translator should principally regard, as it is most likely
to expire in his managing: however, it is his safest way
to be content with preserving this to his utmost in the
whole, without endeavoring to be more than he finds
his author is, in any particular place. It is a great
secret in writing, to know when to be plain, and when
poetical and figurative; and it is what Homer will teach
us, if we will but follow modestly in his footsteps.
Where his diction is bold and lofty, let us raise ours as
high as we can; but where his is plain and humble,
we ought not to be deterred from imitating him by the
fear of incurring the censure of a mere English critic.
Nothing that belongs to Homer seems to have been
more commonly mistaken than the just pitch of his
style: some of his translators having swelled into fus-
tian in a proud confidence of the sublime; others sunk
into flatness, in a cold and timorous notion of simplic-
ity. Methinks I see these different followers of Homer,
some sweating and straining after him by violent leaps ,
and bounds (the certain signs of false mettle), others
slowly and servilely creeping in his train, while the
poet himself is all the time proceeding with an unaf-
fected and equal majesty before them. However, of
the two extremes one could sooner pardon frenzy than
frigidity; no author is to be envied for such commen-
dations, as he may gain by that character of style,
which his friends must agree together to call simplicity,
and the rest of the world will call dullness. There is a
graceful and dignified simplicity, as well as a bold and
sordid one; which difEer as much from each other as
the air of a plain man from that of a sloven: it is one
thing to be tricked up, and another not to be dressed
at all. Simplicity is the mean between ostentation
and rusticity.
This pure and noble simplicity is nowhere in such
perfection as in the Scripture and our author. One
may affirm, with all respect to the inspired writings,
that the Divine Spirit made use of no other words but
"what were intelligible and common to men at that time,
and in that part of the world; and, as Homer is the
author nearest to those, his style must of course bear a
greater resemblance to the sacred books than that of
any other writer. This consideration (together with
what has been observed of the parity of some of his
PREFACE. 63
thoughts) may, methiiiks, induce a translator, on the
one hand, to give in to several of those general phrases
and manners of expression, wliicli have attained a ven-
eration even in our hmguage from being used in the
Old Testament; as, on the other, to avoid those which
have been appropriated to the Divinity, and in a man-
ner consigned to mystery and religion.
For a further preservation of this air of simplicity, a
particular care shoukl be taken to express with all
plainness those moral sentences and proverbial speeches
which are so numerous in this poet. They have some-
thing venerable, and as I may say, oracular, in that
unadorned gravity and shortness with which they are
delivered: a grace which would be utterly lost by en-
deavoring to give them what we call a more ingenious
(that is, a more modern ) turn in the paraphrase.
Perhaps the mixture of some Grgecisms and old words
after the manner of Milton, if done without too much
affectation, might not have an ill effect in a version of
this particular work, which most of any other seems to
require a venerable, antique cast. But certainly the
use of modern terms of war and government, such as
"platoon, campaign, junto," or the like (into which
some of his translators have fallen), cannot be allowable;
those only excepted without which it is impossible to
treat the subjects in any living language.
There are two peculiarities in Homer's diction which
are a sort of marks or moles by which every connnoi
eve distinguishes him at first sight; those who are not
his greatest admirers look upon them as defects, and
those who are, seem ])leased with them as beauties. I
speak of his compound epithets, and of liis repetitions.
^lany of the former cannot be done literally into Eng-
lish without destroying the purity of our language. I
believe such should be retained as slide easily of them-
selves into an English compound, without violence to
the ear or to the received rules of composition, as well
as those wliich liave received a sanc^tioii fiom the au-
thority of our best poets, and are become familiar
through their use of them; such as "the cloud-compel-
ling loVe," etc. As for the rest, whenever any can be
as fully and significantly expressed in a single word as
in a compound one, the course to be taken is obvious.
Homo that c;innf)t bo so turned, as to [irescrvo their
full imago by one or two words, may have justice done
54 PREFACE.
them by circumlocution; as the epithet Eiyo6i(pvXkoi
to a mountain, would appear little or ridiculous trans-
lated literally "leaf-shaking," but affords a majestic
idea in the periphrasis: "the lofty mountain shakes
his waving woods." Others that admit of different sig-
nifications, may receive an advantage from a judicious
variation, according to the occasions on which they are
introduced. For example, the epithet of Apollo,
^Ttrj(36Xo'; or "far-shooting," is capable of two expli-
cations; one literal, in respect of the darts and bow,
the ensign of that god; the other allegorical, with re-
gard to the rays of the sun; therefore in such places
where Apollo is represented as a god in person, I would
use the former interpretation; and where the effects
of the sun are described, I would make choice of the
latter. Upon the whole, it will be necessary to avoid
that perpetual repetition of the same epithets which
we find in Homer, and which, though it might be ac-
commodated (as has been already shown) to the ear of
those times, is by no' means so to ours: but one may
wait for opportunities of placing them, where they de-
rive an additional beauty from the occasions on which
they are employed, and in doing tliis properly, a trans-
lator may at once show his fancy and his judgment.
As for Homer's repetitions, we may divide them into
three sorts of whole narrations and speeches, of single
sentences, and of one verse or hemistitch. I hope it is
not impossible to have such a regard to these, as neither
to lose so known a mark of tlie author on the one hand,
nor to offend the reader too much on the other. The
repetition is not ungraceful in those sijeeches where
the dignity of the speaker renders it a sort of insolence
to alter his words; as in the messages from gods to
men, or from higher powers to inferiors in concerns of
state, or where the ceremonial of religion seems to re-
quire it, in the solemn forms of prayers, oaths, or the
like. In other cases, I believe the best rule is, to be
guided by the nearness, or distai:;ce, at which the repe-
titions are placed in the original: when they follow too
close, one may vary the expression; but it is a question,
whether a professed translator be authorized" to omic
any: if they be tedious, the author is to answer for it.
It only remains to speak of the versification. Homer
(as has been said) is perpetually applying the sound to
the sense, and varying it on every new subject. This is
PREFACE. 55
indeed one of the inost exquisite beauties of poetry,
and attainable by A^ery few: I only know of Homer
eminent for it in the Greek, andVirgil in the Latin. I
am sensible it is what may sometimes happen by chance,
when a writer is warm and fully possessed of his image;
however, it may reasonably be believed they _ designed
this, in whose verse it so manifestly appears in a supe-
rior degree to all others. Few readers have the ear to
be judges of it: but those who have, will see I have
endeavored at this beauty.
Upon the whole, I must confess myself utterly inca-
pable of doing justice to Homer. I attempt him in no
other hope but that which one may entertain without
much vanity, of giving a more tolerable copy of him
than any entire translation in verse has yet done. We
have only those of Chapman, Hobbes, and Ogilby.
Chapman has taken the advantage of an immeasurable
length of verse, notwithstanding which, there is scarce
any paraphrase more loose and rambling than his. He
has frequent interpolations of four or six lines; and I
remember one in the thirteenth book of the Odyssey,
ver. 312, where he has spun twenty verses out of two.
He is often mistaken in so bold a manner, that one
migiit think he deviated on purpose, if he did not in
other places of his notes insist so much upon verbal
trifles. He appears to have had a strong affectation of
extracting new meanings out of his author; insomuch
as to promise, in his rhyming preface, a poem of the
mysteries he had revealed in Homer; and perhaps he
endeavored to strain the obvious sense to this end.
His expression is involved in fustian; a fault for which
he was remarkable in his original writings, as in the
tragedy of liussy d'Amboise, etc. In a word, the na-
ture of the man may account for his whole perffU'in-
ance; for he ajjpears, from his preface and remarks, to
have been of an arrogant turn, and an enthusiast in
poetry. His own boast of having linishcd half the
Iliad in less than fifteen weeks, shows witii what negli-
gence his version was performed. J5ut that which is
to bo allowed him, and which very mu(-h contributed
to cover his dofcrts, is a daring fiei-y spii-it that animates
his translation, whicli is something like what one might
imagine Homer himself would have wi'it before Ik! ar-
rived at years of discretion.
Hobbes has given us a correct explanati(jn of the
56 PREFACE.
sense in general; but for particulars and circumstances
he continually lops them, and often omits the most
beautiful. As for its being esteemed a close transla-
tion, I doubt not many have been led into that error
by the shortness of it, which proceeds not from his fol-
lowing the original line by line, but from the contrac-
tions above mentioned. He sometimes omits whole
similes and sentences; and is now and then guilty of
mistakes, into which no writer of his learning could
have fallen, but through carelessness. His poetry, as
well as Ogilby's, is too mean for criticism.
It is a great loss to the poetical world that Mr. Dry-
den did not live to translate the Iliad. He has left us
only the first book, and a small part of the sixth; in
which if he has in some places not truly interpreted
the sense, or preserved the antiquities, it ought to be
excused on account of the haste he was obliged to write
in. He seems to have had too much regard to Chap-
man, Avhose words he sometimes copies, and has unhap-
pily followed him in passages where he wanders from
the original. However, had he translated the whole
work, I would no more have attempted Homer after
him than Virgil: his version of whom (notwithstanding
some human errors) is the most noble and s^jirited
translation I know in any language. But the fate of
great geniuses is like that of great ministers: though
they are confessedly the first in the commonwealth of
letters, they must be envied and calumniated only for
being at the head of it.
That Avhich, in my opinion, ought to be the endeavor
of any one who translates Homer, is above all things to
keep alive that spirit and fire which makes his chief
character in particular places, where the sense can bear
any doubt, to follow the strongest and most poetical,
as most agreeing with that character; to copy him in
all the variations of his style and the modulations of
his numbers; to preserve, in the more active or descrip-
tive parts, a warmth and elevation; in the more sedate
or narrative, a plainness and solemnity; in the speeches
a fullness and perspicuity; in the sentences, a sl^ortness
and gravity; not to neglect even the little figures and
turns on the words, nor sometimes the very cast of the
periods; neither to omit nor confound any rites or cus-
toms of antiquity: perhajis, too, he .ought to include
the whole in a shorter comj^ass than has hitherto been
PREFACE. 57
done by any translator who has tolerably preserved
either the sense or poetry. What I would further rec-
ommend to him is, to study his author rather from his
own text, than from any commentaries, how learned
soever, or whatever figure they may make in the esti-
mation of the world; to consider him attentively in
comparison with Virgil above all the ancients, and with
Milton above all the moderns. Next these, the Arch-
bishDp of Cambray's Telemachus may give him the
truest idea of the spirit and turn of our author; and
Bossu's admirable Treatise of the Epic Poem the just-
est notion of his design and conduct. But after all,
with whatever judgment and study a man may proceed,
or with whatever happiness he may perform such a
work, he must hope to please but a few: those only
who have at once a taste of poetry, and competent
learning. For to satisfy such p, want either, is not in
the nature of this undertaking; since a mere modern
wit can like nothing that is not modern, and a pedant
nothing that is not Greek.
What I have done is submitted to the public; from
whose opinions I am prepared to learn; though I fear
no jndges so little as our best poets, who are most sen-
sible of the weight of this task. As for the worst,
whatever they shall please to say, they may give me
some concern as they are unhappy men, but none as
they are malignant ivriters. I was guided in this trans-
lation by judgments very different from theirs, and by
persons for whom they can have no kindness, if an old
observation be true, that the strongest antipathy in the
world is that of fools to men of wit. Mr. Addison was
the first whoso advice determined me to undertake this
task; who was pleased to write to me upon that occa-
sion in such terms as I cannot repeat without vanity.
I was obliged to Sir Richard Steele for a very early
recommendation of my undertaking to the public.
Dr. Swift promoted my interest with that warmth with
which he always serves his friend. The humanity
and frankness of Sir Samuel Garth are what I never
knew wanting on any occasion. I nnist also acknowl-
edge, with infinite pleasure, the many friendly oHiccs,
as well as sincere criticisms, of Mr. Congreve, who had
led me the way in translating some parts of Homer. I
must add the' names of Mr. Rowe, and Dr. Paniell,
though I shall take a further opportunity of doing jus-
58 PREFACE.
tice to the last, whose good nature (to give it a great
panegyric), is no less extensive than his learning. The
favor of" these gentlemen is not entirely nndeserved by
one who bears them so true an affection. But what
can I say of the honor so many of the great have done
me, while the first names of the age appear as my sub-
scribers, and the most distinguished patrons and orna-
ments of learning as my chief encouragers? Among
these it is a particular pleasure to me to find, that my
highest obligations are to such who have done most
honor to the name of poet: that his grace the Duke of
Buckingham was not displeased I should undertake the
author to whom he has given (in his excellent Essay)
so complete a praise:
" Read Homer once, and you can read no more;
For all books else appear so mean, so poor.
Verse will seem prose; but still persist to read,
And Homer will be all the books you need."
That the Earl of Halifax was one of the first to favor
me; of whom it is hard to say whether the advancement
of the polite arts is more owing to his generosity or his
example: that such a genius as my Lord Bolingbroke,
not more distinguished in the great scenes of business,
than in all the useful and entertaining parts of learn-
ing, has not refused to be the critic of these sheets,
and the patron of their writer: and that the noble
author of the tragedy of "Heroic Love" has continued
his partiality to me, from my writing pastorals to my
attempting the Iliad. I cannot deny myself the pride
of confessing, that I have had the advantage not only
of their advice for the conduct in general, but their
correction of several particulars of this translation.
I could say a great deal of the pleasure of being dis-
tinguished by the Earl of Carnarvon; but it is almost
absurd to particularize any one generous action in a
person whose whole life is a continued series of them.
Mr. Stanhope, the present secretary of state, will par-
don my desire of having it known that he was pleased
to promote this a^air. The particular zeal of Mr. Har-
court (the son of the late Lord Chancellor) gave me a
proof how much I am honored in a share of his friend-
ship. I must attribute to the same motive that of sev-
eral others of my friends : to whom all acknowledgments
are rendered unnecessary by the privileges of a familiar
PREFACE. 69
correspondence; and I am satisfied I can no way better
oblige men of tlieir turn than by my silence.
In short, I have found more patrons than ever Homer
wanteL He would have thought himself happy to
have met the same favor at Athens that has been shown
me by its learned rival, the University of Oxford. And
I can hardly envy him those pompous honors he re-
ceived after death, when I reflect on the enjoyment of
so many agreeable obligations, and easy friendships,
which make the satisfaction of life. This distinction
is the more to be acknowledged, as it is shown to one
whose pen has never gratified the prejudices of particu-
lar parties, or the vanities of particular men. What-
ever the success may prove, I shall never repent of an
undertaking in which I have experienced the candor
and friendship of so many persons of merit; and in
which I hope to pass some of those years of youth that
are generally lost in a circle of follies, after a manner
neither wholly uuuseful to others nor disagreeable to
myself.
THE ILIAD.
BOOK I.
AEGUMENT.*
THE CONTENTION OF ACHILLES AND AGAMEMNON.
In the war of Troy, the Greeks Laving sacked some of the neigh-
boring towns, and taken from thence two beautiful captives,
Chryseis and BriseTs, allotted the first to Agamemnon, and
the last to Achilles. Chryses, the father of Chryseis, and
priest of Apollo, comes to the Grecian camp to ransom her:
with which the action of the poem opens, in the tenth year
of the siege. The priest being refused, and insolently dis-
missed by Agamemnon, entreats for vengeance from his god;
who inflicts a pestilence on the Greeks. Achilles calls a
council, and encourages Chalcas to declare the cause of it;
who attributes it to tlie refusal of Chryseis. The king, being
obliged to send back his captive, enters into a furious contest
with Achilles, which Nestor pacifies; however, as he had the
absolute command of the army, he seizes on Briseis in re-
venge. Achilles in discontent withdraws himself and his
forces from the rest of the Greeks; and complaining to
Thetis, she supplicates Jupiter to render them sensible of the
wrong don(! to her son, by giving victory to the Trojans.
Jupiter, granting her suit, incenses Juno; between whom the
debate runs high, till they are reconciled by the address of
Vulcan.
The time of twoand-twenty days is taken up in this book;
nine during the plague, one in tin? council and quarrel of the
princes, and twelve for Jui)iter's slay with the ^Tjthiopians,
at wliose return Thetis prefers her jietition. The scene lies
in the Grecian camp, then changes to C'hrysa, and lastly to
Olympus.
Achilles' wrath, to Greece the direful spring
Of woes uiinuniber'd, hctiveiily goddess, sing!
'i'liut wrath which liui'lod to I'lnto's gloomy reign
Tlio rioiiLs of niiglity chief.s iintiiiicly whiiii;
*The following argument of the Iliad, corrected in a few par-
ticulars, is translated from Bitaul)e, and is, ])erhapB, the neatest
summary tliat lias l>een ever drawn up. " A hero, injured by
bis general, and animated with u noblt* resentment, retires to his
tent; and for a Heason witlidraws liimself and his troops from the
62 THE ILIAD.
Whose limbs unbtiried on the naked shore,
Devouring dogs and hungry vultures tore:*
Since great Achilles and Atrides strove,
Such was the sovereign doom, and such the will of
Jove! f
Declare, Muse! in what ill-fated hour J
Sprung the fierce strife, from what offended power
Latona's son a dire contagion spread, §
And heap'd the camp with mountains of the dead:
The king of men his reverent priest defied, ||
And for the king's offense the people died.
For Chryses sought with costly gifts to gain
His captive daughter from the victor's chain.
war. During this interval, victory abandons the army, wbicli for
nine years has been occupied in a great enterprise, upon the suc-
cessful termination of wliich the honor of their country depends.
The general, at length opening his eyes to the fault which he had
committed, deputes the principal officers of his army to the in-
censed hero, with commission to make compensation for the
injury, and to tender magnificent presents. The hero, according
to the proud obstinacy of his character, persists in his animosity;
the army is again defeated, and is cm the verge of entire destruc-
tion. This inexorable man has a friend; this friend weeps before
him, and asks for the hero's arms, and for permission to goto the
war in his stead. The eloquence of friendship prevails more than
the intercession of the ambassadors or the gifts of the general.
He lends his armor to his friend, but commands him not to engage
with the chief of the enemy's army, because he reserves to him-
self the honor of that combat, and because he -also fears for his
friend's life. The prohibition is forgotten; the friend listens to
nothing but his courage; his corpse is brought back to the hero,
and the hero's arms become the prize of the conqueror. Then the
hero, given up to the most lively despair, prepares to fight; he
receives from a divinity new armor; is reconciled with his general;
and, thirsting for glory and revenge, enacts prodigies of valor;
recovers the victory; slays the enemy's chief; honors his friend with
superb funeral rites; and exercises a cruel vengeance on the body
of his destroyer; but finally, appeased by the tears and prayers of
the father of the slain warrior, restores to the old man the corpse
of his son, which he buries with due solemnities." — Coleridge,
p. 177, sqq,
* Vultures. Pope is more accurate than the poet he translates;
for Homer writes " a prey to dogs and to all kinds of birds." But
all kinds of birds are not carnivorous.
\ I. e. during the whole time of their striving the will of Jove
was being gradually accomplished.
X Compare Milton's " Paradise Lost," i. G:
" Sing, heavenly Muse, that on the sacred top
Of Horeb, or of Sinai, didst inspire
That shepherd."
% Latona's son: i. e. Apollo. \ Kinf/ of men: Agamemnon.
THE ILIAD. 63
Suppliant the venerable father stands;
Apollo's awful ensigns grace his hands:
By these he begs; and lowly bending down,
Extends the scepter and the laurel crown.
He sued to all, but chief implored for grace
The brother-kings, of Atreus' royal race.*
"Ye kings and warriors! may yonr vows be crowned
And Troy's proud walls lie level with the ground.
May Jove restore you when your toils are o'er
— Safe to the pleasures of your native shore.
But, oh! relieve a wretched parent's pain,
And give Chryseis to tiiese ar]ns again;
If mercy fail, yet let my presents move,
And dread avenging Phoebus, son of Jove."
The Greeks in shouts their joint asseut declare,
The priest to reverence, and release the fair.
Not so Atrides: he, with kingly pride.
Repulsed the sacred sire, and thus replied:
"Hence on thy life, and tly these hostile plains,
Nor ask, presumptuous, what the king detains:
Hence, with thy laurel crown, and golden rod;
Nor trust too far those ensigns of thy god.
Mine is thy daughter, priest, and shall remain;
And prayers, and tears, and bribes, shall plead in vain
Till time shall rifle every youthful grace.
And age dismiss her froiji my cold embrace.
In daily labors of the loom employ'd.
Or doom'd to deck the bed she once enjoy'd.
Hence then; to Argos shall the maid retire,
Far from her native soil or weeping sire."
Tlio tromljling priest along tlie shore returned.
And in the anguish of a father mourn'd.
Disconsolate, not daring to com])lain.
Silent he wander'd by the souiuling main;
Till, safe at distance, to his god lie prays,
The god who darts arouiul the world his rays.
"0 Smintheus! sprung from fair Latona's line,f
* Urother kinr/x: Meiieliiiis and Afi^'aniciiinon.
\ Smintlujis, an ei)itliot tal<<>n l'ri)rn 6jii'yOo?, the Phrygian
name for a mouse, was a])|)linil to Apullii inr liavinf^ put an end to
a plague of mice wLicli liad harassed tliat territory. Strabo,
however, Hays, that when the Teiicri were migrating from Crete
they were tohi i)y an orach^ to settle in tliat phice, where tliey
shouhl not be attacked by the original inlialjitants of the bind,
and thnt, having halted fur tlu! night, a numljer of (icbl-niico
64 ^ THE ILIAD.
"J'hou guardian power of Cilia the divine,*
Thou source of light! whom Tenedos adores,
And whose bright presence gilds thy Ohrysa's shores
If e'er with wreaths I hung thy sacred fane,f
Or fed the flames with fat of oxen slain;
God of the silver bow! thy shafts employ,
Evenge thy servant, and the Greeks destroy."
Thus Ohryses pray'd:— the favoring power attends.
And from Olympus' lofty tops descends.
Bent was his bow, the Grecian hearts to wound; J
Fierce as he moved, his silver shafts resound.
Breathing revenge, a sudden night he spread,
And gloomy darkness roU'd about his head.
The fleet in view, he twang'd his deadly bow,
And hissing fly the feather'd fates below.
On mules and dogs the infection first began ;§
came and gnawed away the leatbern straps of their baggage, and
thongs of their armor. In fiilfilhnent of the oracle, they settled
on the spot, and raised a temple to Sminthean Apollo. Grote,
" History of (Treece," i. p. 68, remarks that the " worship of
Sminthean Apollo, in various parts of the Troad and its neighbor-
ing territory, dates before the earliest period of ^Eolian coloniza-
tion."
* Cilia, a town of Troas near Thebe, so called from Cillus, a
sister of Hippodaniia, slain by (Enomaus.
f x\ mistake. It should be,
" If e'er I roofed thy graceful fane."
for the custom of decorating temples with garlands was of later
date.
X Bent teas 7iis bow. " The Apollo of Homer, it must be borne
in mind, is a different character from the deity of the same name
in the later classical pantheon. Throughout both poems, all
deaths from unforeseen or invisible causes, the ravages of pesti-
lence, the fate of the young child or promising adult, cut off in
the germ of infancy or flower of youth, of the old man dropping
peacefully into the grave, or of the reckless sinner suddenly
checked in his career of crime, are ascribed to the arrows of
Apollo or Diana. The oracular functions of the god rose naturally
out of the above fundamental attributes; for who could more ap-
propriately impart to mortals what little foreknowledge Fate per-
mitted of her decrees than the agent of her most awful dispensa-
tions ? The close union of the arts of prophecy and song explains
his additional office of god of music, while tbearrows with which
he and his sister were armed, symbols of sudden death in every
age, no less naturally procured him that of god of archery. Of
any connection between Apollo and the Sun, whatever may have
exi.sted in the more esoteric doctrine of the Greek sanctuaries,
tliere is no trace in either Iliad or Odyssey."— Mure, " History of
Greek Literature," vol. i. p. 478, sq.
§ It has frequently been observed, that most pestilence begins
with animals, and that Homer had this fact in mind.
THE ILIAD. 65
And last, the vengeful arrows fix'd in man.
For nine long nights, through all the dusky air,
The pyres, thick-flaming, shot a dismal glare.
But ere the tenth revolving day was run,
Inspired by Juno, Thetis' godlike son
Convened to council all the Grecian train;
For much the goddess mourn'd her heroes slain.*
The assembly seated, rising o'er the rest,
Achilles thus the king of men address'd:
"Why leave we not the fatal Trojan shore.
And measure back the seas we cross'd before?
The plague destroying wliom the sword would spare.
'Tis time to save the few remains of war.
But let some prophet, or some sacred sage.
Explore the cause of great Apollo's rage;
Or learn the wasteful vengeance to remove
By mystic dreams, for dreams descend from Jove.f
If broken vows'this heavy curse have laid,
Let altars smoke, and hecatombs be paid.
So Heaven, atoned, shall dying Greee restore.
And Phfjebus dart his burning shafts no more."
He said and sat: when Chalcas thus replied;
Chalcas the wise, the Grecian priest and guide,
That sacred seer, whose comprehensive view,
The past, the present, and the future knew:
Uprising slow, the venerable sage
Thus spoke the prudence and the fears of age:
"Beloved of Jove, AchillesI would'st thou know
Why angry Pha-bus bends his fatal bow?
First give tliy faith, and plight a prince's word
Of sure protection, by thy power and sword:
For I must speak what wisdom would conceal,
And truths, invidious to the great, reveal.
Bold is the task, when subjects, grown too wise,
Instruct a monarch where his error lies;
* Convenfd to coiniril. Tlio pul)lic assembly in tlie heroic
times is well characterized by CJrote, vol. ii. p. 92: " It is an as-
sembly for talk. Communication and discussion, to a certain ex-
tent by the chiefs in person, of the people as listeners and symjja-
thizers — often for elo(|uence, and sometimes for quarrel — but here
its ostensible y)tirposes ends."
fold Jacob Dupfyrt, whose " (Jnoniolopia Ilomerica " is full of
curious and us<'ful tliiiifrs, f|uotes several jiassa^es of the ancients,
in which reference is made to these words of Iloujer, in main-
tenance of the belief that dreams bad a divine origin and an im-
port in which men were interested.
66 THE ILIAD.
For thougli wc deem the short-lived fnry past,
'Tis sure the mighty will revenge at last."
To wliom Pelides:— "From thy inmost soul
Speak what thon know'st, and speak without control.
E'en by that god I swear who rules the day,
To whom thy hands the vows of Greece convey,
And whose bless'd oracles thy lips declare;
Long as Achilles breathes this vital air,
No daring Greek, of all the numerous band,
Against his priest shall lift an impious hand;
Not e'en the chief by whonj our hosts are led.
The king of kings, shall touch that sacred head."
Encouraged thus, the blameless man replies:
"Nor vows unpaid, nor slighted sacrifice.
But he, our chief, provoked the raging pest,
Apollo's vengeance for his injured priest.
Nor will the god's awaken 'd fury cease.
But plagues shall sjiread, and funeral fires increase.
Till the great king, without a ransom paid,
To her own Chrysa send the black-eyed maid.*
Perhaps, with added sacrifice and prayer.
The priest may pardon, and the god may spare."
The prophet spoke: when with a gloomy frown
The monarch started from his shining throne;
Black choler fili'd his breast that boil'd with ire,
And from his eyeballs flash'd the living fire:
"Augur accursed! denouncing mischief still,
Prophet of plagues, forever boding ill!
Still must that tongue some wounding message bring,
And still thy priestly pride provoke thy king?
For this are Phoebus' oracles explored.
To teach the Greeks to murmur at their lord?
For this with falsehood is my honor stained,
Is heaven offendjed, and a priest profaned;
Because my prize, my beauteous maid, I hold,
And heavenly charms prefer to profEer'd gold?
A maid unmatch'd in manners as in face,
Skill'd in each art, and crown'd with every grace;
Not half so dear were Clytremnestra's charms,
When first her blooming beauties bless'd my arms.
Yet, if the gods demand her, let her sail;
Our cares are only for the public weal:
Let me be deem'd the hateful cause of all,
And suffer, rather than my people fall.
* Rather, " briglit-eyed " See tlie German critics quoted by
Arnold.
THE ILIAD. 67
The prize, the beauteons prize, I will resign,
So dearly valued, and so justly mine.
But since for common good I yield the fair.
My private loss let grateful Greece repair;
Nor unrewarded let your prince complain.
That he alone has fonght and bled in vain."
"Insatiate king (Achilles thus replies),
Fond of the power, but fonder of the prize!
Would'st thou the Greeks their lawful prey shonld
yield.
The due reward of many a well-fought field?
The spoils of cities razed and warriors slain,
We share with justice, as with toil we gain;
But to resume whate'er thy avarice craves
(That trick of tyrants) may be borne by slaves.
Yet if our chief for plunder only fight,
The spoils of Ilion shall thy loss requite.
Whene'er, by Jove's decree, our conquering powers
Shall humble to the dust her lofty towers."
Then thus the king: "Shall I my prize resign
With tame content, and thou possess'd of thine?
Great as thou art, and like a god in fight.
Think not to rob me of a soldier's right.
At thy demand shall I restore the maid:
First let the just equivalent be paid;
Such as a king might ask; and let it be
A treasure worthy her, and worthy me.
Or grant me this, or with a monarch's claim
This hand shall seize some other captive dame.
The mighty Ajax shall his prize resign;*
Ulysses' spoils, or even thy own, be mine.
The man who suffers, loudly nuiy complain;
And rage he may, but he shall rage in vain.
But this when time requires. — It now remains
We launch a bark to plow the watery plains,
And waft the sacrifice to Clirysa's shores.
With chosen pilots, and with laboring oars.
Soon shall the fair the sable ship ascend,
An<] some deputed prince the charge attend:
This Greta's king, or Ajax shall fulfill,
Or wise Ulysses see performed our will;
Or, if our royal pleasure shall ordain,
A<;liilles' self conduct her o'er the main;
* The prize given to Ajax was Tecinewsa, while Ulysses received
Liiodice, the daughter of Cycuus,
G8 THE ILIAD.
Let fierce Achilles, dreadful in his rage,
The god propitiate, and the pest assuage."
At this, Pelides, frowning stern, replied:
"0 tyrant, arm'd with insolence and pride!
Inglorious slave to interest, ever join'd
With fraud, unworthy of a royal mind!
What generous Greek, obedient to thy word,
Shall form an amhush, or shall lift the sword?
What cause have I to war at thy decree?
The distant Trojans never injured me;
To Pythia's realms no hostile troops they led:
Safe in her vales my warlike coursers fed;
Far hence removed, the hoarse-resounding main,
And walls of rocks, secure my native reign,
Whose fruitful soil luxuriant harvests grace,
Rich in her fruits, and in her martial race.
Hither we sail'd, a voluntary throng,
To avenge a private, not a public wrong:
What else to Troy the assembled nations draws,
But thine^ ungrateful, and thy brother's cause?
Is this the pay our blood and toils deserve;
Disgraced and injured by the man we serve?
And darest thou threat to snatch my prize away,
Due to the deeds of many a dreadful day?
A prize as small, tyrant! match'd with thine,
As thy own actions if compared to mine.
Thine in each conquest is the wealthy prey,
Th nigh mine the sweat and danger of the day.
Some trivial present to my shipsi bear:
Or barren praises pay the wounds of war.
But now, proud monarch, I'm thy slave no more;
My fleet shall waft me to Thessalia's shore:
Left by Achilles on the Trojan plain,
Wliat spoils, what conquests, shall Atrides gain?'*
To this the king: "Fly, mightv warriors, fly!
Thy aid we need not, and thy threats defy.
There want not chiefs in such a cause to fight,
And Jove himself shall guard a monarch's right.
Of all the kings (the god's distinguish'd care)
To power superior none such hatred bear;
Strife and debate thy restless soul employ,
And wars and horrors are thy savage joy.
If thou hast strength, 'twas Ileaven'that strength be-
stow'd
For know, vain man! thy valor is from God.
THE ILIAD. 69
Haste, launch thy vessels, fly with speed away;
Eule thy own realms with arbitrary sway;
I heed thee not, but prize at equal rate
Thy siiort-lived friendship, and thy groundless hate.
Go, threat thy earth-born Myrmidons: — but here*
'Tis mine to threaten, prince, and thine to fear.
Know, if the god the beauteous dame demand,
My hark shall waft her to her native land;
But then prepare, imperious prince! prepare,
Fierce as thou art, to yield thy captive fair:
Even in thy tent I'll seize the blooming prize,
Thy loved Briseis with the radiant eyes.
Hence shalt thou prove my might, and curse the hour
Thou stood'st a rival of imperial power;
And hence, to all our hosts it shall be known,
That kings are subject to the gods alone."
Achilles heard, with grief and rage oppress'd,
Ilis heart swell'd high, and labor'd in his breast;
J)istracting thoughts by turns his bosom ruled;
Now fired by wratli, and now by reason cool'd:
That ])ronipts his hand to draw the deadly sword.
Force through the Greeks, and pierce their haughty
lord ;
Tliis whispers soft his vengeance to control,
And calm the rising tempest of his soul.
Just as in anguish of suspense he stay'd,
While half unsheathed appear'd the glittering blade, f
* The Myrmidons dwelt on the southern borders of Thessaly,
and took their oriirin from Myrmido, son of Jupiter and Euryme-
dusa. It is fancifully siiiyjiosed that the name was derived from
//up//?/!, an aiit, " because they imitated the diligence of the
ants, and like them were indefatigable, continually employed in
cultivating the earth; the change from ants to men is founded
merely on the equivocation of their name, which resembles tiiat
of tlie ant: they bore a further resemblance to these little
aniniitls, in that instead of inhabiting towns or villages, at first
they commonly resided in the oi)en fields, having nootherretrcats
but dens and tlie cavities of trees, until Ithacus brought them to-
gether, and settled them in more secure and comfortable habita-
tions." — Anthon's " Lempriere."
f Eustatbius, after Ileraclides Ponticus and others, allegorizes
this api)arilion, as if tlie apjiearance of Minerva to Achilles, un-
seen by tlMf rest, was inti-ndcd to point out th(! sudden recollection
that he would gain notiiing by intemj)erate wrath, and that it were
Ijest to n-.'itrain bis anger, and only gratify it by withdrawing his
service.s. Tlie same idea is rather cleverly worked out by
Apuleius, " De Deo Socratis."
•JO THE ILIAD.
Minerva swift descended from above,
Sent by tlie sister and the wife of Jove
(For both the princes chiim'd her equal care);
Bebind she stood, and by the goklen hair
Achilles seized; to him alone confess'd;
A sable cloud concealed her from the rest.
He sees, and sudden to the goddess cries,
Known by the flames that sparkle from her eyes:
"Descends Minerva, in her guardian care,
A heavenly witness of the wrongs I bear
From Atreus' son? — Then let those eyes that view
The daring crime, behold the vengeance too."
"Forbear (the progeny of Jove replies),
To calm thy fury I forsake the skies:
Let great Achilles, to the gods resign'd.
To reason yield the empire o'er his mind.
By awful Juno this command is given:
The king and you are both the care of heaven.
The force of keen reproaches let him feel;
But sheathe, obedient, thy revenging steel.
For I pronounce (and trust a heavenly power)
Thy injured honor has its fated hour.
When the proud monarch shall thy arms implore,
And bribe thy friendship with a boundless store.
Then let revenge no longer bear the sway;
Command thy passions, and the gods obey."
To her Pelides: — "With regardful ear,
'Tis just, goddess! I thy dictates hear.
Hard as it is, my vengeance I suppress:
Those who revere the gods the gods will bless."
He said, observant of the bine-eyed maid:
Then in the sheath return'd the shining blade.
The goddess swift to high Olympus flies.
And joins the sacred senate of the skies.
Nor yet the rage his boiling breast forsook,
Which thus redoubling on Atrides broke:
"0 monster! mix'd of insolence and fear,
Thou dog in forehead, but in heart a deer!
When wert thou known in ambush'd fights to dare,
Or nobly face, the horrid front of Avar?
Tis ours, the chance of fighting fields to try;
Thine tu look on, and bid the valiant die:
So much 'tis safer through the camp to go,
And rob a subject, than despoil a foe.
THE ILIAD. 71
Scourge of thy people, violent and base!
Sent in Jove's anger on a slavish race;
Who, lost to sense of generous freedom past,
Are tamed to wrongs; — or this had been thy last.
Now by this sacred scepter hear me swear,
Which'never more shall leaves or blossoms bear,
Which sever'd from the trunk (as I from thee)
On the bare mountains left its parent tree;
This scepter, foi-m'd by temper'd steel to prove
An ensign of the delegates of Jove,
From whom the power of laws and justice springs
(Tremendous oath! inviolate to kings);
By this I swear:— when bleeding Greece again
Shall call Achilles, she shall call in vain.
When, flush'd with slaughter. Hector comes to spread
The purpled shore with mountains of the dead,
Then shalt thou mourn the affront thy madness gave,
Forced to implore when impotent to save:
Then rage in bitterness of soul to know
This act has made the bravest Greek thy foe."
He spoke; and furious hurl'd against the ground
His scepter starr'd with golden studs around:
Then sternly silent sat. With like disdain
The raging king return'd his frowns again.
To calm their passion with the words of age,
Slow from his seat arose the Pylian sage,
Experienced Xestor, in persuasion skill'd:
Words, sweet as honey, from his lips distill'd:*
Two generations now had pass'd away.
Wise by his rules, and happy by his sway;
Two ages o'er his native realm he reign'd,
An<l now the example of the tliird reniain'd.
All view'd with awe the venerable man;
Who thus with mild benevolence began: —
"What shame, wliat woe is this to Greecel what joy
To Troy's proud monarch, and the friends of Troy!
That adverse gods commit to stern debate
The best, the bravest, of the Grecian state.
Young as ye are, this youthful heat restrain.
Nor think your Nestor's years and wisdom vain.
* Compare Milton, " Paradise Lost," bk. ii. :
" Tliougb bis tongue
Dropp'd manna."
So Proverbs, v. 'd, " For tbe lips of a strange woman drop as an
honeycomb."
72 THE ILIAD.
A godlike race of heroes once I knew,
Such as no more these aged eyes sliall view!
Lives tliere a chief to match Pirithous' fame,
Dryas the bold, or Ceneus' deathless name;
Theseus, endued witii more than mortal might,
Or Polyphemus, like the gods in fight?
AVith these of old, to toils of battle bred.
In early youth my hardy days I led;
Fired with the thirst which virtuous envy breeds,
And sniit witli love of honorable deeds.
Strongest of men, they pierced the mountain boar,
Ranged the wild deserts red with monsters' gore,
And from their hills the shaggy Centaurs tore:
Yet these with soft persuasive arts I sway'd;
When Nestor spoke, they listeu'd and obey'd.
If in my youth, even these esteem'd me wise;
Do you, young warriors, hear my age advise.
Atrides, seize not on the beauteous slave;
That prize the Greeks by common suffrage gave:
Nor thou, Achilles, treat our prince with pride;
Let kings bo just, and sovereign power preside.
Thee the first honors of the war adorn,
Like gods in strength, and of a goddess born;
Him awful majesty exalts above
The powers of earth, and sceptred sons of Jove.
Let both unite with well-consenting mind,
So shall authority with strength be join'd.
Leave me, king! to calm Achilles' rage;
Rule thou thyself, as more advanced in age.
Forbid it, gods! Achilles should be lost.
The pride of Greece, and bulwark of our host."
This said, he ceased. The king of men replies:
"Thy years are awful, and thy words are wise.
But that imperious, that unconquer'd soul,
No laws can limit, no respect control.
Before his pride must his superiors fall;
His word the law, and he the lord of all?
Him must our hosts, our chiefs, ourself obey?
What king can bear a rival in his sway?
Grant that the gods his matchless force have given,
Has foul reproach a privilege from heaven?" —
Here on the monarch's speech Achilles broke,
And furious, thus, and interrupting spoke;
"Tyrant, I well deserved thy galling chain.
To live thy slave, and still to serve in vain.
TEE ILIAD. 73
Should I submit to each unjust decree: —
Command thy vassals, but command not me.
Seize on Briseis, whom the Grecians doom'd
My prize of war, yet tamely see resumed;
And seize secure; no more Achilles draws
His conquering sword in any woman's cause.
The gods command me to forgive the past:
But let this first invasion be the last:
For know, thy blood, when next thou darest invade,
Shall stream m vengeance on my reeking blade."
At this they ceased: the stern debate expired;
The chiefs in sullen majesty retired.
Achilles with Patroclus took his way
Where near his tents his hollow vessels lay.
Meantime Atrides launch'd with numerous oars
A well-rigg'd ship for Chrysa's sacred shores;
High on thti deck was fair Chrysei's placed.
And sage Ulysses with the conduct graced;
Safe in her sides the hecatomb they stow'd.
Then swiftly sailing, cut the liquid road.
The host to expiate next the king prepares.
With pure lustrations, and with solemn prayers.
Wash'd by the briny wave, the pious train*
Are cleansed; and cast the ablutions in the main.
Along the shore whole hecatombs were laid.
And bulls and goats to Phoebus' altars paid;
The sable fumes in curling spires arise,
And waft tlieir grateful odors to the skies.
The army thus in sacred rites engaged,
Atrides still with deep resentmeiit raged.
To wait his will two sacred iieralds stood,
Talthybius and Eurybates the good.
"Haste to the fierce Achilles' tent (he cries),
Thence bear Briseis as our royal prize;
Submit he must; or if they will not part,
Ourself in arms shall tear her from his heart."
The unwilling heralds act their lord's commands,
Pensive they walk along the barren sands;
Arrived, the hero in his tent they find,
With gloomy aspect on liis arm reclined.
*Salt water was cbiefly used in lustrations, from its being sup-
posed to possess certain fiery ])articles. Hence, if sea-water could
i»r)t be ol»tained, sail was tlirown into tlie fresli water to Ije iis«<l
for lustration. Menar.der in Clem. Alex. vii. p. 713, vdart
iTf(j fjtpdvat, fitfi(xXwv aXa'i, (pctnoii.
n
4 THE ILIAD.
At awfnl distance long they silent stand,
Loath to advance, and speak their hard command;
Decent confusion! Tliis the godlike man
Perceived and thus with accent mild began:
*'With leave and honor enter our abodes.
Ye sacred ministers of men and gods!*
I know your message; by constraint you came;
Not you, but your imperious lord I blame.
Patroclus, haste, the fair BriseTs bring;
Conduct my captive to the haughty king.
But witness, heralds, and proclaim my vow,
Witness to gods above, and men below !
But first, and loudest, to your prince declare
(That lawless tyrant whose commands you bear),
Unmoved as death Achilles shall remain,
Though prostrate Greece shall bleed at every vein;
The raging chief in frantic passion lost,
Blind to himself, and useless to his host,
Unskill'd to judge the future by the past.
In blood and slaughter shall repent at last.'
Patroclus now the unwilling beauty brought;
She, in soft sorrows, and in pensive thought,
Pass'd silent, as the heralds held her hand.
And oft look'd back, slow-moving o'er the strand.
Not so his loss the fierce Achilles bore;
But sad, retiring to the sounding shore.
O'er the wild margin of the deep he hung.
That kindred deep from whence his mother sprung ;f
There bathed in tears of anger and disdain,
Thus loud lamented to the stormy main:
*The persons of heralds were held inviolable, and they were at
liberty to travel whither they would without fear of molestation.
Pollux, Onom. viii. p. 159. The office was generally given to old
men, and they were believed to be under the especial protection
of Jove and Mercury.
f His mother, Thetis, the daughter of Nereus and Doris, who
was courted by Neptune and Jupiter. When, however, it was
known that the son to whom she would give birth must prove
greater than his fath(;r, it was determined to wed her to a mortal,
and Peleus, with great difficulty, succeeded in obtaining her
hand, as she eluded him by assuming various forms. Her
children were all destroyed by fire through her attempts to see
whether they were immortal, and Achilles would have shared
the same fate had not his father rescued him. She afterwards
rendered him invulnerable by plunging him into tlie waters of
the Styx, with the exception of that part of the lieel by which she
held him. Ilygin. Fab. 54.
THE ILIAD. 75
"0 parent goddess! since in early bloom
Thy son mnst fall, by too severe a doom;
Sure to so short a race of glory born,
Great Jove in justice should this span adorn:
Honor and fame at least the thuuderer owed;
And ill he pays the promise of a god,
If yon proud monarch thus thy son defies,
Obscures my glories, and resumes my prize."
Far from the deep recesses of the main.
Where aged Ocean holds his watery reign.
The goddess-mother heard. The waves divide;
And like a mist she rose above the tide;
Beheld him mourning on the naked shores,
And thus the sorrows of his soul explores.
"Why grieves my son? Thy anguish let me share;
Reveal the cause, and trust a parent's care."
He deeply sighing said: "To tell my woe
Is but to mention what too well you know.
, From Thebe, sacred to Apollo's name*
(Action's realm), our conquering army came,
With treasure loaded and triumphant spoils.
Whoso just division crown'd the soldier's toils;
Bat bright ChryseTs, heavenly prize! was led,
By vote selected, to the general's bed.
The priest of Phoebus sought by gifts to gain
His beauteous daughter from the victor's chain;
The fleet he reach'd, and, lowly bending down,
Held f(jrth the scepter and the laurel crown,
Intreating all; but chief implored for grace
The brother-kings of Atreus' royal race:
The generous Greeks their joint consent declare,
The priest to reverence, and release the fair;
Not so Atrides: he, with wonted pride.
The sire insulted, and his gifts denied:
The insulted sire (his god's peculiar care)
To Phojbus pray'd, and Thoibus heard the prayer;
A dreadful plague ensues: the avenging darts
Incessant fly, and pierce the Grecian hearts.
A pro])het then, inspired by heaven, arose,
And points the crime, and tiien(;e derives the woes:
Myself the first the assembled chiefs incline
To avert the vengeance of the power divine;
Then rising in his wrath, the monarch storm'd;
Incensed ho threatcn'd, and his threats porforni'd:
* Thebe was a city of Mysia, north of Adraiiiytiiiiin.
76 THE ILIAD.
The fair Chryseis to her sire was sent,
AVith offer'd gifts to make tiie god relent;
But now he seized Brisei's' heavenly charms,
And of my valor's prize defrauds my arms,
Defrauds the votes of all the Grecian train;*
And service, faith, and justice, plead in vain.
But, goddess! thou thy suppliant son attend.
To high Olympus' shining court ascend,
Urge all the ties to former service owed.
And sue for vengeance to the thundering god.
Oft hast thou triumph'd in the glorious boast.
That thou stood'st forth of all the ethereal host.
When bold rebellion shook the realms above.
The undaunted guard of cloud-compelling Jove;
When the bright partner of his awful reign.
The warlike maid, and monarch of the main,
The traitor-gods, by mad ambition driven.
Durst threat with chains the omnipotence of Heaven,
Then, call'd by thee, the monster Titan came
(Whom gods Briareus, men ^geon name),
Through wondering skies enormous stalk'd along;
Not he that shakes the solid earth so strong:
With giant-pride at Jove's high throne he stands,
And brandish'd round him all his hundred hands:
The affrighted gods confess'd their awful lord,
They dropp'd the fetters, trembled, and adored. f
This, goddess, this to his remembrance call,
Embrace his knees, at his tribunal fall;
Conjure him far to drive the Grecian train.
To hurl them headlong to their fleet and main.
To heap the shores with copious death, and bring
The Greeks to know the curse of such a king:
Let Agamemnon lift his haughty head
O'er all his wide dominion of the dead.
And mourn in blood that e'er he durst disgrace
The boldest warrior of the Grecian race."
"Unhapy son! (fair Thetis thus replies.
While tears celestial trickle from her eyes)
♦That is. defrauds me of the prize allotted me by their votes
_ t Quintus Calaber goes still further in his account of the serv-
ice rendert^d to Jove by Thetis:
" Nay, more, the fetters of Almighty Jove
She loosed."— Dyce's " Calaber," s. 58.
THE ILIAD. 77
Why have I borne thee with a mother's throes
To Fates averse, and nursed for future woes?*
So short a space the light of heaven to view!
So short a space I and fiU'd with sorrow too!
might a parent's careful wish prevail,
Far, far from Ilion should thy vessels sail,
And thou, from camps remote, the danger shun
Which now, alas I too nearly threats my sou.
Yet (what I can) to move thy suit I'll go
To great Olympus crown'd with fleecy snow.
Meantime, secure within thy ships, from far
Behold the field, nor mingle in the war.
The sire of gods and all the ethereal train,
On the warm limits of the farthest main,
Now mix with mortals, nor disdain to grace
The feast of Ethiopia's blameless race;t
Twelve days the powers indulge the genial rite,
Returning with the twelfth revolving light.
Then will I mount the brazen dome, and move
The high tribunal of immortal Jove."
The goddess spoke: the rolling waves unclosed;
Then down the steep she plunged from whence she
rose,
And left him sorrowing on the lonely coast,
In wild resentment for the fair he lost.
* To fates averse. Of tbe gloomy destiny reigning tliroiighout
the Homeric poems, and from which even the gods are not exempt,
Schlegel well observes: " This power extends also to the world
of gods; for the Grecian gods are mere powers of nature; and
although immeasurably higher than mortal man, yet, compared
with infinitude, they are on an equal footing with himself." —
" Lectures on the Drama," v. p. 67.
f It has been observed, that the annual procession of the sacred
ship, so often represented on Egyptian monuments, and the re-
turn of the deity from Ethiopia after some days' absence, serves
to show the Ethiopian origin of Thebes, and of the worship of
Jupiter Amnion. " I think," says Ileeren, after quoting a pas-
sage from Diodorus about the holy ship, " that this procession is
represented in one of the great sculptured reliefs on the temple
of Karnak. The sacred ship of Ammon is on the sliore with its
whole equipment, and is towed along by another boat. It is,
therefore, on its voyage. This must have been one of the most
celebrated festivals, since, even according to the inter7)retation of
antiquity. Homer alludes to it when lie speaks of Jupiter's visit
to the Ethiopians, and his twelve days' aJjsence." — Long,
" Egyi)tiaii .■\nti(iuities," vol. i. y). ()(!. Eustatliius, vol. i. j). 98,
sq. (ed. Basil.) gives tliis interpretation, and likewise an allegori-
cal one, which we will si)are the reader.
78 THE ILIAD.
In Ohrysa's port now sage Ulysses rode;
Beneath the deck the destined victims stow'd:
The sails they furl'd, they lash the mast aside.
And dropp'd their anchors, and the pinnace tied.
Next on the shore their hecatomb they land;
Chryseis last descending on the strand.
Her, thus returning from the farrow'd main,
Ulysses led to Phoebus' sacred fane;
"Where at his solemn altar, as the maid
He gave to Chryses, thus the hero said:
"Hail, reverend priesti to Phoebus' awful dome
A suppliant I from great Atrides come:
Unransom'd, here receive the spotless fair;
Accept the hecatomb the Greeks prepare;
And may thy god who scatters darts around,
Atoned by sacriince, desist to wound." *
At this, the sire embraced the maid again.
So sadly lost, so lately sought in vain.
Then near the altar of the darting king,
Disposed in rank their hecatomb they bring;
With water purify their hands, and take
The sacred offering of the salted cake;
While thus with arms devoutly raised in air,
And solemn voice, the priest directs his prayer;
"God of the silver bow, thy ear incline,
Whose power incircles Cilia tlie divine;
Whose sacred eye thy Tenedos surveys.
And gilds fair Chrysa with distinguished rays!
If, fired to vengeance at thy priest's request.
Thy direful darts inflict the raging pest:
Once more attend! avert the wasteful Avoe,
And smile propitious, and unbend thy bow."
So Chryses pray'd. Apollo heard his prayer:
And now the Greeks their hecatomb prepare;
Between their horns the salted barley threw.
And, with their heads to heaven, the victims slew;t
* Atoned, i. e., reconciled. This is the proper and most natural
meaning of the word, as may be seen from Taylor's remarks in
Calmet's Dictionary, p. 110, of my edition.
f That is, drawing back their necks while they cut their throats.
" If the sacrifice was in honor of the celestial gods, the throat
was bent upward toward heaven; but if made to the heroes, or
infernal deities, it was killed with its throat toward the ground."
— " Elgin Marbles," vol. i. p. 81.
" The jolly crew, unmindful of the past,
The quarry share, their plenteous dinner haste,
THE ILIAD. 79
The limbs they sever from the inclosing hide
The thiglis, selected to the gods, divide:
On these, in double canls involved with art,
The choicest morsels lay from every part.
The priest himself before his altar stands,
And burns the offering with his holy hands.
Pours the black wine, and sees the flames aspire;
The youth with instruments surround the fire:
The thiglis thus sacrificed, and entrails dress'd,
The assistants part, transfix, and roast the rest:
Then spread the tables, the repast prepare;
Each takes his seat, and each receives his share.
AVhen now the rage of huuger was repress'd,
With pure libations they conclude the feast;
The youths with wine the copious goolets crown'd,*'
And, pleased, dispense the flowing bowls around;
With hymns divine the joyous banquet ends,
The pgeans lengthen'd till the sun descends:
Tlie Greeks, restored, the grateful notes prolong;
Apollo listens, and approves the song.
'Twas night; the chiefs beside their vessel lie,
Till rosy morn had purpled o'er the sky:
Then launch, and hoist the mast; indulgent gales,
Supplied by Phoebus, fill the swelling sails;
The milk-white canvas bellying as they blow,
The parted ocean foams and roars below:
Above the bounding billows swift they flew.
Till now the Grecian camp appear'd in view.
Far on the beach they haul their bark to land,
(The crooked keel divides the yellow sand,)
Then part, where stretch'd along the winding bay,
The ships and tents in mingled prospect lay.
But raging still, amidst his navv sat
The stern Achilles, steadfast in his hate;
Xor raix'd in combat, nor in council join'd;
liut wasting cares lay heavy on his mind:
Some strip the skin; some portion out the spoil;
The limbs yet trembliuf^, in the caldrons boil;
Some on llie fire the reeking entrails broil.
Stretch'd on the grassy turf, at ease they dine,
Restore their strength with meat, and cheer their souls with
wine."
— Drydcn's Virgil, p. 293.
* Crown'd, i. e. fill'd to the brim. The custom of adorning
goblets with tlowers was of later date.
80 THE ILIAD.
In his black thoughts revenge and slaughter roll,
And scenes of blood rise dreadful in his soul.
Twelve days were past, and now the dawning light
The gods had suninion'd to the Olympian height:
Jove, first ascending from the watery bowers,
Leads the long order of ethereal powers.
When, like the morning-mist in early day,
Rose from the flood the daughter of the sea;
And to the seats divine her fliglit address'd.
There, far apart, and high above the rest.
The thunderer sat; where old Olympus shrouds
His hundred heads in heaven, and props the clouds.
Suppliant the goddess stood: one hand she placed
Beneath his beard, and one his knees embraced.
"If e'er, father of the gods! (she said)
My words could please thee, or my actions aid,
Some marks of honor on my son bestowed,
And pay in glory what in life you owe.
Fame is at least by heavenly promise due
To life so short, and now dishonor'd too.
Avenge this wrong, ever just and wise!
Let Greece be humbled, and the Trojans rise;
Till the proud king and all the Achaian race
Shall heap with honors him they now disgrace."
Thus Thetis spoke; but Jove in silence held
The sacred counsels of his breast conceal'd.
Not so repulsed, the goddess closer press'd.
Still grasp'd his knees, and urged the dear request.
"0 sire of gods and men! thy suppliant hear;
Refuse, or grant; for what Las Jove to fear?
Or oh ! declare, of all the powers above.
Is wretched Thetis least the care of Jove?*'
She said: and, sighing, thus the god replies,
Who rolls the thunder o'er the vaulted skies:
"What hast thou ask'd? ah, why should Jove engage
In foreign contests and domestic rage.
The gods' complaints, and Juno's fierce alarms,
AVhile I, too ])artial, aid the Trojan arms?
Go, lest the haughty partner of my sway
With jealous eyes thy close access survey;
But part in peace, secure thy prayer is sped:
AVitness the sacred honors of our head,
The nod that ratifies the will divine.
The faithful, fix'd irrevocable sign;
TEE ILIAD. 81
This seals thy suit, and this fulfills thy vows — "
He spoke, aud awful bends his sable brows,*
Shakes his ambrosial curls, and gives the nod,
The stamp of fate and sanction of the god :
High heaven with trembling the dread signal took,
And all Olympus to the center shook, f
Swift to the seas profound the goddess flies,
Jove to his starry mansions in the skies.
The shining synod of the immortals wait
The coming god, and from their thrones of state
Arising silent, wrapp'd in holy fear,
Before the majesty of heaven appear.
Trembling they stand, while Jove assumes the throne,
All, but tTie god's imperious queen alone:
Late had she view'd tlie silver-footed dame,
And all her passions kindled into flame.
"Say, artful manager of heaven (she cries),
Who now partakes the secrets of the skies?
Thy Juno knows not the decrees of fate,
In vain the partner of imperial state.
AVhat favorite goddess then those cares divides.
Which Jove in prudence from his consort hides?"
To this the thunderer: "Seek not thou to find
The sacred counsels of almighty mind:
Involved in darkness lies the great decree,
Xor can the depths of fate be pierced by thee.
What fits thy knowledge, thou the first shalt know;
The flrst of gods above, and men below;
But thou, nor they, shall searcii the thoughts that roll
Deep in the close recesses of my soul."
Full on the sire the goddess of the skies,
RoU'd the large orbs of her majestic eyes,
* He spoke, etc. " When a friend inquired of Phidias from
what pattfrii \w liad formed his Olympian Jupiter, he is said to
liave answered by repeating these lines of the tirst Iliad in which
the poet represents the majesty of the god in the most sublime
terms; tliereby signifying that the genius of Homer had inspired
liim witli it. Tliose who beheld this statue are said to liave been
so struck witli it as to liave asked wliether Jiijiiter had descended
from heaven to shr)w himself to i'hidias, or wliether I'liidias had
been carried thither to contemplate the god." — " Elgin Marbles,"
vol. xii. p. 124.
f " So was his will
Pronounced among the gods, and hy an oath.
That shook heav'n's whoh; circumft-rence, confirm'd."
— " Paradise Lost," ii. 351.
'9
5J
82 THE ILIAD.
And thus returuVl: — "Austere Saturni.us, say,
From whence this wrath, or who controls tliy sway?
Thy boundless will, for me, remains in force,
And all thy counsels take the destined course.
But 'tis for Greece I fear: for late was seen,
In close consult, the silver-footed queen.
Jove to his Thetis nothing could deny,
Nor was the signal vain that shook the sky.
What fatal favor has the goddess won,
To grace her fierce, inexorable son?
Perhaps in Grecian blood to drench the plain,
And glut his vengeance with my people slain.
Then thus the god: "0 restless fate of pride.
That strives to learn what heaven resolves to hide,
Vain is the search, presumptuous and abhorr'd,
Anxious to thee, and odious to thy lord.
Let this suffice: the immutable decree
No force can siiake: what is, that ought to be.
Goddess, submit; nor dare our will withstand,
But dread the power of this avenging hand:
The united strength of all the gods above
In vain resists the omnipotence of Jove."
The thunderer spoke, nor durst the queen reply,
A reTerent horror silenced all the sky.
The feast distnrb'd, with sorrow Vulcan saw
His mother menaced, and the gods in awe;
Peace at his heart, and pleasure his design.
Thus interposed the architect divine:
"The wretched quarrels of the mortal state
Are far unworthy, gods! of your debate:
Let men their days in senseless strife employ,
We, in eternal peace and constant joy.
Thou, goddess-mother, with our sire comply,
Nor break the sacred union of the sky:
Lest, roused to rage, he shake the bless'd abodes.
Launch tiie red lightning, and detlfrone the gods.
If you submit, the tlmnderer stands appeased;
The gracious power is v/illing to be pleased."
Thus Vulcan spoke: and rising with a bound,
The double bowl with sparkling nectar crown'd,*
Wliich held to Juno in a cheerful way,
"Goddess (he cried), be patient and obey.
* A double howl, i. e. , a vessel with a cup at both ends, some-
thing like the measures by which a halfpenny or pennyworth of
nuts is sold. See Buttmaun, Lexic, p. 93, sq.
THE ILIAD. 83
Dear as you are, if Jove his arm extend,
I cau but grieve, unable to defend.
What god so daring in your aid to move,
Or lift his hand against the force of Jove?
Once in your cause I felt his matchless might,
Hurl'd headlong down from the ethereal height;*
Toss'd all the day in rapid circles round;
Xor till the sun descended touch'd the ground;
Breathless I fell, in giddy motion lost;
The Sinthians raised me on the Lemnian coast ;f
He said, and to her hands the goblet heaved,
Which, with a smile, the white-arm'd queen received.
Then, to the rest he fiU'd; and in his turn,
Each to his lips applied the nectar'd urn,
A'ulcan Avith awkward grace his office plies,
And unextinguish'd laughter shakes the skies.
Thus the blest gods the genial day prolong,
In feasts ambrosial and celestial song. J
* " Paradise Lost," i. 44.
" Him th' Almiglity power
Hurl'd lieadlong flaming from th' ethereal sky,
With hideous ruin and combustion."
f The occasion on which Vulcan incurred Jove's displeasure was
this: After Hercules had taken and pillaged Troy, Juno raised a
storm which drove him to the island of Cos, having previously
cast Jove into a sleep, to prevent him aiding his son. Jove, in
revenge, fastened iron anvils to her feet, and hung her from the
sky, and Vulcan, attempting to relieve her, was kicked down
from Olympus in the manner described. The allegorists have
gone mad in finding deep explanations for this amusing fiction.
See Heraclides, " Ponticus," p. 463, sq., ed. Gale. The story is
told by Homer himself in Book xv. The Sinthians were a race
of robbers, the ancient inhabitants of Lemnos, which island was
ever after sacred to Vulcan.
" Nor was his name unheard or unadored
In anjient Greece; and in Ausonian land
Men call'd him Mulciber; and how he fell
From heaven, they fabled, thrown by angry Jove
Sheer o'er the crystal Ijattlements; from morn
To noon he fell, from noon to dewy eve,
A summer's dav; and with the setting: sun
Dropp'd frtjiu the zenitii like a falling star
On Lemnos, th' ^-Egean isle; thus they relate."
—"Paradise Lost," i. 738.
I It is ingeniously observed by Grote, vol. i. p. 403, that "The
gods formed a sort of political community of their own, which
had its lifirarciiy, its distribution of ranks and duties, its conten-
tions for power und o(;casional revolutions, its public meetings in
tlie agora of Olympus, and its multitudinous banquets or
festivals."
84 THE ILIAD.
Apollo timed the lyre; the Muses round
With voice alternate aid the silver sound.
Meantime the radiant sun to mortal sight
Descending swift, roll'd down the rapid light:
Then to tlieir starry domes the gods depart.
The shining monuments of Vulcan's art:
Jove on his couch reclined his awful head,
And Juno slumber'd on the golden bed.
TEE ILIAD. 85
BOOK 11.
AEGUMENT.
THE TRIAL OF THE ARMY, AND CATALOGUE OF THE
FORCES.
Jupiter, in pursuance of the request of Thetis, sends a deceitful
vision to Agamemnon, persuading him to lead the army to
battle, in order to make the Greeks sensible of their want of
Achilles. The general, who is deluded with the hopes of
taking Troy without his assistance, but fears the army was
discouraged by his absence, and the late plague, as well as by
the length of time, contrives to make trial of their disposition
by a stratagem. He first communicates his design to the
princes in council, that he would propose a return to the
soldiers, and that they should put a stop to them if the pro-
posal was embraced. Then he assembles the whole host, and
upon moving for a return to Greece, they unanimously agreed
to it, and run to prepare the ships. They are detained by the
management of Ulysses, who chastises the insolence of Ther-
sites. The assembly is recalled, several speeches made on
the occasion, and at length the advice of Nestor followed,
which was to make a general muster of the troops, and to
divide them into their several nations, before they jiroceeded
to battle. This gives occasion to the poet to enumerate all
the forces of the Greeks and Trojans, and in a large catalogue.
The time employed in this book consists not entirely of one
day. The scene lies in the Grecian camp, and upon the sea-
shore; toward the end it removes to Troy.
Now pleasing sleep had seal'd each mortal eye,
StretcliM in the tents tlie Grecian leaders lie:
The ininiortals slumber'd on their thrones above;
All, but the ever- wakeful eyes of Jove.*
♦Plato, Hep. ill. p. 437, was so scandalized at this deception
of Jupiter's, and at his other attacks on the character of the gods,
tliat lie wr)uld fain sentence liim to an lionorable banishment.
(Sfe Miiiiiciiis Felix, t^ 22.) Coleridge, Iiitrod. )>. 154, well ob-
serves that tlie sujirtMne father of gods and men had a full right
to eni]>loy a lying sjjirit to work out his ultimate will. Compare
" Paradi.se Lost," v. 646.
" And roseate dews disjiosed
All but the Mnsleei)ing eyes of God to rest."
86 THE ILIAD.
To honor Thetis' son he bends his care,
And phmge the Greeks in all the woes of war:
Then bids an empty phantom rise to sight,
And thus commands the vision of the night.
"Fly hence, deluding Dream! and light as air,*
To Agamemnon's ample tent repair.
Bid him in arms draw forth the embattled train,
Lead all his Grecians to the dusty plain.
Declare, e'en now 'tis given him to destroy
The lofty towers of wide-extended Troy.
For now no more the gods with fate contend,
At Juno's suit the heavenly factions end.
Destruction hangs o'er yon dcA'oted wall.
And nodding Ilion waits the impending fall."
Swift as the word the vain illusion fled,
Descends, and hovers o'er Atrides' head;
Clothed in the figure of the Pylian sage,
Renown'd for wisdom, and revered for age:
Around his temples spreads his golden wing,
And thus the flattering dream deceives the king.
"Canst thou, with all a monarch's cares oppress'd,
Atreus' son! canst thou indulge thy rest?t
111 fits a chief who mighty nations guides.
Directs in council, and in war presides.
To whom its safety a whole people owes,
To waste long nights in indolent repose. J
Monarch, awake! 'Tis Jove's comm.and I bear;
Thou, and thy glory, claim his heavenly care.
In just array draw forth the embattled train.
Lead all thy Grecians to the dusty plain;
E'en now, king! 'tis given thee to destroy
The lofty towers of Avide-extended Troy.
For now no more the gods with fate contend,
At Juno's suit the heavenly factions end.
* Dream ought to be spelt with a capital letter, being, I think,
evidently personified as the god of dreams. See Anthon and
others.
" When, by Minerva sent, a fraudful Dfe&m
Rush'd from the skies, the bane of her and Troy."
— Dyce's " Select Translations from Quintus Calaber," p. 10.
f " Sleep'st thou, companion dear, wliat sleep can close
Thy eyelids?"—" Paraiiise Lost," v. 673.
:j: This truly military sentiment has been echoed by the approv-
ing voice of many a general and statesman of antiquity. See
Pliny's Panegyric on Trajan. Silius neatly translates it:
" Tur[)e duci totam soinno consumere nocteni."
THE ILIAD. 87
Desti'Tictiou hangs o'er yon devoted wall,
And nodding Ilion waits the impending fall.
Awake, but waking this advice approve,
And trust the vision that descends from Jove."
The phantom said; then vanish'd from his sight,
Resolves to air, and mixes witli the night.
A thousand schemes the monarch's mind employ;
Elate in thought he sacks untaken Troy:
Vair as he was, and to tlie future blind,
Nor saw what Jove and secret fate design'd,
What mighty toils to either host remain.
What scenes of grief, and numbers of the slain!
Eager he rises, and in fancy hears
The voice celestial murmuring in his ears.
First on his limbs a slender vest he drew.
Around him next the regal mantle threw,
The embroider'd sandals on his feet were tied
The starry falchion glitter'd at' his side;
And last, his arm the massy scepter loads,
Unstain'd, immortal, and the gift of gods.
Now rosy Morn ascends the court of Jove,
Lifts up her light, and opens day above.
The king dispatch'd his heralds with commands
To range the camp and summon all the bands:
The gathering hosts the monarcli's word obey;
While to the fleet Atrides bends his way.
In his black ship the Pylian prince he found;
There calls a senate of the peers around :
The assembly phiced, the king of men express'd
Tiie Counsels laboring in his artful breast.
"Friends and confederates! with attentive ear
Receive my words, and credit wliat you hear.
Late as I slumber'd in the shades of night,
A dream divine appear'd before my sight;
Whose visionary form like Nestor came,
The same in habit, and in mien the saine.*
'J'he heavenly ])liantoni iKJVcr'd o'er my head,
'And, dost thou sleep, Atreus' son? (he said)
111 fits a chief who mighty nations guides,
Directs in council, and in war presides;
To whom its safety a whole people owes,
To waste long nights in indolent repose.
* The Kfune in, luihit, ftf-.
" To wlioiii onci! vaoTc. tlic wiiifjcd i:,m\ appears;
His former voutbful mien and sliiipe lie wears."
— Drvieii'.-i Vii-'Ml. iv. 803.
88 THE ILTAD.
Monarch, awake! 'tis Jove's command I bear,
Thee and tliy glory claim his heavenly care.
In just array draw forth the embattled train.
And lead the Grecians to the dusty plain;
E'en now, king! 'tis given thee to destroy
The lofty towers of wide-extended Troy.
For now no more the gods with fate contend,
At Juno's suit the heavenly factions end.
Destruction hangs o'er yon devoted wall,
And nodding Ilion waits the impending fall.
This hear observant, and the gods obey!'
The vision spoke, and pass'd in air away.
Now, valiant chiefs! since heaven itself alarms,
Unite, and rouse the sons of Greece to arms.
But first, with caution, try what yet they dare,
Worn with nine years of unsuccessful war.
To move the troops to measure back the main,
Be mine; and yours ihe province to detain."
He spoke, and sat: when Nestor rising said,
(Nestor, whom Pylos' sandy realms obey'd,)
"Princes of Greece, your faithful ears incline,
Nor doubt the vision of the powers divine;
Sent by great Jove to him who rules the host.
Forbid it, heaven! this warning should be lost!
Then let us haste, obey the god's alarms,
And join to rouse the sons of Greece to arms."
Thus spoke the sage: the kings without delay
Dissolve tlie council, and their chief obey:
The sceptred rulers lead ; the following host,
Pour'd forth by thousands, darkens all the coast.
As from some rocky cleft the shepherd sees
Clustering in heaps on heaps the driving bees.
Boiling and blackening, swarms succeeding swarms.
With deeper murmurs and more hoarse alarms;
Dusky they spread, a close embodied crowd.
And o'er the vale descends the living cloud.*
* " As bees in sprincr-time, when
The sun with Taurus rides,
Pour forth their populous youth about the hive
In clusters; they auioiiff fresh dews and flowers
Fly to and fro, or on the smoothed plank,
The suburb of this straw-built citadel,
New-nibb'd with balm, expatiate and confer
Their state affairs. So thick the very crowd
Swarm'd and were straiteu'd."
— " Paradise Lost," i. 768.
TEE ILIAD. 89
So, from the tents aud ships, a lengthen'd train
Spreads all the beach, and wide o'ershades the plain:
Along the region runs a deafening sound;
Beneath their footsteps groans the trembling ground.
Fame flies before the messenger of Jove,
And shining soars, and claps her wings above.
Nine sacred heralds now, proclaiming loud*
The monarch's will, susjoend the listening crowd.
Soon as the throngs in order ranged appear,
And fainter murmurs died upon the ear.
The king of kings his awful figure raised:
High in his hand the golden scepter blazed;
The golden scepter, of celestial flame.
By Vulcan form'd, from Jove to Hermes came:
To Pelops he the immortal gift resign'd;
The immortal gift great Pelops left behind,
In Atreus' hand, which not with Atreus ends,
To rich Thyestes next the prize descends;
And now the mark of Agamemnon's reign.
Subjects all Argos, and controls the main.f
On this bright scepter now the king reclined,
And artful thus pronounced the speech design'd:
"Ye sons of JMars; partake your leader's care,
Heroes of Greece, and brothers of the war!
Of partial .Jove with justice I complain,
And heavenly oracles believed in vain,
* It was the herald's duty to make the people sit down. " A
standinff agora is a symptom of manifest terror (II. xviii. 246);
an evening agora, to which men came elevated by wine, is also
the forerunner of mischief (' Odyssey,' iii. 138)." — Grote, ii. p. 91,
7iote.
\ This scepter, like that of Judah (Genesis, xlix. 10), is a type of
the supreme and far-spread dominion of the house of the Atrides.
8ee Thucydides, i. 9. " It is traced through the hands of Ilermr-s;
he being the wealth-giving god, whose blessing is most efficacious
in furthering the process of acquisition." — (irote, i. p. 212. Com-
pare Quintus Calaber (I)yce's Selections, p. 48):
" 'riius the monarch spoke,
Then pledged the chief in a capacious cup,
Golden, and framed by art divine (a gift
Which to Almighty Jove lame Vulcan brought
Upon his nuptial day, when he csiiouscd
The Queen <»f Lf)ve); tlic sin; of gods bestow'd
The cup on Dardanus, wlio gav(^ it next
To P]rictlionius; Tros received it tlien,
And left it, witli his wealth, to be possess'd
]5y Ilus; he to great Laoinedon
Gave it; and last to Priam's lot it fell."
90 THE ILIAD.
A sfife return was promised to our toils,
Tienown'd, triuiiij)lmnt, and enrich'd with spoils.
Now shameful flight alone can save the host,
Our blood, our treasure, and onr glory lost.
So Jove decrees, resistless lord of all!
At whose command whole empires rise or fall:
He shakes the feeble props of human trust,
And towns and armies humbles to the dust.
What shame to Greece a fruitful war to wage,
Oh, lasting shame in every future age!
Once great in arms, the common scorn we grow,
Eepulsed and baffled by a feeble foe.
So small their number, that if wars were ceased.
And Greece triumphant held a general feast.
All rank'd by tens, whole decades when they dine
Must want a Trojan slave to pour the wme.*
But other forces have our hopes o'erthrown.
And Troy prevails by armies not her own.
Now nine long years of mighty Jove are run,
Since first the labors of this war begun:
Our cordage torn, decay'd our vessels lie.
And scarce insure the wretched power to fly.
Haste, then, forever leave the Trojan wall!
Our weeping wives, our tender children call:
Love, duty, safety, summon us away,
'Tis nature's voice, and nature we obey.
Our shatter'd barks may yet transport us o'er,
Safe and inglorious, to our native shore.
Fly, Grecians, fly, your sails and oars employ,
And dream no more of heaven-defended Troy."
His deep design unknown, the hosts approve
Atrides' speech. The mighty numbers move.
So roll the billows to the Icarian shore.
From east and south when winds begin to roar,
Burst their dark mansions in the clouds, and sweep
The whitening surface of the ruffled deep.
And as on corn when western gusts descend, f
Before the blast the lofty harvests bend:
* Grote, i. p. 393, states tbe number of the Grecian forces at up-
ward of 100,000 men. Nichols makes a total of 135,000.
f " As thick as wlien a field
Of Ceres, ripe for harvest, waving bends
His bearded grove of ears, which way the wind
Sways them."
—"Paradise Lost," iv. 980, sqq.
TEE ILIAD. 91
Thus o'er the field the raoviiig host appears,
"With nodding plumes and groves of waving spears.
The gathering murmur spreads, their trampling feet
Beat the loose sands, and thicken to the fleet;
With long-resounding cries they urge the train
To fit the ships, and launch into the main.
They toil, they sweat, thick clouds of dust arise.
The doubling clamors echo to the skies.
E'en then the Greeks had left the hostile plain;
And fate decreed the fall of Troy in vain ;
But Jove's imperial queen their flight survey'd.
And sighing thus bespoke the blue-eyed maid:
"Shall then the Grecians fly! dire disgrace!
And leave unpunish'd this perfidious race?
Shall Troy, shall Priam, and the adulterous spouse,'
In peace enjoy the fruits of broken vows?
And bravest chiefs, in Helen's quarrel slain,
Lie unrevenged on yon detested plain?
No: let my Greeks, unmoved by vain alarms,
Once more refulgent shine in brazen arms.
Haste, goddess, haste! the flying host detain,
Nor let one sail be hoisted on the main."
Pallas obeys, and from Olympus' height
Swift to the ships precipitates her flight.
Ulysses, first in public cares, she found.
For prudent counsel like the gods renown'd:
Oppress'd with generous grief the hero stood,
Nor drew his sable vessels to the flood.
"And is it thus, divine Laertes' son.
Thus fly the Greeks (the martial maid begun).
Thus to their country bear their own disgrace,
And fame eternal leave to Priam's race?
Shall Ijcauteous Helen still remain unfreed,
Still unrevenged, a thousand heroes bleed!
Haste, generous Ithacus! prevent tlie shame,
Kecall your armies, and your chiefs reclaim.
Your own resistless eloquence employ.
And to the immortals trust tlie fall of Troy."
The voice divine confess'd the warlike maid,
Ulysses lieard, nor uninspired obey'd:
Then meeting first Atridcs, from his hand
Heceived the imperial scepter of command.
Thus grace<l, attention and respect to gain,
He runs, ho flies through all the Grecian train;
yg THE ILIAD.
Each prince of name, or chief in arms approved,
He fired with praise, or with persuasion moved.
"Warriors lil^e you, with strength and wisdom bless'd,
By brave examples should confirm the rest.
The monarch's will not yet reveal'd appears;
He tries our courage but resents our fears.
The unwary Greeks his fury may provoke;
Not thus the king m secret council spoke.
Jove loves our chief, from Jove his honor springs,
Beware! for dreadful is the wrath of kings."
But if a clamorous vile plebeian rose.
Him with reproof he cheok'd or tamed with blows.
"Be still, thou slave, and to thy betters yield;
Unknown alike in council and in field!
Ye gods, what dastards would our host command!
Swept to the war, the lumber of a land.
Be silent, wretch, and think not here allow'd
That worst of tyrants, an usurping crowd.
To one sole monarch Jove commits the sway;
His are the laws, and him let all obey." *
With words like these the troops Ulysses ruled,
The loudest silenced, and the fiercest cool'd.
Back to the assembly roll the thronging train,
Desert the ships, and pour upon the plain.
Murmuring they move, as when old ocean roars,
And heaves huge surges to the trembling shores;
The groaning banks are burst with bellowing sound,
The rocks remurmur and the deeps rebound.
At length the tumult sinks, the noises cease.
And a still silence lulls the camp to peace.
Thersites only clamor'd in the throng.
Loquacious, loud, and turbulent of tongue:
Awed by no shame, by no respect controll'd.
In scandal busy, in reproaches bold :
With witty malice studious to defame.
Scorn all his Joy, and laughter all his aim:—
But chief he gloried with licentious style
To lash the great, and monarchs to revile.
* This sentiment used to be a popular one with some of the
greatest tyrants, who abused it into a pretext for unlimited usur-
pation of power. Dion, Caligula, and Domitian were particularly
fond of it, and, in an extended form, we find the maxim
propounded by Creon in the Antigone of Sophocles. See some im-
portant remarks of Heeren, " Ancient Greece," ch. vi. p. 105.
THE ILIAD. 93
His fignre such as might his soul proch\im;
One eye was blinking, and one leg was lame:
His mountain shoulders half his breast o'erspread,
Thin hairs bestrew'd his long misshapen head.
Spleen to mankind his envious heart possess'd,
And much he hated all, but most the best:
Ulysses or Acbilles still his theme;
But royal scandal his delight supreme.
Long had he lived the scorn of every Greek,
Yex'd when he spoke, yet still they heard him speak.
Sharp was his voice; which in the shrillest tone,
Thus with injurious taunts attack'd the throne.
"Amidst the glories of so bright a reign,
What moves the great Atrides to complain?
'Tis thine whate'er the warrior's breast inflames,
The golden spoil, and thine the lovely dames.
With all the wealth our wars and blood bestow,
Thy tents are crowded and thy chests o'erflow.
Thus at full ease in heaps of riches roll'd,
What grieves the monarch? Is it thirst of gold?
Say, shall we march with our unconquer'd powers
(The Greeks and I) to Ilion's hostile towers,
And bring the race of royal bastards here.
For Troy to ransom at a price too dear?
But safer plunder thy own host supplies;
Say, wouldst thou seize some valiant leader's prize,
Or, if thy heart to generous love be led,
Some captive fair, to bless thy kingly bed?
Whate'er our master craves submit we must.
Plagued with iiis pride, or punish'd for his lust.
Oil women of Achaia; men no more!
Hence let us fly, and let him waste his store
In loves and pleasures on the Phrygian shore.
We may be wanted on some busy day,
When Hector comes: so great Achilles may:
From him he forced the ])rize we jointly gave.
From him, the fierce, tlic fearless, ami the Ijrave:
And durst he, as ho ought, resent that wrong,
This mighty tyrant were no tyrant long."
Fierce from his seat at this Ulysses springs,*
* It may be remarked, that the character of Thersites, revolting
and contemptible as it is, serves admirably to develoj) the dis-
position of t'lysses in a new li^lit, in which mere ciiiminiE: is less
lirominent Of the (rnidnal and individual development of Homer's
iieroes, Sclile-^Md well observes, " in bas-relief the figures are
94 I'HE ILIAD.
In generous vengeance of the king of kings,
With indignation sparkling in his eyes,
He views the wretch, and sternly thus replies:
"Peace, factious monster, born to vex tlie state,
AYith wrangling talents form'd for foul debate:
Curb that impetuous tongue, nor rashly vain,
And singly mad, asperse the sovereign reign.
Have we not known thee, slave! of all our host,
The man who acts the least, upbraids the most?
Think not the Greeks to shameful flight to bring,
Nor let those lips profane the name of king.
For our return we trust the heavenly powers;
Be that their care; to fight like men be ours.
But grant the host with wealth the general load,
Except detraction, what hast thou bestow'd?
Suppose some hero should his spoils resign.
Art thou that hero, could those spoils be thine?
Gods! let me jierish on this hateful shore.
And let these eyes behold my son no more;
If, on thy next offense, this hand forbear
To strijo those arms thou ill deserv'st to wear,
Expel the council where our princes meet,
And send thee scourged and howling through the fleet."
He said, and cowering as the dastard bends.
The weighty scepter on his bank descends :f
usually in profile, and in the epos all are characterized in the
simplest manner in relief; they are not grouped together, but fol-
low one another: so Homer's heroes advance, one by one, in suc-
cession before us. It has been remarked that the Iliad is not
definitely closed, but that we are left to suppose something both
to precede and to follow it. The bas-relief is equally without
limit, and may be continued ad infinitum, either from before or
behind, on which account the ancients preferred for it such sub-
jects as admitted of an indefinite extension, sacrificial processions,
dances, and lines of combatants, and hence they also exhibit bas-
reliefs on curved surfaces, such as vases, or the frieze of a
rotunda, where, by the curvature, the two ends are withdrawn
from our sight, and where, while we advance, one object appears
as another disappears. Reading Homer is very much like such a
circuit; the present object alone arresting our attention, we lose
sight of that which precedes, and do not concern ourselves about
what is to follow." — "Dramatic Literature,'" p. 75.
f " There cannot be a clearer indication than this description —
so graphic in the original poem— of the true character of the
Homeric agora. The multitude who compose it are listening and
acquiescent, not often hesitating, and never refractory to the
chief. The fate which awaits a presumptuous critic, even where
his virulent reproaches are substantially well founded, is jilainly
THE ILIAD. 95
On the round bunch the blood}' tumors rise:
The tears spring starting from his haggard eyes;
Trembling he sat, and shrunk in abject fears,
From his vile visage wiped the scalding tears;
While to his neigbbor each express'd his thought:
"Ye gods! wbat wonders has Ulysses wrought!
What fruits his conduct and his courage yield!
Great in the council, glorious in the field.
Generous he rises in the crown's defense.
To curb the factious tongue of insolence,
Such just examples on otfenders shown,
Sedition silence, and assert the throne."
'Twas tlms the general voice the hero praised,
Who, rising, high the imperial scepter raised:
The blue-eyed Pallas, his celestial friend,
(In form a herald), l)ade the crowds attend.
The expecting crowds in still attention hung,
To hear the wisdom of his heavenly tongue.
Then deeply thoughtful, pausing ere he spoke,
His silence thus the prudent hero broke:
"Unhappy monarch! whom the Grecian race
With shame deserting, heap with vile disgrace.
Not such at Argos was their generous vow:
Once all their voice, but ah! forgotten now:
Ne'er to return, was then the common cry,
Till Troy's proud structures should in ashes lie.
Behold them weeping for their native shore;
What could their wives or helpless children more?
What heart but melts to leave the tender train.
And, one short month, endure the wintry main?
Few leagues removed, we wish our peaceful seat.
When the ship tosses, and the tempests beat:
Then well may this long stay provoke their tears.
The tedious length of nine revolving years.
Not for their grief the Grecian host I blame;
But vanrjuish'dl baffled! oh, eternal shame!
Expect the time to Troy's destruction given.
And try the faith of Chalcas and of heaven.
set forth in the treatment of Tbersites; while the unpopularity of
such a character is attested even more by the excessive pains
which IIoiiH!!' takes to heap upon him rei)ulsive personal deform-
ities, than Ijy the chastisement of Odysseus — he is lame, Ijald,
crook-haclted, of misshapen head, and squinting vision." — (<rote,
vol. i. p. 97.
9G TUB ILIAD.
AVhat pass'd at Anlis, Greece can witness bear,*
And all who live to breathe this Plirygian air,
Beside a fountain's sacred brink we raised
Our verdant altars, and the victims blazed:
'Twas where the plane-tree spread its shades aronnd,
The altars heaved; and from the crumbling ground
A mighty dragon shot, of dire portent;
From Jove himself the dreadful sign was sent.
Straight to the tree his sanguine spires he roll'd.
And curl'd around in many a winding fold;
The topmost branch a mother-bird possess'd;
Eight callow infants fill'd the mossy nest;
Herself the ninth; the serpent, as he hung,
Stretch'd his black jaws and crush'd the crying yonug,
Wliile hovering near, with miserable moan,
The drooping mother wail'd her children gone.
The mother last, as round the nest she flew,
Seized by the beating wing, the monster slew;
Nor long survived : to marble turn'd, he stands
A lasting prodigy on Aulis' sands.
Such was the will of Jove; and hence we dare
Trust in his omen, and support the war.
For while around we gazed with wondering eyes,
And trembling sought the powers with sacrifice.
Full of his god, the reverend Chalcas cried, f
'Ye Grecian warriors! lay your fears aside.
This wondrous signal Jove himself displays,
Of long, long labors, but eternal praise.
As many birds as by the snake were slain,
So many years the toils of Ch-eece remain;
But wait the tenth, for Ilion's fall decreed:
Thus spoke the prophet, thus the Fates succeed.
Obey, ye Grecians! with submission wait.
Nor let your flight avert the Trojan fate."
He said : the shores with loud applauses sound.
The hollow ships each deafening shout rebound.
Then Nestor thus — "These vain debates forbear,
Ye talk like children, not like heroes dare.
♦According to Pausanias, both the sprig and tlae remains of the
tree were exliibited in his time. The tragedians, Lucretius and
others, adopted a different fable to account for the stoppage at
Aulis, and seem to have found the sacrifice of Iphigenia better
suited to form the subject of a tragedy. Compare Dryden's
" Mxiftxd," vol. iii, sqq.
t Full of Ms god, i. e., Apollo, filled with the prophetic spirit.
" Tlie god " would be more simple and emphatic.
THE ILIAD. 97
"Where now are all your high resolves at last?
Your leagues concluded, your engagements past?
Yow'd with libations and with victims then,
Now vanish'd like their smoke: the faith of men!
While useless words consume the unactive hours,
No wonder Troy so long resists our powers.
Else, great Atrides! and with courage sway;
We march to war, if thou direct the way.
But leave the few that dare resist thy laws,
The mean deserters of the Grecian cause,
To grudge the conquests mighty Jove prepares,
And view with envy our successful wars.
On that great day, when first the martial train,
Big with the fate of liion, plough'd the main,
Jove, on the right, a prosperous signal sent.
And thunder rolling shook the firmament.
Encouraged hence, maintain the glorious strife,
Till every soldier grasp a Phrygian wife,
Till Helen's woes at full revenged appear,
And Troy's proud matrons render tear for tear
Before that day, if any Greek invite
His country's troops to base, inglorious flight.
Stand forth that Greek! and hoist his sail to fly,
And die the dastard first, who dreads to die.
But now, monarch! all thy chiefs advise:*
Nor what they offer, thou thyself despise.
Among those counsels, let not mine be vain;
In tribes and nations to divide thy train:
His separate troops let every leader call.
Each strengthen each, and all encourage all.
What chief, or soldier, of the numerous band,
Or bravely fights, or ill obeys command.
When thus distinct they war, shall soon be known
And what the cause of Ilion not o'erthrown;
If fate resist, or if our arms are slow.
If gods above prevent, or men below."
To him tlie king: ''How much thy years excel
In arts of counsel, and in speaking well!
would the gods, in love to Greece, decree
But ten such sages as they grant in thee;
* Those critifs who have maintained that the " Catalogue of
Sliips"is an interpolation, shouhl have ])ai(l more attention to
these lines, which form a most n!itiir;il introduction to their
enumeration.
OS THE ILIAD.
Such wisdom soon shotild Priam's force destroy,
And soon should fall the haughty towers of Troy!
But Jove forbids, who plunges those he hates
In fierce contention and in vain debates:
Now great Acliilles from our raid withdraws,
By me provoked; a captive maid the cause:
If e'er as friends we join, the Trojan wall
Must shake, and heavy will the vengeance fall;
But now, ye warriors, take a short repast;
And, well refresh 'd, to bloody conflict haste.
His sharpen'd spear let every Grecian wield,
And every Grecian fix his brazen shield,
Let all excite the fiery steeds of war,
And all for combat fit the rattling car.
This day, this dreadful day, let each contend;
No rest, no respite, till the shades descend;
Till darkness, or till death, shall cover all:
Let the war bleed, and let the mighty fall;
Till bathed in sweat be every manly breast.
With the huge shield each brawny arm depress'd,
Each aching nerve refuse the lance to throw,
And each spent courser at the chariot blow.
Who dares, inglorious, in his ships to stay.
Who dares to tremble on this signal day;
That wretch, too mean to fall by martial power,
The birds shall mangle, and the dogs devour."
The monarch spoke; and straight a murmur rose.
Loud as the surges when the tempest blows.
That dash'd on broken rocks tumultuous roar,
And foam and thunder on the stony shore.
Straight to the tents the troops dispersing bend.
The fires are kindled, and the smokes ascend;
With hasty feasts they sacrifice, and pray.
To avert the dangers of the doubtful day.
A steer of five years' age, large limb'd, and fed,*
* The following observation will be useful to Homeric readers:
" Particular animals were, at a later time, consecrated to particular
deities. To Jupiter, Cerus, Juno, Apollo, and Bacchus victims of
advanced a^e might be offered. An ox of five years old was con-
sidered especially acceptable to Jupiter. A black bull, a ram, or
a boar pig were offerings for Neptune. A heifer, or a sheep, for
Minerva. To Ceres a sow was sacrificed, as an enemy to corn.
The goat to Bacchus, because he fed on vines. Diana was pro-
pitiated with a stag; and to Venus the dove was consecrated.
The infernal and evil deities were to be appeased with black
■ victims. The most acceptable of all sacrifices was the heifer of a
THE ILIAD. 99
To Jove's liigh altars Agamemnon led:
There bade the noblest of the Grecian jjeers;
And Nestor first, as most advanced in years.
Next came Idomenens,* and Tydeus' son,f
Ajax the less, and Ajax Telamou;J
Then wise Ulysses in his rank was placed;
And Menelaiis came, unhid, the last.§
The chiefs surround the destined beast, and take
The sacred offering of the salted cake:
When thus the king prefers his solemn prayer;
"0 thou I whose thunder rends the clouded air.
Who in the heaven of heavens hast fixed thy throne,
Supreme of gods! unbounded, and alone!
Hear! and before the burning sun descends,
Before the night her gloomy veil extends,
Low in the dust be laid yon hostile spires,
Be Priam's palace sunk in Grecian fires,
In Hector's breast be plunged this shining sword,
And slaughter'd heroes groan around their lord!"
Thus prayed the chief: liis unavailing prayer
Great Jove refused, and toss'd in empty air:
The God averse, while yet the fumes arose.
Prepared new toils, and doubled woes on woes.
Their prayers perform'd the chiefs the rite pursue,
The barley sprinkled, and the victim slew.
The limbs they sever from the inclosing hide.
The thigh, selected to the gods, divide.
On these, in double cauls involved with art,
The choicest morsels lie from every part,
From the cleft wood the crackling flames aspire,
While the fat victims feed the sacred fire.
year old, which had never borne the yoke. It was to be perfect
in every limb, healthy, and without blemish." — " Elgin Marbles,"
vol. i. p. 78.
* Idomeneua, son of Deucalion, was king of Crete. Having
vowed, during a tempest, on his return from Troy, to sacrifice to
Neptune the first creature that should pres<^ut itself to his eye on
the Cretan shore, bis son fell a victim to his rash vow.
f 'I'ydeuif son, i. e. Dioined.
I TJiat is, Ajax, the son of Oileus, a Locrian. He must be dis-
tinguished from the other, who was king of Salamis
^ A grnat deal of nonsense has been written to account for the
word unhid, in this line. Even Plato, " Syini)os." p. Jjlo, has
found .some curious meaning in what, to us, appears to need no
explanation. Was there any heroic rule of etiquette which ])re-
vented one brother king visiting another without a formal invi-
tation V •
100 THE ILIAD.
The thighs thus sacrificed, and entrails dress'd,
The assistants jiart, transfix, and roast the rest;
Then spread the tables, the repast prepare,
Each takes his seat, and each receives his share.
Soon as the rage of hunger was suppress'd,
The generous Nestor thus the prince address'd:
"Now bid thy heralds sound the loud alarms,
And call the squadrons sheathed in brazen arms;
Now seize the occasion, now the troops survey,
And lead to war when heaven directs the way."
He said; the monarch issued his commands;
Straight the loud heralds call the gathering bands;
The chiefs inclose their king; the hosts divide.
In tribes and nations rank'd on either side.
High in the midst the blue-eyed virgin flies;
From rank to rank she darts her ardent eyes;
The dreadful ffigis, Jove's immortal shield.
Blazed on her arm, and lighteu'd all the field;
Eound the vast orb a hundred serpents roll'd,
Form'd the bright fringe, and seem'd to burn in gold,
With this each Grecian's manly breast she warms.
Swells their bold hearts, and strings their nervous arms,
No more they sigh, inglorious, to return.
But breathe revenge, and for the combat burn.
As on some mountain, through the lofty grove,
The crackling flames ascend, and blaze above;
The fires expanding, as the winds arise,
Shoot their long beams, and kindle half the skies:
So from the polish'd arms, and brazen shields,
A gleamy splendor flash'd along the fields.
Not less their number than the embodied cranes,
Or milk-white swans in Asius' water nlains.
That, o'er the windings of Cayster's springs,*
Stretch their long necks, and clap their rustling wings,
Now tower aloft, and course in airy rounds.
Now liglit with noise; with noise the field resounds.
Thus numerous and confused, extending wide,
The legions crowd Scamander's flowery side;f
* Fresh- water fowl, especially swans, were found in great
numbers about the Asian Marsh, a fenny tract of country in
Lydia, formed by the riper Cayster, near its mouth. See Virgil,
" Georgics," vol. i. p. 383, sq.
f Seamander, or Scamandros, was a river of Troas, rising, ac-
cording to Strabo, on the highest part of Mount Ida, in the same
THE ILIAD. 101
With rushing troops the plains are cover'd o'er,
And thundering footsteps sliake the sounding shore.
Along the river's level meads they stand
Thick as in spring the flowers adorn the laud,
Or leaves the tree; or thick as insects pla}',
The wandering nation of a summer's day :
That, drawn by milky streams, at evening hours,
In gather'd swarms surround the rural bowers;
From pail to pail with busy murmur run
The gilded legions, glittering in the sun.
So throng'd, so close, the Grecian squadrons stood
In radiant -arms, and thirst for Trojan blood.
Each leader now his scatter'd force conjoins
In close array, and forms the deepening lines.
N'ot with more ease the skillful shepherd SAvain
Collects his flocks from thousands on the plain.
The king of kings, majestically tall.
Towers o'er his armies, and outshines them all;
Like some proud bull, that round the pastures leads
His subject herds, the monarch of the meads;
Great as the gods, the exalted chief was seen,
His strength like Neptune, and like Mars his mien;*
Jove o'er his eyes celestial glories spread.
And dawning conquest played around his head.
bill with the Granicus and the (Edipus, and falling into the
sea at Siga'uni; everything tends to identify it witli Mendere, as
Wood, Rennell, and others maintain; the j\Iendere is forty miles
long, 300 feet broad, deep in the time of flood, nearly dry in the
summer. Dr. Clarke successfully coniljats the opinion of those
who make the Scamander to liave arisen from the springs of
liounabarshy, and traces the source of the river to the highest
mountain in the chain of Ida, now Kusdaghy; receives the
Kimois in its course; toward its mouth it is very muddy, and
flows through marshes. Between the Scamander and SimoTs,
Homer's Troy is supposed to have stood: tliis river, according to
Homer, was called Xanthus by the gods, Scamander by men. The
waters of the Scamander had the singular property of giving a
l)eautiful color to the hair or wool of such animals as bathed in
them; hence the three goddesses, Minerva, Juno, and Venus,
batlied there before they aj)peared before Paris to obtain the
golden apple; the name Xanthus, "yellow," was given to the
Scamander from the peculiar color of its waters, still ajiplicable
to the Mendere, the yellow color of whose waters attracts the at-
tentif)n of travelers.
* It shoulii i)e, " his c7i««Mike Neptune." The torso of Neptune,
in tlie " Klgiii .Marbles," No. UW (vol. ii. j) 20), is remarkable for
its Ijreadth and ma.ssiveuess of development.
102 THE ILIAD.
Say, virgins, seated roiind the throne divine,
All-knowiug goddesses! immortal nine!*
Since earth's wide regions, heaven's nnmeasur'd height,
And hell's abyss, hide nothing from yonr sight,
(We, wretched mortals! lost in doubts below.
But guess by rumor, and but boast we know,)
say what heroes, fired by thirst of fame.
Or urged by wrongs, to Troy's destruction came.
To count them all, demands a thousand tongnes,
A throat of brass, and adamantine lungs.
Daughters of Jove, assist! inspired by you
The mighty labor dauntless I pursue;
What crowned armies, from what climes they bring.
Their names, their numbers, and their chiefs I sing.
THE CATALOGUE OF THE SHIPS, f
The hardy warriors whom Boeotia bred,
Penelius, Leitus, Prothoenor, led :
* " Say first, for lieav'n bides nothing from tliy view." —
Paradise Lost," i. 37.
" Ma di' tu, Musa, come i primi danni
Mandassero a Cristiani, e di quai parti:
Tu '1 sai; ma di tant' opra a noi si lunge
Debil aura di fama appena giunge."
— " Gier. Lib." iv. 19.
f " The Catalogue is, perhaps, the portion of the poem in favor
of which a claim to separate authorship has been most plausibly
urged. Although the example of Homer has since rendered some
such formal enumeration of the forces engaged, a common practice
in epic poems descriptive of great warlike adventures, still so
minute a statistical detail can neither be considered as impera-
tively required, nor perhaps such as would, in ordinary cases,
suggest itself to the mind of a poet. Yet there is scarcely any
portion of the Iliad where both historical and internal evidence
are more clearly in favor of a connection with the remotest period,
with the remainder of the work. The composition of the Cata-
logue, whensoever it may have taken place, necessarily presumes
its author's acquaintance with a previously existing Iliad. It
were impossible otherwise to account for the harmony observable
in the recurrence of so vast a number of proper names, most of
them historically unimportant, and not a few altogether fictitious;
or of so many geographical and genealogical details as are con-
densed in these few hundred lines, and incidentally scattered over
the thousands which follow: equally inexplicable were the pointed
allusions occurring in tb is episode to events narrated in the previous
and subsequent text, several of which could hardly be of tradi-
tional notoriety, but through the medium of the Iliad." — Mure,
" Language and Literature of Greece," vol. i. p. 263.
THE ILIAD. 103
With these Arcesihius and Clouins stand,
Equal in arms, and equal in conuuaud.
These head the troops that rocky Aulis yields,
And Eteon's hills, and Hyrie's watery fields,
And Schoenos, Scholos, Grtea near the main,
And Mycalessia's ample piny plain;
Those who in Peteon or Ilesion dwell,
Or Harma where Apollo's prophet fell;
Heleon and Ilyle, which the springs o'erflow,
And Medeon lofty, and Ocalea low;
Or in the meads of Haliartus stray,
Or Thespia-sacred to the god of day:
Onchestus, Neptune's celebrated groves;
Copae, and Thisbe's, famed for silver doves;
For flocks Erythrje, Glissa for the vine;
Platea green, and Nysa the divine;
And they whom Thebe's well-built walls inclose.
Where ^lyde, Eutresis, Corone, rose;
And Arne rich, with purple harvests crowu'd;
And Anthedon, Bcjeotia's utmost bound.
Full fifty ships they send, and each conveys
Twice sixty warriors through the foaming seas.*
To these succeed Aspledon's martial train,
Who plough the spacious Orchomenian plain.
Two valiant brothers rule the undaunted throng,
liilmen and Ascalaphus the strong:
Sons of Astyoche, the heavenly fair.
Whose virgin charms subdued the god of war:
* Ttnce sixty: " Tbuc.ydides observes that the Boeotian vessels,
which carried one hundred and twenty men each, were probably
meant to be the largest in the tieet, and th()^^e of Philoctetes,
carrying fifty each, the smallest. The average would be eighty-
five, and Thucydides supposes the troops to have rowed and
navigated themselves; and that very few, besides the chiefs,
w(;nt as mere passengers or landsmen. In short, we have in the
Homeric descriptions the complete picture of an Indian or African
war canoe, many of which ar(; considerably larger than the largest
scale assigned to tliose of tiie (Jreeks. If tiie total number of the
Greek ships be taken at twelve hundred, according to Thucydides,
although in point of fact there are only eleven hundred and
eighty-six in the Catalogue, the amount of the army, upon the
foregoing average, will be al)r)ut a hundred and two thousand
men. Tlie historian considers this a small force; as representing
all Greece. Hyrant, comparing it with the allied armies at I'latae,
tiiinks it HO large as to prove tlie entire falsehooil of the whole
story; and his reasonings and calculatious are, for their curiosity,
well worth a careful perusal." — Coleridge, p. 211, sq.
104 TnE ILIAD.
(In Actor's court as slie retired to rest.
The strength of .Mars the blushing maid compress'd)
Their troops in thirty sable vessels sweep,
With equal oars, the hoarse-resounding deep.
The Phocians next in forty barks repair;
Epistrophus and Schedius head the war:
From those rich regions where Cephisus leads
His silver current through the flowery meads;
From Panoptia, Clirysa the divine,
Where Anemoria's stately turrets shine,
Where Pytho, Daulis Cyparissus stood.
And fair Lilaj views the rising flood.
These, ranged in order on the floating tide,
Close, on the left, the bold Boeotian's side.
Fierce Ajax led the Locrian squadrons on,
Ajax the less, Oileus' valiant son;
Skill'd to direct the flying dart aright;
Swift in pursuit, and active in the fight.
Him, as their chief, the chosen troops attend,
Which Bessa, Thronus, and rich Cynos send;
Opus, Calliarus, and Scarphe's bands;
And those who dwell wliere pleasing Augia stands,
And where Boiigrius floats the lowly lands,
Or in fair Tarphe's sylvan seats reside:
In forty vessels cut the yielding tide.
Euboea next her martial sons prepares,
And sends the brave x\bantes to the wars:
Breathing revenge, in arms they take their way
From Ohalcis' walls, and strong Eretria;
The Isteian fields for generous vines renown'd,
The fair Caristos, and the Styrian ground;
Where Dios from her towers o'erlooks the plain,
And high Cerinthus views the neighboring main.
Down their broad shoulders falls a length of hair;
Their hands dismiss not the long lance in air;
But with protended spears in fighting fields
Pierce the tough corslets and the brazen shields.
Twice twenty ships transport the warlike bands,
Which bold Elpheiujr, fierce in arms, commands.
Fully fifty more from Athens stem the main.
Led by Menestheus through the liquid plain.
(Athens the fair, where great Erectheiis sway'd,
That owed his nurture to the blue-eyed maid,
But from the teeming furrow took his birth,
The mighty offspring of the foodful earth.
THE ILIAD. 105
Him Pallas placed amidst her wealthy fane,
Adored with sacrifice and oxen slain ;
Where, as the years revolve, her altars blaze,
And all the tribes resound the goddess' praise.)
No chief like thee, Menestheus! Greece could yield,
To marshal armies in the dusty field,
The extended wings of battle to display.
Or close the embodied host in firm array. "^
Nestor alone, improved by length of days,
For martial conduct bore an equal praise.
With these appear the Salaminian bauds.
Whom the gigantic Telamon commands;
In twelve black ships to Troy they steer their course,
And with the great Athenians join their force.
Next move to war the generous Argive train,
From high Troezene, and Maseta's j^lain,
And fair iEgina circled by the main:
Whom strong Tyrinthe's lofty walls surround,
And Epidaure with viny harvests crown'd:
And where fair Asinen and Hermoin show
Their cliffs above, and ample bay below.
These by the brave Eurylaus were led,
Great Sthenelus, and greater Diomed;
But chief Tydides bore the sovereign sway:
In fourscore barks they plough the watery way.
The proud ^lycene arms her martial powers,
Cleone, Corinth, with imperial towers,*
Fair Ar^thyrea, Ornia's fruitful plain,
And yEgion, and Adrastus' ancient reign;
And those who dwell along the sandy shore,
And where Peilene yields her fleecy store,
Where Ilelic^ and Ilyperesia lie.
And Gonoiissa's spires salute the sky.
Great Agamemnon rules the numerous band,
A hundred vessels in long order stand,
And crowded nations wait his dread command.
High on the deck the king of men appears.
And his refulgent arms in triumph wears;
Proiul of his host, unrivall'd in his reign,
In silent pomp he moves along the main.
*Tlie iiietition of Coriiitli is an aiiachronisin, as that city m as
called lOpliyrc Ix-fore its (•a])tiire by tli(! Dorians. JJiit Velloiiis,
vol. i. !>. '•'}, well ohscrvcH that tin- jioct wimid iiat iirally speak
of various towns and cities iiy the nani'js hy which they w(^re
kiiowu in his own tinu;.
106 TEE ILIAD.
His brother follows, and to vengeance warms
The hardy Spartans, exercised in arms:
Pliares and Brysia's valiant troops, and those
Whom Lacedaemon's lofty hills inclose;
Or Messe's towers for silver doves renown'd,
Amycla?, Laas, Augia's happy ground,
And those whom CEtylos' low walls contain,
And Helos, on the margin of the main:
These, o'er the bending ocean, Helen's canse,
In sixty ships with Menelaiis draws:
Eager and loud from man to man he flies,
Eevenge and fury flaming in his eyes;
While vainly fond, in fancy oft he hears
The fair one's grief, and sees her falling tears.
In ninety sail, from Pylos' sandy coast,
Nestor the sage conducts his chosen host:
Prom Amphigenia's ever-fruitful land,
Where ^py high, and little Pteleon stand;
Where beauteous Arene her structures shows,
And Thryon's walls Alpheus' streams inclose:
And Dorion, famed for Thamyris' disgrace,
Superior once of all the tuneful race.
Till, vain of mortals' empty praise, he strove
To match the seed of cloud-compelling Jove!
Too daring bard! whose unsuccessful pride
The immortal Muses in their art defied.
The avenging .Muses of the light of day
Deprived his eyes, and snatch'd his voice away;
No more his heavenly voice was heard to sing,
His hand no more awaked the silver string.
Where under high Cyllene, crown'd with wood,
The shaded tomb of old ^pytus stood;
From Eipe, Stratie, Tegea's bordering towns.
The Phenean fields, and Orchomenian downs,
AVhere the fat herds in plenteous pasture rove;
And Stymphelus with her surrounding grove;
Parrhasia, on her snowy cliffs reclined,
And high Enispe shook by wintry wind.
And fair Mantinea's ever-pleasing site;
In sixty sail the Arcadian bands unite.
Bold Agapenor, glorious at their head,
(Ancaeus' son) the mighty squadron led.
Their ships, supplied by Agamemnon's care,
Through roaring seas tlie wondering warriors bear
TEE ILIAD. 107
The first to battle ou the appointed plain,
But new to all the dangers of the main.
Those, where fair Elis and Buprasium join;
Whom Hyrmin, here, and Myrsinus confine.
And bounded there, where o'er the valleys rose
The Olenian rock; and where Alisium flows;
Beneath four chiefs (a numerous army) came:
The strength and glory of the Epean name.
In separate squadrons these their train divide,
Each leads ten vessels through the yielding tide.
Ooe was Amphimachus, and Thalpius one;
(Eurytus' this, and that Teiitus' son;)
Diores sprung from Amarynceus' line;
And great Polyxenns, of force divine.
But those who view fair Elis o'er the seas
From the blest islands of the Echinades,
In forty vessels under Meges move.
Begot by Phyleus, the beloved of Jove:
To strong Dulichium, from his sire he fled.
And thence to Troy his hardy warriors led.
Ulysses followed through the watery road,
A chief, in wisdom equal to a god.
With those whom Cephalenia's line Inclosed,
Or till their fields along the coast opposed;
Or where fair Ithaca o'erlooks the floods.
Where high Neritos shakes his waving woods,
Where iEgilipa's rugged sides are seen,
Crocylia rocky, and Zacynthus green.
These in twelve galleys with vermilion prores.
Beneath his conduct sought the Phrygian shores.
Thoas came next, Andrsemon's valiant son,
From Pleuron's walls, and chalky Calydon,
And rough Pylene, and the Olenian steep.
And Chalcis,"'beaten by the rolling deep.
He led the warriors from the ^tolian shore,
P'or now the sons of CEnous were no more!
The glories of the mighty race were fled!
ffiueus himself, and Meleager dead!
To Thoas' care now trust the martial train,
llis forty vessels follow through the main.
Next, eighty barks the Cretan king commands.
Of Gnossus, Lyctus, and Gortyna's bands;
And those who" dwi^li where lihytion's domes arise,
Or white Lycastus glitters to the skies.
108 THE ILIAD.
Or where by Phfestns silver Jardau rims; ,
Crete's hundred cities ponr t'ortli all her sons.
These march'd, Idoinonens, beneath thy care,
And Merion, dreadful as the god of war.
Tlepolemus, the son of Hercules,
Led nine swift vessels through the foamy seas.
From Rhodes, with everlasting sunshine bright,
Jalyssus, Lindus, and Camirus white.
Ilis captive mother fierce Alcides bore
From Eph yr's walls and Selle's winding shore,
"Where mighty towns in ruins spread the plain.
And saw their blooming warriors early slain.
The hero, when to manly years he grew,
Alcides' uncle, old Licymnius, slew;
For this, constrain'd to quit his native place,
And shun the vengeance of the Herculean race,
A fleet he built, and with a numerous train
Of willing exiles wander'd o'er the main;
Where, many seas and many sufferings past.
On happy Rhodes the chief arrived at last:
Therein three tribes divides his native band.
And rules them peaceful in a foreign land ;
Increased and prosper'd in their new abodes
By mighty Jove, the sire of men and gods;
With joy they saw the growing empire rise.
And showers of wealth descending from the skies.
Three ships with Nireus sought the Trojan shore,
Nireus, whom Agiile to Charopus bore,
Nireus, in faultless shape and blooming grace,
The loveliest youth of all the Grecian race;*
Pel ides only match 'd his early charms;
But few his troops, and small his strength in arms.
Next thirty galleys cleave the liquid plain.
Of those Calydnse's sea-girt isles contain;
With them the youth of Nisyrus repair.
Casus the strong, and Crapathus the fair;
Cos, where Eurypylus possess'd the sway.
Till groat Alcides made the realms obey:
Tliese Antiphus and bold Phidippus bring.
Sprung from the god by Thessalus the king.
Now, Muse, recount Pelasgic Argos' powers.
From Alos, Alope, and Trechin's towers:
* " Adam, the goodliest man of men since born,
His sons, the fairest of lier daiigliters Eve."
— " Paradise Lost," iv. 333.
TEE ILIAD. 109
From Phthia's spacious vales; and Hella, bless'd
With female beauty far beyoud the rest.
Full fifty ships beneath Achilles care,
The Achaians, Myrmidons, Hellenians bear;
Thessalians all, though various in their wame;
The same their nation, and their chief the same.
But now inglorious, stretch'd along the shore,
They hear the brazen voice of war no more;
No more the foe they face in dire array:
Close in his fleet the angry leader lay;
Since fair Briseis from his arms was torn,
The noblest spoil from sack'd Lyrnessus borne,
Then, when the chief the Theban walls o'erthrew,
And the bold sons of great Evenus slew.
There mourn'd Achilles, plunged in depth of care
But soon to rise in slaughter, blood, and war.
To these the youth of Phylace succeed,
Itona, famous for her fleecy breed,
And grassy Pteleon deck'd with cheerful greens,
The bowers of Ceres, and the sylvan scenes.
Sweet Pyrrhasus, with blooming flowerets crown'd.
And Antron's watery dens, and cavern'd ground.
These own'd, as chief, Protesilas the brave,
Who now lay silent in the gloomy grave:
The first who boldly touch'd the Trojan shore,
And dyed a Phrygian lance with Grecian gore;
There lies, far distant from liis native plain;
Uufinish'd his proud i^alaces remain.
And his sad consort beats her breast in vain.
His troops in forty ships Podarces led,
Iphiclus' son, and brother to the dead;
Nor he unworthy to command the host;
Yet still they moui'ii'd their ancient leader lost.
The men who (Jlaj)liyra's fair soil [)artake,
Where hills incircle Bathe's lowly lake,
AVhere Pluvre hears the neighljoring waters fall,
Or proud lolcus lifts her airy wall.
In ten black ships ombark'd for llion'e shore,
Witli bold Euniehis, whom Alcoste bore:
All i'elias' race Alcestc far outsliined.
The grace and glory of the hcauUious kind.
The troops Methone or 'I'liaumacla yields,
Olizon's rocks, or ]\I(!lil)(i;a\s fields.
With Piiiloctetes sail'd, whose matchless art
From the tough bow directs the feather'd dart.
110 THE ILIAD.
Seven were his ships; each vessel fifty row,
Skill'd ill his science of the dart and bow. _
But he la}^ raging on the Lemnian ground,
A poisonous hydra gave the burning wound;
There groau'd the chief in agonizing pain,
AVhom Greece at length shall wish, nor wish in vain.
His forces Medou led from Lemnos' shore,
Oi'leus' son, whom beauteous Ehena bore.
The Qilchalian race, in those high towers contain'd.
Where once Eurytus in proud triumph reign'd,
Or where her humbler turrets Tricca rears,
Or where Ithome, rough with rocks, appears,
In thirty sail the sparkling waves divide,
AYhich Podalirius and Machaon guide.
To these his skill their parent-god imparts,
Divine professors of the healing arts.
The bold Ormenian and Asterian bands
In forty barks Eurypylus commands.
Where Titan hides his hoary head in snow.
And where Hyperia's silver fountains flow.
Thy troops, Argissa, Poly pates leads.
And Eleon shelter'd by Olympus' shades,
Gyrtone's warriors; and where Orthd lies.
And Oloosson's chalky cliffs arise.
Sprung from Pirithoiis of immortal race,
The fruit of fair Hippodame's embrace,
(That day, when hurl'd from Pelion's cloudy head,
To distant dens the shaggy Centaurs fled)
With Polypoetes join'd in equal sway
Lonteus leads, and forty ships obey.
In twenty sail the bold Perrhaebians came
From Cyphus, Guneus Avas their leader's name.
With these the Enians join'd, and those who freeze
Where cold Dodona lifts her holy trees;
Or where the pleasing Titaresius glides,
And into Peneus rolls his easy tides;
Yet o'er the silvery surface pure they flow.
The sacred stream unmix'd with streams below,
Sacred and awful! from the dark abodes
Styx pours them forth, the dreadful oath of gods!
Last, under Protbous the Magnesians stood,
(Prothous the SAvift, of old Tenthredon's blood;)
Who dwell where Pelion, crown'd with piny boughs,
Obscures the glade, and nods his shaggy brows;
THE ILIAD. Ill
Or where through flowery Tempe Peneus stray'd:
(The region stretch M beneath his mighty shade:)
In forty sable barks they stemui'd the main;
Such were the chiefs, and such the Grecian train.
Say next, Muse I of all Achaia breeds,
Who bravest fought, or reiu'd the noblest steeds?
Eumelus' mares were foremost in the chase,
As eagles fleet, and of Pheretian race;
Bred where Pieria's fruitful fountains flow.
And train 'd by him who bears the silver bow.
Fierce in the tight their uostrils breathed a flame,
Their height, their color, and their age the same;
O'er fields of death they whirl the rapid car.
And break the ranks, and thunder through the war.
AJax in arms the first renown acquired.
While stern Achilles in his wrath retired:
(His was the strength that mortal might exceeds,
And his the unrivall'd race of heavenly steeds:)
But Thetis' son now shines in arms no more;
His troops, neglected on tlie sandy shore.
In empty air their sportive javelins throw.
Or whirl the disk, or bend an idle bow:
Unstain'd with blood his cover'd chariots stand;
The immortal coursers graze along the strand;
But the brave chiefs tae inglorious life deplored,
And, wamiering o'er the camp, required their lord.
Now, like a deluge, covering all around.
The shining armies sweep along the ground;
Swift as a flood of fire, when storms arise.
Floats the wild field, and blazes to the skies.
Earth groan'd beneath them; as when angry Jove
Hurls down the forky lightning from above,
On Arime when he the thunder throws,
And fires Typhosus with redoubled blows.
Where Typhon, press'd beneath the burning load,
Still feels the fury of the avenging god.
But various Iris, Jove's commands to bear,
Speeds on the wings of winds through liquid air;
In Priam's porch the Trojan ciiiefs she found,
The old consulting, and tlio youths arctund,
Polites' Hha])e, the monarch's son, she chose,
Who from ^Esetes' tomb observed the foes,*
* ^HCtes' tovih. Monuments were often built on the seuuoast,
and of a considerable heij^lit, so as to serve as watcli-towers or
landmarks. See my notes to my prose translations of the
" Odyssey," ii. p. 31, or on Eur. " Alcesi." vol. i. p. 240.
112 TEE ILIAD.
High on the monnd; from whence in prospect lay
The fields, the tents, the navy, and the bay.
In this dissembled form, she hastes to bring
The unwelcome message to the Phrygian king.
"Cease to consult, the time for action calls;
War, horrid war, approaches to your walls!
Assembled armies oft have I beheld;
But ne'er till now such numbers charged a field:
Thick as autumnal leaves or driving sand.
The moving squadrons blacken all the strand.
Thou, godlike Hector! all thy force employ,
Assemble all the united bauds of Troy;
In just array let every leader call
The foreign troops: this day demands them all!"
The voiced divine the mighty chief alarms;
The council breaks, the warriors rush to arms.
The gates unfolding pour forth all their train,
Nations on nations fill the dusky plain.
Men, steeds, and chariots, shake the trembling ground.
The tumult thickens, and the skies resound.
Amidst the plain, in sight of Ilion, stands
A rising mount, the work of human hands;
(This for Myrinne's tomb the immortals know,
Though cali'd Bateia in the world below;)
Beneath their chiefs in martial order here,
The auxiliar troops and Trojan hosts appear.
The godlike Hector, high above the rest.
Shakes his huge spear, and nods his plumy crest:
In throngs around his native bands repair,
And groves of lances glitter in the air.
Divine ^'Eneas brings the Dardan race,
Anchises' son, by Venus' stolen embrace,
Born in the shades of Ida's secret grove;
(A mortal mixing with the queen of love;)
Archilochus and Acamas divide
The warrior's toils, and combat by his side.
Who fair Zeleia's wealthy valleys till,*
Fast by the foot of Ida's sacred hill,
Or drink, yEsepus, of thy sable flood,
Were led by Pandarus, of royal blood;
To whom his art Apollo deign'd to show,
Graced witii the presents of his shafts and bow.
* Zeleia, another name for Lycia. The inhabitants were greatly
devoted to the worship of Apollo. See Miiller, " Dorians," vol. i.
p. 248.
TUE ILIAD. 113
From rich Apjesns and Adrestia's towers,
High Teree's summits and Pityea's bowers;
From these the congregated troops obey
Young Aniphius and Adrastus' equal sway;
Old Merops' sons; whom, skill'd in fates to come,
The sire forewaru'd, and prophesied their doom:
Fate urged them on! the sire forewarn'd in vain,
They rush'd to war, and perish'd on the plain.
From Practius' stream, Percotes pasture lands.
And Sestos and Abydos neighboring strands,
From great Arisba's walls and Selle's coast,
Asius Hyrtacides conducts his host:
High on his car he shakes the flowing reins,
His fiery coursers thunder o'er the plains.
The fierce Pelasgi next, in war renown'd,
March from Larissa's ever-fertile ground:
In equal arms their brother leaders shine,
Hippothous bold, and Pyleus the divine.
Next Acamas and Pyrous lead their hosts.
In dread array, from Thracia's wintry coasts;
Round the bleak realms where Hellespontus roars,
And Boreas beats the hoarse-resounding shores.
With great Euphemus the Ciconiaus move.
Sprung from Troezenian Ceiis, loved by Jove.
Pyrffichmes the Pteonian troops attend,
Skill'd in the fight their crooked bows to bend;
From Axiiis' ample bed he leads them on,
Axius, that laves the distant Amydon,
Axius, that swells with all his neighboring rills,
And wide around the floating region fills.
The Paphlagonians Pyhvmenes rules,
Where rich llenetia breeds her savage mules.
Where Erythinus' rising cliffs are seen.
Thy groves of box, Cytorus! ever green,
And Avhere vEgialus and Cromna lie,
And lofty Sesamus invades the sky,
And wheie Parthenius, roU'd through banks of flowers,
Iteflects her bordering palaces and bowers.
Here march'd in arms the Halizonian band.
Whom Odius and Epistrophiis conimaiid.
From those far regions where the sun refines
The ripeiiiiiLj silver in Alyb(!;in niiiios.
Tht'i'o iiiiiility Cliromi.s UmI the ^Mysian train.
And augur Enuomus, inspired in vain;
114 THE ILIAD.
For stern Achilles lopp'd his sacred head,
lioll'd down Scaniander with the Yiijf^ar dead.
Phorcys and brave Ascanius here uiiite
The Ascanian Phrygians eager for the fight.
Of tiiose who ronnd Mseonia's realms reside,
Or whom the vales in shades of Tmolus hide,
Mestles and Antiphus the charge partake,
Born on the banks of Gyges' silent lake.
There, from the ticlds where wild Marauder flows,
High Mycale, and Latmos' shady brows,
And proud Miletus, came the Carian throngs,
With mingled clamors and with barbarous tongues.*
Amphimachus and JSTaustes guide the train,
Naustes the bold, Amphimachus the vain,
Who, trick'd with gold, and glitteriug on his car,
Eode like a woman to the field of war.
Fool that he was! by fierce Achilles slain.
The river swept him to the briny main:
There whelm'd with waves the gaudy warrior lies,
The valiant victor seized the golden prize.
The forces last in fair array succeed,
Which blameless Glaucus and Sarpedon lead
The warlike bands that distant Lycia yields.
Where gulfy Xanthus foams along the fields.
* Barbaroua tongues. "Various as were tlie dialects of tlie
Greeks — and these differences existed not only between the several
tribes, but even between neighboring cities — they yet acknowl-
edged in their language that they formed but one nation — were
but branches of the same family. Homer has ' men of other
tongues;' and yet Homer had no general name for the Greek
nation." — Heereu, " Ancient Greece," § vii. p. 107, sq.
THE ILIAD. 115
BOOK III.
AEGUMENT.
THE DUEL OF MENELAUS AND PARIS.
The armies being ready to engage, a single combat is agreed upon
between Menelaiis and Paris (by tlie intervention of Hector)
for the determination of the war. Iris is sent to call Helen
to behold the fight. She leads her to the walls of Troy,
where Priam sat with his counsellors observing the Grecian
leaders on the plain below, to whom Helen gives an account
of the chief of them. The kings on either part take the
solemn oath for the conditions of the combat. The duel
ensues; wherein Paris being overcome, he is snatched away
in a cloud by Venus, and transported to his apartment. She
then calls Helen from the walls, and bring the lovers together.
Agamemnon, on the part of the Grecians, demands the res-
toration of Helen, and the performance of the articles.
The three-and-twentieth day still continues throughout
this book. The scene is sometimes in the fields before Troy,
and sometimes in Troy itself.
Thus by their leaders' care each martial band
Moves into ranks, and stretches o'er the land.
With shouts the Ti'ojans, rushing from afar,
Proclaim their motions, and provoke the war.
So when inclement winters vex the plain
With piercing frosts, or thick-descending rain,
To warmer seas the cranes emljodied 11}',*
With noise, and order, through the midway sky;
To pigmy nations wounds and death they bring,
And all the war descends upon the wing,
* The cranes.
" Marltiiig the tracts of air, the clamorous cranes
Wheel lh(ur due flight in varied ranks descries!:
And each with outstretcli'd neck his ranic maintains,
In marshallM order through tii' ctliereal void."
— Jjort^Mzo (1<; .Medici, in Uoacoe's Life, Appendix.
See Gary's Dante: " Hell," canto v.
IIQ TEE ILIAD.
But silent, breathing rage, resolved and skill'd*
By nuitual aids to Ox a doubtful field,
Swift march the Greeks: tlie rapid dust around
Darkening arises from the labor'd ground.
Thus from his flaggy wings when Nohis sheds
A night of vapors round the mountain heads,
Swift-gliding mists the dusky fields invade,
To thieves more grateful than the midnight shade;
While scarce the swains their feeding flocks survey,
Lost and confused amidst the thicken'd day:
So wrapp'd in gathering dust, the Grecian train,
A moving cloud, swept on, and hid the plain.
Now front to front the hostile armies stand,
Eager of fight, and only wait command;
When, to the van, before the sons of fame
Whom Troy sent forth, the beauteous Paris came:
In form a god! the panther's speckled hide
Flow'd o'er his armor with an easy pride:
His bended bow across his shoulders flung,
His sword beside him negligently hung;
Two pointed spears he shook with gallant grace,
And dared the bravest of the Grecian race.
As thus, with glorious air and proud disdain,
He boldly stalk'd, the foremost on the plain,
Him Menelaiis, loved of Mars, espies.
With heart elated, and with joyful eyes:
So joys a lion, if the branching deer,
Or mountain goat, his bulky prize, appear;
Eager he seizes and devours the slain,
Press'd by bold youths and baying dogs in vain.
Thus fond of vengeance, with a furious bound,
In clanging arms he leaps upon the ground
From his high chariot: him, approaching near,
The beauteous champion views with marks of fear,
Smit with a conscious sense, retires behind.
And shuns the fate he well deserved to find.
As when some shepherd, from the rustling treesf
* JSilent, breathing rage.
" Thus tbey
Breathing united force with fixed thought.
Moved on iu silence."
— " Paradise Lost," book 1. 559.
f " As when some peasant in a bushy bralve
Has with unwary footing press'd a snake;
He starts aside, astonish'd when he spies
His rising crest, blue neck, and rolling eyes."
— Dry den's Virgil, ii. 510.
THE ILIAD. 117
Shot forth to view, a sculy serpent sees,
Trembling and pale, he starts with wild affright
And all confused precipitates his flight:
So from the king the shining warrior flies.
And plunged amid the thickest Trojans lies.
As godlike Hector sees the prince retreat,
He thus upbraids him with a generous heat:
*'Unhapp\' ParisI* but to women brave!
So fairly form'd, and only to deceive!
Oh, hadst thou died when first thou saw'st the light,
Or died at least before thy nuptial rite!
A better fate than vainly thus to boast,
And fly, the scandal of thy Trojan host.
Gods! how the scornful Greeks exult to see
Their fears of danger undeceived in thee!
Thy figure promised with a martial air,
But ill thy soul supplies a form so fair.
In former days, in all thy gallant pride,
AVhen thy tall ships triumphant stemm'd the tide,
When Greece beheld thy painted canvas flow,
And crowds stood wondering at the passing show.
Say, was it thus, with such a baffled mien.
You met the approaches of the Spartan queen,
Thus from her realm conveyed the beauteous prize.
And both her warlike lords outshined in Helen's eyes?
This deed, thy foes' delight, thy own disgrace,
Thy father's grief, and ruin of thy race;
This deed recalls thee to tlie profl"er'd fight;
Or hast thou injured whom thou dars't not right?
Soon to thy cost the field would make thee know
Thou keep'st the consort of a braver foe.
Thy graceful form instilling soft desire.
Thy curling tresses, and thy silver lyre,
Beauty and youth; in vain to these you trust.
When youth and beauty shall be laid in dust:
Troy yet may wake, and one avenging blow
Crush the dire author of his country's woe."
His silence here, with blushes, Paris breaks:
** 'Tis just, my brotlicr, what your anger speaks:
But who like thee can boast a soul sedate,
So firmly proof to all the shocks of fate?
* ^v67rapi<!, i. e., unlucky, ill-fate'l Paris. Tliis nlhides to the
fvils wliicli resultfttl from liis liuving bueu brought up, desi)ite
the omens which attended his birth.
118 THE ILIAD.
Thy force, like steel, a temper'd hardness shows,
Still edged to woinid, and still uiitired with blows,
Like steel, uplifted by some strenuous swain.
With falling woods to strew the wasted plain.
Thy gifts I praise; nor thou despise the charms
With which a lover golden Venus arms;
Soft moving speech, and pleasing outward show,
No wish can gain them, but the gods bestow.
Yet, would'st thou have the profl'er'd combat stand,
The Greeks and Trojans seat on either hand;
Then let a midway space our hosts divide,
And, on that stage of war, the cause be tried:
By Paris there the Spartan king be fought.
For beauteous Helen and the wealth she brought;
And who his rival can in arms subdue,
His be the fair, and his the treasure too.
Thus with a lasting league your toils may cease,
And Troy possess her fertile fields in peace;
Thus may the Greeks review their native shore.
Much famed for generous steeds, for beauty more.'*
He said. The challenge Hector heard with joy,
Then with his spear restrain'd the youth of Troy,
Held by the midst, athwart; and near the foe
Advanced with steps majestically slow;
While round his dauntless head the Grecians pour
Their stones and arrows in a mingled shower.
Then thus the monarch, great Atrides, cried:
"Forbear, ye warriors! lay the darts aside:
A parley Hector asks, a message bears;
We know him by the various plume he wears.'*
Awed by his high command the Greeks attend.
The tumult silence, and the fight suspend.
While from the center Hector rolls his eyes
On either host, and thus to both applies:
"Hear, all ye Trojan, all ye Grecian bands.
What Paris, author of the war, demands.
Your shining swords within the sheath restrain.
And pitch your lances in the yielding plain.
Here in the midst, in either army's sight.
He dares the Spartan king to single fight;
And wills that Helen and the ravish'd spoil.
That caused the contest, shall reward the toil.
Let these the brave triumphant victor grace.
And different nations part in leagues of peace."
He spoke: in still suspense on either side
Each army stood: the Spartan chief replied:
THE ILIAD. 110
"Me too, ye warriors, hear, whose fatal right
A world engages in the toils of fight.
To me the labor of the field resign;
Me Paris injured; all the war be mine.
Fall he that mast, beneath his rival's arms;
And live the rest, secure of future harms.
Two lambs, devoted by your country's rite.
To earth a sable, to the sun a white.
Prepare, ye TrojansI while a third we bring
Select to Jove, the inviolable king.
Let reverend Priam in the truce engage.
And add the sanction of considerate age;
His sons are faithless, headlong in debate,
And youth itself an empty wavering state;
Cool age advances, venerably wise.
Turns on all hands its deep-discerning eyes;
Sees what befell, and what may yet befall.
Concludes from both, and best provides for all.
The nations hear witli rising hopes possess'd.
And peaceful prospects dawn in every breast.
Within the lines they drew their steeds around.
And from their cliariots issued on the ground:
Next, all unbuckling the rich mail they wore,
Laid their bright arms along the sable shore.
On either side the meeting hosts are seen
With lances fix'd, and close the space between.
Two heralds now, dispatch'd to Troy, invite
The Phrygian monarch to the peaceful rite.
Talthybius hastens to the fleet, to bring
The ia;nb for Jove, the inviolable king.
Meantime to beauteous Helen, from the skies
The various goddess of the rainbow flies:
(Like fair Laodice in form and face,
The loveliest nymph of Priam's royal race:)
Her in the palace, at her loom she found ;
The golden web her own sad story crown'd,
The Trojan wars she weavcd {herself the prize),
And the dire triumphs of her fatal eyes.
To whom the goddess of tjje painted bow:
"Approach, and view the wondrous scene below!*
* The following scene, in wliicli lloincr lias contrived to intro-
duce so brilliant a sketch of the (irecian warriors, has been im-
itated by Euripides who in bis " Phccnissfc " represents Anti-
gone survpying the opposing champions from a hitrh tower whilu
the psedagogus describes their insignia and dciails their histories.
120 THE ILIAD.
Each hardy Greek, and valiant Trojan knight.
So dreadful late, and furious for the fight,
Now rest their spears, or lean upon their shields;
Ceased is the war, and silent all the fields.
Paris alone and Sparta's king advance,
In single fight to toss the beamy lance;
Each met in arms, the fate of combat tries, _
Thy love the motive, and thy charms the prize.'*
This said, the many-colored maid inspires
Her husband's love, and wakes her former fires;
Her country, parents, all that once were dear.
Rush to her thought, and force a tender tear.
O'er her fair face a snowy veil she threw,
And, softly sighing, from the loom withdrew.
Her handmaids, Olymene and /Ethra, wait
Her silent footsteps to the Scfean gate.
There sat the seniors of the Trojan race:
(Old Priam's chiefs, and most in Priam's grace,)
The king the first; Thyniffites at his side;
Lampus and Clytius, long in council tried;
Panthns, and Hicetilon, once the strong;
And next, the wisest of the reverend throng,
Antenor grave, and sage Ucalegon,
Lean'd on the walls and bask'd before the sun:
Chiefs, who no more in bloody fights engage.
Bat wise through time, and narrative with age.
In summer days, like grasshoppers rejoice,
A bloodless race, that send a feeble voice.
These, when the Spartan queen approach'd the tower
In secret own'd resistless beauty's jiower:
They cried, "No wonder* such celestial charms
For nine long years have set the world in arms;
What winning graces! what majestic mien!
She moves a goddess, and she looks a queen!
Yet hence, Heaven, convey that fatal face,
And from destruction save the Trojan race."
The good old Priam welcomed her, and cried,
"Approach, my child, and grace thy father's side.
See on the plain thy Grecian spouse appears.
The friends and kindred of thy former years.
No crime of thine our present sufferings draws.
Not thou, but Heaven's disposing will, the cause
* No wonder, etc. Zeuxis, tlie celebrated artist, is said to liave
appended these lines to his picture of Helen, as a motto. Valer.
Max. iii. 7.
THE ILIAD. 121
The gods these armies and this force employ,
The hostile gods conspire the fate of Troy.
Bnt lift thy eyes, and say, what Greek is he
(Far as from hence tliese aged orhs can see)
Around whose brow such martial graces shine,
So tall, so awful, and almost divine!
Though some of larger stature tread the green,
None match his grandeur and exalted mien;
He seems a monarch, and his country's pride.'*
Thus ceased the king, and thus the fair replied:
"Before thy presence, father, I appear.
With conscious shame and reverential fear.
Ah! had I died, ere to these walls I fled.
False to my country, and my nuptial bed;
My brothers, friends, and daughter left behind,
False to them all, to Paris only kind!
For this I mourn, till grief or dire disease
Shall waste the form whose fault it was to please!
The king of kings, Atrides, you survey,
Great in the war, and great in arts of sway:
My brother once, before my days of shame! "
And oh! that still he bore a brother's name!'*
With wonder Priam view'd the godlike man,
Extoll'd the happy prince, and thus began:
"0 bless'd Atrides! born to prosperous fate,
Successful monarch of a mighty state!
IIow vast thy empire! Of your matchless train
Wliat numbers lost, what numbers yet remain!
In Phrygia once Avere gallant armies known.
In ancient time, when Otreus lill'd the throne,
When godlike Mygdon led their troops of horse.
And I, to join them, raised the Trojan force:
Against the numlike Amazons we stood,*
And Sanger's stream ran purple with their blood.
*'riie early epic was larj^cly occupied with tlui exploits and
sufTcriiigs of women, or lieroines, tlie wives and (lauglil(!rsof tlio
Grecian heroes. A nation of courageous, hardy, indefatigable
women, dwelling apart from men, permitting only a short tem-
y)orary intercoursf;, for tlic; purpose of renovating their numlx^rs,
Ijurning out their right breast with a view of enal)liiig themselves
to draw the bow freely; tliis was at once a geiienil ty])e, stimulat-
ing to the fancy of the poet, and a tlieme eminently jxjpular with
liis liearers. \A'e find these warlike f{^mah;s constantly reajjjxiar-
ing in tlie ancient [)oems, and universally acce])ted as past realities
in the Iliad. When I'rian. wishes to illustrate emphatically the
Uio.st numerous Lost iu which he ever found hiiusell' iucJuded, he
123 THE ILIAD.
])ut far inferior those, in martial grace,
And strength of nnnibers, to this Grecian race."
This saicl, once more he view'd the warrior train;
"What's he, whose arms lie scatter'd on the plain?"
Broad is his breast, his shoulders larger spread,
Though great Atrides overtops his head.
Nor yet appear his care and conduct small;
From rank to rank he moves, and orders all.
The statelv ram thus measures o'er the ground,
And, master of the flock, surveys them round."
Theu Helen thus: "Whom your discerning eyes
Have singled out, is Itliacus the wise;
A barren island boasts his glorious birth;
His fame for wisdom fills the spacious earth."
Antenor took the word, and thus began:*
"Myself, king! have seen that wondrous man
When, trusting Jove and hospitable laws,
To Troy he came, to plead the Grecian cause;
(Great Menelaiis urged the same request;)
My house was honor'd with each royal guest:
I knew their persons, and admired their parts,
Both brave in arms, and both approved in arts.
Erect, the Spartan most engaged our view;
Ulysses seated, greater reverence drew.
When Atreus' son harangued the listening train,
Just was his sense, and his expression plain.
His words succinct, yet full, without a fault:
He spoke no more than just the thing he ought.
But when Ulysses rose, in thought profound, f
tells us that it was assembled in Plirygia, on the banks of the
Sangarius, for the purpose of resisting the formidable Amazons.
When Bellerophon is to be employed in a deadly and perilous
undertaking, by those who prudently wished to procure his death,
he is despatched against the Amazons. — Grote, vol. i. p. 289.
* Anteyior, like ^neas, had always been favorable to the res-
toration of Helen. Liv. 1. 1.
f " His lab'ring heart with sudden rapture seized
He paus'd, and on the ground in silence gazed.
Unskill'd and uninspired lie seems to stand,
Nor lifts the eye, nor graceful moves the hand:
Theu, while the chiefs instill attention hung,
Pours the full tide of eloquence along;
While from his lips the melting torrent flows,
Soft as the fleeces of descending snows.
Now stronger notes engage the listening crowd,
Louder the accents rise, and yet more loud.
Like thunders rollina; from a distant cloud."
—Merrick's " Sryphiodorus," 148, 99.
THE ILIAD. 123
His modest eyes he fix'd upon the ground;
As one nnskill'd or dumb, he seem'd to stand,
Nor raised his head, nor stretch'd his sceptred hand;
But, when he speaks, what elocution flows!
Soft as the fleeces of descending snows,*
The copious accents fall, with easy art;
Melting they fall, and sink into the heart!
Wondering we hear, and fix'd in deep surprise,
Our ears refute the censure of our eyes."
The king then ask'd (as yet the camp he view'd)
"What chief is that, with giant strength endued,
Whose brawny shoulders, and whose swelling chest,
And lofty stature, far exceed the rest?"
"Ajax the great (the beauteous queen replied).
Himself a host: the Grecian strength and pride.
See! bold Idomeneus superior towers
Amid yon circle of his Cretan powers,
Great as a god! I saw him once before,
With Menelaiis on the Spartan shore.
The rest I know, and could in order name;
All valiant chiefs, and men of mighty fame.
Yet two are wanting of the numerous train.
Whom long my eyes have sought, but sought in vain:
Castor and Pollux, first in martial force.
One bold on foot, and one renown'd for horse.
My brothers tliese; the same our native shore,
One house contain'd us, as one mother bore.
Perhaps the chiefs, from warlike toils at ease,
For distant Troy refused to sail the seas;
Perhaps their swords some nobler quarrel draws.
Ashamed to combat in their sister's cause."
So spoke the fair, nor knew her brothers' doom;f
Wrapt in the cold embraces of the tomb;
Adorn 'd witli honors in their native sliore.
Silent they slept, and heard of wars no more.
Meantime the lieralds, througli the crowded town.
Bring the ricli wine and destined victims down.
* Duport, " Gnoiiiol. Hoiiior," p. 20, well observes that this
comparison may also be sarcastically applied to the /rt^W style of
oratory. It, of course, here merely denotes the ready fluency of
Ulysses.
•f Her brother»' doom. They perished in combat with Lynceus
and Idas, whilst bHi<'f,'inir Sjiarta. See Ilyj^in. Poet. Asir. '.Vi, 22.
Virgil and others, however, make them share immortality by
turns.
124 2'^^^ ILIAD.
Idffius' arms the golden goblets press'd,*
AVho thus the venerable king address'd:
"Arise, father of the Trojuii state!
The nations call, thy joyful people wait
To seal the truce, and end the dire debate.
Paris, thy son, and Sparta's king advance,
In measured lists to toss the weighty lance;
And who his rival shall in arms subdue,
His be the dame_, and his the treasure too.
Thus with a lasting league our toils may cease,
And Troy possess her fertile fields in peace:
So shall the Greeks review their native shore.
Much famed for generous steeds, for beauty more.-''
With grief he heard, and bade the chiefs prepare
To join his milk-white coursers to the car;
He mounts the seat, Antenor at his side;
The gentle steeds through Scfea's gates they guide :f
Next from the car descending on the plain,
Amid the Grecian host and Trojan train.
Slow they proceed: the sage Ulysses then
Arose, and with him rose the king of men.
On either side a sacred herald stands.
The wine they mix, and on each monarch's hands
Pour the full urn; then draws the Grecian lord
His cutlass sheathed beside his ponderous sword;
From the sign'd victims crops the curling hair; J
The heralds part it, and the princes share;
Then loudly thus before the attentive bands
He calls the gods, and spreads his lifted hands:
"0 first and greatest power! whom all obey,
Who high on Ida's holy mountain sway.
Eternal Jove! and you bright orb that roll
From east to west, and view from pole to pole!
Thou mother Earth! and all ye living floods!
Infernal furies, and Tartarean gods.
Who rule the dead, and horrid woes prepare
For perjured kings, and all who falsely swear!
Hear, and be witness. If, by Paris slain,
Great Menelaiis press the fatal plain;
* Idseus was tbe arm-bearer and cliarioteer of king Priam, slain
during this war, Cf. ^n. vi. 487.
f Scan's gates, rather Sccean fjntes, i. e. the left-hand gates.
\ This was customary in all sacrifices. Hence we find Iras de-
scending to cul off the hair of Dido, before which she could not
expire.
THE ILIAD. 125
The dame and treasures let the Trojan keep,
And Greece returning plough the watery deep.
If by my brother's lance the Trojan bleed,
Be his the wealth and beauteous dame decreed:
The appointed hne let Ilion justly pay.
And every age record the signal day.
This if the Phrygians shall refuse to yield,
Arms must revenge, and Mars decide the field."
With that the chief the tender victims slew,
And in the dust their bleeding bodies threw;
The vital spirit issued at the wound.
And left the members quivering on the ground.
From the same urn they drink the mingled wine,
And add libations to the powers divine.
AVhile thus their prayers united mount the sky,
"Hear, mighty Jove! and hear, ye gods on high!
And may their blood, who first the league confound,
Shed like this wine, disdain the thirsty ground;
May all their consorts serve promiscuous lust.
And all their lust be scatter'd as the dust!"
Thus either host their imprecations join'd,
Which Jove refused, "^and mingled with the wind.
The rites now finisli'd, reverend Priam rose.
And tluis express'd a heart o'ercharged with woes:
"Ye Greeks and Trojans, let the chiefs engage,
But spare the weakness of my feeble age:
In yonder walls that object let me shun,
Xor view tlie danger of so dear a son.
Whose arms shall conquer and what prince shall fall,
Heaven only knows; for heaven disposes all."
This said, the hoary king no longer stay'd,
But on his car the slaughter'd victims laid:
Then seized the reins his gentle steeds to guide,
And drove to Troy, Antenor at his side.
Bold Hector and Ulysses now dispose
The lists of combat, and the ground inclose:
Next to decide, by sacred lots pre])are.
Who first shall launch his polluted spoar in air
The people pray with elevated hands.
And words like these are iieard through all the bands:
"Innuortal .Jove, high Heaven's su])ei'ior lord,
On lofty Ida's holy mount adored!
Whoe'er involved us in this dire debate,
give that autlxjr of the war to fate
126 TEE ILIAD.
And shades etertial! let division cease,
And joyful nations join in leagues of peace."
With eyes averted Hector hastes to turn
The lots of fight and shakes the brazen urn.
Then, Paris, thine leap'd forth; by fatal chance
Ordain'd the first to whirl the weighty lance.
Both armies sat the combat to survey.
Beside each chief his azure armor lay,
And round the lists the generous coursers neigh.
The beauteous warrior now arrays for fight.
In gilded arms magnificently bright:
The purple cuishes clasp his thighs around,
With flowers adorn'd, with silver buckles bound:
Lycaon's corslet his fair body dress'd.
Braced in and fitted to his softer breast;
A radiant baldric, o'er his shoulder tied,
Sustain'd the sword that glitter'd at his side:
His youthful face a polish'd helm o'erspread;
The waving horsehair nodded on his head;
His figured shield, a shining orb, he takes.
And in his hand a pointed javelin shakes.
With equal speed and fired by equal charms,
The Spartan hero sheathes his limbs in arms.
Now round the lists the admiring armies stand.
With javelins fix'd, the Greek and Trojan band.
Amidst the dreadful vale, the chiefs advance,
All pale with rage, and shake threatening lance.
The Trojan first his shining javelin threw;
Full on Atrides' ringing shield it flew.
Nor pierced the brazen orb, but with a bound*
Leap'd from the buckler, blunted, on the ground,
Atrides then his massy lance prepares.
In act to tlirow, but first prefers his jirayers:
"Give me, great Jove! to punish lawless lust,
And lay the Trojan gasping in the dust:
Destroy the aggressor, aid my righteous cause,
Avenge the breach of hospitable laws!
Let this example future times reclaim,
And guard from wrong fair friendship's holy name.'*
* Nor pierced.
" This said, his feeb]e band a jav'lin threw,
Which, fiutt'ring, seemed to loiter as it flew,
Just, and l)ut barely, to the mark it held,
And faintly tinkled on the brazen shield."
— Dryden's Virgil, ji. 743,
THE ILIAD. 127
He said, and poised in air the javelin sent,
Through Paris' shield the forceful weapon went,
His corslet pierces, and his garment rends,
And glancing downward, near his flank descends.
The wary Trojan, bending from the blow.
Eludes the death, and disappoints his foe:
But fierce Atrides waved his sword, and strook
Full on his casque: the crested helmet shook;
The brittle steel, unfaithful to his hand,
Broke short: the fragments glitter'd on the sand.
The raging warrior to the spacious skies
Raised his upbraiding voice and angr}^ eyes:
"Then is it vain in Jove himself to trust?
And is it thus the gods assist the just?
When crimes provoke us. Heaven success denies;
The dart falls harmless, and the falchion flies."
Furious he said, and toward the Grecian crew
(Seized by the crest) the unhappy warrior drew;
Struggling he foUow'd, while the embroider'd thong
That tied his helmet, dragg'd the chief along.
Then had his ruin crown'd Atrides' joy,
But Venus trembled for the prince of Troy:
Unseen she came, and burst the "-olden baud;
And left an empty helmet in his hand.
The casque, enraged, amidst the Greeks he threw;
The Greeks with smiles the polish'd trophy view,
Then, as once more he lifts the deadly dart,
In thirst of vengeance, at his rival's heart;
The queen of love her favor'd champion shrouds
(For gods can all things) in a veil of clouds.
Raised from the field the panting youth she led,
And gently laid him on the bridal bed.
With pleasing sweets his fainting sense renews,
And all the dome perfumes with heavenly dews.
]\Ieantime the brightest of the female kind.
The matchless Helen, o'er the walls reclined;
To her, beset with Trojan beauties, came,
In borrow'd form, the laughter-loving dame.
(Slio seom'd an ancient maid, wcll-skiU'd to cull
The snowy fleece, and wind the twisted wool.)
The goddess softly shook her silken vest,
That siied perfumes, and whisi)oring thus address'd:
"Haste, lia[)py nymph! for tlieo thy Paris calls,
Safe from the fight, in yonder lofty walls,
128 THE ILIAD.
Fair as a god; with odors round him spread,
He lies, and waits thee on the well-known bed
Not like a warrior parted from the foe.
But some gay dancer in the public show."
She spoke, and Helen's secret soul was moved;
She scorn'd the champion, but the man she loved.
Fair Venus' neck, her eyes that sparkled fire.
And breast, reveal'd the queen of soft desire.*
Struck with her presence, straight the lively red
Forsook her cheeks; and trembling, thus she said:
"Then is it still thy pleasure to deceive?
And woman's frailty always to believe!
Say, to new nations must I cross the main,
Or carry wars to some soft Asian plain?
For whom must Helen break her second vow?
What other Paris is thy darling now?
Left to Atrides, (victor in the strife,)
An odious conquest and a captive wife.
Hence let me sail; and if thy Paris bear
My absence ill, let Venus ease his care.
A handmaid goddess at his side to wait,
Eenouuce the glories of thy heavenly state,
Be fix'd forever to the Trojan shore.
His spouse, or slave; and mount the skies no more.
For me, to lawless love no longer led,
I scorn the coward, and detest his bed;
Else should I merit everlasting shame,
And keen reproach, from every Phyrgian dame:
HI suits it now the joys of love to know,
Too deep my anguish, and too wild my woe."
Tiien thus incensed, the Paphian queen replies:
"Obey the power from whom thy glories rise:
Should Venus leave thee, every charm must fly,
Fade from thy cheek, and languish in thy eye.
Cease to provoke me, lest I make thee more
The world's aversion, than their love before;
Now the bright jn-ize for which mankind engage,
Than, the sad victim of the public rage."
* Reveal'd the queen.
" Thus having said, she turn'd and made appear
Her neck refulgent and dishevell'd hair,
Which, flowing from lier shoulders, reach'd the ground,
And wldeh' spread ambrosial scents around.
In length of train descends her sweeping gown;
And, by her graceful walk, the queen of love is known."
— Dryden's Virgil, i. 556.
TUE ILIAD. 129
At this, the fairest of her sex obey'd,
And veil'd Jier blushes in the silken shade
Unseen, and silent, from the train she moves,
Led by the goddess of the Smiles and Loves.
Arrived, and enter'd at the palace gate.
The maids officious round their mistress wait;
Then, all dispersing, varions tasks attend;
The queen and goddess to the prince ascend.
Full in her Paris' sight, the queen of love
Had placed the beauteons j)rogeny of Jove;
Where, as he view'd her charms, she turn'd away
Her glowing eyes, and thus began to say:
"Is this the chief, who, lost to sense of shame,
Late fled the field, and yet survives his fame?
hadst thou died beneath the righteous sword,
Of that brave man who once I call'd my lord!
The boaster Paris oft desired the day
With Sparta's king to meet in single fray:
Go now, once more thy rival's rage excite,
Provoke Atrides, and renew the fight:
Yet Helen bids thee stay, lest thou unskilPd
Shonldst fall an easy conquest on the field."
The prince replies: "Ah cease, divinely fair,
Nor add reproaches to the wounds I bear;
This day the foe prevail 'd by Pallas' power:
We yet may vanquish in a happier hour:
There want not gods to favor us above;
But let the business of our life be love:
The softer moments let delights employ,
And kind embraces snatch the hasty Joy.
Not thus I loved thee, when from Sparta's shore
My forced, my willing heavenly prize I boi'e.
When first entranced in Cranae's isle I lay,*
Mix'd with thy soul, and all dissolved away!"
Thus having spoke, the enamor'd Phrygian boy
Rush'd to the bed, impatient for the joy.
Him Helen follow'd slow with bashful charms.
And clasp'd the blooming hero in her arms.
While these to love's delicious rapture yield,
The stern Atrides rages round the field:
So some fell lion whom the woods obey,
Roars through the desert, and demands his prey.
* (fraitae'8 isle, i. e. Athens. See the " Scbol." and Alberti's
" IIoKvcliiiis," vol. ii. p. .3.38. This name was derived from one
of its early kings, C'ranaus.
130 TEE ILIAD.
Paris he seeks, impatient to destroy,
But seeks in vain along tlie troops of Troy;
Even those had yielded to a foe so brave
The recreant warrior, hateful as the grave.
Then speaking thus, the king of kings arose,
"Ye Trojans, Dardans, all our generous foes!
Hear and attesti from heaveii with conquest crown'd,
Our brother's arms the just success have found:
Be therefore now the Spartan wealth restor'd,
Let Argive Helen own her lawful lord:
The appointed fine let Ilion justly pay,
And age to age record this signal day."
He ceased; his army's loud applauses rise,
And the long shouts runs echoing through the skies.
THE ILIAD. 131
BOOK lY.
A R GU M E N T .
THE BEEACH OF THE TRUCE, AND THE FIEST BATTLE.
The gods deliberate in council concerning the Trojan war; they
agree upon the continuation of it, and Jupiter sends down
Minerva to break the truce. She persuades Pandarus to aim
an arrow at Menelaiis, who is wounded, but cured by
Machaon. In the meantime some of the Trojan troopsattack
the Greeks. Agamemnon is distinguished in all the parts of
a good general; he reviews the troops, and exhorts the
leaders, some by praises and others by reproof. Nestor is
particularly celebrated for his military discipline. The battle
joins, and great numbers are slain on both sides.
The same day continues through this as through the last
book (as it does also through the two following, and almost
to the end of the seventh book). The scene is wholly in the
field before Troy.
And now Olympus' shining gates unfold;
The gods, with Jove, assume their thrones of gold:
Immortal Hebe, fresh with bloom divine.
The golden goblet crowns with purple wine:
While the full bowls flow round, the powers employ
Their careful e3'es on long-contended Tro}'.
When Jove, disposed to tempt Saturnia's spleen,
Thus waked the fury of his partial queen.
"Two powers divine the son of Atreus aid,
Imperial Juno, and the martial maid;*
But high in heaven they sit, and gaze from far,
The tame spectators of liis deeds of war.
Not thus fair Venus helps lier favor'd knight,
The queen of pleasures shares the toils of fight,
Each danger wards, and constant in her care,
Saves in the moment of the last despair.
* Themartinl maid. In the original, " Minerva Alalcomeneis,"
i. e. the defender, so called from her temple at Alalcomene in
Boeotia.
132 THE ILIAD.
Her act has rescued Paris' forfeit life.
Though great Atrides gain'd the glorious strife.
Then say, ye powers! what signal issue waits
To crown this deed, and tiuish all the fates!
Shall Heaven by peace the bleeding kingdom spare,
Or rouse the furies, and awake the war?
Yet, would the gods for human good provide,
Atrides soon might gain his beauteous bride,
Still Priam's walls in peaceful honors grow.
And through his gates the crowding nations flow."
Thus while he spoke, the queen of heaven, enraged
And queen of war, in close consult engaged:
Apart they sit, their deep designs employ.
And meditate the future woes of Troy.
Though secret anger swell'd Minerva's breast.
The prudent goddess yet her wrath suppress'd;
But Juno, impotent of passion, broke
Her sullen silence, and with fury spoke:
"Shall then, tyrant of the ethereal reign!
My schemes, my labors, and my hopes be vain?
Have I, for this, shook Ilion with alarms,
Assembled nations, set two worlds in arms?
To spread the war, I flew from shore to shore;
The immortal courses scarce the labor bore.
At length ripe vengeance o'er their heads impends,
But Jove himself the faithless race defends:
Loth as thou art to punish lawless lust,
Not all the gods are partial and unjust."
The sire whoso thunder shakes the cloudy skies.
Sighs from his inmost soul, and thus replies:
"Oh lasting rancor! oil insatiate hate!
To Phrygia's monarch, and the Phrygian state!
What high offense has fired the wife of Jove?
Can wretched mortals harm the powers above,
That Troy, and Troy's whole race thou wouldst con-
found.
And yon fair structures level with the ground!
Haste, leave the skies, fulfill thy stern desire.
Burst all her gates, and wrap her walls in fire!
Let Priam bleed! if yet you thirst for inore,
Bleed all his sons, and Ilion float with gore:
To boundless vengeance the wide realm be given,
Till vast destruction glut the queen of heaven!
So let it be, and Jove his peace enjoy,*
* " Anything for a quiet life !"
THE ILIAD. 133
When heaven no longer hears the name of Troy.
But should this arm prepare to wreak onr hate
On thy loved realms, whose guilt demands their fate;
Presume not thou the lifted bolt to stay,
Remember Troy, and give the vengeance way.
For know, of all the numerous towns that rise
Beneath the rolling sun and starry skies.
Which gods have raised, or earth-born men enjoy,
None stands so dear to Jove as sacred Troy.
No mortals merit more distinguish'd grace
Than godlike Priam, or than Priam's race.
Still to our name their hecatombs expire.
And altars blaze with unextinguish'd fire."
At this the goddess rolled her radiant eyes,
Then on the thunderer fix'd them, and replies:
"Three towns are Juno's on the Grecian plains,
More dear than all the extended earth contains,-
Mycenae, Argos, and the Spartan wall;*
These thou mayst raze, nor I forbid their fall:
'Tis not in me the vengeance to remove;
The crime's sufficient that tbey share my love.
Of power superior why should I complain?
Resent I may, but must resent in vain.
Yet some distinction Juno might require.
Sprung with thyself from one celestial sire,
A goddess born, to share the realms above,
And styled the consort of the thundering Jove;
Nor thou a wife and sister's right deny;f
Let both consent, and both by terms comply;
So shall the gods our joint decrees obey.
And heaven shall act as we direct the way.
See ready Pallas waits thy high commands
To raise in arms the Greek and Phrygian bands;
Their sudden friendship by her arts may cease,
And the proud Trojans first infringe the peace."
* Argos. The worship of Juno at Argos was very celebrated in
ancient times, and she was reji:ar(l('d as tlie patron deity of that
city. Apul. Met., vi. p. 453; Servius on Virg. ^En., i. 28.
f A wife and nutrr.
" lint 1, who walk in awful state above
The majesty of heuv'n, the sister-wife of Jove."
— Dryden's " Virgil," i. 70.
So Apuleius, I. c. speaks of her as " Jovis gerniana et conjux,"
and 80 Horace, Od. iii. 3, 64, " conjuge me Jovis et sorore."
134 THE ILIAD.
The sire of men and monarch of the sky
The advice approved, and bade Minerva fly,
Dissolve the league, and all her arts employ
To make the breach the faithless act of Troy.
Fired with the charge, she headlong urged her flight,
And shot like lightning from Olympus' height.
As the red comet, from Saturnius sent
To fright the nations with a dire portent,
(A fatal sign to armies on the plain,
Or trembling sailors on the wintry main),
With sweeping glories glides along the air,
And shakes the sparkles from its blazing hair:*
Between both armies thus, in open sight.
Shot the bright goddess in a trail of light,
With eyes erect the gazing hosts admire
The power descending, and the heavens on fire!
"The gods (they cried), the gods this signal sent,
And fate now labors with some vast event:
Jove seals the league, or bloodier scenes prepares;
Jove, the great arbiter of peace and wars."
They said, while Pallas through the Trojan throng,
(In shape a mortal), pass'd disguised along.
Like bold Laodocus, her course she bent.
Who from Antenor traced his high descent.
Amidst the ranks Lycaon's son she found.
The warlike Pandarus, for strength renown'd;
Whose squadrons, led from black -5^sepus' flood, f
With flamiiig shields in martial circle stood.
To him the goddess: "Phrygian! canst thou hear
A well-timed counsel with a willing ear?
AVhat praise were thine, couldst thou direct thy dart,
Amidst his triumph, to the Spartan's heart?
What gifts from Troy, from Paris wouldst thou gain.
Thy country's foe, the Grecian glory slain?
Then seize tlie occasion, dare the mighty deed
Aim at his breast, and may that aim succeed!
* " Thither came Uriel, gleaming through the even
On a sunbeam, swift as a shooting star
In autumn thwarts the night, when vapors fired
Impress the air, and shows the mariner
From what point of his compass to beware
Impetuous winds."
— " Paradise Lost," iv. 555.
f ^sepus' flood. A river of Mysia, rising from Mount Cotylus,
iu the southern part of the chain of Ida.
THE ILIAD. 135
But first, to speed the shaft, address thy vow
To Lycian Phoebus with tlie silver bow,
And swear the firstlings of thy flock to pay,
On Zolia's altars, to the god of day."*
He heard, and madly at the motion pleased,
His polish'd bow with hasty rashness seized.
'Twas form'd of horn, and smooth'd with artful toil:
A mountain goat resign'd the shining spoil.
"Who pierced long since beneath his arrows bled;
The stately quarry on the cliffs lay dead,
And sixteen palms his brow's large honors spread:
The workmen join'd, and shaped the bended horns.
And beaten gold each taper point adorns.
This, by the Greeks unseen, the warrior bends,
Screen'd by the shields of his surrounding friends
There meditates the mark; and crouching low,
Fits the sharp arrow to the well-strung bow.
One from a hundred feather'd deaths he chose,
Fated to wound, and cause of future woes;
Then offers vows with hecatombs to crown
Apollo's altars in his native town.
Now with full force the yielding horn he bends,
Drawn to an arch, and joins the doubling ends;
Close to his breast he strains the nerve below,
Till the barb'd points approach the circling bow;
The impatient weapon whizzes on the wing;
Sounds the tough horn, and twangs the quivering string.
But thee, Atrides! in that dangerous hour
Thn gods forget not, nor thy guardian power,
Pallas assists, and (weakened in its force)
Diverts the weapon from its destined course:
So from her babe, when slumber seals his eye,
The watchful mother wafts the envenom'd fly.
Just where his belt with golden buckles join'd.
Where linen folds the double corslet lined,
Slie tnrn'd the shaft, which, hissing from above,
Pass'd the broad belt, and through the corslet drove
The folds it pierced, the plaited linen tore,
And razed the skin, and drew the purple gore.
As when some stately trappings are decreed
To grace a monarch on his bounding steed,
A nym])li in Caria or Man>nia bred,
Stains the pure ivory with a lively red;
* Zelia, a town of Troas, at the foot of Ida.
186 THE ILIAD.
With equal luster various colors vie,
The shining whiteness, and the Tyrian dye:
So great AtridesI siiow'd thy sacred blood.
As down thy snowy thigh distill'd the streaming flood.
With horror seized, the king of men descried
The shaft infix'd, and saw the gushing tide:
Nor less the Spartan fear'd, before he found
The shining barb appear above the wound.
Then, with a sigh, that heaved his manly breast,
The royal brother tlius his grief express'd.
And grasp'd his hand; while all the Greeks around
With answering sighs return'd the plaintive sound.
"Oh, dear as life! did I for this agree
The solemn truce, a fatal truce to thee!
Wert thou exposed to all the hostile train,
To fight for Greece, and conquer, to be slain!
The race of Trojans in thy ruin join.
And faith is scorn'd by all the perjured line.
Not thus our vows, confirm'd with wine and gore.
Those hands we plighted, and those oaths we swore,
Shall all be vain: when Heaven's revenge is slow,
Jove but i)repares to strike the fiercer blow.
The day shall come, that great avenging day,
When Troy's proud glories in the dust shall lay,
When Priam's powers and Priam's self shall fall.
And one prodigious ruin swallow all.
I see the god, already, from the pole
Bare his red arm, and bid the thunder roll;
I see the Eternal all his fury shed,
And shake his segis o'er their guilty head.
Such mighty woes on perjured princes wait;
But thou, alas! deserv'st a happier fate.
Still must I mourn the period of thy days.
And only mourn, without my share of praise?
Deprived of thee, the heartless Greeks no more
Shall dream of conquests on the hostile shore;
Troy seized of Helen, and our glory lost.
Thy bones shall moulder on a foreign coast;
While some proud Trojan thus insulting cries,
(And spurns the dust where Menelaiis lies),
'Such are the trophies Greece from Ilion brings
And such the conquest of her king of kings!
Lo his proud vessels scatter'd o'er the main,
And unrevenged, his mighty brother slain.'
THE ILIAD. 137
Oh! ere that dire disgrace shall blast my fame,
O'erwhelm me, earth! and hide a mouarch's shame."
He said: a leader's and a brother's fears
Possess his soul, which thus the Spartan cheers:
"Let not thy words the warmth of Greece abate;
The feeble dart is guiltless of my fate:
Stiff with the rich embroider'd work around,
My varied belt repell'd the flying wound."
To whom the king: "My brother and my friend,
Thus, always thus, may Heaven thy life defend!
Now seek some skillful hand, whose powerful art
May stanch the eifusion, and extract the dart.
Herald, be swift, and bid Machiion bring
His speedy succor to the Spartan king;
Piei-ced with a winged shaft (the deed of Troy),
The Grecian sorrow, and the Dardan's joy."
With hasty zeal the swift Talthybins flies;
Through the thick files he darts his searching eyes,
And finds Machiion, where sublime he stands*
In arms encircled with his native bands.
Then thus: "Machiion, to the king repair.
His wounded brother claims thy timely care;
Pierced by some Lycian or Dardanian bow,
A grief to us, a triumph to the foe."
The heavy tidings grieved the godlike man:
Swift to his succor through the ranks he ran:
The dauntless king yet standing firm he found,
And all the chiefs in deep concern around.
* Podnleirius and Machaon are the leeches of the Grecian army,
highly prized and consulted by all the wounded chiefs. Their
medical renown was further prolonged in the subsequent poem of
Arktinus, the Iliu Persis, wherein the one was represented as
unrivalled in surgical operations, the other as sagacious in detect-
ing and appreciating morbid symptoms. It was Podaleirius who
first noticed the glaring eyes and disturbed deportment which
jtreceded tlie suicide of Ajax.
"Galen appears uncertain whether Asklepius (as well as
Dionysius) was original iy a god, or whetlier he was first a man
and then became afterwards a god; but Apoliodorus professed to
fix the exact date of his apolhef)sis. Throughout all the historical
ages the descendants of Asklepius were numerous and widely
diffused. The many families, or gentes, called Askle]iiads, who
devoted themselves to the .study and practice of medicine, and
who principnlly dwelt near the temples of Asklepius, whither sick
niid sufTt-ring men came to obtain rnlicjf — all recognized the god
not oKTi-ly as th(; oi)jcct of their common worshij), but also as
their actual progenitor." — Orote, vrd. j. p. 248.
138 ' THE ILIAD.
Where to the steely point the reed was join'd,
The shaft he drew, hut left the head behind,
Straight the broad belt with gay embroidery graced,
He loosed; the corslet from his breast unbraced;
Then suck'd the blood, and sovereign balm infused,*
AVhich Chiron gave, and ^sculapius used.
While round the prince the Greeks employ their care
The Trojans rushed tumultuous to the war;
Once more they glittered in refulgent arms,
Once more the fields are filled with dire alarms.
Nor liad you seen the king of men appear
Confused, unactive, or surjorised with fear.
But fond of glory, with severe delight.
His beating bosom claim'd the rising fight.
No longer with his warlike steeds he stay'd,
Or press'd the car with polish'd brass inlaid,
But left Erymedon the reins to guide;
The fiery coursers snorted at his side.
On foot through all the martial ranks he moves,
And these encourages, and those reproves.
"Brave men!" he cries, (to such who boldly dare
Urge their swift steeds to face the coming war),
*'Your ancient valor on the foes approve;
Jove is with Greece, and let us trust in Jove.
'Tis not for us, but guilty Troy, to dread,
Whose crimes sit heavy on her perjured head;
Her sons and matrons Greece shall lead in chains.
And her dead warriors strew the mournful plains."
Thus with new ardor he the brave inspires;
Or thus the fearful with reproaches fires:
"Shame to your country, scandal of your kind;
Born to the fate ye well deserve to find!
Why stand ye gazing round the dreadful plain,
Prepared for flight, but doom'd to fly in vain?
Confused and panting thus, the hunted deer
Falls as he flies, a victim to his fear.
Still must ye wait the foes, and still retire,
Till yon tall vessels blaze with Trojan fire?
* " The plant she bruises with a stone, and stands
Tempering the juice between her ivory hands.
This o'er her breast she sheds with sovereign art,
And bathes with gentle touch the wounded part:
The wound such virtue from the juice derives,
At once the blood is stanch'd, tlie youth revives."
— " Orlando Furioso," book 7.
THE ILIAD. 139
Or trust ye, Jove a valiant foe shall chase,
To save a trembling, heartless, dastard race?"
This said, he stalk'd with ample strides along,
To Crete's brave monarch and his martial throng;
High at their head he saw the chief appear,
And bold Meriones excite the rear.
At this the king his generous joy express'd,
And clasp'd the warrior to his armed breast.
"Divine Idomeneus! what thanks we owe
To worth like thine I what praise shall we bestow?
To thee the foremost honors are decreed.
First in the fight and every graceful deed.
For this, in banquets, when the generous bowls
Restore our blood, and raise the warriors' souls,
Thougli all the rest with stated rules we bound,
Unmix'd, unmeasured, are thy goblets crown'd.
Be still thyself, in arms a mighty name;
Maintain thy honors, and enlarge thy fame."
To whom the Cretan thus his speech address'd,
"Secure of me, king! exhort the rest. ■
Fix'd to thy side, in every toil I share,
Thy firm associate in the day of war.
But let the signal be this moment given;
To mix in fight is all I ask of heaven.
The field shall prove how perjuries succeed,
And chains or death avenge the impious deed.
Charm'd with this heat, the king his course pursues,
And next the troops of either Ajax views:
In one firm orb the bands were ranged around,
A cloud of heroes blacken'd all the ground.
Thus from the lofty promontory's brow
A swain surveys the gathering storm below;
Slow from the main the heavy vapors rise.
Spread in dim streams, and sail along the skies,
Till black as night the swelling tempest shows.
The cloud condensing as the west wind blows:
He dreads the impending storm, and drives his flock
To the close covert of an arching rock.
Such, and so thick, the ombnttled squadrons stood,
Witli spears erect, a moving iron wood:
A shady ligiit was shot from glimmei'ing shields,
And their l)rf)wn arms obscured liie dusky fields.
"0 heroes! worthy such a dauntless train,
Whose godlike virtue wo but urge in vain,
140 THE ILIAD.
(Exchiim'd the king), who raise your eager bands
With great examples, more than loud commands.
Ah! would the gods but breathe in all the rest
Such souls as burn in your exalted breast,
Soon should our arms with just success be crown'd,
And Troy's proud walls lie smoking on the ground."
Then to the next the general bends his couise;
(His heart exults, and glories in his force);
There reverend Nestor ranks his Pylian bands,
And with inspiring eloquence commands;
With strictest order sets his train in arms.
The chiefs advises, and the soldiers warms.
Alastor, Chromius, HfBmon, round him wait,
Bias the good, and Pelagon the great.
The horse and chariots to the front assign'd,
The foot (the strength of war) he ranged behind:
The middle space suspected troops supply.
Inclosed by both, nor left the power to fly;
He gives command to "curb the fiery steed.
Nor cause confusion, nor the ranks exceed:
Before the rest let none too rashly ride;
No strength nor skill, but just in time, be tried:
The charge once made, no warrior turn the rein,
But fight, or fall; a firm embodied train.
He whom the fortune of the field shall cast
From forth his chariot, mount the next in haste;
Nor seek unpractised to direct the car.
Content with javelins to provoke the war.
Our great forefathers held this prudent course.
Thus ruled their ardor, thus preserved their force;
By laws like these immortal conquests made.
And earth's proud tyrants low in ashes laid."
So spoke the master of the martial art.
And touch'd with transport great Atrides' heart.
"Oh! hadst thou strength to match thy brave desires.
And nerves to second what thy soul inspires!
But wasting years, that wither human race,
Exhaust thy spirits, and thy arms unbrace.
What once thou wert, oh ever mightst tliou be!
And age the lot of any chief but thee."
Thus to the experienced prince Atrides cried;
He shook his hoary locks, and thus replied:
"Well might 1 wish, could mortal wish renew*
* Well might I vnsh.
" Would beav'n (said he) my strength and youth recall,
Such as I was beneath Praeneste's wall —
THE ILIAD. 141
That strength which ouce in boiling youth I knew;
Such as I was, when Ereuthalion, shiin
Beneath this arm, fell prostrate on the plain.
But heaven its gifts not all at once bestows,
These years with wisdom crowns, with action those:
The field of combat fits the young and bold.
The solemn council best becomes the old:
To you the glorious conflict I resign,
Let sage advice, the palm of age, be mine."
He said. With joy the monarch march'd before.
And found Menestheus on the dusty shore.
With whom the firm Athenian phalanx stands;
And next Ulysses, with his subject bands.
Remote their forces lay, nor knew so far
The peace infringed, nor heard the sounds of war;
The tumult late begun, they stood intent
To watch the motion, dubious of the event.
The king, who saw their squadrons yet unmoved,
With hasty ardor thus the chief reproved:
"Can Peleus' son forget a warrior's part,
And fears Ulysses, skill'd in every art?
Why stand you distant, and tlie rest expect
To mix in combat with yourselves neglect?
From you 'twas hoped among the first to dare
The shock of armies, and commence the war;
For this your juimes are call'd before the rest,
To share the pleasures of the genial feast:
And can you, ciiiefsl without a blush survey
Whole troops before you laboring in the fray?
Say, is it thus those honors you requite?
The first in banquets, but the last in fight."
Ulysses heard: tlie hero's warmth o'erspread
His cheek with blushes: and severe, he said:
"Take back the unjust reproach! Behold we stand
Sheathed in briglit arms, and but expect command.
If glorious deeds afl'ord thy soul deligiit.
Behold me plunging in the thickest fight.
Then give thy warrior-chief a warrior's due.
Who dares to act whatc'er thou dar'st to view."
Struck with his generous wrath, the king replies:
"0 great in action, aiul in council wise!
Tlifn wlien I iiiHile llie foremost foes retire,
An<l set wliole lieuits of corujuer'd sbielda on fire;
When llerilus in single fif^lit I slew,
Whom with three lives Feronin did endure."
— Drydcn's X'irgil, viii. 742.
142 THE ILIAD.
With ours, tliy care and ardor are the same,
Nor need I to coniniend, nor aiiglit to blame.
Sage as thou art, and learu'd in liuman kind,
Forgive the transport of a martial mind
Haste to the fight, secure of just amends;
The gods that make, shall keep the worthy, friends.
He said, and pass'd where great Tydides lay,
His steeds and chariots wedged in firm array;
(The warlike Sthenelus attends his side;)*
To whom with stern reproach the monarch cried:
"0 son of Tydeus! (he, whose strength could tame
The bounding steed, in arms a mighty name)
Canst thou, remote, the mingling hosts descry,
With hands nnactive, and a careless eye?
Not thus thy sire the fierce encounter fear'd;
Still first in front the matchless prince appear'd:
What glorious toils, what wonders they recite.
Who view'd him laboring through the ranks of fight.
I saw him once, when gathering martial powers,
A peaceful guest, he sought Mycenge's towers;
Armies he ask'd, and armies had been given,
Not we denied, but Jove forbade from heaven;
While dreadful comets glaring from afar,
Forewaru'd the horrors of the Theban war.f
Next, sent by Greece from where Asopus flows,
A fearless envoy, he approach'd the foes;
Thebes' hostile walls unguarded and alone.
Dauntless he enters, and demands the throne.
The tyrant feasting with his chiefs he found,
And dared to combat all those chiefs around:
Dared, and subdued before their haughty lord;
For Pallas strung his arm and edged his sword.
Stung with the shame, within the winding way.
To bar his passage fifty warriors lay;
Two heroes led the secret squadron on,
Mseon the fierce, and hardly Lycophon;
Those fifty slaughter'd in the gloomy vale.
He spared but one to bear the dreadful tale.
Such Tydeus was, and such his martial fire;
Gods! how the son degenerates from the sire!
* Sthenlus, a son of Capaneus, one of the Epigoni. He was one
of the suitors of Helen, and is said to have been one of those who
entered Troy inside the wooden horse.
f Forewarn' d the horrors. The same portent has already been
mentioned. To tliis day, modern nations are not wholly free
from this superstition.
THE ILIAD. 143
Xo words the godlike Diomed retiirn'd,
But heard respectful, and m secret burn'd:
Not so fierce Capaneus' undaunted son;
Stern as his sire, the boaster thus begun:
'"What needs, monarch! this invidious praise
Ourselves to lessen, while our sire you raise?
Dare to be just, Atrides! and confess
Our value equal, though our fury less.
AVith fewer troops we storm'd the Theban wall,
And happier saw the sevenfold city fall,*
In impious acts the guilty father died;
The sons subdued, for Heaven was on their side
Far more than heirs of all our parents' fame,
Our glories darken their diminish'd name."
To him Tydides thus: "My friend, forbear;
Suppress thy passion, and the king revere:
His high concern may well excuse this rage,
Whose cause we follow, and whose war we wage:
His the first praise, were Iliou's towers o'erthrown,
And, if we fail, the chief disgrace his own.
Let him the Greeks to hardy toils excite,
'Tis ours to labor in the glorious fight."
He spoke, and ardent, on the trembling ground
Sprung from his car: his ringing arms resound.
Dire was tlie clang, and dreadful from afar,
Of arm'd Tydides rushing to the war.
As when the winds, ascending by degrees, f
First move the whitening surface of the seas,
The billows lloat in order to the shore.
The wave behind rolls on the wave before;
Till, witli the growing storm, the deejis arise.
Foam o'er the rocks, and thunder to the skies.
So to the tight the thick battalions throng,
Shields urged on shields, and men drove men along,
Sedate and silent move the numerf)us bands;
No sound, no whisper, but tlie chief's commands,
Those only heard; with awe the rest obey.
As if some god had snatch'd their voice away.
* Sevenfold eitij. Hajoliun Thebes, which had seven gates.
f As when the windn.
" Tims, wlieii a black-brow'd gust begins to rise,
Wliite foam at first on tlie curl'd ocean fries;
Then roars tlie main, the billows mount the skies;
Till, by the fury of the storm full IjJown,
The mudily liillow o'er the- clouds is thrown."
— Drydeu's Virgil, vii. 736.
144 THE ILIAD.
Not so the Trojans; from their host ascends
A general shout tliiit all the region rends.
As when the fleecy flocks nnnuniber'd stand
In wealthy folds, and wait the milker's hand,
The hollow vales incessant bleating fills,
The lambs reply from all the neighboring hills:
Snch clamors rose from various nations round,
Mix'd was the murmur, and confused the sound.
Each host now joins, and each a god inspires,
These Mars incites, and those Minerva fires,
Pale flight around, and dreadful terror reign;
And discord raging bathes the purple plain;
Discord! dire sister of the slaughtering power,
Small at her birth, but rising every hour,
While scarce the skies her horrid head can bound,
She stalks on earth, and shakes the world around; *
The nations bleed, where'er her steps she turns.
The groan still deepens, and the combat burns.
Now shield with shield, with helmet helmet closed,
To armor armor, lance to lance opposed.
Host against host with shadowy squadrons drew,
The sounding darts in iron tempests flew,
Victors and vanquish'd join'd promiscuous cries.
And thrilling shouts and dying groans arise;
With streaming blood the slippery fields are dyed.
And slaughter'd heroes swell the dreadful tide.
As torrents roll, increased by numerous rills.
With rage impetuous, down their echoing hills
Eush to the vales, and pour'd along the plain,
Eoar through a thousand channels to the main:
The distant shepherd trembling hears the sound.
So mix both hosts, and so their cries rebound.
The bold Antilochus the slaughter led.
The first who struck a valiant Trojan dead:
At great Echepolus the lance arrives,
Eazed his high crest, and through his helmet drives;
Warm'd in the brain the brazen weapon lies.
And shades eternal settle o'er his eyes.
So sinks a tower, that long assaulted had stood
Of force and fire, its walls besmear'd with blood.
* "Stood
Like Teneriffe or Atlas unremoved;
His stature reach'd tlie sky."
— " Paradise Lost," iv. 986.
THE ILIAD. 145
Him, the bold leader of the Abantian throng.*
Seized to despoil, and dragg'd the corpse along,
But while he strove to tug the inserted dart,
Agenor's javelin reach 'd the hero's heart.
His flank, unguarded by his ample shield,
Admits the lance: he falls, and spurns the field;
The nerves, unbraced, support his limbs no more;
The soul comes floating in a tide of gore.
Trojans and Greeks now gather round the slain;
The war renews, the warriors bleed again:
As o'er their prey rapacious wolves engage,
Man dies on man, and all is blood and rage.
In blooming youth fair Simoisius fell.
Sent by great Ajax to the shades of hell;
Fair Simoisius, whom his mother bore
Amid the flocks on silver Simois' shore:
The nymph descending from the hills of Ide,
To seek her parents on his flowery side,
Brought forth the babe, their common care and joy,
And thence from Simois named the lovely boy.
Short was his date I by dreadful Ajax slain.
He falls, and renders all their cares in vain!
So falls a poplar, tluit in watery ground
Raised high the head, witli stately branches crown'd,
(Fell'd by some artist with liis shining steel,
To shape the circle of the bending wheel,)
Cut down it lies, tall, smootli, and largely spread,
With all its beauteous honors on its head:
There, left a subject to the wind and rain.
And scorch'd by suns, it withers on the plain:
Thus pierced by Ajax, Simoisius lies
Stretch'd on the siiore, and thus neglected dies.
At Ajax Antiphus his javelin threw;
The pointed lance with erring fury flew.
And Leucus, loved by wise Ulysses, slew.
He drops the corpse of Simoisius slain,
And sinks a breathless carcase on the plain.
Tliis saw Ulysses, and with grief enraged.
Strode where the foremost of the foes engaged;
Arin'd with liis spear, he meditates tlie wound,
In act to throw; liut cautious look'd arouiul,
Struck at his sight the Trojans backward tlrow,
And trembling heard the javelin as it flew.
* The Abantes seem to have been of Thracian origin.
i
14G THE ILIAD.
A chief stood nigh, who from Abydos came,
Old Prium's son, Democoon \v;is his mime.
The weapon enter'd close above his ear.
Cold through his temples glides the whizzing spear;*
With piercing shrieks the youth resigns his breath;
His eyeballs darken with the shades of death ;
Ponderous he falls; his clanging arnis resound,
And his broad buckler rings against the ground.
Seized with affright the boldest foes appear;
E'en godlike Hector seems himself to fear;
Slow he gave way, the rest tumultuous fled;
The Greeks with shouts press on, and spoil the dead;
But Phoebus now from Iliou's towering height
Shines forth reveal'd, and animates the fight.
"Trojans, be bold, and force with force oppose;
Your foaming steeds urge headlong on the foes!
Nor are their bodies rocks, nor ribb'd with steel;
Your weapons enter, and your strokes they feel.
Have ye forgot what seem'd your dread before?
The great, the fierce Achilles fights no more."
Apollo thus from Ilion's lofty towers,
Array'd in terrors, roused the Trojan powers:
While war's fierce goddess fires the Grecian foe,
And shouts and thunders in the fields below.
Then great Diores fell, by doom divine.
In vain his valor and illustrious line.
A broken rock the force of Pyrus threw
(Who from cold vEnns led the Thracian crew),f
Full on his ankle dropp'd the ponderous stone,
Burst the strong nerves, and crash'd the solid bone;
Supine he tumbles on the crimson sands,
Before his helpless friends, and native bands.
And spreads for aid his unavailing hands.
The foe rush'd furious as he pants for breath,
And through his navel drove the pointed death:
His gushing entrails smoked upon the ground.
And the warm life came issuing from the wound.
His lance bold Thoas at the conquerer sent.
Deep in his breast above the pap it went.
Amid the lungs was fix'd the winged wood.
And quivering in his heaving hosora stood:
*I may, once for all, remark that Homer is most anatoliiically
correct as to the parts of the body in which a wound would be
imuietiiately mortal.
f udfJuun, a fountain almost proverbial for its coldness.
TEE ILIAD. 147
Till from the dying chief, approaching near,
The ^Etolian warrior tngg'd his weighty spear:
Then sudden waved his flaming falcliion round.
And gash'd his belly with a gliastly wound;
The corpse now breathless on the bloody ph^in,
To spoil his arms the victor strove in vain;
The Thracian bands against the victor press'd,
A grove of lances glitter'd at his breast.
Stern Thoas, glaring with revengeful eyes,
In sullen fury slowly quits the prize.
Thus fell two heroes; one the pride of Thrace,
And one the leader of the Epeian race;
Death's sable shade at once o'ercast their eyes.
In dust the vanquish'd and the victor lies.
With copious slaughter all the fields are red.
And heap'd with growing mountains of the dead.
Had some brave chief this martial scene beheld.
By Pallas guarded through the dreadful field;
Might darts be bid to turn their points away,
And swords around him innocently play;
The war's whole art with wonder had he seen.
And counted heroes where he counted men.
So fought each host, with thirst of glory fired,
And crowds on crowds triumphantly expired.
148
THE ILIAD.
BOOK V.
AEGUMENT.
THE ACTS OF DIOMED.
Diomed, assisted by Pallas, performs wonders in this day's battle.
Pandarus wounds him with an arrow, but the goddess cures
him, enables him to discern gods from mortals, and prohibits
him from contending with any of the former, excepting
Venus, ^neas joins Pandarus to oppose him; Pandarus is
killed, and ^neas in great danger but fur the assistance of
Venus; who, as she is removing her son from the fight, is
wounded on the hand by Diomed. Apollo seconds her in his
rescue, and at length carries off iEneas to Troy, where he is
healed in the temple of Pergamus. Mars rallies the Trojans,
and assists Hector to make a stand. In the meantime ^neas
is restored to the field, and they overthrow several of the
Greeks; among the rest Tlepolemus is slain by Sarpedon.
Juno and Minerva descend to resist Mars; the latter incites
Diomed to go against the god; he wounds him and sends him
groaning to heaven.
The first battle continues through this book The scene is
the same as in the former.
But Pallas now Tydides' soul inspires,*
Fills with her force, and warms with all her fires,
Above the Greeks his deathless fame to raise,
.And crown her hero with distinguish'd praise.
High on his helm celestial lightnings play.
His beamy shield emits a living ray;
The unwearied blaze incessant streams supplies.
Like the red star that fires the autumnal skies,
When fresh he rears his radiant orb to sight,
And, bathed in ocean, shoots a keener light.
Such glories Pallas on the chief bestow'd.
Such, from his arms, the fierce effulgence flow'd:
♦ Compare Tasso, Gier. Lib., xx. 7:
" Nuovo favor del cielo in lui niluce
E '1 fa grande, et angusto oltre il costume,
Ur empie d' honor la faccia, e vi riduce
Di giovinezza il bel purpureo lume."
THE ILIAD. 149
Onward she drives him, furious to engage,
Where the fight burns, and where the tliickest rage.
The sons of Dares first the combat sought,
A wealthy priest, but rich without a fault;
In Vulcan's fane the father's days were led,
The sons to toils of glorious battle bred;
These singled from their troops the fight maintain,
These, from their steeds, Tydides on the plain.
Fierce for renown the brother-chiefs draw near,
And first bold Phegeus cast his sounding spear.
Which o'er the warrior's shoulder took its course,
And spent in empty air its erring force.
Not so, Tydides, flew thy lance in vain.
But pierced his breast, and stretch'd him on the plain.
Seized with unusual fear, Idteus fled.
Left the rich chariot, and his brother dead.
And had not Vulcan lent celestial aid.
He too had sunk to death's eternal shade;
But in a smoky cloud the god of fire
Preserved the son, in pity to the sire.
The steeds and chariot, to the navy led,
Increased the spoils of gallant Diomed.
Struck with amaze and shame, the Trojan crew,"
Or slain, or fled, the sons of Dares view;
When by the blood-stain'd hand Minerva press'd
The god of battles, and this speech address'd:
"Stern power of war! by whom the mighty fall.
Who bathe in blood, and shake the lofty wall!
Let the brave chiefs their glorious toils divide;
And whose the conquest, mighty Jove decide:
While we from interdicted lields retire,
Nor tempt the wrath of heaven's avenging sire."
Her words allay the impetuous warrior's heat,
The god of arms and martial maid retreat:
Removed from fight, on Xantlius' flowery bounds
Tliey sat, and listen'd to the dying sounds.
.Meantime, the Greeks the Trojan race jjursue,
And some bold oiiieftain every leader slew:
First Odius falls, and bites the bloody sand.
His death ciinobhifl by Atrides' band:
As he to flight his wheeling car address'd,
The speedy javelin drove from back to breast.
In dust the mighty Halizonian lay,
Jlis arms resound, the K})irit wings its way.
V
150 THE ILIAD.
Thy fate was next, Pha?stns! doom'd to feel
The great Idomeneus' protended steel;
Whom Borns sent (his son and only joy)
From fruitful Tarne to the fields of Troy.
The Cretan javelin reach'd him from afar,
And pierced his shoulder as he mounts his car;
Back from- the car he tumbles to the ground,
And everlasting shades his eyes surround.
Then died Scamandrius, exjiert in the chase.
In woods and wilds to wound the savage race;
Diana taught him all her sylvan arts,
To bend the bow and aim unerring darts:
But vainly here Diana's arts he tries,
The fatal lance arrests him as he flies;
From Menelaus' arm the weapon sent,
Through his broad back and heaving bosom went;
Down sinks the warrior with a thundering sound.
His brazen armor rings against the ground.
Next artful Phereclus untimely fell;
Bold Merion sent him to the realms of hell.
Thy father's skill, Phereclus! was thine.
The graceful fabric and tiie fair design;
For loved by Pallas, PaHas did impart
To him the shipwright's and the builder's art.
Beneath his hand the fleet of Paris rose.
The fatal cause of all his country's woes;
But he, the mystic will of heaven unknown,
Nor saw his country's peril, nor his own.
The hapless artist, Avhile confused he fled,
The spear of Merion mingled with the dead.
Through his right hip, with forceful fury cast.
Between the bladder and the bone it pass'd;
Prone on his knees he falls with fruitless cries.
And death in lasting slumber seals his eyes.
From Meges' force the swift Pedjeus fled,
Antenor's offspring from a foreign bed,
Whose generous spouse, Theanor, heavenly fair,
Nursed the young stranger with a mother's care.
How vain those cares! wlien Meges in the rear
Full in his nape infix'd the fatal spear;
Swift through his crackling jaws the weapon glides,
And the cold tongue and grinning teeth divides.
Then died Hypsenor, generous and divine.
Sprung from the brave Dolopion's mighty line,
THE ILIAD. 151
Who near adored Scamander made abode,
Priest of the stream, and honored as a god.
On him, amidst the flying numbers found,
Eurypylus inflicts a deadly wound;
On iVs broad shoulders fell the forceful brand,
Thence glancing downwards, lopp'd his holy hand,
Which stain'd with sacred blood the blushing sand.
Down sunk the priest: the purple hand of death
Closed his dim eye, and fate suppress'd his breath.
Thus toil'd the chiefs, in different parts engaged.
In every quarter fierce Tydides raged;
Amid the Greek, amid the Trojan train,
Eapt through the ranks he thunders o'er the plain;
Now here, now there, he darts from place to place,
Pours on the rear, or lightens in their face.
Thus from high hills the torrents swift and strong
Deluge whole fields, and sweejJ the trees along.
Through ruin'd moles the rushing wave resounds,
O'erwhelms the bridge, and bursts the lofty bounds;
The yellow harvests of the ripen'd year.
And flatted vineyards, one sad waste appear!*
While Jove descends in sluicy sheets of rain,
And all the labors of mnnkind are vain.
So raged Tydides, boundless in his ire.
Drove armies back, and made all Troy retire.
With grief the leader of the Lvcian band
Saw the wide waste of his destructive hand:
His bended bow against the chief he drew;
Swift to the mark the thirsty arrow flew.
Whose forky point the hollow breastplate tore,
Deep in his shoulder pierced, and drank the gore:
The rushing stream his brazen armor dyed.
While tiie proud archer thus exulting cried:
"Hither, ye Trojans, hither drive your steeds!
Lo! by our hand the bravest Grecian bleeds,
Not long the deathful dart he can sustain;
Or Plufibus urged me to these fields in vain."
So spoke he, boastful: but the winged dart
Stopp'd short of life, and mock'd the shooter's art.
* " Or deluges, descending on tlie plains,
•Sweep o'er the yellow ear, destroy the pains
Of lalj'rinf^ oxen, and the jieasaiit's gains;
Uproot tiie forest oaks, and Ix'ur away
Flocks, folds, and trees, an ull(li^till^^lisl^d prey."
— Drydcn's Virgil, ii. 408.
153 THE ILIAD.
The wounded chief, behind his car retired,'
The hel})ing hand of Sthenelns required;
Swift from his seat he leap'd upon the ground,
And tugg'd the weapon from the gushing wound;
AVhen thus the king his guardian power address'd,
The purple current wandering o'er his vest:
"0 progeny of Jovel unconquer'd maid!
If e'er my godlike sire deserved thy aid,
If e'er I felt thee in the fighting field;
Now, goddess, now, thy sacred succor yield.
give my lance to reach the Trojan knight,
Whose arrow wounds the chief thou guard'st in fight;
And lay the boaster grovelling on the shore,
That vaunts tliese eyes shall view the light no more."
Thus pray'd Tydides, and Minerva heard.
His nerves confirm'd, his languid spirits cheer'd;
He feels each limb with wonted vigor light;
His beating bosom claim'd the promised fight.
"Be bold (she cried), in every combat shine,
War be thy province, thy protection mine;
Kush to the fight, and every foe control;
Wake each paternal virtue in thy soul:
Strength swells thy boiling breast, infused by me,
And all thy godlike father breathes in thee;
Yet more, from mortal mists I purge thy eyes,*
And set to view the warring deities.
These see thou shun, through all the embattled plain;
Nor rashly strive where human force is vain.
If Venus mingle in the martial band.
Her shalt thou wound: so Pallas gives command."
With that, the blue-eyed virgin wing'd her flight;
The hero rush'd impetuous to the fight;
With tenfold ardor now invades the plain,
Wild with delay, and more enraged by pain.
As on the fleecy flocks when hunger calls.
Amidst the field a brindled lion falls;
If chance some shepherd with a distant dart
The savage wound, he rouses at the smart.
He foams, he roars; the shepherd dares not stay.
But trembling leaves the scattering flocks a prey;
* From mortal mists. *
" But to nobler sights
Michael from Adam's eyes the film removed."
— " Paradise Lost," xi. 411.
THE ILIAD. 153
Heaps fall on heaps; he bathes with blood the ground,
Then leaps victorious o'er the lofty mound,
Xot with less fury stern Tydides flew;
And two brave leaders at an instant slew;
Astynoiis breathless fell, and by his side,
His people's pastor, good Hypenor, died;
Astvnoiis' breast the deadlv lance receives,
Ilypenor's shoulder his broad falchion cleaves.
Those slain he left, and sprung with noble rage
Abas and Polyidus to engage;
Sons of Eurydamus, who, wise and old.
Could fate foresee, and mystic dreams unfold;
The youths return'd not from the doubtful plain,
And the sad father tried his arts in vain;
Xo mystic dream could make their fates appear.
Though now determined by Tydides' spear.
Young Xanthus next, and Thoon felt his rage:
The joy and hope of Phsenops' feeble age:
Vast was his wealth, and these the only heirs
Of all his labors and a life of cares.
Cold death o'ertakes them in their blooming years,
And leaves the fatlier unavailing tears:
To strangers now descends his hcapy store.
The race forgotten, and the name no more.
Two sons of Priam in one chariot ride.
Glittering in arms, and combat side by side.
As when the lordly lion seeks his food
Where grazing heifers range the lonely wood,
He leaps anndst them with a furious bound.
Bends their strong necks, and tears them to the ground :
So from their seats the brother chiefs are torn,
Their steeds and chariot to the luivy borne.
With deep concern divine ^neas view'd
The foe prevailing, and his friends pursued;
Through the thick storm of singing spears he flies.
Exploring Pandarus with careful eyes.
At length lie found Lycaon's mighty son;
To whom the chief of Venus' race begun:
"Where, J'aiidarus, are all thy honors now,
Thy winged arrows and unerring bow,
Thy matchless skill, tliy yet unrivaU'd fame,
And boasted glory of the Lycian name?
O pierce that mortal I if we mortal call
That wondrous force by whicii whole armies fall,
154 THE ILIAD.
Or god incensed, who quits the distant skies
To punish Troy for slighted sacrifice;
(Which, oh avert from our unhappy state!
For wliat so dreadful as celestial hate?)
Whoe'er he be, propitiate Jove with prayer;
If man, destroy; if god, entreat to spare."
To him the Lycian: "Whom your eyes behold,
If right I judge, is Diomed the bold:
Such coursers whirl him o'er the dusty field.
So towers his helmet, and so flames his shield.
If 'tis a god, he wears that chief's disguise:
Or if that chief, some guardian of the skies,
Involved in clouds, protects him in the fray,
And turns unseen the frustrate dart away.
I wiug'd an arrow, which not idly fell.
The stroke had fix'd him to the gates of hell;
And, but some god, some angry god withstands,
His fate was due to these unerring hands.
Skill'd in the bow, on foot I sought the war,
Nor join'd swift horses to the rapid car.
Ten polish'd chariots I possessed at home.
And still they grace Lycaon's princely dome:
There veil'd in spacious coverlets they stand;
And twice ten coursers wait their lord's command.
The good old warrior bade me trust to these.
When first for Troy I sail'd the sacred seas;
In fields, aloft, the whirling car to guide.
And through the ranks of death triumphant ride.
But vain with youth, and yet to thrift inclined,
I heard his counsels with nnheedful mind,
And thought the steeds (your large supplies unknown)
Might fail of forage in the straiten'd town;
So took my bow and pointed darts in haiid,
And left the chariots in my native land.
"Too late, friend! my rashness I deplore:
These shafts, once fatal, carry death no more.
Tydeus' and Atreus' sons their points have found,
And undissembled gore pursued the wound.
In vain they bleed: this unavailing bow
Serves, not to slaughter, but provoke the foe.
In evil hour these bended horns I strung.
And seized the quiver where it idly hung.
Cursed be tiie fate that sent me to the field
Without a warrior's arms, the spear and shield !
THE ILIAD. 165
If e'er with life I quit the Trojan plain,
If e'er I see my spouse and sire again.
This bow, unfaithful to my glorious aims,
Broke bv my hand, shall feed the blazing flames."
To whom' the leader of the Dardan race:
"Be calm, nor Phcebus' honor'd gift disgrace.
The distant dart be praised, though here we need
The rushing chariot and the bounding steed.
Against yon hero let us bend our course,
And, hand to hand, en(;ounter force with force.
Now mount my seat, and from the cliariot's height
Observe my father's steeds, renown'd in fight;
Practised alike to turn, to stop, to chase.
To dare the sliock, or urge tlie rapid race;
Secure with these, through fighting fields we go;
Or safe to Troy, if Jove assist the foe.
Haste, seize the whip, and snatch the guiding rein;
The warrior's fury let this arm sustain;
Or, if to combat thy bold heart incline,
Take thou the spear, the chariot's care be mine."
"0 princel (Lycaon's valiant son replied)
As thine the steeds, be thine the task to guide.
The horses, practised to their lord's command,
Sliall bear the rein, and answer to thy hand;
But, if, unhappy, we desert the fight.
Thy voice alone can animate their flight;
Else shall our fates be numbered with the dead.
And these, the victor's prize, in triumph led.
Thnie be the guidance, then: with spear and shield
Mvself will cliarge this terror of the field."
And now both heroes mount the glittering car;
The bounding coursers rush amidst the war;
Their fierce approach bold Sthenelus espied.
Who thus, alarm'd, to great Tydides cried:
"0 friend! two chiefs of force; immense I see.
Dreadful they come, and bend their rage on thee:
Lo the brave heir of old Lycaon's line,
And great yEneas, sprung from race divine!
Enough is given to fame. Ascend thy car!
And save a life, the bulwark of our war."
At this the hero cast a gloomy look,
Fix'd on the chief with scorn; and thus he spoke:
"Me dost tiiou bid to slum the coming fight?
Me wouldst thou move to base, inglorious flight?
150 THE ILIAD.
Know, 'tis not honest in my soul to fear,
Nor was Tydides born to tremble here.
I hate the cumbrous chariot's slow advance.
And the long distance of the flying lance;
But while my nerves are strong, my force entire,
Thus front the foe, and emulate my sire.
Nor shall yon steeds, that fierce to fight convey
Those threatening heroes, bear them both away;
One chief at least beneath this arm shall die;
So Pallas tells me, and forbids to fly.
But if she dooms, and if no god withstand,
That both shall fall by one victorious hand,
Then heed my words: my horses here detain,
Fix'd to the chariot by the straiten'd rein;
Swift to J^neas' empty seat proceed,
And seize the coursers of ethereal breed;
The race of those, which once the thundering god*
For ravish'd Ganymede on Tros bestow'd.
The best that e'er on earth's broad surface run,
Beneath the rising or the setting sun.
Hence great Anchises stole a breed unknown,
By mortal mares, from fierce Laomedon:
Four of this race his ample stalls contain,
And two transport ^neas o'er the plain.
These, were the rich immortal prize our own,
Through the wide world should make our glory known."
Thus while they spoke, the foe came furious on,
And stern Lycaon's warlike race begun :
"Prince, thou art met. Though late in vain assail'd,
The spear may enter where the arrow fail'd."
He said, then shook the ponderous lance, and flung;
On his broad shield the sounding weapon rung.
Pierced the tough orb, and in his cuirass hung,
"He bleeds! the pride of Greece! (the boaster cries,)
Our triumph now, the mighty warrior lies!"
"Mistaken vaunter! (Diomed replied;)
Thy dart has err'd, and now my spear be tried;
Ye 'scape not both; one, headlong from his car,
With hostile blood shall glut the god of war."
* The race of those.
" A pair of coursers, born of beav'nly breed,
Who from their nostrils breathed ethereal fire:
Whom Circe stole from her celestial sire,
By substituting mares produced on earth,
Whose wombs conceived a more than mortal birth."
— Dryden's Virgil, vii. 386, sqq.
TEE ILIAD. 157
He spoke, and rising burl'd his forceful dart,
Which, driven by Pallas, pierced a vital part;
Full in his face it enter'd, and betwixt
The nose and eyeball the proud Lycian fix'd;
Crash'd all bis jaws, and cleft the tongue within,
Till the bright point look'd out beneath the chin.
Headlong he falls, his helmet knocks the ground:
Earth groans beneath him, and his arms resound.
The starting coursers tremble with affright;
The soul indignant seeks the realms of night.
To guard his slaughter'd friend, ^Eneas flies,
His spear extending where the carcase lies;
Watchful he wheels, protects it every way,
As the grim lion stalks around his jirey.
O'er the fall'n trunk his ample shield display'd.
He hides the hero with his mighty shade,
And threats aloud! the Greeks with longing eyes
Behold at distance, but forbear the jirize.
Then fierce Tydides stoops; and from the fields
Heaved with vast force, a rocky fragment wields.
Not two strong men the enormous weight could raise,
Such men as live in these degenerate days: *
He swung it round; and, gathering strength to throw,
Discharged the ponderous ruin at the foe.
Where to the hip the inserted thigh unites,
Full on the bone the pointed marble lights;
Through both the tendons broke the rugged stone,
And stripp'd the skin, and crack'd the solid bone.
Sunk on his knees, and staggering with his pains.
His falling bulk his bended arm sustains;
Lost in a dizzv mist the warrior lies;
A sudden cloud comes swimming o'er his eyes.
There the brave chief, who mighty numbers sway'd,
Oppress'd had sunk to death's eternal shade.
But heavenly Venus, mindful of the love
She bore Aiichises in the Ida^an grove.
His danger views with anguish and despair,
And guards her oil-ipring with a mother's care.
About her much-loved son her arms she throws,
Her arms whose whiteness match the falling snows.
Screen'd from the foe behind her sliining veil,
The swonls wave harmless, and the javelins fail:
* Tlifi belief in the oxisteiicr' of incii of larger stature in earlier
times is by no nieans confined to Homer.
158 THE ILIAD.
Safe throngh tlie rushing horse, and feather'd flight
Of sounding shafts, she bears him from the fight.
Nor Sthenelus, with nnassisting hands,
Eemain'd nnheedfiil of his lord's commands:
His panting steeds, removed from out the war,
He fix'd with straiten'd traces to the car,
Next, rushing to the Dardan spoil, detains
The heavenly coursers with the flowing manes:
These in proud triumph to the fleet convey'd.
No longer now a Trojan lord obey'd.
That charge to bold De'ipylus he gave
(Whom most he loved, as brave men love the brave,)
Then mounting on his car, resumed the rein.
And follow'd where Tydides swept the plain.
Meanwhile (his conquest ravished from his eyes)
The raging chief in chase of Venus flies:
No goddess she, commission'd to the field,
Like Pallas dreadful with her sable shield.
Or fierce Bellona thundering at the wall,
While flames ascend, and mighty ruins fall;
He knew soft combats suit the tender dame, .
New to the field, and still a foe to fame.
Through breaking ranks his furious course he bends,
And at the goddess his broad lance extends;
Through her bright veil the daring weapon drove,
The ambrosial veil which all the Graces wove;
Her snowy hand the razing steel profaned,
And the transparent skin with crimson stain'd.
From the clear vein a stream immortal flow'd,
Such stream as issues from a wounded god;*
Pure emanation! uncorrupted flood I
Unlike our gross, diseased, terrestrial blood:
(For not the bread of man their life sustains,
Nor wine's inflaming juice supplies their veins:)
With tender shrieks the goddess fill'd the place.
And dropped her offspring from her weak embrace.
Him Phoebus took: he casts a cloud around
The fainting chief, and wards the mortal wound.
Then with a voice that shook the vaulted skies
The king insults the goddess as she flies:
* Such stream, i. e. the ichor, or blood of the gods.
" A stream of nect'rous humor issuing tlow'd,
Sanguine, such as celestial spirits may bleed."
— " Paradise Lost," vi. 332.
THE ILIAD. 159
"111 with Jove's daughter bloody fights agree,
The field of combat is no scene for thee:
Go, let thy own soft sex employ thy care.
Go, lull the coward, or delude the fair.
Taught by this stroke renounce the war's alarms,
And learn to tremble at the name of arms."
Tydides thus. The goddess, seized with dread,
Confused, distracted, from the conflict fled.
To aid her, swift the winged Iris flew,
Wrapt in a mist above the warring crew.
The queen of love with faded charms she found.
Pale was her cheek, and livid look'd the wound.
To Mars, who sat remote, they bent their way:
Far, on the left, with clouds involved he lay;
Beside him stood his lance, distain'd with gore.
And, rein'd with gold, his foaming steeds before.
Low at his knee, she begg'd with streaming eyes
Her brother's car, .to mount the distant skies,
And show'd the wound by fierce Tydides given,
A mortal man, who dares encounter heaven.
Stern Mars attentive hears the queen complain,
And to her hand commits the golden rein;
She mounts the seat, oppress'd with silent woe.
Driven by the goddess of the painted bow.
The lash resounds, the rapid chariot flies,
And in a moment scales the lofty skies:
They stopp'd the car, and there the coursers stood.
Fed by fair Iris witli ambrosial food;
Before her mother, love's bright queen appears,
O'erwhelmed with anguish, and dissolved in tears:
She raised her in her arms, beheld her bleed.
And ask'd what god had wrought this guilty deed?
Then she: "This insult from no god I found,
An impious mortal gave the daring wound!
Behold the deed of hauglity Diomcd !
'Twas in the son's defense the mother bled.
The war with Troy no more the Cirecians wage;
Jiiit with the gods (tlie immortal gods) engage."
Dione then: "Thy wrongs with patience bear.
And share those griefs inferior powers must share:
Unnnmber'd woes ma)il<ind from us sustain.
And men with woes alflict the gods again.
The mighty Mars in mortal fetters bound,*
* This was during the wars with tao Titans.
160 THE ILIAD.
And lodged in brazen dungeons underground,
Full thirteen moons iniprison'd roar'd in vain;
Otus and Ephialtes lield the chain:
Perha^DS had perish'd had not Hermes' care
Restored the groaning god to upper air.
Great Juno's self has borne her weight of pain,
The imperial partner of the heavenly reign
Amphitryon's son inhx'd the deadly dart,*
And fill'd with anguish her immortal heart.
E'en hell's grim king Alcides' power confess'd,
The shaft found entrance in his iron breast;
To Jove's high palace for a cure he fled,
Pierced in his own dominions of tlie dead;
Where Pason, sprinkling heavenly balm around,
Assuaged the glowing pangs, and closed the wound.
Eash, impious man! to stain the bless'd abodes,
And drench his arrows in the blood of gods!
"But thou (though Pallas urged thy frantic deed).
Whose spear ill-fated makes a goddess bleed,
Know thou, whoe'er with heavenly power contends,
Short is his date, and soon his glory ends;
From fields of death when late he shall retire,
No infant on his knees shall call him sire.
Strong as thou art, some god may yet be found,
To stretch thee pale and gasping on the ground;
Thy distant wife, /Egiale the fair,f
Starting from sleep with a distracted air,
Shall rouse thy slaves, and her lost lord deplore.
The brave, the great, the glorious now no more!"
This said, she wiped from Venus' wounded palm
The sacred ichor, and infused the balm.
Juno and Pallas with a smile survey'd,
And thus to Jove began the blue-eyed maid:
"Permit thy daughter, gracious Jove! to tell
How this mischance the Cyprian queen befell,
As late she tried with passion to inflame
The tender bosom of a Grecian dame;
Allured the fair, with moving thoughts of joy,
To quit her country for some youth of Troy;
* Amphitryon's son, Hercules, born to Jove by Alcmena, the
wife of Amphitryon.
f JEgiale, daughter of Adrastus. The Cyclic poets (see Anthon's
Lempriere, s. v.) assert that Veuus incited her to infidelity, in
revengs for the wound she had received from her husbauti.
THE ILIAD. 161
The clasping zone, ^vith golden buckles bonnd,
Razed her soft hand with this laniented wound,"
The sire of gods and men superior smiled,
And, calling Venus, thus address'd his child:
*'Not these, daughter, are thy proper cares,
Thee milder arts bedt, and softer wars;
•Sweet smiles are thine, and kind endearing charms;
To Mars and Pallas leave the deeds of arms."
Thus they in heaven: while on tiie phiin below
The fierce Tydides charged his Dardan foe,
Flush'd with celestial blood pursued his way.
And fearless dared the threatening god of day;
Already in his hopes he saw him kill'd.
Though screen'd behind Apollo's mighty shield.
Thrice rushing furious, at the chief he strook;
His blazing buckler thrice Apollo shook:
He tried the fourth: when, breaking from the cloud,
A more than mortal voice was heard aloud.
"0 son of Tydeus, cease! be wise and see
How vast the difference of the gods and thee;
Distance immense! between the powers that shine
Above, eternal, deathless, and divine,
And mortal man! a wretch of humble birth,
A short-lived reptile in the dust of earth."
So spoke the god who darts celestial fires:
He dreads his fury, and some steps retires.
Then Phcebus bore the chief of Venus' race
To Troy's high fane, and to his lioly place;
Latona there and Pha-be heal'd the wound,
With vigor arm'd him, and with glory crown'd.
This done, the patron of the silver bow
A phantom raised, the same in shape and show
With great ^Eneas; such the form he bore,
And such in fight the radiant arms he wore.
Around the specter bloody wars are waged.
And (Jreece and Troy with dashing shields engaged.
Meantime on Ilion's tower Apollo stood,
And calling Mars, tlius urged the raging god:
'*8tern power of arms, by whom the mighty fall;
Who bathost in blood, and shakest the emiiattled wall,
Kise in thy wrath! to hell's abhorr'd abodes
Despatch yon fJreek, and vindicate the gods.
First rosy \'enus f(!lt ])is brutal rage;
^le next lie charged, and dares all heaven engage:
162 THE ILIAD.
The Avretch wonld brave high heaven's immortal sire,
His triple thunder, and his bolts of fire."
The god of battle issues on the plain,
Stirs all the ranks, and fires the Trojan train:
In form like Acamas, the Thracian guide,
Enraged to Troy's retiring chiefs he cried :
"How long, ye sons of Priam! will ye fly,
And unrevenged see Priam's people die?
Still unresisted shall the foe destroy.
And stretch the slaughter to the gates of Troy?
Lo, brave Jjlneas sinks beneath his wound,
Not godlike Hector more in arms renown'd:
Haste all, and take the generous warrior's part."
He said ; — new courage swell'd each hero's heart.
Sarpedou first his ardent soul express'd,
And, turn'd to Hector, these bold words address'd:
"Say, chief, is all thy ancient valor lost?
Where are thy threats, and where thy glorious boast,
That propp'd alone by Priam's race should stand
Troy's sacred walls, nor need a foreign hand?
Now, now thy country calls her wonted friends,
And the proud vaunt in just derision ends.
Eemote they stand while alien troops engage,
Like trembling hounds before the lion's rage.
Far distant hence I held my wide command.
Where foaming Xanthus laves the Lycian land;
With ample wealth (the wish of mortals) bless'd,
A beauteous wife, and infant at her breast;
With those I left whatever dear could be:
Greece, if she conquers, nothing wins from me;
Yet first in fight my Lycian bands I cheer.
And long to meet this mighty man ye fear;
While Hector idle stands, nor bids the brave
Their wives, their infants, and their altars save.
Haste, warrior, haste! preserve thy threaten'd state,
Or one vast burst of all-involving fate
Full o'er your towers shall fall, and sweep away
Sons, sires, and wives, an undistinguish'd prey.
Eouse all thy Trojans, urge thy aids to fight;
These claim thy thoughts by day, thy watch by night;
With force incessant the brave Greeks oppose;
Such cares thy friends deserve, and such thy foes."
Stung to the heart the generous Hector hears.
But just reproof with decent silence bears.
THE ILTAT). 163
From his pioud car the prince impetuous springs,
On earth lie leaps, his brazen armor rings.
Two shining spears are brandish'd in his hands;
Thus arm'd, he animates his drooping bands.
Revives their ardor, turns their steps from flight,
And wakes anew the dying flames of fight.
They turn, they stand; the Greeks their fury dare,
Condense their powers, and wait the growing war.
As when, oa Ceres' sacred floor, the swain
Spreads the wide fan to clear the golden grain,
And the light chaff, before the breezes borne.
Ascends in clouds from off the heapy corn;
The gray dust, rising with collected winds.
Drives o'er the barn, and whitens all the hinds:
So white with dust the Grecian host appears.
From trampling steeds, and thundering charioteers;
The dusky clouds from labor'd earth arise,
And roll in smoking volumes to the skies.
Mars hovers o'er them with his sable shield,
And adds new horrors to the darken'd field:
Pleased with his charge, and ardent to fulfill,
In Troy's defense, Apollo's heavenly will:
Soon as from fight the blue-eyed maid retires.
Each Trojan bosom with new warmth he fires.
And now the god, from forth his sacred fane,
Produced ^Eneas to the shouting train;
Alive, unharm'd, with all his peers around,
Erect he stood, and vigorous from his wound:
Inquiries none they made; the dreadful day
No pause of words admits, no dull delay;
Fierce Discord storms, Apollo loud exclaims.
Fame calls, ]Mars thunders, and the field's in flames.
Stern Diomed with either Ajax stood.
And great Ulysses, bathed in hostile blood.
Embodied close, the laboring Grecian train
'J'ho fiercest shock of charging hosts sustain.
Unmoved and silent, the whole war they wait,
Serenely drea<lful, an<l as fix'd as fate.
So when the embattled clouds in dark array.
Along tiie skies tlieir gloomy lines display;
When now the North his boisterous rage has spent,
And peaceful sleeps the liquid olemont:
The low-hung vapors, motionless and still,
Rest on the summits of the shadcl hill;
164 THE ILIAD.
Till the mass scatter^; as the winds arise,
Dispersed and broken through the ruffled skies.
Xor was the general wanting to his train;
From troop to troop he toils through all the plain,
"Ye Greeks, be men I the charge of battle bear;
Your brave associates and yourselves revere I
Let glorious acts more glorious acts inspire.
And catch from breast to breast the noble fire!
On valor's side the odds of combat lie,
The brave live glorious, or lamented die;
The wretch who trembles in the field of fame.
Meets death, and worse than death, eternal shame!"
These words he seconds with his flying lanoe.
To meet whose point was strong Deicoon's chance:
Eneas' friend, and in his native place
Houor'd and loved lie Priam's royal race:
Long had he fought the foremost in the field,
But now the monarch's lance transpierced his shield
His shield too weak the furious dart to stay,
Through his broad belt the weapon forced its way:
The grisly wound dismiss'd his soul to hell.
His arms around him rattled as he fell.
Then fierce ^Eneas, brandishing his blade.
In dust Orsilochus and Crethon laid.
Whose sire Diocleus, wealthy, brave and great.
In well-built Phera? held his lofty seat:*
Sprung from Alpheiis' plenteous stream, that yields
Increase of harvests to the Pylian fields.
He got Orsilochus, Diocleus he,
And these descended in the third degree.
Too early expert in the martial toil.
In sable ships they left their native soil.
To avenge Atrides: now, untimely slain.
They fell with glory on the Phrygian plain.
So two young mountain lions, nursed with blood
In deep recesses of the gloomy wood,
Eush fearless to the plains, and uncontroll'd
Depopulate the stalls and waste the fold:
Till pierced at distance from their native den,
O'erpowered they fall beneath the force of men.
Prostrate on earth their beauteous bodies lay,
Like mountain firs, as tall and straight as they.
Great Menelaiis views with pitying eyes.
Lifts his bright lance, and at the victor flies;
* Phera, a town of Pelasgiotis, in Tliessalv.
THE ILIAD. 165
Mia-s urged him on; yet, ruthless in his hate,
The god but urged him to provoke his fate.
He thus advancing, Kestor's valiant son
Shakes for his danger, and neglects his own;
Struck with the thought, should Helen's lord be slain,
And all his country's glorious labors vain.
Already met, the threatening heroes stand;
The spears already tremble in their hand:
In rush'd Antilochus, his aid to bring.
And fall or conquer by the Spartan king.
These seen, the Dardan backward turn'd his course,
Brave as he was, and shunn'd unequal force.
The breathless bodies to the Greeks they drew,
Then mix in combat, and their toils renew.
First, Pylfemenes, great in battle, bled,
Who sheathed in brass the Paphlagouians led.
Atrides mark'd him where sublime he stood;
Fix'd in his throat the Javelin drank his blood.
The faithful Mydon, as he turn'd from fight
His flying coursers, sunk to endless night;
A broken rock by Nestor's son was thrown :
His bended arm received the falling stone;
From his numb'd hand the ivory-studded reins,
Dropp'd in the dust, are trail'd along the plains:
Meanwhile his temples feel a deadly wound;
He groans in death, and ponderous sinks to ground:
Deep drove his helmet in the sands, and there
The head stood fix'd, the quivering legs in air.
Till trampled flat beneath the coursers' feet:
The youthful victor mounts his empty seat,
And bears the prize in triumph to the fleet.
Great Hector saw, and raging at the view,
Pours on the Greeks: the Trojan troops pursue:
He fires his host with animating cries.
And bring along the furies of the skies.
Mars, stern destroyerl and Beilona dread.
Flame in the front, and thunder at their head:
This swells the tumult and the rage of fight;
That shakes a spear that casts a drojidful light.
Where Hector niarch'd, the god of battles shined,
Now storm'd before him, and now raged behind.
Tydides ])au8cd ainidst his full career:
Then first the hero's manly breast knew fear.
As when some simple swain his cot forsakes.
And wide through fens an unknown journey takes.
1G6 THE ILIAD.
If chance a swelling brook his j^assage stay,
And foam inipervions 'cross the wanderer's way,
Confused he stops, a length of country pass'd,
Eyes the rough waves, and tired, returns at last.
Amazed no less the great Tydides stands:
He stay'd, and turning thus address'd his bands:
"No wonder, Greeks! that all to Hector yield;
Secure of favoring gods, he takes the field;
His strokes they second, and avert our spears:
Behold where Mars in mortal arms appears!
Eetire then, warriors, but sedate and slow;
Eetire, but with your faces to the foe.
Trust not too much your unavailing might;
'Tis not with Troy, but with the gods ye fight."
Now near the Greeks the black battiilions drew;
And first two leaders valiant Hector slew:
His force Anchialus and Mnesthes found,
In every art of glorious war renown'd;
In the same car the chiefs to combat ride,
And fought united, and united died.
Struck at the sight, the mighty Ajax glows
With thirst of vengeance, and assaults the foes.
His massy spear with matchless fury sent.
Through Amphius' belt and heaving belly went;
Amphius Apagsus' happy soil possess'd.
With herds abounding, and with treasure bless'd;
But fate resistless from his country led
The chief, to perish at his people's head.
Shook with his fall his brazen armor rung.
And fierce, to seize it, conquering Ajax sprung;
Around his head an iron tempest rain'd;
A wood of spears his ample shield sustain'd:
Beneath one foot the yet warm corpse he press'd,
And drew his javelin from the bleeding breast:
He could no more; the showering darts denied
To spoil his glittering arms, and plumy pride.
Now foes on foes came pouring on the fields,
AVith bristling lances, and compacted shields;
Till in the steely circle straiten'd round.
Forced he gives way, and sternly quits the ground.
While thus they strive, TIepolemus the great,*
* Tlepolemus, son of Hercules and Astyocliia. Having left Lis
native country, Argos, in consequence of the accidental murder of
Liscymnius, La was commanded by an oracle to retire to Rhodes..
THE ILIAD. 167
Urged by the force of unresisted fate,
Burns with desire Sarpedon's strength to prove;
Alcides' offspring meets the son of Jove.
Sheathed in bright arms each adverse chief came on.
Jove's great descendant, and his greater son.
Prepared for combat, ere the lance he toss'd,
The daring JShodian vents his haughty boast:
"What brings this Lycian counsellor so far,
To tremble at our arms, not mix in war!
Know thy vain self, nor let their flattery move,
Who style thee son of cloud-compelling Jove.
How far unlike those chiefs of race divine.
How vast the difference of their deeds and thine!
Jove got such heroes as my sire, whose soul
No fear could daunt, nor earth nor hell control.
Troy felt his arm, and yon proud ramparts stand
Raised on the ruins of his vengeful hand:
With six small ships, and but a slender train,
He left a town a wide-deserted plain.
But what art tliou, who deedloss look'st around,
While unrevenged thy Lycians bite the ground!
Small aid to Troy thy feeble force can be;
But wert thou greater, thou must yield to me.
Pierced by my spear, to endless darkness go!
I make this present to the shades below."
The son of Hercules, and Rhodian guide.
Thus haughty spoke. The Lycian king replied:
"Thy sire, prince! o'erturned the Trojan state.
Whose perjured monarch well deserved his fate;
Tnose heavenly steeds the hero sought so far,
F'alse he detain'd, the Just reward of war.
Nor so content, the generous chief defied.
With base reproaches and unmanly pride,
liut yon, unworthy the high race yon boast.
Shall raise my glory when thy own is lost:
Now meet thy fate, and by Surpedon slain.
Add one more ghost to Pinto's gloomy i-eign."
He said: both javelins at an instant Hew;
Jjoth strnck, both wounded, but Sarpedon's slow:
Full in the boaster's neck the weapon stood,
Transtix'd his throat, and drank the vital blood;
Here lio was clioscii kiiiK. ''i"<l "C'luniuuiii-d tlit! 'I'rojaii expe-
dition. .\ft<;r his (ji'dtli, ccrliiin ^fniiics wcri- iiiMt,itnt('(l at, Klindcs
in Ilia honor, the vihiturs being rowarded with crowns of poplar.
168 THE ILIAD.
The soul disdainful seeks the caves of night,
And his seal'd eyes forever lose the light.
Yet not in vain, Tlepolemus, was thrown
Thy angry lance; which piercing to the bone
Sarpedon'a thigh, had robb'd the chief of breath;
But Jove was present, and forbade the death.
Borne from the conflict by his Lycian throng,
The wounded hero dragg'd the lance along,
(His friends, each busied in his several part,
Through haste, or danger, had not drawn the dart.)
The Greeks with slain Tlepolemus retired;
Whose fall Ulysses view'd, with fury fired;
Doubtful if Jove's great son he should pursue,
Or pour his vengeance on the Lycian crew.
But heaven and fate the first design withstand,
Nor this great death must grace Ulysses' hand
Minerva drives him on the Lycian train;
Alastor, Cronius, Halius, strew'd the plain,
Alcander, Prytanis, Noemon fell:*
And numbers more his sword had sent to hell,
But Hector saw; and, furious at the sight,
Eush'd terrible amidst the ranks of fight.
With joy Sarpedon view'd the wish'd relief,
And, faint, lamenting, thus implored the chief:
"0 suffer not the foe to bear away
My helpless corpse, an unassisted prey;
If I, unbless'd, mnst see my son no more,
My much-loved consort, and my native shore,
Yet let me die in Uion's sacred wall;
Troy, in whose cause I fell, shall mourn my fall.'^
He said, nor Hector to the chief replies,
But shakes his plume, and fierce to combat flies;
Swift as a whirlwind, drives the scattering foes;
And dyes the ground with purple as he goes.
Beneath a beech, Jove's consecrated shade,
His mournful friends, divine Sarpedon laid:
Brave Pelagon, his favorite chief, was nigh.
Who wrench'd the javelin from his sinewy thigh.
The fainting soul stood ready wing'd for flight.
And o'er his eyeballs swam the shades of night;
But Boreas rising fresh, with gentle breath
Recall'd his spirit from the gates of death.,
* These heroes' names have since passed into a kind of proverb,
designating the oi polloi or mob.
THE ILIAD 169
The generous Greeks recede with tardy pace,
Though Mars and Hector thunder in their face;
None turn their backs to mean ignoble flight
Slow they retreat, and even retreating fight.
Who first, who last, by Mars' and Hector's hand,
Stretch'd in their blood, lay gasping on the sand?
Tenthras the great, Orestes the renown'd
For managed steeds, and Trechus press'd the ground',
Net ffinomaiis and CEnops' offspring died;
Oresbius last fell groaning at their side:
Oresbius, in his painted mitre gay.
In fat Boeotia held his wealthy sway.
Where lakes surround low Hyle's watery plain-,
A prince and people studious of their gain.
The carnage Juno from the skies survey'd,
And touch'd with grief bespoke the blue-eyed maid:
"Oh, sight accursed! Shall faithless Troy prevail.
And shall our promise to our peoj^le fail?
How vain the word to Menelaiis given
By Jove's great daughter and the queen of heaven.
Beneath his arms tliat Priam's towers should fall,
If warring gods forever guard the wall!
Mars, red with slaughter, aids our hated foes:
Haste, let ns arm, and force with force oppose!"
She spoke; Minerva burns to meet the war:
And now heaven's empress calls her blazing car.
At her command rush forth the steeds divine;
Iiich with immortal gold their trappings shine.
Bright Ilobe waits; by Hebe, ever young.
The whirling wheels are to the chariot hung,
On the ijright axle turiis the bidden wheel
Of sounding brass; the polish 'd axle steel.
Eight brazen spokes in radiant order flame;
The circles gold, of uncorrupted frame.
Such as the heavens produce: and round the gold
Two brazen rings of work divine were roU'd.
The bossy naves of solid silvei shone;
Braces of gold suspend the moving throne:
The car, behind, an arching figure bore;
The bending concave form'd an arcli before.
Silver the beam, the extended yoke was gold,
And golden reins the immortal coursers hold.
Herself, impatient, to the ready car,
The coursers, joins, and breathes revenge and war.
170 THE ILIAD.
Pallas disrobes; her radiant veil nntied,
With flowers adorn'd, with art diversified
(The labor'd veil her heavenly fingers wove),
Flows on the pavement of the court of Jove.
Now heaven's dread arms her mighty limbs invest,
Jove's cuirass blazes on her ample breast:
Deck'd in sad triumph for the mournful field,
O'er her broad shouklers hangs his horrid shield.
Dire, black, tremendous! Bound the margin roll'd,
A fringe of serpents hissing guards the gold:
Here all the terrors of grim War appear,
Here rages Force, here tremble Flight and Fear,
Here storra'd Contention, and here Furey frowu'd.
And the dire orb portentous Gorgon crown'd.
The massy golden helm she next assumes.
That dreadful nods with four o'ershading plumes
So vast, the broad circumference contains
A hundred armies on a hundred plains.
The goddess thus the imperial car ascends;
Shook by her arm the mighty javelin bends,
Ponderous and huge; that when her fury burns,
Proud tyrants humbles, and whole hosts o'erturns.
Swift at the scourge the ethereal coursers fly.
While the smooth chariot cuts the liquid sky.
Heaven's gates spontaneous open to the powers,*
Heaven's golden gates, kept by the winged Hours; f
Commission'd in alternate watch they stand.
The sun's bright portals and the skies command,
Involved in clouds the eternal gates of day,
Or the dark barrier roll with ease away.
The sounding hinges ring: on either side
The gloomy volumes, pierced with light, divide.
The chariot mounts, where deep in ambient skies.
Confused, Olympus' hundred heads arise;
* Spontaneous open.
" Veil'd with his gorgeous wings, upspringing light
Flew through the midst of heaven ; th' angelic quires,
On each hand parting to his speed gave way
Through all th' empyreal road; till at the gate
Of heaven arrived, the gate self-open'd wide,
On golden hinges turning."
— " Paradise Lost," v. 250.
t '• Till Morn,
Waked by the circling Hours, with rosy hand
Unbarr'd the gates of light "
— " Paradise Lost," vi. 3.
THE ILIAD. 171
Where far apart the Thuuderer fills his throne,
O'er all the gods superior and alone.
There with her snowy hand the queen restrains
The fiery steeds, and thus to Jove complains:
"0 sire! can no resentment touch thy soul?
Can Mars rebel, and does no thunder roll?
"What lawless rage on yon forbidden plain,
What rash destruction! and what heroes slain!
Venus, and Phoebus with the dreadful bow.
Smile on the slaughter, and enjoy my woe.
Mad, furious power! whose unrelenting mind
No god can govern, and no justice bind.
Say, mighty father! shall we scourge this pride,
And drive from fight the impetuous homicide?'*
To whom assenting, thus the Thunderer said:
"Go! and the great Minerva be thy aid.
To tame the monster-god Minerva knows,
And oft afflicts his brutal breast with woes."
He said; Saturnia, ardent to obey,
Lash'd her wliite steeds along the aerial way.
Swift down the steep of heaven the chariot rolls
Between the expanded earth and starry poles.
Far as a shepherd from some point on high*
Oe'r the wide main extends his boundless eye;
Through such a space of air with thundering sound,
At every leap the immortal coursers bound:
Troy now theyreach'd and touch'd those banks divine,
Where silver Simois and Scarnander join.
There Juno stopp'd and (licr fair steeds unloosed)
Of air condensed a vapor circumfused:
For these, impregnate with celestial dew
On Simois brink ambrosial herbage grew,
Thence to relieve the fainting Argive throng
Smooth as the sailing doves they glide along.
The best and bravest of the Grecian band
(A warlike circle) round Tydides stand.
Such was their look as lions bathed in blood.
Or foaming boars, the terror of the wood.
* Far as a Hhephe.rd. " With what inajosty and pomp does
Homer exalt liis (icitics ! He here measures the h-ap of the
horses by tlie extent of tlie worhl. And wlio is there, tiiat, con-
sidering tlie exceedinff >;reatnes3 of the s^pace, would not with
reason cry out, tliat ' If the steeds of tlie deity were to take a
second leap, the world would want room for it V " — Longiuus, t^ b.
172 THE ILIAD.
Heaven's empress mingles with the mortal crowd
And shouts, in Stentor's sounding voice aloud;
Stentor the strong, endued with brazen lungs,*
Whose throats surpass'd the force of fifty tongues.
"Inglorious ArgivesI to your race a shame,
And only men in figure and in name!
Once from the walls your timorous foes engaged,
While fierce in war divine Achilles raged;
Now issuing fearless they possess the plain.
Now win the shores, and scarce the seas remain."
Her speech new fury to their hearts convey 'd;
While near Tydides stood the Athenian maid;
The king beside his panting steeds she found,
O'erspent with toil reposing on the ground;
To cool his glowing wound he sat apart
(The wood inflicted by the Lycian dart),
Largo drops of sweat from all his limbs descend.
Beneath his ponderous shield his sinews bend^
Whose ample belt, that o'er his shoulder lay,
He eased; and wash'd the clotted gore away.
The goddess leaning o'er the bending yoke,
Beside his coursers, thus her silence broke:
"Degenerate prince! and not of Tydeus' kind.
Whose little body lodged a mighty mind;
Foremost he press'd in glorious toils to share,
And scarce refrain'd when I forbade the war.
Alone, unguarded, once he dared to go.
And feast, incircled by the Theban foe;
There braved, and vanquish'd, many a hardy knight;
Such nerves I gave hina, and such force in fight.
Thou too no less hast been my constant care;
Thy hands I arm'd, and sent thee forth to war:
But thee or fear deters, or sloth detains;
No drop of all thy father warms thy veins."
The chief thus answered mild: "Immortal maid!
I own thy presence, and confess thy aid.
* " No trumpets, or any other instruments of sound, are used
in the Homeric action itself; but the trumpet was Icnown, and is
introduced for the purpose of illustration as employed in war.
Hence arose the value of a loud voice in a couimander; Stentor
was an indispensablt officer In the early Saracen
campaigns frequent mention is n:ade of the service rendered by
men of uncommonly strong voices; the battle of Honain was
restored by the shouts and menaces of Abbas, the uncle of
Mohammed," etc. — Coleridge, p. 213.
TEE ILIAD. 173
Not fear, thou know'st, withholds me from the phiins,
Nor sloth hath seized me, but thy word restrains:
From warring gods thoii bad'st me turn my spear,
And Venns only fonnd resistance here.
Hence, goddess! heedful of thy high commands,
Loth I gave way, and warn'd our Argive bands:
For Mars, the homicide, these eyes beheld,
With slaughter red, and raging round the field."
Then thus Minerva:— "Brave Tydides, hear!
Not Mars himself, nor aught immortal, fear.
Full on the god impel thy foaming horse:
Pallas commands, and Pallas lends thee force.
Eash, furious, blind, from these to those he flies,
And every side of wavering combat tries;
Large promise makes, and breaks the promise made:
Now gives the Grecians, now the Trojans aid." *
She said, and to the steeds approaching near.
Drew from his seat the martial charioteer.
The vigorous power the trembling oar ascends.
Fierce for revenge; and Diomed attends:
The groaning axle bent beneath the load;
So great a hero, and so great a god,
She snatch'd the reins, slie lash'd with all her force.
And full on Mars impell'd the foaming horse:
But first, to hide her heavenly visage, spread
Black Orcus' heimet o'er her radiant head.
Just then giganitc Periphas lay slain,
The strongest warrior of the ^Etolian train;
The god, who slew him, leaves his ])rostrate prize
Stretch'd where lie fell, and at Tydides flies.
Now rushing fierce, in equal arms appear
The daring Greek, the dreadful god of war!
Full at the cliief, above his courser's head,
From Mars' arm the enormous weapon fled:
Pallas opposed her hand, and caused to glance
Far from the car the strong immortal lance.
Then threw the force of Tydeus' warlike son;
The javelin hiss'd; the goddess urged it on:
AVliero the broad ciiictui-e girt his armor round,
It pierced the god: his grcjin received tlie wound.
From the rent skin the warrior tugs again
The smoking steel. Mars bellows with the pain:
" Lonp liad tbe wav'rinff god the war delay'd,
While (ircece and Troy altcrnati- own'd liis aid."
— MtTiick's " Tryiiliiodorns," vi. 761, sci.
174 THE ILIAD.
Loud as the roar encountering armies yield,
When shouting millions shake the thundering field.
Both armies start, and trembling gaze around;
And earth and heaven re-bellow to the sound.
As vapors blow by Auster's sultry breath,
Pregnant with plagues, and shedding seeds of death.
Beneath the rage of burning Sirius rise,
Choke the parch'd earth, and blacken all the skies;
In such a cloud the god from combat driven,
High o'er the dusky whirlwind scales the heaven.
Wild with his pain, he sought the bright abodes,
There sullen sat beneath the sire of gods,
Show'd the celestial blood, and with a groan
Thus pour'd his plaints before the immortal throne;
"Can Jove, supine, flagitious facts survey.
And brook the furies of this daring day?
For mortal men celestial powers engage,
And gods on gods exert eternal rage:
From thee, father! all these ills we bear,
And thy fell daughter with the shield and spear:
Thou gavest that fury to the realms of light,
Pernicious, wild, regardless of the right.
All heaven beside reveres thy sovereign sway.
Thy voice we hear, and thy behests obey:
'Tis hers to offend, and even offending share
Thy breast, thy counsels, thy distinguish'd care:
So boundless she, and thou so partial grown,
Well may we deem the wondrous birth thy own.
Now frantic Diomed, at her command,
Against the immortals lifts his raging hand:
The heavenly Venus first his fury found.
Me next encountering, me he dared to wound;
Vanquish'd I fled; even I, the god of fight, _
From mortal madness scarce was saved by flight.
Else hadst thou seen me sink on yonder plain,_
Heap'd round, and heaving under loads of slain,
Or pierced witli Grecian darts, for ages lie,
Condemn'd to pain, though fated not to die."
Him thus upbraiding, with a wrathful look
The lord of thunders view'd, and stern bespoke:
"To me, perfidious! this lamenting strain?
Of lawless force shall lawless Mars complain?
Of all the gods who tread the spangled skies
Thou most unjust, most odious in our eyes!
THE ILIAD. 175
Inbnman discord is thy dire delight,
The waste of shiughter, and tlie rage of fight.
No bounds, no hi,\v, thy tiery temper quells,
And all thy mother in thy soul rebels.
In vain our threats, in vain our power we use;
She gives the example, and her son pursues.
Yet long the inflicted pangs thou shalt not mourn,
Sprung since thou art from Jove, and heavenly born.
Else, singed with lightning, hadst thou hence been
thrown.
Where chain'd on burning rocks the Titians grown."
Thus he who shakes Olympus with his nod;
Then gave to Papon's care the bleeding god.*
With gentle hand the balm he pour'd around,
And heal'd the immortal flesh, and closed the wound.
As when the flg's press'd juice, infused in cream,
To curds coagulates the liquid stream,
Sudden the fluids fix the parts combined;
Such, and so soon, the ethereal texture join'd.
Cleansed from the dust and gore, fair Hebe dress'd
His mighty limbs in an immortal vest.
Glorious he sat, in majesty restored.
Fast by the throne of heaven's superior lord.
Juno and Pallas mount the bless'd abodes.
Their task perform'd, and mix among the gods.
* Pdon seems to have been to the gods what Podaleirius and
Machiion were to the Grecian heroes.
176 TEE ILIAD.
BOOK VI.
AEGUMENT.
THE EPISODES OF GLAUCUS AND DIOMED, AND OF
HECTOR AND ANDROMACHE.
The gods having left the field, the Grecians prevail. Helenas,
the chief auger of Troy, commands Hector to return to the
city, in order to appomt a solemn procession of the queen and
the Trojan matrons to the temple of Minerva, to entreat her
to remove Diomed from the fight. The battle relating during
the absence of Hector, Glaucus and Diomed have an inter-
view between the two armies; where, coming to the knowl-
edge of the friendship and hospitality passed between their
ancestors, they make exchange of their arms. Hector, having
performed the orders of Helenus; prevails upon Paris to
return to the battle, and, taking a tender leave of his wife,
Andromache, hastens again to the field.
The scene is first in the fic^ld of battle, between the rivers
Simois and Scamander, and then changes to Troy.
Now heaven forsakes the fight: the immortals yield
To human force and human skill the field:
Dark showers of javelins fly from foes to foes;
Now here, now there, the tide of combat flows;
While Troy's famed streams, that bound the deathful
plain
On either side, run purple to the main.
Great Ajax first to conquest led the way,
Broke the thick ranks, and turn'd the doubtful day.
The Thracian Acamas his falchion found.
And hew'd the enormous giant to the ground;
His thundering arm a deadly stroke impressed
Where the black horsehair nodded o'er his crest;
Fix'd in his front the brazen weapon lies,
And seals in endless shades his swimming eyes.
Next Tenthras' son distain'd the sands with blood,
Axylus, hospitable, rich, and good:
In fair Arisbe's walls (his native place)*
* Arisbe, a colony of the Mitylenaans in Troas.
THE ILIAD. 177
He held his seat! a friend to human race.
Fast by the road, his ever-open door
Obliged the wealthy, and relieved the poor.
To sterns Tydides now he falls a prey,
No friend to guard him in the dreadful day!
Breathless the good man fell, and by his side
His faithful servant, old Calesius died.
By great Euryalus was Dresus slain,
And next he laid Opheltius on the plain.
Two twins were near, bold, beautiful, and young,
From'a fair naiad and Bucolion sprung
(Laomedon's white flocks Bucolion fed,
That monarch's first-born by a foreign bed;
In secret woods he was the naiad's grace,
And two fair infants crown'd his strong embrace)
Here dead they lay in all their youthful charms;
The ruthless victor stripp'd their shining arms.
Astyalus by Polypoetes fell;
Ulysses' spear Pidytes sent to hell;
By Teucer's shaft brave Aretaon bled,
And Nestor's son laid stern Ablerus dead;
Great Agamemnon, leader of the brave,
The mortal wound of rich Elatus gnve,
Who held in Pedasus his proud abode,*
And till'd the banks where silver Satiuo flow'd.
Melanthius by Eurypylus was slain;
And Piiylacus from Leitus files in vain.
Unbloss'd Adrastus next at mercy lies
Beneath the Spartan spear, a living prize.
Scared with the din and tumult of the fight,
His headlong steeds, precipitate in flight,
Rusli'd on a tamarisk's strong trunk, and broke
The shatter'd chariot from the crooked yoke;
Wide o'er the field, resistless as the wind.
For Troy they fly, and leave their lord behind.
Prone on his face he sinks beside the wheel:
Atrides o'er liim shakes his vengeful steel;
The fallen chief in sui)pli;uit posture press'd
The victor's knees, and tlius his prayer addresa'd;
"0 spare my youth, aiul for the life I owe
Large gifts of price my father sliall bestow.
AVhen fame shall tell, that, not in battle slain.
Thy hollow ships his captive son detain:
* Pedasus, a town rn^ar Pylos.
178 THE ILIAD.
Rich heaps of brass sliall in thy tent be told,*
And steel well-temper'd, and persuasive gold."
He said: compassion touch'd the hero's heart
He stood, suspended with the lifted dart:
As pity pleaded for his vanquish'd prize,
Stern Agamemnon swift to vengeance flies,
And, furious, thus: *'0h, impotent of mindlf
Shall these, shall these Atrides' mercy find?
Well hast thou known proud Troy's perfidious land,
And well her natives merit at thy hand!
Not one of all the race, nor sex, nor age.
Shall save a Trojan from our boundless rage.
Ilion shall perish whole, and bury all;
Her babes, her infants at the breast, shall fall;J
A dreadful lesson of exam pled fate.
To warn the nations, and to curb the great!"
The monarch spoke; the words, with warmth ad-
dress'd
To rigid justice steel'd his brother's breast.
Fierce from his knees the hapless chief he thrust;
The monarch's javelin stretch'd him in the dust,
Then pressing with his foot his panting heart,
Forth from the slain he tugg'd the reeking dart.
Old Nestor saw, and roused the warrior's rage;
"Thus, heroes! thus the vigorous combat wage;
* UicJi heaps of brass. " The balls of Alkinous and Menelaiis
glitter witli gold, copper, and electruuj; while large stocks of yet
unemployed metal — gold, copper, and iron — are stored up in the
treasure-chamber of Odysseus and other chiefs. Coined money is
unknown in the Homeric age — the trade carried on being one of
barter. In reference also to the metals, it deserves to be remarked
that the Homeric descriptions universally suppose copper, and not
iron, to be employed for arms, both offensive and defensive. By
what process the copper was tempered and hardened, so as to
serve the purpose of the warrior, we do not know; but the use of
iron for these objects belongs to a later age." — Grote, vol. ii. p.
142.
f Oh impotent, etc. " In battle, quarter seems never to have
been given, except with a view to the ransom of the prisoner.
Agamemnon reproaches Menelaiis with unmanly softness, when
he is on the point of sparing an alien enemy, and himself puts the
suppliant to the sword." — Thirlwall, vol. i. p. 181.
:j: " The ruthless steel, impatient of delay,
Forbade the sire to linger out the day:
It struck the bending father to the earth,
And cropt the wailing infant at the birth.
Can innocents the rage of parties know.
And they who ne'er offended find a foe ?"
— Howe's Lucan, bk. ii.
THE ILIAD. 179
No son of Mars descend, for servile gains,
To touch the boot}', while a foe remains.
Behold yon glittering host, your future spoil!
First gain the conquest, then reward the toil."
And now that Greece eternal fame acquired,
And frighted Troy within her walls, retired,
Had not sage Helenus her state redress'd,
Taught by the gods that moved his sacred breast.
Where Hector stood, with great ^-Eneas join'd,
The seer reveal'd tlie counsels of his mind.
"Ye generous chiefs! on whom the immortals lay
The cares and glories of this doubtful day;
On whom your aids, our country's hopes depend;
Wise to consult, and active to defend!
Here, at our gates, your brave efforts unite.
Turn back the routed, and forbid the flight,
Ere yet their wives' soft arms the cowards gain,
The sport and insult of the hostile train.
When your commands have hearten'd every band,
Ourselves, here fix'd, will make the dangerous stand;
Press'd as we are, and sore of former fight,
These straits demand our last remains of might.
Meanwhile thou. Hector, to the town retire.
And teach our mother what the gods require:
Direct the queen to lead the assembled train
Of Troy's chief matrons to Minerva's fane;*
Unbar the sacred gates, and seek the power,
With olfer'd vows, in Ilion's topmost tower.
The largest mantle her rich wardrobes hold,
Most prized for art, and labor'd o'er with gold,
Before the goddess' honor'd knees be spread.
And twelve young heifers to her altars led:
If so the power, atoned by fervent prayer,
Our wives, our infants, and our city spare,
And far avert Tydides' wasteful ire,
Tiiat mows whole troops, and makes all Troy retire;
Not thus Achilles taught our hosts to dread.
Sprung tliough he was from more than mortal bed;
* " Meantiirm tlie Trojan flames, oppress'd with woe,
To Pallas' fane in l')n<^ procession go,
In iiopes to reconcile their heav'nly foe:
Tliey weep; they beat tbeir beasts; they rend their hair,
And rich embroider'd vests for presents bear."
— Drydeu's Virgil, i. G70
180 THE ILIAD.
Not thus resistless ruled the steam of fight,
In rage unbounded, and unmatch'd in might."
Hector obedient heard: and, with a bound,
Leap'd from his trembling chariot to the ground;
Though all his host inspiring force he flies,
And bids the thunder of the battle rise.
With rage recruited the bold Trojans glow,
And turn the tide of conflict on the foe:
Fierce in the front he shakes two dazzling spears;
All Greece recedes, and 'midst her triumphs fears;
Some god, they thought, who ruled the fate of wars.
Shot down avenging from the vault of stars.
Then thus aloud: "Ye dauntless Dardens, hear!
And you whom distant nations send to war!
Be mindful of the strength your fathers bore;
Be still yourselves, and Hector asks no more.
One hour demands me in the Trojan wail,
To bid our altars flame, and victims fall:
Nor shall, I trust, the matron's holy train,
And reverend elders, seek the gods in vain."
This said, with ample strides the hero pass'd;
The shield's large orb behind his shoulder cast,
His neck o'ershadiug, to his ankle hung;
And as he march'd the brazen buckler rung.
Now paused the battle (godlike Hector gone),*
Where daring Glaucus and great Tydeus' son
Between both armies met: the chiefs from far
Observed each other, and had mark'd for war.
Near as they drew, Tydides thus began:
"What art thou, boldest of the race of man?
Our eyes till now that aspect ne'er beheld,
Where fame is reap'd amid the embattled field;
Yet far before the troops thou dar'st appear,
And meet a lance the fiercest heroes fear.
* The manner in wliicli this episode is introduced is well illus-
trated by the following remarks of Mure, vol. i. p. 298: "The
poet's method of introducing his episode also illustrates in a
curious manner his tact in the dramatic department of his art.
Where, for example, one or more heroes are despatched on some
commission, to be executed at a certain distance of time or place,
the fulfillment of this task is not, as a general rule, immediately
described. A certain interval is allowed them for reaching the ap-
pointed scene of action, which interval is dramatized, as it were,
either by a temporary continuation of the previous narrative, or
be fixing attention for a while on some new transaction, at the
close of which the further account of the mission is resumed."
THE ILIAD. 181
Unhappy they, and born of luckless sires,
AVho tempt onr fury when Minerva fires!
But if from heaven, celestial, thou descend,
Know with immortals we no more contend.
Not long Lycurgus view'd the golden light.
That daring man who mix'd with gods in fight.
Bacchus, and Bacchus' votaries, he drove
With brandish'd steel, from Nyssa's sacred grove:
Their consecrated sjjears lay scatter'd round,
With curling vines and twisted ivy bound;
While Bacchus headlong sought the briny flood.
And Thetis' arms received the trembling god.
Xor fail'd the crime the immortars wrath to move
(The immortals bless'd with endless ease above;
Deprived of sight by their avenging doom.
Cheerless he breath'd and wauder'd in the gloom.
Then sunk unpitied to the dire abodes,
A wretch accursed, and hated by the gods!
I brave not heaven: but if the fruits of earth
Sustain thy life, and human be thy birth.
Bold as thou art, too prodigal of breath.
Approach, and enter the dark gates of death."
"What, or from whence I am, or who my sire
(Replied the chief, can Tydeus' son inquire?
Like leaves on trees the race of man is found,
Now green in youth, now withering on the ground,
Another race the following spring supplies;
They fall successive, and successive rise:
So generations in their course decay;
So flourish these, when those are pass'd away.
Jjut if thou still persist to search my birth.
Then hear a tale that fills the spacious earth.
"A city stands on Argos' utmost bound
(Argos the fair, for warlike steeds renown'd),
yEolian Sisyphus, with wisdom bless'd,
In ancient time the happy wall possess'd,
Then callM Kphyre: (jilaucus was his son;
Oreat Glaucus, father of Bellerophon,
AVho o'er the sons of men in beauty sliined,
Jjoved for that valor wjjich preserves mankind.
'J'lien mighty Pni^tus Argos scepter sway'd.
Whose lianl commands Bellerophon ohey'd.
AVitli diri;ful jealousy tiie monarch raged,
And the brave prince in numerous toils engaged.
182 THE ILIAD.
For him Antsea burn'd with lawless flame,
And strove to tempt him from the patlis of fame:
111 vain she tempted the relentless youth,
Endued with wisdom, sacred fear, and truth.
Fired at his scorn the queen to Prfetus fled,
And begg'd revenge for her insulted bed:
Incensed he heard, resolving on his fate;
But hospitable laws restrain'd his hate:
To Lycia the devoted youth he sent.
With tablets seal'd, that told his dire intent.*
Now bless'd by every power who guards the good,
The chief arrived at Xanthus' silver flood:
There Lycia's monarch paid him honors due,
Nine days he feasted, and nine bulls he slew.
But when the tenth Ijright morning orient glow'd,
The faithful youth his monarch's mandate show'd:
The fatal tablets, till that instant seal'd.
The deathful secret to the king reveal'd.
First, dire Chimsera's conquest was enjoin'd;
A mingled monster of no mortal kind!
Behind, a dragon's fiery tail was spread;
A goat's rough body bore a lion's head;
Her jjitchy nostrils flaky flames expire;
Her gaping throats emits infernal fire.
"This pest he slaughter'd (for he read the skies,
And trusted heaven's informing prodigies).
Then met in arms the Solymaran crewf
(Fiercest of men), and those the warrior slew;
Next the bold Amazon's whole force defied;
And conquer'd still, for heaven was on his side.
"Nor ended here his toils: his Lycian foes,
At his return, a treacherous ambush rose.
With levell'd spears along the winding shore:
There fell they breathless, and return'd no more.
"At length the monarch, with repentant grief,
Confess'd the gods, and god-descended chief;
His daughter gave, the stranger to detain.
With half the honors of his ample reign:
The Lycians grant a chosen space of ground,
Withwoods, with vineyards, and with harvests crown'd.
* With tablets sealed. These probably were only devices of a
liieroglypliical character. Whether writing was known in the
Homeric limes is utterly uncertain. See (arote, vol. ii. p. 193,
sqq.
f Solymcean crew, a people of Lycia .
TEE ILIAD. 183
There long the chief his happy lot possess'd,
With two brave sons and one fair daughter bless'd
(Fair e'en in heavenly eyes: her frnitful love
Crown'd with Sarpedon's birth the embrace of Jove);
Bat when at last, distracted in his mind,
Forsook by heaven, forsaking humankind,
Wide o'er the Aleian field he chose to stray,
A long, forlorn, uncomfortable way!*
Woes heap'd on woes consumed his wasted heart:
His beauteous daughter fell by Phoebe's dart;
His eldest born by raging Mars was slain,
In combat on the Solyma^an plain.
Hippolochus survived: from him I came,
The honor'd author of my birth and name;
By his decree I sought the Trojan town;
By his instructions learn to win renown.
To stand the first in worth as in command,
To add new honors to my native land.
Before my eyes my mighty sires to place,
And emulate the glories of our race."
He spoke, and transport fill'd Tydides' heart;
In earth the generous warrior fix'd his dart,
Then friendly, thus the Lycian prince address'd:
"Welcome, my brave hereditary guest!
Thus ever let us meet, with kind embrace.
Nor stain the sacred friendship of our race.
Know, chief, our grandsires have been guests of old;
(Enous the strong, Bellerophon the bold:
Our ancient seat his honor'd presence graced,
\Vher(! twenty days in genial rites he pass'd.
The pirting heroes mutual presents left;
A golden goblet was thy grandsire's gift;
G^neus a belt of matchless work bestowed.
That rich witli Tyrian dye refulgent glow'd.
(Tills from his pledge I learn'd, whicli, safely stored
Among my treasures, still adorns rny board:
For Tydeus left me young, v^hen Thebe's wall
Beiield the sons of Greece untimely fall.)
Mindful of this, in friendship lot iis join;
If heaven our stops to foreign lands incline,
* Krmn lliis " iiKiliinclioly madness" of l?cllcro])li()n, liypo-
<:li()n(lri(i rf!fcivc(l tlie name of " Morbus Hcllcroiihontfnis." See
my notes in my prose translation, p. 112. The " Aleian field,"
i. e. "the ])lain of wanderiiifj," was situated between the rivers
Pyramus and Pinarus, iu Cilicia.
184 THE ILIAD.
My guest in Argos thou, and I in Lycia thine.
Enough of Trojans to this lance shall yield,
In tlie full harvest of yon ample field;
Enough of Greeks shall dye thy spear with gore;
But thou and Diomed be foes no more.
Now change we arms, and prove to either host
We guard the friendship of the line we boast."
Thus having said, the gallant chiefs alight,
Their hands they join, their mutual faith they plight;
Brave Glaucus then eacii narrow thought resign'd,
(Jove warm'd his bosom, and enlarged his mind).
For Diomed 's brass arms, of mean device.
For wliich nine oxen paid (a vulgar price).
He gave his own, of gold divinely wrought,*
A hundred beeves the shining purchase bought.
Meantime the guardian of the Trojan state,
Great Hector, enter'd at the Scfean gate.f
Beneath the beech-tree's consecrated shades,
The Trojan matrons and the Trojan maids
Around him tlock'd, all press'd with pious care
For husbands, brothers, sons, engaged in war.
He bids the train in long procession go,
And seek the gods, to avert the impending woe.
And now to Priam's stately courts he came,
Rais'd on arch'd columns of stupendous frame;
O'er these a range of marble structure runs,
The rich pavilions of his fifty sons,
In fifty chambers lodged: and rooms of state, J
Opposed to those, where Priam's daughters sate.
Twelve domes for them and their loved spouses shone.
Of equal beauty, and of polish 'd stone.
Hither great Hector pass'd, nor pass'd unseen
Of royal Hecuba, his mother-queen.
(With her Laodice, whose beauteous face
Surpass'd the nymphs of Troy's illustrious race.)
Long in a strict embrace she held her son.
And press'd his hand, and tender thus begun:
* His oton, of gold. This bad bargain has passed into a common
proverb. See Aulus Gellius, ii. 23.
f Scmrtn, i. e. left band.
X In fifty cJiambers.
" Tbe fifty nuptial beds (sucb bopes bad be,
So large a promise of a progeny),
Tbe ports of plated gold, and luing witb spoils."
— Dryden's Virgil, ii. 658.
TEE ILIAD. 186
"0 Hector I say, what great occasion calls
My sou from fight, when Greece surrounds our walls
Com'st thou to supplicate the almighty power
AVith lifted hands, from Ilion's lofty tower?
Stay, till I bring the cup with Bacchus crown'd,
In Jove's liigh name, to sprinkle on the ground,
And pay due vows to all the gods around.
Then with a plenteous draught refresh thy soul,
And draw new spirits from the generous bowl;
Spent as thou art with long laborious fight,
The brave defender of thy country's right."
"Far hence be Bacchus' gifts (the chief rejoin'd);
Inflaming wine, pernicious to mankind.
Unnerves the limbs, and dulls the noble mind.
Let chiefs abstain, and spare the sacred juice
To sprinkle to the gods, its better use.
By me that holy office were profaned;
III fits it me, with human gore distain'd.
To the pure skies these horrid hands to raise,
Or offer heaven's great Sire polluted praise.
You, with your matrons, go! a spotless train,
And burn rich odors in Minerva's fane.
The largest mantle your full wardrobes hold,
Most prized for art, and labor'd o'er with gold,
Before the goddess' honor'd knees be spread,
And twelve young heifers to her altar led.
So may the power, atoned by fervent prayer,
Our wives, our infants, and our city spare;
And far avert Tydides' wasteful ire.
Who mows whole troops, and makes all Troy retire.
Be this, mother, your religious care:
I go to rouse soft l^iris to the war;
If yet not lost to all the sense of shame,
The recreant warrior hear the voice of fame.
Oh, would kind earth the liateful wretch embrace.
That pest of Troy, that ruin of our race!*
* would kind earth, ftc. " It is apparently a .sudden, ir-
regular burst of popular indignation to which Hector alludes,
when he regrets tliat tlie Trojans had not spirit enougli to cover
Paris witli a mantle of stones. This, however, was also one of
the ordinary fnrinal modes of )>unishment for great ])uhli(; ofTences.
It may have heen originally connected with the same feeding —
the desire of avoiding the |)ollution of l)lor>dshed — which seem.s
to have suggested the jiractice of burying jjrisoners alive, with a
scantling of food by their side, 'i'ljough Homer makes no men-
tion of this horrible u.sage, the example of the Koiuan vestals
186 THE ILIAD.
Deep to the dark abyss might he descend,
Troy yet should flourish, aud my sorrows end."
This heard, she gave command : and summon'd came
Each noble matron and illustrious dame.
The Phrygian queen to her rich wardrobe went,
Where treasured odors breathed a costly scent.
There lay the vestures of no vulgar art,
Sidonian maids embroider'd every part.
Whom from soft Sidon youthful Paris bore,
With Helen touching on the Tyrian shore.
Here, as the queen revolved with careful eyes
The various textures and the various dyes.
She chose a veil that shone superior far,
And glow'd refulgent as the morning star.
Herself with this the long procession leads;
The train majestically slow proceeds.
Soon as to Ilion's topmost tower they come,
And awful reach the high Palladian dome,
An tenor's consort, fair Theano, waits
As Pallas' priestess, and unbars the gates.
With hands uplifted and imploring eyes.
They fill the dome with supplicating cries.
The priestess then the shining veil displays,
Placed on Minerva's knees, and thus she prays!
"Oh awful goddess! ever-dreadful maid,
Troy's strong defence, unconquer'd Pallaa' aid!
Break thou Tydides' spear, and let him fall
Prone on the dust before the Trojan wall!
So twelve young heifers, guiltless of the yoke.
Shall fill thy temple with a grateful smoke.
But thou, atoned by penitence and prayer.
Ourselves, our infants, and our city spare!"
So pray'd the priestess in her holy fane;
So vow'd the matrons, but they vow'd in vain.
While these appear before the power with prayers.
Hector to Paris' lofty dome repairs.*
affords reasons for believing that, in ascribing it to the heroic
ages, Sophocles followed an authentic tradition." — Thirlwall's
Greece, vol. i. p. 171, sq.
* Paris' lofty dome. " With respect to the private dwellings,
which are oftenest described, the poet's language barely enables
us to form a general notion of their ordinary plan, and affords no
conception of the style which prevailed in them, or their effect on
the eye. It seems indeed probable, from the manner in which he
dwells on their metallic ornaments, that the higher beauty of
proportion was but little required or understood; and it is, per-
THE ILIAD. 187
Himself the mansion raised; from every part
Assembling architects of matchless art.
Near Priam's court and Hector's palace stands
The pompous structure, and the town commands.
A spear the hero bore of wondrous strength,
Of full ten cubits was the lance's length;
The steely point with golden ringlets join'd,
Before him brandish'd, at each motion sinned.
Thus entering, in the glittering rooms he found
His brother-chie«f, whose useless arms lay round,
His eyes delighting with their splendid show,
Brightening the shield, and polishing the bow.
Beside him Helen with her virgins stands.
Guides their rich labors, and instructs their hands.
Him thus inactive, with an ardent look
The prince beheld, and high-resenting spoke.
"Thy hate to Troy, is this the time to show?
(0 wretch ill-fated, and thy country's foe!)
Paris and Greece against us both conspire;
Thy close resentment, and their vengeful ire.
For thee great Ilion's guardian heroes fall,
Till heaps of dead alone defend her wall;
For thee the soldier bleeds, the matron mourns,
And wasteful war in all its fury burns.
Ungrateful man! deserves not this thy care.
Our troops to hearten, and our toils to share?
Rise, or behold the conquering flames ascend,
And all the Phrygian glories at an end."
"Brother, 'tis just (replied the beauteous youth).
Thy free remonstrance proves thy worth and truth:
Yet charge my absence less, generous chief!
On hate to Troy, than conscious shame and grief:
Here, hiil from human eyes, thy brother sate,
And mourned, in secret, his and Ilion's fate.
'Tis now enough : now glory spreads her charms.
And beauteous Helen calls her chief to arms.
Conquest to-day my happier sword may bless,
'Tis man's to fight, but heaven's to give success.
But while I arm, contain thy arilont mind;
Or go, and Paris shall not lag Ijchind."
haps, fitrengtli and convenience, rather than elegance that lie
means to commend, in speai\in<r of tlie fair liouse which Paris liad
built for himself with the ai<l of the most skillful masons of
Troy." — Thirlwall's Ureece, vol. i. p. 2*31.
188 TEE ILIAD.
He said, nor answer'd Priam's warlike son;
When Helen thus with lovvlv 2;race beo-un:
"Oh, generous brotherl (if the guilty dame
That caused these woes deserve a sister's name!)
Would heaven, ere all these dreadful deeds were done,
The day that show'd me to the golden sun
Had seen my death ! why did not whirlwinds bear
The fatal infant to the fowls of air?
Why sunk I not beneath the whelming tide,
And midst the roarings of the waters died?
Heaven fiU'd up all my ills, and I accursed
Bore all, and Paris of those ills the worst.
Helen at least a braver spouse might claim,
Warm'd with some virtue, some regard of fame!
Now tired with toils, thy fainting limbs recline,
With toils, sustain'd for Paris' sake and mine:
The gods have link'd our miserable doom,
Our present woe, and infamy to come:
Wide shall it spread, and last through ages long,
Example sad! and theme of future song."
The chief replied: "This time for bids to rest;
The Trojan bands, by hostile fury press'd,
Demand their Hector, and his arm require;
The combat urges, and my soul's on fire.
Urge thon thy knight to march where glory calls,
And timely join me, ere I leave the walls.
Ere yet I mingle in the direful fray,
My wife, my infant, claim a moment's stay;
This day (perhaps the last that sees me here)
Demands a parting word, a tender tear:
This day, some god who hates our Trojan land
May vanquish Hector by a Grecian hand."
He said, and pass'd with sad presaging heart
To seek his spouse, his soul's far dearer part;
At home he sought her, but he sought in vain;
She, with one maid of all her menial train,
Had hence retired; and with her second joy,
The y©ung Astyanax, the hope of Troy,
Pensive she stood on Ilion's towery height,
Beheld the war, and sicken'd at the sight;
Tliere her sad eyes in vain her lord explore,
Or weep the wounds her bleeding country bore.
But he who found not whom his soul desired,
Whose virtue charm 'd him us her beauty fired,
THE ILIAD. 189
Stoorl in the gates, and ask'd "what way she beut
Her parting step? If to the fane she went,
Where late the mourning matrons made resort;
Or sought her sisters in the Trojan conrt?"
"Not to the court (replied the attendant train),
Nor mix'd with matrons to ^Minerva's fane:
To Ilion's steepy tower she bent her way.
To mark the fortunes of the doubtful day.
Troy fled, she heard, before the Grecian sword;
She'heard, and trembled for her absent lord:
Distracted with surprise, she seem'd to fly,
Fear on her cheek, and sorrow in her eye.
The nurse attended with her infant boy,
The young Astyanax, the hope of Troy."
Hector this heard, return 'd without delay.
Swift through the town he trod his former way,
Through streets of palaces, and walks of state;
And met the mourner at the Sca?<5n gate.
With haste to meet him sprung the joyful fair.
His blameless wife, Action's wealthy heir
(Cilician Thebe great Action sway'd.
And Hippoplacus' wide-extended shade):
The nurse stood near, in whose embraces press'd,
His only hope hung smiling at her breast.
Whom each soft charm and early grace adorn.
Fair as the new-born star that glides the morn.
To this loved infant Hector gave the name
Scamandrius, from Scamander's honor'd stream
Astyanax tiie Trojans call'd the boy,
Froni his great father, the defence of Troy.
Silent the warrior smiled, and pleased resign'd
To tender passions all his mighty mind;
His beauteous jirincess cast a mournful look.
Hung on his hand, and then dejected spoke;
Her bosom labor'd with a boding sigh,
AihI the big tear stood trembli/ig in her eye.
"Too daring princel ah, whither dost thou run?
Ah, too forgetful of thy wife and son I
And tbijik'st thou not how wretched wo shall bo,
A widow I, a helpless orphan he?
For sure such courage length of life denies,
And thou must fall, thy virtue's sacriflce.
Greece in her single heroes .strove in vain;
]^ow hosts oppose thee, and thou must be slain.
190 TEE ILIAD.
grant me, gods, ere Hector meets his doom,
All I can ask of heaven, an early tomb!
So shall my days in one sad tenor run,
And end with sorrows as they first begun.
No parent now remains my griefs to share.
No father's aid, no mother's tender care.
Tire fierce Achilles wrapt our walls in fire,
Laid Thebe waste, and slew my warlike sire,
His fate compassion in the victor bred;
Stern as he Avas, he yet revered the dead.
His radiant arms preserved from hostile spoil.
And laid him decent on the funeral pile;
Then raised a mountain where his bones were bnrn'd,
The mountain-nymphs the rural tomb adorn'd,
Jove's sylvan daughters bade their elms bestow
A barren shade, and in his honor grow.
"By the same arm my seven brave brothers fell;
In one sad day beheld the gates of hell;
While the fat herds and snowy flocks they fed,
Amid their fields the hapless heroes bled!
My mother lived to wear the victor's bands.
The queen of Hippoplacia's sylvan lands:
Eedeem'd too late, she scarce beheld again
Her pleasing empire and her native plain,
When ah! oppress'd by life-consuming woe.
She fell a victim to Diana's bow.
"Yet while my Hector still survives, I see
My father, mother, brethren, all, in thee:
Alas! my parents, brothers, kindred, all
Once more will perish, if my Hector fall,
Thy wife, thy infant, in thy danger share:
Oh, prove a husband's and a father's care!
That quarter most the skillful Greeks annoy,
Where yon wild fig-trees join the wall of Troy;
Thou, from this tower defend the important post;
There Agamemnon points his dreadful host,
That pass Tydides, Ajax, strive to gain,
And there the vengeful Spartan fires his train.
Thrice our bold foes the fierce attack have gi\4en
Or led by hopes, or dictated from heaven.
Let others in the field their arms employ.
But stay my Hector here, and guard l]is Troy."
The chief replied: "That 2)ost shall be my care,
Not that alone, but all the works of war.
THE ILIAD. 191
How would the sons of Troy, in arms renown'd,
And Troy's prond dames, whose garments sweep the
ground,
Attaint the lustre of my former name,
Should Hector basely quit the field of fame?
My early youth was bred to martial pains,
My soul impels me to the embattled plains!
Let me be foremost to defend the tbrone.
And guari my father's glories, and my own.
"Yet come it will, the day decreed by fates!
(How my heart trembles while my tongue relates!)
The day when thou, imperial Troy! must bend,
And see thy warriors fall, they glories end.
And yet no dire presage so wounds my mind,
My mother's death, the ruin of my kind;
Xot Priam's hoary hairs defiled with gore,
"N'ot all my brothers gasping on the shore;
As thine, Andromache! Thy griefs I dread:
I see thee trembling, weeping, captive led !
In Argive looms our battles to design.
And woes, of which so large a part was thine!
To bear the victor's hard commands, or bring
The weight of waters from Hyperia's spring.
There while you groan beneath the load of life,
They cry, 'Behold the mighty Hector's wife!'
Some haughty Greek, who lives thy tears to see,
Imbitters all "thy woes, by naming me.
Tlie thoughts of glory past, and present shame,
A thousand griefs shall waken at the name!
May I lie cold before that dreadful day,
Press'd with a load of monumental clay!
Thy Hector, wrapt in everlasting sleep.
Shall neither hear thee sigh, nor see the weep."
Thus having spoke, the illustrious chief of Troy
Stretch'd his fond arms to clasp the lovely boy.
The babe clung crying to his nurse's breast.
Soared at the dazzling helm, and nodding crest.
With secret pleasure each fond parent smiled.
And Hector hasted to relieve his child.
The glittering terrors from his brows unbound.
And placed the beaming helmet on the ground;
Then kiss'd the child, and, lil'ting liigli in air.
Thus to the gods preferr'd a father's prayer:
"0 thou I whose glory lills iIk* ethereal throne.
And all yn deatiiicss powers! protect my son!
192 THE ILIAD.
Grant him, like me, to purchase just renown,
To guard the Trojans, to defend tlie crown,
Against his country's foes the war to wage,
And rise the Hector of the future agel
So when triumphant from successful toils
Of heroes slain he bears the reeking spoils,
AVhole hosts may hail him with deserved acclaim,
And say, 'This chief transcends his father's fame:'
While i^leased amidst the general shouts of Troy,
His mother's conscious heart o'erflows with joy."
He spoke, and fondly gazing on her charms.
Restored the pleasing burden to her arms;
Soft on her fragrant breast the babe she laid,
Hush'd to repose, and with a smile survey'd.
The troubled pleasure soon chastised by fear,
She mingled with a smile a tender tear.
The soften'd chief with kind compassion view'd,
And dried the falling drops, and thus pursued:
"Andromachol my soul's far better part.
Why with untimely sorrows heaves thy heart?
No hostile hand can antedate my doom.
Till fate condemns me to the silent tomb.
Fixed is the term to all the race of earth;
And such the hard condition of our birth:
No force can then resist, no flight can save,
All sink alike, the fearful and the brave.
No more— but hasten to thy tasks at home;
There guide the spindle, and direct the loom:
Me gloiy summons to the martial scene,
The field of combat is the sphere for men.
W^here heroes war, the foremost place I claim,
TJie first in danger as the first in fame."
Thus having said, the glorious chief resumes
His towery helmet, black with shading plumes.
His princess parts with a prophetic sigh.
Unwilling parts, and oft reverts her eye
That stream'd at every look; then, moving slow.
Sought her own palace, and indulged her woe.
There, while her tears deplored the godlike man,
Through all her train the soft infection ran;
The pious maids their mingled sorrows shed,
And mourn the living Hector, as the dead.
But now, no longer deaf to honor's call,
Forth issues Paris from the palace wall.
THE ILIAD. 193
In brazen arms that cast a gleamy ray,
Swift through the town the warrior bends bis Avay;
The Avanton courser thns with reins unbound*
Breaks from his stall, and beats the trembling ground:
Pamper'd and proud, he seeks the wonted tides,
And laves, in height of blood his shining sides;
His head now freed, he tosses to the skies;
His mane dishevell'd o'er his shoulders flies;
He snuffs the females in the distant plain.
And springs, exulting, to his fields again.
With equal triumph, sprightly, bold, and gay,
In arms refulgent as the god of day.
The son of Priam, glorying in his might,
Kush'd forth with Hector to the fields of fight.
And now, the warriors passing on the way,
The graceful Paris first excused his stay.
To whom the noble Hector thus replied:
"0 chief! in blood, and now in arms, allied!
Thy power in war with justice none content;
Known is thy courage, and thy strength confess'd.
What pity sloth should seize a soul so brave,
Or godlike Paris live a woman"'s slave!
My heart weeps blood at what the Trojans say,
And hopes thy deeds shall Avipo the stain away.
Haste then, in all their glorious labors share,
For much they suffer, for thy sake, in war.
These ills shall cease, whene'er by Jove's decree
We crown the bowl to heaven and liberty:
While the proud foe his frustrate triumphs mourns,
And Greece indignant through her seas returns."
* The wanton courser.
" Come (lestrien die da lo regie stalle
Ove a I'usa de rarine si riserba,
Fugge, e liliero al fin per largo calle
Va tragi' armenti, dai fiiuue usato o a I'herba."
— Gier. Lib. ix. 75.
194 TEE ILIAD.
BOOK YII.
AEGUMENT.
THE SINGLE COMBAT OF HECTOR AND AJAX.
The battle renewing with double ardor upon the return of Hector,
Minerva is under apprehensions for the Greeks. Apollo,
seeing her descend from Olympus, joins her near the Scsean
gate. They agree to put off the general engagement for that
day, and incite Hector to challenge the (J reeks to a single
combat. Nine of the princes accepting the challenge, the lot
is cast and falls upon Ajax. These heroes, after several
attacks, are parted by the night. The Trojans calling a
council, Antenor proposes the delivery of Helen to the
Greeks; to which Paris will not consent, but offers to restore
them her riches. Priam sends a herald to make this offer,
and to demand a truce for burning the dead; the last of which
only is agreed to by Agamemnon. When the funerals are
performed, the Greeks, pursuant to the advice of Nestor,
erect a fortification to protect their fleet and camp, flanked
with towers, and defended by a ditch and palisades. Neptune
testifies his jealousy at this work, but is pacified by a promise
from Jupiter. Both armies pass the night in feasting; but
Jupiter disheartens the Trojans with thunder, and other
signs of his wrath.
The three-and-twentieth day ends with the duel of Hector
and Ajax; the next day the truce is agreed; another is taken
up in the funeral rites of the slain; and one more in building
th-e fortification before the ships. So that somewhat about
three days is employed in this book. The scene lies wholly
in the field.
So spoke the guardian of the Trojan state,
Then rnsh'd impetuous through the Scsean gate.
Him Paris follow'd to the dire alarms;
Both breathing slaughter, both resolved in arms.
As when to sailors laboring through the main,
That long have heaved the weary oar in vain,
Jove bids at length the expected gales arise;
The gales blow grateful, and the vessel flies:
So welcome these to Troy's desiring train;
The bands are cheer'd, the war awakes again.
THE ILIAD. 195
Bold Paris first the work of death begun
On grent Menestheus, Areithous' son;
Sprung from the fair Philomeda's embrace,
The pleasing Arne was his native place.
Then sunk Eioneus to the shades below;
Beneath his steely casque* he felt the blow
Full on his neck, from Hector's weighty hand;
And roll'd, with limbs relax'd, along the laud.
By Glaucus' spear the bold Iphinous bleeds,
Fix'd in the shoulder as he mounts his steeds;
Headlong he tumbles: his slack nerves unbound,
Drop the cold useless members on the ground.
When now Minerva saw her Argives slain,
From vast Olympus to the gleaming plain
Fierce she descends: Apollo marked her flight,
Nor shot less swift form Ilion's towery height.
Radiant they met, beneath the beechen shade;
When thus Apollo to the blue-eyed maid :
"What cause, daughter of Almighty Jove!
Thus wings thy progress from the realms above?
Once more impetuous dost thou bend thy way,
To give to Greece the long divided day?
Too much has Troy already felt thy hate.
Now breathe thy rage, and hush the stern debate
This day, the business of the field suspend;
War soon shall kiiulle, and great Hion bend;
Since vengeful goddesses confederate join
I'o raize her wall, though built by liands divine."
To whom the progeny of Jove replies:
"I left, for this, the council of the skies:
liut who shall bid conflicting hosts forbear.
What art shall calm the furious sons of war?"
I'o her tlie god: "Great Hector's soul incite
To dare the boldest Greek to single fight,
Till Greece, provoked, from all her numbers show
A warrior worthy to be Hector's foe."
At this agreed, the heavenly powers withdrew;
Sage Helenus tljcir secret counsels knew;
Hector, inspired, besought: to him address'd.
Thus told the dictates of his sacred breast:
* Caanue. The original word is 6r/-^dv?;, about tlie ineaninpr
of vvLicli there is some doubt. Some take it lor a different kinci
of cap or helmet, others for the rim, others for the cone, of the
helmet.
196 THE ILIAD.
"0 son of Priam! let thy faithful ear
Eeceive ray words: thy friend and brother hear,
Go forth persuasive and a while engage
The warring nations to suspend their rage;
Tlien dare the boldest of the hostile train
To mortal combat on the listed plain.
For not this day shall end thy glorious date,
The gods have spoke it, and tlieir voice is fate."
He said: the warrior heard the word with joy;
Then with his spear restrain'd the youth of Troy,
Held by the midst athwart. On either hand
The squadrons part; the expecting Trojans stand;
Great Agamemnon bids the Greek forbear:
They breathe, and hush the tumult of the war.
The Athenian maid,* and glorious god of day,
With silent joy the settling hosts survey:
In form of vultures, on the beech's height
They sit conceal'd, and wait the future fight.
The throiiging troops obscure the dusty fields.
Horrid with bristling spears, and gleaming shields.
As when a general darkness veils the mam,
(Soft zephyr curling the wide wat'ry plain,)
The waves scarce heave, the face of ocean sleeps,
And a still horror saddens all the deeps;
Thus in thick orders settling wide around,
At length composed they sit, and shade the ground.
Great Hector first amidst both armies broke
The solemn silence, and their powers bespoke:
"Hear, all ye Trojan, all ye Grecian bands.
What my soul prompts, and what some god commands.
Great Jove, averse our warfare to compose,
O'erwhelms the nations with new toils and woes;
War with a fiercer tide once more returns,
Till Ilion falls, or till yon navy burns.
Yon then, princes of the Greeks! appear;
'Tis Hector speaks, and calls the gods to hear:
From all your troops select the boldest knight,
And him, the boklest. Hector dares to fight.
Here if I fall, by chance of battle slain,
Ee his my spoil, and his these arms remain;
But let my body, to my friends return'd,
JBy Trojan hands and Trojan flames be burn'd.
And if Apollo, in whose aid I trust,
Shall stretch your daring champion in the dust;
* A thenian maid : Minerva.
THE ILIAD. 197
If ui-ine the glory to despoil the foe;
On Phoebus' temple I'll his arms bestow:
The breatiiless carcase to your navy sent,
Greece on the shore shall raise a monument;
Which when some future mariner surveys,
Wash'd by broad Hellespont's resounding seas,
Thus shall he say, 'A valiant Greek lies there,
By Hector shun,*^the mighty man of war,'
The stone shall tell your vanquish'd hero's name,
And distant ages learn the victor's fame."
This fierce detiance Greece astonish'd heard,
Blush'd to refuse, and to accept it fear'd.
Stern Meuelaiis first the silence broke,
And, inly groaning, thus opprobrious spoke:
'•Women of Greece! scandal of your race.
Whose coward souls your manly form disgrace.
How great the shame, when every age shall know
That not a Grecian met this noble foe!
Go then! resolve to earth, from whence ye grew,
A heartless, spiritless, inglorious crew!
Ijo what ye seem, unanimated clay.
Myself will dare the danger of the day;
'Tis man's bold task the generous strife to try,
But in the hands of God ia victory."
These words scarce spoke, with generous ardor
press' d,
Ilis manly limbs in azure arms he dress'd.
That dav, Atrides! a superior hand
Had stretch'd thee breathless on the hostile strand;
liut all at once, thy fury to compose,
I'he kings of Greece, an awful band, arose;
Even he their chief, great Agamenino]i, press'd
Thy daring hand, and this advice address'd:
"Wiiither, MenelaiisI wouldst thou run.
And tempt a fate which prudence bids tiiee shun?
Grieved thougli thou art, forbear the rash design;
(ireat Hector's arm is mightier far than thine:
Even fierce Achilles learned its force to fear,
And trembling met this dreadful son of war.
Sit thou secure, amidst thy social band;
(ireece in our cause shall -.irm some i)oworful hand.
The mightiest warri(jr of the Achaian name.
Though bold and burning with desire of fame,
Content the doubtful honor might forego.
So great the danger, and so brave the foe."
198 THE ILIAD.
He said, and turn'd his brotiier's vengeful miud;
He stoop'd to reason, and his rage resign'd,
No longer bent to rush on certain harms;
His joyful friends nnbrace his assure arms.
He from whose lips divine persuasion flows,
Grave Nestor, then, in graceful act arose;
Thus to the kings he spoke: "What grief, what shame
Attend on Greece, and all the Grecian name!
How shall, alas! her hoary heroes mourn
Their sons degenerate, and their race a scorn!
Wiiat tears shall down thy silvery beard be roll'd,
Peleus, old in arms, in wisdom old!
Once with what joy the generous prince would hear
Of every chief who fought this glorious war,
Participate their fame, and pleased inquire
Each name, each action, and each hero's sire!
Gods! should he see our warriors trembling stand,
And trembling all before one hostile hand;
How would he lift his aged arms on high,
Lament inglorious Greece, and beg to die!
Oh! would to all the immortal powers above,
Minerva, Phoebus, and Almighty Jove!
Years might again roll back, my youth renew,
And give this arm the spriiig which once it knew:
When fierce in war, where Jardan's waters fall,
1 led my troops to Phea's trembliiig wall,
And with the Arcadian spears n^y prowess tried.
Where Celadon rolls down his rapid tide.*
There Ereuthalion braved us in the field,
Proud Areithous' dreadful arms to wield;
Great Areithous, known from shore to shore
By the huge, knotted, iron mace he bore:
No lance he shook, nor bent the twanging bow,
But broke, with this, the battle of the foe.
Him not by manly force Lycurgus slew,
W^hose guileful javelin from the thicket flew.
Deep in a winding way his breast assailed,
Nor aught the warrior's thundering mace avail'd.
Supine he fell: those arms whicli Mars before
Had given the vanquish'd, now the victor bore:
But when old age had dimm'd Lycurgus' eyes,
To Ereuthalion he consign'd the prize.
Furious with this he crush'd our levell'd bands.
And dared the trial of the strongest hands;
* Celadon, a river of Elis.
THE ILIAD. 199
Nor could the strongest hands his fury stay:
All saw, and fear'd, his huge tempestuous sway,
Till I, the youngest of the host, appear'd,
And, youngest, met whom all our army fear'd.
I fought the chief; my arms Minerva crown'd:
Prone fell the giant o'er a length of ground.
What then I was, were your Nestor now!
Not Hector's self should want an equal foe.
But, warriors, you that youthful vigor boast,
The flower of Greece, the examples of our host,
Sprung from such fathers, who such numbers sway,
Can you stand trembling, and desert the day?"
His warm reproofs the listening kings inflame,
And nine, the noblest of the Grecian name.
Up-started fierce: but far before the rest
The king of men advanced his dauntless breast
Then bold Tydides, great in arms, appear'd;
And next his bulk gigantic Ajax rear'd;
Oileus follow'd; Idomen was there,*
And Merion, dreadful as the god of war:
With these Eurypylus and Thoas stand,
And wise Ulysses closed the daring band.
All these, alike inspired with noble ra^^e.
Demand the fight, To wliom the Pylian sage:
"Lest thirst of glory your brave souls divide,
What chief shall combat, let the gods decide.
Whom heaven shall choose, be his the chance to raise
His country's fame, his own immortal praise."
The lots produced, each hero signs his own:
Then in the general's helm the fates are thrown, f
Tlie people pray, with lifted eyes and hands.
And vows like these ascend from all the bands:
"Grant, thou Almighty! in whoso hand is fate,
A worthy cham})ion for the Grecian state:
Tliis task let Ajax or Tydides prove.
Or he, the kings of kings, beloved by Jove."
Old Nestor shook tho casque, hy heaven inspired,
Leap'd fortli the lot, of every Greek desired.
This from the right to left the herald bears,
Held out in order to the Grecian peers;
*0"deu8,i. e. Ajax, the son of Oileus, in ccininulistinction to
Ajax, son f)f Teluinon.
f In the f/i'iiirfd'x luliii. It was cu.stomary to j)iit the lots into a
lielmet, in which they were well shaken up; each man then to(jk
his choice.
200 TEE ILIAD.
Each to his rival yields the mark uuknown,
Till godlike Ajax finds the lot his own;
Surveys the inscription with rejoicing eyes,
Then casts before him, and with transport cries:
"Warriors! I claim the lot, and arm with joy;
Be mine the conquest of this chief of Troy.
Now while my brightest arms my limbs invest,
To Saturn's son be all your vows address'd :
But pray in secret, lest the foes should hear,
Anil deem your prayers the mean effect of fear.
Said I in secret? No, your vows declare
In SLich a voice as fills the earth and air,
Lives there a chief whom Ajax ought to dread?
Ajax, in all the toils of battle bred!
From warlike Salamis I drew my birth,
And, born to combats, fear no force on earth."
He said. The troops with elevated eyes.
Implore the god whose thunder rends the skies:
"0 father of mankind, superior lord!
On lofty Ida's holy hill adored:
Who in the highest heaven has fix'd thy throne.
Supreme of Gods! unbounded and alone:
Grant thou, that Telamon may bear away
The praise and conquest of this doubtful day;
Or, if illustrious Hector be thy care,
That both may claim it, and that both may share.
Now Ajax braced his dazzling armor on;
Sheathed in bright steel the giant warrior shone:
He moves to combat with majestic pace:
So stalks in arms the grisly god of Thrace,*
When Jove to punish faithless men prepares,
And gives whole nations to the waste of wars.
Thus march'd the chief, tremendous as a god;
Grimly he smiled; earth trembled as he strode :f
His massy javelin quivering in his hand,
He stood, the bulwark of the Grecian band.
Through every Argive heart new transport ran;
All Troy stood trembling at the mighty man:
* Ood of TJirace. Mars, or Mavors, according to liis Tbracian
epitliet. Hence " Mavortia Moenia."
f Grimly he smiled.
" And death
Grinn'd horribly, a ghastly smile."
— " Paradise Lost," ii. 845.
" There Mavors stands
Grinning with ghastly feature."
— Carey's Dante: Hell, v.
J?
THE ILIAD. 201
Even fleeter paused; and with new doubt oppress'd,
Felt his great heart suspended in his breast
'Twas vain to seek retreat, and vain to fear;
Himself had challenged, and the foe drew near.
Stern Telamon behind his ample shield,
As from a brazen tower, o'erlook'd the field.
Huge was its orb, with seven thick folds o'ercast,
Of tough bull-hides; of solid brass the last,
(The work of Tychius, who in Hyle dwell'd
And in all arts of armory escell'd).
This Ajax bore before his manly breast,
And, threatening, thus his adverse chief address'd:
"Hector! approach my arm, and singly know
What strength thou hast, and what the Grecian foe.
Achilles shuns the tight; yet some there are,
Not void of soul, and not unskill'd in war:
Let him, unactive on the sea-beat shore,
Indulge his wrath, and aid our arms no more;
AVhole troops of heroes Greece has yet to boast,
And sends thee one, a sample of her host,
Such as I am, I come to prove thy might;
No more — be sudden, and begin the fight."
"0 son of Telamon, thy country's pride!
(To Ajax thus the Trojan prince replied)
Me, as a boy, or woman, wouldst thou fright, *
New to the field, and tiembling at the fight?
Thou meet'st a chief deserving of thy arms.
To combat born, and bred amidst alarms:
I know to shift my ground, remount the car,
Turn, charge, and answer every call of war;
To right, to left, the dexterous lance I wield.
And bear thick battle on my sounding shield.
But open be our fight, aiul "bold each blow;
I steal no conquest from a noble foe."
He said, and rising, high above the field
Whirl'd the long lance against the sevenfold shield.
Full on the brass desceniliug from above
Through six bull-hides the furious w('a])on drove,
Till in the seventh it lix'd. Then Ajax threw;
Through Hector's shield the forceful javelin flew.
His corslet enters, and his garment rends,
And glancing downwards, near his flank descends.
The wary Trojan shrinks, and bending low
Beneath his buckler, disappoints the blow.
202 THE ILIAD.
From their bored shields the chiefs their javelins drew,
Then close impetuous, and the charge renew;
Fierce as the mountain-lions batlied in blood,
Or foaming boars, the terror of the wood.
At Ajax, Hector his long lance extends;
The blunted point against the buckler bends;
But Ajax, watchful as his loe drew near,
Drove tlirough the Trojan targe the kuott}' spear;
It reach'd his neck, with matchless strength impell'd!
Spouts the black gore, and dims his shining shield.
Yet ceased not Hector thus; but stooping down.
In his strong hand up-heaved a flinty stone,
Black, craggy, vast: to this his force he bends;
Full on the brazen boss the stone descends;
The hollow brass resounded with the shock:
Then Ajax seized the fragment of a rock.
Applied each nerve, and swinging round on high,
AVith force temijestuous, let the ruin fly;
The huge stone thundering through his buckler broke:
His slacken'd knees received the numbing stroke;
Great Hector falls extended on the field.
His bulk supporting on the shatter'd shield:
Nor wanted heavenly aid: Apollo's might
Confirm'd his sinews, and restored to fight.
And now both heroes their broad falchions drew:
In flaming circles round tlieir heads they flew;
But then by heralds' voice the word was given,
The sacred ministers of earth and heaven;
Divine Talthybius, whom the Greeks employ.
And sage Ida^us on the part of Troy,
Between the swords their peaceful sceptres rear'd;
And first Id^us' awful voice was heard :
"Forbear, my sons! your further force to prove.
Both dear to men, and both beloved of Jove.
To either host your matchless worth is known,
Each sounds your praise, and war is all your own.
But now the Night extends her awful shade;
Tlie goddess parts you; be the night obey'd."*
To whom great Ajax his high soul express'd:
"0 sage! to Hector be these words address'd.
* " Sete 6 guerrieri, incomincio Pindoro,
Con pari honor di pari ambo possenti,
Dunque cessi la pugna, e non sian rotte
Le ragioni, e '1 riposo, e de la notte."
— Gier. Lib. vi. 51.
THE ILIAD. 203
Let him, who first provoked our chiefs to fight,
Let him demand the sanction of the night;
If first he ask'd it, I content obey,
And cease tlie strife when Hector shows the way."
'*0 first of Greeks! (his noble foe rejoiu'd)
Whom heaven adorns, superior to thy kind,
With strength of body, and with worth of mind!
Xow martial law commands us to forbear;
Hereafter we shall meet in glorious war.
Some future day shall lengthen out the strife,
And let the gods decide of death or lifel
Since, then, the night extends her gloomy shade,
And heaven enjoins it, be the night obey'd.
Eeturn, brave Ajax, to thy Grecian friends,
And joy the nations whom thy arm defends;
As I shall glad each chief, and Trojan wife,
AVho wearies heaven with vows for Hector's life.
But let us, on this memorable day.
Exchange some gift: that Greece and Troy may say
"Not hate, but glory, made these chiefs contend;
And each brave foe was in his soul a friend.' "
With that, a sword with stars of silver graced,
The baldric sXudded, and the sheath enchased.
He gave the Greek. The generous Greek bestow'd
A radiant belt that rich with purple glow'd.
Then with majestic grace they quit the plain;
This seeks the Grecian, that the Phrygian train.
The Trojan bands returning Hector wait.
And hail with joy the Champion of their state;
Escaped great Ajax, they survey him round.
Alive, unarnrd, and vigorous from his wound;
To Troy's high gates the godlike man they bear
Their i)resent triumph, as their late despair.
liut Ajax, glorying in his hardy deed,
The well-ann'd Greeks to Agamemnon lead.
A steer for sacrifice the king dcsign'd.
Of full ^\\G years, and of the nobler kind.
'JMie victim falls; they strip the smoking hide,
Tiie beast they quarter, and the joints divide;
Then spread the tables, the repast jjroparo.
Each takes his sr-at, aiul each receives his share.
The king hiniscilf (an honorary sign)
Before great Ajax placed the mighty chine.*
* It was an ancient style of compliment to give a larger portion
of food to the conqueror, or person to whom resepct was lo be
204 THE ILIAD.
When now the rage of hunger was removed,
Nestor, in each persuasive art approved,
The sage whose counsels long had sway'd the rest,
In words like these his prudent thought express'd:
"How dear, kings! this fatal day has cost.
What Greeks are perish'd! what a people lost!
What tides of blood have drench'd Scamander's shore!
What crowds of heroes sunk to rise no more!
Then hear me, chief! nor let tlie morrow's light
Awake thy squadrons to new toils of fight:
Some space at least permit the war to breathe,
While we to liames our slaughter'd friends bequeath,
From the red field their scatter'd bodies bear.
And nigh the fleet a funeral structure rear;
So decent urns their snowy bones may keep.
And pious children o'er their ashes weep.
Here, where on one promiscuous pile they blazed,
High o'er them all a general tomb be raised;
Next, to secure our camp and naval powers,
Eaise an embattled wall, with lofty towers;
From space to space be ample gates around,
For passing chariots; and a trench profound.
So Greece to combat shall in safety go.
Nor fear the fierce incursions of the foe."
'Twas thus the sage his wholesome counsel moved;
The sceptred kings of Greece his words approved.
Meanwhile, convened at Priam's palace-gate,
The Trojan peers in nightly council sate;
A senate void of order, as of choice:
Their hearts were fearful, and confused their voice,,
Antenor, rising, thus demands their ear:
"Ye Trojans, Dardans, and auxiliars, hear.
'Tis heaven the counsel of my breast inspires,
And I but move what every god requires:
Let Sparta's treasures be this hour restored,
And Argive Helen own her ancient lord.
The ties of faith, the sworn alliance, broke,
Our impious battles the just gods provoke.
As this advice ye practise, or reject,
So hope success, or dread the dire eifect."
The senior spoke and sate. To whom I'eplied
The graceful husband of the Spartan bride:
shown. See Virg. ^n. viii. 181. Thus Benjamin was honored
with a "double portion." Gen. xliii. 34,
THE ILIAD. 205
"Cold conusels, Trojan, may become thy years,
But sound ungrateful in a warrior's ears:
Old man, if void of fallacy or art,
Thy words express the purpose of thy heart,
Thou, in thy time, more sound advice hast given;
But wisdom has its date, assign'd by heaven.
Then hear me, princes of the Trojan name!
Their treasures I'll restore, but not the dame;
My treasures too, for peace, I will resign ;
But be this bright possession ever mine."
'Twas then, the growing discord to compose,
Slow from his seat the reverend Priam rose:
His godlike aspect deep attention drew:
He paused, and these pacific words ensue:
"Ye Trojans, Dardans, and auxiliar bands!
Now take refreshment as the hour demands;
Guard well the walls, relieve the watch of night.
Till the new sun restores tlie cheerful light.
Then shall our herald, to the Atrides sent,
Before their ships proclaim my son's intent.
Next let a truce be ask'd, that Troy may burn
Her slaughter'd heroes, and their bones inurn;
That done, once more the fate of war be tried,
And whose the conquest, mighty Jove decide!"
The monarch spoke: the warriors snatch'd with haste
(Each at his post in arms) a short repast.
Soon as the rosy morn hail waked the day,
'J'o the black ships Idanis bent his way;
There, to the sons of Mars, iji council found,
He raised his voice: the host stood listening round,
"Ye sons of Atreus, and ye Greeks, give ear!
The words of Troy, and Troy's great monarch, liear.
Pleased may ye hear (so heaven succeed my prayers)
AVhat Paris, author of the war, declares.
The spoils and treasures he to llion bore
(Oh had he perish 'd ere they touch 'd our shore!)
He proffers injui'ed Greece: with large increase
Of added I'rojan wealth to buy the jieace.
]Jut to restore the beauteous bride again,
'^riiis Greece demands, and Troy rofjuests in vain.
Next, O ye chiefs! wo ask a truce to burn
Our slaughter'd heroes, and their bones inurn.
That done, once more the fate of war be tried,
And whose the conquest, mighty Jove decide!"
206
THE ILIAD.
The Greeks gave ear, but none the silence broke;
At length Aydides rose, and rising spoke:
"Oh, fake not, friends! defranded of your fame.
Their profEer'd wealth, nor even the Spartan dame.
Let conquest make them ours: fate shakes their wall,
And Troy already totters to her fall."
The admiring chiefs, and all the Grecian name,
With general shouts return'd him loud acclaim.
Then thus the king of kings rejects the peace:
"Herald! in him thou hear'st the voice of Greece
For what remains; let funeral flames be fed
With heroes' corps; I war not with the dead:
Go search your slaughter'd chiefs on yonder plain,
And gratify the manes of the slain.
Be witness, Jove, whose thunder rolls on high!"
He said, and rear'd his sceptre to the sky.
To sacred Troy, where all her princes lay,
To wait the event, the herald bent his way.
He oame, and standing in the midst, explain'd
The peace rejected, but the truce obtain'd.
Straight to their several cares the Trojans move.
Some search the plains, some fell the sounding grove:
Nor less the Greeks, descending on the shore,
Hew'd the green forests, and the bodies bore.
And now from forth the chambers of the main,
To shed his sacred light on earth again,
Arose the golden chariot of the day.
And tipp'd the mountains with a purple ray. _
In mingled throngs the Greek and Trojan train
Through heaps of carnage search 'd the mournful plain.
Scarce could the friend his slaughter'd friend explore.
With dust dishonor'd, and deformed with gore.
The wounds they wash'd, their pious tears they shed,
And, laid along their cars, deplored the dead.
Sage Priam check'd their grief: with silent haste
The bodies decent on the piles were placed:
With melting hearts the cold remains they burn'd,
And, sadly slow, to sacred Troy return'd.
Nor less the Greeks their pious sorrows shed,
And decent on the pile dispose the dead;
The cold remains consume with equal care;
And slowly, sadly, to their fleet repair.
Now, ere the morn had streak'd with reddening light
The doubtful contines of the day and night,
THE ILIAD. 207
About the dying flames the Greeks appear'd,
And round the pile a general tomb they rear'd.
Then, to secure the camp and naval powers,
They raised embattled walls with lofty towers:*
From space to space were ample gates around,
For passing chariots, and a trench profound
Of large extent', aud deep in earth below.
Strong piles infix'd stood adverse to the foe.
So toil'd the Greeks: meanwhile the gods above
In shining circle round their father Jove,
Amazed beheld the wondrous works of man :
Then he, whose trident shakes the earth, began:
"What mortals henceforth shall our power adore,
Our fanes frequent, our oracles implore,
If the proud Grecians thus successful boast
Their rising bulwarks on the sea-beat coast?
See the long walls extending to the main,
No god consulted, and no victim slain!
Their fame shall fill the world's remotest ends,
Wide as the morn her golden beam extends;
While old Laoniedon's divine abodes.
Those radiant structures raised by laboring gods.
Shall, razed and lost, in long oblivion sleep."
Thus spoke tiie hoary monarch of the deep.
The almighty Thunderer with a frown replies.
That clouds the world, and blackens half the skies:
"Strong god of ocea)iI thou, whose rage can make
The solid earth's eternal basis shake!
What cause of fear from mortal works could movef
The meanest subject of our realms above?
* Emhdttled wallx. "Another essential basis of niecbauical
unity in the poem is tiie construction of the rampart, 'i'his takes
place in the seventh book. The reason ascribed for the gUiring
improbability that the (Jreeks should have left their camp aud lleet
unfortified during nine years in the midst of a hostile country, is
a purely poetical one: ' So long as Achilles fought, the terror of
his name sutficed to keep every foe at a distance.' 'i'he disasters
consecpicnt on his secession first led to tlie necessity of other
means of i)roti'Ctiou. Accordingly, in tlie i)attles [)revi()us to the
eighth book, no allusion occurs to a rampart; in all those wliich
follow it forms a i)romin(;nt feature. Here, then, in the anomaly
as in the propriety of the Iliad, tlie destiny of Achilles, or ratiier
this peculiar crisis of it, forms tin; pervading bond of connectioa
to tlie whole poem." — Mure, vol. i. p. 207.
•j- What cfiiixr offii/r, etc.
'• Seest thou not this V or do W(^ fear in vain
Thy boa.sted thunders, and thy thoughtless reign?"
— Drydeu's Virgil, iv. 304.
208 THE ILIAD.
Wliere'er the sun's refulgent rays are cast,
Thy power is honor'd, and thy fame shall last.
But yon proud work no future age shall view,
No trace remain where once the glory grew.
The sapp'd foundations by thy force shall fall,
And, wliehn'd beneath thy waves, drop the huge wall;
Vast drifts of sand shall change the former shore;
The ruin vanish'd, and the name no more."
Thus they in heaven: while, o'er the Grecian train.
The rolling sun descending to the main
Beheld the finish'd work. Their bulls they slew;
Black from their tents the savory vapor flew.
And now the fleet, arrived from fjemnos' strands.
With Bacchus' blessings cheered the generous bauds.
Of fragrant wines the rich Eunaius sent
A thousand measures to the royal tent.
(Eunasus, whom Hypsipyle of yore
To Jason, shepherd of his people, bore.)
The rest they purchased at their proper cost.
And well the plenteous freight supplied the host:
Each, in exchange, proportion'd treasures gave;*
Some, brass or iron; some, 0,n ox or slave.
All night they feast, the Greek and Trojan powers;
Those on the fields, and these within their towers.
But Jove averse the signs of wrath displayed.
And shot red lightnings through the gloomy shade:
Humbled they stood; pale horror seized on all,
While the deep thunder shook the aerian hall.
Each pour'd to Jove before the bowl was crown 'd;
And large libations drench'd the thirsty ground:
Then late, refreshed with sleep from toils of fight,
Enjoy'd the balmy blessings of the night.
* In exchange. These lines are referred to by TheopLilus, the
Roman lawyer, ii. tit. xxiii. § 1, as exhibiting the most ancient
mention of barter.
TEE ILIAD. 209
BOOK VIII.
AEGU^IENT
THE SECOND BATTLE, AXD THE DISTRESS OF THE
GREEKS.
Jupiter assembles a council of tlie deities, and threatens tbem
with the pains of Tartarus if they assist either side: Minerva
only obtains of him that she may direct the Greeks by her
counsels. The armies join battle: Jupiter on Mount Ida
weighs in his balances the fates of both, and affrights the
Greeks with his thunders and lightnings. Nestor alone con-
tinues in the field in great danger; Diomed relieves him;
whose exploits, and those of Hector, are excellently described.
Juno endeavors to animate Neptune to the assi-stance of the
Greeks, but in vain. The acts of Teucer, who is at length
wounded by Hector, and carried off. Juno and Minerva pre-
pare to aid the (irecians, Ijut are restrained by Iris, sent
from Jupiter. The niglit puts an end to the battle. Hector
continues in the field (the Greeks being diiven to their forti-
fications before the ships), and gives orders to keep the watch
all night in the camji, to ])revent the enemy from re-embark-
ing and esra])ing by flight. They kindle tires through all
the fields, and ])ass tlie niglit under arms.
The time of seven and twenty days is emi)loyed from the
opening of the j)oeni ta the end of this book. The scene here
(except of the celestial machines) lies in the field toward the
seashore.
AuHOR.\ now, fair daugliter of the dawn,
Sprinkled witii rosy light the dewy hiwn;
When Jove convened the senate of the skies,
AViiere iiigli Olympus' cloudy tops arise.
The sire of g<jdri his awful silence hroko;
The heavens attentive trembled as he spoke:*
* ''A similar bond of connection, in the military details of the
narrative, is the decree issued by Jupiter, at the cunimcncement
of the eighth bof)l<, against any furtber inliMffrcnce of tht; gods
in tlie l)attles. In tlie f)|)ening nf tin; twcntiitli book this inter-
dict is witlidrawn. During tlic twelve intermediate books it is
kept steadily in view. No interpo.sition takes place but on the
part of the specially authorized agents of Jove, or on that of one
210 THE ILIAD.
"Celestial states! immortal gods! give ear,
Hear our decree, and reverence what ye hear;
The fix'd decree which not all heaven can move;
Thou, fate! fulfill it! and, ye powers, approve!
What god hut enters yon forhidden field.
Who yields assistance, or but wills to yield.
Back to the skies with shame he shall be driven,
Gash'd with dishonest wounds, the scorn of heaven:
Or far, oh far, from steep Olympus thrown.
Low in the dark Tartarean gulf shall groan,
With burning chains fix'd to the brazen floors.
And lock'd by hell's inexorable doors;
As deep beneath the infernal centre hurl'd,*
As from that centre to the ethereal world.
Let him who tempts me, dread those dire abodes:
And know, the Almighty is the god of gods.
League all your forces, then, ye powers above,
Join all, and try the omnipotence of Jove.
Let down our golden everlasting chainf
or two contumacious deities, described as boldly setting Lis com-
mands at defiance, but checked and reprimanded for their dis-
obedience; while the other divine warriors, who in the previous
and subsequent cantos are so active in support of their favorite
heroes, repeatedly allude to the supreme edict as the cause of
their present inactivity." — Mure, vol. i. ji. 257. See, however,
Mliller, " Greek Literature," ch. v. § 6, and Grote, vol. ii. p. 253.
*" As far removed from God and light of heaven.
As from the center thrice to th' utmost pole."
— " Paradise Lost."
" E quanto e da le stelle al basso inferno,
Tanto e piu in su de la stellata spera."
— Gier. Lib. i. 7.
"Some of the epithets which Homer applies to the heavens
seem to imply that he considered it as a solid vault of metal. But
it is not necessary to construe these epithets eo literally, nor to
draw any such inference from his description of Atlas, who holds
the lofty pillars which keep earth and heaven asunder. Yet it
would seem, from the manner in which the -height of heaven is
compared with the depth of Tartarus, that the region of light was
thought to have certain bounds. The summit of the Thessalian
Olympus was regarded as the highest point on the earth, and it is
not always carefully distinguished from the aerian regions above.
The idea of a seat of the gods — perhaps derived from a more
ancient tradition, it which it was not attached to any geographical
site — seems to be indistinctly blended in the poet's mind with that
of the real mountain." — Thirlwall's Greece, vol. i. p. 217, sq.
f " Now lately heav'n, earth, another world
Hung o'er my realm, link'd in a golden chain
To that side heav'n."
— " Paradise Lost," ii. ]004.
THE ILIAD. 211
Whose strong embrace holds heaven, and earth, and
main.
Strive all, of mortal and immortal birth,
To drag, by this, the Thunderer down to earth:
Ye strive in vain! if I but stretch this hand,
I heave the gods, the ocean, and the land;
I fix the chain to great Olympus' height.
And the vast world hangs trembling in my sight!
For such I reign, unbounded and above;
And such are men, and gods, compared to Jove."
The all-mighty spoke, nor durst the powers reply:
A reverend horror silenced all the sky;
Trembling they stood before their sovereign's look;
At length his best-beloved, the power of wisdom, spoke:
"0 first and greatesti God, by gods adored!
We own thy might, our father and our lord!
But, ah! permit to pity human state:
If not to help, at least lament their fate.
From fields forbidden we submiss refrain,
With arms unaidino; mourn our Arsfives slain;
Yet grant ray counsels still their breasts may move,
Or all must perish in the wrath of Jove."
The cloud-compelling god her suit approved,
And smiled superior on his best beloved;
Then call'd his coursers, and his chariot took;
The steadfast firmament beneath them shook:
Rapt by the ethereal steeds the chariot roU'd;
Brass were their hoofs, their curling manes of gold:
Of heaven's uiidrossy gold the gods array,
Kefulgent, fia.sh'd intolerable day.
Higli on the throne he shines: his coursers fly
Between tiie extended earth and starry sky.
But when to Ida's topmost hciglit ho came,
(Fair nurse of fountains, and of savage game).
Where o'er her pointed summits proudly raised.
His fane breathed odors, and his altar blazed:
There, from his radiant car, the sacred sire
Of gods and men released the steeds of fire:
Blue anibiciit mists the immortal steeds embraced;
High on tli(! cloudy })oint Jiis seat he placed;
Thence his broad eye the subject world surveys,
The town, and tents, and navigable seas.
Now had the Grecians snatcli'd a short repast.
And buckled on their shining arms with haste.
212 THE ILIAD.
Troy roused as soou; for ou this dreadfal day
The fate of fathers, wives, and infants h^y.
The gates unfolding pour forth all their train;
Squadrons on squadrons cloud the dusky plain.
Men, steeds, and chariots shake the trembling ground:
The tumult thickens, and the skies resound;
And now with shouts the shocking armies closed,
To lances lances, shields to sliields opposed.
Host against host with shadowy legends drew,
The sounding darts in iron tempests flew;
Victors and vanquish'd Join promiscuous cries,
Triumphant shouts and dying groans arise;
AVith streaming blood the slippery fields are dyed,
And slaughter'd heroes swell the dreadful tide.
Long as the morning beams, increasing bright.
O'er heaven's clear azure spread the sacred light,
Commutual death the fate of war confounds,
Each adverse battle gored with equal wounds.
But when the sun the height of heaven ascends,
The sire of gods his golden scales suspends,*
With equal hand: in these explored the fate
Of Greece and Troy, and poised the mighty weight:
Press'd with its load, the Grecian balance lies
Low sunk on earth, the Trojan strikes the skies.
Then Jove from Ida's top his horrors spreads;
The clouds burst dreadful o'er the Grecian heads;
Thick lightnings flash; the muttering thunder rolls;
Their strength he withers, and unmans their souls.
Before his wrath the trembling hosts retire;
The gods in terrors, and the skies on fire.
* His golden scales.
" Jove now, sole arbiter of peace and war,
Held forth the fatal balance from afar;
Eacli host he weighs; by turns they both prevail,
Till Troy descending fix'd the doubtful scale."
— Merrick's Tryphiodorus, v. 687, sqq.
" Oh, Eternal, to prevent such horrid fray.
Hung forth in heav'n his golden scales.
Wherein all things created first he weighed;
The pendulous round earth, with balanced air
In counterpoise; now ponders all events,
Battles and realms. In these he puts two weights,
The sequel each of parting and of fight;
The latter quick up flew, and kick'd the beam."
— " Paradise Lost," iv. 996.
I
THE ILIAD. 213
Nor great Idomeueiis that sight could bear,
Nor each stern Ajax, thunderbolts of war:
Nor he, the king of war, tlie alarm sustain'd
Nestor alone, amidst the storm remaiu'd.
Unwilling he remain'd, for Paris' dart
Had pierced his courser in a mortal part;
Fix'd in the forehead, were the springing mane
Cnrl'd o'er the brow, it stung him to the brain;
Mad with his anguish, he begins to rear,
Paw with his hoofs aloft, and lash the air.
Scarce had his falchion cut the reins, and freed
The encumber'd chariot from the dying steed,
When dreadful Hector, thundering through the war,
Pour'd to the tumult on his whirling car.
That day had stretch'd beneath his matchless hand
The hoary monarch of the Pylian band,
But Diomed beheld; from forth the crowd
He rush'd, and on Ulysses call'd aloud:
"Whither, oh whither does Ulysses run?
Oh, flight unworthy great Laertes' son!
Mix'd with the vulgar shall thy fate be found,
Pierced in the back, a vile, dishonest wound?
Oh turn and save from Hector's direful rage
The glory of the Greeks, the Pylian sage."
His fruitful words are lost unheard in air,
Ulysses seeks the ships, and shelters there.
But bold Tydides to the rescue goes,
A single warrior midst a host of foes;
Before the coursers with a sudden spring
He leap'd, and anxious thus bespoke the king:
"Great perils, father! wait the unequal tight;
Tiieso younger champions will oppress thy might.
Thy veins no more with ancient vigor glow.
Weak is thy servant, and thy coursers slow.
Then haste, ascend my seat, and from the car
Observe the steeds of Tros, renown'd in war,
Practised alike to turn, to stop, to chase.
To dare the light, or urge the I'apid race:
These late obey'd ^lilneas' guiding rein;
Loave thoi; thy chariot to our faithful train;
With these against yon Trojans will we go,
Nor shall great Ilootor want an equal foe;
Fierce as he is, even lie may learn to fear
The thirsty fury of my flying spear."
214 THE ILIAD.
Thus said the chief; and Nestor, skill'd in war,
Approves his counsel, and ascends the car:
The steeds he left, their trusty servants hold;
Eurymedon, and Sthenelus the bold:
The reverend charioteer directs the course,
And strains his aged arm to lash the horse.
Hector they face; unknowing how to fear,
Fierce he drove on; Tydides whirl'd his spear.
The spear with erring haste mistook its way,
But plunged in Eniopeus' bosom lay.
His opening hand in death forsakes the rein;
Tlie steeds fly back: he falls, and spurns the plain.
Great Hector sorrows for his servant kill'd,
Yet unrevenged permits to press the field;
Till, to supply his place and rule the car,
Eose Archeptolemus, the fierce in war.
And now had death and horror cover'd all;*
Like timorous flocks the Trojans in their wall
Inclosed had bled: but Jove with awful sound
Eoll'd the big thunder o'er the vast profound:
Full in Tydides' face the lightning flew;
The ground before him flamed witii sulphur blue;
The quivering steeds fell prostrate at the sight;
And Nestor's trembling hand confessed his fright:
He dropp'd the reins: and, shook with sacred dread,
Thus, turning, warn'd the intrepid Diomed:
"0 chief! too daring in tliy friend's defence
Eetire advised, and urge the chariot hence.
This day, averse, the sovereign of the skies
Assists great Hector and ow palm denies.
Some other sou may see the happier hour.
When Greece shall conquer by his heavenly power.
'Tis not in man his fix'd decree to move:
The great will glory to submit to Jove."
"0 reverend prince! (Tydides thus replies)
Thy years are awful, and tliy words are wise.
But ah, what grief! should haughty Hector boast
I fled inglorious to the guarded coast.
Before that dire disgrace shall blast my fame.
* A nd now, etc.
" And now all Leaven
Had gone to wrack, with ruin overspread;
Had not th' Almighty Father, where he sits
foreseen '*
[— " Paradise Lost," vi. C69.
TEE ILIAD. 215
O'erwhelui me, earth; and bide a warrior's shame!"
To whom Gereuian Nestor thus replied:*
"Gods! cau thy courage fear the Phrygian's pride?
Hector may vaunt, but who shall heed the boast?
Not those who felt thy arm, the Dardan host,
Nor Troy, yet bleeding iu her heroes lost;
Not even a Phrygian dame, who dreads the sword
That laid iu dust her loved, lamented lord."
He said, and, hasty, o'er the gasping throng
Drives the swifr. steeds: the chariot smokes along;
The shouts of Trojans thicken in the wind;
The storm of hissing javelins pours behind.
Then with a voice that shakes the solid skies,
Pleased, Hector braves the warrior as he flies.
"Go, mighty hero! graced above the rest
In seats of council and the sumptuous feast:
Now hope no more those honors from thy train;
Go less than women, in the form ofman!
To scale our walls, to wrap our towers in flames,
To lead in exile the fair PJirygian dames.
Thy once proud hopes, presumptuous prince! are fled;
This arm shall reach thy heart, and stretch thee dead."
Now fears dissuade him, and now hopes invite,
To stop his coursers, and to stand the light;
Thrice turn'd the chief, nnd thrice imperial Jove
On Ida's summits thuuder'd from above.
Great Hector heard; he saw the flashing light,
(The sign of conquest,) and thus urged the fight
"Hoar, every Trojan, Lycian, Dardan band,
All famed in war, and dreadful hand to hand.
Be mindful of the wreaths your arms have won,
Your great forefathers' glories, and your own.
Heard ye the voice of Jove? Success and fame
Await on Troy, on Greece eternal shame.
In vain they skulk behind their boasted wall,
Weak bulwarks; destined by this arm to fall.
High o'er their slighted trencli our steeds shall bound,
And pass victorious o'er the lovell'd mound.
Soon as before yon hollow ships wo stand,
Fight each with flames, and toss the blazing brand;
* Gereuian Nentor. Tlie epithet Gereuian eitlicjr refers to the
name of a [)hir,c in which Ne.stor was educated, or merely si<^iii(ics
lionored, revered. See Schol. Vinet. in 11. li 33(5; ytrabo, viii.
p. 340.
216 THE ILIAD.
Till, their proud navy wrapt in smoke and fires.
All Greece, encompass'd, in one blaze expires."
Furious he said; then bending o'er the yoke,
Encouraged his proud steeds, while thus he spoke:
"Now, Xanthus, ^thou, Lampus, urge tbe chase,
And thou, Podargus! prove thy generous race;
Be fleet, bo fearless, this important day.
And all your master's well-spent care repay.
For this, high-fed, in plenteous stalls ye stand,
Served with pure wheat, and by a princess' hand;
For this my spouse, of great Action's line,
So oft has steep'd the strengthening grain in "wlne.
Now swift pursue, now thunder uncontroll'd:
Give me to seize rich Nestor's shield of gold;
From Tydeus' shoulders strip the costly load,
Vulcanian arms, the labor of a god :
These if we gain, then victory, ye powers!
This night, this glorious night, the fleet is ours!"
That heard, deep anguish stung Saturnia's soul;
She shook her throne, that shook the starry pole:
And thus to Neptune: "Thou, whose force can make
The steadfast earth from her foundations shake,
Seest thou the Greeks by fates unjust oppress'd.
Nor swells thy heart in that immortal breast?
Yet Mg?8, Helice, thy power obey,*
And gifts unceasing on thine altars lay.
Would all the deities of Greece combine.
In vain the gloomy Thunderer might repine:
Sole should he sit, with scarce a god to friend,
And see his Trojans to the shades descend:
Such be the scene from his Idiean bower;
Ungrateful prospect to the sullen power!"
Neptune with wrath rejects the rash design:
"What rage, what madness, furious queen! is thine?
I war not with the highest. All above
Submit and tremble at the hand of Jove."
Now godlike Hector, to whose matchless might
Jove gave the glory of the destined fight.
Squadrons on squadrons drives, and fills the fields
With close-ranged chariots, and with thicken'd shields.
Where the deep trencli in length extended lay.
Compacted troops stand wedged in firm array,
* ^gm, Helice. Both these towns were conspicuous for their
worship of Neptune.
THE ILIAD. 217
A dreadful front! they shake the brands, and tlireat
With long-destroying flames the hostile fleet.
The king of men, by Juno's self inspired,
Toil'd through the tents, and all his army fired.
Swift as he moved, he lifted in his hand
His purple robe, bright ensign of command.
High on the midmost bark the king appear'd:
There, from Ulysses' deck, his voice was heard:
To Ajax and Achilles reach'd the sound.
Whose distant ships the guarded navy bound.
"0 ArgivesI shame of human race! (he cried:
The hollow vessels to his voice replied,)
Where now are all your glorious boasts of yore,
Your hasty triumphs on the Lemnian shore?
Each fearless hero dares a hundred foes,
While the feast lasts, and while the goblet flows;
But who to meet one martial man is found,
When the fight rages, and the flames surround?
mighty Jove! sire of the distress'd!
Was ever king like me, like me oppress'd?
With power immense, with justice arm'd in vain;
My glory ravish'd, and my people slain!
To thee my vows were breathed from every shore;
What altar smoked not with our victims' gore?
With fat of bulls I fed the coiistant flame.
And ask'd destruction to the Trojan name.
Now, gracious gudl far humbler our demand;
Give these at least to 'scape from Hector's hand,
And save the relics of the Grecian land!"
Thus pray'd the king, and heaven's great father
heard
His vows, in bitterness of soul preferr'd;
The wrath appeased, by happy signs declares.
And gives the peojjle to their monarch's prayers.
His eagle, sacred bird of heaven! he sent,
A fawn his talons truss'd, (divine portent!)
High o'er the wondering hosts he soar'd above,
Who j)aid their vows to Panompha^an Jove;
Then let the ])rey before his altar fall;
'J'ho Greeks beheld, and transport seized on all:
Encouraged by the sign, the troops revive.
And fierce on Troy with doubled fury drive.
Tydides first, of all the Grecian force.
O'er tiie broad ditch impell'd his foaming horse,
218 THE ILIAD.
Pierced the deep ranks, their strongest battle tore,
And dyed his javelin red with Trojan gore.
Young Agelaiis (Phradmon was his sire)
With flying coursers shunu'd his dreadfnl ire;
Struck through the back, the Phrygian fell oppress'd;
The dart drove on, and issued at his breast:
Headlong he quits the car: his arms resound;
His ponderous buckler thunders on the ground.
Forth rush a tide of Greeks, the passage freed;
The Atridfe first, the Ajaces next succeed:
Meriones, like Mars in arms renown'd.
And godlike Idoraen, now passed the mound;
EvEemon's son next issues to the foe.
And last young Teucer with his bended bow.
Secure behind the Telamonian shield.
The skillful archer wide survey'd the field,
With every shaft some hostile victim slew,
Then close beneath the sevenfold orb withdrew:
The conscious infant so, when fear alarms,
Eetires for safety to the mother's arms.
Thus Ajax guards his brother in the field,
Moves as he moves, and turns the shining shield.
Who first by Teucer's mortal arrows bled?
Orsilochus; then fell Ormenus dead:
The godlike Lycophon next press'd the plain.
With Chromius, Dastor, Ophelestes slain:
Bold Hamopilon breathless sunk to ground;
The bloody pile great Melanippus crown'd.
Heaps fell on heaps, sad trophies *of his art,
A Trojan ghost attending every dart.
Great Agamemnon views with joyful eye
The ranks grow thinner as his arrows fly:
"0 youth for ever dear! (the monarch cried)
Thus, always thus, thy early worth be tried ;
Thy brave example shall retrieve our host,
Thy country's saviour, and thy father's boast!
Sprung from an alien's bed thy sire to grace,
The vigorous offspring of a stolen embrace;
Proud of his boy, he owu'd the generous flame,
And the brave boy repays his cares with fame.
Now hear a monarch's vow: If heaven's high powers
Give me to raze Troy's long-defended towers;
Whatever treasures Greece for me design,
The next rich honorary gift be thine:
Some golden tripod, or distmguish'd car,
THE ILIAD. 219
With conrsers dreadful in the ranks of war:
Or some fair captive, whom thy eyes approve,
Shall recompose the warrior's toils with love."
To this the chief: "With praise the rest inspire,
Nor urge a soul already Ulled with fire.
What strength I have, be now in battle tried,
Till every shaft in Phrygian blood be dyed.
Since rallying from our wall we forced the foe,
Still aim'd at Hector have I bent mv bow:
Eight forky arrows from this hand have fled,
And eight bold heroes by their points lie dead:
But sure some god denies me to destroy
This fury of the field, this dog of Troy."
lie said, and twang'd the string. The weapon flies
At Hector's breast, and sings along the skies:
He miss'd the mark; but pierced Gorgythio's heart,
And drench'd in royal blood the thirsty dart.
(Fair Castianira, nymph of form divine.
This offspring added to king Priam's line.)
As full-blown poppies, overcharged with rain,*
Decline tlie head, and drooping kiss the plain;
So sinks the youth: his beauteous head, depress'd
Beneath his helmet, drops upon his breast.
Another shaft the raging archer drew.
That other shaft with erring fury flew,
(From Hector, Phoebus turn'd the flying wound,)
Yet fell not dry or guiltless to the ground:
Thy breast, brave Archeptolemus! it tore.
And dipp'd its feathers in no vulgar gore.
Headlcjng he falls: his sudden fall alarms
The steeds, that startle at his sounding arms.
Hector with grief his charioteer beheld
All pale and breathless on the sanguine field:
Then bids Cebriones direct the rein,
Quits his bright car, and issues on the plain.
JJreadful he shouts: from earth a stone he took,
And rush'd on Teucer with the lifted rock.
Tiie youth already strain'd the forceful yew;
The shaft already to his shoulder drew;
The feather in his hand, just wing'd for flight,
* As full bloinn, etc.
" II suo Leshia fiuasi hel fior succiso,
E in at to si jri-ntil laii^iiir trfiiianti
or occhi, e cader su 'i tergo ii roWo iiiira."
— Uier. Lib. ix. 85.
'Z20 ^'-^^ ILIAD.
Tonch'd where the neck and liollow chest unite;
There, where the juncture knits tlie channel bone,
The furious chief discharged the craggy stone:
The bow-string burst beneath the ponderous blow,
And his numb'd hand dismiss'd his useless bow.
He fell: but Ajax his broad shield display'd,
And screen'd his brother with the mighty shade;
Till great Alaster, and Mecistlieus, bore
The batter'd archer groaning to the shore.
Troy yet found grace before the Olympian sire,
He arm'd their hands, and fiU'd their breasts with fire.
The Greeks repulsed, retreat behind their wall,
Or in the trench on heaps confusedly fall.
First of the foe, great Hector march'd along.
With terror clothed, and more than mortal strong.
As the bold hound, that gives the lion chase,
With beating bosom, and with eager pace.
Hangs on his haunch, or fastens on his heels,
Guards as he turns, and circles as he wheels;
Thus oft the Grecians turn'd, but still they flew;
Thus following, Hector still the hindmost slew.
When flying they had pass'd the trench profound,
And many a chief lay gasping on the ground;
Before the ships a desperate stand they made.
And fired the troops, and called the gods to aid.
Fierce on his rattling chariot Hector came:
His eyes like Gorgon shot a sanguine flame
That wither'd all their host: like Mars he stood:
Dire as the monster, dreadful as the god!
Their strong distress the wife of Jove survey'd;
Then pensive thus, to war's triumphant maid:
"0 daughter of that god, whose arm can wield
The avenging bolt, and shake the sable shield!
Now, in the moment of her last despair,
Shall wretched Greece no more confess our care,
Condemn'd to suffer the full force of fate.
And drain the dregs of heaven's relentless hate?
Gods! shall one raging hand thus level all?
What numbers fell! what numbers yet shall fall!
What power divine shall Hector's rage assuage?
Still swells the slaughter, and still grows the rage!"
So spake the imperial regent of the skies;
To whom the goddess with the azure eyes:
"Long since had Hector stain'd these fields with gore,
Stretch'd by some Argive on his native shore:
THE ILIAD. 221
But he above, the sire of heaven, withstands,
Mocks our attempts, and slights our just demands;
The stubborn god, inflexible and hard,
Forgets my service and deserved reward:
Saved I, for this, his favorite son distress'd.
By stern Eurystheus with long labors press'd?
He begg'd, with tears he begg'd, in deep dismay;
I shot from heaven, and gave liis arm the day.
Oh had my wisdom known this dire event,
When to grim Pluto's gloomy gates he went;
The triple dog had never felt his chain.
Nor Styx been cross'd, nor hell explored in vain.
Averse to me of all his heaven of gods.
At Thetis' suit the partial Tliunderer nods;
To grace her gloomy, fierce, resenting son.
My hopes are frustrate, and my Greeks undone.
Some future day, perhaps, he may be moved
To call his blue-eyed maid his best beloved.
Haste, launch thy chariot, through yon ranks to ride;
Myself will arm, and thunder at thy side.
Then, goddess! say, shall Hector glory then?
(That terror of the Greeks, that man of men)
When Juno's self, and Pallas shall appear.
All dreadful in the crimson walks of war!
What mighty Trojan then, on yonder shore.
Expiring, pale, and terrible no more,
Shall feast the fowls, and glut the dogs with gore?"
She ceased, and Juno rein'd the steeds with care:
(Heaven's awful empress, Saturn's other heir:)
Pallas, meanwhile, her various veil unbound,
Vv'ith ilowers adorn'd, with art immortal crown'd;
Tlie radiant robe her sacred lingers wove
Floats in rich waves, and spreads the ccnirt of Jove.
Her father's arms her mighty limbs invest,
His cuirass blazes on her ample breast,
TJie vigorous power the trembling car ascends:
Sh(j(jk ijy her arm, the massy javelin bends:
Huge, p(»nderous, strong! that when her fury burns
Proud tyrants humbles, and whole hosts o'erturns.
Saturnia lends the lash; the coursers fly;
Smooth glides the chariot through the iiquid sky.
Heaven's gates spontaneous (jfjcn to the jiowcrs,
Heaven's golden gates, kept by the winged Hours.
Gommission'd in alternate watch they stand,
Tiie sun's bright jiortuls and the skies command;
222 THE ILIAD.
Close, or unfold, the eternal gates of day,
Bar heaven with clouds, or roll those clouds away.
The sounding hinges ring, the clouds divide:
Prone down the steep of heaven their course they guide;
But Jove, incensed, from Ida's top survey'd,
And thus enjoin'd the many color'd maid.
"Thaumantia! mount the winds, and stop their car;
Against the highest who shall wage the war?
If furious yet they dare the vain debate.
Thus have I spoke, and what I speak is fate:
Their coursers crush'd beneath the wheels shall lie,
Their car in fragments, scatter'd o'er the sky:
My lightning these rebellions shall confound.
And hurl them flaming, headlong, to the ground,
(Jondemn'd for ten revolving years to weep
The wounds impress'd by burning thunder deep.
So shall Minerva learn to fear our ire.
Nor dare to combat hers and nature's sire.
For Juno, headstrong and imperious still,
She claims some title to transgress our will."
Swift as the wind, the various-color'd maid
From Ida's top her golden wings display'd;
To great Olympus' sljining gate she flies,
There meets the chariot rushing down the skies,
Eestrains their progress from the bright abodes,
And speaks the mandate of the sire of gods.
"What frenzy goddesses! what rage can move
Celestial minds to tempt the wrath of Jove?
Desist, obedient to his high command:
This is his word; and know his word shall stand:
His lightning your rebellion shall confound.
And hurl ye headlong, flaming, to the ground;
Your horses crush'd beneath the wheels shall lie.
Your car in fragments scatter'd o'er the sky;
Yourselves condemn'd ten rolling years to weep
The wounds impress'd by burning thunder deep.
So shall Minerva learn to fear his ire.
Nor dare to combat hers and nature's sire.
For Juno, headstrong and imperious still,
She claims some title to transgress his will:
But thee, what desperate insolence has driven
To lift thy glance against the king of heaven?"
Then, mounting on the pinions of the wind,
She flew; and Juno thus her rage resign'd:
"0 daughter of that god, whose arm can wield
THE ILIAD. 223
The avenging bolt, and shake the dreadful shield!
No more let beings of superior birth
Contend with Jove for this low race of earth;
Triumphant now, now miserably slain,
They breathe or perish as the fates ordain:
But Jove's high counsels full elfect shall find;
And, ever constant, ever rule mankind."
She spoke, and backward turn'd her steeds of light,
Adorn'd with manes of gold, and heavenly bright.
The Hours unloosed them, panting as they stood.
And heap'd their mangers with ambrosial food.
There tied, they rest in high celestial stalls;
The chariot propp'd against the crystal walls.
The pensive goddesses, abash'd, controll'd.
Mix with the gods, and fill their seats of gold.
And now the Thunderer meditates his flight
From Ida's summits to the Olympian lieight.
Swifter than thought, the wheels instinctive fly,
Flame through the vast of air, and reach the sky.
'Twas Neptune's charge his coursers to unbrace,
And fix the car on its immortal base;
There stood the chariot, beaming forth it rays,
Till with a snowy veil he screen 'd the blaze.
He, whose all-conscious eyes the world behold.
The eternal Thunderer sat, enthroned in gold.
High heaven the footstool of his feet he makes,
And wide beneath him all Olympus shakes.
Trembling afar the olfending powers appear'd.
Confused and silent, for his frown they fear'd.
He saw their soul, and thus his word imparts:
"Pallas and Juno! say, why heave your liearts?
Soon was your battle o'er; proud Troy retired
Before your face, and in your wrath expired.
But know, whoe'er almighty power withstand!
TJnmatch'd our force, unconquur'd is our hand:
Who shall the sovereign of the skies control?
Not all the gods that crown the starry pole.
Your hearts shall tremble, if our arms we take,
And eacli immortal nerve with liorror shako.
For thus I speak, and what I speak shall stand:
"What pcnver soe'er provokes our lifted l);ind.
On this our hill no more shall hold his [)lace;
Cut off, and exiled from the ethereal race."
.Juno and Pallas grieving hear the doom,
But feast their souls on Ilion's woes to come.
224 THE ILIAD.
Though secret anger swell'd Minerva's breast,
The prudent goddess yet her wrath repress'd;
But Juno, impotent of rage, replies:
"What hast thou said, tyrant of the skies!
Strength and omnipotence invest thy throne;
'Tis thine to punish; ours to grieve alone.
For Greece we grieve, abandon'd by her fate
To drink the dregs of thy unmeasured hate.
From fields forbidden we submiss refrain,
With arms unaiding see our Argives slain;
Yet grant our counsels still their breasts may move,
Lest all should perish in the rage of Jove."
The goddess thus; and thus the god replies,
Who swells the clouds, and blackens all the skies.
"The morning sun, awaked by loud alarms,
Shall see the almighty Thunderer in arms.
What heaps of Argives then shall load the plain,
Those radiant eyes shall view, and view in vain.
Nor shall great Hector cease the rage of fight,
The navy flaming, and thy Greeks in flight.
Even till the day when certain fates ordain
That stern Achilles (his Patroclus slain)
Shall rise in vengeance, and lay waste the plain.
For such is fate, nor canst thou turn its course
With all thy rage, with all thy rebel force.
Fly, if thy wilt, to earth's remotest bound,
Where on her utmost verge the seas resound;
Where cursed lapetus and Saturn dwell,
Fast by the brink, within the streams of hell;
No sun e'er gilds the gloomy horrors there;
No cheerful gales refresh the lazy air:
There arm once more the bold Titanian band;
And arm in vain; for what I will, shall stand."
Now deep in ocean sunk the lamp of light.
And drew behind the cloudy veil of night:
The conquering Trojans mourn his beams decay'd;
The Greeks rejoicing bless the friendly shade.
The victors keep the field; and Hector calls
A martial council near the navy walls;
These to Scamander's bank apart he led,
Where thinly scatter'd lay the heaps of dead.
The assembled chiefs, descending on the ground,
Attend his order, and their j)rince surround.
A massy spear he bore of mighty strength,
Of full ten cubits was the lance's lengtli;
THE ILIAD. 225
The point was brass, refulgent to behold,
Fix'd to the wood with circling rings of gold:
The noble Hector on his lance reclined,
And, bending forward, thus reveal'd his mind:
''Ye valiant Trojans, with attention hear!
Ye Dardan bands, and generous aids, give ear!
This day, we hoped, would wrap in conquering flame
Greece with her ships, and crown our toils with fame;
But darkness now, to save the cowards, falls,
And guards them trembling in their wooden walls.
Obey the night, and use her peaceful h-ours
Our steeds to forage, and refresh our powers.
Straight from the town be sheep and oxen sought,
And strengthening bread and generous wine be brought.
Wide o'er the field, high blazing to the sky,
Let numerous fires the absent sun supply,
The flaming piles with plenteous fuel raise,
Till the bright morn her purjole beam displays;
Lest, in the silence and the shades of night,
Greece on her sable ships attempt her flight.
Xot unmolested let the wretches gain
Their lofty decks, or safely cleave the main;
Some hostile wound let every dart bestow.
Some lasting token of the Phrygian foe,
Wounds, that long hence may ask their spouses' care,
And warn their children from a Trojan war.
Now through the circuit of our Ilion wall.
Let sacred heralds sound the solemn call;
To bid the sires with hoary honors crown'd.
And beardless youths, our battlements surround.
Firm be the guard, while distant lie our powers,
And let the matrons hang with lights the towers;
Jvcst, under covert of the midnight shade,
The insidious foe the naked town invade.
■Sufllce, to-night, these orders to obey;
A nobler charge shall rouse the dawning day.
■"I'lio gods, I trust, shall give to IIector'f^' hand
From these detested foes. to free the land.
Who plough'd, with fates averse, the watery way:
For Trojan vultures a predestined i)rey.
Our common safety must be now the care;
But soon as morning paints the fields of air.
Sheathed in bright arms let every troop engage.
And the fired fleet lichold the battle rage.
Then, then shall Hector and Tydides prove
226 THE ILIAD.
Whose fates are heaviest m the scales of Jove.
To-morrow's light (0 haste the glorious morn!)
Shall see his hloody spoils in triumph borne,
With this keen javelin shall his breast be gored,
And prostrate heroes bleed around their lord.
Certain as this, oh! might my days endure,
From_ age inglorious, and black death secure;
So might my life and glory know no bound,
Like Pallas worship'd, like the sun renown'd!
As the next dawn, the last they shall enjoy.
Shall crush the Greeks, and end the woes of Troy."
The leader spoke. From all his host around-
Shouts of applause along the shores resound.
Each from the yoke the smoking steeds untied,
And fix'd their headstalls to his chariot-side.
Fat sheep and oxen from the town are led,
AVith generous wine, and all-sustaining bread.
Full hecatombs lay burning on the shore:
The winds to heaven the curling vapors bore.
Ungrateful offering to the immortal powers!*
Whose wrath hung heavy o'er the Trojan towers:
Nor Priam nor his sons obtain'd their grace;
Proud Troy they hated, and her guilty race.
The troops exulting sat in order round.
And beaming tires illumined all the ground.
As when the moon, refulgent lamp of night,*
O'er heaven's pure azure spreads her sacred light,
When not a breath disturbs the deep serene.
And not a cloud o'ercasts the solemn scene.
Around her throne the vivid planets roll,
* Ungrateful, because the cause in which they were engaged
was unjust.
" Struck by the lab'ring priests' uplifted hands
The victims fall: to heaven they make their pray'r,
The curling vapors load the ambient air.
But vain their toil: the pow'rs who rule the skies
Averse beheld the ungrateful sacrifice."
— Merrick's Tryphiodorus, vi. 527, sqq.
f " As when about the silver moon, wlien aire is free from winde,
And stars shine cleare, to whose sweet beams high prospects
on the brows
Of all steepe hills and pinnacles thrust up themselves for
shows,
And even the lowly valleys joy to glitter in their sight;
When the unmeasured firmament bursts to disclose her light,
And all the signs in heaven are seene, that glad the .shepherd's
heart." — Chapman.
THE ILIAD. 227
And stars unnuniber'd gild the glowing pole,
O'er the dark trees a yellower verdure shed,
And tip with silver every mountain's head:
Then shine the vales, the rocks in prospect rise,
A flood of glory bursts from all the skies:
The conscious swains, rejoicing in the sight,
Eye the blue vault, and bless the useful light.
So many flames before proud llion blaze.
And lighten glimmering Xanthus with their rays.
The long reflections of the distant fires
Gleam on the walls, and tremble on the spires.
A thousand piles the dusky horrors gild.
And shoot a shady lustre o'er the field.
Full fifty guards each flaming pile attend,
"Whose umber'd arms, by fits, thick flashes send,
Loud neigh the coursers o'er their heaps of corn,
And ardent warriors wait the rising morn.
228 THE ILIAD.
BOOK IX.
AEGUMENT.
THE EMBASSY TO ACHILLES.
Agamemnon, after the last day's defeat, proposes to the Greeks
to quit the siege, and return to their country. Diomed
opposes this, and Nestor seconds him, praising his wisdom
and resolution. He orders the guard to be strengthened, and
a council summoned to deliberate what measures are to be
followed in this emergency. Agamemnon pursues this
advice, and Nestor further prevails upon him to send ambas-
sadors to Achilles, in order to move him to a reconciliation.
Ulysses and Ajax are made choice of, who are accompanied
by old Phoenix. They make, each of them, very moving and
pressing speeches, but are rejected with roughness by
Achilles, who notwithstanding retains Phoenix in his tent.
The ambassadors return unsuccessfully to the camp, and the
troops betake themselves to sleep.
This book, and the next following, take up the space of
one night, which is the twenty-seventh from tLe beginning
of the poem. The scene lies on the sea-shore, the station of
the Grecian ships.
Thus joyful Troy maintain'd the watch of night;
"While fear, pale comrade of inglorious flight,*
And heaven-bred horror, on the Grecian part,
Sat on each face, and sadden 'd every heart.
As from its cloudy dungeon issuing forth,
A double tempest of the west and north
Swells o'er the sea, from Thracia's frozen shore,
Heaps waves on waves, and bids the ^gean roar:
This way and that the boiling deeps are toss'd:
Such various passions urged the troubled host,
Great Agamemnon grieved above the rest;
Superior sorrows swell'd his royal breast;
Himself his orders to the heralds bears,
* This flight of the Greeks, according to Buttmann, Lexil.
p. 358, was not a supernatural flight caused by tbe gods, but " a
great and general one, caused by Hector and the Trojans, but
with the approval of Jove."
THE ILIAD. 229
To bid to council all the Grecian peers,
But bid in whispers: these surround their chief,
In solemn sadness, and majestic grief.
The king amidst the mournful circle rose:
Down his wan cheeii a briny torrent flows.
So silent fountains, from a rock's tall head,
In sable streams aoft-trickling waters shed.
With more than vulgar grief he stood oppress'd;
Words, mix'd with sighs, thus bursting from his breast:
"Ye sons of Greece! partake your leader's care;
Fellows in arms and princes of the warl
Of partial Jove too justly we complain,
And heavenly oracles believed in vain.
A safe return was promised to our toils,
With conquest honor'd and enrich'd with spoils:
Now shameful flight alone can save the host;
Our wealth, our people, and our glory lost.
So Jove decrees, almighty lord of all!
Jove, at whose nod whole empires rise or fall,
Who shakes the feeble props of human trust.
And towers and armies humbles to the dust.
Haste then, forever quit these fatal fields,
Haste to the joys our native country yields;
Spread all your canvas, all your oars employ.
Nor hope the fall of heaven-defended Troy."
He said: deep silence hold the Grecian band:
Silent, unmovM in dire dismay they stand;
A pensive scene! till Tydeus' warlike son
KoU'd on the king his eyes, and thus begun:
"Wlien kings advise us to renounce our fame,
First let liim speak who first sufi'er'd shame.
If I oppose thee, prince! thy wrath withhold,
Tlie laws of council bid my tongue be bold.
Thou first, and thou alone, in fields of fight,
Durst brand my courage, and defame my might:
Nor from a friend the unkind reproach appeared,
The Greeks st.iod witness, all our army heard.
The gods, chief! from whom our honors spring.
The gods iiave made thee but by halves a king:
They gave thee sceptres, and a wide cominand;
They gave dominion o'er the seas and land;
The noblest power that might the world control
Tliey gave thee not— a brave and virtuous soul.
Is this a general's voice, that would suggest
Fears like his own to every Grecian breast?
230 THE ILIAD.
Confiding in our want of worth, he stands,
And if we fly, 'tis what our king commands.
Go thou, inglorious! from the embattlec plain;
Ships thou hast store, and nearest to the main;
A noble care the Grecians shall employ,
To combat, conquer, and extirpate Troy.
Here Greece shall stay; or, if all Greece retire,
Myself shall stay, till Troy or I expire;
Myself, and Sthenelus, will fight for fame;
God bade us fight, and 'twas with God we came."
He ceased ; the Greeks loud acclamations raise,
And voice to voice resounds Tydides' praise.
Wise Nestor then his reverend figure rear'd;
He spoke: the host in still attention heard.*
"0 truly great! in whom the gods have join'd
Such strength of body with such force of mind :
In conduct, as in courage, you excel.
Still first to act what you advise so well.
These wholesome counsels which thy wisdom moves,
Applauding Greece with common voice approves.
Kings thou canst blame; a bold but prudent youth:
And blame even kings with praise, because with truth.
And yet those years that since thy birth have run
Would hardly style thee Nestor's youngest son.
Then let me add what yet remains behind,
A thought unfinish'd in that generous mind;
Age bids me speak! nor shall the advice I bring
Distaste the people, or offend the king:
"Cursed the man, and void of law and right,
Unworthy property, unworthy light.
Unfit for public rule, or private care,
That wretch, that monster, who delights in war;
Whose lust is murder, and whose horrid joy.
To tear his country, and his kind destroy!
This night, refresh and fortify thy train;
Between the trench and wall let guards remain:
Be that the duty of the young and bold;
But thou, king, to council call the old;
Great is thy sway, and weighty are thy cares;
Thy high commands must spirit all our wars.
* Grote, vol. ii. p. 91. after noticing the modest calmness and
respect with wbicli Nestor addresses Agamemnon, observes,
" The Homeric Council is a purely consultative body, assembled
not with any power of peremptorily arresting mischievous resolves
of the king, but solely for his information and guidance."
THE ILIAD. 231
With Tliracian wines recruit thy hoiior'd guests,
For happy counsels flow from sober feasts.
Wise, weighty counsels aid a state distress'd,
And such a monarch as can choose the best.
See'what a blaze from hostile tents aspires,
How near our fleet approach the Trojan fires!
Who can, unmoved, behold the dreadful light?
What eye beholds them, and can close to-night?
Tliis dreadful interval determines all;
To-morrow, Troy must flame, or Greece must fan."
Thus spoke the hoary sage: the rest obey;
Swift through the gates the guards direct their way.
His son was first to pass the lofty mound,
The generous Thrasymed, iu arms renown'd:
Xext him, Ascalaphus, liilmen stood,
'J'he double offspring of the warrior-god:
Dei'pyrus, Aphareus, Merion join.
And Lycomed of Creon's noble line.
Seven were the leaders of the nightly bands,
And each bold chief a hundred spears commands.
The fires they light, to short repasts they fall,
Some line the trench, and others man the wall.
The king of men, on public counsels bent,
Convened the princes in his ample tent;
Each seized a portion of the kingly feast.
But stay'd his hand when thirst and hunger ceased.
Then Nestor spoke, for wisdom long approved,
And slowly rising, thus the council moved.
"Monarch of nationsi whose superior sway
Assonrljled states, and lords of earth obey.
The laws and sceptres to thy hand are given,
And millions own the care of thee and Heaven.
king! the counsels of my age attend:
With thee my cares begin, with thee must end:
Thee, prince! it fits alike to speak and hear.
Pronounce with judgment, with regard give ear,
To see no wholesome motion be withstood,
And ratify the best for public good:
Nor, though a meaner give advice, repine,
But oilow it, and make the wisdom thine.
Hear then a thought, not now conceived in haste,
At once my present judgment and my past.
When from Polides' tout you forced the maid,
1 first opposed, ami faitlifnl, durst dissuade;
But bold of soul, when headlong fury tired,
233 THE ILIAD.
You wronged the man, by men and gods admired:
Now seek some means his fatal wrath to end,
With prayers to move him, or with gifts to bend."
To whom the king. "With justice hast thou shown
A prince's faults, and I with reason own.
That happy man, whom Jove still honors most,
Is more than armies, and himself a host.
Bless'd in his love, this wondrous hero stands;
Heaven fights his war, and humbles all our bands.
Fain would my heart, which err'd through frantic rage,
The wrathful chief and angry gods assuage.
If gifts immense his mighty soul can bow,*
Hear, all ye Greeks, and witness what I vow:
Ten weighty talents of the purest gold,
And twice ten vases of refulgent mould:
Seven sacred tripods, whose unsullied frame
Yet knows no office, nor has felt the flame;
Twelve steeds unmatch'd in fleetness and in force.
And still victorious in the dusty course
(Rich were the man whose ample stores exceed
The prizes purchased by their winged speed);
Seven lovely captives of the Lesbian line,
Skill'd in each art, unmatch'd in form divine,
The same I chose for more than vulgar charms,
When Lesbos sank beneath the hero's arms:
All these, to buy his friendship, shall be paid,
And join'd with these the long-contested maid;
With all her charms, Briseis I resign,
And solemn swear those charms were never mine;
Untouch'd she stay'd, uninjured she removes,
* In the heroic times, it is not unfrequent for tlie king to re-
ceive presents to purchase freedom from his wrath, or immunity
from his exactions. Such gifts gradually became regular, and
formed the income of the German (Tacit. Germ, g 15), Persian
(Herodot. iii. 89), and other kings. So, too, in the middle ages,
" The feudal aids are the beginning of taxation, of which they for
a long time answered the purpose." (Hallam, Middle Ages, ch.
X. pt. 1, p. 189.) This fact frees Achilles from the apparent
charge of sordidness. Plato, however (De Rep. vi. 4), say.s, "We
cannot commend Phcenix, the tutor of Achilles, as if he spoke
correctly, when coun.selling him to accept of presents and as.sist
the Greeks, but, without presents, not to desist from his wrath;
nor again, should we commend Achilles himself, or approve of
his being so covetous as to receive presents from Agamemnon,"
etc.
THE ILIAD. 233
Pure from my arms, and guiltless of my loves,*
These instant shall be his; and if the powers
Give to our arms proud Iliou's hostile towers,
Then shall he store (when Greece the spoils divides)
With gold and brass his loaded navy's sides:
Besides, full twenty nymphs of Trojan race
With copious love shall crown his warm embrace,
Such as himself will choose; who yield to none.
Or yield to Helen's heavenly charms alone.
Yet hear me further: when our wars are o'er,
If safe we land on Argos' fruitful shore,
There shall he live my son, our honors share,
And with Orestes' self divide my care.
Yet more — three daughters in my court are bred,
And each well worthy of a royal bed;
Laodice and Iphigenia fair,f
And bright Clirysothemis with golden hair;
Her let him choose wiiom most his eyes approve,
I ask no presents, no reward for love:
Myself will give the dower; so vast a store
As never father gave a child before.
Seven am})le cities shall confess his sway,
Ilim Enope, and Pher;i3 him obey,
Cardamyle witli ample turrets crown'd,
And sacred Pedasus for vines renown'd;
iEpca, fair, the pastures llira yields,
And rich Antheia with lier ilowery lields:J
The whole extent to Pylos' sandy plain.
Along the verdant margin of the main.
There heifers graze, and laboring oxan toil;
Bold are the men, and generous is the soil;
There shall he reign, with power and justice crown'd,
And rule the tributary realms around.
* It may he observed, tliat, brief as is the mention of Brisei's in
tlie Iliad, and small tlie jiart slie jdavs — what little is saiil is pre-
eminently calculated to enhance her fitness to be the bride of
Achilles. Purity, and retiring delicacy, are features well con-
trasted with the ronf.'-h, but tender dispositir)n of the hero.
\ L< iodic e,. Iphiaiiassa, or Ji)hi^renia, is not mentioned by
Homer, among the daughters of Aganunnnon.
■J " AgamfMinon, when he efTers tf) transfer to Achillfs seven
towns inliabitfd by wealthy iiusbandnifn, wIk) would enrich their
lorfl by j»resentH and tribute, seems likewise to assume rather a
])roperty in them, than an authority over them. And the same
tiling may be intimated when it is said th.tl I'eleus bestowed a
great peoj)li-, the Dolopes of I'hlhia, on i'iiomix." — ThirlwaH's
Greece, vol. i. i^ '>. P- 1(J2, n:te,
234 THE ILIAD.
All this I give, his vengeance to control,
And sure all this may move his mighty soul.
Pluto, the grisly god, who never spares,
Who feels no mercy, and who hears no prayers,
Lives dark and dreadful in deep hell's abodes,
And mortals hate him, as the worst of gods.
Great though he he, it fits him to obey;
Since more than his my years, and more my sway."
The monarch thus. The reverend Nestor then:
"Great Agamemnon! glorious king of men!
Such are thy oifers as a prince may take.
And such as fits a generous king to make.
Let chosen delegates this hour be sent
(Myself will name them) to Pelides' tent:
Let Phoenix lead, revered for hoary age.
Great Ajax next, and Ithacus the sage.
Yet more to sanctify the word you send,
Let Hodius and Eurybates attend.
Now pray to Jove to grant what Greece demands;
Pray in deep silence,* and with purest hands."f
He said; and all approved. The heralds bring
The cleansing water from the living spring.
The youth with wine the sacred goblets crown'd,
And large libations drench'd the sands around.
The rite perform'd, the chiefs their thirst allay.
Then from the royal tent they take their way;
AVise Nestor turns on each his careful eye,
Porbids to offend, instructs them to apply;
Much he advised them all, Ulysses most.
To deprecate the chief, and save the host.
Through the still night they march, and hear the roar
Of murmuring billows on the sounding shore.
To Neptune, ruler of the seas profound.
Whose liquid arms the mighty globe surround,
They pour forth vows, their embassy to bless,
And calm the rage of stern ^acides.
And now, arrived, where on the sandy bay
The Myrmidonian tents and vessels lay;
* Pray in deep silence. Rather: " use well-omened words;"
or, as Kennedy has explained it, " Abstain from expressions un-
suitable to the solemnity of the occasion, which, by offending the
god, might defeat the object of their supplications."
f Purest hands. This is one of the most ancient superstitions
respecting prayer, and one founded as much in nature as in tra-
dition.
THE ILIAD. 235
Amused at ease, the godlike man they fonnd,
Pleased with the solemn harp's harmonious sound.
(The well-wrouglit harp from conquered Thebae came;
Of polished silver was its costly frame.)
With this he soothes his angry soul, and sings
The immortal deeds of heroes and of kings.
Patroclus only of the royal train,
Placed in his tent, attends the lofty strain:
Full opposite he sat, and listen'd long.
In silence waiting till he ceaSed the song.
Unseen the Grecian embassy proceeds
To his high tent; the great Ulysses leads.
Achilles starting, as the chiefs he spied,
Leap'd from his seat, and laid the harp aside.
With like surprise arose Mencetius' sou:
Pelides grasp'd their hands, and thus begun:
"Princes, all hail I whatever brought you here,
Or strong necessity, or urgent fear;
Welcome, though Greeks I for not as foes ye came:
To me more dear than all that bear the name."
With that, the chiefs beneath his roof he led.
And placed in seats with purple carpets spread.
Then thus — -"Patroclus, crown a larger bowl,
Mix purer wine, and open every soul.
Of all tliC warriors yonder host can send.
Thy friend most honors these, and these thy friend."
He said: Patroclus, o'er the blazing fire
Heaps in a brazen vase three chines entire:
The brazen vase Antomedon sustains,
Which flesh of porker, sheep, and goat contains.
Achilles at the genial feast presides,
The parts transtixes, and with skill divides.
Meanwhile Patroclus sweats, tiie fire to raise,
The tent is brighton'd with the rising blaze:
Then, when the languid flames at length subside,
He strows a bed of glowing embers wide.
Above the coals the smoking fragments turns
And sprinkles sacred salt from lifted urn;
With broad the glittering canisters they load,
AVhich round tiie board Menwtius' son bestow'd;
Himself, op|)osed to Ulysses full in sight,
Each portion jiarts, and orders every rite.
The first fat offering to the immortals duo,
Amidst the greedy flames Patroclus throw;
Then each, indulging in the social feast.
236 THE ILIAD.
His thirst and hanger soberly repress'd.
Thut (lone, to Phoenix xljux gave the sign;
Not unperceived; Ul3'sse3 crown'd with wine
The foaming bowl, an instant thus began,
His speech addressing to the godlike man.
"Health to AchillesI happy are thy guests!
Not those more honor'd whom Atrides feasts:
Though generous plenty crown thy loaded boards,
That, Agamemnon's regal tent affords;
But greater cares sit heav-y on our souls,
Nor eased by banquets or by flowing bowls.
What scenes of slaughter in yon fields appear!
The dead we mourn, and for the living fear;
Greece on the brink of fate all doubtful stands,
And owns no help but from thy saving hands:
Troy and her aids for ready vengeance call;
Their threatening tents already shade our wall:
Hear how with shouts their conquest they proclaim.
And point at every ship their vengeful flame!
For them tlie father of the gods declares.
Theirs are his omens, and his thunder theirs.
See, full of Jove, avenging Hector rise!
See! hea^'en and earth the raging chief defies;
What fury in his breast, what lightning in his eyes!
He waits but for the morn, to sink in flame
The ships, the Greeks, and all the Grecian name.
Heavens! how my country's woes distract ray mind,
Lest Fate accomplish all his rage design'd!
And must we, gods! our heads inglorious lay
In Trojan dust, and this the fatal day?
Eeturn, Achilles: oh return, though late.
To save thy Greeks, and stop the course of Fate;
If in that heart or grief or courage lies.
Rise to redeem; ah, yet to conquer, rise!
The day may come, when, all our warriors slain.
That heart shall melt, that courage rise in vain:
Regard in time, prince divinely brave!
Those wholesome counsels which thy father gave.
When Peleus in his aged arms embraced
His parting son, these accents were his last:
" 'My child! with strength, with glory, and success,
Thy arms may Ju?io and Minerva bless!
Trust that to Heaven; but thou, thy cares engage
To calm thy passions, and subdue thy rage:
From gentler manners let thy glory grow,
THE ILIAD. 237
And shun contention, the sure source of woe;
That young and old may in thy praise combine,
The virtues of humanity be thine '
This now-despised advice thy father gave;
Ah! check thy anger; and be truly brave.
If thou wilt yield to great Atrides' prayers,
(lifts worthy thee his royal hand prepares;
If not — but hear me, while I number o'er
The proflfer'd presents, an exhaustless store.
Ten weighty talents of the purest gold.
And twice ten vases of refulgent mould;
Seven sacred tripods, whose unsullied frame
Yet knows no office, nor has felt the flame;
Twelve steeds unmatch'd in fleetness and in force,
And still victorious in the dusty course
(Rich were the man, whose ample stores exceed
The prizes purchased by their winged speed);
Seven lovely captives of the Lesbian line,
Skill'd in each art, unmatch'd in form divine.
The same he chose for more than vulgar charms,
When Lesbos sank beneath thy conquering arms.
All these, to buy thy friendship shall be paid.
And, join'd with these, the long-contested maid;
AVith all her charms, Briseis he'll resign.
And solemn swear those charms were only thine.
Untouch'd she stay'd, uninjured she removes.
Pure from his arms, and guiltless of his loves.
These instant shall be thine; and if the powers
Give to our arms proud Ilion's hostile towers.
Then shalt thou store (when Greece the spoil divides)
With gold and brass thy loaded Tiavy's sides.
Besides, full twenty nym2)hs of Trojan race
With copious love shall crown thy warm embrace;
Such as thyself shall choose; who yield to none,
Or yield to Helen's heavenly charms alone.
Yet hear me further: when our wars are o'er,
If safe we land on Argos' fruitful sliore,
Tiiere shalt thou live liis son, his honor share,
And with Orestes' self divide his care.
Yet more — three daughters in his court are brei,
And each well worthv of a roval bed;
Laodice and Iphigcnia fair.
And bright Chrysothemis with golden hair:
Iler shalt thou wed whom most thy eyes approve;
lie asks no presents, no reward for love:
238 THE ILIAD.
Himself will give the dower; so vast a store
As never father gave a child before.
Seven amples cities shall confess thy sway,
The Enope and Phera? thee obey,
Cardaniyle with ample turrets crowu'd,
And sacred Pedasus, for vines renown'd:
yEpea fair, the pastures Hira yields.
And rich Antheia with her flowery fields;
The whole extent to Pylos' sandy plain.
Along the verdant margin of the main.
There heifers graze, and laboring oxen toil;
Bold are the men, and generous is the soil.
There shalt thou reign, with power and justice crown'd,
And rule the tributary realms around.
Such are the proffers which this day we bring,
Such the repentance of a suppliant king.
But if all this, relentless, thou disdain,
If honor and if interest plead in vain.
Yet some redress to suppliant Greece afford,
And be, amongst her guardian gods, adored.
If no regard thy suffering country claim.
Hear thy own glory, and the voice of fame:
For now that chief, whose unresisted ire
Made nations tremble, and whole hosts retire,
Proud Hector, now, the unequal fight demands,
And only triumphs to deserve thy hands."
Then thus the goddess-born: "Ulysses, hear
A faithful speech, that knows nor art nor fear;
What in my secret soul is understood,
My tongue shall utter, and my deeds make good.
Let Greece then know, my purpose I retain:
Nor with new treaties vex my peace in vain.
Who dares think one thing, and another tell,
My heart detests him as the gates of hell.
"Then thus in short my fix'd resolves attend,
Which nor Atrides nor his Greeks can bend;
Long toils, long perils, in their cause I bore,
But now the unfruitful glories charm no more.
Fight or not fight, a like reward we claim.
The wretch and hero find their prize the same.
Alike regretted in the dust he lies,
Who yields ignobly, or who bravely dies.
Of all my dangers, all my glorious gains,
A life of labors, lo! what fruit remains?
As the bold bird her helpless young attends,
THE ILIAD. ' 239
From danger guards them, and from want defends-,
In search of prey she wings the spacious air,
And with the untasted food supplies her care;
For thankless Greece such hardships have I braved,
Her wives, her infants, by my labors saved;
Long sleepless nights in heavy arms I stood.
And sweat laborious days in dust and blood.
I sack'd twelve ample cities on the main,*
And twelve lay smoking on the Trojan plain:
Then at Atrides' haughty feet were laid
The wealth I gather'd, and the spoils I made.
Your mighty monarch these in peace possess'd;
Some few my soldiers had, himself the rest.
Some present, too, to every prince was paid;
And every prince enjoys the gift he made:
I only must refund, of all his train;
See what pre-eminence our merits gain!
My spoil alone his greedy soul delights;
My spouse alone must bless his lustful nights:
The woman, let him (as he may) enjoy;
But what's the quarrel, then, of Greece to Troy?
What to these shores the assembled nations draws,
What calls for vengeance but a woman's cause?
Are fair endowments and a beauteous face
Beloved by none but those of Atreus' race?
The wife whom choice and passion doth approve,
Sure every wise and worthy man will love.
Nor did my fair one less distinction claim;
Slave as she was, my soul adored the dame.
Wrong'd in my love, all prolTers I disdain;
Deceived for once, I trust not kings again.
Ye have my answer — what remains to do.
Your king, Ulj'sses, may consult with you.
What needs he the defence tiiis arm can make?
lias he not walls no human force can shake?
Has he not fenced his guarded navy round
With piles, with rainiiarts, and a trench profound?
And will not these (the wonders he has done)
* It must be recollected that the war at Troy was not a settlcMl
siege, and that many of tlie cliicftains busied tliemselves in
piratical expeditions aijoiit its neigbiiorbood. Such a one was
that of wliicli Ardiilics now speaks. I'Voin tlic followiiiff verses,
it is evident tliat tlie fruits of tlicse niaramlings went to the
common supj)ort of the expedition, and not to the succesirful
plunderer.
240 i'SE ILIAD.
Repel the rage of Priam's single son?
There was a time ('twas when for Greece I fought)
When Hector's prowess no such wonders wrought;
He kept the verge of Troy, nor dared to wait
Achilles' fury at the Sceean gate;
He tried it once, and scarce was saved by fate.
But now these ancient enmities are o'er;
To-morrow we the favoring gods implore;
Then shall yoii see our parting vessels crown'd,
And hear with oars the Hellespont resound.
The third day hence shall Pthia greet our sails,*
If mighty Neptune send propitious gales;
Pthia to her Achilles shall restore
The wealth he left for this detested shore:
Thither the spoils of this long war shall pass,
The ruddy gold, the steel, and shining brass:
My beauteous captives thither I'll convey,
And all that rests of my unravish'd prey.
One only valued gift your tyrant gave,
And that resumed — the fair Lyrnessian slave.
Then tell him: loud, that all the Greeks may hear,
And learn to scorn the wretch they basely fear
(For arm'd in impudence, mankind he braves,
And meditates new cheats on all his slaves;
Though shameless as he is, to face these eyes
Is what he dares not: if he dares he dies);
Tell, him, all terms, all counnerce I decline,
Nor share his council, nor his battle join;
For once deceiv'd, was his; but twice were mine.
No — let the stupid prince, whom Jove deprives
Of sense and justice, run where frenzy drives:
His gifts are hateful: kings of such a kind
(Stand but as slaves before a noble mind,
Not though he proffer'd all himself possess'd.
And all his rapine could from others wrest:
Not all the golden tides of wealth that crown
The many-peopled Orchomenian town;f
* Pthia, the capital of Achilles' Thessalian domains.
f Orchomenian town. The topography of Orchomenus, in
Boeotia, " situated," as it was, "on the northern bank of the lake
^pais, which receives not only the river Cephisus from the
valleys of Pliocis, but also other rivers from Parnassus and Hel-
icon " ((irote, vol. i. p. 181), was a sufficient reason for its pros-
perity and decay. " As long as the channels of these waters were
diligently watched and kept clear, a large portion of the lake was
in the condition of alluvial land, pre-eminently rich and fertile.
THE ILIAD. 241
Not all proiwl Thebes' nnriyaird walls contain,
The workl's great empress on the Egyptian plain
(Tliat spreads her conquests o'er a thousand states,
Ami pours her heroes throngh a hundred gates,
Two hundred horsemen and two hundred cars
From each wide portal issuing to the wars);*
Though bribes were heap'd on bribes, in nnmber more
Than dust in fields, or sands along the shore;
Should all these offers for my friendship call,
'Tis he that offers, and 1 scorn them all.
Atrides' daughter never shall be led
(An ill-match'd consort) to Achilles' bed;
Like golden Venus though she charm'd the heart,
And vied with Pallas in the works of art;
Some greater Greek let those high iiuptials grace,
I hate alliance with a tyrant's race.
If heaven restore me to my realms with life,
The reverend Peleus shall elect my wife;
Thessalian nymphs there are of form divine,
And kings that sue to mix their blood with mine.
Bless'd in kind love, my years shall glide away,
Content with jnst hereditary sway;
There, deaf forever to the niartial strife,
Enjoy the dear prerogative of life.
Life is not to be bought with heaps of gold.
Not all Apollo's Pythian treasures hold,
Or Troy once held, in peace and pride of sway.
Can bribe the poor possession of a day!
Lost herds and treasures we by arms regain.
And steeds unrivall'd on the dusty plain:
But from our lips the vital spirit fled.
Returns no more to Avake the silent dead.
My fates long since by Thetis were disclosed,
And each alternate, life or fame, proposed;
Here, if I say, before the Trojan town.
Short is my date, but deathless my renown:
If 1 return, I quit immortal praise
For years on years, and long-extended days.
But when the channels came to he either nejjlected, or designedly
choked up by an enemy, the water accumulated in such a degree
as tf> (tcciipy the soil fd' more than one ancient islet, and to occasion
the change of the site of Orchomi-iiUH itself Iruni the plain to the
declivity of Mf)nnt llvphanteion." (Jhid.)_
* The phrase "hundred gates," etc., seems to be merely ex-
pressive of a great number. See notes to mv prose translation,
p. 162.
242 THE ILIAD.
Couviuced, though late, I find my fond mistake,
And warn the Greeks the wiser choice to make;
To quit these shores, their native seats enjo}',
Nor hope the fall of heaven-defended Troy.
Jove's arm display'd asserts her from the skies!
Her hearts are strengthen'd, and her glories rise.
Go then to Greece, report our fix'd design;
Bid all your counsels, all your armies join;
Let all your forces, all your arts conspire,
To save the ships, the troops, the chiefs, from fire.
One stratagem has fail'd, and others will:
Ye find, Achilles is uncouquered still.
Go then — digest my message as ye ma}'' —
But here this night let reverend Phoenix stay:
His tedious toils and hoary hairs demand
A peaceful death in Pthia's friendly land.
But whether he remain or sail with me,
His age be sacred, and his will be free."
The son of Peleus ceased: the chiefs around
In silence wrapt, in consternation drown'd,
Attend the stern rejily. Then Phcenix rose
(Down his white beard a stream of sorrow flows);
And while the fate of suffering Greece he mouru'd,
With accent weak these tender words returu'd.
•'Divine AchillesI wilt thou then retire.
And leave our hosts in blood, our fleets on fire?
If wrath so dreadful fill thy ruthless mind,
How shall thy friend, thy Phoenix, stay behind?
The royal Peleus, when from Pthia's coast
He sent thee early to the Achaian host;
Thy youth as then in sage debates unskill'd,
And new to perils of the direful field:
He bade me teach thee all ways of war,
To shine in councils, and in camps to dare.
Never, ah, never let me leave thy side!
No time shall part us, and no fate divide,
Not though the god, that breathed my life, restore
The bloom I boasted, and the port I bore,
When Greece of old beheld my youthful flames
(Delightful Greece, the laud of lovely dames),
My father faithless to my mother's arms.
Old as he was, adored a stranger's charms.
I tried what youth could do (at her desire)
To win the damsel, and prevent my sire.
My sire with curses loads my hated head,
TEE ILIAD. 243
And cries, 'Ye furies! barren be his bed.'
Infernal Jove, the vengeful fiends below,
And ruthless Proserpine, confirm'd his vow.
Despair and grief distract my laboring mind!
Godsl what a crime my impious heart design'd!
I thought (but some kind god that thought suppress'd)
To plunge the poinard in my father's breast;
Then meditate my flight: my friends in vain
With prayers entreat me, and with force detain.
On fat of rams, black bulls, and brawny swine,
They daily feast, with draughts of fragrant wine;
Strong guards they placed, and watch'd nine nights
entire,
The roofs and porches flamed with constant fire.
The tenth, I forced the gates, unseen of all:
And favor'd by the night, o'erleap'd the wall.
My travels thence through spacious Greece extend;
In Phthia's court at last my labors end.
Your sire received me, as his son caress'd,
With gifts enrich'd, and with possessions bless'd.
The strong Dolopians thenceforth own'd my reign,
And all the coast that runs along the main.
By love to thee his bounties I repaid,
And early wisdom to thy soul convey'd :
Great as thou art, my lessons made thee brave:
A child I took thee, but a hero gave.
Thy infant breast a like affection show'd;
Still in my arms (an ever-pleasing load)
Or at my knee, by Phoenix would'st thou stand;
No food was grateful but from Phoenix's hand.*
I pass my watchings o'er thy helpless years,
The tender labors, the compliant cares;
* Compare the following pretty lines of Quintus Calaber (Dyce's
Select Translations, p. 88):
" Many gifts he gave, and o'er
Dolopia bade me rule: thee in his arms
He brouglit an infant, on my bosom laid
The precious cliarg<!, and anxiously enjoin'd
That I should rear tlit^e as my own with all
A parent's love. I fail'd not in my trust;
And oft, while roun<l my neck thy hands were lock'd,
From thy sweet lips the half-articulate sound
Of Father came; and oft, as child rt^n use.
Mewling and i)ul<ing didst thou drench my tunic."
"This description," observes my learned friend (notes, p. 121),
" is taken f^om the passage of Homer, II. ix., in translating which,
Pope, with that .squeamish, artificial taste, which distinguished
244 THE ILIAD.
The gods (I thought) reversed their hard decree,
And Phoenix felt a father's joys in thee:
Thy growing virtues justified my cares,
And promised comfort to my silver hairs.
Now be thy rage, thy fatal. rage, resign'd;
A cruel heart ill suits a manly mind:
The gods (the only great, and only wise)
Are moved by offerings, vows, and sacrifice;
Offending man their high compassion wins,
And daily prayers atone for daily sins.
Prayers are Jove's daughters, of celestial race,
Lame are their teet, and wrinkled is their face;
With humble mien, and with dejected eyes,
Constant they follow, where injustice flies:
Injustice swift, erect, and unconfined.
Sweeps the wide earth, and tramples o'er mankiiid,
While Prayers, to heal her wrongs move slow behind,
Who hears these daughters of almighty Jove,
For him they mediate to the throne above:
When man rejects the humble suit they make,
The sire revenges for the daughter's sake;
From Jove commission'd, fierce injustice then
Descends to punish unrelenting men.
let not headlong passion bear the sway
These reconciling goddesses obey:
Due honors to the seed of Jove belong,
Due honors calm the fierce, and bend the strong.
Were these not paid thee by the terms we bring,
Were rage still harbor'd in the haughty king;
Nor Greece nor all her fortunes should engage
Thy friend to plead against so just a rage.
But since what honor asks the general sends,
And sends by those whom thy heart commands,
The best and noblest of the Grecian train;
Permit not these to sue, and sue in vain!
Let me (my son) an ancient fact unfold,
A great example drawn from times of old;
Hear what our fathers were, and what their praise,
the age of Anne, omits the natural (and, let me add, affecting,
circumstance."
" And the wine
Held to thy lips; and many a time in fits
Of infant frowardness, the ])urj)le juice
Rejecting, thou hast deluged all my vest
And fill'd my bosom." — Cow per.
THE ILIAD. 245
Who conqner'd their revenge in former days.
"Where Calydon on rocky mountains stands*
Once fought the ^Etolian and Curetian bands;
To guard it those; to conquer, these advance;
And mutual deaths were dealt with mutual chance.
The silver Cynthia bade contention rise,
In vengeance of neglected sacrifice;
On CEneus fields she sent a monstrous boar.
That levell'd harvests, and whole forests tore:
This beast (when many a chief his tusks had slain)
Great ]\releager stretch 'd along the plain,
Then, for his spoils, a new debate arose,
The neighbor nations thence commencing foes.
Strong as they were, the bold Curetes fail'd,
While Meleager's thundering arm prevail'd :
Till rage at length inflamed his lofty breast
(For rage invades the wisest and the best).
"Cursed by Althjea, to his wrath he yields,
And in his wife's embrace forgets the fields.
(She from Marpessa sprung, divinely fair,
And matchless Idas, more than man in war:
The god of day adored the mother's charms;
Against the god the father bent his arms:
The afflicted pair, their sorrows to proclaim,
From Cleopatra changed their daughter's name,
And call'd Alcyone; a name to show
The father's grief, the mourning mother's woe.)
To her the chief retired from stern debate.
But found no peace from fierce Althaea's hate:
Athiea's hate the unhappy wan-ior drew.
Whose luckless hand his royal uncle slew;
She beat the ground, and call'd the powers beneath
On her own son to wreak her brother's death;
llell lieard her curses from the realms profound,
And the red fiends that walk the nightly round.
In vain ^tolia her deliverer waits,
AV^ir sliakos her walls, and tiiunders at her gates.
She sent ambassadors, a chosen band,
Priests of the gods, and elders of the land;
Hesought the ciiief to save the sinking state:
Their prayers were urgent, and their prolTers great
(Full lifty acres of the richest ground,
* Where ( 'ahfdon. For a pood Bketcli of the aiory of Meleaf,'er,
too loiif^ til Ik- iiisfrt«'(l licre, st-i; (ii'olc, vol. i. ]>. 19'), wjii.; aiul
for the autboritifs, Kue u\y notes to the prose truuslatiou, p. ICO.
246 THE ILIAD.
Half pasture green, and half with vineyards crown'd);
His suppliant fatlier, aged CRneus, came;
His sisters follow'd; even the vengeful dame,
Althtea, sues; his friends hefore him fall:
He stands relentless, and rejects them all.
Meanwhile the victor's shouts ascend the skies;
The walls are scaled; the rolling flames arise;
At length his wife (a form divine) appears.
With piercing cries, and supplicating tears;
She paints the horrors of a conquer'd town,
The heroes slain, the palaces o'erthrown,
The matrons ravish'd, the whole race enslaved;
The warrior heard, he vanquish'd, and he saved.
The ^tolians, long disdain'd, now took their turn,
And left the chief their broken faith to mourn.
Learn hence, betimes to curb pernicious ire,
Nor stay till yonder fleets ascend in fire;
Accept the presents; draw thy conquering sword;
And be amongst our guardian gods adored."
Thus he: the stern Achilles thus replied:
*'My second father, and my reverend guide:
Thy friend, believe me, no such gifts demands,
And asks no honors from a mortal's hands;
Jove honors me, and favors my designs;
His pleasure guides me, and his will confines;
And here I stay (if such his high behest)
While life's warm spirit beats within my breast.
Yet hear one word, and lodge it in thy heart:
No more molest me on Atrides' part:
Is it for him these tears are taught to flow,
For him these sorrows? for my mortal foe?
A generous friendship no cold medium knows,
Burns with one love, with one resentment glows;
One should our interests and our passions be;
My friend must hate the man that injures me.
Do this, my Phcenix, 'tis a generous part;
And share my realms, my honors, and my heart.
Let these return: our voyage, or our stay,
Eest undetermined till the dawning day."
He ceased; then order'd for the sage's bed
A warmer couch with numerous carpets spread
With that, stern Ajax his long silence broke,
And thus, impatient, to Ulysses spoke:
"Hence let us go— why waste we time in vain?
See what effect our low submissions gain!
THE ILIAI). 247
Liked or not liked, his words we must relate,
The Greeks expect them, and our heroes wait.
Proud as he is, that iron heart retains
Its stubborn purpose, and his friends disdains.
Stern and un pi tying! if a brother bleed.
On just atonement, we remit the deed;
A sire the slaughter of his son forgives;
The price of blood dischaiged, the murderer lives:
The haughtiest hearts at length their rage resign,
And gifts can conquer every soul but thine.*
The gods that unrelenting breast have steel'd.
And cursed thee with a mind that cannot yield.
One woman-slave was ravish'd from thy arms:
Lo, seven are offer'd, and of equal charms.
Then hear, Achilles! be of better mind;
Revere thy roof, and to thy guests be kind;
And know the men of all the Grecian host,
AVho honor worth, and prize thy valor most."
"0 soul of battles, and thy people's guide!
(To Ajax thus the first of Greeks replied)
Well hast thou spoke; but at the tyrant's name
My rage rekindles, and my soul's on flame:
'Tis just resentment, and becomes the brave:
Disgraced, dishonor'd, like the vilest slave!
Return, then, heroes! and our answer bear,
The glorious combat is no more my care;
Not till, amidst yon sinking navy slain,
The blood of Greeks shall dye the sable main;
Not till the tlames, by Hector's fury thrown.
Consume your vessels, and approach my own;
Just there, tiie impetuous homicide shall stand,
There cease his battle, and there feel our hand."
This said, each prince a douljle goblet crown'd.
And cast a large libation on the ground;
Then to their vessels, through the gloomy shades.
The chiefs return; divine Ulysses leads.
Meantime Achilles' slaves prepared a bed.
With fleeces, carpets, and soft linen spread :
* O if tH can conquer. It is well observed by Bishop Thiilwall,
" (ireece," vol. i. p. 180, that " the law of honor aiiionfr the
(iri'ck.s (lid nf)t coiiipfl tiiein to treasure up in tlicir memory the
ofTensivc lanf;i;a;^e wliicii mi^ht In; addressed to them by a jms-
sionate adversary, nnr to roiiceive tliat it left a stain wliicli couhl
f)nly be washed away by ldr)od. Even for rr'al and deep injuries
they were commonly willing to accept a pecuniary coniiiensniion."
248 THE ILIAD.
There, till the sacred morn restorer! the day,
lu slumber sweet the reverend Phoenix lay.
But in his inner tent, an ampler space,
Achilles slept; and in his warm embrace
Fair Diomede of the Lesbian race.
Last, for Patroclus was the couch prepared.
Whose nightly joys the beauteous Iphis shared;
Achilles to his friend consign'd her charms
When Scyros fell before his conquering arms.
And now the elected chiefs whom G-reece had sent,
Pass'd through the hosts, and reach'd the royal tent,
Then rising all, with goblets in their hands,
The peers and leaders of the Achaian bands
Hailed their return: Atrides first begun:
"Say what success? divine Laertes' son!
Achilles' high resolves declare to all:
Keturns the chief, or must our navy fall?"
"Great king of nations! (Ithacus replied)
Fix'd is his wrath, uuconquer'd is his pride;
He slights thy friendship, thy proposals scorns,
And, thus implored, with fiercer fury burns.
To save our army, and our fleets to free.
Is not his care; but left to Greece and thee.
Your eyes shall view, when morning paints the sky,
Beneath his oars the whitening billows fly;
Us too he bids our oars and sails employ.
Nor hope the fall of heaven-protected Troy;
For Jove o'ershades her with his arm divine,
Inspires her war, and bids her glory shine.
Such was his word: what further he declared,
These sacred heralds and great Ajax heard.
But Phoenix in his tent the chief retains,
Safe to transport him to his native plains
When morning dawns; if other he decree,
His age is sacred, and his choice is free."
Ulysses ceased : the great Achaian host,
With sorrow seized, in consternation lost,
Attend the stern reply. Tydides broke
The general silence, and undaunted spoke.
"Why should we gifts to proud Achilles send
Or strive with prayers his haughty soul to bend?
His country's woes he glories to deride.
And prayers will burst that swelling heart with jDride.
Be the fierce impulse of his rage obey'd,
Our battles let him or desert or aid;
THE ILIAD. 249
Then let him arm when Jove or he think fit:
That, to his madness, or to Heaven commit:
What for ourselves we can, is always ours;
This night, let due repast refresh our powers
(For strength consists in spirits and in blood,
And those are owed to generous wine and food);
But when the rosy messenger of day
Strikes the blue mountains with her golden ray,
Hanged at the ships, let all our squadrons shine
In flaming arms, a long extended line:
In the dread front let great Atrides stand.
The first in danger, as in high command."
Shouts of acclaim the listening heroes raise,
Then each to Heaven the due libations joays;
Till sleep, descending o'er the tents, bestows
The grateful blessings of desired repose.*
* " The boon of sleep. "--Milton.
250 THE ILIAD.
BOOK X.
ARGUMENT.
THE NIGHT-ADVEKTURE OF DIOMED AKD ULYSSES.
Upon the refusal of Acliilles to return to the army, the distress of
Agamemnon is described in the most lively manner. He
takes no rest that night, but passes through the camp, awak-
ing the leaders, and contriving all possible methods for the
public safety. Menelaiis, Nestor, Ulysses, and Diomed are
employed in raising the rest of the captains. They call a
council of war, and determine to send scouts into the enemies'
camp, to learn their posture and discover their intentions.
Diomed undertakes this hazardous enterprise, and makes
choice of Ulysses for his companion. In their passage they
. surprise Dolon, whom Hector had sent on a like design to
the camp of the Grecians. From him they are informed of
the situation of the Trojan and auxiliary forces; and particu-
larly of Rhesus, and the Thracians who were lately arrived.
They pass on with success; kill Rhesus, with several of his
oiBcers, and seize the famous horses of that prince, with which
they return in triumph to the camp.
The same night continues; the scene lies in the two camps
All night the chiefs before their vessels lay,
And lost in sleep the hibors of the day:
All but the king: with various thoughts oppress'd,*
His country's cares lay rolling in his breast.
As wben by lightnings Jove's ethereal power
Foretells the rattling hail, or weighty shower,
Or sends soft snows to whiten all the shore.
Or bids the brazen throat of war to roar;
By fits one flash succeeds as one expires.
And heaven flames thick with momentary fires:
So bursting frequent from Atrides' breast,
Sighs following sighs his inward fears confess'd.
Now o'er the fields, dejected, he surveys
* " All else of nature's common gift partake:
Unhappy Pido was alone awake."
— Dryden's Virgil, iv. 767.
THE ILIAD. 251
From thousand Trojan fires the mounting blaze;
Hears in the passing wind their music blow,
And marks distinct the voices of tlie foe.
Now looking backwards to the fleet and coast,
Anxious he sorrows for the endanger'd host.
He rends his hair, in sacrifice to Jove,
And sues to him tliat ever lives above:
Inly he groans; while glory and despair
Divide his heart, and wage a double war.
A thousand cares his laboring breast revolves;
'I'o seek sage Nestor now the chief resolves.
With him, in wholesome counsels, to debate
What yet remains to save the afflicted state.
He rose, and first he cast his mantle round,
Next on his feet the shining sandals bound;
A lion's yellow spoils his back conceal'd;
His warlike hand a pointed javelin held.
Meanwhile iiis brother, pressed with equal woes,
Alike denied the gifts of soft repose
Laments for Greece, that in his cause before
So much had suffer'd and must suffer more.
A leopard's spotted hide his shoulders spread;
A brazen helmet glitter'd on his head:
Thus (witli a javelin in his hand) he went
To wake Atrides in the royal tent.
Already waked, Atrides he descried.
His armor buckling at his vessel's side.
Joyful they met; the Spartan thus begun:
"Why puts my brother his bright armor on?
Sends he some spy, amidst these silent hours.
To try yon camp, and watch the Trojan })owers?
liut say what liuro shall sustain that task?
Such bold exploits uncommon courage ask;
Guideless, alone, through night's dark shade to go,
And midst a hostile ciimp explore the foe."
To whom the king: "In such distress we stand,
No vulgar counsel our affairs demand;
Greece to preserve, is now no easy part,
l'>ut asks high wisdom, tleeji design, and art.
Fur Jove, averse, our iiumble prayer denies,
And bows his head to Hector's sacrifice.
What eye has witness'd, or what ear believed.
In one groat day, by one great arm achieved,
Such wondrous deeds as Hector's hand has done,
And we beheld, the last revolving suu?
^52 THE ILIAD.
What honors the beloved of Jove adorn!
Sprang from no god, and of no goddess born;
Yet such his acts, as Greeks unborn shall tell,
And curse the battle where tiieir fathers fell.
"Now speed thy hasty course along the fleet,
There call great Ajax, and the jn'ince of Crete;
Ourself to hoary Nestor will rei^air;
To keep the guards on duty be his care
(For Nestor's influence best that quarter guides,
Whose son with Merion, o'er the watch presides)."
To whom the Spartan: "These thy orders borne,
Say, shall I stay, or with despatch return?"
"There shalt thou stay (the king of men replied),
Else may we miss to met, without a guide.
The paths so many, and the camp so wide.
Still, with your voice the slothful soldiers raise,
Urge by their fathers' fame their future praise.
Forget we now our state and lofty birth;
Not titles here, but works, must prove our worth.
To labor is the lot of man below;
And when Jove gave us life, he gave us woe."
This said, each parted to his several cares:
The king to Nestor's sable ship repairs;
The sage protector of the Greeks he found
Stretch'd in his bed with all his arms around;
The various-color'd scarf, the shield he rears,
The shining helmet, and the pointed spears;
The dreadful weapons of the warrior's rage,
That, old in arms, disdain'd the peace of age.
Then, leaning on his hand his watchful head,
The hoary monarch raised his eyes and said :
"What art thou, speak, that on designs unknown,
While others sleep, thus range the camp alone;
Seek'st thou some friend or nightly sentinel?
Stand off, approach not, but thy purpose tell."
"0 son of Neleus (thus the king rejoin'd),
Pride of the Greeks, and glory of thy kind!
Lo, here the wretched Agamemnon stands.
The unhappy general of the Grecian bands.
Whom Jove decrees with daily cares to bend.
And woes, that only with his life shall end!
Scarce can my knees those trembling limbs sustain,
And scarce my heart support its load of jJain.
No taste of sleep these heavy eyes have known,
Confused, and sad, I wander thus alone,
THE ILIAD. 253
With fears distracted, with uo fix'd design;
And all my people's miseries are mine.
If aught of use thy waking thoughts suggest
(Since cares, like mine, deprive thy soul of rest),
Impart thy counsel, and assist thy friend;
Now let us jointly to the trench descend,
At every gate the fainting guard excite,
Tired with the toils of day and watch of night;
Else may the sudden foe our works invade.
So near, and favor'd by the gloomy shade."
To him thus Nestor; "Trust the powers above.
Nor think proud Hector's hopes confirm'd by Jove:
How ill agree the views of vain mankind,
And the wise counsels of the eternal mind!
Audacious Hector, if the gods ordain
That great Achilles rise and rage again,
What toils attend thee, and wliat woes remain!
Lo, faithful Nestor thy command obeys;
The care is next our other chiefs to raise:
Ulysses, Diomed, we chiefly need;
Meges for strength, Oileus famed for speed.
Some other be dispatch 'd of nimbler feet,
To those tall ships, remotest of the fleet.
Where lie great Ajax and tne king of Crete.*
To rouse the Spartan I myself decree;
Dear as he is to us, and dear to thee,
Yet must I tax his sloth, that claims no share
With his great brother in his martial care:
Him it behoved to every chief to sue,
Preventing every- part perform'd by yon;
For strong necessity our toils demands.
Claims all our hearts, and urges all our hands."
To wiiom the king: "With reverence we allow
Thy just relnikes, yet learn to spare them now:
My generous brother is of gentle kind.
He seems remiss, but bears a valiant mind;
Througli too much deference to our sovereign sway,
Content to foHow wlicn we lead the way:
But now, our ills industrious to prevent,
Long ero the rest he rose, and sought my tent.
The cliiefs you named, already at his call.
Prepare to meet us near tlic navy-waii;
Assembling there, between the trench and gates,
Near the night-guards, our chosen council waits."
?%e king of Crete : Idomeneus.
254 THE ILIAD.
"Then none (sai-d Nestor) shall his rule withstand,
For great examples justify command."
With that, the venerable warrior rose;
The shining greaves his manly legs enclose;
His purple mantle golden buckles join'd,
Warm with the softest wool, and doubly lined.
Then rushing from his tent, he snatch'd in haste
His steely lance, that lighten'd as he pass'd.
The camp he traversed through the sleeping crowd,
Stopp'd at Ulysses' tent, an"d call'd aloud.
Ulysses, sudden as the voice was sent.
Awakes, starts up, and issues from his tent.
"What new distress, what sudden cause of fright.
Thus leads you wandering in the silent night?"
"0 prudent chief! (the Pylian sage replied)
Wise as thou art, be now thy wisdom tried:
Whatever means of safety can be sought,
Whatever counsels can inspire our thought,
Whatever methods, or to fly or fight;
All, all depend on this important night!"
He heard, return'd, and took his painted shield;
Then join'd the chiefs, and follow'd through the field.
Without his tent, bold Diomed they found,
All sheathed in arms, his brave companions round:
Each sunk in sleep, extended on the field,
His head reclining on his bossy shield.
A wood of spears stood by, that, fix'd upright.
Shot from their flashing points a quivering light.
A bull's black hide composed the hero's bed;
A splendid carpet roll'd beneath his head.
Then, with his foot, old Nestor gently shakes
The slumbering chief, and in these words awakes:
"Else, son of Tydeus! to the brave and strong
Eest seems inglorious, and the night too long.
But sleep'st thou now, when from yon hill the foe
Hangs o'er the fleet, and shades our walls below?"
At this, soft slumber from his eyelids fled;
The warrior saw the hoary chief, and said:
"Wondrous old man! whose soul no respite knows
Though years and honors bid thee seek repose.
Let younger Greeks our sleeping warriors wake;
111 fits thy age these toils to undertake."
"My friend (he answered), generous is thy care;
These toils, my subjects and my sons might bear;
Their loyal thoughts and pious love conspire
THE ILIAD. 255
To ease a sovereign and relieve a sire :
But now the last despair surrounds onr host;
No hour must pass, no moment must be lost;
Eaeh single Greek, in this conclusive strife,
Stands on the sharpest edge of death or life:
Yet, if my 3'ears thy kind regard engage,
Employ thy youth as I employ my age:
Succeed to these my cares, and rouse the rest;
He serves me most, who serves his country best."
This said, the hero o'er his shoulders flung
A lion''s spoils, that to his ankles hung;
Then seized his ponderous lance, and strode along,
Meges the bold, with Ajax famed for speed.
The warrior roused, and to the entrenchments lead.
And now the chiefs approach the nightly guard;
A wakeful squadron, each in arms prepared:
The unwearied watch their listening leaders keep,
And, couching close, repel invading sleep.
So faithful dogs their Heecy charge maintain,
With toil protected from the prowling train;
AVhen the gaunt lioness, with hunger bold,
Springs from the mountains toward the guarded fold:
Through breaking Avoods her rustling course they hear;
Loud, and more loud, the clamors strike their ear
Of hounds and men; they start, they gaze around,
Watch every side, and turn to every sound.
Thus watcli'd the Grecians, cautious of surprise,
Each voice, each motion, drew their ears and eyes:
Each step of passing feet increased the affright;
And hostile Troy was ever full in sight.
Nestor with joy the wakeful band survey'd.
And thus accosted tiirough the gloomy shade,
" 'Tis well, my sons! your nightly cares employ;
Else must our host become the scorn of Troy.
Watch thus, and Greece shall live," The hero said;
Then o'er the trench the following chieftains led.
His son, and godlike Merion, march'd behind
{Vov these the princes to their council join'd).
The trenches pass'd, the assembled kijigs around
In silent state the consistory crown'd.
A place there was, yet undefilod with gore.
The spot where Hector stopp'd his rage before;
When night descending, from his vengeful hand
Reprieved the relics of the Grecian l)and
(The plain beside with mangled corps was spread,
356 THE ILIAD.
And all his progress mark'd by heaps of dead):
There sat the monrnful king: when Neiens' son,
The council opening, in these words begun:
''Is there (said he) a chief so greatly brave
His life to hazard, and his country save?
Lives there a man, who singly dares to go
To yonder camp, or seize some straggling foe?
Or favor'd by the night approach so near.
Their speech, their counsels, and designs to hear?
If to besiege our navies they prepare,
Or Troy once more must be the seat of war?
This could he learn, and to our peers recite.
And pass unharnrd the dangers of the night;
What fame were his through all succeeding days,
While Phoebus shines, or men have tongues to praise!
What gifts his grateful country would bestow!
What must not Greece to her deliverer owe?
A sable ewe each leader should provide,
With each a sable lambkin by her side;
At every rite his share should be increased,
And his the foremost honors of the feast."
Fear held them mute: alone, untaught to fear,
Tydides spoke— "The man you seek is here.
Through yon black camps to bend my dangerous way,
Some god within commands, and I obey..
But let some other chosen warrior join.
To raise my hopes and second my design.
By mutuarconfidence and mutual aid.
Great deeds are done, and great discoveriesmade;
The wise new prudence from the wise acquire,
And one brave hero fans another's fire."
Contending leaders at the word arose;
Each generous breast with emulation glows;
So brave a task each Ajax strove to share,
Bold Merion strove, and Nestor's valiant heir;
The Spartan wish'd the second place to gaiii.
And great Ulysses wish'd, nor wish'd in vain.
Then thus the king of men the contest ends:
"Thou first of warriors, and thou best of friends.
Undaunted Diomed ! what chief to join
In this great enterprise, is only thine.
Just be thy choice, without affection made;
To birth, or office, no respect be paid;
Let worth determine here." The monarch spake,
And inly trembled for his brother's sake.
THE ILIAD. 357
"Then thus (the godlike Diomed rejoin'd)
M}' choice decLires tiie impulse of my mind.
How can I doubt, while great Ulysses stands
To lend his counsels and assist our hands?
A chief, whose safety is ^Minerva's care;
So famed, so dreadful, in the works of war:
Bless'd in his conduct, I no aid require;
Wisdom like his might pass through flames of fire."
"It fits thee not, before these chiefs of fame
(Replied the sage), to praise me, or to blame:
Praise from a friend, or censure from a foe,
Are lost on hearers that our merits know.
But let us haste — Night rolls the hours away,
The reddening orient shows the coming day.
The stars shine fainter on the ethereal plains,
And of night's empire but a third remains,"
Thus having spoke, with generous ardor press'd.
In arms terrific their huge limbs they dress'd.
A two-edged falchion Thrasymed the brave,
And ample buckler, to Tydides gave:
Then in a leathern helm he cased his head.
Short of its crest, and with no plume o'erspread
(Such as by youths unused to arms are worn):
No spoils enrich it, and no studs adorn.
Next him Ulysses took a shining sword,
A bow and quiver, with ])right arrows stored:
A well-proved casque, with leather braces bound
(Thy gift, ^leriones), his temples crown'd;
Soft wool within; without, in order spread,*
A boar's white teeth grinn'd horrid o'er his head.
This from Amyntor, ricii Ormenus' son,
Autolycus by fraudful rapine won,
And gave Amphidamas; from iiim the i)rize
Molus received, the jdedge of scjcial ties;
The helmet next by Merion was possess'd,
And now Ulysses' thouglitful temjilos press'd.
Thus sheathed in arms, the council they forsake,
And dark tlirough i)aths oljlique their progress take.
Just then, in sign she favor'd their intent,
A long-wiiig'd heron gi'cat Minerva sent:
This, though surrounding shades obscured their view.
By the shrill clang and wliistling v/iiigs they knew.
* yoft wool mthin, i. e. a kind of woollen stuffing, pressed in
between the straps to protect the bead, and make tbe belmet (it
close.
258 THE ILIAD.
As from the right she soar'd, Ulysses pray'd,
Hail'd the glad omen, and address'd the maid:
"0 daughter of that god whose arm can wield
The avenging bolt, and shake the dreadful shield!
thou! forever present in my way,
"Who all my motions, all my toils survey!
Safe may we pass beneath the gloomy shade,
Safe by thy succor to our ships convey'd.
And let some deed this signal night adorn,
To claim the tears of Trojans yet unborn."
Then godlike Diomed preferr'd his prayer:
"Daughter of Jove, uuconquerM Pallas! hear.
Great queen of arms, whose favor Tydeus won,
As thou defend 'st the sire, defend the son.
When on yEsopus' hanks the banded powers
Of Greece he left, and sought the Thebau towers,
Peace was his charge; received with peaceful show,
He went a legate, but return'd a foe:
Then helped by thee, and cover'd by thy shield.
He fought with numbers, and made numbers yield.
So now be present, celestial maid!
So still continue to the race thine aid!
A youthful steer shall fall beneath the stroke,
Untamed, unconscious of the galling yoke.
With ample forehead, and with spreading horns.
Whose taper tops refulgent gold adorns."
The heroes pray'd, and Pallas from the skies
Accords their vow, succeeds their enterprise.
Now, like two lions panting for the prey.
With dreadful thoughts they trace the dreary way,
Through the black horrors of the ensanguined plain.
Through dust, through blood, o'er arms, and hills of
slain.
Nor less bold Hector, and the sons of Troy,
On high designs the wakeful hours employ;
The assembled peers their lofty chief enclosed;
Who thus the counsels of his breast proposed;
"What glorious man, for high attempts prepared.
Dares greatly venture for a rich reward?
Of yonder fleet a bold discovery make.
What watch they keep, and what resolves they take?
If now subdued they meditate their flight,
And, spent with toil, neglect the watch of night?
His be the chariot that shall please him most.
Of all the plunder of the vanquish'd host;
THE ILIAD. 2o9
His the fair steeds that all the rest excel,
And his the glory to have served so well."
A youth there was among the tribes of Troy,
Dolon his name, Eumedes* only boy,
(Five girls beside the reverend herald told.)
Rich was the sou In brass, and rich in gold;
Not bless'd by nature with the charms of face,
But swift of foot, and matchless in the race.
"Hector! (he said) my courage bids me meet
This high achievement, and explore the fleet;
But first exalt thy sceptre to the skies.
And swear to grant me the demanded prize;
The immortal coursers, and the glittering car,
That bears Pelides through the ranks of war.
Encouraged thus, no idle scout I go.
Fulfill thy wish, their whole intention know.
Even to the royal tent pursue my way,
And all their counsels, all their aims betray."
The chief then heaved the golden sceptre high,
Attesting thus the monarch of the sky:
'•'Be witness thou! immortal lord of all!
Whose thunder shakes the dark aerial hall:
By none but Dolon shall this prize be borne,
And him alone the immortal steeds adorn."
Thus Hector swore: the gods were call'd in vain.
But the rash youth prepares to scour the plain:
Across his back the bended bow he flung,
A wolf's gray hide around his shoulders hung,
A ferret's downy fur his helmet lined,
And in his hand a polntdl javelin shined.
Then (never to return) he sought the shore,
And trod the path his feet must tread no more.
Scarce had he pass'd the steeds and Trojan throng
(Still bending forward as he coursed along),
Wlien, on the hollow way, the approaching tread
Ulysses mark'd, and thus to Diomed:
"0 friend ! I hear some step of hostile feet.
Moving this way, or hastening to the fleet;
Some spy, perhaps, to lurk beside the main;
Or nightly pillager that strips the slain.
Yet let him pass, and win a little space;
Then rush behind him, and prevent his pace.
Bat if too swift of foot he flics before,
Confine his course along the fleet and shore.
Betwixt the camp and him our spoars employ,
260 THE ILIAD.
And intercept his hoped return to Troy."
With that they stepp'd aside, and stoop'd their head
(As Dolon pass'd), behind a heap of dead;
Along the path the spy unwary flew;
Soft, at just distance, both the chiefs pursue.
So distant they, and such the space between,
As when two teams of mules divide the green
(To whom the hind like shares of land allows).
When now wqw furrows part the approaching ploughs.
Now Dolon, listening, heard them as they pass'd;
Hector (he thought) had sent, and check'd his haste,
Till scarce at distance of a Javelin's throw,
No voice succeeding, he perceived the foe.
As when two skillful hounds, the leveret wind;
Or chase through woods obscure the trembling hind;
Now lost, now seen, they intercept his way.
And from the herd still turn the flying prey:
So fast, and with such fears, the Trojan flew;
So close, so constant, the bold Greeks pursue.
Now almost on the fleet the dastard falls,
And mingles with the guards that watch the walls;
When brave Tydides stopp'd; a gen'rous thought
(Inspired by Pallas) in his bosom wrought.
Lest on the foe some forward Greek advance,
And snatch the glory from his lifted lance.
Then thus aloud: "Whoe'er thou art, remain;
This javelin else shall fix thee to the plain."
He said, and high in air the weapon cast,
Which willful err'd, and o'er his shoulder pass'd;
Then fix'd in earth. Against the trembling wood
The wretch stood propp'd, and quiver'd as he stood;
A sudden palsy seized his turning head;
His loose teeth chatter'd, and his color fled;
The panting warriors seize him as he stands,
And with unmanly tears his life demands.
"0 spare my youth, and for the breath I owe,
Large gifts of price my father shall bestow:
Vast heaps of brass shall in your ships be told,
And steel well-temper'd and refulgent gold."
To whom Ulysses made this wise reply :
"Whoe'er thou art, be bold, nor fear to'die.
What moves thee, say, when sleep has closed the sight.
To roam the silent fields in dead of night?
Cam'st thou the secrets of our camp to find,
By Hector prompted, or thy daring mind?
THE ILIAD. 261
Or art some wretch by hopes of plunder led,
Through heaps of carnage, to despoil the dead?"
Then thus pale Dolon, with a fearful look
(Still, as he spoke, his limbs with horror shook):
"Hither I came, by Hector's words deceived;
Much did he promise, rashly I believed:
Ko less a bribe than great Achilles' car,
And those swift steeds that sweep the ranks of war,
Urged me, unwilling, this attempt to make;
To learn what counsels, what resolves you take:
If now subdued, you fix your hopes on flight.
And, tired with toils, neglect the watch of night."
"Bold was thy aim and glorious was the prize
(Ulysses, with a scornful smile, replies),
Far other rulers those proud steeds demand,
And scorn the guidance of a vulgar hand;
Even great Achilles scarce their rage can tame,
Achilles sprung from an immortal dame.
But say, be faithful, and the truth recite!
Where lies encamp'd the Trojan chief to-night?
Where stand his coursers? in what quarter sleep
Their other princes? tell what watch they keep:
Say, since this conquest, what their counsels are;
Or here to combat, from their city far,
Or back to Dion's walls transfer the war?"
Ulysses thus, and thus Eumedes' son:
"What JJolon knows his faithful tongue shall own.
Hector, the peers assembling in his tent,
A council holds at Ilus' monument.
No certain guards the nightly watch partake;
Where'er yon rires ascend, the Trojans wake:
Anxious for Troy, the guard the natives keep;
Safe in tlieir cares, the auxiliar forces sleep,
Whose wives and infants from the danger far.
Discharge their souls of half the fears of war."
Then sleej) those aids among the Trojan train
(lufjuired the chief), or scatter'd o'er the ])Iain?"
To whom the spy: "Their powers they thus dispose:
The Papons, dreadful with their bended bows,
The Carians, Caucons, the Pelasgian host,
And Leleges, encamj) along the coast,
Not distant far, lie higher on tlie hmd
The [jyciaii, Mysian, and .Xrirouian liand,
And I'hrygia'ri horse, by Thynibras' ancient wall,-
Tiio Thracians utmost, and apart from all.
262 THE ILIAD.
These Troy but lately to her succor won,
Led on by Khesus, great Eioneus' son:
I saw his coursers in jjroucl triumph go,
Swift as the wind, and white as winter-snow;
Eich silver plates his shining car infold;
His solid arms, refulgent, flame with gold;
No mortal shoulders suit the glorious load,
Celestial panoply, to grace a god !
Let me, unhappy, to your fleet be borne.
Or leave me here, a captive's fate to mourn
In cruel chains, till your return reveal
The truth or falsehood of the news I tell.'*
To this Tydides, with a gloomy frown:
"Think not to live, though all the truth be shown:
Shall we dismiss thee, in some future strife
To risk more bravely thy now forfeit life?
Or that again our camps thou may'st explore?
No — once a traitor, thou betray 'st no more."
Sternly he spoke, and as tlie wretch prepared
With humble blandishment to stroke his beard,
Like lightning swift the wrathful falchion flew,
Divides the neck, and cuts the nerves in two;
One instant snatch'd his trembling soul to hell,
The head, yet speaking, mutter'd as it fell.
The furry helmet from liis brow they tear.
The wolf's gray hide, the unbended bow and spear;
These great Ulysses lifting to the skies.
To favoring Pallas dedicates the prize:
"Great queen of arms, receive this hostile spoil,
And let the Thracian steeds reward our toil!
Thee, first of all the heavenly host, we praise;
speed our labors, and direct our ways!"
This said, the spoils, with dropping gore defaced.
High on a spreading tamarisk he placed;
Then heap'd with reeds and gather'd boughs the plain,
To guide their footsteps to the place again.
Through the still night they crossed the devious
fields.
Slippery with blood, o'er arms and heaps of shields,
Arriving where the Thracian squadrons lay.
And eased in sleep the labors of the day.
Eanged in three lines they view the prostrate band,
The horses yoked beside each warrior stand.
Their arms in order on the ground reclined.
Through the brown shade the fulgid weapons shiued;
THE ILIAD. . 263
Amidst lay Rhesus, stretch'd in sleep profound,
And the white steeds behind Jiis chiiriot bound.
The welcome sight Ulysses first descries,
And points-to Diomed the tempting prize.
"The man, the coursers, and the car behold!
Described by Dolon, with the arms of gold.
Now, brave Tydides! now thy courage try,
Approach the chariot, and the steeds untie;
Or if thy soul aspire to fiercer deeds.
Urge thou the slaughter, while I seize the steeds."
Pallas (this said) her hero's bosom warms.
Breathed in his heart, and strung his nervous arms;
Where'er he pass'd, a purple stream pursued
His thirsty falchion, fat with hostile blood.
Bathed all his footsteps, dyed the fields with gore,
And a low groan remurmur'd through the shore.
So the grim lion, from his nightly den,
O'erleaps the fences, and invades the pen.
On slieep or goats, resistless in his way.
He falls, and foaming rends the guardless prey;
Nor stopped the fury of his vengeful liand.
Till twelve lay breathless of the Thracian band.
Ulysses following, as his partner slew,
Back by the foot each slaughter'd warrior drew;
The milk-white coursers studious to convey
Safe to the ships, he wisely clear'd the way:
Lest the fierce steeds, not yet to battles bred,
Should start, and treniljle at the heaps of dead.
Now twelve despatch'd, the monarch last they found;
Tydides' falchion (Ix'd him to the ground.
Just tlien a deathful dream Minerva sent,
A warlike form appear'd before his tent.
Whose visionary steel his bosom tore:
So dream'd the monarch, and awaked no more.*
Ulysses now tlie snowy steeds detains,
And leads them, fasten 'd by the silver reins;
*"A11 the circumstances of this action — the nipht, Rhesus
buried in a profound sleep, and Diomed with a sword in his hand
hanging over the liead of tliat prince — fiirnislied Homer witli the
idea of tliis fiction, whicii represents i{i;esus iyinj^ fast asleep,
and, as it were, i)elioldin{^ iiis enemy in a dream, pliuif;inf;f tlie
8\vor<i into liis liosom. 'I'iiis imaf;e is very natural; for a num in
Ills condition awakes no farther than to see confusedly what
environs him, and to thiidc it not a reality hut a dream." — Pojje.
" There's one did lauf,'h in his sleep, and one cry'd murder;
They wak'd each ollu-r." — Macbeth.
264 THE ILIAD.
These, with his bow nubent, he lash'd along
(The scourge forgot, on Rhesus' chariot hnng);
Then gave his friend the signal to retire;
But him, new dangers, new achievements fire;
Doubtful he stood, or with his reeking blade
To send more heroes to the infernal shade,
Drag off the car where Ehesus' armor lay,
Or heave with manly force, and lift away.
While unresolved the son of Tydeus stands,
Pallas appears, and thus the chief commands:
"Enough, my son; from further slaughter cease.
Regard thy safety, and depart in peace;
Haste to the ships, the gotten spoils enjoy.
Nor tempt too far the hostile gods of Troy."
The voice divine confess'd the martial maid;
In haste he mounted, and her word obey'd;
The coursers iiy before Ulysses' bow.
Swift as the wind, and white as winter-snow.
Not unobserved they pass'd; the god of light
Had watch'd his Troy, and mark'd Minerva's flight,
Saw Tydeus' son with heavenly succor bless'd,
And vengeful an2;er filled his sacred breast.
CD O
Swift to ihe Trojan camp descends the power,
And wakes Hippocoou in the morning-hour
(On Rhesus' side accustom 'd to attend,
A faithful kinsman, and instructive friend);
He rose, and saw the field deform'd with blood;
An empty space where late the coursers stood,
The yet-warm Thracians panting on the coast;
P'or each he wept, but for his Rhesus most:
Now while on Rhesus' name he calls in vain,
The gathering tumult spreads o'er all the plain;
On heaps the Trojans rush, with wild affright,
And wondering view the slaughters of the night.
Meanwhile the chiefs, arriving at the shade
Where late the spoils of Hector's spy were laid,
Ulysses stopp'd; to him Tydides bore
The trophy, droj)ping yet with Dolon's gore:
Then mounts again; again their nimbler feet
The coursers ply, and thunder towards the fleet.
Old Nestor first perceived the approaching sound,
Bespeaking thus the Grecian peers around:
"Methinks the noise of trampling steeds I hear.
Thickening this way, and gathering on my ear;
Perhaps some horses of the Trojan breed
TEE ILIAD. 265
(So may, ye gods! my pious hopes succeed)
The great Tydides and Ulysses bear,
Keturu'd triumphant witii this prize of war.
Yet much I fear (ah, may that fear be vain!)
The chiefs outnumber'd by the Trojan train;
Perhaps, even now pursued, they seek the shore;
Or, oh I perhaps those heroes are no more."
Scarce had he spoke, when, lo! the chiefs appear.
And spring to earth; the Greeks dismiss their fear:
With words of friendship and extended hands
They greet the kings; and Xestor first demands:
"Say thou, wiiose praises all our host proclaim,
Thou living glory of the Grecian name!
Say whence these coursers? by what chance bestow'd,
The spoil of foes, or present of a god?
Not those fair steeds, so radiant and so gay,
That draw the burning chariot of the day.
Old as I am, to age I scorn to yield.
And daily mingle in the martial field;
But sure till now no coursers struck my sight
Like these, conspicuous through the ranks of fight.
Some god, I deem, conferred the glorious prize,
Bless'd as ye are, and favorites of the skies;
The care of him who bids the thunder roar,
And her, whose fury bathes the world with gore."
"Father! not so (sage Ithacus rejoin'd).
The gifts of heaven are of a nobler kind.
Of Thracian lineage are the steeds ye view,
AVhose hostile king the brave Tydides slew;
Sleeping he died, with all his guards around,
And twelve beside lay gasping on the ground.
These other spoils from conquer'd Dolon came,
A wretch, whose swiftness was his only fame;
Hy Hector sent our forces to explore,
lie now lies headless on the sandy shore."
Then o'er the trench the bounding coursers flew;
'^riie joyful Greeks with loud acclaim pursue.
Straight to Tydides' high pavilion borne.
The matchless steeds his ample stalls adorn:
The neighing coursers their new follows greet.
And the full racks are heaped with generous wheat.
But Dolon's armor, to his ships convey'd,
High on the ]iaint(!d stern Ulysses laid,
A trophy destined to tiie blue-eyed maid.
266 THE ILIAD.
Now from nocturnal sweat and sanguine stain
They cleanse their bodies in the neighb'ring main.
Tlien in the polished bath, refresh'd from toil,
Their joints they supple with dissolving oil,
In due repast indulge the genial hour,
And first to Pallas the libations pour:
They sit, rejoicing in her aid divine,
And the crown'd goblet foams with floods of wine.
THE ILIAD. 267
BOOK XI.
AKGUMENT.
THE THIRD BATTLE, AND THE ACTS OF AGAMEMNON.
Agamemnon, having armed himself, leads the Grecians to battle:
Hector prepares the Trojans to receive them; while Jupiter,
Juno, and Minerva give the signals of war. Agamemnon
bears all before him; and Hector is commanded by Jupiter
(who sends Iris for that purpose) to decline the engagement,
till the king shall be wounded and retire from the field.
He then makes a great slaughter of the enemy: Ulysses and
Diomed put a stop to him for a time: but the latter, being
wounded by Paris, is obliged to desert his companion, who is
encompassed by the Trojans, wounded, and in the utmost
danger, till Menelaiis and Ajax rescue him. Hector comes
against Ajax; but that hero alone opposes multitudes, and
rallies the Greeks. In the meantime Machaun, in the other
wing of the army, is pierced with an arrow by Paris, and
carried from the fight in Nestor's chariot. Achilles (who
overlooked the action from his ship) sent Patroclus to inquire
which of the (Greeks was wounded in that manner. Nestor
entertains him in his tent with an account of the accidents of
the day, and a long recital of some former wars which he re-
membered, tending to put Patroclus upon persuading Achilles
to fight for his countrymen, or at least permit him to do it,
clad in Achilles' armor. Patroclus, on liis return, meets
Eurypylus also wounded, and assists him in that distress.
This book (jpens with the eight-and-tweutieth day of the
poem; and the same day, vvitLi its various actions and adven-
tures, is extended through the twelfth, thirteenth, four-
teenth, fifteenth, sixteenth, seventeenth, and part of the
eighteenth books. The scene lies in the field near the monu-
ment of Hus.
The saffron morn, witli early blushes spread,*
Now rose refiil,i,'oiit from 'rithonus' bed;
With now-born day to gladden mortal sight.
And gild the courts of iieaven with sacred light:
* " Aurora now had left her saffron bed,
And beams of early light the heavens o'ersproad."
— Dryden's Virgil, iv. 639.
268 ^'^^ ILIAD.
When baleful Eris, sent by Jove's command,
The torch of discord bhizing in her hand,
Through the red skies her bloody sign extends,
And, wrapt in tempests, o'er the fleet descends.
High on Ulysses' bark her horrid stand
She took, and thunder'd through the seas and land.
Even Ajiix and Achilles heard the sound,
Whose ships, remote, the guarded navy bound.
Thence the black fury through the Grecian throng
With horror sounds the loud Orthian song:
The navy shakes, and at the dire alarms
Each bosom boils, e;ich warrior starts to arms.
No more they sigh, inglorious to return,
But breathe revenge, and for the combat burn.
The king of men his hardy host inspires
With loud command, with great example fires!
Himself first rose, himself before the rest
His mighty limbs in radiant armor dress'd,
And first he cased his manly legs around
In shining greaves with silver buckles bound;
The beaming cuirass next adorn'd his breast.
The same which once king Cinyras possess'd
(The fame of Greece and her assembled host
Had reach'd that monarch on the Cyprian coast;
'Twas then, the friendship of the chief to gain,
This glorious gift he sent, nor sent in vain):
Ten rows of azure steel the work infold.
Twice ten of tin, and twelve of ductile gold;
Three glittering dragons to the gorget rise,
Whose imitated scales against the skies
Eeflected various light, and arching bow'd.
Like color'd rainbows o'er a showery cloud
(Jove's wondrous bow, of three celestial dyes,
Placed as a sign to man amidst the skies).
A radiant baldric, o'er his shoulder tied.
Sustain'd the sword that glitter'd at his side:
Gold was the hilt, a silver sheath encased
The shining blade, and golden hangers graced.
His buckler's mighty orb was next display'd,
That round the warrior cast a dreadful shade;
Ten zones of brass its ample brim surround,
And twice ten bosses the bright convex crown'd:
Tremendous Gorgon frown'd upon its field,
And circling terrors fill'd the expressive shield:
Within its concave hung a silver thong,
THE ILIAD. 269
On which a mimic serpent creeps along,
His azure length in easy waves extends,
Till in three heads the embroider'd monster ends.
Last o'er his brows his fourfold helm he placed,
With nodding horse-hair formidably graced;
And in his hands two steely javelins wields,
That blaze to heaven, and lighten all the fields.
That instant Juno, and the martial maid,
In happy thunders promised Greece their aid;
High o'er the chief they clash'd their arms in air,
And, leaning from the clouds, expect the war.
Close to the limits of the trench and mound,
The fiery coursers to their chariots bound
The squires restrain'd: the foot, with those who wield
The lighter arms, rush forward to the field.
To second these, in close array combined,
The squadrons spread their sable wings behind.
Now shouts and tumults wake the tardy sun.
As with the light the warriors' toils begun.
Even Jove, whose thunder spoke his wrath, distill'd
Red drops of blood o'er all the fatal field;*
The woes of men unwilling to survey,
And all the slaughters that must stain the day.
Near Hus' tomb, in order ranged around.
The Trojan lines possess'd the rising ground:
There wise Polydamas and Hector stood;
^neas, honor'd as a guardian god;
Bold Polybus, Agenor the divine;
The brother-warriors of Antenor's line:
With youthful Acamas, whose beauteous face
And fair proportion match'd the ethereal race.
Great Hector, cover'd with his s])acious shield,
Plies all the troops, and orders all the field.
As the red star now shows his sanguine fires
Through the dark clouds, and now in night retires,
Thus through the ranks appear'd the godlike man,
Plunged in the roar, or Ijlazing in the van;
While streamy sparkles, restless as he flies,
*RiddriipH of hlond. " TIiIh ])lif*ii()iiiciion, if a iiicrc fruit of
the pout's imagination, might seem arbitrary or far- fetched. It
is one, liowever, of ascertained reality, and of no uncommon oc-
currence in tlie climate of Greece." — Mure, i. p 4'J!j. Cf. Tasso,
Gier. l-iib. ix. 1/):
" I, a terra in vece del notturno polo
Bagnan rugiade tepide, e sanguigne."
270 THE ILIAD.
Flash from his arms, as lightning from the skies.
As sweating reapers in some wealthy field,
Ranged in two bands, their crooked weapons wield,
Bear down the furrows, till their labors meet;
Thick fall the heapy harvests at their feet:
So Greece and Troy the field of war divide,
And falling ranks are strow'd on every side.
None stoop'd a thonght to base inglorious flight;*
But horse to horse, and man to man they fight,
Not rabid wolves more fierce contest their prey;
Each wounds, each bleeds, but none resign the day.
Discord with joy the scene of death descries.
And drinks large slaughter at her sanguine eyes:
Discord alone, of all the immortal train,
Swells the red horrors of this direful plain:
The gods in peace their golden mansions fill,
Eanged in bright order on the Olympian hill:
But general murmurs told their griefs above,
And each accused the partial will of Jove.
Meanwhile apart, superior, and alone,
The eternal Monarch, on his awful throne,
Wrapt in the blaze of boundless glory sate;
And fix'd, fulfill'd the just decrees of fate.
On earth he turn'd his all-considering eyes.
And mark'd the spot where Ilion's towers arise;
The sea with ships, the fields with armies spread,
The victor's rage, the dying, and the dead.
Thus while the morning-beams, increasing bright.
O'er heaven's pure azure spread the glowing light,
Commutual death the fate of war confounds,
Each adverse battle gored with equal wounds.
But now (what time in some sequester'd valo
The weary woodman spreads his sparing meal,
When his tired arms refuse the axe to rear,
And claim a respite from the sylvan war;
But not till half the prostrate forests lay
Stretch'd in long ruin, and exposed to day)
Then, nor till then, the Greeks' impulsive might
Pierced the black phalanx, and let in the light.
Great Agamemnon then the slaughter led.
And slew Bienor at his people's head:
* " No tbouglit of flight,
None of retreat, no unbecoming deed
That argued fear."
— " Paradise Lost," vi. 236.
TEE ILIAD. 271
Whose squire Oilens, with a sudden spring,
Leap'd from the chariot to revengu his king;
But in his front he felt the fatal wound,
Which pierced his brain, and stretch'd him on the
ground.
Atrides spoil'd, and left them on the plain:
Vain was their youth, their glittering armor vain:
Nor soil'd with dust, and naked to the sky,
Their snowy limbs and beauteous bodies lie.
Two sons of Priam next to battle move,
The product, one of marriage, one of love:*
In the same car the brother-warriors ride;
This took the charge to combat, that to guide:
Far other task, than when they wont to keep,
On Ida's tops, their father's fleecy sheep.
These on the mountains once Achilles found,
And captive led, with pliant osiers bound;
Then to their sire for ample sums restored;
But now to perish by Atrides' sword:
Pierced in the breast the base-born Isus bleeds:
Cleft through the head his brother's fate succeeds.
Swift to the spoil the hasty victor falls.
And, stript, their features to his mind recalls.
The Trojans see the youths untimely die.
But helpless trembled for themselves, and fly.
So when a lion ranging o'er the lawns.
Finds, on some grassy lair, the couching fawns,
Their bones lie cracks, their reeking vitals draws,
And grinds the quivering flesh with bloody jaws;
The frighted hind beholds, and dares not stay.
But swift through rustling thickets bursts her way;
All drown'fl in sweat, the panting mother flies,
And the big teai's roll trickling from her eyes.
Amidst the tumult of the routed train.
The sons of false Antimachus were slain;
lie who for bribes his faithless (jouiisels sold,
And voted Helen's stay for Paris' gold.
Atrides mark'd, as these their safety sought.
And slow the childrtin for the father's fault;
Their headstrong horse iinablo to restrain,
They shook witii fear, and dioppM tiio silken rein:
• One of love. Altliougli a bastard brotln-r loccjived only asinull
portion of tli<; inlieritance, he whs conuiioiily very whII treated.
Priam a|ip''!ir.s to lii". tlie only oik; of whom iiolygamy is directly
asserted in the Iliad. (Jrote, vol. ii. \). 114, note.
272 1'SE ILIAD.
Then in the chariot on their knees they fall,
xVnd thus with lifted hands for mercy call:
"0 spare our youth, and for the life we owe,
Antimachus shall copious gifts bestow:
Soon as he hears, tluit, not in battle slain,
The Grecian ships his captive sons detain,
Large heaps of brass in ransom shall be told,
And steel well-tempered, and persuasive gold."
These words, attended with the flood of tears,
The youth address'd to unrelenting ears:
The vengeful monarch gave this stern reply:
"If from Antimachus ye spring, ye die;
The daring wretch who once in council stood
To shed Ulysses' and my brother's blood,
For protfer'd peace! and sues his seed for grace;
No, die, and pay the forfeit of your race."
This said, Pisander from the car he cast.
And pierced his breast: supine he breathed his last.
His brother leap'd to earth; but, as he lay.
The trenchant falchion lopp'd his hands away;
His sever'd head was toss'd among the throng.
And, rolling, drew a bloody train along.
Then, where the thickest fought, the victor flew;
The king's example all his Greeks pursue.
Now by the foot the flying foot were slain.
Horse trod by horse, lay foaming on the plain.
From the dry fields thick clouds of dust arise,
Shade the black host, and intercept the skies.
The brass-hoof d steeds tumultuous plunge and bound.
And the thick thunder beats the laboring ground.
Still slaughtering on, the king of men proceeds;
The distanced army wonders at his deeds.
As when the winds with raging flames conspire,
And o'er the forests roll the flood of fire,
In blazing heaps the grove's old honors fall,
And one refulgent ruin levels all;
Before Atrides' rage so sinks the foe,
Whole squadrons vanish, and proud heads lie low.
The steeds fly trembling from his waving sword,
And many a car, now lighted of its lord,
Wide o'er the field with guideless fury rolls.
Breaking their ranks, and crushing out their souls;
While his keen falchion drinks the warriors' lives;
More grateful, now, to vultures than their wives!
Perhaps great Hector then had found his fate,
THE ILIAD. 273
Bat Jove and destiny prolong'd his date.
Safe from the darts, the care of heaven he stood,
Amidst ahirnis, and death, and dust, and blood.
Now past the tomb where ancient Ilus h^}',
Through the mid field the routed urge their way:
Where the wild figs the adjoining summit crown,
The path they take, and speed to reach the town.
As swift, Atrides with loui shouts pursued,
Hot with his toil, and bathed in hostile blood.
Now near the beech-tree, and the Scaean gates,
The hero halts, and his associates waits.
Meanwhile on every side around the plain,
Dispersed, disorder'd, fly the Trojan train.
So flies a herd of beeves, that hear dismay'd
The lion's roaring through the midnight shade;
On heaps they tumble with successless haste;
The savage seizes, draws, and rends the last.
Not with less fury stern Atrides flew.
Still press'd tiie rout, and still the hindmost slew;
Hurl'd from their cars the bravest chiefs are kill'd,
And rage, and death, and carnage load the field.
Now storms the victor at the Trojan wall;
Surveys the towers, and meditates their fall.
But Jove descending shook the Ida;an hills.
And down their summits pour'd a hundred rills:
The unkindied lightning in his hand he took,
And thus the numy-colored maid bespoke:
"Iris, with haste thy golden wings display,
To godlike Hector this our word convey —
While Agamemnon wastes the ranks around,
Fights in the front, and bathes with blood the ground,
Bid him give way; but issue forth commands,
And trust the war to less important hamls:
But when, or wounded by the spear or dart,
'J'hat chief shall mount his ciiariot, and depart,
Then Jove shall string his arm, and fire his breast,
Then to her ships shall flying (Jreece be press'd,
Till to the main the burning sun descend.
And sacred night lier awful shade extend."
He spoke, and Iris at his word obey'd;
On wings of winds descends the various maid.
The chief siie found amidst tlie ranks of war,
Close to the Inilwarks, on his glittering car.
The goddess then: "() son of I'riam licarl
From Jove I come, and his high mandate bear.
274 THE ILIAD.
While Agamemnon wastes tlie ranks aronnd,
Fights in the front and bathes with blood the sround,
Abstain from fight; yet issue forth commands,"^
And trust the war to less important hands:
But when, or wounded by the spear or dart,
The chief shall mount his chariot, and depart,
Then Jove shall string thy arm, and fire thv breast,
Then to her ships shall flying Greece be press'd,
Till to the main the burning sun descend.
And sacred night her awful shade extend."
She said, and vanish'd. Hector, with a bound,
Springs from his chariot on tlie trembling ground.
In clanging arms: he grasps in either hand
A pointed lance, and speeds from band to band;
Revives their ardor, turns their steps from flight.
And awakes anew the dying flames of fight.
They stand to arms: the Greeks their onset dare.
Condensed their powers, and wait the coming war.
New force, new spirit, to each breast returns;
The fight renew'd with fiercer fury burns:
The king leads on: all fix on him their eye,
And learn from him to conquer, or to die.
Ye sacred nine! celestial Muses! tell,
Who faced him first, and by his prowess fell?
The great Iphidamas, the bold and young,
From sage Antenor and Theano sprung;
Whom from his youth his graudsire Cisseus bred.
And nursed in Thrace where snowy flock are fed.
Scarce did the down his rosy cheeks invest,
And early honor warm his generous breast,
When the kind sire consign'd his daughter's charms
(Theano's sister) to his youthfnl arms.
But call'd by glory to the wars of Troy,
He leaves untasted tlie first fruits of joy;
From his loved bride departs with meltiiig eyes,
And swift to aid his dearer country flies.
With twelve black ships he reaclr'd Percope's strand.
Thence took the long laborious march by land.
Now fierce for flame, before the ranks he springs.
Towering in arms, and braves the king of kings. '
Atrides first discharged the missive spear;
The Trojan stoop'd, the javelin pass'd in air.
Then near the corslet, at the monarch's heart,
With all his strength, the youth directs his dart:
But the broad belt, with plates of silver bound,
THE ILIAD. 375
The point rebated, and repell'd the wound.
Encuraber'd with the dart, Atrides stands,
Till, grasp'd with force, he wrench'd it from his hands;
At once his weighty sword discharged a wound
Full on his neck, that fell'd him to the ground.
Stretch'd in the dust the unhappy warrior lies,
And sleep eternal seals his swimming eyes.
Oh worthy better fate! oh early slain!
Thy country's friend; and virtuous, though in vain!
No more the youth shall join his consort's side,
At once a virgin, and at once a bride!
No more with presents her embraces meet,
Or lay the spoils of conquest at her feet.
On whom his passion, lavish of his store,
Bestow'd so much, and vainly promised more!
Unwept, uncover'd, on the plain he lay.
While the proud victor bore his arms away.
Coon, Antenor's eldest hope, was nigh:
Tears, at the sight, came starting from his eye.
While pierced with grief the much-loved youth he
view'd,
And the pale features now deform'd with blood.
Then, with his spear, unseen, his time he took,
Aim'd at the king, and near his elbow strook.
The thrilling steel transpierced the brawny part,
And through his arm stood forth the barbed dart.
Surprised the monarch feels, yet void of fear
On Coon rushes with his lifted spear:
His brother's corpse the pious Trojan draws,
And calls his country to assert his cause;
Defends him breathless on the sanguine field,
And o'er the body spreads his ample shield.
Atrides, marking an unguarded part,
Transfix'd the warrior with his brazen dart;
Prone on his brother's bleeding breast he lay,
The monarch's falchion lopp'd his head away:
The social shades the same dark journey go,
And join each other in the realms below.
The vengeful victor rages round the fields,
With every weapon art or fury yields:
By the long lance, the sword, or ponderous stone,
AVhole ranks are broken, and whole troops o'erthrown.
This, while yet warm distillM the purple flood;
liut when the wound grew still' witii clotted blood.
Then grinding tortures his strong bosom rend.
276 THE ILIAD.
Less keen those darts the fierce llythiiB send :
(The powers that cause the teeming matron's throes
Sad mothers of unutterable woes!)
Stung with tlie smart, all-panting with the pain,
He mounts the car, and gives his squire the rein;
Then with a voice which fury made more strong,
And pain augmented, thus exhorts the throng:
"0 friends! Greeks! assert your honors won;
Proceed, and finish what this arm begun:
Lo! angry Jove forbids your chief to stay,
And envies half the glories of the day."
He said: the driver whirls his lengthful thong;
The horses fly; the chariot smokes along.
Clouds from their nostrils the fierce coursers blow,
And from their sides the foam descends in snow;
Shot through the battle in a moment's space.
The wounded monarch at his tent they place.
No sooner Hector saw the king retired.
But thus his Trojans and his aids he fired:
"Hear, all ye Da'rdan, all ye Lycian race!
Famed in close fight, and dreadful face to face:
Now call to mind your ancient trophies won.
Your great forefathers' virtues, and your own.
Behold, the general flies! deserts his powers!
Lo, Jove himself declares the conquest ours!
Now on yon ranks impel your foaming steeds;
And, sure of glory, dare immortal deeds."
With words like these the fiery chief alarms
His fainting host, and every bosom warms.
As the bold hunter cheers his hounds to tear
The brindled lion, or the tusky bear:
With voice and hand provokes their doubting heart
And springs the foremost with his lifted dart:
So godlike Hector prompts his troops to dare:
Nor prompts alone, but leads himself the war.
On the black body of the foe he pours;
As from the cloud's deep bosom, swell'd with showers,
A sudden storm the purple ocean sweeps.
Drives the wild waves, and tosses all the deeps.
Say, Muse! when Jove the Trojan's glory crown'd,
Beneath his arm what heroes bit the ground?
Assa3us, Dolops, and Autonous died,
Opites next was added to their side;
Then brave Hipponous, famed in many a fight,
Opheltius, Orus, sunk to endless night;
THE ILIAD. 27?
^S3'mnns, Agelaiis; all chiefs of name;
The rest were vulgar deaths unknown to fame.
As when a western whirlwind, charged with storms,
Dispels the gather'd clouds that Notus forms:
The gust continued, violent and strong,
Eolls sable clouds in heaps on heaps along;
Now to the skies the foaming billows rears,
Now breaks the surge, and wide the bottom bears:
Thus, raging Hector, with resistless hands,
O'erturns, confounds and scatters all their bands.
Now the last ruin the whole host appals:
Now Greece had trembled in her wooden walls;
But wise Ulysses call'd Tydides forth.
His soul rekindled, and awaken his worth.
"And stand we deedless, eternal shame!
Till Hector's arm involve the ships in flame?
Haste, let us join, and combat side by side."
The warrior thus, and thus the friend replied:
*'No martial tcil I shun, no danger fear;
Let Hector come; I wait his fury here.
But Jove with conquest crowns the Trojan train:
Add, Jove our foe, all human force is vain."
He sighed; but, sighing, raised his vengeful steel,
And from his car the proud Thymbrseus fell:
Molion, the charioteer, pursued his lord,
His death ennobled by Ulysses' sword.
There slain, they left them in eternal night.
Then plunged among the thickest ranks of fight.
80 two wild boars outstrip the following hounds,
Then swift revert, and wounds return for wounds.
Stern Hector's conquests in the middle plain
Stood chcck'd awhile, and Greece respired again.
The sons of ]\Ierrops shone amidst the war;
Towering they rode in one refulgent car:
In deep prophetic arts their father skill'd,
Had warn'd his ciiildren from the Trojan field.
Fate urged them on: the father warn'd in vain;
They rusli'd to fight, and peri.sh'd on the plain;
Their breast no more the vital spiiit warms;
'J'he stern Tydides sti'ips their shining arms.
Hyitirochus Ijy great Ulysses dies.
And rich Hi})[)odamus becomes his prize.
Great Jove from Ide with slaughter fills his siglit,
And level liaugs the d()iil)tful scale of fight.
By 'J'ydeus' lance Agastrophus was slain,
278 THE ILIAD.
The far-famed hero of Paeouian straiu;
Wing'd with his fears, on foot he strove to fly,
His steeds too distant, and tlie foe too nigh:
Through broken orders, swifter than the wind,
He fled, but flying left his life behind.
This Hector sees, as his experienced eyes
Traverse the files, and to the rescue flies;
Shouts, as he pass'd, the crystal regions rend,
And moving armies on his march attend.
Great Diomed himself, was seized with fear,
And thus bespoke his brother of the war:
"Mark how this way yon bending squadrons yield!
The storm rolls on, and Hector rules the field:
Here stand his utmost force." — The warrior said;
Swift at the word his ponderous javelin fled;
Nor miss'd its aim, but M'here the plumage danced
Kazed the smooth cone, and thence obliquely glanced
Safe in his helm (the gift of Phoebus' hands)
Without a wound the Trojan hero stands;
But yet so stunn'd, that, staggering on the plain,
His arm and knee his sinking bulk sustain;
O'er his dim sight the misty vapors rise,
And a short darkness shades his swimming eyes.
Tydides followed to regain his lance;
While Hector rose, recover'd from the trance,
Remounts his car, and herds amidst the crowd:
The Greek pursues him, and exults aloud:
"Once more thank Phoebus for thy forfeit breath,
thank that swiftness which outstrips the death.
Well by Apollo are thy prayers repaid,
And oft that partial power has lent his aid.
Thou shalt not long the death deserved withstand,
If any god assist Tydides' hand.
Fly then, inglorious! but thy flight, this day,
Whole hecatombs of Trojan ghosts shall pay."
Him, while he triumph'd, Paris eyed from far
(The spouse of Helen, the fair cause of war):
Around the fields his feather'd shafts he sent.
From ancient Ilus' ruin'd monument:
Behind the column placed, he bent his bow,
And wing'd an arrow at the unwary foe;
Just as he stoop'd, Agastrophus' crest
To seize, and drew the corslet from his breast.
The bowstring twang'd; nor flew the shaft in vain.
But pierced his foot, and nail'd it to the plain.
THE ILIAD. 279
The laughing Trojan, with a joyful spring,
Leaps from his ambush, and insults the king.
"He bleeds I (he cries) some god has sped my dart!
Would the same god had fis'd it in his heart!
So Troy, relieved from that wide-wasting hand,
Should breathe from slaughter and in combat stand;
AVhose sons now tremble at his darted spear.
As scatter'd lambs the rushing lion fear."
He dauntless thus: "Thou conqueror of the fair,
Thou woman-warrior with the curling. hair;
Vair archerl trusting to the distant dart,
Unskill'd in arms to act a manly part!
Thou hast but done what boys or women can;
Such hands mav wound, but not incense a man.
Nor boast the scratch thy feeble arrow gave,
A coward's weapon never hurts the brave.
Not so this dart, which thou may'st one day feel;
Fate wings its flight, and death is on the steel:
Where this but lights, some noble life expires;
Its touch makes orphans, bathes the cheeks of sires,
Steeps earth in purple, gluts the birds of air,
And leaves such objects as distract the fair."
Ulysses hastens with a trembling heart.
Before him steps, and bending draws the dart:
Forth flows the blood; an eager pang succeeds;
Tydides mounts, and to the navy speeds.
Now on the field Ulysses stands alone.
The Greeks all fled, the Trojans pouring on;
But stands collected in himself, and whole,
And qiiestions thus his own unconquer'd soul:
"What further subterfuge, what hopes remain?
What shame, inglorious if I quit the plain?
What danger, singly if I stand the ground,
!My friends all scatter'd, all the foes around?
Yet wherefore doubtful? let this trutii suflice.
The brave meets danger, and the coward flies.
To die or conquer, j)roves a hero's heart;
And, knowing this, I know a soldier's i)art."
Such thoughts revolving in his careful breast,
Near, and more near, the siiady cohorts press'd;
These, in the warrior, their own fate enchjso;
And round him deep the steely circle grows.
So fares a boar whom all the troop surrounds
Of shouting huntsmen and of nhunorous hounds;
He grinds his ivory tusks; he foams with ire;
2 so THE ILIAD.
His sanguine eyeballs glare with living fire!
By these, by those, on every part is plied;
And the red slaughter spreads on every side.
Pierced through the shoulder, first Deiopis fell;
Next Ennomus and Thoon sank to hell;
Chersidamas, beneath the naval thrust,
Falls prone to earth, and grasps the bloody dust.
Charops, the son of Hippasus, was near;
Ulysses reach'd him with the fatal spear;
But, to his aid his brother Socus flies,
Socus the brave, the generous, and the wise.
Near as he drew, the warrior thus began:
"0 great Ulysses! much-enduring man!
Not deeper skill'd in every martial sleight,
Than worn to toils, and active in the fight!
This day two brothers shall thy conquest grace,
And end at once the great Hippasian race.
Or thou beneath this lance must press the field."
He said, and forceful pierced his spacious shield:
Through the strong brass the ringing javelin thrown,
Plough 'd half his side, and bared it to the bone.
By Pallas' care, the spear, though deep infix'd,
Stopp'd short of life, nor with his entrails mix'd.
The wound not mortal wise Ulysses knew,
Then furious thus (but first some steps withdrew):
"Unhappy man! whose death our hands shall grace!
Fate calls thee hence and finish'd is thy race.
Nor longer check my conquests on the foe;
But, pierced by this, to endless darkness go.
And add one spectre to the realms below!"
He spoke, while Socus, seized with sudden fright,
Trembling gave way, and turn'd his back to flight;
Between his shoulders pierced the following dart.
And held its passage through the panting heart:
Wide in his breast appear'd the grisly wound;
He falls; his armor rings against the ground.
Then thus Ulysses, gazing on the slain;
"Famed son of Hippasus! there press the plain;
There ends thy narrow span assign'd by fate.
Heaven owes Ulysses yet a longer date.
Ah, wretch! no father shall thy corpse compose;
Thy dying eyes no tender mother close;
But hungry birds shall tear those balls away.
And hovering vultures scream around their prey.
Me Greece shall honor, when I meet my doom,
THE ILIAD. 281
With solemn funerals and a lasting tomb."
Then raging with intolerable smart,
He writhes his body, and extracts the dart.
The darfc a tide of spouting gore pursued.
And gladden'd Troy with sight of hostile blood.
Now troops on troops the fainting chief invade,
Forced he recedes, and loudly calls for aid.
Thrice to its pitch his lofty voice he rears;
The well-known voice thrice Menelails hears:
Alarm'd, to Ajax Telamon he cried,
Who shares his labors, and defends his side:
"0 friend! Ulysses' shouts invade my ear;
Distress'd he seems, and no assistance near;
Strong as he is, yet one opposed to all,
Oppress'd by multitudes, the best may fall.
Greece robb'd of him must bid her host despair,
And feel a loss not ages can repair."
Then, where tiie cry directs, his course he bends;
Great Ajax, like the god of war, attends.
The prudent chief in sore distress they found,
With bands of furious Trojans compass'd round.*
As when some huntsman, with a flying spear.
From the blind thicket wounds a stately deer;
Down his cleft side, while fresh the blood distils,
He bounds aloft, and scuds from hills to hills.
Till life's warm vapor issuing through the wound.
Wild mountain-wolves the fainting beast surround:
Just as their jaws iiis prostrate limbs invade.
The lion rushes through the woodland shade.
The wolves, though hungry, scour dispersed away;
The lordly savage vindicates his prey.
Ulysses thus, unoonquer'd by his pains,
A single warrior half a host sustains:
IJut soon as Ajax leaves his tower-like shield,
The scatter'd crowds fly frighted o'er the fleld;
* " Circled with foes as when a packe of bloodie jackals cling
About a goodly palmed liart, liurt with a hunter's how
Whose escape his niuible feet insure, whilst liis warm blood
doth How,
And his light knees have power to move: but (niaistred by his
wound)
Embost within a shady hill, tlu^ jackals charge him round,
And teare his flesh — when instantly fortune sends iu the
powers
Of some Sterne lion, with whose sighte they (lie and he devours.
So they around Ulysses prest." — Chapmau.
282 THE ILIAD.
Atrides' arm the sinking hero stays,
And, saved from numbers, to his car conveys.
Victorious Ajax plies the routed crew;
And first Doryclus, Priam's son, he slew.
On strong Pandocus next inflicts a wound,
And lays Lysander bleeding on the ground.
As when a torrent, swell'd with wintry rains,
Pours from the mountains o'er the deluged plains,
And pines and oaks, from their foundations torn,
A country's ruins! to the seas are borne:
Fierce Ajax thus o'erwhelms the yielding throng;
Men, steeds, and chariots, roll in heaps along.
But Hector, from this scene of slaughter far,
Paged on the left, and ruled the tide of war:
Loud groans proclaim his progress through the plain,
And deep Scamander swells with heaps of slain.
There Nestor and Idomeneus oppose
The warrior's fury; there the battle glows;
There fierce on foot, or from the chariot's height,
His sword deforms the beauteous ranks of fight.
The spouse of Helen, dealing darts around,
Had pierced Machaon with a distant wound;
In his right shoulder the broad shaft appear'd,
And trembling Greece for her physician fear'd.
To Nestor then Idomeneus begun:
"Glory of Greece, old Neleus' valiant son!
Ascend thy chariot, haste with speed away.
And great Machaon to the ships convey;
A wise physician skill'd our wounds to heal,
Is more than armies to the public weal."
Old Nestor mounts the seat; beside him rode
The wounded offspring of the healing god.
He lends the lash; the steeds with sounding feet
Shake the dry field, and thunder toward the fleet.
But now Cebriones, from Hector's car,
Survey 'd the various fortune of the war:
"While here (he cried) the flying Greeks are slain,
Trojans on Trojans yonder load the plain.
Before great Ajax see the mingled throng
Of men and chariots driven in heaps along!
I know him well, distinguish'd o'er the field
By the broad glittering of the sevenfold shield.
Thither, Hector, thither urge thy steeds,
There danger calls, and there the combat bleeds.
There horse and foot in mingled deaths unite,
THE ILIAD. 283
And groiins of slaughter mix with shouts of fight."
Thus having spoke, the driver's h\sh resounds;
Swift through the raniis the rapid chariot bounds;
Stuug by the stroke, the coursers scour the fields,
O'er heaps of carcases, and hills of shields.
The horses' hoofs are bathed in heroes' gore,
And, dashing, purple all the car before;
The groaning axle sable drops distils,
And mangled carnage clogs the rapid wheels.
Here Hector, plunging through the thickest fight,
Broke the dark phalanx, and let in the light
(By the long lance, the sword, or ponderous stone,
Tiie ranks lie scatter'd and the troops o'erthrowu):
Ajax he shuns, through all the dire debate,
And fears that arm whose force he felt so late.
But partial Jove, espousing Hector's part,
Shot heaven-bred horror through the Grecian's heart;
Confused, nnnerved in Hector's presence grown,
Amazed he stood, with terrors not his own.
O'er his broad back his moony shield he threw.
And, glaring round, by tardy steps withdrew.
Thus the grim lion his retreat maintains.
Beset with watchful dogs, and shouting swains;
Repulsed by numbers from the nightly stalls.
Though rage impels him, and though hunger calls,
Long stands the showering darts, and missile fires;
Then sourlv slow the indi2;nant beast retires:
So turn'd stern Ajax, by whole hosts repell'd,
While his swoln heart at every step rebell'd.
As the slow beast, with heavy strength endued,
In some wide field by troops of boys pursued,
Though round his sides a wooden tem})est rain,
Crops tlie tall harvest, and lays waste the plain;
Thick on his hide the hollow blows resound,
The patient animal maintains his ground.
Scarce from the field witli all their efforts chased,
And stirs but slowly when he stirs at last:
On Ajax thus a weight of Trojans hung.
The strokes redoubled on his buckler rung;
Confiding now in bulky strength he stands,
Now turns, and backward boars the yielding bands;
Now stilf recedes, yet hardly seems to fiy.
And threats his followers with retorted eye.
P'ix'd as the bar between two warring powers.
While hissing darts dcaocnd in iron showers:
284 T-'^E ILIAD.
In his broad buckler many a weapon stood,
Its surface bristled with a quivering wood;
And many a javelin, guiltless on the plain,
Marks the dry dust, and thirsts for blood in vain.
But bold Eurypylus his aid imparts.
And dauntless springs beneath a cloud of darts;
Whose eager javelin launch'd against the foe,
Great Apisaon felt the fatal blow ;
From his torn liver the red current flow'd,
And his slack knees desert their dying load.
The victor rushing to despoil the dead,
From Paris' bow a vengeful arrow fled;
Fix'd in his nervous thigh the weapon stood,
Fix'd was the point, but broken was the wood.
Back to the lines the wounded Greek retired.
Yet thus retreating, his associates fired :
"What god, Grecians! has your hearts dismay'd?
Oh, turn to arms; 'tis Ajax claims your aid.
This hour he stands the mark of hostile rage,
And this the last brave battle he shall wage:
Haste, join your forces; from the gloomy grave
The warrior rescue, and your country save."
Thus urged the chief: a generous troop appears.
Who spread their bucklers, and advance their spears.
To guard their wounded friend : while thus they stand,
With pious care, great Ajax joins the band:
Each takes new courage at the hero's sight;
The hero rallies, and renews the fight.
Thus raged both armies like conflicting fires.
While Nestor's chariot far from fight retires:
His coursers steep'd in sweat, and stain'd with gore.
The Greeks' preserver, great Machaon, bore.
That hour Achilles, from the topmost height
Of his proud fleet, o'erlook'd the fields of fight;
His feasted eyes beheld around the plain
The Grecian rout, the slaying, and the slain.
His friend Machaon singled from the rest,
A transient pity touch'd his vengeful breast.
Straight to Menoetius' much-loved son he sent:
Graceful as Mars, Patroclus quits his tent:
In evil hour! Then fate decreed his doom,
And fix'd the date of all his woes to come.
"Why calls my friend? thy loved injunctions lay;
Whate'er thy will, Patroclus shall obey."
"0 first of friends! (Pelides thus replied)
THE ILIAD. 285
Still at my heart, and ever at my side!
The time is come, when yon despairing host
Shall learn the value of the man they lost:
Now at my knees the Greeks shall pour their moan,
And proud Atrides tremble on his throne.
Go now to Nestor, and from him be taught
What wounded warrior late his chariot brought:
For, seen at distance, and but seen behind.
His form recall'd Machaon to my mind;
Nor could I, through yon cloud, discern his face,
The coursers pass'd me Avith so swift a pace."
The hero said. His friend obey'd with haste,
Through intermingled ships and tents he pass'd;
The chiefs descending from their car he found:
Tne panting steeds Eurymedon unbound.
The warriors standing on the breezy shore,
To dr}' their sweat, and wash away the gore.
Here paused a moment, while the gentle gale
Convey'd that freshness the cool seas exhale;
Then to consult on farther methods went.
And took their seats beneath the shady tent.
The draught prescribed, fair Hecamede prepares,
Arsinous' daughter, graced with golden hairs
(Whom to his aged arms, a royal slave,
Greece, as the prize oi Nestor's wisdom gave):
A table first with azure feet she placed;
AVhoso am])le orb a brazen charger graced;
Honey new-press'd, the sacred flour of wheat.
And wholesome garlic, erown'd the savory treat,
Next her white hand an antique gohlet brings,
A goblet sacred to the Pylian kings
From eldest times: emboss'd with studs of gold,
Two feet support it, and four handles hold;
On each bright handle, bending o'er the brink,
III sculptured gold, two turtles seem to drink:
A massy weight, yet heaved with ease by him,
When the brisk nectar overlook'd the brim.
Ternper'd in this, the nymjih of form divine
Pours a large ])orti<)n of the Pi'aniiiian wine;
With goat's-milk cheese a flavorous taste bestows,
And last with flour tho smiling surface strows:
This for the wounded pi'ince the dame prepares:
The cordial beverage reverend Nestor shares:
Salubrious draughts the warriors' thii'st allay,
And pleasing conference beguiles the day.
28G THE ILIAD.
Meantime Patrocliis, by Achilles sent,
Unheard approached, and stood before the tent.
Old Nestor, rising then, the hero led
To his high seat: the chief refused and said:
" 'Tis no season for these kind delays;
The great Achilles with impatience stays.
To great Achilles this respect I owe;
Who asks, what hero, wounded by the foe,
Was borne from combat by thy foaming steeds?
With grief I see the great Machaou bleeds^
This to report, my hasty course I bend ;
Thou know'st the fiery temper of my friend."
"Can then the sons of Greece (the sage rejoin'd)
Excite compassion in Achilles' mind?
Seeks he the sorrows of our host to know?
This is not half the story of our woe.
Tell him, not great Machaon bleeds alone,
. Our bravest heroes in the navy groan,
Ulysses, Agamemnon, Diomed,
And stern Eurypylus, ah-eady bleed.
But, ah! what flattering hopes I entertain!
Achiles heeds not, but derides our pain:
Even till the flames consume our fleet he stays,
And waits the rising of the fatal blaze.
Chief after chief the raging foe destroys;
Calm he looks on, and every death enjoys.
Now the slow course of all-impairing time
Unstrings my nerves, and ends my manly prime;
Oh! had I still that strength my youth possess'd,
When this bold arm the Epeian powers oppress'd,
The bulls of Elis in glad triumph led,
And stretch'd the great Ityomnaeus dead!
Then from my fury lUd the trembling swains,
And ours was all the plunder of the plains;
Fifty white flocks, full fifty herds of swine,
As many goats, as many lowing kine:
And thrice the number of unrivall'd steeds,
All teeming females, and of generous breeds.
These, as my first essay of arms, I won;
Old Neleus gloried in his conquering son.
Thus Elis forced, her long arrears restored.
And shares were parted to each Pylian lord.
The state of Pyle was sunk to last despair.
When the proud Elians first commenced the war:
For Neleus' sons Alcides' rage had slain;
THE ILIAD. 287
Of twelve bold brothers I alone remain!
Oppress'd, we arm'd; and now this conquest gain'd,
My sire three hundred chosen sheep obtain'd.
(That large reprisal he might justly claim,
For prize defrauded, and insulted fame,
AVheu Elis' monarcli, at the public course,
Detain'd iiis chariot, and victorious horse.)
The rest the people shared; myself survey'd
The just partition, and due victims paid.
Three days were past, when Elis rose to war,
With many a courser, and with many a car;
The sons of Actor at their army's head
(Young as they were) the vengeful squadrons led.
High on the rock fair Thryoessa stands,
Our utmost frontier on the Pylian lands:
Not far the streams of famed Alphteus flow.
The stream they pass'd, and pitch'd their tents below.
Pallas, descending in tiie shades of night.
Alarms the Pylians and commands the fight.
Each burns for fame, and swells with martial pride,
Myself the foremost; but my sire denied;
Fear'd for my youth, exposed to stern alarms;
And stopp'd my chariot, and detain'd my arms.
My sire denied in vain: on foot I fled
Amidst our chariots; for the goddess led.
"Along fair Arene's delightful plain
Soft Minyae rolls his waters to the main:
There, horse and foot, the Pylian troops unite,
And sheathed iu arms expect the dawning light.
Thence, ere the sun advanced his noonday flame,
To great Alphreus' sacred source we came.
There first to Jove our solemn rights were paid;
An untamed heifer pleased the blue-eyed maid;
A bull, Alphicus; and a bull was slain
To the blue monarch of the watery main.
In arms we slept, beside the winding flood,
While round the town the fierce Epoians stood.
Soon as the sun, with all-revealing ray.
Famed in the front of Heaven, and gave the day,
Bright scenes of arms, and works of war appear;
The nations meet; there Pylos, Elis here.
The first who fell, beneath my javelin bled
Kind Augias' son, and spouse of Agamede
(She that all simples' healing virtues knew,
And every herb that drinks the morning dew):
388 THE ILIAT).
I seized his car, the van of battle led ;
The Epians saw, they trembled, and they fled.
The foe dispersed, their bravest warrior liilled.
Fierce as the whirlwind now I swept the field:
Full fifty captive chariots graced my train;
Two chiefs from each fell breathless to the plain.
Then Actor's sons had died but Neptune shrouds
The youthful heroes in a veil of clouds.
O'er heapy shields, and o'er the prostrate throng,
Collecting spoils, and slaughtering all along,
Through wide Buprasian fields we forced the foes,
AVhere o'er the vales the Olenian rocks arose;
Till Pallas stopp'd us where Alisium flows.
Even there the hindmost of the rear I slay.
And the same arm that led concludes the day;
Then back to Pyle triumphant take my way.
There to high Jove were public thanks assign'd,
As first of gods; to Nestor, of mankind.
Such then I was, impell'd by youthful blood;
So proved my valor for my country's good.
"Achilles with unactive fury glows,
And gives to passion what to Greece he owes.
How shall he grieve, when to the eternal shade
Her hosts shall sink, nor his the power to aid!
friend! my memory recalls the day.
When, gathering aids along the Grecian sea,
I, and Ulysses, touch'd at Phthia's port.
And enter'd Peleus' hospitable court.
A bull to Jove he slew in sacrifice,
And pour'd libations on the flaming thighs.
Thyself, Achilles, and thy reverend sire
Menoetius, turn'd the fragments on the fire.
Achilles sees us, to the feast invites;
Social we sit, and share the genial rites.
We then explained the cause on which we came,
Urged you to arms, and found you fierce for fame.
Your ancient fathers generous precepts gave;
Peleus said only this: — 'My son! be brave.'
Menoetius thus: 'Though great Achilles shine
In strength superior, and of race divine.
Yet cooler thoughts thy elder years attend;
Let thy just counsels aid, -and rule thy friend.'
Thus spoke your father at Thessalia's court.
Words now forgot, though now of vast import
Ah! try the utmost that a friend can say:
THE ILIAD. 289
Such gentle force the fiercest minds obey;
Some favoring god Achilles' heart may move;
Though deaf to glory, he may yield to love.
If some dire oracle his breast alarm,
If aught from Heaven withhold his saving arm,
Some beam of comfort yet on Greece may shine,
If thou but lead the Myrmidonian line:
Clad in Achilles' arms, if thou appear.
Proud Troy may tremble, and desist from war;
Press'd by fresh forces, her o'erlabor'd train
Shall seek their walls, and Greece respire again."
This touch 'd his generous heart, and from the tent
Along the shore with hasty strides he went;
Soon as he came, where, on the crowded strand,
The public mart and courts of justice stand,
Where the tall fleet of great Ulysses lies,
And altars to the guardian gods arise;
There, sad, he met the brave Evtemon's son,
Large paiiiful drops from all his members run;
An arrow's head yet rooted in his wound,
The sable blood in circles mark'd the ground.
As faintly reeling he confess'd tne smart.
Weak was his pace, and dauntless was his heart.
Divine compassion touch'd Patroclus' breast,
Who, sighing, thus his bleeding friend address'd:
"Ah, hapless leaders of the Grecian host!
Thus must ye perish on a barbarous coast?
Is this your fate, to glut the dogs with gore.
Far from your frienJs, and from your native shore?
Say, great EurypylusI shall Greece yet stand?
liesists she yet the raging Hector's hand?
Or are her ])eroes doom'd to die with shame,
And this tlic period of our wars and fame?
Eurypylns replies: "No more, my friend;
Greece is no morel this day her glories end;
Even to the ships victorious Troy pursues,
Hor lorco increasing as her toil renews.
Those chiefs, that used her utmost rage to meet.
Lie picM'ced witli wounds, and hlccdiiig in tlie lletit-
But, thou, Patroclus I act a friendly part,
Lead to my ships, and draw this deadly dart;
AV^ith lukewarm water wash the gore away;
With healing l)alms the raging smart allay,
Such as sage ('hiron, sire of pharmacy.
Once taught Achilles, and Achilles thoo.
290 THE ILIAD.
Of two famed surgeons, Podalirius stands
This hour surrounded by the Trojan bands;
And great Machaon, wounded in his tent,
Now wants that succor which so oft he lent.'*
To him the chief: "What then remains to do
The event of things the gods alone can view.
Charged by Achilles' great command I fly,
And bear with haste the Pylian King's reply:
But thy distress this instant claims relief."
He said, and in his arms upheld the chief.
The slaves their master's slow approach survey'd,
And hides of oxen on the floor display'd.:
There stretch'd at length the wounded hero lay;
Patroclus cut the forky steel away:
Then in his hands a bitter root he bruised;
The wound he wash'd, the styptic juic* infused.
The closing flesh that instant ceased to glow,
The wound to torture, and the blood to flow.
THE ILIAD. 391
BOOK XII.
AEGUMENT.
THE BATTLE AT THE GRECIAN WALL.
The Greeks having retired into their entrenchments, Hector at-
tempts to force them: but it proving impossible to pass the
ditch, Polydamas advises to quit their chariots, and manage
the attack on foot. The Trojans follow his counsel; and
having divided their army into five bodies of foot, begin the
assault. But upon the signal of an eagle with a serpent in
his talons, which appeared on the left hand of the Trojans,
Polydamas endeavors to withdraw them again. This Hector
opposes, and continues the attack; in which after many
actions, Sarpedon makes the first breach in the wall. Hector
also, casting a stone of vast size, forces open one of the gates,
and enters at the head of his troops, who victoriously pursue
the Grecians even to their ships.
"While thus the hero's pious cares attend
The cure and safety of his wounded friend,
Trojans and (rreeks with chishiui; shields engage,
And mutual deaths are dealt with mutual rage.
Nor long the trench or lofty walls oppose;
With gods averse the ill-fated works arose;
Their powers neglected, and no victim slain.
The walls were raised, the trenches sunk in vain.
Without the gods, how short a period stands
The proudest moiiumetitof mortal hands!
This stood while Hector and Achilles raged.
While sacred Troy the warring hosts engaged;
]iut when her sons w(!re slain, her city hurivd,
And what survived of Greece to ({r(u'cc return'd;
Then Xei)tune and Apollo shook the shore.
Then Ida's summits pour'd their watery store;
Rhesus and lihodius then unite their rills,
Caresus roaring down the stony hills,
yEsepus, Granicus, with mingled force.
And Xanthuo foaming from his fruitful source;
293 THE ILIAD. ^1
And gnlfy Simoi's, rolling to the main* ■
Helmets, and shields, and godliiie heroes slain: "'
These, turu'd by Phoebns from their wonted ways,
Delnged the rampire nine continnal days;
The weight of waters saps the yielding wall,
And to the sea the floating bnhvarks fall.
Incessant cataracts the Thunderer pours,
And half the skies descend in sluicy showers.
The god of ocean, marching stern before,
With his huge trident wounds the trembling shore,
Vast stones and piles from their foundation heaves.
And whelms the smoky ruin in the waves.
Now smooth'd with sand, and levell'd by the flood,
No fragment tells where once the wonder stood;
In their old bounds the rivers roll again,
Shine 'twixt the hills, or wander o'er the plain. f
But this the gods in later times perform;
As yet the bulwark stood, and braved the storm;
The strokes yet echoed of contending powers;
War thunder'd at the gates, and blood distain'd the
towers.
Smote by the arm of Jove with dire dismay,
Close by their hollow ships the Grecians lay:
Hector's approach in every wind they hear.
And Hector's fury every moment fear.
He, like a whirlwind, toss'd the scattering throng.
Mingled the troops, and drove the field along.
So 'midst the dogs and hunters' daring bands,
Pierce of his might, a boar or lion stands;
Arm'd foes around a dreadful circle form,
And hissing javelins rain an iron storm;
His powers untamed, their bold assault defy,
And where he turns the rout disperse or die;
He foams, he glares, he bounds against them all,
* Simo'is, roUitig, etc.
" In those bloody fields
Where Simois rolls the bodies and the shields
Of heroes."— Dryden's Virgil, i. 142.
\" Where you disorder'd heap of ruin lies,
Stones rent froju stones — where clouds of dust arise —
Amid that smother, Neptune holds his place.
Below the wall's foundation drives his mace,
And heaves the building from the solid base."
— Dryden's Virgil, ii. 835.
THE ILIAD. 293
And if he falls, his courage makes him fall.
With equal rage encompass'd Hector glows;
Exhorts his armies, and the trenches shows.
The panting steeds impatient fury breathe,
And snort and tremble at the gulf beneatli;
Just at the brink they neigh, and paw the ground,
And the turf trembles, and the skies resound.
Eager they viow'd the prospect dark and deep,
A^ast was the leap, and headlong hung the steep;
The bottom bare (a formidable show)!
And bristled thick with sharpened stakes below.
The foot alone this strong defence could force,
And try the pass impervious to the horse.
This saw Polydamas; who, wisely brave,
Eestrain'd great Hector, and this counsel gave:
"0 thou, bold leader of the Trojan bands!
And you, confederate chiefs from foreign lands!
What entrance here can cumbrous chariots find,
The stakes beneath, the Grecian walls behind?
No pass through those, without a thousand wounds,
No space for combat in yon narrow bounds.
Proud of the favors mighty Jove has shown.
On certain dangers we too rashly run:
If 'tis his will our haughty foes to tame,
Oh may this instant end the Grecian name!
Here, far from Argos, let their heroes fall,
And one great day destroy and bury all!
But should they turn, and here oppress our train,
AVhat hopes, what methods of retreat remain?
Wedged in the trench, by our own troops confused,
In one promiscuous carnage crusli'd and bruised,
All Troy must perish, if their arms prevail.
Nor shall a Trojan live to tell the tale.
Hear then, yo warriors! and obey with speed;
Back from the trenciios let your steeds be led;
'J'hcn all alighting, wedged in firm array,
Proceed on foot, and Hector lead the way.
So (ireeco shall stoo}) before our conquering power,
And this (if Jove consent) her fatal hour."
This counsel pleased: the godlike Hector sprung
Swift from his s(Mt; his clanging armor rung.
The chief's exaiiijtlo folh^vM by his train.
Each quits his car, and issues on the ])lain,
I>y orders strict the cliarioteers enjoin M
Compel the coursers to their ranks behind.
294 THE ILIAD.
The coursers part in five distinguish'd bands,
And all obey their several chiefs' commands.
The best and bravest in the first conspire,
Pant for the fight, and threat the fleet with fire:
Great Hector, glorious in the van of these,
Polydamas, and brave Cebriones.
Before the next the graceful Paris shines,
And bold Alcathous, and Agenor joins.
The sons of Priam with tiie third appear,
Dei'phobus, and Helenus the seer;
In arms with these the mighty Asius stood,
Who drew from Hyrtactus his noble blood,
And whom Arisba's yellow coursers bore.
The coursers fed on Selle's winding shore.
An tenor's sons the fourth battalion guide,
And great ^neas, born on fountful Ida.
Divine Sarpedon the last band obey'd,
Whom Glaucus and Asteropaeus aid.
Next him, the bravest, at their army's head,
But he more brave than all the hosts he led.
Now with compacted shields in close array.
The moving legions speed their headlong way:
Already in their hopes they fire the fleet,
And see the Grecians gasping at their feet.
While every Trojan thus, and every aid,
The advice of wise Polydamas obey'd,
Asius alone, confiding in his car,
His vaunted coursers urged to meet the war.
Unhappy hero! and advised in vain;
Those wheels returning ne'er shall mark the jilain;
No more those coursers with triumphant joy
Eestore their master to the gates of Troy!
Blacic death attends behind the Grecian wall.
And great Idomeneus shall boast thy fall!
Fierce to the left he drives, where from the plain
The flying Grecians strove their ships to gain;
Swift through the wall their horse and chariots pass'd,
The gates half-open'd to receive the last.
Thither, exulting in his force, he flies:
His following host with clamors rend the skies:
To plunge the Grecians headlong in the main.
Such their proud hopes; but all their hopes were vain!
To guard the gates, two mighty chiefs attend.
Who from the Lapiths' warlike race descend;
This Polypoetes, great Perithous' heir,
THE ILIAD. 295
And that Leonteus, like the god of war.
As two tall oaks, before the wall they rise;
Their roots in earth, their iieads amidst the skies:
Whose spreading arms with leafy honors crowu'd,
Forbid tlie tempest, and protect the ground;
High on the hills appears their stately form,
And their deep roots forever brave the storm.
So graceful these, and so the shock they stand
Of raging Asius, and his furious band.
Orestes, Acamas, in front appear.
And Qilnomaus and Thoon close the rear:
In vain their clamors shake the ambient fields,
In vain around them beat their hollow shields;
The fearless brothers on the Grecians call,
To guard their navies, and defend the wall.
Even when they saw Troy's sable troops impend,
And Greece tumultuous from her towers descend,
Forth from the portals rush'd the intrepid pair.
Opposed their breasts, and stood themselves the war.
►So two wild boars spring furious from their den,
Eoused with the cries of dogs and voice of men ;
On every side the crackling trees they tear.
And root the slirubs, and lay the forest bare;
They gnash their tusks, with tire their eyeballs roll,
Till some wide wound lets out their mighty soul.
Around their heads the whistling javelins sung.
With sounding strokes their brazen targets rung;
Fierce was the fight, while yet the Grecian powers
Maintain'd the walls, and mann'd the lofty towers:
To save their tlect their last eH'orts they try.
And stones and darts in mingled tempests lly.
As when sharp Boreas blows abroad, and brings
The dreary winter on his frozen wings;
j'eneatli the low-hung clouds the sheets of snow
Descend, and whiten all the fields below:
So fast the darts on either army pour,
So down tlie rampires rolls the rocky shower:
Heavy, and tliick, resound the batter'd shields,
And the deaf echo rattles round the fields.
With slianu! repulsed, with grief and fury driven,
The frantic Asius thus accuses lleavei\:
"In powers immortal who shall now believe?
(Jan those too flatter, and can Jove deceive?
What man couhl d(Mibt but Troy's victorious power
Should humble Greece, and this her fatal hour?
296 THE ILIAD.
But like when wasps from hollow crannies drive,
To guard the entrance of their common hive,
Darkening the rock, while with unwearied wings
They strike the assailants, and infix their stings;
A race determined, that to death contend:
So fierce these Greeks their last retreats defend.
Gods! shall two warriors only guard their gates,
Eepel an army, and defraud the fates?"
These empty accents mingled with the wind,
Nor moved great Jove's unalterable mind;
To godlike Hector and his matchless might
Was owed the glory of the destined fight.
Like deeds of arms through all the forts were tried,
And all the gates sustain'd an equal tide;
Through the long walls the stony showers were heard.
The blaze of flames, the flash of arms appear'd.
The spirit of a god my breast inspire.
To raise each act to life, and sing with fire!
While Greece unconquer'd kept alive the war.
Secure of death, confiding in despair;
And all her guardian gods, in deep dismay,
With nnassisting arms deplored the day.
Even yet the dauntless Lapithaj maintain
The dreadful pass, and round them heap the slain.
First Damasus, by Polypcetes' steel.
Pierced through his helmet's brazen visor, fell;
The weapon drank the mingled brains and gore!
The warrior sinks, tremendous now no more!
Next Ormenus and Pylon yield their breath:
Nor less Leontus strews the field with death;
First through the belt Hippomachus he gored,
Then sudden waved his unresisted sword:
Antiphates, as through the ranks he broke.
The falchion struck, and fate pursued the stroke:
lilmenus, Orestes, Menon, bled;
And round him rose a monument of dead.
Meantime, the bravest of the Trojan crew,
Bold Hector and Polydamas, pursue;
Fierce with impatience on the works to fall,
And wrap in rolling flames the fleet and wall.
These on the farther bank now stood and gazed.
By Heaven alarm'd, by prodigies amazed:
A signal omen stopp'd the jiassing host.
Their martial fury in their wonder lost.
Jove's bird on sounding pinions beat the skies;
THE IIJAD. 29?
A bleeding serpent of enormous size,
His tiilons truss'd; alive, and curling round,
He stung the bird, whose throat received the wound.
Mad with the smart, he drops the fatal pre}'.
In airy circles wings his painful way.
Floats on the winds, and rends the heaven with cries:
Amidst the host the fallen serpent lies.
They, pale with terror, mark its spires unroll'd,
And Jove's portent with beating hearts behold.
Then first Polydamas the silence broke.
Long weigh'd the signal, and to Hector spoke:
"How oft, my brotiier, thy reproach I bear.
For Words well meant, and sentiments sincere?
True to those counsels which I judge the best,
I tell the faithful dictates of my breast.
To speak his thoughts is every freeman's right,
In peace, in war, in council, and in fight;
And all I move, deferring to thy sway,
But tends to raise that power which I obey.
Then hear my words, nor may my words be vain:
Seek not this day the Grecian ships to gain;
For sure, to warn us, Jove his omen sent.
And thus my mind explains its clear event:
The victor eagle, whose sinister flight
Retards our host, an] fills our hearts with fright,
iJismiss'd his conquest in the middle skies,
Allow'd to seize, but not possess the prize;
Thus, though wc gird with fires the Grecian fleet.
Though these proud bulwarks tumble at our feet,
Toils unforeseen, and fiercer, are decreed;
i\Iore woes shall follow, and more heroes bleed.
So bodes my soul, and bids me thus advise;
For thus a skillful seer would read the skies."
To him then Hector with disdain return'd:
(Fierce as he spoke, his eyes with fury burn'd):
"Are these tlie faitbful counsels of thy tongue?
Thy will is partial, not thy reason wrong:
Or if the jjurpose of thy heart thou vent,
Sure heaven resumes the little sense it lent.
Wliat coward counsels would thy madness movo
Against the word, the will reveal'd of Jove?
The leading sign, tb(! irrevocable nod,
And happy thunders of the favoring g(jd,
These shall I slight, and guide my wavering mind
By wandering birds tli:it (lit with every wind?
298 THE ILIAD.
Ye vagrants of the sky! your wings extend,
Or where the snns arise, or where descend;
To right, to left, unheeded take your way,
While I the dictates of high heaven obey.
Without a sign his sword the brave man draws,
And asks no omen but his country's cause.
But why should'st thou suspect the war's success?
None fears it more, as none promotes it less:
Though all our chiefs amidst yon ships expire.
Trust thy own cowardice to escape their fire.
Troy and her sons may find a general grave,
But thou canst live, for thou canst be a slave.
Yet should the fears that wary minds suggests
Spread their cold poison through our soldiers' breasts,
My javelin can revenge so base a part,
And free the soul that quivers in thy heart."
Furious he spoke, and, rushing to the wall,
Calls on his host; his host obey the call;
With ardor follow where their leader flies:
Eedoubling clamors thunder in the skies.
Jove breathes a whirlwind from the hills of Ide, 1
And drifts of dust the clouded navy hide; I
He fills the Greeks with terror and dismay, "
And gives great Hector the predestined day.
Strong in themselves, but stronger in his aid.
Close to the works their rigid siege they laid.
In vain the mounds and massy beams defend.
While these they undermine, and those they rend;
Upheaved the piles that prop the solid wall;
And heaps on heaps the smoky ruins fall.
Greece on her ramparts stands the fierce alarms
The crowded bulwarks blaze with waving arms.
Shield touching shield, a long refulgent row;
Whence hissing darts, incessant, rain below.
The bold Ajaces fly from tower to tower.
And rouse, with flame divine, the Grecian power.
The generous impulse every Greek obeys;
Threats urge the fearful; and the valiant, praise.
"Fellows in armsl whosQ deeds are known to fame, ■
And you, whose ardor hopes an equal name!
Since not alike endued with force or art;
Behold a day when each may act his part!
A day to fire the brave, and warm the cold,
I'o gain new glories, or augment the olil.
Urge those who stand, and those who faint, excite;
THE ILTAT). 299
Drown Hector's vaunts in loud exhorts of fight;
Conquest, not safety, fill the thouglits of all;
Seek not your fleet, but sally from the wall;
So Jove once more may drive their routed train,
And Troy lie trembling in her walls again."
Their ardor kindles all the Grecian poM'ers;
And now the stones descend in heavier showers.
As when high Jove his sharp artillery forms,
And opes his cloudy magazine of storms;
In winter's bleak uncomfortable reign,
A snowy inundation hides the plain;
He stills the. winds, and bids the skies to sleep;
Then pours the silent tempest thick and deep;
And first the mountain-tops are cover'd o'er.
Then the green fields, and tiien the sandy shore;
Bent with the weight, the nodding woods are seen,
And one bright waste hides all the works of men:
Tlie circling seas, alone absorbing all.
Drink the dissolving fleeces as they fall:
So from each side increased the stony rain.
And the white ruin rises o'er the plain.
Thus godlike Hector and his troops contend
To force the ramparts, and the gate to rend:
Xor Troy could conquer, nor t!ie Greeks would yield,
Till great Sarpedon tower'd amid the field;
For mighty Jove inspired with martial flame
His matchless son, and urged him on to fame.
In arms he shines, conspicuous from afar.
And bears aloft his ample shield in air;
Within whose orb the thick bull-hides were roU'd,
Ponderous with brass, and bound with ductile gold:
And wliile two pointed javelins arm his hands,
Majestic moves along, and leads iiis Lycian bands.
So press'd with hunger, from the mountain's brow
Descends a lion on the flocks below;
So stalks the lordly savage o'er the plain,
In sullen majesty, and stern disdain;
In vain loud mastiffs bay him from afar.
And shopherdri gall iiim with an iron war;
J{fgardless, furious, he pursues his way;
He foams, he roars, he rends the panting prey.
Resolved alike, divine Sarpedon glows
With generous rage that drives him on the foes.
Ho views the towers, and meditates their fall,
To sure destruction dooms the aspiring wall;
300 THE ILIAD.
Then casting on his friend an ardent look,
Fired with the thirst of glory, thus he spoke:
"Why boast we, Ghiucus! our extended reign,*
Where Xauthus' streams enrich the Lycian plain,
Our numerous herds that range the fruitful field.
And hills where vines their pnrple harvest yield,
Our foaming bowls with purer nectar crown'd,
Our feasts enhanced with music's sprightly sound?
Why on those shores are we with joy survey'd.
Admired as heroes, and as gods obey'd,
Unless great acts superior merit prove.
And vindicate the bounteous powers above?
'Tis ours, the dignity they give to grace;
The first in valor, as the first in place;
That when with wondering eyes our martial bands
Behold our deeds transcending our commands.
Such, they may cry, deserve the sovereign state,
Whom those that envy dare not imitate!
Could all our care elude the gloomy grave,
Which claims no less the fearful and the brave.
For last of fame I should not vainly dare
In fighting fields, nor urge thy soul to war.
But since, alas! ignoble age must come,
Disease, and death's inexorable doom,
The life, which others pay, let us bestow.
And give to fame what we to nature owe;
Brave though wo fall, and honor'd if we live,
Or let us glory gain, or glory give!"
He said; his words the listening chief inspire
With equal warmth, and rouse the warrior's fire;
The troops pursue their leaders with delight.
Rash to the foe, and claim the promised fight.
Menestheus from on high the storm beheld
Threatening the fort, and blackening in the field:
Around the walls he gazed, to view from far
What aid appear'd to avert the approaching war,
And saw where Teucer with the Ajaces stood,
* Why boast we.
" Wherefore do I assume
These royalties and not refuse to reign,
Refusing to accept as great a share
Of hazard as of honor, due alike to him
Who reigns, and so much to him due
Of hazard more, as he above the rest
High honor'd sits."
— " Paradise Lost," ii. 450.
TEE ILIAD. , 301
Of fight insatiate, prodigal of blood.
In vain he calls; the din of helms and shields
Rings to the skies, and echoes through the fields,
The brazen hinges fly, the walls resound,
Heaven trembles, roar the mountains, thunders all the
ground,
Then thus to Thoos: "Hence with speed (he said).
And urge the bold Ajaces to our aid;
Their strength, united, best may help to bear
The bloody labors of the doubtful war:
Hither the Lycian princes bend their course,
The best and bravest of the hostile force.
But if too fiercely there the foes contend.
Let Telamon, at least, our towers defend.
And Teucer haste with his unerring bow
To share the danger, and repel the foe."
Swift, at the word, the herald speeds along
The lofty ramparts, through the martial throng.
And finds the heroes bathed in sweat and gore.
Opposed in combat on the dusty shore.
"Ye valiant leaders of our warlike bands!
Your aid (said Thoos) Peteus' son demands;
Your strength, united, best may help to bear
The bloody labors of the doubtful war:
Thither the Lycian princes bend their course,
The best and bravest of the hostile force.
But if too fiercely, here, the foes contend,
At least, let Telamon those towers defend,
And Teucer haste with his unerring bow
To share the danger, and repel the foe."
Straight to the for'; great Ajax turn'd his care,
And thus bespoke his brothers of the war:
*'Now, valiant Lycomedel exert your might,
And bravo Oileus, prove your force in fight;
To you I trust the fortune of the field,
Till by this arm the foe sh; 11 be rcpell'd :
That done, expect me to complete the day.
Then with his sevenfold shield he strode away.
"With (;f|nul stops bold Teucer i)rosriM the shore,
Whose fatal bow the strong I'andion bore.
High on the walls apiJOar'd the Lycian powers,
Like some black tempest gatlioring round the towers:
The Greeks, oppressM, their utmost force unite.
Prepared to labor in tlie unequal fight:
The war renews, mix'd shouts and groans arise;
302 THE ILIAD.
Tumultuous clamor mounts, aud thickens in tlie skies.
Fierce Ajax first the advancing host invades,
And sends the brave Epicles to the shades,
Sarpedon's friend. Across the warrior's way,
Eent from the walls, a rocky fragment lay;
In modern ages not the strongest swain
Could heave the unwieldy burden from the plain:
He poised, and swung it round; then toss'd on high,
It fiew with force, and labor'd up the sky;
Full on the Lycian's helmet thundering down.
The ponderous ruin crush'd his batter'd crown.
As skillful divers from some airy steep
Headlong descend, and shoot into the deep.
So falls Epicles; then in groans expires.
And murmuring to the shades the soul retires. •
While to the ramparts daring Glaucus drew.
From Teucer's hand a winged arrow flew;
The bearded shaft the destined passage found.
And on his naked arm inflicts a wound.
The chief, Avho fear'd some foe's insulting boast
Might stop the progress of his warlike host,
Conceal'd the wound, and leaping from his height,
Eetired reluctant from the unfinish'd fight.
Divine Sarpedon with regret beheld
Disabled Glaucus slowly quit the field;
His beating breast with generous ardor glows.
He springs to fight, and flies upon the foes.
Alcmaon first was doom'd his force to feel;
Deep in his breast he plunged the pointed steel;
Then from the yawning wound with fury tore
The spear, pursued by gushing streams of gore:
Down sinks the warrior with a thundering sound,
His brazen armor rings against the ground.
Swift to the battlement the victor flies,
Tugs with full force, and every nerve applies:
It shakes; the ponderous stones disjointed yield;
The rolling ruins smoke along the field.
A mighty breach appears; the walls lie bare;
And, like a deluge, rushes in the war.
At once bold Teucer draws the twanging bow,
And Ajax sends his javelin at the foe;
Fix'd in his belt tlie feather'd weapon stood,
And through his buckler drove the trembling wood;
But Jove was present in the dire debate,
To shield his offspring, and avert his fate.
THE ILIAD. 303
The prince gave back, not meditating flight,
But urging vengeance, and severer tight;
Then raised with hope, and tired with glory's charms,
His fainting squadrons to new fury warms.
"0 where, ye Lycians, is the strength you boast?
Your former fame and ancient virtue lost!
The broach lies open, but your chief in vain
Attempts alone the guarded pass to gain:
Unite, and soon that hostile fleet shall fall:
The force of powerful union conquers all."
This just rebuke inflamed the Lycian crew;
They join, they tliicken, and the assault renew:
Unmoved the embodied Greeks their fury dare,
And fix'd support the weight of all the war;
Nor could the Greeks repel the Lycian powers.
Nor the bold Lycians force the Grecian towers.
As on the confines of adjoining grounds.
Two stubborn swains with blows dispute their bounds;
They tug, they sweat; but neither gain, nor yield,
Ouefoot, one inch, of the contended field;
Thus obstinate to death, they fight, they fall;
Nor these can keep, nor those can win the wall.
Their manly breasts are pierced with many a wound,
Loud strokes are heard, and rattling arms resound;
The copious slaughter covers all the shore,
And the high ramparts drip with human gore.
As when two scales are chtirged witii doubtful loads-.
From side to side the trembling balance nods
(While some laborious matron, just and poor,
With nice exactness weighs her woolly store).
Till poised aloft, the resting beam suspends
Each equal weight; nor this, nor that, descends:*
So stood the war, till Hector's matchless might.
With fates prevailing, turn'd the scale of fight.
Fierce as a whirlwind up the walls he files,
And fires his host with loud repeated cries.
"Advance, ye TrojansI lend your valiant hands.
Haste to tlio licet, and toss the blazing brands!"
They hear, they run; and, gatliering at his call,
Kaise scaling engines, and ascend the wall:
Around the w<n-ks a wood of glitloring speara
Shoots up, and all the rising host appears.
* Each equ(U weiyht.
" lion^ time in even snile
The battle liuiig."— " Puradiae Lost," vi. 245.
30i THE ILIAD.
A ponderons stone bold Hector heaved to throw,
Pointed above, and rough and gross below:
Not two strong men the enormous weight could raise,
Such men as live in these degenerate days:
Yet this, as easy as a swain could bear
The snowy fleece, he toss'd, and shook in air;
For Jove upheld, and lighten'd of its load
The unwieldy rock, the labor' of a god.
Thus arm'd, before the folded gates he came,
Of massy substance, and stupendous frame;
With iron bars and brazen hinges strong,
On lofty beams of solid timber hung:
Then thundering through the planks with forceful
sway,
Drives the sharp rock; the solid beams give way.
The folds are shatter'd; from the crackling door
Leap the resounding bars, the flying hinges roar.
Now rushing in, the furious chief appears,
Gloomy as night!* and shakes two shining spears:
A dreadful gleam from his bright armor came,
And from his eyeballs flash'd the living flame.
He moves a god, resistless in his course,
And seems a match for more than mortal force.
Then pouring after, through the gaping space,
A tide of Trojans flows, and Alls the place;
The Greeks behold, they tremble, and they fly;
The shore is heap'd with death, and tumult rends the
sky.
* " He on liis impious foes right onward drove,
Gloomy as night." — "Paradise Lost," vi. 831.
THE ILIAD. 305
BOOK XIII.
AEGUMENT.
THE FOURTH BATTLE COXTIXUED, IN "^HICH NEPTUNE
ASSISTS THE GREEKS: THE ACTS OF IDOMENEUS^
Neptune, concerned for tlie loss of the Grecians, upon seeing the
fortification forced by Hector (who had entered the gate
near the station of the Ajaces), assumes the shape of Calchas,
and inspires those heroes to oppose him; then, in the form of
one of the generals, encourages the other Greeks who had
retired to their vessels. The Ajaces form their troops in a
close phalanx, and put a stop to Hector and the Trojans.
Several deeds of valor are performed; Meriones, losing his
spear in the encounter, repairs to seek another at the tent of
Idomeneus; this occasions a conversation between those two
warriors, who return together to the battle. Idomeneus
signalizes his courage above the rest; he kills Othryoneus,
Asius and Alcathous; l)»^Vphol)ns and ^'I'^neas march against
him, and at length Idomeneus retires. Menelaiis wounds
llelenus, and kills Pisander. The Trojans are repulsed on
the left wing; Hector still keeps his ground against the
Ajaces, till, being galled by the Locrian slingers and archers,
Polydamas advises to call a council of war: Hector ap])roves
of his ailvice, but goes first to rally the Trojans; uj)braids
Paris, rejoins Polydamas, meets Ajax again, and renews the
attack.
The eight-and-twentieth day still continues. The scene is
between the Grecian wall and the seashore.
WirEN' now the Tliuiiderer on tlie seu-beat coast
II;ul iix'd great IJectoi' and his conquering host,
He left tlieni to the fates, in bloody fray
To toil and struggle through the well-fought day.
Then turn'd to 'J'liracia from the Held of light
Those eyes that shed insulTerabie light,
To where tin; Mysians prove their nnirtial force,
And hardy Thraf^ijius tamo the savage horse;
And whei'e the far-faiued Hi|i[)omoigian strays,
Eenown'd for justice and f(ir length of days;*
* llcnowii'd for justice and for length of days. Arrian. de Exp.
Alex. iv. p. 239, also speaks of the independence of these people,
300 THE ILIAD.
Thrice happy race! that, innocent of blood,
From milk, innoxious seek their simple food.
Jove sees delighted; and avoids the scene
Of guilty Troy, of arms, and dying men:
No aid, he deems, to either host is given.
While his high law suspends the powers of Heaven.
Meantime the monarch of the watery main
Observed the Thunderer, nor observed in vain.
In Samothracia, on a mountain's brow.
Whose waving woods o'erhung the deeps below,
He sat; and round him cast his azure eyes
Where Ida's misty tops confusedly rise;
Below, fair Ilion's glittering spires were seen;
The crowded ships and sable seas between.
There, from the crystal chambers of the main
Emerged, he sat, and mourn'd his Argives slain.
At Jove incensed, with grief and fury stung.
Prone down the rocky steep he rush'd along;
Fierce as he pass'd, the lofty mountains nod.
The forest shakes; earth trembled as he trod,
And felt the footsteps of the immortal god.
From realm to realm three ample strides he took,
And, at tlie fourth, the distant ^Ega shook.
Far in the bay his shining palace stands.
Eternal frame! not raised by mortal hands:
This having reach'd, his brass-hoof'd steeds he reins,
Fleet as the winds, and deck'd with golden manes.
Refulgent arms his mighty limbs infold,
Immortal arms of adamant and gold.
He mounts the car, the golden scourge applies,
He sits superior, and the chariot flies:
His whirling wheels the glassy surface sweep;
The enormous monsters rolling o'er the deep
Gambol around him on the watery way.
And heavy whales in awkward measures play;
The sea subsiding spreads a level plain.
Exults, and owns the monarch of the main;
wlaich he regards as the result of their poverty and uprightness.
Some authors have regarded the phrase " Hippomolgian," i. e.
"milking their mares," as an epithet applicable to nuiuerous
tribes, since the oldest of the Suuiatian nomads made their mares'
mijk^one of their chief articles of diet. The epithet d/iioov or
afiicSv, in tliis passage, has occasioned much discussion. It may
mean, according as we read it, either " long-lived," or " bowless,"
the latter epithet indicating that they did not depend upon
archery for subsistence.
THE ILIAD. 30?
The parting waves before his coursers fly;
The wouderiiig waters leave his axle dry.
Deep in the liquid regions lies a cave,
Between where Tenedos the surges lave,
And rocky Imbrus breaks the rolling wave:
There the great ruler of the azure round
Stopp'd his swift chariot, and his steeds unbound,
Fed with ambrosial herbage from his hand,
And iink'd their fetlocks with a golden baud,
Infrangible, immortal: there they stay:
The father of the floods pursues his way:
Where, like a tempest, darkening heaven around,
Or fiery deluge that devours the ground.
The impatient Trojans, in a gloomy throng,
Embattled roll'd, as Hector rush'd along:
To the loud tumult and the barbarous cry
The heavens re-echo, and the shores reply:
They vow destruction to the Grecian name,
And in their hopes the fleets already flame.
But Neptune, rising from the seas profound.
The god whose earthquakes rock the solid ground.
Now wears a mortal form; like Calchas seen.
Such his loud voice, and such his manly mien;
His shouts incessant every Greek inspire.
But most the Ajaces, adding fire to lire.
" 'Tis yours, warriors, all our hopes to raise:
Oh recollect your ancient worth and praise!
'Tis yours to save us, if you cease to fear;
Flight, more tlian shameful, is destructive here.
On other works though Troy Avith fury fall,
And pour her armies o'er our batter'd wall:
There Greece has strength: but this, this part o'er-
thrown,
Her strength were vain; I dread for you alone:
Here Hector rages like the force of fire,
Vaunts of his gods, and calls high Jove his sire:
If yet some heavenly power your breast excite,
Breathe in your lujarts, and string your arms to fight,
Greece yet may live, her threaten'd fleet maintain:
And Hector's force, and Jove's own aid, bo vain."
Then with his sc(!ptro, that tlio deep controls,
Ho touch'd the chiefs, and stcol'd their manly souls:
Strength, not their own, tlio touch divine imparts,
Prompts their light limbs, and swells their daring
hearts.
308 THE ILIAD.
Then, as a falcon from the rocky height,
Her quarry seen, impetuous at the sight.
Forth-springing instant, darts herself from high,
Slioots on the wing, and skims along the sky:
Such, and so swift, the power of ocean flew;
The wide horizon shut him from their view.
The inspiring god Oi'leus' active son
Perceived the first, and thus to Telamon :
"Some god, my friend, some god in human form
Favoring descends, and wills to stand the storm.
Not Calchas this, the venerable seer;
Short as he turned, I saw the power appear:
I mark'd his parting, and the steps he trod;
His own bright evidence reveals a god.
Even now some energy divine I share,
And seem to walk on wings, and tread in air!"
"^ith equal ardor (Telamon returns)
My soul is kindled, and my bosom burns;
New rising spirits all my force alarm,
Lift each impatient limb, and brace my arm.
This ready arm, unthinking, shakes the dart;
The blood pours back, and fortifies my heart:
Singly, methinks, yon towering chief I meet,
And stretch the dreadful Hector at my feet."
Full of the god that urged their burning breast,
The heroes thus their mutual warmth express'd.
Neptune meanwhile the routed Greeks inspired;
Who, breathless, pale, Avith length of labors tired,
Pant in the ships; while Troy to conquest calls.
And swarms victorious o'er their yielding walls:
Trembling before the impending storm they lie,
While tears of rage stand burning in their eye.
Greece sunk they thought, and this their fatal hour;
But breathe new courage as they feel the power.
Teucer and Leitus first his words excite;
Then stern Peueleus rises to the fight;
Thoas, Deifpyrus, in arms renown'd,
And Merion next, the impulsive fury found;
Last Nestor's sou the same bold ardor takes,
While thus the god the martial fire awakes:
"Oh lasting infamy, oh dire disgrace
To chiefs of vigorous youth, and manly race!
I trusted in the gods, and you, to see
Brave Greece victorious, and her navy free:
Ah, no — the glorious combat you disclaim.
THE ILIAD. 309
And one black day clouds all her former fame.
Heavens! what a prodigy these eyes survey,
Unseen, unthought, till this amazing day!
Fly we at length from Troy's oft-conquer'd bands?
And falls our fleet by such inglorious hands.
A rout undisciplined, a straggling train,
Not born to glories of the dusty plain;
Like frighted fawns from hill to hill pursued,
A prey to every savage of the wood :
Shall these, so late who trembled at your name,
Invade your camps, involve your ships in flame?
A change so shameful, say, what cause has wrought,
The soldiers' baseness, or the general's fault?
Fools! will ye perish for your leader's vice;
The purchase infamy, and life the price?
'Tis not your cause, Achilles' injured fame:
Another's is the crime, but yours the shame.
Grant that our chief offend through rage or lust,
Must you be cowards, if your king's unjust?
Prevent this evil, and your country save:
Small thought retrieves the spirits of the brave.
Think, and subdue! on dastards dead to fame
I waste no anger, for they feel no shame:
But you, the pride, the flower of all our host,
My heart Aveeps blood to see your glory lost!
Nor deem this day, this battle, all you lose;
A day more black, a fate more vile, ensues.
Let each reflect, who prizes fame or breath,
On endless infamy, on instant death:
For, lo! the fated time, the appointed shore:
Hark! the gates burst, the brazen barriers roar!
Impetuous Hector thunders at the wall;
The hour, the spot, to conquer, or to fall."
These words the Grecians' fainting hearts inspire.
And listening armies catch the godlike fire.
Fix'd at his post was each bold Ajax found.
With well-ranged squadrons strongly circled round.
80 close tiieir order, so disposed their fight,
As Pallas' self might view with fix'd delight;
Or had the god of war inclined his eyes,
The god of war had own'd a just sur])rise.
A chosen phalanx, liiiu, resolved as fate,
Descending Hector and his l>attl(! wait.
An iron scene gleams dreadful o'er the fields,
Armor in armor lock'd, and shields in shields,
310 THE ILIAD.
Spears lean on spears, on targets targets throng,
Helms stnok to helms, and man di'ove man along.
The floating plumes unnumber'd wave above,
As when an earthquake stirs the nodding grove;
And levell'd at the skies with pointing rays,
Their brandish'd lances at each motion blaze.
Thus breathing death, in terrible array,
The close compacted legions nrged their way:
Fierce they drove on, impatient to destroy;
Troy charged the first, and Hector first of Troy.
As from some mountain's craggy forehead torn,
A rock's round fragment flies, with fury borne
(Which from the stubborn stone a torrent rends),
Precipitate the ponderous mass descends:
From steep to steep the rolling ruin bounds;
At every shock the crackling wood resounds;
Still gathering force, it smokes; and urged amain,
Whirls, leaps, and thunders down, impetuous to the
plain ;
There stops — so Hector. Their whole force he proved,*
Eesistless when he raged, and, when he stopped, un-
moved.
On him the war is bent, the darts are shed.
And all their falchions wave around his head:
Repulsed he stands, nor from his stand retires;
But with repeated shouts his army fires.
"Trojans! be firm; this arm shall make your Avay
Through yon square body, and that black array:
Stand, and my spear shall rout their scattering power,
Strong as they seem, embattled like a tower;
For he that Juno's heavenly bosom warms,
The first of gods, this day inspires our arms."
He said; and roused the soul in every breast:
Urged with desire of fame, beyond the rest,
Forth march 'd Deiphobus; but, marching, held
Before his wary steps his ample shield.
Bold Merion aim'd a stroke (nor aim'd it wide);
* Compare Chapman's quaint, bold verses:
" And as a round piece of a rocke, which with a winter's flood
Is from his top torn, when a shoure poured from a bursten
cloud,
Hath broKe the naturall band it had within the roughftey rock,
Flies jumping all adoune the woods, resounding everie shocke.
And on, uncheckt, it headlong leaps till in a plaine it stay,
And then (tho' never so impelled), it stirs not any way; —
So Hector.—"
THE ILIAD. 311
The glittering jiiveliii pierced the tough hull-hide;
But pierced not through: unfaithful to his hand,
The point broke short, and sparkled in the sand.
The Trojan warrior, tonch'd with timely fear,
On the raised orb to distance bore the spear.
The Greek, retreating, inourn'd his frustrate blow,
And cursed the treacherous lance that spared a foe;
Then to the ships witli surly speed he went.
To seek a surer javelin in his tent.
Meauwiiile with rising rage the battle glows,
The tumult thickens, and the clamor grows.
By Teucer's arm the warlike Imbrius bleeds.
The son of Mentor, rich in generous steeds.
Ere yet to Troy the sons of Greece were led,
In fair Pedajus' verdant pastures bred.
The youth had dwelt, remote from war's alarms,
And blest in bright Medesicaste's arms
(This nymph, the fruit of Priam's ravish'd joy,
Allied the warrior to the house of Troy):
To Troy, when glory call'd his arms, he came,
And match'd the bravest of her chiefs in fame:
With Priam's sons, a guardian of the throne,
lie lived, beloved and honor'd as his own.
II im Teucer pierced between the throat and ear:
lie groans beneath the Telamonian spear.
As from some far-seen mountain's airy crown,
Subdued by steel, a tall ash tumbles down.
And soils its verdant tresses on the ground;
80 falls the youth; his arms the fall resound.
Tlien Teucer rushing to despoil the dead.
From Hector's hand a shining javelin fled:
He saw, and shunn'd the death; the forceful dart
Sung on, and pieced Ainphimachus' heart,
Cteatus' son, of Neptune's forceful line;
Vain was his courage, and his race divine!
Prostrate lie falls; his clanging arms resound,
And his broad buckler thunders on the ground-
To seize his beamy helm the victor flics,
And just had fastened on the dazzling prize,
When Ajax's manly arm a javelin flung;
Full on the shiehi's round boss the weapon rung;
Ho felt the siiock, nor more was doom'd to feel,
Secure in mail, and sheath'd in shining steel.
Repulsed he yields; the victor Greciks obtain
Tiie sjioils contested, ami bear off the slain.
312 THE ILIAD.
Between the leaders of the Athenian line
(Stichius the brave, Menestheus the divine),
Deplored Amphimachus, sad object! lies;
Inibrius remains the fierce Ajaces' prize.
As two grim lions bear across the lawn,
Snatch'd from devouring hounds, a slaughter'd fawn.
In their fell jaws high-lifting through the wood.
And sprinkling all the shrubs with drops of blood;
So these, the chief: great Ajax from the dead
Strips his bright arms; Oileus lops his head:
Toss'd like a ball, and whirl'd in air away,
At Hector's feet the gory visage lay.
The god of ocean, fired with stern disdain,
And pierced with sorrow for his grandson slain,
Inspires the Grecian hearts, confirms their hands.
And breathes destruction on the Trojan bands.
Swift as a whirlwind rushing to the fleet,
He finds the lance-famed Idomen of Crete,
His pensive brow the generous care express'd
With which a wounded soldier touch'd his breast,
Whom in the chance of war a javelin tore.
And his sad comrades from the battle bore;
Him to the surgeons of the camp he sent;
That ofTice paid, he issued from his tent
Fierce for the fight: to whom the god begun.
In Thoiis' voice, Andrsemon's valiant son.
Who ruled where Calydon's white rocks arise,
And Pleuron's chalky cliffs emblaze the skies:
"Where's now the imperious vaunt, the daring boast
Of Greece victorious, and proud Ilion lost?"
To whom the king: '"On Greece no blame be thrown:
Arms are her trade, and war is all her own.
Her hardy heroes from the well-fought plains
Nor fear withholds, nor shameful sloth detains:
'Tis heaven, alas! and Jove's all-powerful doom,
That far, far distant from our native home
Wills us to fall inglorious! Oh, my friend!
Once foremost in the fight, still prone to lend
Or arms or counsels, now perform thy best.
And what thou canst not singly, urge the rest."
Thus he: and thus the god whose force can make
The solid globe's eternal basis shake:
"Ah! never may he see his native land.
But feed the vultures on this hateful strand,
Who seeks ignobly in his ships to stay,
THE ILIAD. 313
Nor dares to combat on this signal day!
For this, behold ! iu horrid arms I shine,
And urge thy soul to rival acts with mine.
Together let us battle on the plain;
Two, not the worst; nor even this succor vain:
Not vain the weakest, if their force unite;
But ours, the bravest have confess'd in fight."
This said, he rushes where the combat burns:
Swift to his tent the Cretan king returns:
From thence, two javelins glittering in his hand,
And clad in arms that lighten'd all the strand,
Fierce on the foe the impetuous hero drove,
Like lightning bursting from the arm of Jove,
Which to pale man the wrath of heaven declares.
Or terrifies the offending world with w^ars;
In streamy sparkles, kindling all the skies,
From pole to pole the trail of glory flies:
Thus his bright armor o'er the dazzled throng
Gleam'd dreadful, as the monarch flash'd along.
Him, near his tent, j\Ieriones attends;
Whom thus he questions: "Ever best of friends!
say, in every art of battle skill'd,
AVhat holds tliy courage from so brave a field?
On some important message art thou bound.
Or bleeds my friend by some unhappy wound?
Inglorious here, my soul abhors to stay.
And glows with prospects of th' approaching day."
"0 prince! (Meriones replies) whose care
Leads forth the embattled sons of Crete to war;
This speaks my grief: this headless lance I wield;
The rest lies rooted in a Trojan shield."
To whom the Cretan: "Enter, and receive
The wonted weapons; those my tent can give;
iSpears I have store (and I'rojan lances all),
That shed a lustre round the illumined wall,
Though I. disdainful of tlio distant war,
Nor trust the dart, nor aim the uncertain spear,
Yet hand to hand I fight, and spoil the slain;
And thence these trophies, and these arms 1 gain.
Enter, and see on heaps the helnntts roll'd,
And lugh-hiing sjiears, and shields that llamo with
gold."
"Nor vain (said Mcrion) are our martial toils;
We too can boast of no ignoble! spoils:
But those my ship contiiins; whence distant far,
314 THE ILIAD.
I fight consj)icnons in tlie van of war,
What need I more? If any Greek there be
Who knows not Merion, I appeal to thee."
To this, Idomenens: "Tlie lields of fight
Have proved thy valor, and nnconquer'd might:
And were some ambnsh for the foes design'd.
Even there thy conrage would not lag behind:
In that sharp service, singled from the rest,
The fear of each, or valor, stands confess'd.
No force, no firmness, the pale coward shows;
He shifts his place: his color comes and goes:
A dropping sweat creeps cold on every part;
Against his bosom beats his qnivering heart; '
Terror and death in his wild eyeballs stare:
With chattering teeth he stands, and stiffening hair,
And looks a bloodless image of despair!
Not so the brave — still danntless, still the same,
Unchanged his color, and unmoved his frame:
Composed his thought, determined is his eye.
And fix'd his soul, to conquer or to die:
If aught disturb the tenor of his breast,
'Tis but the wish to strike before the rest.
"In such essays thy blameless worth is known,
And every art of dangerous war thy own.
By chance of fight whatever wounds you bore,
Those wounds were glorious all, and all before;
Such as may teach, 'twas still thy brave delight
T' oppose thy bosom where thy foremost fight.
But why, like infants, cold to honor's charms.
Stand we to talk, when glory calls to arms?
Go — from my conquer'd spears the choicest take,
And to their owners send them nobly back."
Swift at the word bold Merion snatch 'd a spear,
And, breathing slaughter, follow'd to the war.
So Mars armipotent invades the plain
(The wide destroyer of the race of man).
Terror, his best-beloved son, attends his course,
Arm'd with stern boldness, and enormous force;
The pride of haughty warriors to confound.
And lay the strength of tyrants on the ground:
From Thrace they fly, call'd to the dire alarms
Of warring Phlegyans, and Ephyrian arms;
Invoked by both, relentless they dispose.
To these glad conquest, murderous rout to those.
So march'd the leaders of the Cretan train,
THE ILIAD. 315
And their bright arms shot horror o'er the plain.
Then first spake Merion : "Shall we join the right,
Or combat in the centre of the fight?
Or to the left our wonted succor lend?
Hazard and fame all parts alike attend."
"Not in the centre (Idomen replied):
Our ablest chieftains the main battle guide;
Each godlike Ajax makes that post his care,
And gallant Teucev deals destruction there,
Skill'd or with shafts to gall the distant field,
Or bear close battle on the sonnding shield.
These can the rage of haughty Hector tame:
Safe in their arms, the navy fears no flame.
Till Jove himself descends, his bolts to shed,
And hurl the blazing ruin at our head.
Great must he be, of more than human birth,
Nor feed like mortals on the fruits of earth.
Him neither rocks can crush, nor steel can wound,
Whom x\jax fells not on the ensanguined ground.
In standing figlit he mates Achilles' force,
Excell'd alone in swiftness in the course.
Then to the left our ready arms apply,
And live with glory, or with glory die."
He sai<l : and >[erion to th' appointed place
Fierce as the god of battles, urged his pace.
Soon as the foe the shining cliiefs beheld
Rush like a fiery torrent o'er the field,
Tlitjir force embodied in a tide they pour;
Tlio rising combat sounds along the shore.
As warring winds, in Sirius' sultry reign,
From dilTcrcnt (piartcrs swc(!p the sandy ])lain
On every side the dusty whirlwinds rise.
And the dry fields are lifted to the skies:
'i'hus by despair, hoj)o, rage, togetiier driven,
Meet the black hosts, an<r, m(!eting, darken'd heaven.
All dreadful glared tlio iron face of war,
liristled with upright spears, that flash'd afar;
I)ir(! was the gleam of breast[ilat<'s, liclnis, and shields,
And polish'd arms emblazed the flaming fields;
'I'remendoiis scone! tiiat general horror gave,
Jiiit touch'd witii joy the Ijosoms of the Ijravo.
Saturn's great sons in fierce contention vied,
And crowds of Injroes in their anger died.
The aire of earth and heaven, by Thetis won
To crowa with glory I'elens' godlike son,
316 TBE ILIAD.
Will'd not destruction to the Grecian powers,
But spared awhile the destined Trojan towers;
While Neptune, rising from his azure main,
Warr'd on the king of heaven with stern disdain,
And breathed revenge, and fired the Grecian train.
Gods of one source, of one ethereal race.
Alike divine, and heaven their native place;
But Jove the greater; first-born of the skies,
And more thaii men, or gods, supremely wise.
For this, of Jove's superior might afraid,
Neptune in human form conceal'd his aid.
These powers enfold the Greek and Trojan train
In war and discord's adamantine chain,
Indissolubly strong: the fatal tie
Is stretch 'd on both, and close compell'd they die;
Dreadful in arms, and grown in combats gray,
The bold Idomeneus controls the day.
First by his hand Othryoneus was slain,
Swell'd with false hopes, with mad ambition vain;
Call'd by the voice of war to martial fame, -
From high Cabesus' distant walls he came; '%
Cassandra's love he sought, with boasts of power,
And promised conquest was the profler'd dower.
The king consented, by his vaunts abused;
The king consented, but the fates refused.
Proud of himself, and of the imagined bride, |
The field he measured with a larger stride. -
Him as he stalk'd, the Cretan javelin found;
Vain was his breastplate to repel the wound:
His dream of glory lost, he plunged to hell;
His arms resounded as the boaster fell.
The great Idomeneus bestrides the dead;
"And thus (he cries) behold thy promise sped!
Such is the help thy arms to Ilion bring.
And such the contract of the Phrygian king!
Our offers now, illustrious prince! receive;
For such an aid what will not Argos give?
To conquer Troy, with ours thy forces join,
And count Atrides' fairest daughter thine.
Meantime, on further methods to advise,
Come, follow to the fleet thy new allies;
There hear what Greece has on her part to say."
He spoke, and dragg'd the gory corse away.
This Asius view'd, unable to contain,
Before his chariot warring on the plain;
THE ILIAD. 317
(His crowded coursers, to his squire consign'd,
Impatient panted on his neck behind :)_
To vengeance rising with a sudden spring.
He hoped the conquest of the Cretan king.
The wary Cretan, as his foe drew near.
Full on his throat discharged the forceful spear:
Beneath the chin the point was seen to glide,
And glicter'd, extant at the further side.
As when the mountain-oak, or poplar tall,
Or pine, fit mast for some great admiral,
Groans to the oft-heaved axe, Avith many a wound,
Then spreads a length of ruin o'er the ground:
So sunk proud Asius in that dreadful day,
And stretch'd before his much-loved coursers lay.
He grinds the dust dislain'd with streaming gore,
And, fierce in death, lies foaming on the shore.
Deprived of motion, stiff with stupid fear,
Stands all agliast his trembling charioteer.
Nor shuns the foe, nor turns the steeds away,
But falls transfix'd, an unresisting prey:
Pierced by Antilochus, he pants beneath
The stately car, and labors out his breath.
Thus Asius' steeds (their mighty master gone)
Tlemain the prize of Nestor's youthful son.
Stabb'd at the sight, Dei'phobus drew nigh,
And made, with force, the vengeful weapon fly.
The Cretan saw; and, stooping, caused to glance
From his slope sliield the disappointed lance.
Beneath the spacious targe (a l)lazing round).
Thick with bull-hides ami brazen orbits bound,
On his raised arm by two strong braces stay'd
He lay coilectcid in defensive shade.
O'er his safe head the javelin idly sung.
And on the tinkling verge moi-e faintly rung.
Kvcn tiien the spnar tlie vigorous arm confess'd.
And pierced, oldiquely, king Hyj)senor's breast:
Wann'd in his liver, to the grouiul it bore
The chi(!f, his peoj)lo's guardian now no more!
"Not umittend(!d (the [)roud Trojan cries)
Nor unrovenge<l, lamented Asius lies:
For tliee, through boll's l)Iack portals staTid display'd,
This mate idiall joy thy melancholy .sbad(f."
Heart-piercing anguish, at the haughty boast,
Touch'd every Greek, but Nestor's son the most.
Grieved as ho was, his pious arms attend.
318 THE ILIAD.
And his broad buckler shields his shinghter'd friend,
Till sad Mecistheus and Alastor bore
His lionor'd body to the tented shore.
Nor yet from fight Idomeneiis withdraws;
Resolved to perish in his country's cause,
Or tind some foe, whom heaven and he shall doom
To wail his fate in death's eternal gloom.
He sees Alcathous in the front aspire:
Great ^syetes was the hero's sire;
His spouse Hippodame, divinely fair,
Anchises' eldest hope, and darling care.
Who charm'd her parents' and her husband's heart
With beauty, sense, and every work of art;
He once of Ilion's youth the loveliest boy,
The fairest she of all the fair of Troy.
By Neptune now the hapless hero dies,
Who covers with a cloud those beauteous eyes,
And fetters every limb; yet bent to meet
His fate he stands; nor shuns the lance of Crete.
Fix'd as some colunni, or deep-rooted oak,
AVhile the winds sleep; his breast received the stroke;
Before the ponderous stroke his corslet yields.
Long used to ward the death in fighting fields.
The riven armor sends a jarring sound;
His laboring heart heaves with so strong a bound,
The long lance shakes, and vibrates in the wound;
Fast flowing from its source, as prone he lay,
Life's purple tide impetuous gush'd away.
Then Idomen, insulting o'er the slain:
"Behold, Deiphobus! nor vaunt in vain:
See! on one Greek three Trojan ghosts attend;
This, my third victim, to the shades I send.
Approaching new thy boasted might approve,
And try the prowess of the seed of Jove.
From Jove, enamour'd of a mortal dame,
Great Minos, guardian of his country, came:
Deucalion, blameless prince, was Minos' heir;
His first-born I, the third from Jupiter:
O'er spacious Crete, and her bold sons, I reign.
And thence my ships transport me through the main.
Lord of a host, o'er all my host I shine,
A scourge to thee, thy father, and thy line."
The Trojan heard; uncertain or to meet,
Alone, with venturous arms the king of Crete,
Or seek auxiliar force; at length decreed
THE ILIAD. 319
To call some hero to partake the deed,
Forthwith JEneas rises to his thought:
For him in Troy's remotest Hues he sought.
Where he, incensed at partial Priam, stands,
And sees'superior posts in meaner hands.
To him, ambitious of so great an aid,
The bold Deiphobus approach'd, and said:
"Now, Trojan prince, emplo}' thy pious arms.
If e'er thy bosom felt fair honor's charms.
Alcathous dies, thy brother and tliy friend;
Come, and the warrior's loved remains defend.
Beneath his cares thy early yonth was train'd,
One table fed you, and one roof contain'd.
This deed to fierce Idomeneus we owe;
Haste, and revenge it on th' insulting foe."
^neas heard, and for a space resign'd
To tender pity all his manly mind;
Then rising in his rage, he burns to fight;
The (xreek awaits him with collected might.
As the fell boar, on some rough mountain's head,
Arm'd with wild terrors, and to slaughter bred,
When the loud rustics rise, and shout from far,
Attends the tumult, and expects the war;
O'er his bent back the Ijristly horrors rise;
Fires stream in liglitning from his sanguine eyes.
His foaming tusks both dogs an<l men engage;
But most his hunters rouse his mightv rage:
So stood Idomeneus, his javelin shook,
And met the Trojan with a lowering look.
Antilochus, Deipyrus, were near,
Tlie youthful olfspring of the god of war,
Merion, and Apiiareus, in field renown'd:
To those the warrior sent his voice around.
"Fellows in armsl your timely aid unite;
Lo, great ^^Eneas rushes to the fight:
Sprung from a god, and more than mortal l)old;
JIo fresh in youth, and I in arms grown old.
Else should this hand, this hour (locido the strife.
The great dispute, of glory, or of life."
Ho spoke, and all, as with one soul, obey'd;
Their lifted bucklers oast a dreailful shade
Around the chief. /Eneas too demands
Th' assisting forces of his native bands;
Paris, Deiphobus, Agenor, join
(Co-aids and captains of the Trojan line);
320 THE ILIAD.
In order follow all th' embodied train,
Like Ida's flocks proceeding o'er the plain; ;
Before his fleecy care, erect and bold, ;
Stalks the proud ram, the father of the bold:. |
With joy the swain survey them, as he leads \
To the cool fountains, through the well-known meads: '
So joys iBneas, as his native band
Moves on in rank, and stretches o'er the land.
Bound dread Alcathous now the battle rose; ',
On every side the steely circle grows; ]
Now batter'd breastplates and hack'd helmets ring,'
And o'er their heads unheeded javelins sinof. ','
Above the rest, two towering chiefs appear, [
There great Idomeneus, iEneas here.
Like gods of war, dispensing fate, they stood, i
And burn'd to drench the ground with mutual blood. '
The Trojan weapon whizz'd along the air; -^
The Cretan saw, and shunn'd the brazen spear;
Sent from an arm so strong, the missive wood
Stuck deep in earth, and quiver'd where it stood.
But CEnomas received the Cretan's stroke:
The forceful spear his hollow corslet broke.
It ripp'd his belly with a ghastly wound.
And roU'd the smoking entrails on the gronnd.
Stretch'd on the plain, lie sobs away his breath,
And, furious, grasps the bloody dust in death.
The victor from his breast the weapon tears;
His spoils he could not, for the shower of spears.
Though now unfit an active war to wage.
Heavy with cumbrous arms, stiff with cold age,
His listless limbs unable for the course,
In standing fight he yet maintains his force;
Till faint with labor, and by foes repell'd.
His tired slow steps he drags from off the field;
Deiphobus beheld him as he pass'd.
And, fired with hate, a parting javelin cast:
The javelin err'd, but held its course along.
And pierced Ascalaphus, the brave and young:
The son of Mars fell gasping on the gronnd.
And gnash'd the dust, ail bloody with his wonnd.
Nor knew the furious father of his fall;
High-throned amidst the great Olympian hall
On golden clouds th' immortal synod sate;
Detain'd from bloody war by Jove and Fate.
Now, where in dust the breathless hero lay
I
THE ILIAD. 321
For slain Ascalaphus comroenced the fray,
Deiphobus to seize his helmet flies,
Aud from his temple rends the glittering prize;
Valiant as Mars, Meriones drew near.
And on his loaded arm discharged his spear;
He drops the weight, disabled with the pain;
The hollow helmet rings against the plain.
Swift as a vulture leaping on his prey.
From his torn arm the Grecian rent away
The reeking javelin, and rejoin'd his friends
His wounded brother good Polites tends;
Around his waist his pious arms he threw,
And from the rage of battle gently drew:
Him his swift coursers, on his splendid car,
Kapt from the lessening thunder of the war;
To Troy they drove him, groaning from the shore,
And sprinkling, as he pass'd, the sands with gore.
Meanwhile fresh slaughter bathes the sanguine
ground.
Heaps fall on heaps, and heaven and earth resound.
Bold Aphareus by great yEneas bled;
As toward the chief he turn'd liis daring head.
He pierced his throat; the bending head, depress'd
Beneath his helmet, nods upon his breast;
His shield reversed o'er the fallen warrior lies,
And everlasting slumber seals his eyes.
Antilochus, as Thoon turn'd him round,
Transpierced liis back with a dishonest wound:
The hollow vein, that to the neck extends
Along the chine, his eager javelin rends:
Supine he falls, and to his social train
Spreads his imploring arms, but spreads in vain.
'I h' exulting victor, leaping where he lay.
From his broad shoulders tore the spoils away;
His time observed: for closed by foes arouiul,
ih\ all sides thick the peals of arms resound.
His shield emboss'd the ringing storm sustains,
Hut he impervious ami untouch'd rcniains.
((rreat Neptune's care preserved from hostile rage
'IMiis youth, the joy of Nestor's glorious i'ge.)
In arms intrepid, with the first he fought,
Faced every foe, and every danger souglit;
His wingcfl lance, resistless as the wind,
Obeys each motion of ti)e master's mind!
Kestless it flies, impatient to be free,
322 THE ILIAD.
And meditates the distant enemy.
The son of Asius, Adamas, drew near,
And struck his target with the brazen spear
Fierce in his front: but Neptune wards the blow,
And blunts the javelin of th' eluded foe:
In the broad buckler half the weapon stood,
Splinter'd on earth flew half the broken wood.
Disarm'd, he mingled in the Trojan crew;
But Meriou's spear o'ertook him as he flew,
Deep in the belly's rim an entrance found,
Where sharp the pang, and mortal is the wound.
Bending he fell, and doubled to tlie ground
Lay panting. Thus an ox in fetters tied,
AVhile death's strong pangs distend his laboring side.
His bulk enormous on the field displays;
His heaving heart beats thick as ebbing life decays.
The spear the conqueror from his body drew,
And (featli's dim shadows swarm before his view.
Next brave Dei'pyrus in dust was laid;
King Helenus waved high the Thracian blade.
And smote his temples with an arm so strong.
The helm fell ofE, and roll'd amid the throng:
There for some luckier Greek it rests a prize;
For dark in death the godlike owner lies!
Eaging with grief, great Menelaiis bums,
And fraught with vengeance, to the victor turns:
That shook the ponderous lance, in act to throw;
And this stood adverse with the bended bow.
Full on his breast the Trojan arrow fell.
But harmless bounded from the plated steel.
As on some ample barn's well-hardened floor,
(The winds collected at each open door).
While the broad fan with force is whirl'd around,
Light leaps the golden grain, resulting from the
ground :
So from the steel that guards Atrides' heart,
.Repell'd to distance flies the bounding dart.
Atrides, watchful of the unwary foe.
Pierced with his lance the hand that grasp'd the bow,
And nailed it to the yew; the wounded hand
Trail'd the long lance that mark'd with blood the sand :
But good Agenor gently from the wound
The spear solicits, and the bandage bound;
A sling's soft wool, snatch'd frcm a soldier's side,
At once the tent and ligature supplied.
THE ILIAD. 323
Behold! Pisander, urged by fate's decree,
Springs through the ranks to fall, and fall by thee,
Great Menelailsl to enhance thy fame:
High-towering in the front the warrior came.
First the sharp lance was by Atrides thrown;
The lance far distant by the winds was blown.
Nor pierced Pisander through Atrides' shield:
Pisauder's spear fell shiver'd on the field.
Not so discouraged, to the future blind.
Vain dreams of conquest swell his haughty mind;
Dauntless ho rushes where the Spartan lord
Like lightning brandish'd his far beaming sword.
His left arm high opposed the shining shield:
His right beneath, the cover'd pole-axe held
(All olive's cloudy grain the handle made.
Distinct with studs, and brazen was the blade);
This on the helm discharged a noble blow:
The plume dropp'd, nodding to the plain below,
Shorn from the crest. Atrides waved his steel;
Deep through his front the weighty falchion fell:
The crashing bones before its force gave way;
In dust and blood the groaning hero lay;
Forced from their ghastly orbs, and spouting gore,
The clotted eyeballs tumble on the shore.
And fierce Atrides spurnM him as he bled,
Tore off his arms, and loud-exulting said:
"Thus, Trojans, thus, at length be taught to fear;
race perfidious, who delight in war!
Already noble deeds ye have perform'd;
A princess raped transcends a navy storm'd;
In such bold feats your impious might approve.
Without th' assistance, or the fear of Jove.
The violated rites, the ravish'd dame;
Our heroes shiughter'd, and our ships on flame.
Crimes he.ipM on crimes, sliall bend your glory down,
And whelm in ruins yon flagitious town.
thou, great father! lord of earth ami skies,
Above tiio thought of man, supremely wise!
If from thy hand the fates of mortals flow,
From whence this favor to an impious foe?
A godless crow, abandon'd and unjust,
Still broatliing rapine, viulcuoo, and lust?
The best of things, beyond their measure, cloy;
Sleep's balmy blessing, love's endearing joy;_
The feast, the dance; whate'er m;inkind desire,
324 THE ILIAD.
Even the sweet charms of sacred nnmbers tire,
But Troy for ever reaps a dire delight
In thirst of slaughter, and in lust of fight."
This said, he seized (while yet the carcass heaved)
The bloody armor, which his train received :
Then sudden mix'd among the warring creWj
And the bold son of Pylaemenes slew.
Harpalion had through Asia travell'd far,
Following his martial father to the war:
Through filial love he left his native shore,
Never, ah, never to behold it more!
His unsuccessful spear he chanced to fling
Against the target of the Spartan king;
Thus of his lance disarm'd, from death he flies.
And turns around his apprehensive eyes.
Him, through the hip, transpiercing as he fled,
The shaft of Merion mingled with the dead.
Beneath the bone the glancing point descends,
And, driving down, the swelling bladder rends:
Sunk in his sad companions' arms he lay.
And in short pan tings sobb'd his soul away
(Like some vile worm extended on the ground);
While life's red torrent gush'd from out the wound.
Him on his car the Papiilagonian train
In slow procession bore from off the plain.
The pensive father, father now no more!
Attends the mournful pomp along the shore;
And unavailing tears profusely shed;
And, unrevenged, deplored his offspring dead.
Paris from far the moving sight beheld.
With pity soften'd, and with fury swell'd :
His honorM host, a youth of matchless grace,
And loved of all the Paphlagonian race!
With his full strength he bent his angry bow,
And wing'd the feather'd vengeance at the foe.
A chief there was, the brave Enchenor named.
For riches much, and more for virtue famed.
Who held his seat in Corinth's stately town;
Polydus' son, a seer of old renown.
Oft had the father told his early doom.
By arms abroad, or slow disease at home:
He ciimb'd his vessel, prodigal of breath,
And chose the certain glorious patli to death.
Beneath his ear the pointed arrow went;
The soul came issuing at the narrow vent:
THE ILIAD. 325
His limbs, unnerved, drop useless ou the ground,
And everlasting darkness shades him round.
Xor knew great Hector how his legions yield
(Wrapp'd in the cloud and tumult of the field):
Wide on the left the force of Greece commands,
And conquest hovers o'er the Achaian bands;
"With such a tide superior virtue sway'd.
And he that shakes the solid earth gave aid.
But in the center Hector fix'd remain'd,
Where first the gates were forced, and bulwarks gain'd;
There, on the margin of the hoary deep
(Their naval station where the Ajaces keep.
And where low walls confine the beating tides.
Whose humble barrier scarce the foe divides;
Where late in fight both foot and horse engaged,
And all the thunder of the battle raged),
There join'd, the whole Bcpotian strength remains,
The proud laonians with their sweeping trains,
Locrians, and Phthians, and th' Epa^an force;
But join'd, repel not Hector's fiery course.
The flower of Athens, Stichius, Phidas, led:
Bias and great Menestheus at their head:
Meges the strong the Epagan bands controll'd,
AT)d Dracius pru<lent, and Amphion bold:
The Phthians, Medon, famed for martial might.
And brave Podarces, active in the fight.
This drew from Phylacus his noble lino;
Ipliiclus' son; and that (Oi'leus thine:
(Voung Ajax's brother, by a stolen embrace;
He dwelt far distant from his native place.
By his fier(;e stop-dame fi'om his father's reign
Expell'd and exiled for her brother slain):
These rule the Phthians, and their arms employ,
Mix'd with lio;otians, on the shores of Troy.
Now side by side, with like unwearied care.
Each Ajax labor'd througli the field of war:
So when two lordly bulls, with equal toil,
Force the bright ])longhsl)are through the fallow soil,
Join'd to one yoke the stiiljlxu'ii earth they tear.
And trace largo furrows with the shining share;
O'er their hiig(( limbs the foam des(;(ui(ls in snow.
And streams of sweat down their sour foreheads flow.
A train of heroes followed through the field,
Who bore by turns great Ajax's sevenfold shield;
Whene'er he breathed, remissive of his migiit,
326 THE ILIAD.
Tired with the incessant slaughters of the fight
No following troops his brave associate grace:
In close engagement an unpractised race,
The Locrian squadrons nor the javelin wield,
Nor bear the helm, nor lift the moony shield;
But skill'd from far the flying shaft to wing,
Or whirl the sounding pebble from the sling.
Dexterous with these they aim a certain wound,
Or fell the distant warrior to the ground.
Thus in the van the Telamonian train,
Throng'd in bright arms, a pressing light maintain:
Far in the rear the Locrian archers lie,
AVhose stones and arrows intercept the sky.
The mingled tempest on the foes they pour:
Troy's scattering orders open to the shower.
Now had the Greeks eternal fame acquired.
And the gallM Ilians to their walls retired;
But sage Polydamas, discreetly brave,
Address'd great Hector, and this counsel gave:
"Though great in all, thou seem'st averse to lend
Impartial audience to a faithful friend;
To gods and men thy matchless worth is known,
And every art of glorious war thy own;
But in cool thought and counsel to excel.
How widely differs this from warring well!
Content with what the bounteous gods have given,'
Seek not alone to engross the gifts of Heaven.
J To some the powers of bloody war belong,
J To some sweet music and the charm of song;
^To few, and wondrous few, has Jove assign'd
^A wise, extensive, all-considering mind:
Their guardians these, the nations round confess.
And towns and empires for their safety bless.
If Heaven have lodged this virtue in my breast.
Attend, Hector! what I judge the best,
See, as thou mov'st, on dangers dangers spread.
And war's whole fury burns around thy head.
Behold ! distress'd within yon hostile wall,
How many Trojans yield, disperse, or fall!
"What troops, outnumber'd, scarce the war maintain,
And what brave heroes at the ships lie slain!
Here cease thy fury: and, the chiefs and kings
Convoked to council, weigh the sum of things.
Whether (the gods succeeding our desires)
To yon tall ships to bear the Trojan fires;
THE ILIAD. 327
Or quit the fleet, and pass uiiliurt away,
Contented with the conquest of tlie day.
I fear, I fear, lest Greece, not yet undone,
Pay the large debt of last revolving sun.
Achilles, great Achilles, yet remains
On yonder decks, and yet o'erlooks the plains!"
The counsel pleased; and Hector, with a bound,
Leap'd from his chariot on the trembling ground;
Swift as he leapM his clanging arms resound.
"To guard this post (he cried) thy art employ,
And here detain the scatter'd youth of Troy;
Where yonder heroes faint, I laend my way,
And hasten back to end the doubtful day."
This said, the towering chief prepares to go,
Shakes his wliite plumes that to the breezes flow,
And seems a moving mountain topji'd with snow.
Through all his host, inspiring force, he flies,
And bids anew the martial thunder rise.
To Panthus' son, at Hector's high command
Haste the bold leaders of the Trojan band:
But round the battlements, and round the plain.
For many a chief he look'd, but look'd in vain;
De'iphobus, nor Helenus the seer,
Xor Asius' son, nor Asius self appear:
For these wore pierced with many a ghastly wound,
Some cold in death, some groaning on the ground;
Some low in dust (a mournful ol)ject) lay;
High on the wall some breatlied their souls away.
Far on the left, amid tlie throng he found
(Cheering the troops, and dealing deaths around)
The graceful Paris; whom, witli fury moved.
Opprobrious tliu.s, tli' impatient chief re})roved:
"Ill-fated Paris! slave to womankind.
As smooth of face as fraudulent of miiul!
AVhere is Dc'i[)hobus, where Asius' gone?
The godlike father, and th' intrepid son?
The force of Ilcleniis, disj)ensing fate;
And great Othryoneus, so fear'd of hite?
Jihick fate hangs o'er thee from th' avenging gods,
Imperial Troy from her foiindatio?is nods;
Whelrn'd in thy country's ruin shalt thou fall,
And one devouring vengeance swallow all."
When Paris thus: "My brother and my friend.
Thy warm impaticMice makes thy tongue olleud.
In other battles I deserved thy blame,
328 THE ILIAD.
Though then not deedless, nor unknown to fame:
But since yon rampart by thy arms lay low,
I scatter'd slaughter from my fatal bow.
The chiefs you seek on yonder shore lie slain;
Of all tliose heroes, two alone remain;
Deiphobus, and Helenus the seer,
Each now disabled by a hostile spear.
Go then, successful, where thy soul insjDires:
Tliis heart and hand shall second all thy fires:
What with this arm I can, prepare to know.
Till death for death be paid, and blow for blow.
But 'tis not ours, with forces not our own
To combat: strength is of the gods alone."
These words the hero's angry mind assuage:
Then fierce they mingle where the thickest rage.
Around Polydamas, distain'd with blood,
Cebrion, Phalces, stern Ortheeus stood,
Palmus with Polypoetes the divine,
And two bold brothers of Hippotion's line
(Wlio reach'd fair Ilion, from Ascania far.
The former day; the next engaged in war).
As when from gloomy clouds a whirlwind springs,
That bears Jove's thunder on its dreadful wings,
Wide o'er the blasted fields the tempest sweeps;
Then, gather'd, settles on the hoary deeps;
The afflicted deeps tumultuous mix and roar;
The waves behind impel the waves before.
Wide rolling, foaming high, and tumbling to the shore:
Thus rank on rank, the thick battalions throng.
Chief urged on chief, and man drove man along.
Far o'er the plains, in dreadful order bright,
The brazen arms reflect a beamy light:
Full in the blazing van great Hector shined.
Like Mars commission'd to confound mankind.
Before him flaming his enormous shield.
Like the broad sun, illumined all the field;
His nodding helm emits a streamy ray;
His piercing eyes through all the battle stray,
And, while beneath his targe he flash'd along.
Shot terrors round, that wither'd e'en the strong.
Thus stalk'd he, dreadful; death was in his look:
Whole nations fear'd; but not an Argive shook.
The towering Ajax, with an ample stride,
Advanced the first, and thus the. chief defied:
■'Hector! come on; thy empty threats forbear;
THE ILIAD. 329
'Tis not th}' arm, 'tis thundering Jove we fear:
The skill of war to us not idly given,
Lol Greece is humbled, not by Troy, but Heaven.
Vain are the hopes that liaughty mind imparts,
To force our fleet: the Greeks have hands and hearts.
Long ere in flames our lofty navy fall.
Your boasted city, and your god-built wall,
Shall sink beneath us, smoking on the ground;
And spread a long unmeasured ruin round.
Tlie time shall come, when, chased along the plain,
Even thou shalt call on Jove, and call in vain;
Even thou shalt wish, to aid thy desperate course,
The wings of falcons for thy flying horse;
Shalt run, forgetful of a warrior's fame,
AVhile clouds of friendly dust conceal thy shame."
As thus he spoke, behold, in open view.
On sounding wings a dexter eagle flew.
To Jove's glad omen all the Grecians rise,
And hail, witii shouts, his progress through the skies:
Far-echoing clamors bound from side to side;
They ceased; and thus the chief of Troy replied:
"From whence this menace, this insulting strain?
Enormous boaster! doom'd to vaunt in vain.
So may the gods on Hector life bestow,
(Not that short life which mortals lead below,
But such as those of Jove's high lineage born,
The blue-eyed maid, or he that gihls the morn),
As this decisive day shall end the fame
Of Greece, and Argos be no more a name.
And thou, im|)orious! if tliy madness wait
The lance of Hector, thou siialt meet thy fate:
Tliat giant-corse, extended on the shore.
Shall largely feast the fowls with fat and gore.'*
He said; and like a lion stalk'd along:
^Vitll shouts incessant earth and ocean rung,
Sent from his following host: the Grecian train
"With answering thunders fill'd the echoing plain;
A shout that tore heaven's concave, an<l, aljovo,
Shook the iix'd splendors of the throne of Jove.
^
liOs /\NccL,es
L.OE Angeles. ■ .
330 THE ILIAD.
BOOK XIY.*
ARGUMENT.
JUN'O DECEIVES JUPITEE BY THE gIrDLE OF VENUS.
Nestor, sitting at the table witli Macliaon, is alarmed with the
increasing clamor of war, and hastens to Agamemnon; on his
way he meets that prince with Diomed and Ulysses, whom
he informs of the extremity of the danger. Agamemnon
proposes to make their escape by night, which Ulysses with-
stands; to which Diomed adds his advice, that, wounded as
they were, they should go forth and encouralge the army
with their presence, which advice is pursued. Juno, seeing
the partiality of Jupiter to the Trojans, forms a design to
overreach him: she sets off her charms with the utmost care,
and (the more surely to euchant him) obtains the magic girdle
of Venus. She then applies herself to the god of sleep, and,
with some diflBculty, persuades him to seal the eyes of
Jupiter; this done, she goes to Mount Ida, where the god, at
first sight, is ravished with her beauty, sinks in her em-
braces, and is laid asleep. Nepture takes advantage of hig
slumber, and succcrs the Greeks: Hector is struck to the
ground with a prodigious stone by Ajax, and carried off from
the battle; several actions succeed, till the Trojans, much
distressed, are obliged to give way; the lesser Ajax signal-
izes himself in a particular manner.
But not the genial feast, nor flowing bowl,
Could charm the cares of Nestor's watchful soul;
His startled ears the increasing cries attend;
Then thus, impatient, to his wounded friend:
"What new alarm, divine Machaon, say,
What mix'd events attend this mighty day?
Hark! how the shouts divide, and how they meet,
And now come full, and thicken to the fleet!
Here with the cordial draught dispel thy care,
* This book forms a most agreeable interruption to the con-
tinuous round of battles, which occupy the latter part of the Iliad.
It is as well to observe, that the sameness of these scenes renders
many notes unnecessary.
THE ILIAD. 331
Let Hecaniede the strengthening bath prepare,
Refresh thy wound, and cleanse the clotted gore;
While I the adventures of the day explore."
He said: and, seizing Thrasymedes' shield
(His valiant offspring), hasten'd to the field
(That day the son his father's buckler bore);
Then snatch'd a lance, and issued from the door.
Soon as the prospect opeu'd to his view.
His wounded eyes the scene of sorrow knew;
Dire disarrayl the tumult of the fight.
The wall in ruins, and the Greeks in flight.
As when old ocean's silent surface sleeps,
The Avaves just heaving on the purple deeps:
While yet the expected tempest hands on high,
Weighs down the cloud, and blackens in the sky,
The mass of waters will no wind obey;
Jove sends one gust, and bids them roll away.
While wavering counsels thus his mind engage,
Fluctuates in doubtful tiiought the Pylian sage;
To join the host, or to the general haste; '
Debating long, he fixes on the last:
Yet, as he moves, the sight his bosom warms,
The field rings dreadful with the clang of arms,
The gleaming falchions flash, the javelins fly;
IJlows echo blows, and all or kill or die.
Him, in his march, the wounded princes meet.
By tardy steps ascending from the fleet:
Tlie king of men, Ulysses the divine,
And who to Tydens owes his noble line.*
(Their ships at distance from tlio battle stand,
In lines advanced along the shelving strand:
Whose bay, the fleet unable to contain
At length; beside the margin of tiie main,
Rank above rank, the crowded ships they moor:
Who landed first, lay liigliest on the shore.)
Supported on the spears, they took their way.
Unfit to fight, Ijiit anxious for the day.
Nestor's approacli alarm 'd each (irecian breast,
Whom thus the general of the host address'd:
"0 grace and glory of the Aniiaian name;
What drives thee, N'estor, from the Hold of fame?
Shall then proud Hector sec his boast fulfill'd,
Our fleets in ashes, and our iierocs kill'dV
*WIio to Tydeua owes, i. e., Diomed.
333 THE ILIAD.
Such was his threat, ah! now too soon made good,
On many a Grecian bosom writ in blood.
Is every heart inflamed with equal rage
Against your king, nor will one chief engage?
And have I lived to see with mournful eyes
In every Greek a new Achilles rise?"
Gerenian Nestor then: "So fate has will'd,
And all-confirming time has fate fulfill'd.
Not he that thunders from the aerial bower,
Not Jove himself, upon the past has power.
The wall, our late inviolable bound,
And best defence, lies smokiiig on the ground:
Even to the ships their conquering arms extend,
And groans of slaughter'd Greeks to heaven ascend.
On speedy measures then employ your thought
In such distress! if counsel profit aught:
Arms cannot much: though Mars our souls incite,
These gaping wounds withhold us from the fight."
To him the monarch: "That our army bends.
That Troy triumphant our high fleet ascends,
And that the rampart, late our surest trust
And best defence, lies smoking in the dust;
All this from Jove's afflictive hand we bear.
Who, far from Argos, wills our ruin here.
Past are the days when happier Greece was blest,
And all his favor, all his aid conf ess'd ;
Now heaven averse, our hands from battle ties.
And lifts the Trojan glory to the skies.
Cease we at length to waste our blood in vain,
And launch what ships lie nearest to the main.
Leave these at anchor, till the coming night:
Then, if impetuous Troy forbear the fight.
Bring all to sea, and hoist each sail for flight.
/^Better from evils, well foreseen, to run.
Than perish in the danger we may shun."
Thus he. The sage Ulysses thus replied,
While anger flash'd from his disdainful eyes:
"What shameful words (unkingly as thou art)
Fall from that trembling tongue and timorous heart?
Oil were thy sway the curse of meaner powers.
And thou the shame of any host but ours!
A host, by Jove endued with martial might.
And taught to conquer, or to fall in fight:
Adventurous combats and bold wars to wage,
Employ'd our youth, and yet employs our age.
THE ILIAD. 333
And wilt thon thus desert the Trojan plain?
And have whole streams of.blood been spilt in vain?
In such base sentence if thon conch thy fear,
Speak it in whispers, lest a Greek should hear.
Lives here a man so dead to fame, who dares
To think such meanness, or the thought declares?
And comes it even from him whose sovereign sway
The banded legions of all Greece obey?
Is this a general's voice that calls to flight,
While war hangs doubtful, while his soldiers fight?
What more could Troy? AVhat yet their fate denies
Thou givest the foe: all Greece becomes their prize.
No more the troops (our hoisted sails in view,
Themselves abandon'd) shall the fight pursue;
But thy ships flying, with despair shall see;
And owe destructiun to a prince like thee."
"Thy just reproofs (Atrides calm replies)
Like arrows pierce me, for thy words are wise.
Unwilling as I am to lose the host,
I force not Greece to quit this hateful coast;
Glad I submit, whoe'er, or young, or old,
Aught, more conducive to our weal, unfold."
Tydides cut him short, and thus began:
"Such counsel if you seek, behold the man
Who boldly gives it, and what he shall say,
Young though he be, disdain not to obey:
A youtli, who from the mighty Tydeus springs,
^lay speak to councils and assembled kings.
Hear then in me the great (Knides' son,
Whose honor'd dust (his race of glory run)
Lies wholm'd in ruins of the Theban wall;
Jiravo in his life, and glorious in his fall.
With three bold sons was generous Prothous bless'd,
Who Pleuron's walls and Galydon possess'd;
Molas and Agrius, but (who far surjjass'd
The rest in courage) (Eneus was the last.
From liitn, my sire. From Calydon exijoll'd,
lie pass'd to Argos, and in exile dwell'd;
'J'he monarch's daughter there (so Jove ordain'd)
' He won, and flourish'd where Adrastus reign'd;
There, rich in fortune's gifts, his acres till'd,
Beheld his vines their lifpiid harvest yield,
And numerous flocks that whiien'd all the field.
Sncii Tydeus was, the foremost once in fame!
Nor lives in Greece a stranger to his name.
334 THE ILIAD.
Then, what for common good my thoughts inspire,
Attend, and in the son respect the sire.
Though sore of battle, though with wounds oppress'd,
Let each go forth, and animate the rest.
Advance the glory which he cannot share,
Though not partaker, witness of the war.
But lest new wounds on wounds o'erpower ns quite,
Beyond the missile javelin's sounding flight,
Safe let us stand; and, from the tumult far,
Ins2)ire che ranks, and rule the distant war."
He added not; the listening kings obey,
Slow moving on; Atrides leads the way.
The god of ocean (to inflame their rage)
Appears a warrior furrowed o'er with age;
Press'd in his own, the general's hand he took,
And thus the venerable hero spoke:
"Atrides! lo! with what disdainful eye
Achilles sees his country's forces fly;
Blind, impious man I whose anger is his guide,
Who glories in unutterable pride.
So may he perish, so may Jove disclaim
The wretch relentless, and o'erwhelm with shame!
But Heaven forsakes not thee: o'er yonder sands
Soon shalt thou view the scatter'd Trojan bands
Fly diverse; while proud kings, and chief renown'd.
Driven heaps on heaps, with clouds involved around
Of rolling dust, their winged wheels employ
To hide their ignominious heads in Troy."
He spoke, then rush'd amid the warrior crew,
And sent his voice before him as he flew,
Ijoud, as the shout encountering armies yield
When twice ten thousand shake the laboring field;
Such was the voice, and such the thundering sound
Of him whose trident rends the solid ground.
Each Argive bosom beats to meet the fight.
And grisly war appears a pieasing sight.
Meantime Saturnia from Olympus' brow.
High-throned in gold, beheld the fields below;
With joy the glorious conflict she survey'd.
Where her great brother gave the Grecians aid.
But placed aloft, on Ida's shady height
She sees her Jove, and trembles at the sight.
Jove to deceive, what methods shall she try.
What arts, to blind his all-beholding eye?
C At length she trusts her power; resolved to prove
THE ILIAD. 335
The old, yet still successful, cheat of love;
Against his wisdom to oppose her charms,
And lull the lord of thunders in her arms.
Swift to her bright apartment she repairs,
Sacred to dress and beaut3''s pleasing cares;
With skill divine had Vulcan forra'd the bower,
Safe from access of each intruding power.
Touch'd with her secret key, the doors unfold:
Self-closed, behind her shut the valves of gold.
Here first she bathes; and round her body pours
Soft oils of fragrance, and ambrosial showers;
The winds, perfumed, the balmy gale convey
Through heaven, through earth, and all the aerial way
Spirit divine! whose exhalation greets
The sense of gods with more than mortal sweets.
Thus while she breathed of heaven, with decent pride
Her artfulhands the radiant tresses tied;
Part on her head in shining ringlets roll'd.
Part o'er her shoulders waved like melted gold.
Around her next a heavenly mantle flow'd,
That rich with Pallas' labo'r'd colors glow'd:
Large clasps of gold the foldings gather'd round,
A golden zone her swelling bosom bound.
Far-beaming pendants tremble in her ear,
Each gem illumined witli a triple star.
Then o'er her head she cast a veil more white
Than new-fallen snow, and dazzling as the light.
Last her fair feet celestial sandals grace.
Tiuis issuing radiant with majestic pace,
Forth from the dome the imperial goddess moves,
And calls the mother of the smiles and loves.
"How long (to Venus thus apart she cried)
Shall human strife celestial minds divide?
Ah yet, will Vonns aid Saturn ia's joy.
And sot aside the cause of (Jreeco and Troy?"
"Let heaven's dread empress (Cythenea said)
Speak her request, and deem her will ol)ey'd."
"Then grant mn (said the queen) those coiKjUcring
charms,
That power, which mortals and immortals warms.
That love, wlii<di melts mankind in lierc(! desires,
And burns the sons of heaven with sacr(!d lires!
"For lo! I haste to those remote abodes,
Where the gr^at parents (sacred source of gods!)
Ocean and 'L'etlivs their old em])ire keep,
336 THE ILIAD.
On the last limits of the land and deep.
In their kind arms my tender years were past;
What time old Saturn, from Olympus cast,
Of upper heaven to Jove resign'd the reign,
Whelm'd under the huge mass of earth and main.
For strife, I hear, has made the union cease.
Which held so long that ancient pair in peace.
What honor, and what love, shall I obtain,
If I compose those fatal feuds again;
Once more their minds in mutual ties engage,
And, what my youth has owed, repay their age!"
She said. With awe divine, the queen of love
Obey'd the sister and the wife of Jove;
And" from her fragrant breast the zone embraced,*
With various skill and high embroidery graced.
In this was every art, and every charm.
To win the wisest, and the coldest warm:
Fond love, the gentle vow, the gay desire,
The kind deceit, the still-reviving i3re,
Persuasive speech, and the more persuasive sighs,
Silence that spoke, and eloquence of eyes.
This on her hand the Cyprian Goddess laid;
"Take this and with it all thy wish," she said.
With smiles she took the charm; and smiling press'd
The powerful cestus to her snowy breast.
Then Venus to the courts of Jove withdrew;
Whilst from Olympus pleased Saturuia flew.
O'er high Pieria thence her course she bore,
O'er fair Emathia'a ever-pleasing shore.
O'er Hem us' hills with snow eternal crown'd;
Nor once her flying foot approach 'd the ground.
Then taking wing from Athos' lofty steep,
She speeds to Lemnos o'er the rolling deep,
And seeks the cave of Death's half-brother, Sleep. f
"Sweet pleasing Sleep! (Saturnia thus began)
"Who spread'st thy empire o'er each god and man:
If e'er obsequious to thy Juno's will,
* Compare Tasso:
Teneri sdegni, e placide, e tranquille
Repulse, e cari vezzi, e liete paci,
Sorrisi, parolette, e dolci stille
Di pianto, e sospir troncbi, e innlli baci."
— Gier. Lib. xvi. 25.
f Compare tbe description of tbe dwelling of Sleep in Orlando
Furioso, bk. vi.
THE ILIAD. 337
power of slumbers! hear, and favor still.
Shed they soft dews on Jove's immortal eyes,
AVhile sunk iu love's entrancing joys he lies.
A splendid footstool, and a throne, that shine
With gold uitfuding, Somnns, shall be thine;
The work of Vulcan; to indulge thy ease.
When wine and feasts thy golden luimors please."
"Imperial dame (the balmy power replies).
Great Saturn's heir, and empress of the skies!
O'er other gods I spread my easy chain;
Tiie sire of all, old Ocean, owns my reign,
And his hush'd waves lie silent on the main.
But how, unbidden, shall I dare to steep
Jove's awful temples in the dew of sleep?
Long since too venturous at thy bold command
On those eternal lids I laid my hand;
AVhat time, deserting Ilion's wasted plain,
His conquering son, Alcides, plough'd the main.
When lo! the deeps arise, the tempests roar,
And drive the hero to the Coan shore:
Great Jove, awaking, shook the blest abodes
With rising wrath, and tumbled gods on gods;
Me chief he sought, and from the realms on high
Uad hurl'd indignant to the nether sky,
But gentle Night, to whom I fled for aid
(Tiie friend of earth and heaven), her wings display'd ;
Impower'd the wrath of gods and men to tame,
Even Jovo revered the venerable dame."
"Vain are thy fears (the queen of heaven replies,
And, speaking, rolls her large majestic eyes);
Tliink'st thou that 'i'roy has Jove's high favor won,
Like great Alcides, his all-conquering son?
Hear, and obey the mistress of the skies,
Nor U)V the deed expect a vulgar prize;
For know, thy loved-one shall be ever thine,
The youngest Gra<;e, Pasithae the divine.*
"Swear then (he said) by those tremendous floods
That roar through hell, and Ijiiid the invoking gods:
Let the great parent earth one hand sustain.
And stretch the other o'er the sacred main;
* " 'I'wice seven, tlin clianiiirifr daiifjliters of tlie main —
ArouncJ my jjcrsoii wait, and bear my train;
Succeed my wisli, and sfcoiid my d<!sign,
The faireut, Deiopeia, sliall l»e fliine."
— Drydeu'h Virgil, A'm. i. 107, .scq.
\
338 THE ILIAD.
Call the black Titans, that with Chronos dwell,
To hear and witness from the depths of hell,
That she, my loved-one, shall be ever mine,
The youngest Grace, Pasithae the divine."
The qneen assents, and from the infernal bowers
Invokes the sable subtartarean powers,
And those who rule the inviolable floods,
Whom mortals name the dread Titaiiian gods.
Then swift as wind, o'er Lemnos' smoky isle
They wing their way, and Imbrus' sea-beat soil;
Through air, unseen, involved in darkness glide,
And light on Lectos, on the point of Ide
(Mother of savages, whose echoing hills
Are heard resounding with a hundred rills):
Fair Ida trembles underneath the god:
Hush'd are her mountains, and her forests nod.
There on a fir, whose spiry branches rise
To join its summit to the neighboring skies;
Dark in embowering shade, conceal'd from sight,
Sat Slee]), in likeness of the bird of night
(Chalcis his name by those of heavenly birth
But call'd Cymindis by the race of earth).
To Ida's top successful Juno flies;
Great Jove surveys her with desiring eyes;
The god, whose lightning sets the heavens on fire,
Through all his bosom feels the fierce desire;
Fierce as when first by stealth he seized her cbarms,
Mix'd with her soul, and melted in her arms:
Fix'd on her eyes he fed his eager look,
Then press'd her hand, and thus with transport spoke:
''Why comes my goddess from the ethereal sky,
And not her steeds and flaming chariot nigh?"
Then she — "I haste to those renjote abodes
Where the great parents of the deathless gods,
The reverend Ocean and gray Tethys, reign,
On the last limits of the land and main.
I visit these, to whose indulgent cares
I owe the nursing of my tender years:
For strife, I hear, has made that union cease
Which held so long that ancient pair in peace.
The steeds, prepared my chariot to convey
O'er earth and seas, and through the aerial way,
Wait under Ide: of thy superior power
To ask consent, I leave the Olympian bower;
Nor seek, unknown to thee, the sacred cells
THE ILIAD. 339
Deep under seas, where hoary Ocean dwells." ''*^~
"For that (said Jove) suffice another day!
But eager love denies the least delay.
Let softer cares the present hour employ,
And be these moments sacred all to joy.
Ne'er did my soul so strong a passion prove
Or for an earthly, or a heavenly love:
Not when I press'd Ixion's matchless dame.
Whence rose Pirithous like the gods in fame:
Not when fair Dauati felt the shower of gold
Stream into life, whence Perseus brave and bold.
Not thus I burn'd for either Theban dame
(Bacchus from this, from that Alcides came):
Nor Phoenix's daughter, beautiful and young.
Whence godlike Rhadamanth and Minos sprung.*
Not thus I burn'd for fair Latona's face.
Nor comelier Ceres' more majestic grace.
Not thus even for thyself I felt desire.
As now my veins receive the pleasing dre."
He spoke; the goddess with the charming eyes
Glows celestial red, and thus replies:
"Is this a scene of love? On Ida's height,
Exposed to mortal and immortal sight!
Our joys profaned by each familiar eye;
The sport of heaven, and fable of the sky.
How shall I e'er review the blest abodes,
Or mix among the senate of the gods?
(Shall I not think, that, with disorder'd charms,
All heaven beholds me recent from thy arms?
With skill divine has Vulcan form'd thy bower.
Sacred to love and to the genial hour;
If such thy will, to that recess retire,
In secret there indulge thy soft desire."
* And }fino8. "By Homer, Minos is described as the son of
Jupiter, and of the daughter of Fhcenix, whom all succeeding,'
aiitliors name Europa; and lie; is tlius carried haclt into the n^
inotest period of Cretan anti()uity known to tlie poet, apparently
as a native iii^ro, illustrious enougli for a divin*^ jjan-nla^n-, and
too ancient to allow his dctscent to be traced to any olhcr source.
But in a f^enealojry recorded by later writers, lie is likewise the
adopted son of Asli-rius, as descendant of Dorus, the son of Helen,
and is thus connertt-d with a colony said to have bei-n led into
Creta by Tentamus, or 'I'ectanius, sfni of Dorus, who is rdutcd
either to have crosserl over from Thessaly, or to have embarked
at Malea after having led bis followers by land into Lacunia." —
Tbirlwall, p. lUC, seq.
340 THE ILIAD.
She ceased; and, smiling with superior love,
Thus answer'd mild the cloud-compelling Jove:
"Nor god nor mortal shall our joys behold,
Shaded with clouds, and circumfused in gold;
Not even the sun, who darts through heaven his rays,
And whose broad eye the extended earth surveys."
Gazing he spoke, and, kindling at the view.
His eager arms around the goddess threw.
Glad Earth perceives, and from her bosom pours
Unbidden herbs and voluntary flowers:
Thick new-born violets a soft carpet spread.
And clustering lotos swell'd the rising bed.
And sudden hyacinths the turf bestrow,*
The flamy crocus made the mountain glow.
There golden clouds conceal the heavenly pair,
Steep'd in soft joys and circumfused with air;
Celestial dews, descending o'er the ground,
Perfume the mount, and breathe ambrosia round:
At length, with love and sleep's soft power oppress'd,
The panting thunderer nods, and sinks to rest.
Now to the navy borne on silent wings,
To Neptune's ear soft Sleep his message brings;
Beside him sudden, unperceived, he stood,
And thus with gentle words address'd the god:
"Now, Neptune! now, the important hour employ,
To check a while the haughty hopes of Troy:
While Jove yet rests, while yet my vapors shed
The golden vision round his sacred head;
For Juno's love, and Somnus' pleasing ties,
Have closed those awful and eternal eyes!"
Thus having said, the power of slumber flew,
On human lids to drop the balmy dew.
Neptune, with zeal increased, renews his care,
And towering in the foremost ranks of war.
Indignant thus — "Oh once of martial fame!
Greeks! If yet ye can deserve the name!
This half-recover'd day shall Troy obtain?
Shall Hector thunder at your ships again?
Lo! still he vaunts, and threats the fleet with fires, m
* Milton has emulated this passage, in describing the couch of
oiir first parents:
" Underneath the violet,
Crocus, and hyacinth with ilch inlay,
'Broider'd the ground." ^"^
— " Paradise Lost," iv. 700.
THE ILIAD. 341
While stern Achilles in his wrath retires.
One hero's loss too tamely you deplore.
Be still yourselves, and ye shall need no more.
Oh yet, if glory any bosom warms.
Brace on your firmest helms, and stand to arms:
His strongest spear each valiant Grecian wield,
Each valiant Grecian seize his broadest shield;
Let to the weak the lighter arms belong.
The ponderous targe be wielded by the strong.
Thus arm'd, not Hector shall our presence stay;
Myself, ye Greeks! myself will lead the way."
The troops assent; their martial arms they change:
The busy chiefs their banded legions range.
The kings, though wounded, and oppress'd with pain,
With helpful hands themselves assist the train.
The strong and cumbrous arms the valiant wield,
The weaker warrior takes a lighter shield.
Thus sheath'd in shining brass, in bright array
The legions march, and Neptune leads the way:
His brandish'd falchion flames before their eyes,
Like lightning flashing through the frighted skies.
Clad in his might, the earth-shaking power appears,
Pale mortals tremble, and confess tiieir fears.
Troy's great defender stands alone unawed.
Arms his proud host, and dares oppose a god:
And lo! the god, and wondrous man, appear;
The sea's stern ruler there, and Hectoi' here.
The roaring main, at her great master's call.
Rose in huge ranks, and forni'd a watery wall
Around the ships: seas hanging o'er the shores,
lioth armies joins, earth tiiunders, ocean roars.
Not half so loud the bellowing deeps resound,
When stormy wiiuls disclose the dark profound:
Less loud the winds that from the yEolian hall
JJoar through the woods, and make whole forests fall;
Less loud the woods, when flames in torrents pour,
Catch the dry mountain, and its shades devour:
With such a rage the meeting hosts are driven.
And such a cianujr shakes the sounding heaven.
Tlie first bold javelin, urged by Hector's force,
Direct at Ajax's bosom winged its rourso:
l»ul there no pass the crossing bells afTnid
(One braced his shield, and one sustain'd his sword).
Then b,u;k the disappointe*! Trojan ijrcw.
And cursed the lance that unavailing flew:
343 THE ILIAD.
But 'scaped not Ajax; his tempestuous hand
A ponderous stone upheaving from the sand
(Where lieaps laid loose beneath the warrior's feet,
Or served to ballast, or to prop the fleet),
Toss'd round and round, the missive marble flings;
On the razed shield the fallen ruin rings,
Full on his breast and throat with force descends;
Nor deaden'd there its giddy fury spends,
But whirling on, with many a fiery round,
Smokes in the dust, and ploughs into the ground.
As when the bolt, red-hissing from above,
I)arts on the consecrated plant of Jove,
The mountain-oak in flaming ruin lies.
Black from the blow, and smokes of sulphur rise:
Stiff with amaze the pale beholders stand.
And own the terrors of the almighty hand!
So lies great Hector prostrate on the shore;
His slacken'd hand deserts the lance it bore;
His following shield the fallen chief o'erspread;
Beneath his helmet dropp'd his fainting head;
His load of armor, sinking to the ground,
Clanks on the field, a dead aiid hollow sound.
Loud shouts of triumph fill the crowded plain;
Greece sees, in hope, Troy's great defender slain:
All spring to seize him; storms of arrows fly.
And thicker javelins intercept the sky.
In vain an iron tempest hisses round;
He lies protected, and, without a wound.*
Polydamas, Agenor the divine,
The pious warrior of Anchises' line,
And each bold leader of the Lycian band,
With covering shields (a friendly circle) stand.
His mournful followers, with assistant care.
The groaning hero to his chariot bear;
His foaming coursers, swifter than the wind.
Speed to the town, and leave the war behind.
When now they touch'd the mead's enamell'd side,
Where gentle Xanthus rolls his easy tide,
* He lies protected.
" Forth witli on all sides to bis aid was run,
By angels many and strong, ^^ Lo interpos'd
Defence, while others bore him on their shields
Back to his chariot, where it stood retir'd
From off tlie files of war; there they him laid,
Gnashing for anguish, and despite, and shame."
— " Paradise Lost," vi. 335, seq.
TEE ILIAD. 343
With watery drops the chief they sprinkle round.
Placed on the margin of the flowery ground.
Eaised on his knees, li-e now ejects the gore;
Now faints anew, low-sinking on the shore;
By tits he hreathes, half views the fleeting skies,
And seals again, by fits, his swimming eyes.
Soon as the Greeks the chief's retreat beheld,
With double fury each invades the field.
Oilean Ajax first his javelin sped.
Pierced by whose point tbe son of Enops bled
(Satnius the brave, whom beauteous Nei's bore
Amidst her flocks on Satnio's silver shore);
Struck through the belly's rim, the warrior lies
Supine, and shades eternal veil his eyes.
An arduous battle rose around the dead;
By turns the Greeks, by turns the Trojans bled.
Fired with revenge, Polydamas drew ne;ir,
And at Prothoenor shook the trembling spear;
The driving javelin through his shoulder thrust,
He sinks to earth, and grasps tne bloody dust.
"Lo thus (the victor cries) we rule the field.
And thus their arms the race of Panthus wield:
From this unerring hand there flies no dart
But bathes its point within a Grecian heart.
Propp'd on that spear to which thou owest thy fall,
Go, guide thy darksome steps to Pluto's dreary hall.
He said, ami sorrow touch'd each Argive breast;
The soul of Ajax buru'd above the rest.
As by his side the groaning warrior fell.
At the fierce foe ho launch'd his ])iercing steel.
The foe, reclining, shunn'd the flying death;
IJnt fate, Archilochus, demaiuls thy bi'oath :
Thy lofty birth no succor could impart,
Tlio wings of death o'ertook tluio on the dart;
Swift to perform lieaven's fatal will, it lied
Full on the juncture of the neck and head,
And took the joint, and cut the nerves in twain;
T'he dropping head first tuml)Ied on the ])lain.
So just the stroke, that yet the body stood
Erect, then roll'd along the sands in blood.
"Here, proud Polydamas, iiorc turn thy eyes!
(The towering Ajax loud-insulting eyes:)
Say, is this chief extended on the plain
A worthy vengeanco for I'rothoMior slain?
Mark well his port! liis figure and his face.
344 THE ILIAD.
Nor speak him vulgar, nor of vulgar race;
Some lines, methinks may make his lineage known,
Autenor's brother, or perhaps his son."
He spake, and smiled severe, for well he knew
The bleeding youth: Troy sadden'd at the view.
But furious Acamas avenged his cause;
As Promachus his slaughter'd brother draws,
He pierced his heart — "Such fate attends yon all,
Proud Argives! destined by our arms to fall.
Not Troy alone, but haughty Greece, shall share
The toils, the sorrows, and the wounds of war.
Behold your Promachus deprived of breath,
A victim owed to ray brave brother's death.
Not unappeased he enters Pluto's gate.
Who leaves a brother to revenge his fate."
Heart-piercing anguish struck the Grecian host,
Bat touch'd the breast of bold Peneleus most;
At the proud boaster he directs his course;
The boaster flies, and shuns superior force.
But young Ilioneus received the spear;
Ilioneus, his father's only care
(Phorbas the rich, of all the Trojan train
Whom Hermes loved, and taught the arts of gain):
Full in his eye the weapon chanced to fall,
And from the fibres scoop'd the rooted ball,
Drove through the neck, and hurl'd him to the plain;
He lifts his miserable arms in vain!
Swift his broad falchion fierce Peneleus spread.
And from the spouting shoulders struck his head;
To earth at once the head and helmet fly;
The lance, yet sticking through the bleeding eye.
The victor seized; and, as aloft he shook
The gory visage, thus insulting spoke:
"Trojans! your great Ilioneus behold!
Haste, to his father let the tale be told :
Let his high roofs resound with frantic woe,
Such as the house of Promachus must know;
Let doleful tidings greet his mother's ear.
Such as to Promachus' sad spouse we bear,
When we victorious shall to Greece return,
And the pale matron in our triumphs mourn."
Dreadful he spoke, then toss'd the head on high;
The Trojans hear, they tremble, and they fly:
Aghast they gaze around the fleet and wall.
And dread the ruin that impends on all.
THE ILIAD. 345
Daughters of Jove! that on Olympus shine,
Ye all-heholding, all-recording nine:
say, when Neptune made proud Ilion yield,
Wliat chief, wliat hero first embrued the field?
Of all the Grecians what immortal name,
And whose bless'd trophies, will ye raise to fame?
Thou first, great Ajax! on the ensanguined plain
Laid Hyrtius, leader of the Mysian train,
Phalces and Mermer, Nestor's son o'erthrew
Bold Merion, Morys and Hippotion slew.
Strong Periphffites and Prothoon bled,
By Tencer's arrows mingled with the dead,
Pierced in the flank by Menelaiis' steel.
His people's pastor, ITyperenor fell;
Eternal darkness wrapp'd the warrior round,
And the fierce soul came rushing through the wound.
But stretch'd in heajis before Oi'leus' son.
Fall mighty numbers, miglity numbers run;
Ajax the less, of all the Grecian race
Skill'd in pursuit, and swiftest in the chase.
346 THE ILIAD.
BOOK XV.
ARGUMENT.
THE FIFTH BATTLE AT THE SHIPS; AND THE ACTS OF
AJAX.
Jupiter, awaking, sees the Trojans repulsed from the trenches.
Hector in a swoon, and Xeptuue at the head of the Greeks:
he is highly incensed at the artifice of Juno, who appeases
him by her submissions; she is then sent to Iris and Apollo.
Juno, repairing to the assembly of the gods, attempts, with
extraordinary address, to incense them against Jupiter; in
particular she touches Mars with a violent resentment; he is
ready to take arms, but is prevented by Minerva. Iris and
Apollo obey the orders of Jupiter; Iris commands Neptune
to leave the battle, to which, after much reluctance and
passion, he consents. Apollo reinspires Hector with vigor,
brings him back to the battle, marches before him with his
aegis, and turns the fortune of the fight. He breaks down
great part of the Grecian wall; the Trojans rush in and
attempt to fire the first line of the fieet, but are, as yet, re-
pelled by the greater Ajax with a prodigious slaughter.
Now in swift flight they pass the trench profound,
And many a chief lay gasping on the ground :
Tlieu stopp'd and panted, where the chariots lie,
Fear on their cheelv, aud horror in tlieir eye.
Meanwhile, awaken'd from his dream of love,
On Ida's summit sat imperial Jove:
Round the wide fields he cast a careful view.
There saw the Trojans fly, the Greeks pursue;
These proud in arms, those scatter'd o'er the plain,
And, 'midst the war, the monarch of the main.
Not far, great Hector on the dust he spies
(His sad associates round weeping eyes).
Ejecting blood, and panting yet for breath,
His senses wandering to the verge of death.
The god beheld him with a pitying look.
And thus, incensed, to fraudful Juno spoke:
"0 thou, still adverse to the eternal will.
Forever studious in promoting ill!
THE ILIAD. 347
Thy arts have made the godlike Hector yield,
And driven his conquering squadrons from the field.
Canst thou, unhappy in thy wiles, withstand
Our power immense, and brave the almighty hand?
Hast thou forgot, when, bound and fix'd on high,
From the vast concave of the spangled sky,
I hung thee trembling in a golden chain.
And all the raging gods opposed in vain?
Headlong I hurl'd them from the Olympian hall,
Stunn'd in the whirl, and breathless with the fall.
For godlike Hercules these deeds were done,
Nor seera'd the vengeance worthy such a son:
When, by thy wiles induced, fierce Boreas toss'd
The shipwreck'd hero on the Coan coast,
Him through a thousand forms of death 1 bore,
And sent to Argos, and his native shore.
Hear this, remember, and our fury dread,
Nor pull the unwilling vengeance on thy head;
Lest arts and blandishments successless prove,
Thy soft deceits, and well-dissembled love."
The Thunderer spoke: imperial Juno mourn'd,
And, trembling, these submissive words return'd:
"By every oath tiiat powers immortal ties,
The foodful eartli and all-infolding skies;
By thy black waves, tremendous Styx! that flow
Through the drear realms of gliding ghosts below;
By the dread honors of thy sacred head.
And that unbroken vow, our virgin bed!
Not by my arts the ruler of the main
Steeps Troy in blood, and ranges round the plain:
By his own ardor, his own pity sway'd.
To help his Greeks, he fought and disobey'd:
pjlse had thy Juno better counsels given.
And taught submission to the sire of heaven."
''Think'st thou with me? fair oini)ress uf the skies!
(The immortal father with a smile replies;)
Then soon the haughty sea-god shall obey.
Nor dare to act but when we [joint the way.
If truth inspires thy tongue, proclaim our will
To yon bright synod on the Olymjiian hill;
Our high (Iffcreo let various Iris know.
And call the god tliat bears the silver bow.
Let her descend, and from the embattled plain
Command the sea-god to his watery reign:
348 TEE ILIAD.
While Phoebns hastes great Hector to prepare
To rise afresh, and once more wake the war:
His laboring bosom re-inspires with breath,
And calls his senses from the verge of death.
Greece chased by Troy, even to Achilles' fleet,
Shall fall by thousands at the hero's feet.
He, not untouch'd with pity, to the plain
Shall send Patroclns, but shall send in vain.
What youths he slaughters under Ilion's walls!
Even my loved son, divine Sarpedon falls!
Vanquish'd at last by Hector's lance he lies.
Then, nor till then, shall great Achilles rise:
And lo! that instant, godlike Hector dies.
From that great hour the war's whole fortune turns,
Pallas assists, and lofty Ilion burns.
Not till that day shall Jove relax his rage.
Nor one of all the heavenly host engage
In aid of Greece. The promise of a god
I gave, and seal'd it with the almighty nod,
Achilles' glory to the stars to raise;
Such was our word, and fate the word obeys."
The trembling queen (the almighty order given)
Swift from the Idasan summit shot to heaven.
As some wayfaring man, who wanders o'er
In thought a length of lands he trod before.
Sends forth his active mind from place to place.
Joins hill to dale, and measures space with space:
So swift flew Juno to the bless'd abodes.
If thought of man can match the speed of gods.
There safthe powers in awful synod placed;
They bow'd, and made obeisance as she pass'd
Through all the brazen dome:* with goblets crown'd
They hail her queen; the nectar streams around.
Fair Themis first presents the golden bowl.
And anxious asks what cares disturb her soul?
To whom the white-arm'd goddess thus replies:
"Enough thou know'st the tyrant of the skies.
Severely bent his purpose to fulfill,
Unmoved his mind, and unrestrain'd his will.
Go thou, the feasts of heaven attend thy call;
Kid the crown'd nectar circle round the hall:
But Jove shall thunder through the ethereal dome
Such stern decrees, such threaten 'd woes to come,
* The brazen dome. See the note ou Bk, viii. p. 142.
1
TEE ILIAD. 349
As soon shall freeze maiikiud with dire surprise,
And damp the eternal banquets of the skies."
The goddess said, and sullen took her place;
Black horror sadden'd each celestial face.
To see the gathering grudge in every breast,
Smiles on her lips a spleenful joy express'd;
While on her wrinkled front, and eyebrow bent,
Sad steadfast care, and lowering discontent.
Tiius she proceeds — "Attend, ye powers above!
But know, 'tis madness to contest with Jove:
Supreme he sits; and sees, in pride of sway.
Your vassal godheads grudgingly obey:
Fierce in the majesty of power controls;
Shakes all the thrones of heaven, and bends the poles.
Submiss, immortals! all he wills, obey:
And thou, great Mars, begin and show the way.
Behold Ascalaplius! behold him die.
But dare not murmur, dare not vent a sigh;
Thy own loved boasted offspring lies o'erthrown,
If that loved boasted offspring be thy own,"
Stern Mars, with anguish for his slaughter'd son,
Smote his rebelling breast, and fierce begun:
"Thus then, immortals! thus shall Mars obey;
Forgive me, gods, and yield my vengeance way;
Descending first to yon forbidden plain.
The god of battles dares avenge the slain;
Dares, though the thunder bursting o'er my head
Should hurl me blazing on those heaps of dead."
With tiiat he gives conimaiul to Fear and Flight
To join his rapid coursers for the fight:
Then grim in ai'ms, with hasty vengeance flies;
Arms that reflect a radiance through the skies.
And now had Jove, by bold rebellion driven,
Discharged his wrath on half the host of heaven;
But Pallas, springing through the bright abode,
Starts from her azure throne to calm the god.
Struck for the immortal race with timely fear,
From frantic Mars she nnatfli'd the siiidd and spear:
'J'lion the huge helmet lifting from his head.
Thus to the impetuous homicide she said:
"By what wild passion, furious! art tliou toss'd?
Striv'st thou with Jove? thou art already lost.
Shall not the Thunderer's dread comnumd restrain,
And was irnjierial .Juno heard in vain?
Back to the skies wouldst thou with shame be driven.
350 THE ILIAD.
And in thy guilt involve the host of heaven?
Ilion and Greece no more should Jove engage,
The skies would yield an ampler scene of rage;
Guilty and guiltless find an equal fate
And one vast ruin Avhelm the Olympian state.
Cease then thy offspring's death unjust to call;
Heroes as great have died, and yet shall fall.
Why should heaven's law with foolish man comply,
Exempted from the race ordain'd to die?"
This menace fix'd the warrior to his throne;
Sullen he sat, and curb'd the rising groan.
Then Juno call'd (Jove's orders to obey)
The winged Iris, and the god of day.
"Go wait the Thunderer's will (Saturnia cried)
On yon tall summit of the fountful Ide:
There in the father's awful presence stand,
Receive, and execute his dread command."
She said, and sat; the god that gilds the day,
And various Iris, wing their airy way.
Swift as the wind, to Ida's hills they came
(Fair nurse of fountains, and of savage game),
There sat the eternal; he whoso nod controls
The trembling world, and shakes the steady poles.
Veil'd in a mist of fragrance him they found,
AVith clouds of gold and pur2)]e circled round.
Well-pleased the Thunderer saw their earnest care,
And prompt obedience to the queen of air;
Then (while a smile serenes his awful brow)
Commands the goddess of the showery bow:
"Iris! descend, and what we here ordain,
Eeport to yon mad tyrant of the main.
Bid him from fight to his own deeps repair.
Or breathe from slaughter in the fields of air.
If he refuse, then let him timely weigh
Our elder birthright, and superior sway.
How shall his rashness stand the dire alarms.
If heaven's omnipotence descend in arms?
Strives he with me, by whom his power was given,
And is there equal to the lord of heaven?"
The all-mighty spoke; the goddess wing'd her flight
To sacred Ilion from the Idasan height.
Swift as the rattling hail, or fleecy snows,
Drive through the skies, when Boreas fiercely blows;
So from the clouds descending Iris falls,
And to blue Neptune thus the goddess calls:
TEE ILIAD. 361
"Attend the mandate of the sire above!
In me behold the messenger of Jove:
He bids thee from forbidden wars repair
To thine own deeps, or to the fields of air.
This if refused, he bids thee timely weigh
His elder birthright, and superior sway.
How shall thy rashness stand the dire alarms
If heaven's omnipotence descend in arms?
Striv'st thou with him by whom all power is given?
And art thou equal to the lord of heaven?"
"What means the haughty sovereign of the skies?
(The king of ocean thus, incensed, replies)
Kule as he will his portion'd realms on high;
No vassal god, nor of his train, am I.
Three brother deities from Saturn came,
And ancient Rhea, earth's immortal dame;
Assign'd by lot, onr triple rule we know;
Infernal Phito sways the shades beloM';
O'er the wide clouds, and o'er the starry plain,
Ethereal Jove extends his high domain;
My court beneath the hoary waves I keep,
And hush the roarings of tlie sacred deep;
Olympus, and this earth, in common lie:
What claim has here the tyrant of the sky?
Far in the distant clouds let him control,
And awe the younger brothers of the pole;
There to his children his commands be given.
The trembling, servile, second race of heaven."
"And must I then (said she), sire of floods!
Bear this fierce answer to the king of gods?
Correct it yet, ami change thy rash intent;
A noble mind disdains not to repent.
To elder brothers guardian fiends are given,
To scourge the wretch insulting them and heaven."
"Great is the profit (thus the god rejoin'd)
When ministers are blest with i)rudent mind:
Warn'd by thy words, to powerful Jove I yield.
And quit, though angry, tlie contended field:
Not but his threats with justice I disclaim.
The same our honors, and our birth the same.
If yet, forgetful of his promise given
To Hermes, Pallas, an<l the queen of heaven,
To favor Uion, that perfidious phice,
He breaks iiis faith with half tlie ethereal race;
Give him to know, unless tlie Grecian train
353 THE ILIAD.
Lay yon proud strnctnres level with the plaiu,
Howe'er the offence by other gods be pass'd,
The wrath of Neptune shall forever last."
Thus speaking, furious from the field he strode,
And plunged into the bosom of the flood.
The lord of thunders, from his lofty height
Beheld, and thus bespoke the source of light:
"Behold! the god whose liquid arms are hurl'd
Around the globe, whose earthquakes rock the world,
Desists at length his rebel-war to wage,
Seeks his own seas, and trembles at our rage;
Else had my wrath, heaven's thrones all shaking round,
Burn'd to the bottom of his seas profound;
And all the gods that round old Saturn dwell
Had heard the thunders to the deeps of hell.
Well was the crime, and well the vengeance spared;
Even power immense had found such battle hard.
Go thou, my son! the trembling Greeks alarm,
Shake my broad ffigis on thy active arm,
Be godlike Hector thy peculiar care.
Swell his bold heart, and urge his strength to war:
Let Ilion conquer, till the Achaian train
Fly to their ships and Hellespont again:
Then Greece shall breathe from toils." The godhead
said.
His will divine the son of Jove obey'd.
Not half so swift the sailiiig falcon flies.
That drives a turtle through the liquid skies.
As Phoebus, shooting from the Idtean brow,
Glides down the mountain to the plain below.
There Hector seated by the stream he sees,
His sense returning with the coming breeze;
Again his pulses beat, his spirits rise;
Again his loved companions meet his eyes;
Jove thinking of his pains, they pass'd away.
To whom the god who gives the golden day:
"Why sits great Hector from the field so far?
What grief, what wound, withholds thee from the war?
The fainting hero, as the vision bright
Stood shining o'er him, half unseal'd his sight:
"What blest immortal, with commanding breath.
Thus wakens Hector from the sleep of death?
Has fame not told, how, while my trusty sword
Bathed Greece in slaughter, and her battle gored,
The mighty Ajax with a deadly blow
THE ILIAD. 353
Had almost sunk me to the shades below?
Even yet, methinks, the gliding ghosts I spy,
And hell's black horrors swim before my eye."
To him Apollo: "Be no more dismay'd;
See, and be strong! the Thunderer sends thee aid-
Behold! thy Phoebus shall his arms employ,
Phoebus, propitious still to thee and Troy.
Inspire thy warriors then with manly force,
And to the ships impel thy rapid horse:
Even I will make thy fiery coursers way,
And drive the Grecians headlong to the sea.''
Thus to bold Hector spoke the son of Jove,
And breathed immortal ardor from above.
As when the pamper'd steed, with reins unbound.
Breaks from his stall, and pours along the ground;
With ample strokes he rushes to the Hood,
To bathe his sides, and cool his fiery blood;
His head, now freed, he tosses to the skies;
His mane dishevell'd o'er his shoulders flies;
He snuffs the females in the well-known plain.
And springs, exulting, to his fields again:
Urged by the voice divine, thus Hector flew.
Full of the god; and all his hosts pursue.
As when the force of men and dogs combined
Invade the mountain goat, or branching hind;
Far from the hunter's range secure they lie.
Close in the rock (not fated yet to die),
"When lol a lion shoots across the way!
They fly: at once the chasers and the prey.
So Greece, tlitit late in conquering troops pursued,
And mark'd their progress through the ranks in blood,
Soon as they see the furious chief appear,
Forget to vanquish, and consent to fear.
Thoiis with grief observed his dreadful course,
Thoilri, the bravest of the /Etolian force;
Skill'd to direct the javelin's distant flight.
And bold to combat in the staiuling (iglit.
Not UKjre in councils famed for solid sense,
Than winning words and heavenly eloquence.
"Gods! what portent (he cried) these eyes invades?
Lol Hector rises from the Stygian shades!
We saw him, late, by thundering Ajax kill'd:
What god restores hini to the frighted field;
And not content that half of Greece lie slain,
Pours new destriiclion on her sons again?
354 THE ILIAD.
He comes not, Jove! without thy powerful will;
Lo! still he lives, pursues, and conquers still!
Yet hear my counsel, and his worst withstand:
The Greeks' main body to the fleet command;
But let the few whom brisker spirits warm,
Stand the first onset, and provoke the storm.
Thus point your arms: and when such foes appear,
Fierce as he is, let Hector learn to fear."
The warrior spoke; the listening Greeks obey,
Thickening their ranks, and form a deep array.
Each Ajax, Teucer, Merion gave command,
The valiant leader of the Cretan band;
And Mars-like Meges: these the chiefs excite,
Approach the foe, and meet the coming fight.
Behind, unnuraber'd multitudes attend.
To flank the navy, and the shores defend.
Full on the front the pressing Trojans bear,
And Hector first came towering to the war.
Phoebus himself the rushing battle led;
A veil of clouds involved his radiant head:
High held before him, Jove's enormous shield
Portentous shone, and shaded all the field;
Vulcan to Jove the immortal gift consign'd,
To scatter hosts and terrify mankind.
The Greeks expect the shock, the clamors rise
From different parts, and mingle in the skies.
Dire was the hiss of darts, by heroes flung,
And arrows leaping from the bowstring sung;
These drink the life of generous warriors slain:
Those guiltless fall, and thirst for blood in vain.
As long as Phoebus bore unmoved the shield.
Sat doubtful conquest hovering o'er the field;
But when aloft he shakes it in the skies.
Shouts in their ears, and lightens in their eyes.
Deep horror seizes every Grecian breast.
Their force is humbled, and their fear confess'd.
So flies a herd of oxen, scatter'd wide.
No swain to guard them, and no day to guide.
When two fell lions from the mountain came,
And spread the carnage through the shady gloom.
Impending Phoebus pours around them fear.
And Troy and Hector thunder in the rear.
Heaps fall on heaps: the slaughter Hectoreads,
First great Arcesilas, then Stichius bleeds;
One to the bold Boeotians ever dear,
THE ILIAD. 355
And one Meuestheus' friend and famed compeer.
Medon and liisus, ^-Eneas spedj
This sprang from Phelus, and the Athenians led;
But hapless Medon from Oileus came;
Him Ajax honor'd with a brother's name,
Though born of lawless love: from home expell'd,
A banish'd man, in Phylace he dwell'd,
Press'd by the vengeance of an angry wife;
Troy ends at last his labors and his life.
Mecystes next Polydamas o'erthrew;
And thee, brave Olonius, great Agenor slew.
By Paris, Deiochns inglorious dies.
Pierced through the shoulder as he basely flies.
Polites' arm laid Echius on the plain;
Stretch'd on one heap, the victors spoil the slain.
The Greeks dismay'd, confused, disperse or fall,
Some seek the trench, some skulk behind the wall.
While these fly trembling, others pant for breath,
And o'er the slaughter stalks gigantic death.
On rush'd bold Hector, gloomy as the niglit;
Forbids to plunder, animates the fight.
Points to the fleet: "For, by the gods! who flies,*
Who dares but linger, by his hand he dies;
No weeping sister his cold eye shall close.
No friendly hand his funeral pyre compose.
Wlio stops to plunder at this signal hour,
Tlie birds shall tear him, and the dogs devour."
Furious he said; the smarting scourge resounds;
The coursers fly; the smoking chariot bounds;
Tlie hosts rush on; loud clamors shake the shore;
The horses thunder, earth and ocean roar!
Apollo, planted at the trench's bound,
Push'fj at the bank: down sank the enormons mound:
Koll'd in the ditch the heapy ruin lay;
A sudden road I a long anil ample way.
O'er the dread fosse (a late impervious space)
f For, hij the f/od»f who flies. Observe the bold ellipsis of "be
cries," and tlio transition from tbe direct to tbe oblique construc-
tion. So in .Milton:
" Tbus at their sbady lodge arriv'd, both stood,
Both turn'd, and und<T open sky ador'd
The (Jod that made Ijoth sky, air, earth, and heaven,
Which they belield, the moon's re.sj)ien(lent globe.
And starry i)ole. — Thou also niad'st the niglit.
Maker omnipotent, and thou tiie day."
— .Milton, " Paradise Lost," Book iv.
356 THE ILTAD.
Now steeds, and men, and cars tumultuous pass.
The wondering crowds the downward level trod;
Before them flamed the shield, and march'd the god.
Then with his hand he shook the mighty wall;
And lo! the turrets nod, the bulwarks fall:
Easy as when ashore an infant stands,
And draws imagined houses in the sands;
The sportive wanton, pleased with some new play,
Sweeps the slight works and fashion'd domes away:
Thus vanish'd at thy touch, the towers and walls;
The toil of thousands in a moment falls.
The Grecians gaze around with wild despair,
Confused, and weary ail the powers with prjiyer:
Exhort their men, with praises, threats, commands;
And urge the gods, with voices, eyes, and hands.
Experienced Nestor chief obtests the skies.
And weeps his country with a father's eyes.
"0 Jove! if ever, ou his native shore.
One Greek enrich'd thy shrine with otferM gore;
If e'er, in hope our country to behold.
We paid the fattest firstlings of the fold;
If e'er thou sign'st our wishes with thy nod:
Perform the promise of a gracious god!
This day preserve our navies from the flame,
And save the relics of the Grecian name."
Thus prayed the sage: the eternal gave consent,
And peals of thunder shook the firmament.
Presumptuous Troy mistook the accepting sign,
And catch'd new fury at the voice divine.
As, when black tempests mix the seas and skies,
The roaring deeps in watery mountains rise,
Above the sides of some tall ship ascend.
Its womb they deluge, and its ribs they rend:
Thus loudly roaring, and o'erpowering all,
Mount the thick Trojans up the Grecian wall;
Legions on legions from each side arise:
Thick sound the keels; the storm of arrows flies.
Fierce on the ships above, the cars below.
These wield the mace, and those the javelin throw.
While thus the thunder of the battle raged.
And laboring armies round the works engaged,
Still in the tent Patroclus sat to tend
The good Eurypylus, his wounded friend.
He sprinkles healing balms, to anguish kind.
And adds discourse, the medicine of the mind.
IHE ILIAD. 357
But when lie saw, ascending np the fleet,
Victorious Troy; then, starting from his seat,
With bitter groans his sorrows he espress'd.
He wrings his hands, he beats his manly breast.
"Though yet thy state require redress (he cries)
Depart I must: what horrors strike my eyes!
Charged with Achilles' high command I go,
A mournful witness of this scone of woe;
I haste to urge him by his country's care
To rise in arms, and shine again in war.
Perhaps some favoring god his soul may bend ;
The voice is powerful of a faithful friend."
He spoke; and, speaking, swifter than the wind
Sprung from the tent, and left the war behind.
The embodied Greeks the fierce attack sustain,
But strive, though numerous, to repulse in vain:
Nor could the Trojans, through that firm array.
Force to the fleet and tents the impervious way.
As when a shipwright, with Palladian art.
Smooths the rough wood, and levels every part;
With equal hand he guides his whole design.
By the just rule, and the directing line:
The martial leaders, with like skill and care.
Preserved their line, and equal kept the war.
Brave deeds of arms through all the ranks were tried,
And every shij) sustained an equal tide.
At one proud bark, high-towering o'er the fleet,
Ajax the great, and godlike Hector meet;
For one bright prize the matchless chiefs contend,
Nor this the ships can fire, nor that defend:
One kept the shore, and one the vessel trod;
That fix'd as fate, this acted by a god.
The son of C'lytius in his daring hand,
The deck approaching, shakes a flaming brand,
P)ut, pierced by 'j'elamon's huge lance, expires:
'i'hundering he falls, and drops the extinguish'd fires.
Great Hector view'd him witii a sad survey.
As stretch'd in dust before the stern he lav.
"Oh! all of Trojan, all of Lycian race!
Stand to your arms, maintain tliis arduous space:
Lo! where the son of royal Clytius lies;
Ah, save his arms, scMMiro his obsequiesl"
This said, his eager javelin souglit the foe:
But Ajax shnnn'd the meditated blow.
Not vainly yet the forceful lance was thrown;
358 THE ILIAD.
Jt stretch'd iu dust unhappy Lycophron:
An exile long, sustain'd at Ajax's board,
A faithful servant to a foreign lord;
In peace, and war, for ever at his side,
Near his loved master, as he lived, he died.
From the high poop he tumbles on the sand,
And lies a lifeless load along the land.
With anguish Ajax views the piercing sight,
And thus inflames his brother to the fight:
"Teucer, behold! extended on the shore,
Our friend, our loved companion! now no more!
Dear as a parent, with a parent's care
To fight our wars he left his native air.
This death deplored, to Hector's rage we owe;
Eevenge, revenge it on the cruel foe.
Where are those darts on which the fates attend?
And where the bow which Phoebus taught to bend?"
Impatient Teucer, hastening to his aid,
Before the chief his ample bow display'd;
The well-stored quiver on his shoulders hung:
Tlien hiss'd his arrow, and the bowstring sung.
Clytus, Pisenor's son, reuown'd in fame
(To thee, Polydamas! an honor'd name),
Drove through the thickest of the embattled plains
The startling steeds, and shook his eager reins.
As all on glory ran his ardent mind.
The pointed death arrests him from behind:
Through his fair neck the thrilling arrow flies;
In youth's first bloom reluctantly he dies.
Hurl'd from the lofty seat, at distance far,
The headlong coursers spurn his empty car;
Till sad Polydamas the steeds restrain'd,
And gave, Astynous, to thy careful hand;
Then, fired to vengeance, rush'd amidst the foe:
Rage edged his sword, and strengthen'd every blow.
Once more bold Teucer, in his country's cause,
At Hector's breast a chosen arrow draws:
And had the weapon found the destined way.
Thy fall, great Trojan! had renown'd that day.
But Hector was not doom'd to perish then:
The all-wise disposer of the fates of men
(Imperial -Jove) his present death withstands;
Nor was such glory due to Teucer's hands.
At its full stretch as the tough string he drew,
Struck by an arm unseen, it burst iu two;
f
THE ILIAD. 359
Down dropp'd the bow: the shaft with brazen bead
Fell innocent, and on the dust lay dead.
Tlie astonish'd archer to great Ajax cries:
''Some god prevents onr destined enterprise:
Some god, propitious to the Trojan foe.
Has, from my arm unfailing, struck the bow,
And broke the nerve my hands had twined with art,
Strong to impel the flight of -many a dart."
"Since heaven commands it (Ajax made reply)
Dismiss the bow, and lay thy arrows by:
Thy arms no less suffice the lance to wield,
And quit the quiver for the ponderous shield.
In the first ranks indulge thy thirst of fame,
Thy brave example shall the rest inflame.
Fierce as they are, by long successes vain;
To force our fleet, or even a ship to gain,
Asks toil, and sweat, and blood: their utmost might
Shall find its match — No more: 'tis ours to fight."
Then Teucer laid his faithless bow aside;
The fourfold buckler o'er his shoulder tied;
On his brave head a crested helm he placed.
With nodding horse-hair formidably graced;
A dart, whose point with brass refulgent shines.
The warrior wields; and his great brother joins.
This Hector saw, and thus express'd his joy:
"Ye troops of Lycia, Dardanus, and Troy!
Be mindful of yourselves, your ancient fame.
And spread your glory with the navy's flame.
Jove is with us; 1 saw his hand, but npw,
From the proud archer strike his vaunted bow:
Indulgent Jove! how plain thy favors shine,
When happy nations bear the marks divine!
\h)\v easy then, to see the sinking state
Of realms accursed, deserted, re[)robate!
Such is the fate of Greece, and such is ours:
Jiehold, ye warriors, and exert your jiowors.
Death is the worst; a fate which all must try;
And for our country, 'tis a bliss to die.
The gallant man, though slain in fight he bo, .
Yet leaves his nation safe, his children free;
Entails a deljt on all the grateful state;
His own brave friends shall glory in his fate;
His wife live honor'd, all his race succeed,
And late posterity enj<jy the deed!"
360 THE ILIAD.
This roused the soul in every Trojan breast:
The godlike Ajax next his Greeks address'd:
"How long, 3^e warriors of the Argive race,
(To generous Argos what a dire disgrace!)
How long on these cursed confines will ye lie,
Yet undetermined, or to live or die?
What hopes remain, what methods to retire,
If once your vessels catch the Trojan fire?
Mark how the flames approach, how near they fail,
How Hector calls, and Troy obeys his call!
Not to the dance that dreadful voice invites,
It calls to death, and all the rage of fights.
'Tis now no time for wisdom or debates;
To your own hands are trusted all your fates;
And better far in one decisive strife.
One day should end our labor or our life.
Than keep this hard-got inch of barren sands,
Still press'd, and press'd by such inglorious hands."
The listening Grecians feel their leader's flame,
And every kindling bosom pants for fame.
Then mutual slaughters spread on either side;
By Hector here the Phocian Schedius died;
There, pierced by Ajax, sunk Laodamas,
Chief of the foot, of old Antenor's race.
Polydamas laid Otus on the sand.
The fierce commander of the Epeian band.
His lance bold Meges at the victor threw;
The victor, stooping, from the death withdrew
(That valued life, Phoebus! was thy care).
But Croesmus' bosom took the flying spear:
His corpse fell bleeding on the slippery shore;
His radiant arms triumphant Meges bore.
Dolops, the son of Lampus, rushes on.
Sprung from the race of old Laomedon,
And famed for prowess in a well-fought field.
He pierced the centre of his sounding shield:
But Meges, Phyleus' ample breastplate wore,
(Well-known in fight on Selle's winding shore;
For king Enphetes gave the golden mail.
Compact, and firm with many a jointed scale)
Which oft, in cities storm'd, and battles won.
Had saved the father, and now saves the son.
Full at the Trojan's head he urged his lance,
Where the higli plumes above the helmet dance,
New ting'd with Tyrian dye: in dust below,
TEE ILIAD. 361
Shorn from the crest, the purple houors glow.
Meantime their fight the Spartan king survey'd,
And stood by Meges' side a sudden aid.
Through Dolop's shoulder urged his forceful dart,
Which held its passage through the panting heart.
And issued at his breast. With thundering sound
The warrior falls, extended on the ground.
In rush the conquering Greeks to spoil the slain:
But Hector's voice excites his kindred train;
The hero most, from Hicetaon sprung,
Fierce Melanippus, gallant, brave, and young.
He (ere to Troy the Grecians cross'd the main)
Fed his large oxen on Percote's plain;
But when oppress'd, his country claim'd his care,
Return'd to Ilion, and excell'd in war;
For this, in Priam's court, he held his place,
Beloved no less than Priam's royal race.
Him Hector singled, as his troops he led.
And thus inflamed him, pointing to the dead.
"Lo, MelanippusI lo, where Dolops lies;
And is it thus our royal kinsman dies?
O'ermatch'd he falls; to two at once a prey.
And lo! they bear the bloody arms away!
Come on — a distant war no longer Avage,
But hand to hand thy country's foes engage:
Till Greece at once, and all her glory end;
Or Ilion from lier towerv height descend,
Heaved from the lowest stone; and bury all
In one sad sepulchre, one common fall."
Hector (this said) rush'd forward on the foes:
With equal ardor Melanippus glows;
Then Ajax thus — "0 Greeks! respect your fame,
licspect yourselves, and learn an honest shame:
Let mutiuil reverence mutual warmth inspire, .
And catch from breast to breast the noble fire.
On valor's side the odds of combat lie;
The brave live glorious, or lamented die;
The wretch that trembles in the field of fame,
Meets death, and worse than death, eternal shame."
His generous sense he not in vain imjjarts;
It sunk, and rooted in the Grecian hearts:
They join, they throng, they thicken at his call.
And flank the navy with a brazen wall;
Sliields touching shields, in order blaze above,
And stop the Trojans, though impell'd by Jove.
362 TEE ILIAD.
The fiery Spartan first, with lond applause,
Warms the bold son of Nestor in his cause.
"Is there (he said) in arms a youth like you,
So strong to fight, so active to pursue?
Why stand you distant, nor attempt a deed?
Lift the hold lance, and make some Trojan bleed."
He said; and backward to the lines retired;
Forth rush'd the youth with martial fury fired,
Beyond the foremost ranks; his lance he threw.
And round the black battalions cast his view.
The troops of Troy recede with sudden fear.
While the swift javelin hiss'd along in air.
Advancing Melauippus met -the dart
With his bold breast, and felt it in his heart:
Thundering he falls; his falling arms resound,
And his broad buckler rings against the ground.
The victor lea23s upon his prostrate prize:
Thus on a roe the well-breath 'd beagle files.
And rends his side, fresh-bleeding with the dart
The distant hunter sent into his heart.
Observing Hector to the rescue flew;
Bold as he was, Antilochus withdrew.
So when a savage, ranging o'er the plain,
Has torn the shepherd's dog, or shepherd's swain,
While conscious of the deed, he glares around
And hears the gathering multitude resound.
Timely he flies the yet-untasted food.
And gains the friendly shelter of the wood:
So fears the youth; all Troy with shouts pursue.
While stones and darts in mingled tempest flew;
But enter'd in the Grecian ranks, he turns
His manly breast, and with new fury burns.
Now on the fleet the tides of Trojans drove.
Fierce, to fulfill the stern decrees of Jove:
The sire of gods, confirming Thetis' prayer.
The Grecian ardor quench'd in deep despair;
But lifts to glory Troy's prevailing bands,
Swells all their hearts, and strengthens all their hands.
On Ida's top she waits with longing eyes.
To view the navy blazing to the skies;
Then, nor till then, the scale of war shall turn.
The Trojans fly, and conquer'd Ilion burn.
These fates revolved in his almighty mind,
He raises Hector to the work design'il,
Bids him with more than mortal fury glow,
THE ILTAD. 363
And drives him, like a lightning, on the foe.
So Marti, when human crimes for vengeance call,
Shakes his huge javelin, and whole armies fall.
Not with more rage a conflagration rolls,
Wraps the vast mountains, and involves the poles.
He foams with wrath; beneath his gloomy brow
Like tiery meteors liis red eyeballs glow:
The radiant helmet on his temple burns,
AVaves when he nods, and lightens as he turns:
For Jove his splendor round the chief had thrown,
And cast the blaze of both the hosts on one.
Unhappy glories I for his fate was near,
Due to stern Pallas, and Pelides' spear:
Yet Jove deferr'd the death he was to pay.
And gave what fate allow'd, the honors of a day!
Now all on fire for fame, his breast, his eyes
Burn at each foe, and single every prize;
Still at the closest ranks, the thickest fighfc.
He points his ardor, and exerts iiis might.
The Grecian phalanx, moveless as a tower,
On all sides batter'd, yet resists his power:
So some tall rock o'erhangs the hoary main,*
By winds assail'd, by billows beat in vain.
Unmoved it hears, above, the tempest blow.
And sees the watery mountains break below.
Girt in surrounding flames, he seems to fall
Like fire from Jove, and bursts upon them all:
Bursts as a wave that from the cloud impends,
And, swell'd with tempests, on the ship descends;
White are the decks with foam; the winds aloud
Howl o'er the masta, and sing through every shroud:
Pale, trembling, tired, the sailors freeze with fears;
And instant death on every wave appears.
So pale the Greeks the eyes of Hector meet,
The chief so thunders, and so shakes the fleet.
As wl)en a lion, rushing from his den.
Amidst the plain i;f some wide-water'd fen
(Where numerous oxen, as at ease they feed,
At largo expatiate o'er the ranker mead);
• 80 tome tall rock.
" But lik(! a rock uninov'd, a rock tliat braves
Tlie rajjiii^ tciupcHt, and tlie risiiif; wavew,
Projjp'd on himself he stands: his solid sides
Wash off the sea-weeds, aii-.l the Nouii'liiifr tides.
— Drydtu'b Viryil, vii. 809.
t*
364 THE ILIAD.
Leaps ou the herds before the herdsman's eyes;
The trembling herdsman far to distance flies;
Some lordly bull (the rest dispersed and fled)
He singles out; arrests, and lays him dead.
Thus from the rage of Jove-like Hector flew
All Greece in heaps; but one he seized, and slew:
Mycenian Periphes, a mighty name,
In wisdom great, in arms well known to fame:
The minister of stern Eurystheus' ire
Against Alcides, Copreus was his sire:
The son redeem'd tlie honors of the race,
A son as generous as the sire was base;
O'er all his country's youth conspicuous far
In every virtue, or of peace or war:
But doom'd to Hector's stronger force to yield!
Against the margin of his ample shield
He struck his hasty foot: his heels upsprung;
Supine he fell; his brazen helmet rung.
On the fallen chief the invading Trojan press'd
And plunged the pointed javelin in his breast.
His circling friends, who strove to guard too late
The unhappy hero, fled, or shared his fate.
Chased from the foremost line, the Grecian train
Now man the next, receding toward the main:
Wedged in one body at the tents they stand,
Wall'd round with sterns, a gloomy, desperate band.
Now manly shame forbids the inglorious flight;
Now fear itself confines them to the fight:
Man courage breatlies in man; but Nestor most
(The sage preserver of the Grecian host)
Exhorts, adjures, to guard these utmost shores;
And by their parents, by themselves implores.
"Oh friends! be men : your generous breasts inflame
With mutual honor, and with mutual shame!
Think of your hopes, your fortunes; all the care
Your wives, your infants, and your parents share:
Think of each living father's reverend head;
Think of each ancestor with glory dead;-
Absent, by me they speak, by me they sue,
They ask their safety, and their fame, from you:
The gods their fates on this one action lay,
And all are lost, if you desert the day."
lie spoke, and round him breathed heroic fires;
Minerva seconds what the sage inspires.
The mist of darkness Jove around them threw
TEE ILIAD. 3(35
She clear'd, restoring all the war to view;
A sudden ray shot beaming o'er the plain
And show'd the shores, the navy, and the main;
Hector they saw, and all who fly, or fight.
The scene wide-opening to the blaze of light,
First of the field great Ajax strikes their eyes,
His port majestic, and his ample size:
A ponderous mace with studs of iron crown'd.
Full twenty cubits long, he swings around;
Nor fights, like others, fix'd to certain stands,
But looks a moving tower above the bands;
High on the decks with vast gigantic stride.
The godlike hero stalks from side to side.
So when a iiorseman from the watery mead
(Skill'd in the manage of the bounding steed)
Drives four fair coursers, practised to obey,
To some great city through the public way;
Safe in his art, as side by side they run.
He shifts his seat, and vaults from one to one;
And now to this, and now to that he flies;
Admiring numbers follow with their eyes.
From ship to ship thus Ajax swiftly flew,
Y ■ less the wonder of the warring crew.
nous, Hector thunder'd thrsats aloud,
A rush'd enraged before the Trojan crowd;
Then swift invades the ships, whose beaky prores
Lay rank'd contiguous on the bending shores;
So the strong eagle from his airy height,
Who marks the swans' or cranes' embodied flight,
Stoops down impetuous, while they light for food,
And, stooping, darkens with his wings tlie flood.
Jove leads him on with his almighty hand.
And breathes fierce spirits in his following band.
The warring nations meet, the battle roars.
Thick beats the combat on the sounding })rores.
Thou wouldat have thought, so furious was their fire,
No force could tame them, and no toil could tire;
As if new vigor from new fights they won.
And the long battle was but tlien begun.
Greece, yet unconquerM, kcjit alive the war,
Secure of death, confiding in d(!S]);»ir:
Troy in proud hopes already vicw'd li)c main
Bright with tl)c blaze, and red with heroes slain:
Like strength is felt frojii Iinpo, and from despair,
And eaci) contends, as his were all the war.
366 THE ILIAD.
'Twas thou, bold Hector! whose resistless hand
First seized a ship on that contested strand;
The same which deaci Protesilaus bore,*
The first that touch'd the unhappy Trojan shore:
For this in arms the warring nations stood,
And bathed their generous breasts with mutual blood.
No room to poise the lance or bend the bow ;
But hand to hand, and man to man, they grow:
Wounded, they wound; and seek each other's hearts
With falchions, axes, swords, and shorten'd darts;
The falchions ring, shields rattle, axes sound,
Swords flash in air, or glitter on the ground;
With streaming blood the slippery shores are dyed,
And slaughter'd heroes swell the dreadful tide.
Still raging, Hector with his ample hand
Grasps the high stern, and gives this loud command:
"Haste, bring the flames! that toil of ten long years
Is finished; and the day desired appears!
This happy day with acclamations greet,
Bright with destruction of yon hostile fleet.
The coward-counsels of a timorous throng
Of reverend dotards check'd our glory long: s.
Too long Jove lull'd us with lethargic charms, *
But now in peals of thunder calls to arms: -
In this great day he crowns our full desires,
Wakes all our force, and seconds all our fires."
He spoke — the warriors at his fierce command
Pour a new deluge on the Grecian band.
Even Ajax paused (so thick the javelins fly)
Stepp'd back, and doubted or to live or die.
Yet, where the oars are placed, he stands to wait
What chief approaching dares attempt his fate:
Even to the last his naval charge defends,
Now shakes his spear, now lifts, and now protends;
Even yet, the Greeks with piercing shouts inspire
Amidst attack, and death, and darts, and fires.
"0 friends! heroes! names forever dear,
Once sons of Mars, and thunderbolts of war!
Ah! yet be mindful of your old renown,
* Protpsilaiis was the first Greek who fell, slain bj' Hector, as
be leaped from the vessel to the Trojan shore. He was buried
on the Chersonese, near the city of PJagusa. Hygiu. Fab. ciii.
Tzetz. on Lycophr. 245, 528. There is a most elegant tribute to
his memory in the Preface to the Heroica of Philostratus.
THE ILIAD. 367
Your great forefathers' virtues and your own.
Wliat aids expect 3'on in this utmost strait?
Wliat bulwarks rising between you and fate?
No aids, no bulwarks your retreat attend,
No friends to help, no city to defend.
This spot is all you have, to lose or keep;
There stand the Trojans, and here rolls the deep.
'Tis hostile ground you tread; your native lands
Far, far from hence: your fates are in your hands."
Raging he spoke; noi further wastes his breath,
But turns his javelin to the work of death.
Whate'er bold Trojan arm'd his daring hands.
Against t!ie sable ships, with flaming brands,
So well the chief his naval weapon sped.
The luckless warrior at his stern lay dead:
Full twelve, the boldest, in a moment fell,
Sent by great Ajax to the shades of hell
368 2'i^^ ILIAD.
BOOK XVI.
A K G U M E N T .
THE SIXTH BATTLE; THE ACTS AND DEATH OF
PATROCLUS.
Patroclus (in pursuance of tlie request of Nestor in tlie eleventh
book) entreats Achilles to suffer him to go to the assistance
of the Grreeks with Achilles' troops and armor. He agrees to
it, but at the same time charges him to content himself with
rescuing the fleet, without further pursuit of the enemy.
'The armor, horses, soldiers, and officers are described.
Achilles offers a libation for the success of his friend, after
-which Patroclus leads the Myrmidons to battle. TLie Trojans,
at the sight of Patroclus in Achilles' armor, taking him for
that hero, are cast into the uttermost consternation; he beats
them off from the vessels. Hector himself Hies, Sarpedon is
killed, though Jupiter was averse to his fate. Several other
particulars of the battle are described; in the heat of which,
Patroclus, neglecting the orders of Achilles, pursues the foe
to the walls of Troy; where Apollo repulses and disarms him,
Euphorbus wounds him, and Hector kills him; which con-
cludes the book.
So warr'd both armies on the ensanguined shore,
While the black vessels smoked with human gore.
Meanwhile Patroclus to Achilles flies;
The streaming tears fall copious from his eyes;
Not faster, trickling to the plains below,
From the tall rock the sable waters flow.
Divine Pelides, with compassion moved.
Thus spoke, indulgent, to his best beloved:*
* His best beloved. The following elegant remarks of Thirlwall
(Greece, vol. i. p. 176, seq.) well illustrate the character of the
friendship subsisting between the two heroes:
" One of the noblest and most amiable sides of the Greek char-
acter, is the readiness with which it lent itself to construct inti-
mate and durable friendships; and this is a feature no less-
prominent in the earliest, than in later times. It was indeed
connected with the comparatively low estimation in which female
society was held; but the devotedness and constancy with which
THE ILIAD. 369
"Patroclus, say, what grief thy bosom bears,
That flows so fast in these unmanly tears?
No girl, no infant Avhom the mother keeps
From her loved breast, with fonder passion weeps;
Not more the mother's soul, that infant warms,
Clung to her knees, and reaching at her arms,
Than thou hast mine. Oh tell me, to what end
Thy melting sorrows thus pursue thy friend?
"Griev'st thou for me, or for my martial band?
Or come sad tidings from our native land?
Our fathers live (our first, most tender care),
Thy good Menoetius breathes the vital air.
And hoary Peleus yet extends his days;
Pleased in their age to hear their children's praise.
Or may some meaner cause thy pity claim?
Perhaps some relics of the Grecian name,
Doom'd in their ships to sink by fire and sword,
And pay the forfeit of their haughty lord?
AVhate'er their cause, reveal thy secret care,
And speak those sorrows which a friend would share."
A sigh that instant from his bosom broke,
Another follow'd, and Patroclus spoke:
"Let Greece at length with pity touch thy breast,
Thyself a Greek; and, once, of Greeks the best!
Lol every chief that might her fate prevent,
these attacbments were maintained, was not the less admirable
and en^agini(. The heroic couiptuiions whom we find celebrated,
partly by Homer and ijartly in traditions, which, if not of equal
antiquity, were grounded on the same feeling, seem to have but
one heart and soul, with scarcely a wish or object a])art, and only
to live, as they are always ready to die, for one anotlu-r. It is true
that tlie relation between them is not always one of j)erfect
eciuality; but this is a circumstance wliicb, while it often adds a
peculiar charm to the poetical description, detracts little from the
dignity of the idea which it presents. Such were the friendships
of Hercules and lolaus, of Tluiseus and I'irithous, of Orestes and
Fylades: and though these may owe the greater part of thc^r
fame to tin? latter epic, or even dramatic poetry, the moral ground-
work undoubtedly subsisted in the period to which the tiaditions
are referred. 'I'iie argument of the Iliad mainly turns on the
affection of Achilles for Patroclus, whose love for the greater
liero is only leini)ered by reverence for his higher birtli and his
une(jualled powers. But the mutual regard which united Ido-
mentuis anil Aieriones, Diomedes and Sthenelus, though, as the
l)ersons themselves are less imj)ortant, it is kept more in the back-
ground, is manifestly vi(-wed by the poet in tlie same light. The
idea of a (irei:k hero seems not to havt! been thought com]>lete
without such a brother in arms by his side." — Thirlwall, Greece,
vol. i. p. 176, .seq.
370 THE ILIAD.
Lies jsierced with wounds, and bleeding in his tent:
Eurypylus, Tjdides, Atrens' son,
And wise Ulysses, at the navy groan,
More for their country's wounds than for their own
Their pain soft arts of pharmacy can ease,
Thy breast alone no lenitives appease.
May never rage like thine my soul enslave,
great in vain! unprofitably brave!
Thy country slighted in her last distress.
What friend, what man, from thee shall hope redress?
No — men unborn, and ages yet behind.
Shall curse that fierce, that unforgiving mind.
"0 man unpitying! if of man thy race;
But sure thou spring'st not from a soft embrace,
Nor ever amorous hero caused thy birth.
Nor ever tender goddess brought thee forth:
Some rugged rock's hard entrails gave thee form,
And raging seas produced thee in a storm,
A soul well suiting that tempestuous kind,
So rough thy manners, so untamed thy mind.
"If some dire oracle thy breast alarm,
If aught from Jove, or Thetis, stop thy arm.
Some beam of comfort yet on Greece may shine,
If I but load the Myrmidonian line:
Clad in thy dreadful arms if I ai3pear.
Proud Troy shall tremble, and desert the war;
Without thy person Greece shall win the day,
And thy mere image chase her foes away.
Press'd by fresh forces, her o'erlabor'd train
Shall quit the ships, and Greece respire again."
Thus, blind to fate I with supplicating breath,
Thou begg'st his arms, and in his arms thy death
Unfortunately good! a boding sigh
Thy friend return'd; and with it, this reply:
"Patroclus! thy Achilles knows no fears;
Nor words from Jove nor oracles he hears;
Nor aught a mother's caution can suggest;
The tyrant's pride lies rooted in my breast.
My wrongs, my wrongs, my constant thought engage,
Those, my sole oracles, inspire my rage:
1 made him tyrant: gave him power to wrong
Even my: I felt it; and shall feel it long.
The maid, my black-eyed maid, he forced away,
Due to the toils of many a well-fought day;
Due to my conquest of her father's reign;
THE ILIAD. 371
Due to the votes of all the Grecian train.
From me he forced her; me, the bold and brave,
Disgraced, dishouor'd, like the meanest slave.
But bear we this — the wrongs I grieve are past:
'Tis time our fury should relent at last:
I fix'd its date; the day I wish'd appears:
How Hector to my ships his battle bears,
The flames my eyes, the shouts invade my ears.
Go then, Patroclus! court fair honor's charms
In Troy's famed fields, and in Achilles' arms:
Lead forth my martial Myrmidons to tight,
Go save the fleets, and conquer in my right.
See the thin relics of their baffled band
At the last edge of yon deserted land !
Behold all Ilion on their ships descends;
How the cloud blackens, how the storm impends.
It was not thus, when, at my sight amazed,
Troy saw and trembled, as this helmet blazed:
Had not the injuricus king our friendship lost,
You ample trench had buried half her host.
No camps, no bulwarks now the T'rojans fear,
Those are not dreadful, no Achilles there;
No longer flames the lance of Tydeus' son;
No more your general calls his heroes on :
Hector, alone, I hear; his dreadful breath
Commands your slaughter, or proclaims your death.
Yet now, Patroclus, issue to the plain :
Now save the ships, the rising fires restrain,
And give the Greeks to visit Greece again.
But heed my words, and mark a friend's command.
Who trusts his fame and honors in thy hand,
And from thy deeds expects the Achaian iiost
Shall render back the beauteous maid he lost:
Hage uncontroU'd through all the hostile crew,
li'it touch not Hector, Hector is my due.
Though Jove in thunder should command the war,
Bo just, consult my glory, and forljear.
The fleet once saved, desist from further chaso,
Nor lead to Ilion's walls the Grecian race;
Some adverse! go(l thy raslmess may destroy;
Some god, like; I'IkdIjus, over kind t<j Troy.
Lot Greece, redeem'd from this destructive strait.
Do her own work; and loave the rest to fate.
01 would to all tli(! immortal powers above,
Apollo, Pallas, and almighty Jove,
373 THE ILIAD.
That not one Trojan might be left alive,
And not a Greek of all the race survive:
Might only we the vast destruction shun,
And only we destroy the accursed town!"
Such conference held the chiefs; while on the strand
Great Jove with conquest crown'd the Trojan band.
Ajax no more the sounding storm sustain'd,
So thick the darts an iron tempest rain'd :
On his tired arm the weighty buckler hung;
His hollow helm with falling javelins rung;
His breath, in quick short pan tings, comes and goes:
And painful sweat from all his members flows.
SjDent and o'erpower'd, ho barely breathes at most:
Yet scarce an army stirs him from his post;
Dangers on dangers all around him glow,
And toil to toil, and woe succeeds to woe.
Say, Muses, throned above the starry frame,
How first the navy blazed .vith Trojan flame?
Stern Hector waved his sword, and standing near,
Where furious Ajax plied his ashen spear,
Full on the lance a stroke so justly sped.
That the broad falchion lopp'd its brazen head;
His pointless spear the warrior shakes in vain;
The brazen head falls sounding on the plain.
Great Ajax saw, and own'd the hand divine;
Confessing Jove, and trembling at the sign,
Warn'd he retreats. Then swift from all sides pour
The hissing brands; thick streams the fiery shower;
O'er the high stern the curling volumes rise.
And sheets of rolling smoke involve the skies.
Divine Achilles view'd the rising flames.
And smote his thigh, and thus aloud exclaims:
"Arm, arm, Patroclns! Lo, the blaze aspires!
The glowing ocean reddens with the fires.
Arm, ere our vessels catch the spreading flame;
Arm, ere the Grecians be no more a name;
I haste to bring the troops."— The hero said;
The friend with ardor and with joy obey'd.
He cased his limbs in brass; and first around
His manly legs, with silver buckles bound
The clasping greaves; then to his breast applies
The flaming cuirass of a thousand dyes;
Emblazed with studs of gold his falchion shone
In the rich belt, as in a starry zone;
Achilles' shield his ample shoulders spread,
THE ILIAD. 373
Achilles' helmet nodded o'er his head:
Adorn'd in all his terrible array,
He flash'd around intolerable day.
Alone nntouch'd, Pelides' javelin stands,
Not to be poised but by Pelides' hands:
From Pelion's shady brow the plant entire
Old Chiron rent, and shaped it for his sire;
Whose son's great arm alone the weapon wields,
The death of heroes, and the dread of fields.
The brave Automedon (an honor'd name,
The second to his lord in love and fame,
In peace his friend, and partner of the war)
The winged coursers harness'd to the car;
Xanthiis and Balius, of immortal breed,
Sprung from the wind, and like the wind in speed.
Whom the wing'd harjn', swift Podarge, bore.
By Zephyr pregnant on the breezy shore:
Swift Pedasus was added to their side,
(Once great Aetion's, now Achilles' pride)
Who, like in strength, in swiftness, and in grace,
A mortal courser matcli'd the immortal race.
Achilles speeds from tent to tent, and warms
His hardy ]\Iyrmidons to blood and arms.
All breathing death, around tlie chief they stand,
A grim, terrific, formidable band :
Grim as voracious wolves, that seek the springs*
When scalding thirst tlieir burning bowels wrings.
When some tall stag, fresh-slaughtered in the wood.
Has drench 'd their wide insatiate throats with blood,
To the black fount they rush, a hideous tlirong,
With [)auncli distended, and witli lolling tongue.
Fire fills their eye, their black jaws belch the gore.
And gorged with slaughter- still tlicy thirst for more.
J>iko furious, rush'd the Myrmidonian crew,
Such their dread strengtb, and such tlieir deathful
view.
High in the midst the great Achilles stands,
])irect.s tbcir order, and the war commands.
He, loved of Jove;, had lauiich'd foi' llioii'rf shores
* " Ah liunirry wolves with raging aj^petite,
Scour tliroiigli tlio fn-lds, ne'er fear tlie stormy night —
Their wliejp.s at lifniie ex[)ect tin? proiiiised food,
An«l long to temper their dry chaps in hUiod —
So rusli'd we forth at onrc"
— J>rydin's \'irgil, ii. 479.
374 'I'HE ILIAD.
Full fifty vessels, mann'd with fifty oars:
Five chosen leaders the fierce bands obey,
Himself supreme in valor, as in sway.
First nuirch'd Menestheus, of celestial birth,
Derived from thee, whose waters wash the earth,
Divine Sperchius! Jove-descended flood!
A mortal mother mixing with a god.
Such was Menestheus, but miscall'd by fame
The son of Borus, that espoused the dame.
Eudorus next; whom Polymele the gay,
Famed in the graceful dance, produced to-day.
Her, sly Cellenius loved: on her would gaze,
As with swift step she form'd the running maze:
To her high chamber from Diana's quire.
The god pursued her, urged, and crown'd his fire.
The son confess'd his father's heavenly race.
And heir'd his mother's swiftness in the chase.
Strong Echeclelis, less'd in all those charms
That pleased a god, succeeded to her arms:
Not conscious of those loves, long hid from fame.
With gifts of price he sought and won the dame;
Her secret offspring to her sire she bare;
Her sire caress'd him with a parent's care.
Pisander follow'd; matchless in his art
To wing the spear, or aim the distant dart;
No hand so sure of all the Emathian line.
Or if a surer, great Patroclus! thine.
The fourth by Phcenix' grave command was graced,
Laerces' valiant otfspring led the last.
Soon as Achilles with superior care
Had call'd the chiefs, and order'd all the war,
This stern remembrance to his troops he gave:
"Ye far-famed Mvrmidons, ye fierce and brave!
Think with what threats you dared the Trojan throng.
Think what reproach these years endured so long;
'Stern son of Peleus (thus ye used to say,
While restless, raging, in your ships you lay)
Oh nursed with gall, unknowing how to yield;
Whose rage defrauds us of so famed a field:
that dire fury must forever burn,
What make we here? Return, ye chiefs, return!'
Such were your words— Now, warriorsl grieve no more.
Lo there the Trojans; bathe your swords in gore!
Tliis day shall give you all your soul demands.
Glut all your hearts"', and weary all our hands!"
THE ILIAD. 375
Thns while he roused the fire in every breast,
Close and more close the listening cohorts press'd;
Ranks wedged in ranks; of arms a steely ring
Still grows, and spreads, and thickens round the king.
As when a circling wall the bnilder forms.
Of strength defensive against wind and storms.
Compacted stores the thickening work compose,
And round him wide the rising structure grows:
So helm to helm, and crest to crest they throng,
Shield urged on shield, and man drove man along;
Thick, undistinguish'd plumes, together join'd,
Float in one sea, and wave before the wind.
Far o'er the rest in glittering pomp appear,
There bold Automedon, Patroclus here;
Brothers in arms, with equal fury fired;
Two friends, two bodies with one soul inspired.
But mindful of the gods, Achilles went
To the rich coffer in his shady tent;
There lay on heaps his. various garments roll'd,
And costly furs, and carpets stiff with gold
(The presents of the silver-footed dame).
From thence he took a bowl, of antique frame,
Which never man had stained with ruddy wine,
Nor raised in offerings to the power divine.
But Peleus' son; and Peleus' son to none
Had raised in offerings, but to Jove alone.
This tinged with sulphur, sacred first to flame,
lie purged; and wash'd it in the running stream.
Tlien cleansed his hands; and fixing for a space
His eyjs on heaven, his feet upon the place
Of su(,'rifice, the purple draught he pour'd
Forth in the midst; and thus the god implored:
*MJ thou snpremel high-throuod all height above!
great Pelasgic, Dodona^an Jove!
Wlio 'miilst surrounding forests, and vapors chill,
Presid'st on bleak Dodona's vocal hill
(Whoso groves the SoUi, race austere! surround.
Their feet unwash'd, their sluinl)er3 on tlie ground;
Who hear, from rustling oaks, thy dark decrees;
And catch the fates, low-whisporod in the breeze);
Hear, as of old! Thou gav'st at Thetis' prayer,
(ilory to me, and to the Creeks despair.
Lo, to the dangers of the figliting Held
Though still determineil, to my shi|)s fonfined;
The best, the dearest of my friends, I yield.
376 TEE ILIAD.
Piitroclus gone, I stay but half behind.
Oh! be his guard thy providential care,
Conflrm his heart, and string liis arm to war:
Press'd by his single force let Hector see
His fame in arms not owing all to me.
But when the fleets are saved from foes and fire,
Let him with conquest and renown retire;
Preserve his arms, preserve his social train,
And safe return him to these eyes again!"
Great Jove consents to half the chief's request,
But heaven's eternal doom denies the rest;
To free the fleet was granted to his prayer;
His safe return, the winds dispersed in air.
Back to his tent tlie stern Achilles flies.
And waits the combat with impatient eyes.
Meanwhile the troops beneath Patroclus' care,
Invade the Trojans, and commence the war.
As wasps, provoked by children in their play,
Pour from their mansions, by the broad highway.
In swarms the guiltless traveller engage.
Whet all their stings, and call forth all their rage:
All rise in arms, and, with a general cry,
Assert their waxen domes, and buzzing progeny.
Thus from the tents the fervent legion swarms,
So loud their clamors, and so keen their arms:
Their rising rage Patroclus' breath inspires,
Who thus inflames them with heroic fires:
'-0 warriors, partners of Achiles' praise!
Be mindful of your deeds in ancient days;
Your godlike master let your acts proclaim.
And add new glories to his mighty name.
Think you Achilles sees you fight: be brave.
And humble the proud monarch whom you save."
Joyful they heard, and kindling as he spoke.
Flew to the fleet, involved in fire and smoke.
From shore to shore the doubling shouts resound,
The hollow ships return a deeper sound.
The war stood still, and all around them gazed:
When great Aehilles' shining armor blazed:
Troy saw, and thought the dread Achilles nigh,
At once they see, they tremble, and they fly.
Then first thy spear, divine Patroclus! flew,
Where the war raged, and where the tumult grew.
Close to the stern of that famed ship which bore
XJnbless'd Protesilaus to Ilion's shore,
THE ILIAD. 377
The great P«onian, bold Pyrechmes stood
(Who led his bands from Axius' winding flood);
His shoulder-blade receives the fatal wound;
The groaning ■warrior pants upon the ground.
His troops, that see their country's glory slain,
Fly diverse, scatter'd o'er the distant plain.
Patroclus' arm forbids the spreading fires,
And from the half-burn'd ship proud Troy retires;
Clear'd from the smoke the joyful navy lies;
In heaps on heaps the foe tumultuous flies;
Triumphant Greece her rescued decks ascends.
And loud acclaim the starry region rends.
So when thick clouds enwrap the mountain's head,
O'er heaven's expanse like one black ceiling spread;
Sudden the Thunderer, with a flashing ray.
Bursts through the darkness, and lets down the day:
The hills sliine out, the rocks in prospect rise,
And streams, and vales, and forests, strike the eyes;
The smiling scene wide opens to the sight,
t^nd all the unmeasured ether flames with light.
But Troy repulsed, and scatter'd o'er the plains,
Forced from tlie navy, yet the fight maintains.
Kow every Greek some hostile hero slew,
But still the foremost, bold Patroclus flew:
As Areilycus had turn'd him round,
Sharp in his thigh he felt the piercing wound; ^
The brazen-pointed spear, with vigor thrown.
The thigh transfix'd, and broke the brittle bone:
Headlong he fell. Next, Thoiis was thy chance; '
Thy breast, unarm'd, received the Spartan lance.
Phylides' dart (as Am])hidns drew nigh)
His blow prevented, and transpierced his thigh,
Tore all the brawn, and rent the nerves away;
In darkness, and in death, the warrior lay.
In equal arms two sons of Nestor stand,
And two bold brothers of the Lycian band:
By great Antilochus, Atymnius dies,
Pierced in the flank, lamented youth! he lies.
Kind Maris, bleeding in his brother's wound,
Defends the breathless carcase on the ground;
Furious lie flies, his murderer to engage:
But godlike Thrasimed prevents his rage,
Between his aim and slioulder aims a Mow;
His arm falls spouting on tiie dust below;
Ho sinks, with endless darkness cover'd o'er:
378 THE ILIAD.
And vents his sonl, effused with gusliiiig gore.
Slain by two brothers, thus two brothers bleed,
Sarpedon's friends, Amisodarus' seed;
Amisodarus, who, by Furies led,
The bane of men, abhorr'd Chinisera bred:
Skill'd in the dart in vain, his sons expire,
And pay the forfeit of their guilty sire.
Stopp'd in the tumult Cleobulus lies.
Beneath O'ileus' arm, a living prize;
A living prize not long the Trojan stood;
The thirsty falchion drank his reeking blood.
Plunged in his throat the smoking weapon lies;
Black death, and fate nnpitying, seal his eyes.
Amid the ranks, with mutual thirst of fame,
Lycon the brave, and fierce Peneleus came;
In vain their javelins at each other flew.
Now, met in arms, their eager swords they drew.
On the plumed crest of his 13oeotian foe
The daring Lycon aim'd a noble blow;
The sword broke short; but his, Peneleus sped
Full on the juncture of the neck and head:
The head, divided by a stroke so just,
Hung by the skin; the body sunk to dust.
O'ertaken Neiimas by Merion bleeds,
Pierced through the shoulder as he mounts his steeds,
Back from the car he tumbles to the ground:
His swimming eyes eternal shades surround.
JSText Erymas was doom'd his fate to feel,
His open'd mouth received the Cretan steel:
Beneath the brain the point a passage tore,
Crash'd the thin bones, and drown 'd the teeth in gore:
His mouth, his eyes, his nostrils, pour a flood;
He sobs his soul out in the gush of blood.
As when the flocks neglected by the swain.
Or kids, or lambs, lie scatter'd o'er the plain,
A troop of wolves the unguarded charge survey.
And rend the trembling, unresisting prey:
Thus on the foe the Greeks impetuous came;
Troy fled, unmindful of her former fame.
But still at Hector godlike Ajax aim'd,
Still, pointed at his breast, his javelin flamed.
The Trojan chief, experienced in the field,
O'er his broad shoulders spread the massy shield.
Observed the storm of darts the Grecians pour,
And on his buckler caught the ringing shower:
THE ILIAD. 379
He sees for Greece the scale of conquest rise,
Yet stops, and turns, and saves his loved allies.
As when the hand of Jove a tempest forms.
And rolls the cloud to blacken heaven with storms,
Dark o'er the field tlie ascending vapor flies.
And shades the sun, and blots the golden skies:
So from the ships, along the dusky plain.
Dire Flight and Terror drove the Trojan train.
Even Hector fled; through heads of disarray
The fiery coursers forced their lord away:
While far behind his Trojans fall confused;
Wetlged in the trench, in one vast carnage bruised*.
Chariots on chariots roll: the clashing spokes
Shock; while the madding steeds break short their
yokes.
In vain they labor up the steepy mound;
Their charioteers lie foaming on the ground.
Fierce on the rear, with shouts Patroclus flies;
Tumultuous clamor fills the fields and skies;
Thick drifts of dust involve their rapid flight;
Clouds rise on clouds, and heaven is snatch'd from
sight.
The afErighted steeds their dying lords cast down.
Scour o'er the fields, and stretch to reach the town.
Loud o'er the rout was heard the victoi's cry,
Wliere the war bleeds, and where the thickest die,
Where horse and arms, and chariots lie o'erthrown,
And bleeding heroes under axles groan.
No stop, no check, the steeds of Pelcus knew:
From bank to bank the immortal coursers flew.
High-bounding o'er the fosse, the whirling car
Smokes through the ranks, o'ertalces the flying war,
And tliundors after Hector: Hector flies,
Patroclus shakes his lance; but fate denies.
Not with less noise, with less impetuous force
The tide of Trojans urge their dosperate course,
Than when in autumn Jove his fury pours.
And earth is loailciii with incessant showers
(Wlnm guilty moi'tal.s break the (iternal laws,
Or judges, bribed, betray the righteous cause);
From their deep beds he bids the rivers rise,
And opens all the floodgates of the skies:
The impetuous torrents from their hills obey,
Whole fields are drown'd, and mountains swept away;
Loud roars the deluge till it meets the main;
380 THE ILIAD.
And trembling man sees all his labors vain!
And now the chief (the foremost troops repell'd)
Back to the ships his destined progress held,
Bore down half Troy in his resistless way,
And forced the routed ranks to stand the day.
Between the space where silver Simois flows,
Where lay the fleets, and where the rampires rose,
All grim in dust and blood Patroclus stands,
And turns the slaughter on the conquering bands.
First Pronoiis died beneath his fiery dart,
Wiiich pierced below the shield his valiant heart.
Thestor was next, who saw the chief appear,
And fell the victim of his coward fear;
IShrunk up he sat, with wild and haggard eye,
Nor stood to combat, nor had force to fly;
Patroclus mark'd him as he shunn'd the war.
And with unmanly trembling shook the car.
And dropp'd the flowing reins. Him 'twixt the jaws,
The javelin sticks, and from tlie chariot draws.
As on a rock that overhangs the main.
An angler, studious of the line and cane,
Some mighty fish draws panting to the shore:
Not with less ease the barbed javelin bore
l^he gaping dastard; as tlie spear was shook.
He fell, and life his heartless breast forsook.
Next on Eryalus he flies; a stone.
Large as a rock, was by his fury thrown:
Full on his crown the ponderous fragment flew,
And burst the helm, and cleft the head in two:
Prone to the ground the breathless warrior fell.
And death involved him with the shades of hell.
Then low in dust Epaltes, Echius, lie:
Ipheas, Evippus, Polymelus, die;
Amphoterus and Erymas succeed;
And last Tlej)olemus and Pyres bleed.
Where'er he moves, the glowing slaughters spread
In heaps on heaps a monument of dead.
When now Sarpedon his brave friends beheld
Groveling iji dust, and gasping on the field.
With this reproach his flying host he warns:
"Oh stain to honor! oh disgrace to arms!
Forsake, inglorious, the contented plain;
This hand unaided shall the war sustain;
The task be mine this hero's strength to try.
Who mows whole troops, and makes an army fly."
THE ILIAD. 381
He spake: and, speaking, leaps from off the car;
Patroclus lights, and sternly waits the war.
As when two vultures on the mountain's height
Stoop with resounding pinions to the fight
They cuff, they tear, they raise a screaming cry.
The desert echoes, and the rocks reply:
The warriors thus opposed in arms, engage
With equal clamors, and with equal rage.
Jove view'd the combat: whose event foreseen,
He thus bespoke his sister and his queen:
"The hour draws on; the destinies ordain, *_
My godlike son shall press the Phrygian plain:
Already on the verge of death he stands,
His life is owed to fierce Patroclus' hands,
What passions in a parent's breast debate!
Say, shall I snatch him from impending fate.
And send him safe to Lycia, distant far
From all the dangers and the toils of war,
Or to his doom my bravest offspring yield,
And fatten, with celestial blood, the field."
Tiien thus the goddess with the radiant eyes:
"What words arc these, sovereign of the skies!
* 77ie destinies ordnin. "In tlie niytbologry, also, of tlie Tliad,
purely Pagan as it is, we discover one important truth uncon-
sciously involved, which was almost entirely lost from view
amidst' the nearly equal skepticism and credulity of subsequent
ages. Zeus or Jajjiter is jjopularly to be taken as omnipotent.
No distinct empire is assigned to fate or fortune; the will of the
father of gods and men is absolute and uncontrnllaI)le. 'I'his
seems to be the true character of the Homeric deity, and it is very
necessary that the student of (Jreek literature should bear it con-
stantly in mind. A strong instance in the Iliad itself to illustrate
this ]>osition, is the passage where Jupiter laments to Juno the
approaching diath of Sarjjedou. ' Alas me!' says he, ' since it is
fated (noifnt) that Sarpedon, dearest to me of men, should be
slain by Patroclus, tlie son of Mcnretius! Indeed, my heart is
divided withiu me while 1 ruminatt; it in my mind, whether hav-
ing snatched him up from out the lamentable battle, I should
not at once place him alive in the fertile land of his own Lycia,
or whether I should now destroy liim by the linnds of the son of
Menretius!' To which Juno answers, ' Dost thou mean to
rescue from death a mortal man, long since rlestined by fate
{ndXiXi nf.TTfjwr/tyov}'! \<in may do it — l)ul we, the rest of the
gods, do not sanction it.' Here it is clenr from both speala^rs,
that, although Sarpedon is said to be fated to die, Jupiter might
still, if he ideased, save him, and place liim entirely out of the
reach of any such event, and furtlier, in the alternative, that
Jupiter himself would de.^troy him l)y the hands of another." —
Coleridge, p. 156, seq.
382 THE ILIAD.
Short is the date prescribed to mortal man
Shall Jove for one extend the narrow span,
Whose bounds were fixed before his race began?
How man}' sons of gods, foredoom'd to death,
Before proud Ilion must resign their breath!
Were thine exempt, debate would rise above,
And murmuring powers condemn their partial Jove.
Give the bold chief a glorious fate in fight.
And when the ascending soul has wing'd her flight
Let Sleep and Death convey, by thy command.
The breathless body to his native land.
His friends and people, to his future praise,
A marble tomb and pyramid shall raise,
And lasting honors to his ashes give;
His fame ('tis all the dead can have) shall live."
She said: the cloud-compeller, overcome,
Assents to fate, and ratifies the doom.
Then tonch'd with grief, the weeping heavens distill'd
A shower of blood o'er all the fatal field :
The god, his eyes averting from the plain.
Laments his son, predestined to be slain.
Far from the Lycian shores, his happy native reign.
Now met in arms, the combatants appear;
Each heaved the shield, and pcised the lifted spear;
From strong Patroclus' hand the javelin fled.
And pass'd the groin of valiant Thrasymed;
The nerves unbraced no more his bulk sustain,
He falls, and falling bites the bloody plain.
Two sounding darts the Lycian leader threw:
The first aloof with erriug fury flew.
The next transpierced Achilles' mortal steed.
The generous Pedasus of Theban breed:
Fix'd in the shoulder's joint, he reel'd around,
Eoll'd in the bloody dust, and paw'd tlie slippery
ground.
His sudden fall the entangled harness broke;
Each axle crackled, and the chariot shook:
When bold Automedon, to disengage
The starting coursers, and restrain their rage,
Divides the traces with his sword, and freed
The encumbered chariot from the dying steed:
The rest move on, obedient to the rein:
The car rolls slowly o'er the dusty plain.
The towering chiefs to fiercer fight advance:
And first Sarpedon whirl'd his weighty lance,
THE ILIAD. 383
Which o'er the warrior'd shoulder took its course,
And spent in empty air its dying force.
]S^ot so Patroclus' never-erring dart;
Aim'd at his breast it pierced a mortal part,
Where the strong fibres bind the solid heart.
Then as the mountain oak, or poplar tall,
Or pine (fit mast for some great admiral)
Xods to the axe, till with a groaning sound
It sinks, and spreads its honors on the ground,
Thus fell the king; and laid on earth supine.
Before his chariot stretch'd his form divine:
He grasp'd the dust distain'd with streaming gore,
And, pale in death, lay groaning on the shore.
So lies a ball beneath the lion's paws,
While the grim savage grinds with foamy jaws
The trembling limbs, and sucks the smoking blood;
Deep groans, and hollow roars, rebellow through the
wood.
Then to the leader of the Lycian band
The dying chief address'd his last command:
"Glaucus, be bold; thy task be first to dare
The glorious dangers of destructive war,
To lead my troops, to combat at their head.
Incite the living, and supply the dead.
Tell them, I charged them with my latest breath
Not unrevenged to bear Sarpedon's death.
What grief, what shame, must Glaucus undergo
If these spoil'd arms adorn a Grecian foe!
Then as a friend, and as a warrior fight;
J)efend my body, conquer in my right:
That, taught by great examples, all may try
Like thee to vanf(uisli, or like me to die."
He ceased; the Fates suppress'd his laboring breath,
Aiul his eyes darken'd with the shades of death.
The insulting victor with disdain bestrode
The prostrate prince, and on his bosom trod;
Then drew the weapon from his panting heart,
The reeking (il)rcs clinging to the dart;
From the wide wouiul giish'd out a stream of blood,
And the soul issued in the purple Hood.
His flying steeds the Myrmidons ilctain,
Ilnguided now, their mighty master slain.
All-impotent of aid, transfix'd with grief,
Unhappy Glaucus heard the dying chief:
His painful arm, yet useless with the smart
384 THE ILIAD.
Inflicted late by Teucer's deadly dart,
Supported on his better hand he stay'd:
To Phoebus then ('twas all he could) he pray'd:
"All-seeing monarch! whether Lycia's coast,
Or sacred Ilion, thy bright presence boast,
Powerful alike to ease the wretch's smart;
hear me! god of every healing art!
Lo! stiff with clotted blood, and pierced with pain,
That thrills my arm, and shoots through every vein,
1 stand unable to sustain the spear,
And sigh, at distance from the glorious war.
Low in the dust is great Sarpedon laid,
Nor Jove vouchsafed his hapless offspring aid;
But thou, god of health! thy succor lend.
To guard the relics of my slaughter'd friend:
For thou, though distant, canst restore my might.
To head my Lycians, and support the fight.''
Apollo heard; and, suppliant as he stood.
His heavenly hand restrain'd the flux of blood;
He drew the dolors from the wounded part,
And breathed a spirit in his rising heart.
Kenew'd by art divine, the hero stands,
And owns the assistance of immortal hands.
First to the fight his native troops he warms.
Then loudly calls on Troy's vindictive arras;
With ample strides he stalks from place to place;
Now fires Agenor, now Polydamas:
^neas next, and Hector he accosts;
Inflaming thus the rage of all their hosts.
"What thoughts, regardless chief! thy breast employ?
Oh too forgetful of the friends of Troy!
Those generous friends, who, from their country far.
Breathe their brave souls out in another's war.
See! where in dust the great Sarpedon lies,
In action valiant, and in council wise,
Who guarded right, and kept his people free;
To all his Lycians lost, and lost to thee!
Stretch'd by Patroclus' arm on yonder plains,
save from hostile rage his loved remains!
Ah let not Greece his conquer'd trophies boast.
Nor on his corse revenge her heroes lost!"
He spoke: each leader in his grief partook:
Troy, at the loss, through all her legions shook.
Transfix'd with deep regret, tl;ey view o'erthrown
At once his country's pillar, and their own;
THE ILIAD. 385
A chief, who led to Troy's beleaguer'd wall
A host of heroes, and oiitshined them all.
Fired, they rush on; first Hector seeks the foes,
And with superior vengeance greatly glows.
But o'er the dead the fierce Patrocliis stands,
And rousing Ajax, roused the listening bands:
"Heroes, be men; be what you were before;
Or ■weigh the great occasion, and be more.
The chief who taught our lofty walls to yield,
Lies pale in death, extended on the field.
To guard his body Troy in numbers flies;
'Tis half the glory to maintain our prize.
Haste, strip his arms, the slaughter round him spread.
And send the living Lycians to tbe dead.
The heroes kindle at his fierce command;
The martial squadrons close on either hand:
Here Troy and Lyoia charge with loud alarms,
Thessalia there, and Greece, oppose their arms.
With horrid shouts they circle round the slain;
The clash of armor rings o'er all the plain.
Great Jove, to swell the horrors of the fight.
O'er the fierce armies pours pernicious night.
And round his son confounds the warring hosts,
His fate ennobling with a crowd of gliosis.
Now Greece gives way, and great Epigeus falls;
Agacleus' son, from Budium's lofty walls;
Who chased for murder thence a suppliant camo
To Peleus, and the silver-footed dame;
Now sent to Troy, Achilles' arms to aid,
He pays due vengeance to his kinsman's »hade.
Soon as his luckless hand had toucli'd the dead,
A rock's large fragment thunder'd on his head;
Hurl'd by Ilectorean force it cleft in twain
His shatter'd helm, and stretch'd him o'er the slain.
Fierce to the van of fight Patroclus came,
And, like an eagle darting at his game,
Sprung on the 'J'rojan aiul tlie Ly(uan l)and.
What grief thy lieart, wiiat fury urged thy hand,
generous CJreek! when with full vigor thrown,
At StlieiK'laiis flew tlie weighty stone,
Which sunk iiiin to the dead: when Troy, too near
That arm, drew back; and Hector learn'd to fear.
Far as an able hand a lance can throw,
Or at the lists, or at the lighting foe;
So far tlie Trojans from their lines retired;
386 THE ILIAD.
Till Glanciis, tnrning, all the rest inspired.
Theu Batbyclgens fell beneath his rage,
The only hope of Chalcon's trembling age;
AVide o'er the land was stretch'd his large domain,
With stately seats, and riches blest in vain:
Him, bold with youth, and eager to pursue
The flying Lycians, Glaucus met and slew;
Pierced through the bosom with a sudden wound.
He fell, and falling made the fields resound.
The Achaians sorrow for their heroes slain;
With conquering shouts the Trojans shake the plain,
And crowd to spoil the dead: the Greeks oppose;
An iron circle round the carcase grows.
Then brave Laogonus resign'd bis breath,
Despatch'd by Merion to the shades of death:
On Ida's holy hill he made abode,
The priest of Jove, and honor'd like his god.
Between the jaw and ear the javelin went;
The soul, exhaling, issued at the vent.
His spear ^Eneas at the victor threw.
Who stooping forward from the death withdrew;
The lance hiss'd harmless o'er bis covering shield,
And trembling struck, and rooted in the field;
There yet scarce spent, it quivers on the plain,
Sent by the great ^Eneas' arm in vain.
"Swift as thou art (the raging hero cries),
And skill'd in dancing to dispute the prize,
My spear, the destined passage had it found.
Had fix'd tby active vigor to the ground."
"0 valiant leader of the Dardan host!
(Insulted Merion thus retorts the boast)
Strong as you are, 'tis mortal force you trust.
An arm as strong may stretch thee in the dust.
And if to this my lance thy fate be given,
Vain are thy vaunts; success is still from heaven:
This, instant, sends thee down to Pluto's coast;
Mine is the glory, his thy parting ghost."
"0 friend (Menoetius' son this answer gave),
With words to combat, ill befits the brave;
Not empty boasts the sons of Troy repel.
Your swords must plunge them to the shades of hell.
To speak, beseems the council; but to dare
In glorious action, is the task of war."
This said, Patroclus to the battle flies;
Great Merion follows, and new shouts arise:
THE ILIAD. 38
Shields, helmets rattle, as the warriors close;
And thick aud heavy sounds the storm of blows.
As through the shrilling vale, or mountain ground,
The labors of the woodman's axe resound;
Blows following blows are heard re-echoing wide,
While crackling forests fall on ever}^ side:
Thus echoed all the fields with loud alarms,
.So fell the warriors, and so rung their arms.
Now great Sarpedon on the sandy shore.
His heavenly form defaced with dust and gore,
.Vnd stuck with darts by warring heroes shed.
Lies undistingnish'd from the vulgar dead.
His long-disputed corse the chiefs enclose,
On every side the busy combat grows;
Thick as beneath some shepherd's thatch'd abode
(The pails high foaming with a milky flood)
The buzzing flies, a persevering train.
Incessant swarm, and chased return again.
Jove view'd the combat with a stern survey,
Aud eyes that flash 'd intolerable day.
Fix'd on the field his sight, his breast debates
The vengeance due, and meditates the fates:
Whether to urge their prompt effect, and call
The force of Hector to Patroclus' fall,
This instant see his short-lived trophies won,
And stretch him breathless on his slaughter'd son;
Or yet, with many a soul's untimely flight,
Augment the fame, and horror of the fight.
To crown Achilles' valiant friend with praise
At length he dooms; and, that his last of days
Shall set in glory, bids him drive the foe;
Nor unattemled see the shades below.
Then Hector's mind he fills with dire dismay;
Ho mounts his car, and calls his hosts away;
Sunk with Troy's heavy fates, he sees decline
The scales of Jove, and pants with awe divine.
Then, nor before, the hardy Lycians fled.
An 1 left their monarch with the common dead;
Around, in heaps on heaps, a dreadful wall
Of carnage rises, as the heroes fall.
(So Jove decreed!) At length the Greeks obtain
The prize contested, and despoil the slain.
The radiant arms are by Patroclus borne;
Patroclus' ships the glorious spoils adorn.
388 THE ILIAD.
Then thus to Phcebus, in the realms above,
Spoke from his throne the cloud-compelling Jove:
"Descend, my Phoebus! on the Phrygian plain,
And from the fight convey Sarpedon slain;
Then bathe his body in the crystal flood.
With dust dishonor'd, and deform'd with blood;
O'er all his limbs ambrosial odors shed.
And with celestial robes adorn the dead.
Those rites discharged, his sacred corse bequeath
To the soft arms of silent Sleep and Death.
They to his friends the immortal charge shall bear;
His friends a tomb and pyramid shall rear;
What honor mortals after death receive,
Those unavailing honors we may give!"
Apollo bows, and from Mount Ida's height,
Swift to the field precipitates his flight;
Thence from the war the breathless hero bore,
Veil'd in a cloud, to silver Simoi's' shore;
There bathed his honorable wounds, and dress'd
His manly members in the immortal vest;
And with perfumes of sweet ambrosial dews
Eestores his freshness and his form renews.
Then Sleep and Death, two twins of winged race.
Of matchless swiftness, but of silent pace,
Eeceived Sarpedon, at the God's command.
And in a moment reach'd the Lycian land;
The corse amidst his weeping friends they laid,
Where endless honors wait the sacred shade.
Meanwhile Patroclus pours along the plains.
With foaming coursers, and Avith loosen 'd reins.
Pierce on the Trojan and the Lycian crew,
Ah blind to fate! thy headlong fury flew:
Against what fate and powerful Jove ordain.
Vain was thy friend's command, thy courage vain,
For he, the god, whose counsels uncontroll'd
Dismay the mighty, and confound the bold;
The god who gives, resumes, and orders all.
He urged thee on, and urged thee on to fall.
Who first, brave hero! by that arm was slain.
Who last beneath thy vengeance j^ress'd the plain;
AVheu heaven itself thy fatal fury led.
And call'd to fill the number of the dead?
Adrestus first; Autonoiis then succeeds;
Echeclus follows; next young Megas bleeds;
Epistor, Melanippus, bite the ground;
THE ILIAD. 389
The slaughter, Elasus and Mnlius crown'd;
Then sunk Pylartes to eternal night;
The rest, dispersing, trust their fates to flight.
Now Tro}' had stoop'd beneath his matchless power,
But flaming Phoebus kept the sacred tower.
Thrice at the battlements Patroclus strook;*
His blazing a^gis thrice Apollo shook;
He tried the fourth; when, bursting from the cloud,
A more than mortal voice was heard aloud:
"Patroclus! cease; this heaven-defended wall
Defies thy lance; not fated yet to fall;
Thy friend, thy greater far, it shall withstand,
Troy shall not stoop even to Achilles' hand."
So spoke the god who darts celestial fires;
The Greek obeys him, and with awe retires:
While Hector, checking at the Sctean gates
His panting coursers, in his breast debates.
Or in the field his forces to employ,
Or draw the troops within the walls of Troy.
Thus while he thought, beside him Phoebus stood,
In Asius' shape, who reigned by Sangar's flood
(Thy brother, Hecuba I from Dymas sprung,
A valiant warrior, hauglity, bold, and young);
Thus he accosts him: "\\'hat a slnimeful sight!
Ocd! is it Hector that forbears the fight?
Were thine my vigor this successful spear
Should soon convince thee of so false a fear.
Turn thee, ah turn thee to the field of fame.
And in Patroclus' blood efface thy shame.
Perhaps Apollo shall thy arms succeed,
And heaven ordains iiim by thy lance to bleed."
So spoke the inspiring god; then took his flight,
And plunged amidst the tumult of the figlit.
* Thrice at the battlements. " 'I'lie art military of the Homeric
age is ui)f>i; a level with the state of navigation jii'-t described;
])ersoDal prowess decided evervthinfr: thc! night attack and the
ambuscade, although much esteemed, were never uprm a large
scale. The chiefs figlit in advance, and enact almost as much as
the knights of romance, 'i'he siege of Troy was as little like a
modern .'^ic'ge as a CM|itain in the guards is like Achilles. There
is no mention of a ditch or any ot her line or work round the town,
and the wall itself was accessil)le without a lailder. It was
proiialdy a vast mound f)f earth with a declivity outwards.
Patroclus thrice mounts it in armor. The Trojans are in no re-
spects blockaded, and receivi- assistance from tbiir allies to the
very end." — Coleridge, p. 212.
390 THE ILIAD.
He bids Cebrion drive the rapid car;
The lash resounds, the coursers rusli to war.
The god the Grecians' sinking souls depress'd,
And pour'd swift spirits through eacli Trojan breast.
Patroclus lights, impatient for the fight;
A spear his left, a stone employs his right:
With all his nerves he drives it at the foe.
Pointed above, and rough and gross below:
The falling ruin crush'd Cebrion's head,
The lawless offspring of king Priam's bed:
His front, brows, eyes, one undistinguish'd wound:
The bursting balls drop sightless to the ground.
The charioteer, while yet he held the rein,
Struck from the car, falls headlong on the plain. .
To the dark shades the soul unwilling glides,
While the proud victor thus his fall derides.
"Good heaven! what active feats yon artist shows!
What skillful divers are our Phrygian foes!
Mark with what ease they sink into the sand!
Pity that all their jiractice is by land!"
Then rushing sudden on his prostrate prize.
To spoil the carcase fierce Patroclus flies:
Swift as a lion, terrible and bold,
That sweeps the field, depq.pulates the fold;
Pierced through the dauntless heart, then tumbles slain,
And from his fatal courage finds his bane.
At once bold Hector, leaping from his car,
Defends the body, and provokes the war.
Thus for some slanghter'd hind, with equal rage,
Two lordly rulers of the wood engage;
Stung with fierce hunger, each the prey invades.
And echoing roars rebellow through the shades.
Stern Hector fastens on the warrior's head,
And by the foot Patroclus drags the dead:
While all around, confusion, rage, and fright,
Mix the contending hosts in mortal fight.
So pent by hills, the wild winds roar aloud
In the deep bosom of some gloomy wood;
Ticaves, arms, and trees, aloft in air are blown.
The broad oaks crackle, and the Sylvans groan;
This way and that, the rattling thicket bends,
And the whole forest in one crash descends.
Not with less noise, with less tumultuous rage.
In dreadful shock the mingled hosts engage;
Darts shower'd on darts, now round the carcase ring;
THE ILIAD. 391
Now flights of arrows bounding from the string:
Stones follow stones; some clatter on the fields,
Some hard, and heavy, shake the sounding shields.
But where the rising whirlwind clouds the plains,
Sunk in soft dust the mighty chief remains.
And, stretch'd in death, forgets the guiding reins!
Now flaming from the zenith, Sol had driven
His fervid orb through half the vault of heaven;
While on each host with equal tempests fell
The showering darts, and numbers sank to hell.
But when his evening wheels o'erhung the main.
Glad conquest rested on the Grecian train.
Then from amidst the tumult and alarms.
They draw the conquer'd corse and radiant arms.
Then rash Patroclus with new fury glows.
And breathing slaughter, pours amid the foes.
Thrice on the press like Mars himself he flew.
And thrice three heroes at each onset slew,
Tiiere ends thy glory! tliere the Fates untwine
Tlie last black remnant of so bright a line;
Apollo dreadful stops thy middle way;
Death calls, and heaven allows no longer day!
For lo! the god in dusky clouds enshrined,
Approaching dealt a staggering blow behind.
The weighty shock his neck and siioulders feel; .
His eyes flash sparkles, his stunn'd senses reel
In giddy darkness: far to distance flung,
His bounding helmet on the champaign rung.
Achilles' plume is stain'd with dust and gore;
That plume wiiicli never stoojj'd to earth before;
Long used, untouch'd, in fighting fields to shine,
And shade the temples of the mad divine.
Jove dooms it now on Hector's helm to nod;
Xot long — for fate pursues him, and the god.
His spear in shivers falls; his ample shield
Drops from his arm: his baldric strows the field:
The corslet his astonish'd breast forsakes:
Loose is each joint; each nerve with horror shakes;
Stupid ho stares, and all-assistless stands:
Such is t!ie force of more than mortal hands!
A Danlan youth there was, well-known to fame,
From Panthns sprung, Kiiphorbus was his name.
Famed for the manage of the foaming horse,
Skill'd in the dart, and matchless in the ccturae:
Full twenty kniglits he tumbled from the car,
393 THE ILIAD.
While yet he learn'd liis rmlimeiits of war.
His venturous spear first drew the hero's gore;
He struck, he wounded, but lie durst no more.
Nor, though disarm'd, Patroclus' fury stood:
But swift withdrew the long-protended wood,
And turn'd him short, and herded in the crowd.
Thus, by an arm divine, and mortal spear,
Wounded, at once, Patroclus yields to fear,
Retires for succor to his social train.
And flies the fate, which heaven decreed, in vain.
Stern Hector, as the bleeding chief he views.
Breaks through the ranks, and his retreat pursues;
The lance arrests him with a mortal wound;
He falls, earth thunders, and his arms resound.
With him all Greece was sunk; that moment all
Her yet-surviving heroes seem'd to fall.
So, scorch'd v/ith heat, along the desert score,
The roaming lion meets a bristly boar,
Fast by tlie spring; they both dispute the flood.
With flaming eyes, and jaws besmear'd with blood;
At length the sovereign savage wins the strife;
And the torn boar resigns his thirst and life.
Patroclus thus, so many chiefs o'er thrown,
So many lives effused, expires his own.
As dying now at Hector's feet he lies.
He sternly views him, and triumphant cries:
"Lie there, Patroclus! and witb thee, the joy
Thy pride once promised, of subverting Troy;
The fancied scenes of Ilion wrapt in flames.
And thy soft pleasures served with captive dames.
Unthinking man! I fought those towers to free.
And guard that beauteous race from lords like thee:
But tiiou a prey to vultures shalt be made;
Thy own Achilles cannot lend thee aid;
Though much at parting that great chief might say.
And much enjoin thee, this important day.
'Return not, my brave friend (perhaps he said),
Without the bloody arms of Hector dead.'
He spoke, Patroclus march 'd, and thus he sped."
Supine, and wildly gazing on the skies.
With faint, expiring breath, the chief replies:
•'Vain boaster! cease, and know the powers divine!
Jove's and Apollo's is this deed, not thine;
To heaven is owed whate'er your own you call,
And heaven itself disarm'd me ere my fall.
THE ILIAD. 393
Had twenty mortals, each thy match in might,
Opposed me fairly, they had sunk in fight:
By fate and Phrebus was I first o'erthrown,
Euphorbus next: the third mean part thy own.
But thou, iniperiousi hear my latest breath;
The gods inspire it, and it sounds thy death:
Insulting man, thou shalt be soon as I;
Black fate o'erhangs thee, and thy hour draws nigh;
Even now on life's last verge I see thee stand,
I see thee fall, and by Achilles' hand."
He faints: the soul unwilling wings her way
(The beauteous body left a load of clay),
Flits to the lone, uncomfortable coast;
A naked, wandering, melancholy ghost!
Then Hector pausing, as his eyes he fed
On the pale carcase, thus address'd the dead:
"From whence this boding speech, the stern decree
Of death denounced, or why denounced to me?
Wiiy not as well Achilles' fate be given
To Hector's lance? Who knows tlie will of heaven?"
Pensive he said; then pressing as he lay
His breathless bosom, tore the lance away;
And upwards cast the corse; the reeking spear
He shakes, and charges the bold charioteer.
But swift Automedon witii loosen'd reins
Rapt in the chariot o'er the distant plains.
Far from his rage the immortal coursers drove;
The immortal coursers were the gift of Jove.
394 THE ILIAD.
BOOK XVII.
AKGUMENT.
THE SEVENTH BATTLE, FOE THE BODY OF PATEOCLUS
— THE ACTS OF MENELAFS.
Menelaiis, upon the death of Patroclus, defends his body from
the enemy: Euphorbus, who attempts it, is slain. Hector
advancing, Menelaiis retires; but soon returns with Ajax
and drives him off. This, Glaiicus objects to Hector as a
flight, who thereupon puts on the armor he had won from
Patroclus, and renews the battle. The (ireeks give way, till
Ajax rallies them: jEneas sustains the Trojans. yEneas and
Hector attempt the chariot of Achilles, which is borne off by
Automedon. The horses of Achilles deplore the loss of
Patroclus: Jupiter covers his body with a thick darkness:
the noble prayer of Ajax on that occasion. Menelaiis sends
Antilochus to Achilles, with the news of Patroclus' death:
then returns to the fight, where, though attacked with the
utmost fury, he and Meriones, assisted by the Ajaces, bear
off the body to the ships.
The time is the evening of the eight-and-twentieth day.
The scene lies in the fields before Troy.
On the cold earth divine Patroclns spread,
Lies pierced with wonnds among the vulgar dead.
Great Menelaiis, toiich'd with generous woe,
Springs to the front, and guards him from the foe.
Thus round her new-fallen young the heifer moves,
Fruit of her throes, and first-born of her loves;
And anxious (helpless as he lies, and bare)
Turns, and re-turns her, with a mother's care,
Opposed to eacii that near the carcase came.
His broad shield glimmers, and his lances flame.
The son of Panthus, skill'd the dart to send,
Eyes the dead hero, and insults the friend.
"This hand, Atrides, laid Patroclus low;
Warrior! desist, nor tempt an equal blow:
To me the spoils my prowess won, resign:
Depart with life, and leave the glory mine."
THE ILIAD. 395
The Trojan thus: the Spartan monarch bnrn'd
With generous anguish, and in scorn return'd:
"Laugh'st thou not, Jove! from thy superior throne,
When mortals boast of prowess not their own?
Not thus the lion glories in his might,
Nor panther braves his spotted foe in fight.
Nor thus the boar (those terrors of the plain);
Man only vaunts his force, and vaunts in vain.
But far the vainest of the boastful kind.
These sons of Pauthus vent their haughty mind.
Yet 'twas but late, beneath my conquering steel
This boaster's brother, Hyperenor, fell;
Against our arm which rashly he defied,
Vain was his vigor, and as vain his pride.
These eyes beheld him on the dust expire,
No more to clieer his spouse, or glad his sire.
Presumptuous youth! like his shall be thy doom,
Go, wait thy brotlier to the Stygian gloom;
Or, whilst thou may'st, avoid the threaten'd fate;
Fools stay to feel it, and are wise too late."
Unmoved, Euphorbus thus: "'That action known,
Come, for my brother's blood repay thy own.
His weeping father claims thy destined head,
And spouse, a widow in her bridal bed.
On these thy conquer'd spoils I shall bestow,
To soothe a consort's and a parent's woe.
No longer then defer the glorious strife.
Let heaven decide our fortune, fame, and life."
Swift as the word the missile lance ho llings;
The well-aim 'd weapon on the buckler rings,
But blunted by the brass, innoxious falls.
On .Jove the father groat Atridcs calls.
Nor files the javelin from his arm in vain.
It pierced his throat, and bent him to the plain;
"Wide through the neck appears the grisly wound.
Prone sinks the warrior, and his arms resound.
The shining circlets of his golden hair,
AVhich even the graces might be proud to wear,
Instarr'd with goms and gold, bestrow the shore.
With dust dishonor'd, and dufurnrd with gore.
As the young olive, in some sylvan scene,
Crown'd In' fr(3sh fountains mt\\ eternal green,
Ijifts tlie gay iioail, in snowy llowcrets fair,
And plays and dances to the gentle air;
When lo! a whirlwind frum high hoavoii invades
39(J TUE ILIAD.
The tender plant, and withers all its shades;
It lies uprooted from its genial bed,
A lovely ruin now defaced and dead :
Thus young, thus beautiful, Euphorbus lay,
While the fierce Spartan tore his arms away.
Proud of his deed, and glorious in the prize,
Affrighted Troy the towering victor flies:
Flies, as before some mountain lion's ire
The village curs and trembling swains retire,
When o'er the slaughter'd bull they hear him roar.
And see his jaws distill with smoking gore:
All pale with fear, at distance scatter'd round,
They shout incessant, and the vales resound.
Meanwhile Apollo viewed with envious eyes, '
And urged great Hector to dispute the prize
(In Mentes' shape, beneath whose martial care
The rough Ciconians learn'd the trade of war);*
"Forbear (he cried) with fruitless speed to chase
Achilles' coursers, of ethereal race;
They stoop not, these, to mortal man's command,
Or stoop to none but great Achilles' hand.
Too long amused with a pursuit so vain,
Turn, and behold the brave Euphorbus slain;
By Sparta slain! forever now suppress'd
The fire which burn'd in that undaunted breast!"
Thus having spoke, Apollo wing'd his flight,
And mix'd with mortals in the toils of fight:
His words infix'd unutterable care
Deep in great Hector's soul: through all the war
He darts his anxious eye; and, instant, view'd
The breatliless hero in his blood imbued
(Forth welling from the wound, as prone he lay),
And in the victor's hands the shining prey.
Sheath 'd in bright arms, through cleaving ranks he
flies,
And sends his voice in thunder to the skies:
Fierce as a flood of flame by Vulcan sent.
It flew, and fired the nations as it went.
Atrides from the voice the storm divined.
And thus explored his own unconquer'd mind:
''Then shall I quit Patroclus on the plain,
Slain in my cause, and for my honor slain !
Desert the arms, the relics, of my friend?
* Ciconiarii. A people of Thrace, near the Hebrus.
THE ILIAD. » 397
Or singly, Hector and his troops attend?
Sure where such partial favor heaven bestow'd,
To brave the hero were to brave the god :
Porgive me, Greece, if once I quit the field;
'Tis not to Hector, but to heaven I yield.
Yet, nor the god, nor heaven, should give me fear,
Did but the voice of Ajax reach my ear:
Still would we turn, still battle on tlie plains,
And give Achilles all that yet remains
Of his and our Patroclus — " This, no more
The time allow'd : Troy thicken'd on the shore,
A sable scene! The terrors Hector led.
Slow he recedes, and sighing quits the dead.
So from the fold the unwilling lion parts.
Forced by loud clauiors, and a storm of darts*,
He flies indeed, but threatens as he flies.
With heart indignant and retorted eyes.
Now enter'd in the Spartan ranks, he turn'd
His manly breast, and with new fury burn'd;
O'er all the black battalions sent his view.
And through the cloud the godlike Ajax knew;
Where laboring on the left the warrior stood,
All grim in arms, and cover'd o'er with blood;
There breathing courage, where the god of day
Had sunk each heart with terror and dismay.
To him the king: "Oh Ajax, oh my friend!
Haste, and Patroclus' loved remains defend:
I'he body to Achilles to restore
Demands our care; alas, we can no more!
For naked now, despoil'd of arms, he lies;
And Hector glories in the dazzling prize."
He said, and touch'd his heart. The raging pair
Pierced the thick battle, and provoke the war.
Already had stern Hector seized his head,
And doom'd to 'J'rojan gods the unhai)})y dead;
]iut soon as Ajax rearM his tower-like shield.
Sprung to his car, and measured back the field.
His train to '^I'roy the radiimt ainior bear.
To stand a trophy of his fame iii war.
Meanwhile great Ajax (his broad shield display'd)
Guards the dead hero with the dreadful shade;
And now before, and now bdliind \\'\ stood:
Thus in the centre of some gloomy wood,
With many a step, the lioness surroujuls
Her tawny young, beset by men and hounds;
398 1'HE ILIAD.
Elate her heart, and rousing all her powers,
Dark o'er the fiery balls each hanging eyebrow lours.
Fast by his side the generous Spartan glows
With great revenge, and feeds his inward woes.
But Glaucus, leader of the Lycian aids,
On Hector frowning, thus his flight upbraids:
"Where now in Hector shall we Hector find?
A manly form, without a manly mind.
Is this, chief! a hero's boasted fame?
How vain, without the merit, is the name!
Since battle is renounced, thy thoughts employ,
What other methods may preserve thy Troy:
'Tis time to try if Hion's state can stand
By thee alone, nor ask a foreign hand:
Mean, empty boast! but shall the Lycians stake
Their lives for you? those Lycians you forsake?
What from thy thankless arms can we expect?
Thy friend Sarpedon proves thy base neglect;
Say, shall our slaughter'd bodies guard your walls,
While unreveng'd the great Sarpedon falls?
Even where he died for Troy, you left him there,
A feast for dogs, and all the fowls of air.
On my command if any Lycian wait,
Hence let him march, and give up Troy to fate.
Did such a spirit as the gods impart
Impel one Trojan hand or Trojan heart •
(Such as should burn in every soul that draws
The sword for glory, and his country's cause),
Even yet our mutual arms we might employ,
And d^rag yon carcase to the walls of Troy.
Oh I were Patroclus ours, we might obtain
Sarpedon's arms and honor'd corse again!
Greece with Achilles' friend should be repaid.
And thus due honors purchased to his shade.
But words are vain— Let Ajax once appear,
And Hector trembles and recedes with fear;
Thou dar'st not meet the terrors of his eye;
And lo! already thou prepar'st to fly."
The Trojan chief with fix'd resentment eyed
The Lycian leader, and sedate replied :
"Say, is it just, my friend, that Hector's ear
From such a warrior such a speech should hear?
I deem'd thee once the wisest of thy kind,
But ill this insult suits a prudent mind.
I shun great Ajax? I desert my train?
THE ILIAD. 399
'Tis mine to prove the rash assertion vain;
I joy to mingle where the battle bleeds,
And hear tlie thunder of the souiiding steeds.
But Jove's high will is ever uucontroU'd,
The strong he withers, and confounds the bold;
Now crowns with fame the mighty man, and now
Strikes the fresh garland from the victor's brow!
Come, through you squadrons let us hew the way,
And thou be witiiess, if I fear to-day;
If yet a Greek the sight of Hector dread.
Or yet their hero dare defend the dead."
Then turning to the martial hosts, he cries:
"Ye Trojans, Cardans, Lycians, and allies!
Be men, my friends, in action as in name.
And yet be mindful of your ancient fame.
Hector in proud Achilles' arms shall shine.
Torn from his friend, by right of conquest mine."
He strode along the field, as thus he said
The sable plumage nodded o'er his head):
Swift through the spacious plain he sent a look;
One instant saw, one instant overtook
The distant band, that on the sandy shore
The radiant spoils to sacred Ilion bore.
There his own mail unbraced the held bestrow'd;
His train to Troy conveyed the massy load.
Now blazing in the immortal arms he stands;
The work and present of celestial hands;
By aged Peleus to Achilles given,
As first to Peleus by the court of heaven:
His father's arms not long Achilles wears,
Forbid by fate to reach his father's years.
Him, proud in triumph, glittering from afar,
The goi] whose thunder rends the troubled air
Beheld with pity; as apart he sat.
And, conscious, look'd through all the scenes of fate.
He shook the sacred honors of his head;
Olympus trembled, ami the godiiead said:
"Ah, wretf^hod tnan! unmimlful (jf thy end!
A moment's glory; and wiiat fates attend!
In heavonlv panoply divinely bright
Thou stand'st, and armies tromljlu at thy sight,
As at Achilles' self! beneath thy dart
Lies slain the groat Achilles dearer part.
Thou from the mighty dead tlntsu arms hast torn.
Which once the greatest of mankin<l had worn.
400 THE ILIAD.
Yet live! I give thee oue illustrious day,
A blaze of glory ere thou fad'st away.
For ah! uo more Andromache shall come
With joyful tears to welcome Hector home;
No more officious, with endearing charms,
From thy tired limbs unbrace Pelides' arms!'*
Then with his sable brow he gave the nod
That seals his word; the sanction of the god.
The stubborn arms (by Jove's command disposed)
Conform'd spontaneous, and around him closed:
Fill'd with the god, enlarged his members grew.
Through all his viens a sudden vigor flew,
The blood in brisker tides began to roll,
And M;irs himself came rushing on his soul.
Exhorting loud through all the field he strode,
And look'd, and moved, Achilles, or a god.
Now Mesthles, Glaucus, Medon, he inspires,
Now Phorcys, Ohromius, and' Hippothoiis fires;
The great Thersilochus like fury found,
Asteropaeus kindled at the sound,
And Eiinomus, in augury renown'd.
"Hear, all ye hosts, and hear, unnumber'd bands
Of neighboring nations, or of distant lands!
'Twas not for state we summon'd you so far,
To boast our numbers, and the pomp of war:
Ye came to fight; a valiant foe to chase,
To save our present, and our future race.
For this, our wealth, our products, you enjoy,
And glean the relics of exhausted Troy.
Now then, to conquer or to die prepare;
To die or conquer are the terms of war.
Whatever hand shall win Patroclus slain,
AVhoe'er shall dark him to the Trojan train.
With Hector's self shall equal honors claim;
With Hector part the spoil, and share the fame.
Fired by his words, the troops dismiss their fears.
They join, they thicken, they protend their spears;
Full on the Greeks they drive in firm array.
And each from Ajax hopes the glorious prey:
Vain hope! what numbers shall the field o'erspread,
AVhat victims perish round the mighty dead!
Great Ajax mark'd the growing storm from far,
And thus bespoke his brother of the war:
"Our fatal day, alas! is come, my friend;
And all our wars and glories at an end!
THE ILIAD. ' 401
'Tis not this corse alone we guard in vain,
Condenin'd to vultures on the Trojan plain;
AVe too must yield; the same sad fate must fall
On thee, on me, perhaps, my friend, on all.
See what a tempest direful Hector spreads,
And lol it bursts, it thunders on our heads!
Call on our Greeks, if any hear the call.
The bravest Greeks; this hour demands them all."
The warrior raised his voice, and wide around
The field re-echoed the distressful sound.
"0 chiefs! princes, to whose hand is given
The rule of men; whose glory is from heaven!
"Whom with due honors botli Atrides grace;
Ye guides and guardians of our Argive race!
All, whom this well-known voice shall reach from far,
All, wliom I see not through this cloud of war;
Come all! let generous rage your arms employ.
And save Patroclus from the dogs of Troy."
OiiJean Ajax first the voice obey'd.
Swift was his pace, and ready was his aid:
Next him Idomeneus, more slow with age,
And ^lerion, buruing with a hero's rage.
The long succeeding numbers who can name?
But all were Greeks, and eager all for fame.
Fierce to the charge great Hector led the throng;
"Whole Troy embodied rush'd with shouts along.
Thus, when a mountain billow foams and raves,
Where some swoln river disembogues his waves,
Full in tiie mouth is stop])'d the rushing tide,
The boiling ocean works from side to side.
The river trembles to his utmost shore,
And distant rocks re-bellow to the roar.
Xor less resolved, the fii'm Achaian band
With brazen shields in horrid circle stand.
Jove, pouring darkness o'er the mingled light,
Cfiuceals the warrii)rs' shining helms in night.
To him, the chief for whom the iiosts contend
Had lived not iiateful, for lie lived a friend:
Dead he protects him with superior care,
Nor dooms his carcase to the biids of air.
The first attack the (irecians scarce sustain.
Iicpnlsed, they yiohl; the Trojans seize the slain:
Then fierce they rally, to revenge led on
Jiy the swift rage of Ajax Telamon.
(Ajax to Peleus' son the second name,
402 THE ILIAD,
In graceful stature next, and next in fame,)
AVith headlong force the foremost ranks he tore;
So through the thicket bursts the mountain boar.
And rudely scatters, for a distance round,
The frighted hunter and the baying hound.
The son of Lethus, brave Pelasgus' heir,
Hippothoiis, dragg'd the carcase through the war;
The sinewy ankle bored, the feet he bound
With thongs inserted through the double wound;
Inevitable fate o'ertakes the deed:
Doom'd by great Ajax's vengeful lance to bleed;
It cleft the helmet's brazen clieeks in twain;
The shatter'd crest and horse-hair strow the plain:
With nerves relax'd he tumbles to the ground:
The brain comes gushing through the ghastly wound:
He drops Patroclus' foot, and o'er him sjiread,
Now lies a sad companion of the dead:
Far from Larissa lies, his native air.
And ill requites his parents' tender care.
Lamented youth! in life's lirst bloom he fell,
Sent by great Ajax to the shades of hell.
Once more at Ajax Hector's javelin flies;
The Grecian marking, as it cut the skies,
Shunn'd the descending death; which hissing on,
Stretch'd in the dust the great Iphytus' son,
Schedius the brave, of all the Phocian kind
The boldest warrior and the noblest mind:
In little Panope, for strength renown'd.
He held his seat, and ruled the realms around.
Plunged in his throat, the weapon drank his blood,
And deep transpiercing through the shoulder stood;
In clanging arms the hero fell and all
The fields resounded with his weighty fall.
Phorcys, as slain Hippothoiis he defends.
The Telamonian lance his belly rends;
The hollow armor burst before the stroke.
And through the wound the rushing entrails broke
In strong convulsions panting on the sands
He lies, and grasps the dust with dying hands.
Struck at the sight, recede the Trojan train:
The shouting Argives strip the heroes slain.
And now had Troy, by Greece compell'd to yield.
Fled to her ramparts, and resign'd the field:
Greece, in her native fortitude elate,
AVith Jove averse^ had turn'd the scale of fate:
THE ILIAD. 403
But Phoebns nrged ^neas to the fight;
He seem'd like aged Periphas to sight
(A herald iu Anchises' love grown old,
Eevered for prudence, and with prudence bold).
Thus he — "What methods yet, chief! remain,
To save your Troy, though heaven its fall ordain?
There have been heroes, who, by virtuous care,
By valor, numbers, and by arts of war,
Have forced the powers to spare a sinking state,
And gaiu'd at length the glorious odds of fate:
But you, when fortune smiles, when Jove declares
His partial favor, and assists your wars.
Your shameful efforts 'gainst yourselves employ,
And force the unwilling god to ruin Troy."
j:Eneas through the form assumed descries
The power couceal'd, and thus to Hector cries:
"Oh lasting shame! to our own fears a prey,
We seek our ramparts, and desert the day.
A god, nor is he less, my bosom warms, ^
And tells me, Jove asserts the Trojan arms."
He spoke, and foremost to the combat flew:
The bold example all his hosts pursue.
Then, first, Leocritus beneath him bled.
In vain beloved by valiant Lycomede;
Who view'd his fall, and, grieving at the chance.
Swift to revenge it sent his angry lance;
The whirling lance, Avith vigorous force address'd,
Descends, and pants in Apisaon's breast;
From ricli Paeonia's vales the warrior came.
Next thee, AsteropeusI in place and fame.
Asteropeus with grief beheld the slain,
And rusli'd to combat, but he rush'd in vain:
Indissolubly firm, around the dead.
Rank within rank, on buckler buciiler spread.
And lieinm'd witii bristled spears, the Grecians stood,
A brazen bulwark, and an iron wood.
Great Ajax eyes with incessant care,
And in an orb contracts the crowded war,
Close in their ranks comiiiands to fight or fall.
And stands the centre ami the soul of all:
FixM on the spot they war, and wounded, wound;
A sanguine torrent steojjs the recking ground:
On heaps tiio (Jreeks, on heaps the Trojans bled,
And, thickening round them, rise the hills of dead.
Greece, in close order, and collected might,
404 THE ILIAD.
Yet suffers least, and sways the wavering fight;
Fierce as conflicting fires the combat burns,
And now it rises, now it sinks by turns.
In one thick darkness all the fight was lost;
The sun, the moon, and all the ethereal host
Seem'd as extinct: day ravish'd from their eyes,
And all heaven's splendors blotted from the skies.
Such o'er Patroclus' body hung the night,
The rest in sunshine fought, and open light;
Unclouded there, the aerial azure spread.
No vapor rested on the mountain's head,
The golden sun pour'd forth a stronger ray,
And all the broad expansion flamed with day.
Dispersed around the plain, by fits they fight.
And here and there their scatter'd arrows light:
But death and darkness o'er the carcase spread,
There bnrn'd the war, and there the mighty bled.
Meanwhile the sons of Nestor, in the rear
(Their fellows routed), toss the distant spear,
And skirmish wide: so Nestor gave command,
When from the ships he sent the Pylian band.
The youthful brothers thus for fame contend,
Nor knew the fortune of Achilles' friend;
In thought they view'd him still, with martial joy,
Glorious in arms, and dealing death to Troy.
But round the corse the heroes pant for breath.
And thick and heavy grows the work of death:
O'erlabor'd now, with dust, and sweat, and gore,
Their knees, their legs, their feet are cover'd o'er;
Drops follow drops, the clouds on clouds arise.
And carnage clogs their hands, and darkness fills their
eyes,
As when a slaughter'd bull's yet reeking hide,
Strain'd with full force, and tugg'd from side to side,
The brawny curriers stretch; and labor o'er
The extended surface, drunk with fat and gore:
So tugging round the corse both armies stood;
The mangled body bathed in sweat and blood;
While Greeks and Illans equal strength employ.
Now to the ships to force it, now to Troy.
Not Pallas self, her breast when fury warms,
Nor he whose anger sets the world in arms,
Could blame this scene; snch rage, such horror reign'd;
Such, Jove to honor the great dead ordain'd.
Achilles in his ships at distance lay.
THE ILIAD. 405
Nor knew the fatal fortune of the day;
He, yet unconscious of Patroclus' fall,
In dust extended under Ilion's wall,
Expects him glorious from the conquer'd plain,
And for his wish'd return prepares in vain;
Though well he knew, to make proud Ilion bend
Was more than heaven had destined to his friend.
Perhaps to him: this Thetis had reveal'd;
The rest, in pity to her son, conceal'd.
Still raged the conflict round the hero dead.
And heaps on heaps by mutual wounds they bled.
"Cursed be the man (even private Greeks would say)
Who dares desert this well-disputed day!
First may the cleaving earth before our eyes
Gape wide, and drink our blood for sacrifice;
First perish all, ere haughty Troy shall boast
We lost Patroclus, and our glory lost!"
Thus they: while with one voice the Trojans said,
"Grant this day, Jove! or heap us on the dead!"
Then clash their sounding arms; the clangors rise.
And shake the brazen concave of the skies.
Meantime, at distance from the scene of blood,
The pensive steeds of that Achilles stood:
Their godlike master slain before their eyes,
They wept, and shared in human miseries.*
In vain Automedon 7iow shakes the rein.
Now plies the lash, and soothes and threats in vain;
Nor to the fight nur Hellespont they go,
Kestive they stood, and obstinate in woe:
.Still as a tombstone, never to be moved,"
On some good man ur woman unreproved
* They wept.
" Fast by the raanger stands the inactive steed,
And, sunk in sorrow, lianjrs liis laiifriiid Lead;
He stands, and careless f)f his golden grain,
Weeps his associates and his master slain."
— Merrick's 'IVyphiodorus, v. 18-24.
" Nothing is heard upon tin- iiiomitiiiii now.
But pensive lierds that for their master low,
Straggling and comfortless about they rove.
Unmindful of their pasture and their love."
— Mo.schus, id. ;{, parodied, ihid.
" To close the pomp, iKtlion, the steed of state,
Is led, the funeral of his lord to wait.
Stripy.'d of his trappings, with a sullen pace
He walks, and the big tears run roiling down his face."
— Dryden's Virgil, bk. ii.
406 THE ILIAD.
Lays its eternal weight; or fix'd, as stands
A marble courser by the sculptor's hands,
Placed on the hero's grave. Along their face
The big round drops coursed down with silent pace,
Conglobing on the dust. Their manes, that late
CircTed their arched necks and waved in state,
Trail'd on the dust beneath the yoke were spread,
And prone to earth was hung their languid head:
Nor Jove disdain'd to cast a pitying look.
While thus relenting to the steeds he spoke:
"Unhappy coursers of immortal strain,
Exempt from age. and deathless, now in vain;
Did we your race on mortal man bestow,
Only, alas! to share in mortal woe?
For ah! what is there of inferior birth,
That breathes or creeps upon the dust of earth;
What wretched creature of what wretched kind.
Than man more weak, calamitous, and blind?
A miserable race! but cease to mourn:
For rot by you shall Priam's son be borne
High on the splendid car: one glorious prize
He rashly boasts: the rest our will denies.
Ourself will swiftness to your nerves impart,
Our self with rising spirits swell your heart.
Automedon your rapid flight shall bear
Safe to the navy through the storm of war.
For yet 'tis given to Troy to ravage o'er
The field, and spread her slaughters to the shore.
The sun shall see her conquer, till his fall
AVith sacred darkness shades the face of all."
He said; and breathing in the immortal horse
Excessive spirit, urged them to the course;
From their high manes they shake the dust, and bear
The kindling chariot through the parted war:
So flies a vulture through the clamorous train
Of geese, that scream, and scatter round the plain.
From danger now with swiftest speed they flew,
And now to conquest with like speed pursue;
Sole in the seat the charioteer remains,
Now plies the javelin, now directs the reins:
Him brave Alcimedon beheld distress'd,
Approach'd the chariot, and the chief address'd:
"What god provokes thee rashly thus to dare.
Alone, unaided, in the thickest war?
Alas! thy friend is slain, and Hector wields
THE ILIAD. 40 :
Achilles' arms triumphant in the fields."
"In happy time (the charioteer replies)
The bold Alciniedon now greets my eyes;
No Greek like him the heavenly steeds restrains,
Or holds their fury in suspended reins:
Patroclus, while he lived, their rage could tame,
But now Patroclus is an empty namel
To thee I yield the seat, to thee resign
The ruling charge: the task of fight be mine."
He said. Alcimedon, with active heat,
Snatches the reins, and vaults into the seat.
His friend descends. The chief of Troy descried,
And call'd ^Eneas fighting near his side.
"Lo, to my sight, beyond our hope restored,
Achilles' car, deserted of its lord !
The glorious steeds our ready arms invite,
Scarce their weak drivers guide them through the fight.
Can such opponents stand when we assail?
Unite thy force, my friend, and we prevail."
The son of Venus to the counsel yields;
Then o'er their backs they spread their solid shields;
With brass refulgent the broad surface shined.
And thick bull-hides the spacious concave lined.
Them Chromius follows, Aretus succeeds;
Each hopes the conquest of the lofty steeds:
In vain, brave youths, with glorious hopes ye burn.
In vain advancel not fated to return.
Unniov'd, Automedon attends the fight,
Implores the eternal, and collects his might.
Then turning to his friend, with dauntless mind:
"Oh keep the foaming coursers close behind!
Full on my shoulders let their nostrils blow,
For hard the fight, determined is the foe;
'Tis Hector comes: and svhen he seeks the prize,
War knows no man; he wins it or ho dies."
Then through the field he sends his voice aloud.
And calls the Ajaces from tlie warring (;rowd,
With great Atrides. "Hither turn (lie said).
Turn where clistress demands immediate aid;
The dead, encircled by his friends, forego,
And save the living from a fiercer foe.
TJnhelp'd we stand, unef|ual to engage
The force of Hector, and .Eneas' rage:
Yet mighty as they arc, my force to prove
Is only mine: the event belongs to Jove."
408 377^ ILIAD.
He spoke, and high the sounding javelin flung,
Which pass'd the shield of Aretus the young:
It pierced his helt, emboss'd with curious art,
Then in the lower belly struck the dart.
As when a ponderous axe, descending full.
Cleaves the broad forehead of some brawny bull:*
Struck 'twixt the horns, he springs with many a bound,
Then tumbling rolls enormous on the ground;
Thus fell the youth; the air his soul received,
And the spear trembled as his entrails heaved.
Now at Automedon the Trojan foe
Discharged his lance; the meditated blow.
Stooping, he shunn'd; the javelin idly fled,
And hiss'd innoxious o'er the hero's head;
Deep rooted in the ground, the forceful spear
In long vibrations spent its fury there.
With clashing falchions now the chiefs had closed.
But each brave Ajax heard, and interposed;
Nor longer Hector with his Trojans stood,
But left their slain companion in his blood:
His arms AutomedoJi divests, and cries,
"Accept, Patroclus, this mean sacrifice:
Thus have I soothed my griefs, and thus have paid,
Poor as it is, some offering to thy shade."
So looks the lion o'er a mangled boar,
All grim with rage, and horrible with gore;
High on the chariot at one bound he sprung.
And o'er his seat the bloody trophies hung.
And now Minerva from the realms of air
Descends impetuous, and renews the war;
For, pleased at length the Grecian arms to aid,
The lord of thunders sent the blue-eyed maid.
As when liigh Jove denouncing future woe.
O'er the dark clouds extends his purple bow
(In sign of tempests from the troubled air.
Or from the rage of man, destructive war).
The drooping cattle dread the impending skies,
And from his half-till'd field the laborer flies:
In such a form the goddess round her drew
* Some brawny bull.
" Like to a bu]l, that witli impetuous spring
Darts, at the moment when the fatal blow
Hath struck him, but unable to proceed
Plunges on either side."
— Carey's Dante: Hell, c. xii.
TEE ILIAD. 409
A livid cloud and to the battle flew.
Assuming Phcenix's shape on earth she falls,
And in his well-known voice to Sparta calls:
"And lies Achilles' friend, beloved by all,
A prey to dogs beneath the Trojan wall?
What shame to Greece for future times to tell,
To thee the greatest in whose cause he fell!"
"0 chief, fatherl (Atreus' son replies)
full of daysl by long experience wise!
What more desires my soul, than here unmoved
To guard the body of the man I loved?
Ah, would Minerva send me strength to rear
This wearied arm, and ward the storm of war!
Bat Hector, like the rage of fire, we dread.
And Jove's own glories blaze around his head!"
Pleased to be first of all the powers address'd,
She breathes new vigor in her hero's breast.
And fills with keen revenge, with fell despite,
Desire of blood, and rage, and lust of fight.
So burns the vengeful hornet (soul all o'er),
Repulsed in vain, and thirsty still of gore
(Bold son of air and heat) on angry winds
Untamed, untired, he turns, attacks, and stings.
Fired with like ardor fierce Atrides flew,
And sent his soul with every lance he threw.
There stood a Trojan, not uukuown to fame,
Action's son, and Podes was his name:
With riches honor'd, and with courage bless'd,
By Uector loved, his comrade, and his guest;
Through his broad belt the sjjcar a passage found,
And, pondercjus as he falls, his arms resound.
Sudden at Hector's side Apollo stood.
Like Pluenops, Asius' son, appear'd the god
(Asius the great, who held his wealthy reign
In fair Abydos, by the rolling main).
"Oh prince! (he cried) Oh foremost once in fame
What Grecian now shall tremble at thy name?
Dost thou at length to .Menelai'is yield,
A chief once thought no terror of the field?
Yet singly, now, tiie long-disputed jirizo
lie bears victorious, while our army tlies:
By the same arm illustrious Podes bled;
The friend of Hector, unrevenged, is dead!"
This beard, o'er Hector spreads a cdoud of woe,
Eagc lifts hid lance, and drives him on the foe.
410 THE ILIAD.
Bnt now the Eternal shook his sable shield,
That shaded Ide and all the subject field
Beneath its ample verge. A rolling cloud
Involved the mount; the thunder roar'd aloud;
The aflfrighted hills from their foundations nod,
And blaze beneath the lightnings of the god:
At one regard of his all-seeing eye
The vanquish'd triumph, and the victors fly.
Then trembled Greece: the flight Peneleus led;
For as the brave Boiotian turn'd his head
To face the foe, Polydamas drew near.
And razed his shoulder with a shorten'd spear:
By Hector wounded, Leitus quits the plain.
Pierced through the wrist; and raging with the pain,
Grasps his once formidable lance in vain.
As Hector follow'd, Idomen address'd
The flaming javelin to his manly breast;
The brittle point before his corslet yields;
Exulting Troy with clamor fills the fields:
High on his chariots the Cretan stood.
The son of Priam whirl'd the massive wood.
But erring from its aim, the impetuous spear
Struck to the dust the squire and charioteer
Of martial Merion: Cteranus his name.
Who left fair Lyctus for the fields of fame.
On foot bold Merion fought; and now laid low,
Had graced the triumphs of his Trojan foe,
But the brave squire the ready coursers brought.
And with his life his master's safety bought.
Between his cheek and ear tlie weapon went,
The teeth it shatter'd, and the tougue it rent.
Prone from the seat he tumbles to the plain;
His dying hand forgets the falling rein;
This Merion reaches, bending from the car.
And urges to desert the hopeless war:
Idomeneus consents; the lash applies;
And the swift chariot to the navy flies.
Not Ajax less the will of he;iven descried.
And conquest shifting to the Trojan side,
Turn'd by the hand of Jove. Then thus begun.
To Atreus' seed, the godlike Telamon :
"Alas! who sees not Jove's almighty hand
Transfers the glory to the Trojan band?
Whether the weak or strong discharge the dart.
He guides each arrow to a Grecian heart:
THE ILIAD. 411
Not so our spears; incessant though they rain,
He suffers every lance to fall in vain.
Deserted of the god, yet let us try
What human strength and prudence can supply.
If yet this honorM corse, in triumph borne,
May glad the fleets that hope not our return.
Who tremble yet, scarce rescued from their fates,
And still hear Hector thundering at their gates.
Some hero too must be despatch 'd to bear
The mournful message to Pelides' ear;
For sure he knows not, distant on the shore,
His friend, his loved Patroclus, is no more.
But such a chief I spy not through the host:
The men, the steeds, the armies, all are lost
In general darkness — ■ — Lord of earth and air!
Oh king! Oh father! hear my humble j)rayer:
Dispel this cloud, the light of heaven restore;
Give me to see, and Ajax asks no more:
If Greece must perish, we thy will obey.
But let us perish in the face of day!"
With tears the hero spoke, and at his prayer
The god relenting clear'd the clouded air;
Forth burst the sun with all-enlightening ray;
The blaze of armor flash'd against the day.
"Now, now, Atrides! cast around thy sight;
If yet Antilochus survives the fight.
Let him to great Achilles' ear convey
The fatal news" Atrides hastes away.
So turns the lion from the nightly fold.
Though iiigh in courage, and with hunger bold,
Long gall'd by herdsmen, and long vex'd by hounds,
Stitf with fatigue, and fretted sore with wounds;
The darts fly round him from a hundred hands.
And the re<l terrors of the bla/Jng brands:
Till late, reluctant, at the dawn of day
Sour he departs, and quits the untasted prey,
So moved Atrides from his dangei'ous place
With weary limbs, but with unwilling j)ace;
The foe, he fear'd, might yet Patroclus gain.
And much admonish'd, much adjured his train:
"0 guard those relics to your charge consign'd.
And bear the merits of the dead in mind;
IIow skill'd ho was in each obligiug art:
The mihjdst manners, and the gentlest heart:
Uo was, alas! but fato decreed iiis end.
412 THE ILIAD.
In death a hero, as in life a friend!"
So parts the chief; from rank to rank he flew,
And round on all sides sent his piercing view.
As the bold bird, endued with sharpest eye
Of all that wings the mid aerial sky,
The sacred eagle, from his walks above
Looks down, and sees the distant thicket move;
Then stoops, and sousing on the quivering hare,
Snatches his life amid the clouds of air.
Not with less quickness, his exerted sight
Pass'd this and that way, through the ranks of fight:
Till on the left the chief he sought, he found,
Cheering his men, and spreading deaths around:
To him the king: "Beloved of Jove! draw near,
For sadder tidings never touch'd thy car;
Thy eyes have witness'd what a fatal turn!
How ilion triumphs, and the Achaians mourn. .
This is not all: Patroclus, on the shore
Now pale and dead, shall succor Greece.no more.
Fly to the fleet, this instant fly, and tell
The sad Achilles how his loved-one fell:
He too may haste the naked corse to gain:
The arms are Hector's, who despoil'd the slain.'*
The youthful warrior heard with silent woe,
From his fair eyes the tears began to flow:
Big with the mighty grief, he strove to say
What sorrow dictates, but no word found way.
To brave Laodocus his arms he flung,
Who, near him wheeling, drove his steeds along;
Then ran the mournful message to impart.
With tearful eyes, and with dejected heart.
Swift fled the youth: nor Menelaiis stands
(Though sore distress'd) to aid the Pylian bands;
But bids bold Thrasymede those troops sustain;
Himself returns to his Patroclus slain.
"Gone is Antilochus {the hero said);
But hope not, warriors, for Achilles' aid :
Though fierce his rage, unbounded be his woe,
Unarm'd, he fights not with the Trojan foe.
'Tis in our hands alone our hopes remain,
'Tis our own vigor must the dead regain.
And save ourselves, while with impetuous hate
Troy pours along, and this way rolls our fate."
" 'Tis well (said Ajax), be it then thy care.
With Merlon's aid, the weighty corse toy'ear;
■ THE ILIAD. 413
Myself, and my bold brother will sustain
The shock of Hector and his charging train:
Xor fear we armies, fighting side by side;
What Troy can dare, we have already tried,
Have tried it, and have stood." The hero said.
High from the ground the warriors heave the dead.
A general clamor rises at the sight:
Loud shout the Trojans, and renew the fight.
Xot fiercer rush along the gloomy wood,
With rage insatiate, and with thirst of blood,
Voracious hounds, that many a length before
Their furious hunters, drive the wounded boar;
But if the savage turns his glaring eye.
They howl aloof, and round the forest fly.
Thus on retreating Greece the Trojans pour.
Wave their thick falchions, and their javelins shower:
But Ajax turning, to their fears they yield.
All paie they tremble and forsake the field.
While thus aloft the hero's corse they bear,
Behind them rages all the storm of war:
Confusion, tumult, horror, o'er the throng
Of men, steeds, chariots, urged the rout along:
Less fierce the winds with rising flames conspire
To whelm some city under waves of fire;
Now sink in gloomy clouds the jiroud abodes,
Now crack the blazing temples of the gods;
The rumbling torrent through the ruin rolls,
And sheets of smoke mount heavy to the poles.
The heroes sweat beneath their honor'd load:
As when two Jiiules, along the rugged road,
P'rom the steep mountain witli exerted strength
Drag some vast beam, or mast's unwieldy length;
Inly they groan, big drops of sweat distill,
The enormous timber lumbering down the hill:
So those — Behind, the bulk of Ajax stands.
And breaks the torrent of the rushing bands.
Tlitis when a river swell'd with sudden rains
Spreads his broad waters o'er the level plains,
Some interposing hill the stream divides,
And breaks its force, ami turns the winding tides.
Still close they follow, close the rear engage;
^neas storms, and He(;lor foams with rage:
While Greece a heavy, thick retreat maintains,
Wedged in one body, liko a flight of cranes,
That shrink inr-fssaTit, while the falcon, hung
414 TEE ILIAD.
High on poised pinions, threats their callow young.
So from the Trojan chiefs the Grecians fly,
Such the wild terror, and the mingled cry:
Within, without the trench, and all the way,
Strow'd in bright heaps, their arms and armor lay;
Such horror Jove impress'd! yet still proceeds
The work of death, and still the battle bleeds.
TEE ILIAD. 415
BOOK XVIII.
ARGUMENT.
THE GRIEF OF ACHILLES, AND NEW ARMOR MADE
HIM BY VULCAN.
The news of tlie death of Patroclus is brought to Achilles by
Antilochus. Thetis, hearing his lamentations, comes with
all her sea-nymphs to comfort him. The speeches of the
mother and son on this occasion. Iris appears to Achilles by
the command of Juno, and orders him to show himself at the
head of the intrenchments. The sight of him turns the
fortunes of the day, and the body of Patroclus is carried off
by the Greeks. The Trojans call acouncil, where Hector and
Polydamas disagree in their opinions: but the advice of the
former prevails, to remain encamped in the field. The grief
of Achilles over the body of Patroclus.
Thetis goes to the palace of Vulcan to obtain new arms for
her son. The description of the wonderful works of Vulcan:
and, lastly, that noble one of the shield of Achilles.
The latter part of the nine-and-twentieth day, and the
night ensuing, take up this book; the scene is at Achilles'
teat on the seashore, from whence it changes to the palace
of Vulcan.
Thus like the rage of fire the combat burns,*
And now it ri.ses, now it sinks by turns.
Meanwhile, where Hellespont's broad waters flow,
Stood Nestor's son, the messenger of woe:
There sat Achilles, shaded by his sails.
On hoisted yards extended to the gales;
Pensive he sat; f<jr all tiiat fate design'd
liose in sad prospect to his boding mind.
Thus to his soul ho said: "Ah! what constrains
The Greeks, late victors, now to quit the plains?
Is this the day, which heaven so long ago
Ordain'd, to sink me with the weiglit of woe?
*This 18 connected with the earlier part of la-st book, the
regular narrative being interrupted by the message of Antilochus
and the lamentations of Achilles.
416 THE ILIAD.
(So Thetis warn'd;) when by a Trojan hand
The bravest of the Myrmidonian band
Should lose the light! Fullilled is that decree;
Fallen is the warrior, and Patroclus he!
In vain I charged him soon to quit the plain,
And warn'd to shun Hectorean force in vain!"
Thus while he thinks, Antilochus appears,
And tells the melancholy tale with tears.
"Sad tidings, son of Peleus! thou must hear;
And wretched I, the unwilling messenger!
Dead is Patroclus! For his corse they fight;
His naked corse: his arms are Hector's right."
A sudden horror shot through all the chief.
And wrapped his senses in the cloud of grief;
Cast on the ground, with furious hands he spread
The scorching ashes o'er his graceful head;
His purple garments, and his golden hairs.
Those he deforms with dust, and these he tears;
On the hard soil his groaning breast he threw,
And roll'd and grovell'd, as to earth he grew.
The virgin captives, with disorder'd charms
(Won by his own, or by Patroclus' armS;)
Kush'd from their tents with cries; and gathering
round.
Beat their white breasts, and fainted on the ground:
While Nestor's son sustains a manlier part,
And mourns the warrior with a warrior's heart;
Hangs on his arms, amidst his frantic woe,
And oft prevents the meditated blow.
Far in the deep abysses of the main,
With hoary Nereus, and the watery train,*
The mother-goddess from her crystal throne
Heard his loud cries, and answer'd groan for groan.
The circling Nereids with their mistress weep,
And all the sea-green sisters of the deep.
Thalia, Glauce (every watery name),
Nessea mild, and silver Spio came:
Cymotiioe and Cymodoce were nigh,
And tlie blue languish of soft Alia's eye.
Their locks Actsea and Liniuoria rear,
Then Proto, Doris, Panope appear,
rhoa, Pherusa, Doto, Melita;
* Far in tJie deep. So Oceanus bears the lamentations of
Prometheus, in tlie play of Jilscliylus, and comes from tbe depths
of the sea to comfort him.
THE ILIAD. 417
Agave gentle, and Amphithoe gay:
Next Calliauira, Callianassa show
Their sister looks; Dexamene the slow.
And swift Dynaniene, now cut the tides:
Ifera now the verdant wave divides:
Nemertes with Apseudes lifts the head,
Bright Galates quits her pearly bed;
These Oryhtia, Clyniene, attend,
McBra, Amphinome, the train extend;
And black Janira, and Janassa fair,
And Amatheiit with her amber hair.
All these, and all that deep in ocean held
Their sacred seats, the glimmering grotto fill'd;
Each beat her ivory breast with silent woe.
Till Thetis' sorrows thus began to flow:
''Hear me, and judge, ye sisters of the main!
How just a cause has Thetis to complain!
How wretched, were I mortal, were my fate!
How more tiian wretched in the immortal state!
Sprung from my bed a godlike hero came,
The bravest far that ever, bore the name;
Like some fair olive, by my careful hand
He grew, lie flourish'd and adorn'd the land!
To Troy I sent him: but tlie fates ordain
He never, never must return again.
So short a space tlie light of lieaven to view,
So short, alas! and fill'd with anguish too!
Hear how his sorrows echo through the shore!
I cannot ease them, but must deplore;
I go at least to bear a teJider part,
And mourn my loved-ono with a mother's heart."
She said, and left the caverns of the main,
All bathed in tears; tlie melancholy train
Attend her way. Wide-oi)cning ])art the tides,
While the long pomp tlie silver waves divides.
Approacliing now, they touch'd tlie Trdjau land;
T'hen, two by two, ascended up the strand.
The immortal mother, standing close beside
Her mournful olTspring, to his sighs roi)lied;
Along the coast their mingled clamors ran.
And thus the silvc-r-foritcd danie began:
"Why mourns my son? thy late preferr'd request
The go(l has granted, and the Greeks distress'd:
Why mourns my son? thy anguish let mo share,
Keveal the cause, and trust a parent's care."^
418 THE ILIAD.
He, deeply groaning — "To this cureless grief,
Not even the Thunderer's favor brings relief.
Patroclus — Ah! — say, goddess, can I boast
A pleasure now? revenge itself is lost;
Patroclus, loved of all my martial train,
Beyond mankind, beyond myself, is slain!
Lost are those arms the gods themselves bestow'd
On Peleus; Hector bears the glorious load.
Cursed be that day, when all the powers above
Thy charms submitted to a mortal love:
hadst thou still, a sister of the main,
Pursued the pleasures of the watery reign:
And happier Peleus, less ambitious led
A mortal beauty to his equal bed I
Ere the sad fruit of thy unhajipy womb
Had caused such sorrows past, and woes to come;
Por soon, alasl that wretched offspring slain.
New woes, new sorrows, shall create again.
'Tis not in fate the alternate now to give;
Patroclus dead, Achilles hates to live.
Let me revenge it on proud Hector's heart.
Let his last spirit smoke upon my dart:
On these conditions will I breathe: till then,
1 blush to walk among the race of men."
A flood of tears, at this, the goddess shed:
"Ah then, I see thee dying, see thee dead!
When Hector falls, thou diest." — "Let Hector die,
And let me fall! (Achilles made reply)
Far lies Patroclus from his native plain!
He fell, and falling, wish'd my aid in vain.
Ah then, since from this miserable day
I cast all hope of my return away;
Since, unrevenged, a hundred ghosts demand
The fate of Hector from Achilles' hand;
Since here, for brutal courage far renown'd,
I live an idle burden to the ground
(Others in council famed for nobler skill,
More useful to preserve, than I to kill).
Let me — 13ut oh! ye gracious powers above!
Wrath and revenge from men and gods remove;
Far, far too dear to every mortal breast,
Sweet to the soul, as honey to the taste:
Gathering like vapors of a noxious kind
From fiery blood, and darkening all the mind.
!Me Agamemnon urged to deadly hate;
THE ILIAD. 419
'Tis past — I quell it; I resign to fate.
Yes — ■! will meet the murderer of my friend;
Or (if the gods ordain it) meet my end.
The stroke of fate the strongest cannot shun:
The great Alcides, Jove's unequall'd son,
To Juno's hate, at length resign'd liis breath,
And sunk the victim of all-conquering death.
So shall Achilles fail I stretch'd pale aud dead,
No more the Grecian hope, or Trojan dread I
Let me, this instant, rush into the fields,
And reap what glory life's short harvest yields.
Shall I not force some widow'd dame to tear
With frantic hands her long dishevell'd hair?
Shall I not force her breast to heave with sighs.
And the soft tears to trickle from her eyes?
Yes, I shall give the fair those mournful charms —
In vain you hold me — Hence! my arms! my arms! —
Soon shall the sanguine torrent spread so wide,
That all shall know Achilles swells the tide."
"My son (ccerulean Thetis made reply,
To fate submitting with a secret sigh),
The host to succor, and thy friends to save.
Is worthy thee; the duty of tlie brave.
Bat canst thou, naked, issue to the plains?
Thy radiant arms the Trojan foe detains.
Insulting Hector bears the spoils on high.
But vainly glories, for his fate is nigh.
Yet, yet awhile thy generous ardor stay;
Assured, I meet thee at the dawn of day,
Charged with refulgent arms (a glorious load);
Viilcanian arms, the labor of a god."
Then turning to the daughters of the main,
The goddess thus dismiss'd her azure train:
"Ye sister Nereids! to your deeps descend;
Haste, and our father's sacred seat attend;
I go to find the architect divine,
Where vast Olympus' starry summits shine:
So tell our hoary sire" — This charge she gave:
The sea-green sisters plunge beii'iath the wave:
Thetis once more ascends the bless'd abodes,
And treads the brazen threshold of the gods.
An(l now the Greeks from furious Hector's force,
Urge to broad Hellespont tiieir headlong course;
Nor yet their chiefs I'atroclus' body bore
Safe through the tempest to the tented shore.
420 THE ILIAD.
The horse, the foot, with equal fury join'd,
Pour'd on the rear, ami thunder'd close behind:
And liiie a flame through fields of ripen 'd corn,
The rage of Hector o'er tlie ranks was borne.
Thrice the slain hero by the foot he drew;
Thrice to the skies the Trojan clamors flew:
As oft the Ajaces his assault sustain;
But check'd, he turns; repuls'd, attacks again.
With fiercer shouts his lingering troops he fires,
Nor yields a step, nor from his post retires:
So watchful shepherds strive to force, in vain,
The hungry lion from a carcase slain.
Even yet Patroclus had he borne away,
And all the glories of the extended day.
Had not high Juno from the realms of air.
Secret, despatch'd her trusty messenger.
The various goddess of the showery bow,
Shot in a whirlwind to the shore below;
To great Achilles at his ships she came,
And thus began the many-color'd dame:
"Rise, son of Peleus! rise, divinely brave!
Assist the combat, and Patroclus save:
For him the slaughter to the fleet they spread,
And fall by mutual wounds around the dead.
To drag him back to Troy the foe contends:
Nor with his death the rage of Hector ends:
A prey to dogs he dooms the corse to lie,
And marks the place to fix his head on high.
Pise, and prevent (if yet you think of fame)
Thy friend's disgrace, thy own eternal shame!"
"Who sends thee, goddess, from the ethereal skies?"
Achilles thus. And Iris thus replies:
"I come, Pel ides! from the queen of Jove,
The immortal empress of the realms above;
Unknown to him who sits remote on high,
Unknown to all the synod of the sky,"
"Thou comest in vain (he cries with fury warm'd);
Arms I have none, and can I fight unarm'd?
Unwilling as I am, of force I stay,
Till Thetis bring me at the dawn of day
Vulcanian arms: what other can I wield.
Except the mighty Telamonian shield?
That, in my friend's defence, has Ajax spread,
While his strong lance around him heaps the dead:
The gallant chief defends Mencetius' son.
TEE ILIAD. 421
And Joes what his Achilles should have done."
"Thy want cf arms (said Iris) well we know:
But thougli unarm'd, yet clad in terrors, gol
Let but Achilles o'er you trench appear,
Proud Troy shall tremble, and consent to fear;
Greece from one glance of that tremendous eye
Shall take new courage, and disdain to fly."
She spoke, and pass'd in air. The liero rose:
Her jegis Pallas o'er his shoulder throws;
Around his brows a goklen cloud she spread:
A stream of glory flamed above his head.
As when from some beleaguer'd town arise
The smokes, high curling to the shaded skies;
(Seen from some island, o'er the main afar,
When men distress'd hang out the sign of war;)
Soon as the sun in ocean hides his rays.
Thick on the hills the flaming beacons blaze;
AVith long-projected beams the seas are bright,
And heaven's high arch reflects the ruddy light;
So from Achilles' head the s])lendors rise,
Reflecting blaze on blaze against the skies.
Forth march 'd the chief, and distant from the crowd,
High on the rampart raised his voice aloud;
"With her own shout Minerva swells the sound;
Troy starts astonish'd, and the shores rebound.
As the loud trumpet's lirazen mouth from far
"With shrilling clangor sounds tiie alarm of war.
Struck from the wails, the echoes float on liigh.
And the round bulwarks and thick towers reply;
So high his brazen voice the hero rear'd :
Hosts dropped their arms, and trembled as they heard:
And back the chariots roll, and coursers bound,
And steeds and men lie mingled on the ground.
Aghast they sec the living lightJiings i)lay.
And turn their eyeballs from the flashing ray.
Thrice from the tr(>ii(;h iiis dreadful voice he raised,
An<i thrice they fled, confounded and amazed.
'J\velvo in the tumult wedged, untimely rush'd
On tiieir own spears, by their own chariots crusli'd:
While, shielded from tlie darts, the (Jreeks olitain
'JMie long-(;ontend(,'d carca.se of tlie slain.
A lofty bier the breathless warrior bears:
Around, his .sail r;onij)anioiis molt in tears,
liut chief Achilles, bending down his head,
Pours unavailing sorrows o'er the dead,
422 THE ILIAD.
Whom late triumphant, with his steeds and car,
He sent refulgent to the field of war;
(Unhappy change!) now senseless, pale, he found,
Stretch'd forth, and gash'd with many a gaping Avound.
Meantime, unwearied with his heavenly way,
In ocean's waves the unwilling light of day
Quench'd his red orb, at Juno's high command,
And from their labors eased the Achaiau baud.
The frighted Trojans (panting from the war,
Their steeds unharness'd from the w-eary car)
A sudden council call'd : each chief appear'd
In haste and standing; for to sit they fear'd.
'Twas now no season for prolong'd debate;
They saw Achilles, and in him their fate.
Silent they stood: Polydamas at last,
Skill'd to discern the future by the past,
The son of Panthus, thus express'd his fears
(The friend of Hector, and of equal years;
The self-same night to both a being gave.
One wise in council, one in action brave):
"In free debate, my friends, your sentence speak;
For me, I move, before the morning break,
To raise our camp: too dangerous here our post.
Far from Troy walls, and on a naked coast.
I deem'd not Greece so dreadful, while engaged
In mutual feuds her king and hero raged;
Then, while we hoped our armies might prevail,
We boldly camp'd beside a thousand sail.
I dread Pelides now; his rage of mind
Not long continues to the shores confined,
Nor to the fields, where long in equal fray
Contending nations won and lost the day;
For Troy, for Troy, shall henceforth be the strife;
And the hard contest not for fame, but life.
Haste then to Uion, while the favoring night
Detains these terrors, keeps that arm from fight.
If but the morrow's sun behold us here,
That arm, those terrors, we shall feel, not fear;
And hearts that now disdain, shall leap with joy,
If heaven permit them then to enter Troy.
Let not my fatal prophecy be true,
Nor what I tremble but to think, ensue.
Whatever be our fate, yet let us try
What force of thought and reason can supply;
Let us on counsel for our guard depend;
THE ILIAD. 423
The town her gates aud bulwarks shall defend.
When morning dawns, our well-appointed powers,
Array'd in arms, shall line the lofty towers,
Let the tierce hero, then, when fury calls,
Vent his mad vengeance on onr rocky walls.
Or fetch a thousand circles around the plain,
Till his spent coursers seek the fleet again:
So may his rage be tired, and labor'd down!
And dogs shall tear him ere he sack the town."
"EeturnI (said Llector, fired with stern disdain)
What! coop whole armies in our walls again?
Was't not enough, ye valiant warriors, say,
Nine years imprison'd in those towers ye lay?
Wide o'er the world was Ilion famed of old
For brass exhaustless, and for mines of gold :
But while inglorious in her walls we stay'd,
Sunk were her treasures, and her stores decay'd;
Tlie Phrygians now her scatter'd spoils enjoy,
And proud Majonia wastes the fruits of Troy.
Great Jove at length my arms to conquest calls,
And shuts the Grecians in tlieir wooden walls:
Darest thou dispirit whom the gods incite?
Flies any Trojan? I shall stop his flight.
To better counsel then attention lend;
Take due refreshment, and the watch attend.
If there be one whose riches cost him care.
Forth let him bring them for the troops to share;
'Tis better generously bestow'd on those,
Than left the plunder of our country's foes.
Soon as the morn the purple orient warms,
Fierce on yon navy will we pour our arms.
If great Achilles rise in all his might.
His be the danger: I shall stand the fight.
Honor, ye gods! or let me gain or give;
And live ho glorious, whosoe'er shall live!
Mars is our common lord, alike to all;
And oft the victor triumphs, but to fall."
The sliuuting host in loud ajjplauses joiu'd;
So Pallas robb'd the many of their mind;
To their own sense condeniu'd. and left to (;hoose
The worst advice, the better to refuse.
While the long night extends her sable reign,
Around Patroclns mourn'd the Grecian train.
Stern in superior grief Pelides stood ;
Those slaughtering arms, so used to bathe iu blood,
424 THE ILIAD.
Now clasp his clay-cold limbs: then gushing start
The tears, and sighs hurst from his swelling heart.
The lion thus, with dreadful anguish stung,
Roars through the desert, and demands his young;
When the grim savage, to his rifled den
Too late returning, snuffs the track of men,
And o'er the vales and o'er the forest bounds;
His clamorous grief the bellowing wood resounds.
So grieves Achilles; and, impetuous, vents
To all his Myrmidons his loud laments.
"In what vain promise, gods! did I engage,
When to console Menoetius' feeble age,
1 vowed his much-loved offspring to restore,
Charged with rich spoils, to fair Opuntia's shore?*
But mighty Jove cuts short, with just disdain.
The long, long views of poor designing man !
One fate the warrior and the friend shall strike,
And Troy's black sands must drink our blood alike:
Me too a wretched mother shall deplore,
An aged father never see me more!
Yet, my Patroclus! yet a space I stay.
Then swift pursue thee on the darksome way.
Ere thy dear relics in the grave are laid.
Shall Hector's head be offer'd to thy shade;
That, with his arms, shall hang before thy shrine:
And twelve, the noblest of the Trojan line.
Sacred to vengeance, by this hand expire;
Their lives effused around thy flaming pyre.
Thus let me lie till then! thus, closely press'd,
Bathe thy cold face, and sob upon thy breast!
While Trojan captives here thy mourners stay,
Weep all the night, and murmur all the day:
Spoils of my arms, and thine; when, wasting wide,
Our swords kept time, and conquer'd side by side."
He spoke, and bade the sad attendants round
Cleanse the pale corse, and wash each honor'd wound.
A massy caldron of stupendous frame
They brought, and placed it o'er the rising flame:
Then heap'd the lighted wood; the flame divides
Beneath the vase, and climbs around the sides:
In its wide womb they pour the rushing stream;
The boiling water bubbles to the brim.
The body then they bathe with pious toil,
* Opuntia, a city of Locris.
THE ILIAD. 425
Embalm tlie wounds, anoint the limbs with oil,
High (m a bed of state extended laid,
And decent cover'd with a linen shade;
Last, o'er the dead the milk-white veil they threw:
That done, their sorrows and their sighs renew.
Meanwhile to Juno, in the realms above
(His wife and sister), spoke almighty Jove.
"At last thy will prevails; great Peleus' son
Eises in arms: such grace thy Greeks have won.
Say (for I know not), is their race divine.
And thou the mother of that martial line?"
"What words are these? (the imperial dame replies,
"While anger flash'd from her majestic eyes)
Succor like this a mortal arm might lend.
And such success mere human wit attend:
And shall not I, the second power above,
Heaven's queen, andconsort of the thundering Jove,
Say, shall not I one nation's fate command,
Not wreak my vengeance on one guilty land?"
80 they. Meanwhile the silver-footed dame
Eeach'd the Vulcanian dome, eternal frame!
High-eminent amid the works divine,
Where heaven's far-beaming brazen mansions shine.
There the lame architect the goddess found,
Obscure in smoke, his forges flaming round,
AVbile l)athcd in sweat from fire to fire he flew.
And jtufling hjud, the roaring billows blew.
That day no common task his labor claim'd:
Full twenty tripods for his hall he framed,
That ])laccd on living wheels of massy gold,
(Wondrous to tell,) instinct with s])irit roU'd
From place to place, around the bless'd abodes
Self-moved, obedient to the beck of gods:
For their fair handles now, o'erwrought with flowers
In moulds ])repared, the glowing ore he pours.
.Just as resj)on.sive to his thought the frame
Stood jirompt to move, the azure goddess camo:
Cliaris, his spouse, a grace divinely fair
(With purple fillets round her braided hair),
Obscrv(;d her entering; her soft hands she })ress'd,
And, smiling, thus the watery fjucen aildress'd:
"What, goddessi this unusual fav(jr draws?
All hail, and wtdconic! whatsoe'er tbo<MUS(r,
Till now a stranger, in a hapjiy hour
Approach, and tastcf the dainties of the bower.
426 THE ILIAD.
High on a throne, with stars of silver graced,
And various artifice, the qneen she placed;
A footstool at her feet: then calling, said,
"Vulcan, draw near, 'tis Thetis asks your aid."
"Thetis (replied the god) our powers may claim,
An ever-dear, an ever-honor'd name!
When my proud mother hurl'd me from the sky
(My awkward form, it seems, displeased her eye),
She, and Eurynome, my griefs redress'd,
And soft received me on their silver breast.
Even then these arts employ'd my infant thought:
Chains, bracelets, pendants, all their toys, I wrought.
Nine years kept secret in the dark abode.
Secure I lay, conceal'd from man and god:
Deep in a cavern'd rock my days were led;
The rushing ocean murmnr'd o'er my head.
Now, since her presence glads our mansion, say,
For such desert what service can I pay?
Vouchsafe, Thetis! at our board to share
The genial rites, and hospitable fare;
While I the labors of the forge forego.
And bid the roaring bellows cease to blow,"
Then from his anvil the lame artist rose;
Wide with distorted legs oblique he goes,
And stills the bellows, and (in order laid)
Locks in their chests his instruments of trade.
Then with a sponge the sooty workman dress'd
His brawny arms embrown'd, and hairy breast.
AVith his huge sceptre graced, and red attire,
Came halting forth the sovereign of the fire:
Tiie monarch's steps two female forms uphold,
I That moved and breathed in animated gold;
I To whom was voice, and sense, and science given
_jPf works divine (such wonders are in heaven!)
On these supported, with unequal gait.
He reach'd the throne where pensive Thetis sate;
There placed beside her on the shining frame.
He thus address'd the silver-footed dame:
"Thee, welcome, goddess! what occasion calls
(So long a stranger) to these honor'd walls?
'Tis thine, fair Thetis, tiie command to lay.
And Vulcan's joy and duty to obey."
To whom the mournful mother thus replies:
(The crystal drops stood trembling in her eyes):
"0 Vulcan! say, was ever breast divine
THE ILTAD. 427
So pierced with sorrows, so o'erwhelm'd as mine?
Of all the goddesses, did Jove prepare
For Thetis only such a weight of care?
I, only I, of all the watery race,
By force subjected to a man's embrace.
Who, sinking now with age and sorrow, pays
The mighty tine imposed on length of days.
Sprung from my bed, a godlike hero came.
The bravest sure that ever bore the name;
Like some fair plant beneath my careful hand
He grew, he tlonrish'd, and he graced the land:
To Troy I sent him! but his native shore
Never, ah never, shall receive him more
(Even while he lives, he wastes with secret woe);
For I, a goddess, can retard the blow!
Robb'd of the prize the Grecian suffage gave,
The king of nations forced his royal slave:
For this he grieved; and, till the Greeks oppress'd
Eequired his arm, he siorrow'd unredressed.
Large gifts they promise, and their elders send;
In vain — he arms not, but permits his friend
His arms, his steeds, his forces to employ:
He marches, combats, almost conquers Troy:
Then slain by Phcnbus (Hector had the name)
At once resigns his armor, life, and fame.
But thou, in pity, by my prayer be won:
Grace with immortal arms this short-lived son,
And to the field in martial pomp restore.
To shino with glory, till lie shines no more!"
To her the artist-god: "Thy griefs resign,
Secure, what Vulcan can, is ever thine.
could I hide him from tlio Fates, as well,
Or with these hands the cruel stroke repel,
As I shall forge most envied arms, the gaze
Of wondering ages, and the world's amaze!"
Thus having said, the father of tiie fires
To the blafik labors of his forge retires.
Soon as he bade them blow, the bellows turn'd
Their iron mouths; and where the fiiruaeci burn'd,
llesounding Ijreatliod : at once the blast expires.
And twenty forges catch at once the fires;
.Inst as the god directs, now loud, now low.
They raise a tempest, or they gently lilow;
In hissing fiames huge silver bars are roll'd,
And stubborn brass, and tin, and solid gold;
428 THE ILIAD.
Before, deep fix'd, the eternal anvils stand;
The ponderous hammer loads his better hand,
Ilis left with tongs turns the vex'd metal round,
And thick, strong strol<es, the doubling vaults rebound.
Then first he form'd tlie immense and solid shield;
Rich various artifice emblazed the field;
Its utmost verge a threefold circle bound;*
A silver chain suspends the massy round;
Five ample plates the broad expanse compose,
And godlike labors on the surface rose.
Tliere shone the image of the master-mind:
Tiiere earth, there heaven, there ocean he design'd;
The unwearied sun, the moon completely round;
Tlie starry lights that heaven's high convex crown'd;
The Pleiads, Ilyads, with the northern team;
And great Orion's more refulgent beam:
To which, around the axle of the sky.
The Bear, revolving, points his golden eye,
Still shines exalted on the ethereal plain,
Nor bathes his blazing forehead in the main.
Two cities radiant on the shield appear,
The image one of peace, and one of war.
Here sacred pomp and genial feast delight,
And solemn dance and hymeneal rite;
Along the street the new-made brides are led,
With torches flaming, to the nuptial bed:
The youthful dancers in a circle bound,
To the soft flute, and cithern's silver sound:
Through the fair streets the matrons in a row
♦Quintus C^alaber, lib. v., has attempted to rival Homer in his
description of the shield of the same hero. A few extracts from
Mr. Dyce's verses (Select Translations, p. 104, seq.) may here be
introduced.
" In the wide circle of the shield was seen
Refulgent images of various forms.
The work of Vulcan, who had there described
The heaven, the ether, and the earth and sea,
The winds, the cloud.s, the moon, the sun, apart
In different stations; and you there might view
The stars that gem the still-revolving heaven,
And, under them, the vast expanse of air.
In which, with outstretch'd wings, the long-beak'd birds
Winnow'd the gale, as if instinct with life.
Around the shield the waves of ocean flow'd.
The realms of Tethys, which unnumber'd streams,
In aviure mazes rolling o'er the earth,
Seem'd to augment,"
THE ILIAD. 439
Stand in their porches, and enjoy the show. ^
There in the forum swarm a numerous train;
The subject of debate, a townsman slain:
One pleads the fine discharged, which one denied,
And bade the public and the laws decide:
The witness is produced on either hand:
For this, or that, the partial people stand:
The appointed heralds still the noisy bands,
And form a ring, with sceptres in their handss
On seats of stone, within the sacred place,*
The reverend elders nodded o'er the case;
Alternate, each the attesting sceptre took.
And rising solemn, each his sentence spoke;
Two golden talents lay amidst, in sight.
The prize of him who best adjudged the right.
Another part (a prospect differing far)f
Glow'd with refulgent arms, and horrid war.
Two mighty hosts a leaguer'd town embrace,
And one would pillage, one would burn the place.
Meantime the townsmen, arm'd with silent care,
A secret ambush on the foe prepare;
Their wives, their children, and the watchful band
Of trembling parents, on the turrets stand.
They march; by Pallas and by Mars made bold:
Gold were the gods, their radiant garments gold,
And gold their armor: these the squadron led,
* On seats of stone. " Several of the old nortliern Sagas repre-
sent the old men assembled for tlie imrpo.se of judging as sitting
on great stones, in a circle called the Urtlieilsring or gericlits-
ring." — (Jrote, ii. p. 100, note. On the independence of the
judicial office in the heroic times, see Thirlwall's (jireece, vol. i.
p. 166.
f Another part, etc.
" And here
Were horrid wars depicted; grindy i)ale
Were heroes lying with their slaiighlcr'd steeds
Upon the ground incarnadin'd with blood.
Stern stalked IJellona, smear'd with recking gore,
Through charging ranks; beside her Kout was seen,
And 'j'error. Discord to thi! fatal strife
Inciting Mien, and Kuries hreatliiiig llaines:
Nor absent were tin; i-'atcs, and th<- tall sha))0
Of ghastly Death, round whom did italths throng,
Tlieir limbs distilling plenteous blood and sweat;
And (Jorgons, whose long locks wen; twisting snakes,
'i'hat shot their forky tf)ngues incessant forth.
Such were the horrors of dire war."
— Dyce's Calaber.
4B0 • THE ILIAD.
August, divine, superior by the bead!
A place for amljusli fit tbey found, and stood,
Cover'd witb sbields, beside a silver flood.
Two spies at distance lurk, and watchful seem
If sheep or oxen seek the winding stream.
Soon the white flocks proceeded o'er the plains,
And steers slow-moving, and two sbepberd swains;
Behind them piping on their reeds they go,
Nor fear an ambnsb, nor suspect a foe.
In arms the glittering squadron rising round
Rush sudden; bills of slaughter heap the ground;
Whole flocks and herds lie bleeding on tbe plains.
And, all amidst them, dead, tbe sbepberd swains!
Tbe bellowing oxen tbe besiegers bear;
They rise, take horse, approach, and meet tbe war,
Tbey fight, they fall, beside tbe silver flood;
Tbe waving silver seem'd to blusb with blood.
There Tumult, tbere Contention stood confess'd;
One rear'd a dagger at a captive's breast;
One beld a living foe, that fresbly bled
Witb new-made wounds; another dragg'd a dead;
Now here, now tbere, the carcases tbey tore:
Fate stalk'd amidst them, grim witb human gore.
And tbe whole war came out, and met tbe eye;
And each bold figure seem'd to live or die.
A field deep furrow'd next the god design'd,*
The third time labor'd by the sweating hind;
The shining shares full many ploughmen guide,
And turn their crooked yokes on every side.
Still as at either end tbey wheel around,
The master meets them with his goblet crown'd;
The hearty draught rev/ards, renews their toil.
Then back tbe turning ploughshares cleave the soil;
* A field deep furrowed.
" Here was a corn field; reapers in a row,
Each with a sharp-tooth'd siclile in his baud,
Work'd busily, and, as the harvest fell.
Others were ready still to bind the sheaves:
Yoked to a wain that bore the corn away
The steers were moving; sturdy bullocks here
The plough were drawing, and the furrow'd glebe
Was black behind them, while with goading wand
The active youths inipell'd them. Here a feast
Was graved; to the shrill pipe and ringing lyre
A band of blooming virgins led the dance,
As if endued with life."
— Dyce's Calaber.
TUE ILIAD. 431
Behind, the rising earth in ridges rolPd;
And sable look'd, though form'd of molten gold.
Another field rose high with waving grain;
With bended sickles stand the reaper train :
Here stretched in ranks the levell'd swarths are fonnd,
Sheaves heap'd on sheaves here thicken up the ground.
With sweeping stroke the mowers strow the lands;
The gatherers follow, and collect in bands;
And last the children, in whose arms are borne
(Too short to gripe them) the brown sheaves of corn.
The rustic monarch of the field descries,
With silent glee, the heaps around him rise.
A ready banquet on the turf is laid,
Beneath an ample oak's expanded shade.
The victim ox the sturdy youth prepare;
The reaper's due repast, the woman's care.
Next, ripe in yellow gold, a vineyard shines,
Bent with the ponderous harvest of its vines;
A deeper dye the dangling clusters show.
And curl'd on silver projis, in order glow:
A darker metal mix'd intrench'd the place;
And pales of glittering tin the inclosure grace.
To this, one pathway gently winding leads.
Where march a train with baskets on their heads
(Fair maiils and Ijlooming youths), that smiling bear
The purple product of the autumnal year.
To these a youth awakes the warbling strings,
Whose tender lay the fate of Linus sings;
In measured dance behind him move the train,
Tune soft the voice, and answer to the strain.
Here herds of oxen march, erect and bold,
Bear high their horns, and seem to low m gold.
And speed to meadows on whose sounding shores
A rajiid torrent through the rushes roars:
Four golden liurdsinen as their guardians stand,
And nine sour dogs complete the rustic band.
Two lions rushing from the wood a])pear'd;
And seized a bull, tho master of the herd:
]Ie roar'd : in vain tlie dogs, tiie men withstood;
They tore his flesh, and drank his sable blood.
Tho dogs (oft cheer'd in vain) desert the prey,
JJread tlio grim terrors, and at distance bay.
Next this, tho oyo the art <»f \'ulcan leads
Deep through fair forests, ami a length of meads.
And stalls, and folds, and seatter'd coLs between;
432 THE ILIAD.
And fleecy flocks, that whiten all the scene.
A figured dance succeeds; such once was seen
In lofty Gnossus for the Cretan queen,
Fonn'd by Dredalean art; a comely band
Of youths and maidens, hounding hand in hand.
The maids in soft siniars of linen dress'd;
The youths all graceful in the glossy vest:
Of those tlie locks with flowery wreath inroll'd;
Of these the sides adorn'd with swords of gold,
That glittering gay, from silver belts depend.
Now all at once they rise, at once descend.
With well-taught feet: now shape in oblique ways,
Confusedly regular, the moving maze:
Now forth at once, too swift for sight, they spring,
And undistinguish'd blend the flying ring.
So whirls a wheel, in giddy circle toss'd,
And, rapid as it runs, the single spokes are lost.
The gazing multitudes admire around:
Two active tumblers in the centre bound;
Now high, noAV low, their pliant limbs they bend:
And general songs the sprightly revel end.
Thus the broad shield complete the artist crown'd
With his last hand, and pour'd the ocean round:
In living silver seem'd thewaves to roll,
And beat the buckler's verge, and bound the whole.
This done, whate'er a warrior's use requires
He forged; the cuirass that outshone the fires,
The greaves of ductile tin, the helm impress'd
With various scul^jture, and the golden crest.
At Thetis' feet the finished labor lay:
She, as a falcon cuts the aerial way,
Swift from Olympus' snowy summit flies,
And bears the blazing present through the skies.*
* Coleridge (Greek Classic Poets, p. 183, seq.) lias diligently
compared this with the description of the shield of Hercules by
Hesiod. He remarks that, " with two or three exceptions, the
imagery differs in little more than the names and arrangements;
and the difference of arrangement in the shield of Hercules is
altogether for the worse. The natural consecution of the Homeric
images needs no exposition; it constitutes in itself one of the
beauties of the work. The Hef^iodic images are huddled together
without connection or congruity; Mars and Pallas are awkwardly
introduced among the Centaurs and Lapithae; — but the gap is
wide indeed between them and Apollo with the Muses, waking
the echoes of Olympus to celestial harmonies; whence, however,
we are hurried back to Perseus, the Gorgons, and other images
THE ILIAD. 433
of war, over an arm of the sea, iu wbicli the sporting dolphins, the
fugitive fishes, and the fisherman on the shore with his casting net,
are minutely represented. As to the Hesiodic images themselves,
the leading remark is, that they catch at beauty by ornament, and
at sublimity by exaggeration; and upon the untenable supposition
of the genuineness of this poem, there is this curious peculiarity,
that, in the description of scenes of rustic peace, the superiority
of Homer is decisive — while in those of war and tumult it may be
thought, perhaps, that the Hesiodic poet has more than once the
advantage."
434 THE ILIAD.
BOOK XIX.
ARGUMENT.
THE RECONCILIATIOK OF ACHILLES AND AGAMEMXON.
Thetis brings to her son the armor made by Vulcan. She pre-
serves the body of his friend from corruption, and commands
him to assemble the army, to declare his resentment at an
end. Agamemnon and Achilles are solemnly reconciled; the
speeches, presents, and ceremonies on that occasion. Achilles
is with great ditiiculty persuaded to refrain from the battle
till the troops have refreshed themselves by the advice of
Ulysses. The presents are conveyed to the tent of Achilles,
■where BriseTs laments over the body of Patroclus. The hero
obstinately refuses all repast, and gives himself up to lamen-
tations for his friend. Minerva descends to strengthen him,
by the order of Jupiter. He arms for the fight; his appear-
ance described. He addresses himself to his horses, and re-
proaches them with the death of Patroclus. One of them is
miraculouslj' endued with voice, and inspired to prophesy his
fate; but the hero, not astonished by that prodigy, rushes
with fury to the combat.
The thirtieth day. The scene is on the seashore.
Soon as murora heaved her Orient head
Above the waves, that bhish'd with early red
(With new-born day to gladden mortal sight,
And gild the courts of heaven with sacred light),
The immortal arms the goddess-mother bears
Swift to her son : her son she finds in tears
Stretch'd o'er Patroclus' corse; while all the rest
Their sovereign's sorrows in their own express'd.
A ray divine her heavenly presence shed,
And thus, his hand soft touching, Thetis said:
"Suppress, my son, this rage of grief, and know
It was not man, but heaven, that gave the blow.
Behold what arms by Vulcan are bestow'd,
Arms worthy thee, or fit to grace a god."
Then drops the radiant burden on the ground;
Clang the strong arms, and ring the shores around;
Back shrink the Myrmidons with dread surprise,
TEE ILIAD. 435
And from the broad effulgence turn their eyes.
Unmoved the hero kindles at the show,
And feels with rage divine his bosom glow;
From his fierce eyeballs living flames expire,
And flash incessant like a stream of fire:
He turns the radiant gift, and feeds his mind
On all the immortal artist had design'd.
'"Goddess! (he cried), these glorious arms, that shine
With matchless art, confess tiie hand divine.
Now to the bloody battle let me bend:
Bat ah I the relics of my slaughter'd friend!
In those wide wounds through which his spirit fled,
Shall flies, and worms obscene, pollute the dead?"
"That unavailing care be laid aside
(The azure goddess to her son replied),
Whole years untouch'd, uninjured shall remain,
Fresh as in life, the carcase of the slain.
But go, Achilles, as affairs require.
Before the Grecian peers renounce thine ire:
Then uncontroll'd in boundless war engage,
And heaven with strength supply the miglity rage!"
Then in the nostrils of the slain she pour'd
Nectareous drops, and rich ambrosia shower'd
O'er all the corse. The flies forbid their prey,
Untouch'd it rests, and sacred from decay.
Achilles to the strand obedient went:
The shores resounded with the voice he sent.
The heroes heard, and all the naval train
That tend the ships, or guide them o'er the main,
Alarm'd, transported, at the well-known sound,
Frequent and full, the great assembly crown'd;
Studious to see the terror of the plain.
Long lost to battle, shine in arms again.
Tydides and Clysses first appear,
Lame with their wounds, and leaning on the spear;
These on the sacred seats of council j)laced,
The king of men, Atrides, came tlie last:
ilo too sore woujided by Agenor's son.
Aciiilles (rising in the midst) begun:
"O monarch I Ijctter far had been the fate
Of tlieo, of mo, of all the (ireci.in state,
If fere the day when by mad passion sway'd,
liash we oontendod for the blark-eyeil nuiid)
Preventing Diaii had dospat.ohM her dart,
And shot the shining mischief to the heart!
43(5 THE ILIAD.
Then many a hero had not press'd the shore,
Nor Troy's glad tields been fatten'd with our gore.
Long, long shall Greece the woes we caused bewail,
And sad posterity repeat the tale.
But this, no more the subject of debate.
Is past, forgotten, and resign'd to fate.
Why should, alas, a mortal man, as I,
Burn with a fury that can never die?
Here then my anger ends: let war succeed.
And even as Greece has bled, let Ilion bleed.
Now call the hosts, and try if in our sight
Troy yet shall dare to camp a second night!
I deem, their mightiest, when this arm he knows,
Shall 'scape with transport, and with joy repose."
He said: his finish'd wrath with loud acclaim
The Greeks accept, and shout Pelides' name.
Wlien thus, not rising from his lofty throne,
In state unmoved, the king of men begun:
"Hear me, you sons of Greece! with silence hear!
And grant your monarch an impartial ear;
Awhile your load, untimely joy suspend.
And let your rash, injurious clamors end:
Unruly murmurs, or ill-timed applause.
Wrong the best speaker, and the justest cause.
Nor charge on me, ye Greeks, the dire debate: •
Know, angry Jove, and all-compelling Fate,
With fell Erinnys, urged my wrath that day
When from Achilles' arms I forced the prey.
AVhat then could I against the will of heaven?
Not by mvself, but vengeful Ate driven;
She, Jove's dread daughter, fated to infest
The race of mortals, euter'd in my breast.
Not on the ground that haughty fury treads.
But prints her lofty footsteps on the heads
Of mighty men; inflicting as she goes
Long-festering wounds, inextricable woes!
Of old, she stalk'd amid the bright abodes:
And Jove himself, the sire of men and gods.
The world's great ruler, felt her venom'd dart;
Deceived by Juno's wiles, and female art:
For when Alcmena's nine long months were run.
And Jove expected his immortal son,
To gods and goddesses the unruly joy
He show'd, and vaunted of his mat(;hless boy:
'From us (he said) this day an infant springs.
THE ILIAD. 437
Fated t© rule, and born a kkig of kings.'
Saturnia ask'd an oath, to vouch the truth,
And fix dominion on tlie favor'd youth.
The Thunderer, unsuspicious of the fraud,
Pronounced those solemn words that bind a god.
The joyful goddess, from Olympus' height,
Swift to Achaiau Argos, bent her flight:
Scarce seven moons gone, lay Sthenelus' wife;
She push'd her lingering infant into life:
Her charms Alcmeua's coming labors stay.
And stop the babe, just issuing to the day.
Tlien bids Saturnius bear his oath in mind;
'A youth (said she) of Jove's immortal kind
Is this day born; from Sthenelns he springs,
And claims thy promise to be king of kings.'
Grief seized the Thunderer, by his oath engaged;
Stung to the soul, he sorrow'd, and he raged.
From his ambrosial head, where perch'd she sate,
He snatch'd the fiiry-gaddess of debate.
The dread, the irrevocable oath he swore.
The immortal seats should ne'er behold her more;
And whirl'd her headlong down, for ever driven
From bright Olympus and the starry heaven:
Thence on the Jietlier world the fury fell;
Ordain'd with man's contentions race to dwell.
Full oft the god his son's hard toils bemoan'd
Cursed the dire fury, and in secret groan'd.*
Even thus, like Jove himself, was I misled.
While raging Hector hca])'d our camps with dead.
What can the errors of my rage atone?
My martial troops, my treasures are thy own:
'I'his instant from the navy shall be sent
Whatc'er Ulysses })romis('d at thy tent:
Hut thou! appeased, ])ropitious to our prayer,
* " Tliis lefjcnd is one of tlie most prefrnant and clinracKTistic
in tlie firecian Mytliolofry. It explains, acc-uriiinf^ to tlie relif,'-ioiis
idt-as familiar to tire old e[)ic poets, Ixitli the disiinf^iiisliinj;
attributes and the endless toil and endurance of Heracles, the
most renowned siihjufrator of all the semi-divine personajjes wor-
shijied hy the liellrnes — a heinfj of irresistible force, and
esjteciallv beloved by Zeus, yet condemned constantly to labor for
others and to obey the commands of a worthless and cowardly
persecutor. liis r<-«ompfnsi' his reserved to the close of his
career, when liis atllirtin/,'- trials are brou^'ht to a close; he is then
admitted to the K"dhead, and receives in marriage Hebe." —
• irote, vol. i. p. 12^.
438 THE ILIAD.
Resume thy arms, and shine again in war."
"0 king of nations! whose superior sway
(Returns Achilles) all our hosts obey!
To keep or send the presents, be thy care;
To us, 'tis equal: all we ask is war.
AVhile vet we talk, or but an instant shun
The light, our glorious work remains undone.
Let every Greek, who sees my spear confound
The Trojan ranks, and deal destruction round,
With emulation, what I act survey.
And learn from thence the business of the day."
The son of Peleus thus; and thus replies
The great in councils, Ithacus the wise;
"Though, godlike, thou art by no toils oppress'd,
At least our armies claim repast and rest:
Long and laborious must the combat be,
When by the gods inspired, and led by thee.
Strength is derived from sj^irits and from blood,
And those augment by generous wine and food:
What boastful son of war, without that stay.
Can last a hero through a single day?
Courage may prompt; but, ebbing out his strength,
Mere unsupported man must yield at length;
Shrunk with dry famine, and with toils declined,
The drooping body will desert the mind:
But built anev; with strength-conferring fare,
With limbs and soul untamed, he tires a war.
Dismiss the people, then, and give command,
With strong repast to hearten every band;
But let the presents to Achilles made,
Li full assembly of all Greece be laid.
The king of men shall rise in public sight.
And solemn swear (observant of the rite)
That, spotless, as she came, the maid removes,
Pure from his arms, and guiltless of his loves.
That done, a sumptuous banquet shall be made,
And the full price of injured honor paid.
Stretch not henceforth, prince! thy sovereign might
Beyond the bounds of reason and of right;
'Tis the chief praise that e'er to kings belong'd.
To right with justice whom with power they wrong'd."
To him the monarch: "Just is thy decree,
Thy words give joy, and wisdom breathes in thee.
Each due atonement gladly I prepare;
And heaven regard me as I justly swear!
THE ILIAD. 439
Here then awhile let Greece assembled stay,
Nor great xVchilles grudge this sliort delay.
Till from the Ileet our presents be convey'd,
And Jove attesting, the tirui compact made.
A train of noble youths the charge shall bear;
These to select, Ulysses, be thy care:
Jn order rank'd let all our gifts appear,
And the fair train of captives close the rear;
Talthybius shall the victim boar convey,
Sacred to Jove, and yon bright orb of day."
"For this (the stern JEacides replies) A ' --L
Some less imi)ortant season may suffice,
AVhen the stern fury of the war is o'er.
And wrath, extinguish'd, burns my breast no more.
By Hector slain, their faces to the aky,
All grim with gapiug wounds, our heroes lie:
Those call to warl and might my voice incite.
Now, now, this instant, shall commence the fight:
Then, when the day's complete, let generous bowls,
And copious banquets, glad your weary souls.
Let not my palate know the taste of food.
Till my insatiate rage be cloy'd with blood:
Pale lies my friend, with wounds disfigured o'er,
And his cold feet are pointed to the door.
Revenge is all my soul! uo meaner care.
Interest, or thought, has room to harbor there;
Destruction be my feast, and mortal wounds,
And scenes of blood, and agonizing sounds."
"0 lirst of Greeks (Ulysses thus rejoin'd),
The b(!st and bravest of the warrior-kind!
Thy praise it is in dreadful camps to shine,
]iut old experience and calm wisdom mine.
Then hoar my counsel, and to reason yield,
The bravest soon, are satiate of the field;
Tiiougli vast the heaps that strow the crimson plain,
The bloody harvest brings but little gain:
The scale of c<;Mf|uest ever wavering lies.
Great Jovo but turns it, and the victor dies!
The great, the bold, by thousands daily fall,
And (Midless were the grief, to weep for all.
Eternal sorrows what avails to shed?'
(ireece honors not with solemn fasts the dead:
Knougli, when dciatli licjmands the bravo, to ])ay
The tril)Ute of a mulanclioly day.
One chief with patience to the grave resigii'd,
440 THE ILIAD.
Our care devolves on others left behind.
Let generous food supplies of strength produce,
Let rising spirits flow from sprightly juice,
Let their warm heads with scenes of battle glow.
And pour new furies on the feebler foe.
Yet a short interval, and none shall dare
Expect a summons to the war;
Who waits for that, the dire effects shall find,
If trembling in the ships he lags behind.
Embodied, to the battle let us bend.
And all at once on haughty Troy descend."
And now the delegates Ulysses sent,
To bear the presents from the royal tent:
The sons of Nestor, Phyleus' valiant heir,
Thias and Merion, thunderbolts of war,
With Lycomedes of Creiontian strain.
And Melauippus, form'd the chosen train.
Swift as the word was given, the youths obey'd:
Twice ten bright vases in the midst they laid;
A row of six fair tripods then succeeds;
And twice the number of high-bounding steeds:
Seven captives next a lovely line compose;
The eighth BriseTs, like the blooming rose,
Closed the bright band: great Ithacus, before,
First of the train, the golden talents bore:
The rest in public view the chiefs dispose,
A splendid scene! then Agamemnon rose:
The boar Talthybius held: the Grecian lord
Drew the broad cutlass sheath'd beside his sword:
The stubborn bristles from the victim's brow
He crops, and ofPering meditates his vow.
His hands uplifted to the attesting skies,
On heaven's broad marble roof were fixed his eyes.
The solemn words a deep attention draw,
And Greece around sat thrilTd with sacred awe.
"Witness thou first! thou greatest power above.
All-good, all-wise, and all-surveying Jove!
And mother-earth, and heaven's revolving light.
And ye, fell furies of the realms of night,
Who rule the dead, and liorrid woes prepare
For perjured kings, and all who falsely swear!
The black-eyed maid inviolate removes.
Pure and unconscious of my manly loves.
If this be false, heaven all its vengeance shed.
And levell'd thunder strike my guilty head!"
TEE ILIAD. 441
With that, his weapon deep inflicts the wound;
The bleeding savage tumbles to the ground;
The sacred herald rolls the victim slain
(A feast for fish) into the foaming main.
Then thus Achilles: "Hear, ye Greeks! and know
Whate'er we feel, 'tis Jove inflicts the woe;
Not else Atrides could our rage inflame,
Nor from my arms, unwilling, force the dame.
'Twas Jove's high will alone, o'erruling all,
That doom'd our strife, and doom'd the Greeks to fall.
Go then, ye chiefs! indulge the genial rite;
Achilles waits ye, and expects the fight."
The speedy council at his word adjourn'd :
To their black vessels all the Greeks return'd.
Achilles sought his tent. His train before
March'd onward, bending with the gifts they bore.
Those in tlie tents the squires industrious spread:
The foaming coursers to the stalls they led;
To their new seats the female captives move
Briseis, radiant as the queen of love.
Slow as she pass'd, beheld with sad survey
Where, gash'd with cruel wounds, Patroclus lay.
Prone on the body fell the heavenly fair.
Beat her sad breast, and tore her golden hair;
All beautiful in grief, her humid eyes
Shining with tears she lifts, and thus she cries:
"Ah, youth forever dear, forever kind.
Once tender friend of my distracted mind!
I left thee fresh in life, in beauty gay;
Now find thee cohl, iiuinimated clay!
What woes my wretched race of life attend!
Sorrows on sorrows, never doom'd to end!
The first loved consort of my virgin bed
Before these eyes in fatal battle bled:
My three brave brothers in one mournful day
All trod the dark, irremcaljle way;
Thy friemily hand ui)roar'(l mc from tlie ]ilain,
And dri(!(l my sorrows for a husband slain;
Achillea' care y<ju promised I should prove,
'J'he first, the dearest jiartner of his hive;
That rites divine slioiild ratify the band.
And make nie empress in his native land.
Accept tiiese grateful tears! for tlice they flow,
For tiieo, that ever felt another's woe!"
442 THE ILIAD.
Her sister captives echoed groan for groan.
Nor monrnM Patroclns' fortunes, but their own.
The leaders press'd the chief on every side;
Unmoved he heard them, and with sighs denied.
"If yet Achilles have a friend, whose care
Is bent to please him, this request forbear;
Till yonder sun descend, ah, let me pay
To grief and anguish one abstemious day."
He spoke, and from the warriors turn'd his face;
Yet still the brother-kings of Atreus' race,
Nestor, Idomeneus, Ulysses sage,
And Phoenix, strive to calm his grief and rage:
His rage they calm not, nor his grief control;
He groans, he raves, he sorrows from his soul.
"Thou too, Patroclns! (thus his heart he vents)
Once spread the inviting banquet in our tents:
Thy sweet society, thy winning care,
Once stay'd Achilles, rushing to the war.
But now, alas! to death's cold arms resign'd,
What banquet but revenge can glad my mind?
What greater sorrow could afflict my breast,
What more if hoary Peleus were deceased?
Who now, perhaps, in Phthia dreads to hear
His son's sad fate, and drops a tender tear.
What more, should Neoptolemus the brave,
My only offspring, sink into the grave?
If yet that offspring lives (I distant far,
Of all neglectful, wage a hateful war).
I could not this, this cruel stroke attend ;
Fate claim'd Achilles, but might spare his friend.
I hoped Patroclns )night survive, to rear
My tender orphan with a parent's care,
From Scyros' isle conduct him o'er the main,
And glad his eyes with his paternal reign,
The lofty palace, and the large domain.
For Peleus breathes no more the vital air;
Or drags a wretched life of age and care,
But till the news of my sad fate invades
His hastening soul, and sinks him to the shades."
Sighing he said: his grief the heroes join'd,
Each stole a tear for what he left behind.
Their mingled grief the sire of heaven survey'd,
And thus with pity to his blue-eyed maid:
"Is then Achilles now no more thy care,
And dost thou thus desert the great in war?
THE ILIAD. 443
Lo, whery yon sails their canvas wings extend,
All comfortless he sits, and wails his friend:
Ere thirst and want his forces iiave oppress'd,
Haste and infuse ambrosia in his breast."
He spoke; and sudden, at the word of Jove,
Shot the descending goddess from above.
So swift through ether the shrill harpy springs,
The wide air floating to her ample wings,
To great Achilles she her flight address'd,
And pour'd divine ambrosia in his breast,*
With nectar sweet, (refection of the gods!)
Then, swift ascending, sought the bright abodes.
Now issued from the ships the warrior-train,
And like a deluge pour'd upon the plain.
As when the piercing blasts of Boreas blow.
And scatter o'er the iields the driving snow;
From dusky clouds the fleecy winter flies.
Whose dazzling lustre whitens all the skies:
So helms succeeiling helms, so shields from shields,
Catch the quick beams, and brighten all the fields;
Broad glitteriiig breastplates, spears with pointed rays,
Mix in one stream, reflecting blaze on blaze;
Thick beats the centre as the coursers bound;
With splendor flame the skies, and laugh the fields
around.
Full in the midst, higli-towering o'er the rest,
His limbs in arms divine Achilles dress'd;
Arms which the father of the fire bestow'd.
Forged on the eternal anvils of the god.
frrief and revenge his furious heart inspire,
His glowing eyeballs roll with living lire;
He grinds hia teeth, and furious with delay
O'erlooks the embattled host, and hopes the bloody
day.
The silver cuishes first his thighs infold;
Then o'er his breast was braced the hollow gold;
Tlio brazen swocd a various bahlric tied.
That, starr'd witii gems, hung glittering at his side;
And, like the moon, the broad refulgent shieM
Bluzud with lung rays, and gleam 'd athwart the field.
• Aml/ronui.
" 'l"li«! l)lu«'-fyf'<l maid,
In ev'ry lirfa>t ih-w vi^ror to infii.sp,
BriiigH nectar IhiiiimtM vviili lunlirnsial di'w.s."
— Mcirick'tt Tr^pLiodoruH, vi. 240.
444 TBE ILIAD.
So to night-wandering sailors, pale with fears,
Wide o'er the watery waste, a light appears,
Which on the far-seen mountain blazing high.
Streams from some lonely watch-tower to the sky:
With mournful eyes they gaze, and gaze again:
Loud howls the storm, and drives them o'er the main.
Next, his high head the helmet graced; behind
The sweepy crest hung floating in the wind;
Like the red star, that from his flaming hair
Shakes down diseases, pestilence, and war;
So stream'd the golden honors from his head,
Trembled the sparkling plumes, and the loose glories
shed.
The chief beholds himself with wondering eyes;
His arms he poises, and his motions tries;
Bnoy'd by some inward force, he seems to swim,
And feels a pinion lifting every limb.
And now he shakes his great paternal spear,
Ponderous and huge, which not a Greek could rear,
From Pelion's cloudy top an ash entire
Old Chiron fell'd, and shaped it for his sire;
A spear which stern Achilles only wields.
The death of heroes, and the dread of fields.
Automedon and Alcimus prepare _
The immortal coursers, and the radiant car
(The silver traces sweeping at their side);
Their fiery mouths resplendent bridles tied;
The ivory-studded reins, return'd behind,
Waved o'er their backs, and to the chariot join'd.
The charioteer then whirl'd the lash around,
And swift ascended at one active bound.
All bright in heavenly arms, above his squire
Achilles mounts, and sets the field on fire;
Not brighter Phojbus in the ethereal way
Flames from bis chariot, and restores the day.
High o'er the host, all terrible he stands.
And thunders to his steeds these dread commands:
"Xanthus and Balius! of Podarges' strain
(Unless ye boast that heavenly race in vain),
Be swift, be mindful of the load ye bear,
And learn to make your master more your care:
Through falling squadrons bear my slaughtering sword,
Nor, as ye left Patroclus, leave your lord."
The generous Xanthus, as the words he said,
Seem'd sensible of woe, and droop'd his head:
THE ILIAD. 445
Trembling he stood before the golden wain,
And bow'd to dust the honors of his mane.
"When, strange to tell I (so Juno will'd) he broke
Eternal silence, and portentous spoke.
"Achilles! yesi this day at least we bear
Thv rage in safety through the files of war:
But come it will, the fatal time must come,
Not ours the fault, but God decrees thy doom.
Not through our crime, or slowness in the course,
Fell thy Patrochis, but by heavenly force;
Tiie bright far-shooting god who gilds the day
(Confess'd we saw him) tore his arms away.
No — could our swiftness o'er tbe winds prevail,
Or beat the pinions of the western gale.
All were in vain — the Fates thy death demand,
Due to a mortal and immortal band."
Then ceased forever, by the Furies tied,
His fateful voice. The intrepid chief replied
With unabated rage — "So let it be!
Portends and prodigies are lost on nie.
I know my fate: to die, to see no more
My much-loved parents, and my native shore —
Enough — when heaven ordains, I sink in nigbt:
Now perish Troy I" He said, and rush'd to fight.
446 THE ILIAD.
BOOK XX.
AKGUMENT.
THE BATTLE OF THE GODS, AND THE ACTS OF ACHILLES.
Jupiter, upon Achilles' return to the battle, calls a council of the
gods, and permits them to assist either party. The terrors of
the combat described, when the deities are engaged. Apollo
encourages ^neas to meet Achilles. After a long conver-
sation, these two heroes encounter; but Jineas is preserved
by the assistance of Neptune. Achilles falls upon the rest of
the Trojans, and is upon the point of killing Hector, but
Apollo conveys him away in a cloud. Achilles pursues the
Trojans with a great slaughter.
The same day continues. The scene is the field before
Troy.
Thus round Pelides breathing war and blood,
Greece, sheatlied in arms, beside her vessels stood;
While near impending from a neighboring height,
Troy's black battalions wait the shock of fight.
Then Jove to Themis gives command, to call
The gods to conncil in the starry hall:
Swift o'er Olympns' hundred hills she flies,
And summons all the senate of the skies.
These shining on, in long procession come
To Jove's eternal adamantine dome.
Not one was absent, not a rural power
That haunts the verdant gloom, or rosy bower
Each fair-hair'd dryad of the shady wood,
Each azure sister of the silver flood;
All but old Ocean, hoary sire! who keeps
His ancient seat beneath the sacred deeps.
On marble thrones, with lucid columns crown'd
(The work of Vulcan), sat the powers around.
Even he whose trident sways the watery reign
Heard the loud summons, and forsook the main,
Assumed his throne amid the bright abodes.
And question'd thus the sire of men and gods:
THE ILIAD. 447
"What moves the god wJio heaven and earth com-
mands,
And grasj3s the thnuder in his awful hands,
Thus to convene the whole ethereal state-?
Is Greece and Troy the subject in debate?
Already met, the louring hosts appear,
And death stands ardent on the edge of war."
" 'Tis true (the cloud-compelling power rej)lies)
This day we cull the council of the skies
In care of human race; even Jove's own eye
Sees with regret unhappy mortals die.
Far on Olympus' top m secret state
Ourself will sit, and see the hand of fate
Work out our will. Celestial powers I descend,
And as your minds direct, your succor lend
To either host. Troy soon must lie o'erthrown.
If uncontroll'd Achilles fights alone:
Their troops but lately durst not meet his eyes;
What can they now, if in his rage he rise?
Assist them, gods! or Ilion's sacred wall
May fall this day, though fate forbids the fall."
lie said, and fired their heavenly breasts with rage.
On adverse parts the warring gods engage:
Heaven's awful queen; and he whose azure round
Girds the vast globe; the maiil in arms reuown'd;
Hermes, of profitable arts tlie sire;
And Vulcan, tiie black sovereign of the fire:
Tiiose to the fleet repair with instant ilight;
The vessels tremble as the gods alight.
In aid of Troy, Latona, Phoebus came.
Mars fiery-helm'd, the laughter-loving dame,
•Xanthus, whose streams in golden currents flow,
And the chaste huntress of the silver bow.
Hre yet the gods their various aid employ.
Each Argivo bosom swell'd with manly joy,
AVliile great Achilles (terror of the plain),
Long lost to battle, shone in arms again.
Dreadful ho stood in front of all his host;
I'alo Troy beheld, and seem'd alreaily lost;
llor bravest heroes pant with inward fear,
And troml)ling see anotiior god (jf war.
Bnt wlii-n tiio powers desoen<ling swcsll'd the fight,
Then tumult r(jse: fierce rage and pale alTi'iglit
Varied each face: then Disfsord sounds alarms.
Earth echoes, and the iiiitions rusli lo arms.
us THE ILIAD.
Now through the trembling shores Minerva calls,
And now she thunders from the Grecian walls.
Mars hovering o'er his Troy, his terror shrouds
In gloomy tempests, and a night of clouds:
Now through each Trojan heart he fury jjours
With voice divine, from Ilion's topmost towers:
Now shouts to Simois, from her beauteous hill;
The mountain shook, the rapid stream stood still.
Above, tlie sire of gods his thunder rolls,
And peals on peals redoubled rend the poles.
Beneath, stern Neptune shakes the solid ground;
The forests wave, the mountains nod around;
Through all their summits tremble Ida's woods,
And from their sources boil her hundred floods.
Troy's turrets totter on the rocking plain.
And the toss'd navies beat the heaving main.
Deep in the dismal regions of the dead,*
The infernal monarch rear'd his horrid head,
Leap'd from his throne, lest Neptune's arm should lay
His dark dominions open to the day.
And pour in liglit on Pluto's drear abodes,
Abhorr'd by men, and dreadful even to gods.f
Such war the immortals wage; such horrors rend
The world's vast concave, when the gods contend.
First silver-shafted Phcebus took the plain
Against blue Neptune, monarch of the main.
The god of arms his giant bulk display'd,
Opposed to Pallas, war's triumphant maid.
Against Latona march'd the son of May.
The quiver'd Dian, sister of the day
(Her golden arrows sounding at her side),
Saturnia, majesty of heaven, defied.
AVith fiery Vulcan last in battle stands
The sacred flood that rolls on golden sands;
Xanthus his name with those of heavenly birth,
But called Scamander by the sons of earth.
* " Hell is naked before liiiii, and destruction liath no coverin|r.
He stretclieth out the noitli over tlie empty place, and bangerii
the earth upon nothino-. He bindeth up the" waters in bis thick
clouds; and the cloud is not rent under them." — Job xxvi. 6-8.
f " Swift from his throne the infernal monarch ran,
All pale and trembling, lest the race of man,
Slain by Jove's wrath, and led by Hermes' rod,
Should fill (a countless tlironu!) bis dark abode."
— Merrick's Tryi)hiodorus, vi. 769, sqq.
TEE ILIAD. ^449
While thus the gods in varions league engage,
Achilles glow'd -^vith more than mortal rage:
Hector he sought; in search of Hector turu'd
His eyes around, for Hector only burn'd:
And burst like lightning through the ranks, and vo'w'd
To glut the god of battles ^vith his blood.
^neas was the first who dared to stay;
Apollo wedged him in the warrior's way,
But swell'd his bosom with undaunted might,
Half-forced and half-persuaded to the fight.
Like young Lycaon, of the royal line.
In voice and aspect, seeni'd the power divine;
And bade the chief reflect, how late with scorn
In distant threats he braved the goddess-born.
Then thus the hero of Anchises' strain:
"To meet Pelides you persuade in vain:
Already have I met, nor void of fear
Observed the fury of his flying spear;
From Ida's woods he chased us to the field,
Our force he scatter'd, and our herds he kill'd;
Lyrnessus, Pedasus in ashes lay;
But (Jove assisting) I survived the day:
Else had I sunk oppress'd in fatal fight
By fierce Achilles and ^Minerva's might
Where'er he moved, the goddess shone before,
And bathed his brax-en lance in hostile gore.
What mortal man Achilles can sustain?
The immortals guard him through the dreadful plain,
And suffer not his dart to fall in vain.
AVere God my aid, this arm should check his power.
Though strong in battle as a brazen tower."
To whom tiie son of Jove: "That god implore.
And be what great Achilles was before.
From heavenly Venus thou deriv'st thy strain,
And he but from a sister of the main;
An aged sea-god father of his line;
But Jove himself the sacred source of thine.
'J'hen lift thy weapon for a noble blow,
Nor fear the vaunting of a moi'tal foe."
This said, and spirit breathed into iiis breast;
Through the thick troops tlie emboldenM hero prcss'd:
His venturous act the white-arm'd fjuccn survcy'd.
And thus, assemljling all the puwoi.s, .she said:
"Behold an action, godsl that claims your care,
Lo great ^neas rushing to the war!
450 THE ILIAD.
Against Pelides he directs his course,
Phoebus impels, and Pliwbus gives him force.
Eestrain his bold career; at least, to attend
Our favor'd hero, let some power descend.
To guard his life, and add to his renown,
"We, tlie great armament of heaven, cam.e down.
Hereafter let him fall, as Fates design,
That spun so short his life's illustrious line:*
But lest some adverse god now cross his way,
Give him to know what powers assist this da}':
Por how shall mortal stand the dire alarms.
When heaven's refulgent host appear in arms?"f
Thus she; and thus the god whose force can make
The solid globe's eternal basis shake:
''Against the might of man, so feeble known,
"Why should celestial powers exert their own?
Suffice from yonder mount to view the scene,
And leave to war the fates of mortal men.
But if the armipotent, or god of light,
Obstruct Achilles, or commence the fight.
Thence on the gods of Troy we swift descend:
Full soon, I doubt not, shall the conflict end;
And these, in ruin and confusion hurl'd.
Yield to our conquering arms the lower world."
Thus having said, the tyrant of the sea,
Coerulean Neptune, rose, and led the way.
Advanced upon the field there stood a mound
Of earth congested, wall'd, and trench'd around;
In elder times to guard Alcides made
(The work of Trojans, with Minerva's aid),
"What time a vengeful monster of the main
Swept the wide shore, and drove him to the plain.
Here Neptune and the gods of Greece repair,
"With clouds encompass'd, and a veil of air:
The adverse powers, around AjdoIIo laid,
Crown the fair hills that silver Simois shade.
In circle close each heavenly party sate,
Intent to form the future scheme of fate;
But mix not yet in fight, though Jove on high
Gives the loud signal, and the heavens reply.
* These words seein to imply the old belief, that the Fates
might be delayed, but never wholly set aside.
f It was anciently believed that it was dangerous, if not fatal,
to behold a deity. See Exod. xxxiii. 20; Judg. xiii. 23.
THE ILIAD. 451
Meanwhile the rushiug armies hide the gronnd;
The trampled centre yields a hollow sound :_
Steeds cased in mail, and chiefs in armor bright,
The gleaming chami^aign glows with brazen light.
Amid both hosts (a dreadful space) appear,
There great Achilles; bold ^Eneas, here.
With towering strides ^Eneas first advanced;
The nodding plumage on his helmet danced:
Spread o'er his breast the fencing shield he bore,
And, so he moved, his javelin flamed before.
Not so Pelides; furious to engage,
He rush'd impetuous. Such the lion's rage,
Who viewing first his foes with scornful eyes,
Though all in arms the peopled city rise.
Stalks careless on, with unregarding pride;
Till at the length, by some brave youth defied,
To his bold spear the savage turns alone,
He murmurs fury with a hollow groan:
He grins, he foams, he rolls his eyes around,
Lash'd by his tail his heaving sides resound;
He calls up all his rage; he grinds his teeth,
Resolved on vengeance, or resolved on death.
So fierce Achilles on .Eneas flies;
So stands ^Eneas, and his force defies.
Ere yet the stern encounter join'd, begun
The seed of Thetis thus to Venus' son:
"Why comes .Eneas through the ranks so far?
Seeks he to meet Achilles' arm in war.
In hope the realms of Priam to enjoy.
Ami prove his merits to the throne of Troy?
Grant that beneath thy lance Achilles dies,
The partial monarch may refuse tlio prize;
Sons he has many; those thy pride may quell:
And 'tis his fault to love those sons too well.
Or, in reward of thy victorious hand,
Has Troy proposed some spacious tract of land,
An ample forest, or a fair domain,
Of hills for vines, and arable for grain?
Even this, perhaps, will hardly prove thy lot.
But can Achilles bo so soon forgot?
Once (as I think) you saw this hrandish'd spear,
And then the great yEneas seem'd to fear:
AVith hearty haste from Ida's mount ho fled,
Nor, till lie reacii'd Lyrnessus, turn'd his head.
452 THE ILIAD.
Her lofty walls not long our progress stay'd;
Those, Pallas, Jove, and we, in ruins laid:
In Grecian chains her captive race were cast.
'Tis true, the great ^neas fled too fast.
Defrauded of my conquest once before,
What then I lost, the gods this day restore.
Go; while thou may'st, avoid the threaten 'd fate;
Fools stay to feel it, and are wise too late."
To this Ancliises' sou: "Such words employ
To one that fears thee, some unwarlike boy;
Such we disdain; the best may be defied
With mean reproaches, and unmanly pride;
Unworthy the high race from which we came
Proclaim'd so loudly by the voice of fame:
Each from illustrious fathers draws his line;
Each goddess-born; half human, half divine.
Thetis' this day, or Venus' offspring dies,
And tears shall trickle from celestial eyes:
For when two heroes, thus derived, contend,
'Tis not in words the glorious strife can end.
If yet thou further seek to learn my birth
(A tale resounded through the spacious earth),
Hear how the glorious origin we prove
From ancient Dardanus, the first from Jove:
Dardania's walls he raised; for Ilion, then
(The city since of many languaged men).
Was not. The natives were content to till
The shady foot of Ida's fountful hill.*
From Dardanus great Erichthonius springs,
The richest, once, of Asia's wealthy kings;
Three thousand mares his spacious pastures bred,
Three thousand foals beside their mothers fed.
Boreas, enamour'd of the sprightly train,
Conceal'd his godhead in a flowing mane,
With voice dissembled to his loves he neigh'd,
AtkI coursed the dappled beauties o'er the mead:
Hence sprung twelve others of unrivall'd kind,
Swift as their mother mares, and father wind.
These lightly skimming, when they swept the plain,
Nor plied the grass, nor bent the tender grain.
* " Ere Ilium and the Trojan tow'rs arose,
In humble vales they built their soft abodes."
— Drjden's Virgil, iii. 150.
THE ILIAD. 453
And when along the level seas they flew,*
Scarce on the surface curl'd the briny dew.
Such Erichthonius was: from him there came
The sacred Tros, of whom the Trojan name.
Three sons renown'd adorn'd his nuptial bed,
Ilns, Assaracus, and Ganymed:
The matchless Ganymed, divinely fair.
Whom heaven, enamor'd, snatch'd to upper air
To bear the cup of Jove (ethereal guest,
The grace and glory of the ambrosial feast).
The two remaining sons the line divide:
First rose Laomedon from Ilus' side;
From him Tithonus, now in cares grown old,
And Priam, bless'd with Hector, brave and bold;
Clytius and Lampus, ever-honor'd pair;
And liicetaon, thunderbolt of war.
From great Assaracus sprang Capys, he
Begat Anchises, and Anchises me.
Such is our race; 'tis fortune gives us birth,
But Jove alone endues the soul with worth:
He, source of power and mightl with boundless sway,
All human courage gives, or takes away.
Long in the field of words we may contend,
Reproach is infinite, and knows no end,
Arm'd or with truth or falsehood, right or wrong;
So voluble a-weapon is the tongue;
Wounded, we wound; and neither side can fail,
For every man has equal strength to rail:
I Women alone, Avhen in the streets they jar,
Perhaps excel us in this wordy war;
Like us thy stand, encompass'd with the crowd,
And vent their anger impotent and loud.
Cease then — Our business in the field of fight
Is not to question, but to prove our might.
To all those insults thou hast ofTer'd here,
Keceivo this answer: 'tis my flying spear."
He spoke. With all his force the javelin flung,
I"'ixM deep, and loudly in the buckler rung,
l-ar on his outstretch'd arm, Pelides iield
• Along the level Sean. ("(>riii)iire Virgil's deEcription of Camilla,
who
" Ontstripp''! tin- winds in speed u]>()n the plain,
V\hw o'er the field, iKtr hurt the heiirded fjrain;
She Hwe[)t the seas, and. as slie skiniin'd along,
Uer flying feet unbathed on billnws hunfr."
— Dryden, vii. 1100.
454 THE ILIAD.
(To meet the thundering lance) his dreadful shield,
That trembled as it stucii ; nor void of fear
Saw, ere it fell, the immeasurable spear.
His fears were vain; impenetrable charms
Secured the temper of the ethereal arms.
Through two strong plates the point its passage held,
But stopp'd, and rested, by the third repell'd.
_Five plates of various metal, various mould.
Composed the shield; of brass each outward fold.
Of tin each inward, and the middle gold:
There stuck the lance. Then rising ere he threw.
The forceful spear of great Achilles flew,
And pierced the Dardan shield's extremest bound,
Where the shrill brass return'd a sharper sound;
Through the thin verge the Pelean weapon glides,
And the slight covering of expanded hides,
-^ueas his contracted body bends,
And o'er him high the riven targe extends.
Sees, through its parting plates, the upper air,
And at his back perceives the quivering spear:
A fate so near him, chills his soul with fright;
And swims before his eyes the many-color'd light.
Achilles, rushing in with dreadful cries.
Draws his broad blade, and at ^neas flies:
-/Eneas rousing as the foe came on,
With force collected, heaves a mighty ston.e;
A mass enormous! which in modern days
No two of earth's degenerate sons could raise.
But ocean's god, whose earthquakes rock the ground,
Saw the distress, and moved tlie powers around.
"Lo! on the brink of fate ^neas stands,
An instant victim to Achilles' hands;
By Phoebus urged; but Pha^bus has bestow'd
His aid in vain: the man o'erpowers the god.
And can ye see this righteous chief atone
With guiltless blood for vices not his own?
To all the gods his constant vows w^ere paid;
Sure, though he wars for Troy, he claims our aid.
Fate wills not this; nor thus can Jove resign
The future father of the Dardan line:*
* The future father. " ^neas and Antenor stands distinguished
from the other Trojans by a dissatisfaction with Priam, and a
sympathy with the (« reeks, which is by Sophocles and others
construed as treacijerons collusion — a suspicion indirectly glanced
at, though emphatically repelled, in the J5ueas of Virgil." —
Grote. i. p. 427.
THE ILIAD. 455
The first great ancestor obtain'd his grace,
And still his love descends on all the race:
For Priam now, and Priam's faithless kind,
At length are odious to the all-seeing mind;
On great xEneas shall devolve the reign.
And sous succeeding sons the lasting line sustain."
The great earth-shaker thus: to whom replies
The imperial goddess with the radiant eyes:
"Good as he is, to immolate or spare
The Dardau prince, Neptunel be thy care;
Pallas and I, by all that gods can bind.
Have sworn destruction to the Trojan kind;
Not even an instant to protract their fate,
Or save one member of the sinking state;
Till her last flame be quench'd with her last gore,
And even her crumbling ruins are no more."
The king of ocean to the fight descends.
Through all the whistling darts his course he bends,
Swift interposed between the warrior flies.
And casts thick darkness o'er Achilles' eyes,*
From great Eneas' shield the spear he drew,
And at his master's feet the weapon threw.
That done, with force divine ho snatch'd on high
The Dardan prince, and bore him tlirough the sky,
Smooth-gliding without step, above the heads
Of warring heroes, and of bounding steeds:
Till at the battle's utmost verge they light.
Where the slow Cancans close the rear of figlit.
The godliead there (his heavenly form confess'd)
With words like those the panting chief address'd:
"What power, prince! with force inferior far,
Urged thee to meet Achilles' arm in war?
lleiiGotorth beware, nor antedate thy doom.
Defrauding fate of all tiiy fame to come.
But when the day decreed, (for come it must)
Shall lay tliis dreadful hero in tiio dust.
Let then the furies of that arm be known.
Secure no Grecian force transcends thy own."
* Neptune tlms recounts bis services to ^neas:
" Wlii-n your ..Kru^Jis foiij^lif, hut ff)Uf^bt with odds
Of force unciiuiil. uiul um-ijtiul ^^ods:
I sproiid n cloud lic^fon; tlif victor's sipht,
Sustain'd tlm v(in(|uisli'(l, and sfcured his tlif;ht;
Even tlien sccurecl him, wlien I soujjht witli joy
The vow'd dostructioM of uu^jratcful 'I'rov."
— Drydeu'b Virgil, v. 1058.
456 THE ILIAD.
With that he left him wondering as he lay,
Then from Achilles chased the mist away:
Sudden, returning with a stream of light,
The scene of war came rushing on his sight.
Then thus, amazed: "What wonders strike my mind!
My spear, that parted on the wings of wind,
Laid here before me! and the Dardan lord,
That fell this instant, vanish'd from my sword!
I thought alone with mortals to contend,
But powers celestial sure this foe defend.
Great as he is, our arms he scarce will try,
Content for once, with all his gods, to fly.
Now then let others bleed." This said, aloud
He vents his fury, and inflames the crowd:
''0 Greeks! (he cries, and every rank alarms)
Join battle, man to man, and arms to arms!
'Tis not in me, though favor'd by the sky.
To mow whole troops, and make whole armies fly.
No god can singly such a host engage.
Not Mars himself, nor great Minerva's rage,
But whatsoe'er Achilles can inspire,
Whate'er of active force, or acting fire;
Whate'er this heart can prompt, or hand obey;
All, all Achilles, Greeks! is yours to-day.
Through yon wide host this arm shall scatter fear.
And thin the squadrons with my single spear."
He said: nor less elate with martial joy.
The godlike Hector waim'd the troops of Troy:
"Trojans, to war! Think, Hector leads you on;
Nor dread the vaunts of Peleus' haughty son;
Deeds must decide our fate. E'en these with words
Insult the brave, who tremble at their swords:
The vveakest atheist-wretch all heaven defies.
But shrinks and shudders when the thunder flies.
Nor from yon boaster shall your chief retire.
Not though his heart were steel, his hands were fire;
That fire, that steel, your Hector should withstand.
And brave tliat vengeful heart, that dreadful hand."
Thus (breathing rage through all) the hero said;
A wood of lances rises round his head,
Clamors on clamors tempest all the air,
They join, they throng, they thicken to the war.
But Phoebus warns him from high heaven to shun
The single fight with Thetis' godlike son;
More safe to combat in the mingled band,
THE ILIAD. 457
Nor tempt too near the terrors of his hand.
He hears, obedient to the god of light,
And, plunged within the ranks, awaits the fight.
Then fierce Achilles, shouting to the skies.
On Troy's whole force with boundless fury flies.
First falls Iphytion, at his army's head;
Brave was the chief, and brave the host he led;
From great Otrynteus he derived his blood,
His mother was a NaTs, of the flood;
]?eneath the shades of Tmolus, crown'd with snow,
From Hyde's walls he ruled the lands below.
Fierce as he springs, the sword his head divides:
The parted visage falls on equal sides:
With loud-resounding arms he strikes tlie plain;
AVhile thus Achilles glories o'er the slain:
"Lie there, Otryntides! the Trojan earth
Receives thee dead, though Gygai boast thy birth;
Those beauteous fields where ilyllus' waves are roll'd,
And plenteous Hermus swells with tides of gold,
Are thine no more." — The insulting hero said,
And left him sleeping in eternal shade.
The rolling wheels of (Jreece the body tore,
And dash'd their axles with no vulgar gore.
Demoleon next, Antenor's olTspring, laid
Breathless in dust, the price of rashness paid.
The impatient steel with full-descending sway
Forced through his brazen helm its furious way,
Resistless drove tlie batter'd skull before.
And dash'd and mingled all the brains with gore.
This sees Hippodamas, and seized with fright,
Deserts his chariot for a swifter flight:
The lance arrests him: an ignoble wound
The panting Trojan rivets to the ground.
He groans away his soul: not hnider roars.
At Neptune's siirine on Helieo's high shores.
The victim bull; the rocks re-bellow round,
DC
And ocean listens to the grateful sound.
Then fell on I'olydoro bis vengeful rage,'
I'lio youngest jjope oi I'riam's stooping age
(Whose feet for swiftness in the race snrpass'd):
* On Polydore. Euripides, Virgil, and otlierK, relate that
Polydoro was sent into Tlirace, to tlie house of Polyniestor, for
j»rotoction. beinp tlie yonii(,'est of Priftni'M sons, and tlmt lie was
treacherously inurdert^l iiy his host for the Haite of the treasure
8ent with hiui.
458 THE ILIAD.
Of all his sons, the dearest, and the last.
To the forbidden field he takes his flight,
In the first folly of a youthful knight,
To vaunt his swiftness wheels around che plain.
But vaunts not long, with all his swiftness slain;
Struck where the crossing belts unite behind,
And golden rings the double back-plate join'd,
Forth through the navel burst the thrilling steel;
And on his knees with piercing shrieks he fell;
The rushing, entrails pour'd upon the ground,
His hands collect; and darkness wraps him round.
When Hector view'd, all ghastly in his gore,
Thus sadly slain the unhappy Polydore,
A cloud of sorrow overcast his sight,
His soul no longer brook'd the distant fight:
Full in Achilles' dreadful front he came,
And shook his javelin like a waving flame.
The son of Peleus sees, with joy possess'd,
His heart high-bounding in his rising breast.
"And, lo! the man on whom black fates attend;
The man, that slew Achilles, is his friend!
No more shall Hector's and Pelides' spear
Turn from each other in the walks of war" —
Then with revengeful eyes he scann'd him o'er:
"Come, and receive thy fate!" He spake no more.
Hector, undaunted, thus: "Such words employ
To one that dreads thee, some unwarlike boy:
Such we could give, defying and defied,
Mean intercourse of obloquy and pride!
I know thy force to mine superior far;
But heaven alone confers success in war;
Mean as I am, the gods may guide my dart.
And give it entrance in a braver heart."
Then parts the lance: but Pallas' heavenly breath
Far from Achilles wafts the winged death:
The bidden dart again to Hector flies.
And at the feet of its great master lies.
Achilles closes with his hated foe,
His heart and eyes with flaming fury glow:
But present to his aid, Apollo shrouds
The favor'd hero in a veil of clouds.
Thrice struck Pelides with indignant heart.
Thrice in impassive air he plunged the dart;
The spear a fourth time buried in the cloud.
He foams with fury, and exclaims aloud:
THE ILIAD. 459
** Wretch I thou hast 'scaped again; once more thy
flight
Has saved thee, and the partial god of light;
But long thou shalt not thy just fate withstand,
If any power assist Achilles' hand.
Fly then inglorious! but thy flight this day
Whole hecatombs of Trojan ghosts shall pay."
With that, he gluts liis rage with numbers slain:
Then Dryops tumbled to the ensanguined plain.
Pierced through the neck: he left him panting there,
And stopp'd Demuchus, great Philetor's heir.
Gigantic chief, deep gash'd the enormous blade,
And for the soul an ample passage made.
Laoganus and Dardanus expire,
The valiant sons of an unhappy sire;
Both in one instant from the chariot hurl'd,
Sunk in one instant to the nether world:
This difference only their sad fates afford
That one the spear destroy'd, and one the sword.
Nor less unpitied, young Alastor bleeds;
In vain his youth, in vain his beauty pleads;
In vain he begs thee, with a suppliant's moan,
To spare a form, an age so like thy own!
Unhappy boy! no prayer, no moving art.
E'er bent that fierce, inexorable heart!
While yet he tremljled at his knees, and cried,
The ruthless falchion oped his tender side;
The panting liver pours a flood of gore
That drowns his bosom till lie pants no more.
Through Mulius' head then drove the impetuous
spear;
The warrior falls, transfix'd from ear to ear.
Thy life, EcheolusI next the sword bereaves.
Deep through the front the ponderous falchion cleaves:
Warm'd in the lirain the smoking weapon lies,
Tlio purple death comes floating o'er his eyes.
Then brave Deucalion died: the dart was flung
Where the knit nerves the pliant elbow strung;
Ho droppM his arm, an unassisting weight.
Ami stood all impotent, oxjjccting fate:
Full on his neck tl)e falling falchion sped.
From his broad slioiiltlors hew'd his crrstod head:
Forth from the bono the spinal marrow flies,
And, sunk in dust, the corpse extended lies.
Rhigmas, whoso race from fruitful Thraciu came
460 THE ILIAD.
(The son of Pierus, an illustrious name),
Succeeds to fate: the spear his belly rends;
Prone from his car the thundering chief descends.
The squire, who saw expiring on the ground
His prostrate master, rein'd the steeds around;
His back, scarce turn'd, the Pelian javelin gored,
And stretch'd the servant o'er his dying lord.
As when a flame the winding valley fills,
And runs on crackling shrubs between the hills;
Then o'er the stubhle up the mountain flies,
Fires the high woods, and blazes to the skies,
This way and that, the spreadiiig torrent roars;
So sweeps the hero through the wasted shores;
Around him wide, immense destruction pours,
And earth is deluged with the sanguine showers,
As with autumnal harvests cover'd o'er.
And thick bestrewn, lies Ceres' sacred floor;
When round and round, with never-wearied pain.
The trampling steers beat out the unnumber'd grain:
So the fierce coursers, as the chariot rolls.
Tread down whole ranks, and crush out heroes' souls.
Dash'd from their hoofs while o'er the dead they fly,
Black, bloody drops the smoking chariot dye:
The spiky wheels through heaps of carnage tore;
And thick the groaning axles dropp'd with gore.
High o'er the scene of death Achilles stood,
Alfgrim with dust, all horrible in blood:
Yet still insatiate, still with rage on flame;
Such is the lust of never-dying fame!
THE ILIAD. 461
BOOK XXI.
ARGUMENT.
THE BATTLE IX THE KIVER SCAMANDEK.*
The Trojans fly before Achilles, some towards the town, others
to the river Scamander: he falls upon the latter with great
slaughter: takes twelve captives alive, to sacrifice to the
shade of Patroclus; and kills Lycaon and Asteropeus. Sca-
mander attacks him with all his waves: Neptune and Pallas
assist the hero; Siniols joins Scamander; at length Vulcan,
by the instigation cf Juno, almost dries up the river. This
combat ended, the other gods engage each otlier. Mean-
while Achilles continues- the slaughter, drives the rest into
Troy. Agenor only makes a stand, and is conveyed away
in a cloud by Apollo; who (to delude Achilles) takes upon
him Ageuor's shape, and while he pursues him in that dis-
guise, gives the Trojans an opportunity of retiring into their
city.
The same day continues. The scene is on the banks and
in the stream of Scamander.
AxD now to Xaiitlius' gliding stream tliey drove,
Xanthus, immortal progeny of Jove.
Tlie river here divides the flying train,
Part to the town fly diverse o'er the plain,
* " Perhaps the boldest excursion of Homer into this region of
))oetica] fancy is the collision into which, in th<^ twenty-first of
the Iliad, he lias brought tiie river god Scamander, first with
Achilles, and afterwanls with V^ulcan, when summoned by Juno
to the hero's aid. Tlie overwhelming fury of tlie stream finds
the natural interpretation in the character of the mountain tor-
rents of (Jreere and Asia .Minor. 'J'heir wide, sliingly i)eds are
in summer comparntively dry, so as to lie easily forch'd Ijy the
foot passenger. iJut a t liuiiiler-shower in the mountains, unob-
served by tliH traveler on the plain, may suddenly immerse him
in the flood of a mighty river. The rescue of Achilles by the
fiery arms of Vulfan scarcely admits of the same ready explana-
tion from physical causes. Vet the subsiding of tlie flood at the
critical moment when the hero's destruction appeared iinminent,
might, by a slight extension of the figurative |iara!le|, beascribecl
to a god symbolic of the influen<-es opposed to all atmospheric
moisture." — Mure, vol. i. p. 480, sq.
462 1'HE ILIAD.
Where late their troops triumphant bore the fight,
Now chased, and trembling in ignoble flight
(These with a gather'd mist Saturnia shrouds.
And rolls behind the rout a heap of clouds):
Part plunge into the stream: old Xanthus roars,
The flashing billows beat the whiten'd shores:
With cries promiscuous all the banks resound,
And here, and there, in eddies whirling round.
The flouncing steeds and shrieking warriors drown'd.
As the scorch'd locusts from their fields retire.
While fast behind them runs the blaze of fire;
Driven from the land before the smoky cloud,
The clustering legions rush into the flood:
So, plunged in Xanthus by Achilles' force,
Koars the resounding surge with men and horse.
His bloody lance the hero casts aside
(Which spreading tamarisks on the margin hide),
Then, like a god, the rapid billows braves,
Arm'd with his sword, high brandish'd o'er the waves:
Now down he plunges, now he whirls it round,
Deep groan'd the waters with the dying sound;
Repeated wounds the reddening river dyed,
And the warm purple circled on the tide.
Swift through the foamy flood the Trojans fly,
And close in rocks or winding caverns lie:
So the huge dolphin, tempesting the main,
In shoals before him fly the scaly train.
Confusedly heap'd they seek their inmost caves,
Or pant and heave beneath the floating waves.
Now, tired with slaughter, from the Trojan band
Twelve chosen youtiis he drags alive to land;
With their rich belts their captive arms restrains
(Late their proud ornaments, but now their chains).
These his attendants to the ships convey'd.
Sad victims destined to Patroclus' shade;
Then, as once more he plunged amid the flood,
The young Lycaon in his passage stood;
The son of Priam; whom the hero's hand
But iate made captive in his father's land
(As from a sycamore, his sounding steel
Lopp'd the green arms to spoke a chariot wheel).
To Lemnos' isle he sold the royal slave^
Where Jason's son the price demanded gave;
But kind Action, touching on the shore,
The ransom'd prince to fair Arisbe bore.
THE ILIAD. 463
Ten days were past, since in his father's reign
He felt the sweets of liberty again ;
The next, that god whom men in vain withstand
Gives tile same youth to the same conquering hand:
Now never to return! and doom'd to go
A sadder journey to the shades below.
His well-known face when great Achilles eyed
(The helm and visor he had cast aside
With wild affright, and dropp'd upon the field
His useless lance and unavailing shield),
As trembling, panting, from the stream he fled,
And knock'd his faltering knees, the hero said:
"Ye miglity gods! what wonders strike my viewt
Is it in vain our conquering arms subdue?
Sure I shall see yon heaps of Trojans kill'd
Rise from the shades, and brave me on the field:
As now the captive, whom so late I bound
And sold to Lemnos, stalks on Trojan ground!
Not him the sea's unmeasured deeps detain,
That bar such numbers from their native ])lain:
Lo! he returns. Try, then, my flying spear!
Try, if the grave can hold the wanderer;
If earth, at length, this active prince can seize,
Earth, whose strong grasp has held down Hercules."
Thus while he spoke, the Trojan pale with fears
Approach'd, and sought his knees with suppliant tears,
Loth as he was to yield his youthful breath.
And his soul shivering at the approach of death.
Acliilles raiseil the spear, prepared to wound;
He kiss'd his feet, extended on the ground:
yViid wiiile, above, the spear suspendoil stood,
Longing to dip its thirsty point in blood,
One hand embraced tiuMu close, one sto])p'd the dart,
While tinis tliuse melting words attempt his heart:
"Thy well-known captive, great Achilles! see,
Once more Lyoaon trembles at thy knee.
Some pity to a suppliant's name all'ord,
Who shared the gifts of Ceres at thy board;
Wiiom late thy conquering arm to licmnos bore,
l-'ar from his father, friends, and native shore;
A hundred oxen were his price that day.
Now sums immense thy mercy shall lepay.
Scarce respited from wotis I yet appear.
And scarce twelve morning suns have seen nie hero;
Lo! Jove again submits me to thy hands,
464 THE ILIAD.
Again, her victim cruel Fate demands!
I sprang from Priam, and Laothoe fair
(Old Altes' daugliter, and Lelegia's heir;
Who held in Pedasus his famed abode.
And ruled the fields where silver Satnio flow'd),
Two sons (alas! unhappy sons) she bore;
For ah! one spear shall drink each brother's gore,
And I succeed to slaughter'd Polydore.
How from that arm of terror shall I fly?
Some demon urges! 'tis my doom to die!
It' ever yet soft pity toiich'd thy mind.
Ah! think not me too much of Hector's kind!
Not the same mother gave thy suppliant breath.
With his, who wrought thy loved Patroclus' death.
These words, attended with a shower of tears,
The youth address'd to unrelenting ears:
"Talk not of life, or ransom (he replies):
Patroclus dead, whoevei' meets me, dies:
In vain a single Trojan sues for grace;
But least, the sons of Priam's hateful race.
Die then, my friend! what boots it to deplore?
The great, the good Patroclus is no more!
He, far thy better, was foredoom'd to die,
And thou, dost thou bewail mortality?
Seest thou not me, whom nature's gifts adorn,
Sprung from a hero, from a goddess born?
The day shall come (which nothing can avert)
"When by the spear, the arrow, or the dart,
By night, or day, by force, or by design.
Impending death and certain fate are mine!
Die then," — He said; and as the word he spoke
Tlie fainting stripling sank before the stroke:
His hand forgot its grasp, and left the spear.
While all his trembling frame confess'd his fear:
Sudden, Achilles his broad sword display'd,
And buried in his neck the reeking blade.
Prone fell the youth; and panting on the land,
The gushing purple dyed the thirsty sand.
The victor to the stream the carcase gave,
And thus insults him, floating on the wave:
"Lie there, Lycaon! let the fish surround
Thy bloated corpse, and suck thy gory wound:
There no sad mother shall thy funerals weep.
But swift Scainander roll thee to the deep.
Whose every wave some watery monster brings.
THE ILIAD. 465
To feast nnpnnish'd on the fat of kings.
So perish Troy, and all the Trojan line!
Such ruin theirs, and such compassion mine.
What boots ye now Scamander's worshipp'd stream,
His earthly honors, and immortal name?
In vain vour immolated bulls are slain,
Your living coursers glut his gulfs in vain!
Thus he rewards yon, with this bitter fate;
Thus, till the Grecian vengeance is complete:
Thus is atoned Patroclus' honored shade,
And the short absence of Achilles paid."
Tliese boastful words provoked the raging god;
Witli fury swells the violated Mood.
What means divine may yet the power employ
To check Achilles, aiul to rescue Troy?
^leanwhile tlie hero s})rings in arms, to dare
The great Asteropens to mortal war;
The son of Pelagon, whose lofty line
Flows from the source of Axius, stream divine!
(Fair Peribsa's love the god had crown'd,
With all his refluent waters circled round):
On him Achilles rush'd; he fearless stood,
And shook two spears, advancing from the flood;
The flood impeil'd him, on Pelides' head
To avenge his waters choked witli heaps of dead.
Near as they drew, Achilles thus began:
"Wiiat art thou, boldest of the race of man?
Who, or from whence? Unhappy is the sire
Whose son encouTiters our resistless ire."
"0 son of Peleus! what avails to trace
(Replied the warrior) our illustrious race?
From rich Paionia's valleys I command,
Arm'd with protended spears, my native band;
Now shines tlie tenth bright morning since I came
In aid of Ilion to the fiehls of fame:
Axius, who swells with all the neighboring rills.
And wide around tlie lloatcil region lills,
Hegot my sire, wlioso 8i)ear much glory won:
Now lift thy arm, and try tint hero's son!"
Threatening ho saitl: the hostile chiefs advance;
At once Asteropens discharged each lance
(For both his dexterous hands the lance could wield),
One HtriK:k, but ])ierc;ed not, the N'ulcaiiiaii shield;
One razed Afhilh's' band; the spouting blood
.Spun forth; in earth the fasten'd weapon stood.
466 THE ILIAD.
Like liglitning next the Pelean javeliu flies:
Its erring fury hiss'd along the skies;
Deep in the swelling bank was driven the spear,
Even to the middle earth; and quiver'd there.
Then from his side the swoid Pelides drew,
And on his foe with double fury flew.
The foe thrice tugg'd, aiul shook the rooted wood;
Eepulsive of his might the weapon stood:
The fourth, he tries to break the spear in vain;
Bent as he stands, he tumbles to the plain;
His belly open'd with a ghastly wound,
The reeking entrails pour upon the ground.
Beneath the hero's feet he panting lies,
And his eye darkens, and his spirit flies;
While the proud victor thus triumphing said,
His radiant armor tearing from the dead:
"So ends thy glory! Such the fate they prove,
Who strive presumptuous with the sons of Jove!
Sprung from a river, didst thou boast thy line?
But great Saturnius is the source of mine.
How durst thou vaunt thy watery progeny?
Of Peleus, ^acus, and Jove, am I.
The race of these superior far to those,
As he that thunders to the stream that flows.
What rivers can, Scamander might have shown;
But Jove he dreads, nor wars against his son.
Even Achelous might contend in vain,
And all the roaring billows of the main.
The eternal ocean, from whose fountains flow
The seas, the rivers, and the springs below.
The thundering voice of Jove abhors to hear,
And in his deep abysses shakes with fear."
He said: then from the bank his javelin tore,
And left the breathless warrior in his gore.
The floating tides the bloody carcase lave,
And beat against it, wave succeeding wave;
Till, roll'd between the banks, it lies the food
Of curling eels, and fishes of the flood.
All scattered round the stream (their mightiest slain)
The amazed Pa^onians scour along tlie plain;
He vents his fury on the flying crew,
Thrasius, Astyplus, and Mnesus slew;
Mydon, Thersilochus, with ^nius, fell;
And numbers more his lance had plunged to hell,
But from the bottom of his gulfs profound
TEE ILIAD, 467
Scaraaiider spoke; the shores retiirn'd the sound.
"0 first of moi'talsl (for the gods are thine)
In valor matchless, and in force divine!
If Jove have given thee every Trojan head,
'Tis not on me thy rage should heap the dead.
See! my choked streams no more their course can keep,
Nor roll their wonted tribute to the deep.
Turn then, impetuous! from our injured flood;
Content, thy slaughters could amaze a god."
In human form, confess'd before his eyes.
The river thus; and thus the chief replies:
"0 sacred stream! thy word we shall obey;
But not till Troy the destined vengeance pay,
Not till within her towers the perjured train
Shall pant, and tremble at our arms again;
Not till proud Hector, guardian of her wall,
Or stain this lance, or see Achilles fall."
He said; and drore with fury on the foe.
Then to the godhead of the silver bow
The yellow flood began: "0 son of Jove!
Was not the mandate of the sire above
Full and express, that Phoebus should employ
His sacred arrows in defence of Troy,
And make her conquer, till Hyperion's fall
In awful darkness hide the face of all!-'"
He spoke in vain — The chief without dismay
Ploughs through the boiling surge his desperate way.
Then rising in iiis rage above the shores,
From all his deep the bellowing river roars,
Huge heaps of slain disgorges on the coast.
And round the banks the ghastly dead are toss'd.
While all before, tlio billows ranged on high
(A watery bulwark), screen the bands who fly.
Now bursting on his head with thundering sound,
The falling deluge whelms the hero round:
His loadetl shield Ijends to the rushing tide;
His feet, upborne, scarce the strong flood divide,
Sliihlering. and staggering. On the border stood
A spreading elm, that ov(;rhting the (lootl;
He rteized a bending bough, his steps to stay;
The plant uprooted to his weight gave way.*
Heaving the bank, and undermining all;
Loud flash the waters to the rushing fall
• Wood liBH olmnrved, tliat " tlie circuniHtnocH of n falling tree,
wliidi is (lcsrrili<*<l ns reariiinfj froiii one of its iiuiiks to tliu other,
affords a very jufjt idea ol tLe breadth of the .Scaiiiaiider."
468 THE ILIAD.
Of the thick foliage. The large trunk display'd
Bridged the rough flood across: the hero stay'd
On this his weight, and raised upon his hand,
Leap'd from the channel, and regain'd the land.
Then blacken 'd the wild waves: the murmur rose:
The god pursues, a huger billow throws,
And bursts the bank, ambitious to destroy
The man whose fury is the fate of Troy.
He like the warlike eagle speeds his pace
(Swiftest and strongest of the aerial race);
Far as a spear can fly, Achilles springs;
At every bound his clanging armor rings:
Now here, now there, he turns on every side,
And winds his course before the following tide;
The waves flow after, wherasoe'er he wheels,
And gather fast, and murmur at his heels.
So when a peasant to his garden brings
Soft rills of water from the bubbling springs,
And" calls the floods from high, to bless his bowers.
And feed with pregnant streams the plants and flowers:
Soon as he clears whate'er their passage stay'd,
And marks the future current with his spade.
Swift o'er the rolling pebbles, down the hills,
Louder and louder purl the falling rills;
Before him scattering, they prevent his pains,
And shine in mazy wanderings o'er the plains.
Still flies Achilles, but before his eyes
Still swift Scamander rolls where'er he flies:
Not all his speed escapes the rapid floods;
The first of men, but not a match for gods.
Oft as he turn'd the torrent to oppose,
And bravely try if all the powers were foes;
So oft tlie surge, in watery mountains spread,
Beats on his back, or bursts upon his head.
Yet dauntless still the adverse flood he braves,
And still indignant bounds above the waves-
Tired by the tides, his knees relax with toil;
Wash'd from beneath him slides the slimy soil;
When thus (his eyes on heaven's expansion thrown),
Forth bursts the hero with an angry groan:
"Is there no god Achilles to befriend.
No power to avert his miserable end?
Prevent, Jove! this ignominous date,*
* Iffiiondnious. Drowning, as compared with a death in the
field of battle, was considered utterly disgraceful.
THE irJAD. 469
And make my future life tlie sport of fate.
Of all heaven's oracles believed in vain,
The most of Thetis must her son complain*
By Phoebus' darts she prophesied my fall,
In glorious arms before the Trojan wall.
Oh! had I died in fields of battle warm,
Stretch 'd like a hero, by a hero's arm!
Might Hector's spear this dauntless bosom rend,
And mv swift soul o'ertake mv slaughter'd friend.
Ah no! Achilles meets a shameful fate.
Oh how unworthy of the brave and great!
Like some vile swain, whom on a rainy day,
Crossing a ford, the torrent swee]is away.
An unregarded carcase to the sea."
Neptune and Pallas haste to his relief,
And thus in human form address'd the chief:
The power of ocean first: "Forbear thy fear,
son of Peleus! Lo, thy gods appear!
Behold! from Jove descending to thy aid.
Propitious Neptune, and the blue-eyed maid.
Stay, and the furious flood shall cease to rave,
'Tis not thy fate to glut his angry %vave.
But thou, the counsel heaven suggests, attend!
Nor breathe from combat, nor thy sword suspend,
Till Troy receive her flying sons, till all
Her routed squadrons pant behind their wall:
Hector alone shall stand his fatal chance,
And Hector's blood shall smoke upon thy lance.
Thine is the glory doom'd." Thus spake the gods:
Then swift as(;en(ied to the bright abotles.
Stung with new ardor, thus by heaven impell'd.
He springs impetuous, and invades tlie field:
O'er all the expanded plain the waters spread;
Heaved on the bounding billows danced the dead.
Floating 'midst scatter'd arms; while casques of gold
And turn'(l-u[) bucklers glitter'd as they roll'd.
High o'er the surging tide, by leaps and bounds,
lie wades, and mounts; the parted wave resounds.
Not a whole river stnjjs the hciivt's course,
While Pallas fills him with iiuniorlal f<jrce.
With equal rage, indignant Xanthus roars.
And lifts his billows, and o'orwhelms his shores.
'I'hen thus to Siniois: "Haste, my brother flood;
And check this mortal that controls a god;
Our bravest heroes else shall (piit the fight,
470 THE ILIAV.
And Ilion tumble from her towery height.
Call then thy subject streams, and bid them roar,
From all thy fountains swell thy watery store,
With broken rocks, and with a load of dead,
Charge the black surge, and pour it on his head.
Mark how resistless through the floods he goes,
And boldly bids the warring gods be foes!
But nor that force, nor form divine to sight.
Shall aught avail him, if our rage unite:
Whelm 'd under our dark gulfs those arms shall lie,
That blaze so dreadful in each Trojan eye;
And deep beneath a sandy mountain hurl'd.
Immersed remain this terror of the world.
Such ponderous ruin shall confound the place,
No Greeks shall e'er his perish'd relics grace.
No hand his bones shall gather, or inhume;
These his cold rites, and this his Avatery tomb."
He said; and on the chief descends amain,
Increased with gore, and swelling with the slain.
Then, murmuring from his beds, he boils, he raves,
And a foam whitens on the purjile waves:
At every step, before Achilles stood
The crimson surge, and deluged him with blood.
Fear touch'd the queen of heaven: she saw dismay'd.
She call'd aloud, and summon'd Vulcan's aid.
"Rise to the war! the insulting flood requires
Thy wasteful arm! assemble all tliy fires!
While to their aid, by our command enjoin'd.
Rush the swift eastern and the western wind:
These from old ocean at my word shall blow.
Pour the red torrent on the watery foe.
Corses and arms to one bright ruin turn.
And hissing rivers to their bottoms burn.
Co, mighty in thy rage! display thy power,
Drink the whole flood, the crackling trees devour.
Scorch all the banks! and (till our voice reclaim)
Exert the unwearied furies of the flame!"
The power ignipotont her word obeys:
Wide o'er the plain he pours the boundless blaze;
At once consumes the dead, and dries the soil
And the shrunk waters in their channel boil.
As when autumnal Boreas sweeps the sky,
And instant blows the water'd gardens dry:
So look'd the field, so whiten'd was tlie ground,
Wiiile Vulcan breathed the fiery blast around.
THE ILIAD. 471
Swift on the sedgy reeds the ruiu preys;
Along the margin winds the running blaze.
The trees in tianiing r<iws to ashes turn,
The flowering lotos and the tamarisk burn,
liroad elm, and cypress rising in a spire;
The watery Avillows hiss before the fire.
Xow glow the waves, the fishes pant for breath,
Tlie eels lie twisting in the pangs of death:
Now flounce aloft, now dive the scaly fry.
Or, gasping, turn their bellies to the sky.
At lengtii the river rear'd his languid head,
And thus, short-panting, to the god lie said:
"Oh Vulcan I oh! what power resists thy might?
I faint, I sink, unequal to the fight
I yield Let Ilion fall; if fate decree-
Ah beml no more thy fiery arms on mel"
He ceased; wide conflagration blazing round;
The bubbling waters yield a hissing sound.
As when the flames beneatli a cauldron rise,*
To melt the fat of some rich sacrifice.
Amid the fierce embrace of circling fires
The waters foam, the heavy smoke aspires:
So boils the imprison'd flood, forbid to flow,
And choked with vapors feels his bottom glow.
To Juno then, imperial queen of air.
The burning river sends his earnest prayer:
*'Ah why, Saturnia; must thy son engage
Me, only me, witli all his wasteful rage?
On other gods his dreadful arm employ,
For mightier gods assert the cause of Troy.
Submissive I desist, if thou command;
Hut ah I withdraw this all-destroying hand,
ifear then my solemn oath, to yield to fate
ITnaidcd Ilion, and her destined state.
Till Greece shall gird her with destructive flame
And in one ruin sink the 'i'rojan name."
His warm entreaty tou(;hM Satiirnia's ear:
She bade the ignipotent his rage forbear.
Recall the flame, nor in n mortal cause
• Jienefith a rtililron.
" S<i, wlieii with crackling llnrnuH u caldron fries,
The bubbling,' waterH from tlie bottom rise.
Above till" briniM they forri? tb<'ir (icry way:
Black vapors climb aloft, and cloud tlic day."
— Dryden'M Virgil, vii. Oil.
472 THE ILTAD.
Infest a god: the obedient flame withdraws:
Again the branching streams begin to spread,
And soft remurmnr in their wonted bed.
While these by Juno's will the strife resign,
The warring gods in fierce contention join:
Rekindling rage each heavenly breast alarms:
With horrid clangor shock the ethereal arms:
Heaven in loud thunder bids the trumpet sound;
And wide beneath them groans the rending ground.
Jove, as his sport, the dreadful scene descries.
And views contending gods with careless eyes.
The power of battles lifts his brazen spear,
And first assaults the radiant queen of war:
"What moved thy madness, thus to disunite
Ethereal minds, and mix all heaven in fight?
What wonder this, when in thy frantic mood
Thou drovest a mortal to insult a god?
Thy imjjious hand Tydides' javelin bore.
And madly bathed it in celestial gore."
He spoke, and smote the long resounding shield,
Which bears Jove's thunder on its dreadful field:
The adamantine asgis of her sire.
That turns the glancing bolt and forked fire.
Then heaved the goddess in her mighty hand
A stone, the limit of the neighboring land,
There fix'd from eldest times; black, craggy, vast;
This at the heavenly homicide she cast.
Thundering he falls, a mass of monstrous size:
And seven broad acres covers as he lies.
The stunning stroke his stubborn nerves unbound:
Loud o'er the fields his ringing arms resound:
The scornful dame her conquest views with smiles.
And, glorying, thus the prostrate god reviles:
"Hast thou not yet, insatiate fury! known
How far Minerva's force transcends thy own?
Juno, whom thou rebellious darest withstand.
Corrects thy folly thus by Pallas' hand;
Thus meets thy broken faith with just disgrace,
And partial aid to Troy's perfidious race."
The goddess spoke, and turn'd her eyes away.
That, beaming round, diffused celestial day.
Jove's Cyprian daughter, stooping on the land.
Lent to the wounded god her tender hand:
Slowly he rises, scarcely breathes with jiain.
And, j)i'opp'd on her fair arm, forsakes the plain.
THE ILIAD. 473
This the bright empress of the heavens survey'd,
And, scoflBng, thus to war's victorious maid:
"Lo! what an aid on Mars' side is seen!
The smiles' and loves' unconquerable queen!
Mark with what insolence, in ojien view.
She moves: let Pallas, if she dares, pursue."
Minerva smiling heard, the pair o'ertook,
And slightly on her breast the wanton strook:
She, unresisting, fell (her spirits fled);
On earth together lay the lovers spread.
"And like these heroes be the fate of all
(Minerva cries) who guard the Trojan wall!
To Grecian gods such let the Phrygian be,
So dread, so fierce, as Venus is to me;
Then from the loM'est stone shall Troy be moved."
Thus she, and Juno with a smile approved.
Meantime, to mix in more than mortal fight,
The god of ocean dares the god of light.
"What sloth has seized us, when the fields around
Eing with conflicting powers, and heaven returns the
sound?
Shall, ignominious, we with shame retire,
No deed perform'd, to our Olympian sire?
Come, prove thy arm! for first the war to wage,
Suits not my greatness, or superior age:
Rash as thou art to prop the Trojan throne
(Forgetful of my wrongs, and of thy own),
And guard the race of proud Laomedon!
Hast thou forgot, how, at the monarch's prayer.
We shared the lengthen'd labors of a year?
Troy walls I raised (for such were Jove's commands).
And yon proud bulwarks grew beneath my hands:
'J'hy task it was to feed the bellowing droves
Along fair Ida's vales and pendant groves.
Hut when tiie circling seasons in their train
lirought back the gi'atcful day that crown'd our pain.
With menace stern the frauilliil king ilelie<l
<Jur latent godhead, and the prize denied:
^Mad as he was, he threaten 'd servile Ijaiids,
And doom'd us exiles far in barbarous lands.*
* " TliiH tulf of t,li« tfmiporary scrvitiidc oT imrticiilar f,'odH, by
ordtT of .Jovf, fiH n )>iinishiiieiit for iiiislu'liavior, rcitiirs not un-
frecjuently among the JncidenlH of the Mythical world. "---Orote,
vol. i. p. 156.
474 TEE ILIAD.
Incensed, we heavenward fled with swiftest wing,
And destined vengeance on the perjured king.
Dost thou, for this, aiiord proud Ilion grace.
And not, like us, infest the faithless race;
Like us, their present, future sons destroy,
And from its deep foundations heave their Troy?"
Apollo thus: "To combat for mankind
111 suits the wisdom of celestial mind;
For what is man? Calamitous by birth,
They owe their life and nourishment to earth;
Like yearly leaves, that now, with beauty crowii'd,
Smile on the sun; now, wither on tiie ground.
To their own hands commit the frantic scene,
Nor mix immortals in a cause so mean."
Then turns his face, far-beaming heavenly fires,
And from the senior power submiss retires:
Him thus retreating, Artemis upbraids.
The quiver'd huntress of the sylvan shades:
"And is it thus the youthful Phoebus flies,
And yields to ocean's hoary sire the prize?
How vain that martial jjomp, and dreadful show
Of pointed arrows and the silver bow!
Now boast no more in yon celestial bower.
Thy force can match the great earth-shaking power."
Silent he heard the queen of woods upbraid:
Not so Saturnia bore the vaunting maid;
But furious thus: "What insolence has driven
Thy pride to face the majesty of heaven?
What though by Jove the female plague design'd,
Fierce to tiie feeble race of womankind.
The wretched matron feels thy piercing dart;
Thy sex's tyrant, with a tiger's heart?
What though tremeiulous in the woodland chase
Thy certain arrows pierce the savage race?
How dares thy rashness on the powers divine
Employ those arms, or match thy force with mine?
Learn hence, no more unequal war to wage — "
She said, and seized her wrists with eager rage;
These in her left hand lock'd, her I'ight untied
The bow, the quiver, and its plumy pride.
About her temples flies the busy bow;
Now here, now there, she winds lier from the blow;
The scattering arrows, rattling from the case,
Drop round, and idly mark the dusty ])lace.
Swift from the flekl the baffled huntress flies.
THE ILIAD. 475
And scarce restrains the torrent in her eyes:
So, when tlie falcon wings her way above,
To the cleft cavern spee(1s the gentle dove
(Not fated yet to die); there safe retreats,
Yet still her heart against the marble beats.
To her Latona hastes with tender care;
Whom Hermes viewing, thus declines the war:
"How shall I face the dame, who gives delight
To him whose thunders bhicken heaven with night?
Go, matchless goddess! triumph in the skies,
And boast my conquest, while I yield the prize."
He spoke; and pass'd; Latona, stooping low.
Collects the scatter'd shafts and fallen bow,
That, glittering on the dust, lay here and there
Dishonor'd relics of Diana's war:
Then swift pursued her to her blest abode.
Where, all confused, she sought the sovereign god;
Weeping, she grasp'd his knees: the ambrosial vest
Shook with her sighs, and panted on her breast.
The sire superior smiled, and bade her show
What heavenly hand liad caused his daughter's woe?
Abash'd, she names his own imperial spouse;
And the pale crescent fades upon her brows.
Thus they above: while, swiftly gliding down,
Apollo enters Ilion's sacred town;
The guardian-god now trembled for her wall.
And fear'd the Greeks, though fate forbade her fall.
Back to Olympus, from the war's alarms,
Return the shining bands oi gods in arms;
Some prouil in triumph, sonio with rage on fire;
And take their thrones around the ethereal sire.
Through blood, through death, Achilles still pro-
coeds,
O'er slaughter'd heroes, and o'er rolling steeds.
As when avenging (lames with fury driven
On guilty towns exert tlio wrath of heaven;
The pale inhabitants, some fall, some lly;
And the red vapors piirpUs all the sky:
So ragf'd Achilles: death and dire dism;iv,
And toils, and terrors, ilU'd tiio dreadful day.
High on a turret hoary Priam stands.
And marks the wasto of his destructive hands;
Views, from his arm, tin; Trojiins' scatter'd ilight,
And the near iicro rising on his sight!
N'o stop, no check, no aid! With feeble pace.
4^6 THE ILIAD.
And settled sorrow on his aged face,
Fast as he could, he sighing quits the walls;
And thus descending, on the guards he calls:
"You to whose care our city-gates belong,
Set wide your portals to the flying throng:
For lo! he comes, with unresisted sway;
He conies, and desolation marks his way!
But when within the walls our troops take breath,
Lock fast the brazen bars, and shut out death."
Thus charged the reverend monarch: wide were flung
The opening folds; the sounding hinges rung.
Phoebus rush'd forth, the flying bands to meet;
Struck slaughter back, and cover'd the retreat, •
On heaps the Trojans crowd to gain the gate.
And gladsome see their last escape from fate.
Thither, all parch'd with thirst, a heartless train,
Hoary with dust, they beat the hollow plain:
And gasping, panting, fainting, labor on
With heavier strides, that lengthen toward the town.
Enraged Achilles follows with his spear;
Wild with revenge, insatiable of war.
Then had the Greeks eternal praise acquired,
And Troy inglorious to her walls retired;
But he, the god who darts ethereal flame,
Shot down to save her, and redeem her fame:
To young Agenor force divine he gave
(Antenor's offspring, haughty, bold, and brave)
In aid of him, beside the beech he sate,
And wrapt in clouds, restrain'd the hand of fate.
When now the generous youth Achilles spies,
Thick beats his heart, the troubled motions rise.
(So, ere a storm, the waters heave and roll.)
He stops, and questions tiius his mighty soul:
"What, shall I fly this terror of the plain!
Like others fly, and be like others slain?
Vain hope! to shun him by the self-same road
Yon line of slaughter'd Trojans lately trod.
No: with the common heap I scorn to fall —
What if they pass'd me to the 'J'rojan wall,
While I decline to yonder path, that leads
To Ida's forest and surrounding shades?
So may I reach, conceal'd, the cooling flood,
From my tired body wash the dirt and blood,
As soon as night her dusky veil extends,
Keturn in safety to my Trojan friends.
THE ILIAD. 477
What if? But wherefore all this vain dehate?
Stand I to doubt, within the reacli of fate?
Even now perhaps, ere yet I turn the wall,
The fierce Achilles sees me, and I fall:
Such is his swiftness, 'tis in vain to fl}'.
And such his valor, that who stands must die.
Howe'er 'tis better, fighting for the state.
Here, and in public view, to meet my fate.
Yet sure he too is mortal; he may feel
(Like all the sons of earth) the force of steel.
One only soul informs that dreadful frame:
And Jove's sole favor gives him all his fame."
He said, and stood, collected, in his might;
And all his beating bosom claim'd tlio fight.
So from some deep-grown wood a panther starts,
Eoused from his thicket by a storm of darts:
Untaught to fear or fly, he hears the sounds
Of shouting hunters, and of clamorous hounds;
Though struck, though wounded, scarce perceives the
pain.
And the barb'd javelin stings his breast in vain:
On their whole war, untamed, the savage flies;
And tears his hunter, or beneath him dies.
Not less resolved, Antenor's valiant heir
Confronts Achilles, and awaits the war,
Disdainful of retreat: high hold l)cfore,
His shicdd (a broad circumference) he bore;
Then gr;iceful as he stood, in act to throw
The lifted javelin, thus bespoke the foe:
"How proud Achilles ghtries in his fame!
Ami hopes this day to sink the Trojan name
HiMieath iier ruins! Know, that hojje is vain;
A thousand woes, a thousand toils remain.
i';ironts and children our just arms em[)loy,
And strong and many arc the sons of Troy,
(ireat as thou art, even thou may 'at stain with gore
These IMirygian fields, and press a foreign shore."
Ho saiil: with maloliless force, the javelin flung
Smote oji his knee; the hollow cuishes rung
I'tMieath the pointed steel; but safe from harms
He stands impassive in the otliereal arms.
Then fiercely rushing on the daring foe,
His lifted arm prepares the fatal bhjw:
But, je;iloiis of liis fame, Apollo slirouds
The godlike Trojan in a veil <tf clouds.
478 THE ILIAD.
Safe from pursnit, and shut from mortal view,
Dismiss'd with fame, the favor'd yonth withdrew.
Meanwhile the god, to cover their escape,
Assumes Agenor's habit, voice and shape,
Flies from the furious chief in this disguise;
The furious chief still follows where he flies.
Now o'er the fields they stretch with lengthen'd strides,
Now urge the course where swift Scamander glides:
The god, now distant scarce a stride before,
Tempts his pursuit, and wheels about the shore;
While all the flying troops their speed employ,
Aud pour on heaps into the walls of Troy:
No stop, no stay; no thought to ask, or tell,
AVho 'scaped by flight, or who by battle fell.
'Twas tumult all, and violence of flight;
And sudden joy confused, and niix'd affright.
Pale Troy against Achilles shuts her gate:
And nations breathe, deliver'd from their fate.
THE ILIAD. 479
BOOK XXII.
ARGUMENT.
THE DEATH OF HECTOR.
The Trojans being safe within the walls, Hector only stays to
oppose Achilles. Priam is struck at his approach, and tries
to persuade his son to re-enter the town. Hecuba joins her
entreaties, but in vain. Hector consults within himself
what measures to take; but at the advance of Achilles, his
resolution fails him, and he tlies. Achilles pursues him
thrice round the walls of Troy. The gods debate concern-
ing the fate of Hector; at length Minerva descends to
the aid of Achilles. She deludes Hector in the shape of
Deiphobus; he stands the combat, and is slain. Achilles
drags the dead body at his chariot in the sight of Priam and
Hecuba. Their lamentations, tears and despair. Their cries
reach the ears of Andromache, who, ignorant of this, was re-
tired into the inner part of the palace: she mounts up to the
walls and beholds her dead Imsband. She swoons at the
spectacle. Her excess of grief and lamentation.
The thirtieth day still continues. The scene lies under the
walls, and on the battlements of Troy.
Thl'S to their bulwarks, sinit with panic fear,
The lienlod Iliaiis rush like driven deer:
There safe they wipe the briny dmpa away,
And drown jn bowl.s the hibors of the day.
Close to the walls, a<Ivanriii^' o'er tlu* Holds
Beneath one roof of wcll-roinpactcid shiehls,
March, bending on, the (Jreoks' embodied powers,
Far atrot.fhin;^ in the shade of Trojan towers.
Great Hector sinpjly .st:iy'd : chainM down by fate,
There fix'd he stood before the Sca-an ^^ato;"
Still his bold arms d(!f (MTiiincfl t i employ,
The (,'iiardian still of lon^^-defendcd Troy.
,\p<iiio now to tired Acbillos turns
(The power confnssM in all his |,'lory burns):
",\.nd what (he cries) has IVdous' H<»n iti view,
Willi mortal s|)f'e<i a godhead to jiursuc?
For not to thee to know the gods is given,
480 THE ILIAD.
Unskill'd to trace the latent marks of heaven.
What boots thee now, tliat Troy forsook the plain?
Vain thy past labor, and thy present vain:
Safe in their walls are now her troops bestow'd,
While here thy frantic rage attacks a god."
The chief incensed — "Too partial god of day!
To check my conquests in tlie middle way:
How few in Ilion else had refuge found!
What gasping numbers now had bit the ground!
Thou robb'st me of a glory justly mine,
Powerful of godhead, and of fraud divine:
Mean fame, alas! for one of heavenly strain,
To cheat a mortal who repines in vain."
Then to the city, terrible and strong,
With high and haughty steps he tower'd along,
So the proud courser, victor of the prize,
To the near goal with double ardor flies.
Him, as he blazing shot across the field,
The careful eyes of Priam first beheld.
Not half so dreadful rises to the sight,*
Through the thick gloom of some tempestuous night,
Orion's dog (the year when autumn weighs),
And o'er the feebler stars exerts his rays;
Terrific glory! for his burning breath
Taints the red air with fevers, plagues, and death.
So flamed his fiery mail. Then wept the sage:
He strikes his reverend head, now white with age;
He lifts his wither'd arms; obtests the skies;
He calls his much-loved son with feeble cries:
The son, resolved Achilles' force to dare,
Full at the Scasan gates expects the war;
While the sad father on the rampart stands,
And thus adjures him with extended hands:
"Ah stay not, stay not! guardless and alone;
Hector! my loved, my dearest, bravest son!
Methinks already I behold thee slain,
And stretch'd beneath that fury of the plain.
Implacable Achilles! might'st thou be
* Not half so dreadful.
" On the other side,
Incensed with indignation, Satan stood
Unterrified, and like a cotnet burn'd,
That fires the length of Ophiuchus huge
In the arctic sky, and from Ijis horrid hair
Shakes pestilence and war."
— " Paradise Lost," xi. 708.
THE ILIAD. 481
To all the gods no dearer than to me!
Thee, vultures wild should scatter round the shore,
And bloody dogs grow fiercer from thy gore.
TIow many valiant sons I late enjoy'd,
Valiant in vain! by thy cursed arm destroy'd:
Or, worse tban slaughter'd, sold in distant isles
To shameful bondage, and unworthy toils.
Two, while I speak, my eyes in vain explore,
Two from one mother sprung, my Polydore,
And loved Lycaon; now perhaps no more!
Oh! if in yonder hostile camp they live,
What heaps of gold, what treasures would I give!
(Their grandsire's wealth, by right of birth their own,
Consign'd his daughter with Lelegia's throne.)
But if (which Heaven forbid) already lost,
All pale they wander on the Stygian coast;
What sorrows then must their sad mother know,
What anguish 1? unutterable woe!
Yet less that anguish, less to her, to me.
Less to all Troy, if not deprived of thee.
Yet shun Achilles! enter yet the wall;
And spare thyself, thy father, spare us all!
Save thy dear life; or, if a soul so brave
Neglect that thought, thy dearer glory save.
Pity, while yet I live, these silver hairs;
While yet thy father feels the woes he bears.
Yet cursed witii sense! a wretch, whom in his rage
(All trembling on the verge of helpless ago)
Great Jove has placed, sad spectacle of pain!
The bitter dregs of fortune's cu]) to drain:
To nil with scenes of deatli his closing eyes.
And number all his days by miseries!
My heroes slain, my bridal bed o'erturn'd,
My daughters ravish'd, and my city burn'd,
My ble(!ding infants dash'd against the Jloor;
Tiiese I have yet to see, jierhaps yet morel
Perhaps even I, reserved by angry fate,
The last sad relic of my ruin'd stale,
(Dire pomp of sovereign wrotchodiicss!) must fall,
And stain tluf paveinejit of my regal hall;
Where fninisli'd dogn, late guardians (if my docir,
Shall lick their mangled maslor's Hpaller'd gore.
Vet for my «on8 I thank ye, gofjs! tia well;
Well have tliey porisliM, for in light they fell.
Who dies in youth and vigor, dies the best,
483 THE ILIAD.
Struck throngh with wounds, all honest on the breast.
But when the fates, in fullness of their rage,
Spurn the hoar head of unresisting age,
In dust the reverend lineaments deform,
And pour to dogs the life-blood scarcely warm:
This, this is misery! the last, the worst.
That man can feel! man, fated to be cursed!"
He said, and acting what no words could say,
Eent from his head the silver locks away.
With him the mournful mother bears a dart;
Yet all her sorrows turn not Hector's heart.
The zone unbraced, her bosom she display'd;
And thus, fast-falling the salt tears, she said:
"Have mercy on me, my son! revere
The words of age; attend a parent's prayer!
If ever thee in these fond arms I press'd.
Or still'd thy infant clamors at this breast;
Ah do not thus our helpless years forego,
But, by our walls secured, repel the foe.
Against his rage if singly thou proceed,
Should'st thou (but Heaven avert it!) should 'st thou
bleed.
Nor must thy corse lie honored on the bier,
Nor spouse, nor mother, grace thee with a tear!
Far from our pious rites those dear remains
Must feast the vultures on the naked plains."
So they, while down their cheeks the torrents roll;
But fix'd remains the purpose of his soul;
Eesolved he stands, and with a fiery glance
Expects the hero's terrible advance.
So, roll'd up in his den, the swelling snake
Beholds the traveller approach the brake;
When fed with noxious herbs his turgid veins
Have gather'd half the poisons of the plains;
He burns, he stiffens with collected ire,
And his red eyeballs glare with living fire.
Beneath a turret, on his shield reclined.
He stood, and question'd thus his mighty mind *
"Where lies my way? to enter in the wall?
Honor and shame the ungenerous thought recall:
Shall proud Polydamas before the gate
Proclaim, his counsels are obeyed too late.
Which timely follow'd but the former night,
* "And thus his own undaunted mind explores." — " Paradise
Lost," vi. 113.
THE ILIAD. 483
What numbers had beeu saved b}' Hector's flight?
That wise advice rejected with disdain,
I feel my folly in my people slain.
Methiuks my suffering country's voice I hear,'
But most her worthless sons insult my ear,
On my rash courage charge the chance of war,
And blame those virtues which they cannot share.
No if I e'er return, return I must
Glorious, my country's terror laid in dust:
Or if I perish, let her see me fall
In field at least, and fighting for her wall.
And yet sappose these measures I forego.
Approach unarm'd, and parley with the foe,
The warrior-shield, the helm, and lance, lay down.
And treat on terms of peace to save the town:
The wife withheld, the treasure ill-(]etain'd
(Cause of the war, and grievance of the land)
With honorable justice to restore:
And add half Ilion's yet remaining store.
Which Troy shall, sworn, produce; that injured Greece
May share our wealth, and leave our walls in peace.
But why this thouglit? Unarm'd if I should go.
What hope of mercy from this vengeful foe.
But woman-like to fall, and fall without a blow?
We greet not here, as man conversing man,
Met at an oak, or journeying o'er a plain;
No season now for calm familiar talk.
Like youths and maidens in an evening walk:
War is our business, but to whom is given
To die, or triumph, that, determine Heaven!"
Thus pondering, like a god the Greek drew nigh;
His dreailful plumage nodded from on high;
The Pulian javelin, in his better hand,
Shot trembling rays that glitter'd o'er the land;
And on his breast the beamy splendor shone.
Like Jove's own ligbtning, o'er the rising sun.
As Hector sees, unusual terrors rise,
Struck by some god, ho fears, recedes, and flies.
He leaves the gates, he loaves the wall beliind:
Achilles follows like the winged wind.
Thus at the panting dove a falcon flies
(The swiftest racer of the lifjuid skies),
Just when he holds, or thinks he holds his prey,
Obliquely wheeling through the aerial way,
With open beak and shrilling cries he springs,
484 THE ILIAD.
A.ud aims his claws, and shoots upon his wings:
No less fore-right the rapid chase they held,
One urged by fury, one by fear impell'd :
Now circling round the walls their course maintain,
Where the high watch-tower overlooks the plain;
Now where the tig-trees spread their umbrage broad,
(A wider compass), smoke along the road.
Next by Scamander's double soiirce they bound,
Where two famed fountains burst the parted ground;
This hot through scorching clefts is seen to rise,
With exhalations streaming to the skies;
That the green banks in summer's heat o'erflows,
Like crystal clear, and cold as winter snows:
Each gushing fount a marble cistern fills,
Wliose polish 'd bed receives the falling rills;
Where Trojan dames (ere yet alarm'd by Greece)
Wasb'd their fair garments in the days of peace.*
By these they pass'd, one chasing, one in flight
-WThe mighty fled, pursued by stronger might):
Swift was the course; no vulgar prize they play,
No vulgar victim must reward the day
(Such as in races crown the speedy strife):
The prize contended was great Hector's life.
As when some hero's funerals are decreed
In grateful honor of the mighty dead;
Where high rewards the vigorous youth inflame
(Some golden tripod, or some lovely dame)
The panting coursers swiftly turn the goal,
And with them turns the raised spectator's soul:
Thus three times round the Trojan wall they fly.
The gazing gods lean forward from the sky;
To whom, while eager on the chase they look,
The sire of mortals and immortals spoke:
"Unworthy sight! the man beloved of heaven,
Behold, inglorious round yon city driven!
My heart partakes the generous Hector's pain;
Hector, whose zeal whole hecatombs has slain,
Whose grateful fumes the gods received with joy.
From Ida's summits, an:l the towers of Troy:
Now see him flying; to his fears resign'd,
And fate, and fierce Achilles, close behind.
* The example of Nausicaa, in the Odyssey, proves tbat the
duties of the laundry were not thought derogatory, even from
the dignity of a princess, in the heroic times.
TEE ILIAD. 485
Consult, ye powers I ('tis worthy your debate)
Whether to snatch him from impending fate,
Or let him bear, bj stern Pelides slain
(Good as he is), the lot imposed on man."
Then Pallas thus: ''Shall he whose vengeance forms
The forky bolt, and blackens heaven with storms,
Shall he prolong one Trojan's forfeit breath?
A man, a mortal, pre-ordain'd to death!
And will no murnuirs fill the courts above?
No gods indignant blame their partial Jove?"
"Go then (return'd the sire) without delay,
Exert thy will: I give the Fates their way.
Swift at the mandate pleased Tritonia flies,
And stoops impetuous from the cleaving skies.
As through the forest, o'er the vale and lawn,
The well-breath'd beagle drives the flying fawn,
In vain he tries the covert of the brakes,
Or deep beneath tlie trembling thicket shakes;
Sure of the vapor in tlie tainted dews,
The certain hound his various maze pursues.
Thus step by step, where'er the Trojan wheel'd.
There swift Achilles compass'd round the held.
Oft as to reach the Dardan gates he bends.
And hopes the assistance of his pitying friends
(Whose showering arrows, as he coursed below,
From the high turrets might oppress the foe),
So oft Achilles turns him to the plain:
He eyes tiie city, but he eyes in vain.
As men in slumbers seem with speedy pace.
One to pursue, aiid one to lead the chase,
Their sinking limbs the fancied course forsake,
Nor this can fly, nor that can overtake;
No less the laboring heroes pant and strain:
While that but flies, and this ])ursues in vain.
What god, O Muse, assisted Hector's force
With fate itself so long to hold the course?
I'ho'lnis it was; who, in his latest hour.
Endued liis knees with strength, his nerves with power.
And great Achilles, l(;.st some (Jrijek's advance
Should snatch the glory from his lifted lance,
Sign'd to the troops to yield his foe the way,
And leave untouch'd the honors of the day.
•Jovo lifts the golden balances, that show
The fates of mortal men, ami things below:
Hero each contending hero's lot he tries,
486 THE ILIAD.
And weighs, with equal hand, their destinies.
Low sinks the scale surcharged with Hector's fate;
Heavy with death it sinks, and hell receives the weight.
Then Phcebus left him. Fierce Minerva flies
To stern Pelides, and triumphing, cries:
"0 loved of Jove! this day our labors cease.
And conquest blazes with full beams on Greece.
Great Hector falls; that Hector famed so far,
Drunk with renown, insatiable of war,
Falls by thy hand, and mine! nor force, nor flight,
Shall more avail him, nor his god of light.
See, where in vain he supplicates above,
Eoird at the feet of unrelenting Jove;
Eest here: myself will lead the Trojan on,
And urge to meet the fate he cannot shun."
Her voice divine the chief with joyful mind
Obey'd; and rested, on his lance reclined.
While like Deiphobus the martial dame
(Her face, her gesture, and her arms the same),
In show and aid, by hapless Hector's side
Approach'd, and greets him thus with voice belied:
"Too long, Hector! have I borne the sight
Of this distress, and sorrow'd in thy flight:
It fits us now a noble stand to make,
And here, as brothers, equal fates partake."
Then he: "0 prince! allied in blood and fame,
Dearer than all that own a brother's name;
Of all that Hecuba to Priam bore.
Long tried, long loved : much loved, but honor'd more
Since you, of all our numerous race alone
Defend my life, regardless of your own."
Again the goddess: "Much my father's prayer,
And much my mother's, press'd me to forbear:
My friends embraced my knees, adjured my stay,
But stronger love impell'd, and I obey.
Come then, the glorious conflict let us try,
Let the steel sparkle, and the javelin fly;
Or let us stretch Achilles on the field.
Or to his arm our bloody trophies yield."
Fraudful she said; then swiftly march'd before:
The Dardan hero shuns his foe no more.
Sternly they met. The silence Hector broke:
His dreadful plumage nodded as he spoke;
"Enough, son of Peleus! Troy has view'd
Her walls thrice circled, and her chief pursued.
THE ILIAD. 487
But now some god within me bids me try
Tiiine, or my fate: I kill thee, or 1 die.
Yet on the verge of buttle let us stay,
And for a moment's space suspend the day;
Let Heaven's high powers be call'd to arbitrate
The just conditions of this stern debate
(Eternal witnesses of all below.
And faithful guardians of the treasured vow)!
To them I swear; if, victor in the strife,
Jove by these hands shall slied thy noble life,
No vile dishonor shall thy corse pursue;
Stripp'd of its arms alone (the conqueror's due)
The rest to Greece uninjured I'll restore:
Now plight thy mutual oath, I ask no more."
"Talk not of oaths (the dreadful chief replies,
While anger flash'd from his disdainful eyes).
Detested as thou art, and ought to. be,
Nor oath nor pact Achilles plights with thee:
Such pacts as iambs and rabid wolves combine,
Such leagues as men and furious lions join.
To such I call the gods! one constant state
Of lasting rancor and eternal hate:
No thought but rage, and never-ceasing strife.
Till death extinguish rage, and thought, and life.
Rouse then my forces this important hour,
Collect thy soul, and call forth all thy i)o\ver.
No further subterfuge, no further chance;
'Tis Pallas, Pallas gives thee to my lance.
Each Grecian ghost, by tluu; deprived of breath,
Now hovers round, and calls thee to thy death."
lie spoke, and launch'd his javelin at the foe;
Hut Hector shunn'd the meditated blow:
He stoop'd, while o'er liis head the Hying spear
Sang innocent, ami s|w!nt its force in air.
Minerva watchM it falling on the land.
Then drew, and gave to great Ai-hilles' hand,
Unseen of lIe<;lor, who, elate with joy,
Now shakes his lance, and braves the dread of Troy.
"The life you boasted to that javelin given,
I'rinco! you have miss'd. .My fato difpcMids on IK-aven.
To thee, prcsum[)tuou8 as thou art, unknown,
Or what must prove my fortune, or thy own.
Hoasting is but an art, our fnurs to blind,
And with false terrors sink another's mind.
But know, whatever fate I am to try,
488 THE ILIAD.
By no dishonest wound shall Hector die.
I shall not fall a fugitive at least,
My soul shall bravely issue from my breast.
But first, try thou my arm; and may this dart
End all my country's woes, deep buried m thy heart.'
The weapon flew, its course unerring held,
Unerring, but the heavenly shield repell'd
The mortal dart; resulting with a bound
From off the ringing orb it struck the ground.
Hector beheld his javelin fall in vain,
Nor other lance, nor other hope remain;
He calls DeTphobus, demands a spear — •
In vain, for no Deiphobus was there.
All comfortless he stands: theu, with a sigh:
" 'Tis so — Heaven wills it, and my hour is nigh!
I deem'd Deiphobus had heard my call,
But he secure lies guarded in the wall.
A god deceived me; Pallas, 'twas thy deed.
Death and black fate approach! 'tis I must bleed.
No refuge now, no succor from above.
Great Jove deserts me, and the sou of Jove,
Propitious once, and kind! Then welcome fate!
'Tis true I perish, yet I perish great:
Yet in a mighty deed I shall expire,
Let future ages hear it, and admire!"
Fierce, at the word, his weighty sword he drew,
And, all collected, on Achilles flew.
So Jove's bold bird, high balanced in the air,
Stoops from the clouds to truss the quivering hare.
Nor less Acliilles his fierce soul prepares:
Before his breast the flaming shield he bears.
Eefulgent orb! above his fourfold cone
The gilded horse-hair sparkled in the sun.
Nodding at every step (Vulcanian frame!):
And as he moved, his figure seem'd on flame.
As radiant Hesper shines with keener light,*
Far-beaming o'er the silver host of night.
When all the starry train emblaze the sphere:
So shone the point of great Achilles' spear.
In his right hand he waves the weapon round,
Eyes the whole man, and meditates the wound;
* Hesper shines with keener light.
" Fairest of stars, last in the train of night.
If better thou belong not to the dawn."
—"Paradise Lost," v, 160.
THE ILIAD. 489
But the rich mail Patroclns lately wore
Secnrelv cased the warrior's bodv o'er.
One space at length he spies, to let in fate,
Where 'twixt the neck and throat the jointed plate
Gave entrance: through that penetrable part
Furious he drove the well-directed dart:
Nor pierced the windpipe yet, nor took the power
Of speech, unhappy! from thy dying hour.
Prone on the field the bleeding warrior lies,
While, thus triumphing, stern Achilles cries:
"At last is Hector stretch d upon the plain.
Who fear'd no vengeance for Patroclus slain:
Then, prince! you should have fear'd what now you
feel;
Achilles absent was Achilles still:
Yet a short space the great avenger stayed,
Then low in dust thy strength and glory laid.
Peaceful he sleeps, with all our rites adorn'd.
Forever honor'd, and forever mourn'd:
While cast to all the rage of hostile power.
Thee birds shall mangle, and the gods devour."
Then Hector, fainting at the approacii of death:
**I3y thy own soul! by those who gave thee breath!
By all the sacred prevalence of prayer;
Ah, leave me not for Grecian dogs to tear!
The common rites of sepulture bestow.
To soothe a father's ami a mother's woe:
Lot their large gifts })rocure an urn at least,
And Hector's ashes in his country rest."
"No, wretch accursed! relentless he replies
(Flamesi, as he spoke, shot flashing from his eyes);
Not those wiirj gave me bieatii should hid mo spare.
Nor all the sacred prevalence of prayer.
Gould I myself the bloody han(|uet join!
No — to the rlogs that carcase 1 resign.
Should Troy, to bribe me, bring forth all her store,
And giving tlioMsandH, olTcr thousands more;
Should ihirdan Priam, and his we(']iing dame.
Drain their whole realm to buy one funeral llame:
Their Hector on the j)ilo they should not see,
Nor rob the vultures of oni' limb of thee."
Then thus tlie chief his dying acf:enls drew:
"Thy rage, implacable! too well 1 knew:
The Furies that relentless breast have steel'd.
And cursed thee with a lieait t bat cjumot vjejd.
490 TEE ILIAD.
Yet think, a clay will come, when fate's decree
And angry gods shall wreak this wrong on thee;
Phoebus and Paris shall avenge my fate,
And stretch thee here before the Scsean gate."*
He ceased. Tbe Fates suppress'd his laboring
breath,
And his eyes stiffen'd at the hand of death;
To the dark realm the spirit wings its way
(The manly body left a load of clay).
And plaintive glides along the dreary coast,
A naked, wandering, melancholy ghost!
Achilles, mnsing as he roll'd his eyes
O'er the dead hero, thus unheard, replies:
"Die thou the first! When Jove and heaven
I follow thee." — He said, and stripp'd the slain.
Then forcing backward from the gaping wound
The reeking javelin, cast it on the ground.
The thronging Greeks behold with wondering eyes
His manly beauty and superior size;
While some, ignobler, the great dead deface
With wounds ungenerous, or with taunts disgrace.
"How changed that Hector, who like Jove of late
Sent lightning on our fleets, and scatter'd fate!"
High o'er the slain the great Achilles stands,
Begirt with heroes and surrounding bands;
And thus aloud, while all the host attends:
"Princes and leaders! countrymen and friends!
Since now at length the powerful will of heaven
The dire destroyer to our arm has given.
Is not Troy fallen already? Haste, ye powers!
See, if already their deserted towers
Are left unmann'd; or if they yet retain
The souls of heroes, their great Hector slain.
But what is Troy, or glory what to me?
Or why reflects my mind on aught but thee,
Divine Patroclus! Death hath seal'd his eyes;
Unwept, unhonor'd, uninterr'd he lies!
* Sucli was liis fate. After chasing tbe Trojans into tlie town,
lie was slain by an arrow from the quiver of Paris, directed under
the unerring auspices of Apollo. The greatest efforts were made
by the Trojans to possess themselves of the body, which was
however rescued and borne off to the (^trecian camp by the valor
of Ajax and Ulysses. Thetis stole away the body, just as the
Greeks were about to burn it with funeral honors, and conveyed
it away to a renewed life of immortality in the isle of Leuky in
the Euxine.
THE ILIAD. 4yi
Can his dear image from my sonl depart,
Long as the vital spirit moves my heart?
If in the melanchioly shades below,
The flames of friends and lovers ceasQ to glow,
Yet mine shall sacred last; mine, undecay'd,
Burn on through death, and animate my shade.
Meanwhile, ye sons of Greece, in triumph bring,
The corpse of Hector, and your paeans sing.
Be this the song, slow-moving toward the shore,
"Ilector is dead, and llion is no more."
Then his fell soul a thought of vengeance bred
(Unworthy of himself, and of the dead);
The nervous ancles bored, his feet he bound
With thongs inserted through the double wound;
These fix'd up high behind the rolling wain,
His graceful head was trail'd along the plain.
Proud on his car the insulting victor stood.
And bore aloft his arms, distilling blood.
He smites the steeds; the rapid chariot flies;
The sudden clouds of circling dust arise.
Now lost is all that formidable air;
The face divine, and long-descending hair,
Purple the ground, and streak the sable sand;
Deform'd, dishonor'd, in his native land,
Given to the rage of an insulting throng.
And, in his parents' sight, now dragg'd alongl
The mother first beheld with sad survey;
She rent her tresses, venerable gray.
And cast, far off, the regal veils away.
With piercing shrieks his bitter fate she moans,
While the sad father answers groans with groans.
Tears after tears his mournful cheeks o'erflow,
And the whole city wears one face of woe:
No less than if the rage of hostile fires,
From her foundations curling to her spires.
O'er the proud citadel at length should rise,
And the last Iflazo send llion to the skies.
The wrotoheil nidnarch of the falling state,
J)istractod, presses to the Dardan gate.
(Scarce the whole people stop his (losjierato course,
While strong affliction gives the fdoblo force:
Grief tears liis lieart, and <lriv(;s iiim to and fro,
In all the raging impotence of W(je.
At length ho roU'd in dust, and thus begun,
Imploring all, antl naming one by one:
"Ah! lot mo, lot mo go where sorrow calls;
492 THE ILIAD.
I, only I, will issne from your walls
(Gnide or companion, friends! I ask ye none),
And bow before the murderer of my sou.
My grief perhaps his pity may engage;
Perhaps at least he may respect my age.
He has a father too; a man like me;
One, not exempt from age and misery
(Vigorous no more, as when his young embrace
Begot this pest of me, and all my race).
How many valiant sons, iu early bloom.
Has that cursed hand sent headlong to the tomb!
Thee, Hector! last: thy loss (divinely brave)
Sinks my sad soul with sorrow to the grave.
had thy gentle spirit pass'd in peace.
The son expiring in the sire's embrace,
While both thy parents wept the fatal hour,
And, bending o'er thee, mix'd the tender shower!
Some comfort that had been, some sad relief,
To melt in full satiety of grief!"
Thus wail'd the father, groveling on the ground,
And all the eyes of Ilion stream'd around.
Amidst her matrons Hecuba appears
(A mourning princess, and a train in tears);
"Ah why has Heaven prolong'd this hated breath,
Patient of horrors, to behold thy death?
Hector! late thy parents' pride and joy.
The boast of nations! the defence of Troy!
To whom her safety and her fame she owed;
Her chief, her hero, and almost her god!
fatal change! become in one sad day
A senseless corse! inanimated clay!"
But not as yet the fatal news had spread
To fair Andromache, of Hector dead;
As yet no messenger had told his fate,
Not e'en his stay without the Seaman gate.
Far in the close recesses of the dome.
Pensive she plied the melancholy loom;
A growing work employ'd her secret hours.
Confusedly gay with intermingled flowers.
Her fair-hair'd handmaids heat the brazen urn,
The bath preparing for her lord's return
In vain, alas! her lord returns no more;
Unbathed he lies, and bleeds along the shore!
Now from the walls the clamors reach her ear,
And all her members shake with sudden fear:
THE ILIAD. 493
Forth from her ivory haud the shuttle falls,
And thus, astonish'd, to her maids she calls:
"Ah follow nie! (slie cried) what plaintive noise
Invades my ear? 'Tis sure my mother's voice.
My faltering knees their trembling frame desert,
A pnlse unusual flutters at my heart;
Some strange disaster, some reverse of fate
(Ye gods avert it!) threats the Trojan state.
Far be the omen which my thoughts suggest!
But much 1 fear my Hector's dauntless breast
Confronts Achilles; chased along the plain,
Shut from our walls! I fear, I fear him slain!
Safe in the crowd he ever scorn'd to wait.
And sought for glory in the jaws of fate:
Perhaps that noble heat has cost his breath.
Now quench'd forever in the arms of death."
She spoke: and furious, with distracted pace.
Fears in her heart, and anguish in her face,
Flies tlirough the dome (the maids her steps pursue),
And mounts the walls, and sends around her view.
Too soon her eyes the killing object found.
The godlike Hector dragg'd along the ground.
A sudden darkness shades her swimming eyes:
She faints, she falls; her breath, her color flies.
Her hair's fair ornaments, the Ijiaids that bound,
The net that held tiiem, and the wreath that crown'd.
The veil and diadem flew f.ir away
.(The gift of \'enus on her bridal day).
Around a train of weeping sisters stands.
To raise her sinking with assistant hands.
Scarce from the verge (jf death recall'd, again
She faints, or but recovers to complain.
"0 wretched husband of a wretched wife!
Born with one fate, to one uniiapjiy life!
For sure one star its baneful bi-am display'd
On Priam's roof, and Hippoplacia's shade.
P'rom ditlerent parents, dilT(!rent climes wo came,
At different periods, yet our fate the same!
Why was my birtii to great Ac-tion owed.
And why was all that tender care bestow'd?
Would I had never \u>v,u\ — <) thou, the ghost
(Jf my dead husband! miscraljly lost!
Thou to tho dismal realms forever gone!
And I abandon'd, d(;Holat(?, alone!
An only child, once comfort of my pains,
Sad product now of hapless love, roniains!
494 THE ILIAD.
No more to smile upon his sire; no friend
To help him now! no father to defend!
For should he 'scape the sword, the common doom,
What wrongs attend him, and what griefs to come!
Even from his own paternal roof expell'd.
Some stranger ploughs his patrimonial field.
The day, that to the shades the father sends,
Eobs the sad orphan of his father's friends:
He, wretched outcast of mankind! appears
Forever sad, forever bathed in tears;
Amongst the happy, unregarded, he
Hangs on the robe, or trembles at the knee,
While those his father's former bounty fed,
Nor reach the goblet, nor divide the bread:
The kindest but his present wants allay,
To leave him wretched the succeeding day.
Frugal compassion! Heedless, they who boast
Both parents still, nor feel what he has lost.
Shall cry, 'Begone! thy father feasts not here:'
The wretch obeys, retiring with a tear.
Thus wretched, thus retiring all in tears,
To my sad soul Astyanax appears!
Forced by repeated insults to return.
And to his widow'd mother vainly mourn:
He, who, with tender delicacy bred.
With princes sported, and on dainties fed.
And when still evening gave him up to rest,
Sunk soft in down upon the nurse's breast.
Must — ah what must he not? Whom Ilion calls
Astyanax, from her well-guarded walls,*
Is now that name no more, unhappy boy!
Since now no more thy father guards his Troy.
But thou, my Hector, liest exposed in air.
Far from thy parents' and thy consort's care;
Whose hand in vain, directed by her love.
The martial scarf and robe of triumph wove.
Now to devouring flames be these a prey,
Useless to thee, from this accursed day!
Yet let the sacrifice at least be paid.
An honor to the living, not the dead!"
So spake the mournful dame: her matrons hear.
Sigh back her sighs, and answer tear with tear.
* Astyanax, i. e. the city-kincj or guardian. It is amusing that
Plato, who often finds fault with Homer without reason, should
have copied this twaddling etymology into his Cratylus.
THE ILIAD. ' 495
BOOK XXIII.
ARGUMENT.
FUNEKAL GAMES IN HONOR OF PATROCLUS.*
Achilles and the Myrmidons do honors to the body of Patroclus.
After the funeral feast he retires to the seashore, where,
falling asleep, the ghost of his friend appears to him, and
demands the rites of burial; the next moruiug the soldiers
are sent with mules and wagons to fetch wood for the pyre.
The funeral procession, and the offering their hair to the
dead. Achilles sacrifices several animals, and lastly twelve
Trojan captives, at the pile; then sets fire to it. He pays
libations to the Winds, which (at the instance of Iris) rise,
and raise the flames. When the pile has burned all night,
they gather the bones, place them in an urn of gold, and
raise the tomb. Achilles institutes the funeral games: the
chariot-race, the fight of the cajstus, the wre.stling, the foot-
race, the single combat, the discus, the shooting with arrows,
the darting the javelin: the various de.scriptions of which,
and the various success of the several antagonists, make the
greatest part of the book.
In this book ends the thirtieth day. The night following,
the ghost of Patroclus appears to Achilles: the one-and-
thirtieth day is employed in felling the timber for the pile:
the two-and-thirtieth in burning it; and the three-and-
thirtieth in the games. The scene is generally on the sea-
bhure.
Thus humbled in tho dii.st, tlio pensive train
Through tlie sad city niowrn'd h(!r l)ero shiin.
The body soil'd with dust, and bhick wit!) gore,
Lies on broad Ilcdlospont's rcsonndin;,' shore.
The Grecians seek tlioir ships, and clear tho atrund,
All, bnt the martial Myrmidonian hand:
Those yet assemliled great Achilles holds.
And tho storn purpose of liis luiud unfolds:
•This book lias been closely imitufed by Virgil in liis fifth
brK)k, but it ia almost usele-sa to aiiempt a selection of i)a.ssages for
comparison.
496 THE ILIAD.
"Not yet, my hrare companions of the war,
Release your smoking coursers from the car;
But, with his chariot each in order led,
Perform due honors to Patrochis dead.
Ere yet from rest or food we seek relief,
Some rites remain, to glut our rage of grief."
The troops obey'd; and thrice in order led*
(Achilles first) their coursers round the dead;
And thrice their sorrows and laments renew;
Tears bathe their arms, and tears the sands bedew.
For such a warrior Thetis aids their woe.
Melts their strong hearts, and bids their eyes to flow
But chief, Pelides: thick-succeeding sighs
Burst from his heart, and torrents from his eyes:
His slaughtering hands, yet red with blood, he laid
On his dead friend's cold breast, and thus he said:
"All hail, Patroclus! let thy honor'd ghost
Hear, and rejoice on Pluto's dreary coast;
Behold! Achilles' promise is complete;
The bloody Hector stretch'd before thy feet.
Lo! to the dogs his carcase I resign;
And twelve sad victims, of the Trojan line,
Sacred to vengeance, instant shall expire;
Their lives effused around thy funeral pyre."
Gloomy he said, and (horrible to view)
Before the bier the bleeding Hector threw,
Prone on the dust. TJie Myrmidons around
Unbraced their armor, and the steeds unbound.
All to Achilles' sable ship repair.
Frequent and full, the genial feast to share.
Now from the well-fed swine black smokes aspire,
The bristly victims hissing o'er the fire:
The huge ox bellowing falls; with feebler cries
Expires the goat; the sheep in silence dies.
Around the hero's prostrate body flow'd.
In one promiscuous stream, the reeking blood.
And now a band of Argive monarchs brings
The glorious victor to the king of kings.
From his dead friend the pensive warrior went,
With steps unwilling, to the regal tent.
The attending heralds, as by office bound,
* Tkrice in order led. This was a frequent rite at funerals.
The Romans liad the same custom, which they called decvrsio.
Plutarch states that Alexander, in after times, renewed these
same honors to the memory of Achilles himself.
TEE ILIAD. 497
With kindled flames the tripod-vase surround:
To cleanse his conquering liands from hostile gore,
They urged in vain; the chief refused, and swore:*
"No drop sliall touch me, by almighty Jove!
The first and greatest of the gods above!
Till on the pyre 1 place thee; till I rear
The grassy mound, and clip thy sacred hair.
Some ease at least those pious rites nuiy give,
And soothe my sorrows, while I bear to live.
Howe'er, reluctant as I am, I stay
And share your feast; but with the dawn of day,
(0 king of men !) it claims thy royal care,
That Greece the Avarrior's funeral pile prepare,
And bid the forests fall (such rites are paid
To heroes slumbering in eternal shade):
Then, when his earthly part shall mount in fire,
Let the leagued squadrons to their posts retire."
He spoke: tiiey hear him, and the word obey;
The rage of hunger and of thirst allay,
Then ease in sleep the labors of the day.
But great Pelides, stretch'd along the shore.
Where dash'd on rocks, the broken billows roar.
Lies inly groaning; while on either hand
The martial ^Myrmidons confusedly stand.
Along the grass his languid membei's fall.
Tired with his chase around tlie Trojan wall;
llush'd by the murmurs of the rolling deep,
At length ho sinks in the soft arms of sleep,
When lol the shade, bef(jre his closing eyes,
Of sad Patroelus rose, or seem'd to rise:
Li the same robe he living wore, he came:
Li stature, voice, and pleasing look, the same.
The form familiar hovcr'd o'er his head,
"And sleeps Achilles? (thus the phantom said):
Sleeps my Achilles, his Patroelus dead?
Living, I seom'd his dearest, tondcrest caro.
But now forgot, I wander in the air.
Let my ])ale corse the rites of burial know,
And give me entrancx* in the realms below:
Till tlu^n the spirit linrls no restiiig-iilaco,
But here and there tiio unbodied spectres ciiaso
The vagrant dead around the dark abode,
* And mrftre. Liternlly, and cnllffl OrruH, ibe god of oallia, to
witne&s. See Buttmann, l/«xilr)g, |i. V.W.
498 TEE ILIAD.
Forbid to cross the irremeable flood.
Now give thy hand; for to the farther shore,
When once we pass, the soul returns no more:
When once the last funereal flames ascend,
No more shall meet Achilles and his friend;
No more our thoughts to those we loved make known;
Or quit the dearest, to converse alone.
Me fate has sever'd from the sons of earth,
The fate fore-doom'd that waited from ray birth:
Thee too it waits; before the Trojan wall
Even great and godlike thou art doom'd to fall.
Hear then; and as in fate and love we join,
Ah suffer that my bones may rest with thine!
Together have we lived; together bi'ed.
One house received us, and one table fed;
That golden urn, thy goddess-mother gave.
May mix our ashes in one common grave."
"And is it thou? (he answers) To my sight*
Once more return'st thou from the realms of night?
more than brother! Think each office paid,
Whate'er can rest a discontented shade;
But grant one last embrace, unhappy boy!
Afford at least that melancholy joy."
He said, and with his longing arms essay'd
In vain to grasp the visionary shade!
Like a thin smoke he sees the spirit fly,f
And hears a feeble,, lamentable cry.
Confused he wakes; amazement breaks the bands
Of golden sleep, and starting from the sands.
Pensive he muses with uplifted hands:
" 'Tis true, 'tis certain; man, though dead, retains
Part of himself; the immortal mind remains:
* " O, long expected by thy friends! from wlience
Art tbou so late return'd for our defence?
Do we behold thee, wearied as we are
With length of labors, and with toils of war ?
After so many funerals of thy own,
Art thou restored to thy declining town ?
But say, what wounds are these ? what new disgrace
Deforms the manly features of thy face?"
— Dryden, xi. 369.
f Like athin smoke. Virgil, Georg. iv. 73.
" In vain I reach my feeble hands to join
In sweet embraces — ah! no longer thine !
She said, and from his eyes the fleeting fair
Retired, like subtle smoke dissolved in air."
— Dryden.
THE IL TAD. 499
The form subsists without the body's aid,
Aerial semblance, and an empty shade I
This night my friend, so late in battle lost,
Stood at my side, a pensive, })laintive ghost:
Even now familiar, as in life, he came:
Alas I how different! yet how like the same!"
Thus while he spoke, each eye grew big with tears:
And now the rosy-tinger'd morn apjiears,
Shows every mournful face with tears o'erspread,
And glares on the pale visage of the dead.
But Agamemnon, as the rites demand.
With mules and wagons sends a chosen band
To load the timber, and the pile to rear;
A charge consign'd to Merion's faithful care.
With proper instruments they take the road,
Axes to cut, and ropes to sling the load.
First march the heavy mules, securely slow,
O'er hills, o'er dales, o'er crags, o'er rocks they go:*
Jumping, high o'er the shrubs of the rough ground.
Rattle t!ie clattering cars, and theshock'd axles bound.
But when arrived at Ida's spreading woods, f
(Fair Ida, water'd with descending Hoods),
Louil sounds the axe, redoubling strokes on strokes;
On all sides round the forest hurls her oaks
Headlong. Deep-echoing groan the thickets brown;
Then rustling, crackling, crashing, thunder down.
The wood the Cirecians cleave, prepared to burn;
And the slow mules the same rough road return.
The sturdy woodmen equal burtiens bore
(Such charge was given them) to the sandy shore;
There on the spot which great Achilles sliow'd,
They eased their shoulders, and disposed the load;
• So Milton.
" So eaperly the fiend
O'er b()(f, o'»T stfi-p, tliroii^rli strait, roiifjli, dense, or rare,
With liead, hiin<i.s, winjjs, r>r feet pursiies liis way,
And swims, or sinlts, or wades, or creeps, or flies."
— '• Paradise Lost," ii. 948.
f " An ancient forest, for tlie worit de.HJ^n'd
(Tbe siiady covert of tlie savatre l;ind),
Tlie 'i'rojans found; tlie sounding' axe is j)lnced;
Firs, ])ines, and pitciitri-es, and ilie low'ring pride
Of forest nslies, feel llje fatal .stroke,
And piercing; wedj^es cleave ilie .stubborn oak.
Ilipli trunks of trees, felj'd from tlie steepy rrown
Of tbe bare mountains, roll witb ruin down."
— Dryden's Virgil, vi. 202.
500 THE ILIAD.
Circling around the place, where times to come
Shall view Patroclus' and Achilles' tomb.
The hero bids his martial troops appear
High on their cars in all the pomp of war;
Each in refulgent arms his limbs attires,
All mount their chariots, combatants and squires.
The chariots first proceed, a shining train;
Then clouds of foot that smoke along the plain;
Next these the melancholy band appear;
Amidst, lay dead Patroclus on the bier;
O'er all the corse their scatter'd locks they throw;
Achilles next, oppress'd with mighty woe,
Supporting with his hands the hero's head,
Bends o'er the extended body of the dead.
Patroclus decent on the appointed ground
They place, and heap the sylvan pile around.
But great Achilles stands apart in prayer,
Aud from his head divides the yellow hair;
Those curling locks which from his youth he vow'd,*
And sacred grew, to Sperchius' honor'd flood:
Then sighing, to the deep his locks he cast.
And roll'd his eyes around the watery waste:
"Sperchius! whose waves in mazy errors lost,
Delightful roll along my native coast!
To whom we vainly vow'd, at our return,
These locks to fall, and hecatombs to burn:
Full fifty rams to bleed in sacrifice.
Where to the day thy silver fountains rise.
And where in shade of consecrated bowers
Thy altars stand, perfumed with native flowers!
So vow'd my father, but he vow'd in vain;
No more Achilles sees his native plain;
In that vain hope these hairs no longer grow,
Patroclus bears them to the shades below."
Thus o'er Patroclus while the hero pray'd,
On his cold hand the sacred lock he laid.
Once more afresh the Grecian sorrows flow:
And now the sun had set upon their woe;
But to the king of men thus spoke the chief:
"Enough, Atrides! give the troops relief:
Permit the mourning legions to retire,
And let the chiefs alone attend the pyre;
The pious care be oura, the dead to burn "
* He vowed. This was a very ancient custom.
THE ILIAD. 501
He said: the people to their ships return:
"While those deputed to inter the slain
Heap with a rising pyramid the plain.*
A hundred foot in length, a hundred wide,
The growing structure spreads on every side;
High on the top the manly corse they lay.
And well-fed sheep and sable oxen slay:
Achilles cover'd with their fat the dead,
And the piled victims round the body spread;
Then jars of honey, and of fragrant oil.
Suspends around, low-bending o'er the pile.
Four sprightly coursers, with a deadly groan
Pour forth their lives, and on the pyre are thrown.
Of nine large dogs, domestic at his board,
Fall two, selected to attend their lord.
Then last of all, and horrible to tell,
Sad sacrifice I twelve Trojan captives fell.f
On these the rage of fire victorious preys.
Involves and joins them in one common blaze.
Smear'd with the bloody rites, he stands on high.
And calls the spirit with a dreadful cry: J
"All hail, PatroclusI let thy vengeful ghost
Hear, and exult, on Pluto's dreary coast.
IJehold Achilles' promise fully paid,
Twelve Trojan heroes ofTer'd to thy shade;
But heavier fates on Hector's corse attend,
Saved from the fiames, for hungry dogs to rend." _
So spake he, threatening: but the gods made vain
His threat, and guard inviolate the slain:
Celestial Venus hover'd o'er his head.
And roseate unguents, heavenly fragrancol shed:
She watch'd him all the night, and all the day,
And drove the idoodiiounds from their destined prey.
Nor sacred Phojbus less employ 'd his care;
He pour'd around a veil of gather'd air.
And kept the nervcn untlricd, the llesh entire,
Against the solar beam and Sirian lire.
* Tlie height of the tomb or pile was a pr«at proof of the
dipnilv f)f thf (lec»-asf(l, and tin* lionor in wliich hi- was hi-ld.
f Un tlif pr»?val<'nc»' '>f tlii.s cru<-l cuHtinii uiiii)iij;Mt the northern
nationr., w»e Mallet, p. 21ii.
I Aitil rnlh the, Hjiirit. Hucli was the cu.stom aiicifiiily, tiven at
the Koiuan funeriilH.
" Hail, O ye lioly names! hail a^jain,
I'aleriittl ahhf.s, now revived in vnin."
— L)rydeu'« Virgil, v. 106.
502 THE ILIAD.
Nor yet the pile, where dead Patroclus lies,
Smokes, nor as yet the sullen flames arise;
But, fast beside, Achilles stood in prayer,
Invoked the gods whose spirit moves tlie air,
And victims promised, and libations cast,
To gentle Zephyr and the Boreal blast:
He call'd the aerial powers, along the skies
To breathe, and whisper to the fires to rise.
The winged Iris heard the hero's call,
And instant hasten'd to their airy hall,
Where in old Zephyr's open courts on high.
Sat all the blustering brethren of the sky.
She shone amidst tliem, on her painted bow;
The rocky pavement glitter'd with the show.
All from the banquet rise, and each invites
The various goddess to partake the rites.
"Not so (the dame replied), I haste to go
To sacred Ocean, and the floods below:
Even now our solemn hecatombs attend
And heaven is feasting on the world's green end.
With righteous Ethiops (uncorrupted train!)
Far on the extremest limits of the main.
But Peleus' son entreats, with sacrifice.
The western spirit, and the north, to rise!
Let on Patroclus' pile your blast be driven,
And bear the blazing honors high to heaven.'*
Swift as the word she vanish'd from their view;
Swift as the word the winds tumultuous flew;
Forth burst the stormy band with thundering roar,
And heaps on heaps the clouds are toss'd before..
To the wide main then stooping from the skies.
The heaving deeps in watery mountains rise:
Troy feels the blast along her shaking walls.
Till on the pile the gather'd tempest falls.
The structure crackles in the roaring fires.
And all the night the plenteous flame aspires.
All night Achilles hails Patroclus' soul,
With large libations from the golden bowl.
As a poor father, helpless and undone.
Mourns o'er the ashes of an only son.
Takes a sad pleasure the last bones to burn,
And pours in tears, ere yet they close the urn:
So stay'd Achilles, circling round the shore,
So watch'd the flames, till now they flame no more.
'Twas when, emerging through the shades of night,
THE ILIAD. 503
The morning planet told the approacli of light:
And, fast behind, Auiora's warmer ray
O'er the broad ocean ponr'd the golden day:
Then sank the blaze, the pile no longer burn'd,
And to their caves the whistling winds retnrn'd:
Across the Thracian seas their conrse they bore;
The ruffled seas beneath their passage roar.
Then parting fro'n the pile he ceased to weep.
And sank to quiet in the embrace of sleep.
Exhausted with his grief: meanwhile the crowd
Of thronging Grecians round Achilles stood;
The tumult waked him: from his eyes he shook
Unwilling slumber, and the chiefs bespoke:
"Ye kings and princes of the Achaian name!
First let us quench the yet remaining flame
With sable wine; then, as the rites direct.
The hero's bones with careful view select
(Apart, and easy to bo known they lie
Amidst the heap, and obvious to the eye:
The rest around the margin will be seen
Promiscuous, steeds and immolated men):
These wrapp'd in double cauls of fat, prepare;
And in the golden vase dispose with care;
There let them rest with decent honor laid.
Till I shall follow to the infernal shade.
Meantime erect the tomb with pious hands,
A common structure on the humble sands:
Hereafter Greece some nobler work may raise,
And late posterity record our praise'"
The Greeks obey; where yet the embers glow,
Wide o'er the pile the sable wine they throw.
And deep subsiiles the ashy heap below.
Next the white bones his sad com]ianions place,
With tears collected, in the golden vase.
The sacred relics to the tent they boie;
The urn a veil of linen cover'd o'er.
That done, they l)id tho sopiilchre aspire,
And cast the deep foiwidationH nuind tln) pyre;
High in the midst they heap the swelling bed
Of rising earth, rnnmorial of the dead.
The swarming populace the chief detains,
And leads amidst a wide extent of iilains;
There placed them round: then from the ships proceeda
A train of oxen, innle.s, and stately steeds,
Va:ied and tripods (for tiio funeral games).
504 THE ILIAD.
Resplendent brass, and more resplendent dames.
First stood the prizes to reward the force
Of rapid racers in the dusty course:
A woman for the first, in beauty's bloom,
Skill'd in the needle, and the laboring loom;
And a large vase, where two bright handles rise,
Of twenty measures its capacious size.
The second victor claims a mare unbroke,
Big with a mule, unknowing of the yoke:
The third, a charger yet untouch'd by flame:
Four ample measures held the shining frame:
Two goiden talents for the fourth were placed:
An ample double bowl contents the last.
These in fair order ranged upon the plain,
The hero, rising, thus address'd the train:
"Behold the prizes, valiant Greeks! decreed
To the brave rulers of the racing steed :
Prizes which none beside ourself could gain,
Should our immortal coursers take the plain
(A race unrivall'd, which from ocean's god
Peleus received, and on his son bestow'd).
But this no time our vigor to display;
Nor suit, with them, the games of this sad day.
Lost is Patroclus now, that wont to deck
Their flowing manes, and sleek their glossy neck.
Sad, as they shared in human grief, they stand,
And trail those graceful honors on the sand!
Let others for the noble task prepare.
Who trust the courser and the flying car."
Fired at his word the rival racers rise;
But for the first Eumelus hopes the prize,
Famed though Pieria for the fleetest breed,
And skill'd to manage the liigh-bonnding steed.
With equal ardor bold Tydides swell'd,
The steeds of Tros beneath his yoke compell'd
(Which late obey'd the Dardan chief's command.
When scarce a god redeem'd him from his hand).
Then Menelails his Podargus brings.
And the famed courser of the king of kings:
Whom rich Echepolus (more rich than brave),
To 'scape the wars, to Agamemnon gave,
(^the her name) at home to end his days;
Base wealth preferring to eternal praise.
Next him Antilochus demands the course
With beating heart, and cheers his Pylian horse.
TEE ILIAD. 505
Experienced Nestor gives his son the reins,
Directs his judorment, and his heat restrains j
Nor idly warns the hoary sire, nor hears
The prudent son with unattending ears.
"My son! though youthful ardor fire thy breast,
The gods have loved" thee, and with arts have bless'd;
Neptune and Jove on xhee conferr'd the skill
Swift round the goal to turn the flying wheel.
To guide thy conduct little precept needs;
But slow, and past their vigor, are my steeds.
Fear not thy rivals, though for swiftness known;
Compare those rivals' judgment and thy own:
It is not strength, but art, obtains the prize,
And to be swift is less than to be wise.
'Tis more by art than force of numerous strokes
The dexterous woodman shapes the stubborn oaks;
By art the pilot, through the boiling deep
And howling tempast; ;ite?xS the fearless ship;
And 'tis the artis'', wins cae glorious course;
Not those who trusi in 3h''.riots and in horse.
In vain, unskillful ':o the goal they strive.
And short, or wide, the ungovern'd courser drive:
While with sure skill, though with inferior steeds,
The knowing racer to his end proceeds;
Fix'd on the goal his eye foreruns the course,
His hand unerring steers the steady horse.
And now contracts, or now extends the rein,
Observing still the foremoi-t on the ])lain.
Murk then the goal, 'tis easy to be found;
Yon aged trunk, a cubit from tlie ground;
Of some once stately oak the last ri-mains,
Or hardy lir, unperishM with the rains:
Inclosed with stones, conspicuous from afar;
And round, a circle for the wheeling car.
(Some tomlj perhaps of old, the dead to grace;
Or then, as now, the limit of a race.)
liear close to this, and warily jirocieed,
A little bending to the left hand steed;
But urge the right, and give him all the reins;
While thy strict liaiid his fellow's lu^ad restrains,
And turns him short; till, doubling as tboy roll.
The wheel's round naves apin-ur to lirusli the goal.
Yet (not to break the car, or l.iinr the horse)
Clear of the stony heap direct the e<)iirse;
Lest through incaution failing, thou mayest bo
506 THE ILIAD
A joy to others, a reproach to me.
So shalt thou pass tlie goal, secure of mind,
And leave iiiiskillfu] swiftness far behind:
Though thy fierce rival drove the matchless steed
Which bore Adrastus, of celestial breed;
Or the famed race, through all the regions known,
That whirl'd the car of proud Laomedon."
Thus (nought unsaid) the much-advising sage
Concludes; then sat, stiff with unwieldy age.
Next bold Meriones was seen to rise,
The last, but not least ardent for the prize.
They mount their seats; the lots their place dispose
(Roll'd in his helmet, these Achilles throws).
Young Nestor leads the race: Eumelus then;
And next the brother of the king of men:
Thy lot, Meriones, the fourth was cast;
And, far the bravest, Diomed, was last.
They stand in order, an impatient train:
Pelides points the barrier on the plain,
And sends before old Phoenix to the place,
To mark the racers, and to judge the race.
At once the coursers from the barrier bound;
The lifted scourges all at once resound;
Their heart, their eyes, their voice, they send before
And up the champaign thunder from the shore:
Thick, where they drive, the dusty clouds arise.
And the lost courser in the whirlwind flies;
Loose on their shoulders the long manes reclined.
Float in their speed, and dance upon the wind:
The smoking chariots, rapid as they bound,
Now seem to touch the sky, and now the ground.
While hot for fame, and conquest all their care
(Each o'er his flying courser hung in air).
Erect with ardor, poised upon the rein.
They pant, they stretch, they shout along the plain.
Now (the last compass fetch 'd around the goal)
At the near prize each gathers all his soul,
Each burns with double hope, with double pain
Tears up the shore, and thunders toward the main.
First flew Eumelus on Pheretian steeds;
With those of Tros bold Diomed succeeds:
Close on Eumelus' back they pufi the wind,
And seem just mounting on his car behind;
Full on his neck he feels the sultry breeze,
And, hovering o'er, their stretching shadows sees.
THE ILIAD. 507
Then had he lost, or left a doubtful prize;
But angry Phoebus to Tydides flies,
Strikes from his hand the scourge, and renders vain
His matchless horses' labor on the plain.
Rage fills his eye with anguish, to survey
Snatch'd from his hope the glories of the day.
The fraud celestial Pallas sees with pain.
Springs to her knight, and gives the scourge again,
And fills his steeds with vigor. At a stroke
She breaks his rival's chariot from the yoke:
No more their way the startled horses held;
The car reversed came rattling on the field;
Shot headlong from iiis seat, beside the wheel.
Prone on the dust the unhappy master fell:
His batter'd face and elbows strike the ground;
Nose, mouth, and front, one undistinguish'd wound:
Grief stops his voice, a torrent drowns his eyes:
Before him far the glad Tvdides flies:
Minerva's spirit drives his matchless pace,
And crowns him victor of the labor'd race.
Tiie next, though distant, Menelaiis succeeds;
While thus young Nestor animates his steeds:
**Now, now, my generous pair, exert your force:
Not that we hope to match Tydides' horse.
Since great Minerva wings their rapid way,
And gives their lord the honors of the day:
But reach Atrides! shall his mare outgo
Your swiftness? vanquish'd by a female foe?
Through your neglect, if lagging on the plain
The last ignoble gift be all we gain,
No more shall Nostor's hand your food supply.
The old man's fury rises, and ye die.
Haste then: yon narrow road, before our sight.
Presents the occasion, could we use it right."
Thus he. The coursers at their master's threat
With quicker steps the sounding champaign beat.
And now Antilochus with nice survey
Observes the compass of the Hollow way.
'Twas where, by force of wintry torrents torn.
Fast by the road a precipice was worn:
Hero, where but 0710 coubl pass, to shun the throng
The Spartan huro's chariot smoked along.
Close np the venturous youth resolves to keep,
Still edging near, and bears him lowaril the steep.
Atrides trembling, casts his eye below,
1>
508 THE ILIAD.
And wonders at the rashness of his foe.
*'Hold, stay your steeds — What madness thus to ride
This narrow way! take larger field (he cried),
Or both must fall." — Atrides cried in vain;
He flies more fast, and throws up all the rein.
Far as an able arm the disk can send,
When youthful rivals their full force extend,
So far, Antilochus! thy chariot flew
Before the king: he, cautious, backwards drew
His horse compeird; foreboding in his fears
The rattling ruin of the clashing cars,
The floundering coursers rolling on the plain,
And conquest lost through frantic haste to gain.
But thus upbraids his rival as he flies:
"Go, furious youth! ungenerous and unwise!
Go, but expect not I'll the prize resign;
Add perjury to fraud, and make it thine — '
Then to his steeds with all his force he cries,
"Be swift, be vigorous, and regain the prize!
Your rivals, destitute of youthful force.
With fainting knees shall labor in the course,
And yield the glory yours." — The steeds obey;
Already at tlieir heels they wing their way.
And seem already to retrieve the day.
Meantime the Grecians in a ring beheld
The coursers bounding o'er the dusty field.
The first who mark'd them was the Cretan king;
High on a rising ground, above the ring,
The monarch sat: from whence with sure survey
He well observed the chief who led the way,
And heard from far his animating cries.
And saw the foremost steed with sharpen'd eyes;
On whose broad front a blaze of shining white, •
Like the full moon, stood obvious to the sight.
He saw; and rising, to the Greeks begun:
"Are yonder horse discern'd by me alone?
Or can ye, all, another chief survey.
And other steeds than lately led the way?
Those, though the swiftest, by some god withheld.
Lie sure disabled in the middle field :
For, since the goal they doubled, round the plain
I search to find them, but I search in vain.
Perchance the reins forsook the driver's hand.
And, turn'd too short, he tumbled on the strand.
Shot from the chariot; while his coursers stray
THE ILIAD, 509
With frantic fury from the destined way.
Kise then some other, and inform my sight,
For these dim eyes, perhaps, discern not right;
Yet sure he seems, to judge by shape and air,
The great ^tolian chief, renown'd in war."
"Old man I (Oileus rashly thus replies)
Thy tongue too hastily confers the prize;
Of those who view the course, nor sharpest eyed,
Nor youngest, yet the readiest to decide.
Eumelus' steeds, high bounding in the chase,
Still, as at first, unrivall'd lead the race:
I well discern him, as he shakes the rein.
And hear his shouts victorious o'er the plain."
Thus he. Idomeneus, incensed, rejoin'd:
"Barbarous of words', and arrogant of mind!
Contentious prince, of all the Greeks beside
The last in merit, as the first in ]n'ide!
To vile reproach what answer can we make?
A goblet or a tripod let us stake.
And be the king the judge. The most unwise
Will learn their rashness, when they pay the price."
He said: and Ajax, by mad passion borne, ,
Stern had replied; fierce scorn enhancing scorn
To fell extremes. But Thetis' godlike son
Awful amidst them rose, and thus begun:
"Forbear, ye chiefs! reproachful to contend;
Much would ye blame, should others thus offend:
And lol the ai)i)roaciiing steeds your contest end."
No sooner had he spoke, but tiiundoring near,
Drives, through a stream of dust, the charioteer.
High o'er his head the circling lash he wields:
His bounding horses scarcely touch the fields:
His car amidst the dusty whirlwind roll'd.
Bright with the mingled blaze of tin and gnld,
Refulgent through the cloud: no eye could find
The track his Hying wheels had left behind:
And the fierce coursers urged tiicir rapid pace
So swift, it seoin'd a fligiit, and not a ra(;o.
Now victor at the goal Tydid(!S stands,
Qnits hia bright car, and springs upon the sands;
From the hot steeds the sweaty torrents stream;
The well-plied whip is hung athwart the beam:
Witii joy brave Sthenelus receives tlie prize,
The tripod-vase, and dame with radiant eyes:
These to the ships his train triumpiiant leads,
510 THE ILIAD.
The chief himself tinyokes the panting steeds.
Young Nestor follows (who by art, not force.
O'erpass'd Atrides) second in the course.
Behind, Atrides urged the race, more near
Than to the courser in his swift career
The folloM'ing car, just touching with his heel
And brushing with his tail the whirling wheel:
Such, and so narrow now the space between
The rivals, late so distant on the green;
So soon swift vEthe her lost ground regain'd,
One length, one moment, had the race obtain'd.
Merion pursued, at greater distance still,
With tardier coursers, and inferior skill.
Last came, Admetus! thy unhappy son;
Slow dragg'd the steeds his batter'd chariot on;
Achilles saw, and pitying thus begun;
"Behold! tlie man whose matchless art surpass'd
The sons of Greece! the ablest, yet the last!
Fortune denies, but justice bids us pay
(Since great Tydides bears the first away)
To him the second honors of the day."
The Greeks consent with loud-applauding cries,
And then Eumekis had received the prize,
But youthful Nestor, jealous of his fame,
The award opposes, and asserts his claim.
"Think not (he cries) I tamely will resign,
Peleus' son! the mare so justly mine.
AVhat if the gods, the skillful to confound.
Have thrown the horse and horseman to the ground?
Perhaps he sought not heaven by sacrifice.
And vows omitted forfeited the prize.
If yet (distinction to thy friend to show.
And please a soul desirous to bestow)
Some gift must grace Eumelus, view thy store
Of beauteous handmaids, steeds, and shining ore;
An ample present let him thence receive,
And Greece shall praise thy generous thirst to give.
But this my prize I never shall forego;
This, who but touches, warriors! is my foe."
Thus spake the youth; nor did his words offend;
Pleased with the well-turn'd flattery of a friend,
Achilles smiled: "The gift [)roposed (he cried),
Antilochus! we shall ourselves provide.
With plates of brass the corslet cover'd o'er
(The same renown'd Asteropgews wore).
THE ILIAD. 511
Whose glittering margins raised with silver shine,
(No vulgar gift), Eumelus! shall be thine."
He said- Automedon at his coniniaud
The corslet brought, and gave it to his hand.
Distinguish'd by his friend, his bosom glows
With generous joy: then Menelaiis rose;
The herald placed the sceptre in his hands,
And still'd the chimor of the shouting bands.
Not without cause incensed at Nestor's son,
And only grieving, thus the king begnn:
"The praise of wisdom, in thy youth obtained,
An act so rash, Antilochus! has stain'd.
Robb'd of my glory and my just reward.
To you, Grecians! be my wrong declared:
So not a leader shall our conduct blame.
Or judge me envious of a rival's fame.
But shall not we, ourselves, the truth maintain?
What needs appealing in a fact so plain?
What Greek shall blame me, if 1 bid thee rise,
And vindicate by oath Lb' ill-gotten prize?
Rise if thou darest, before thy chariot stand.
The driving scourge high-lifted in thy hand;
And touch thy steeds, and swear thy whole intent
Was but to conquer, not to circumvent.
Swear by that god wiioso liquid arms surround
The globe, and whose dread earthquakes heave the
ground !"
The prudent chief with calm attention heard;
Then mildly thus: "Excuse, if youth have err'd;
Superior its thou art, forgive the offence,
N'or I thy equal, or in years, or sense
Thou know'st tiie errors of unripen'd ago,
Weak are its counsels, headlong is its rage.
The prize I quit, if thou thy wrath resign;
The mare, or auglit thou ask'st, be freely thine
Ere I become (from thy dear friendship torn)
Hateful to thee, and \r i\. . gods forsworn."
So spoke Antilochus; and at tlie word
The mare contested to the l:ing restored.
Joy swells his soul: as \:\. w the vnrnal grain
Jjifts the green oar above the springing plain,
The fields their vegetable life renew,
And laugh and glitter with the morning dew;
Such joy the Spartan's shining face oNjrspread,
And lifted his gay heart, while thus he said:
512 THE ILIAD.
"Still may our souls, generous youth! agrees
'Tis now Atrides' turn to yield to thee.
Rash heat perhaps a moment might control^
Not break, the settled temper of thy soul.
Not but (my friend) 'tis still the wiser way
To waive contention with superior sway;
/For ah! how few, who should like thee offend,
\Like thee, have talents to regain the friend!
To plead indulgence, and thy fault atone.
Suffice thy father's merit and thy own:
Generous alike, for me, the sire and son
Have greatly suffer'd, and have greatly done.
I yield; that all may know, my soul can bend,
Nor is my pride preferr'd before my friend."
He said; and pleased his passion to command.
Resign'd the courser to Noemon's hand.
Friend of the youthful chief: himself content,
The shining charger to his vessel sent.
The golden talents Merion next obtain'd;
The fifth reward, the double bowl, remaiu'd.
Achilles this to reverend Nestor bears.
And thus the purpose of his gift declares:
"Accept thou this, sacred sire! (he said)
lu dear memorial of Patroclus dead;
Dead and for ever lost Patroclus lies, ^
For ever snatch'd from our desiring eyes!
Take thou this token of^a grateful heart,
Though 'tis not thine to hurl the distant dart,
The quoit to toss, the ponderous mace to wield,
Or urge the race, or wrestle on the field:
Thy pristine vigor age has overthrown,
But left the glory of the past thy own."
He said, and placed the goblet at his side;
With joy the venerable king replied:
"Wisely and well, my son, thy words have proved
A senior honor'd, and a friend beloved!
Too true it is, deserted of my strength.
These wither'd arms and limbs have fail'd at length.
Oh! had I now that force I felt of yore.
Known through Buprasium and the Pylian shore!
Victorious then in every solemn game,
Ordain'd to Amarynces' mighty name;
The brave Epeians gave my glory way,
^tolians, Pylians, all resign'd the day.
I quell'd Clytomedes in fights of hand.
THE ILIAD. 613
And backward hui-rd AiicEeus on the sand,
Surpass'd Ipliyclus in the swift career,
Phyleus and Polydorus with the spear.
The sons of Actor won the prize of horse,
But won by numbers, not by art or force:
For the famed twins, impatient to survey
Prize after ])rize by Nestor borne away,
Sprung to their car; and with united pains
One Lash'd the coursers, while one ruled the reins.
Such once I was! Now to these tasks succeeds
A younger race, that emulate our deeds:
I yield, alas! (to age who must not yield?)
Though once the foremost hero of the field.
Go thou, my son! b}'. goiiurous friendship led,
With martial honors decorate the dead;
While pleased I take the gift thy hands present
(Pledge of benevolence, and kind intent).
Rejoiced, of all the numerous Greeks, to see
Not one but honors sacred age and me:
Those duo distinctions thou so well canst pay,
May the just gods return another day!"
Proud of the gift, thus spake the full of days:
Acliilles heard him, prouder of the praise.
Tlio prizes next are orderM to the field.
For the bold champions who the c^estus wield.
A stately mule, as yet by toils unbroke,
Of six years' age, unconscious of the yoke,
Is to the circus l(;d, ami firmly bound;
Next stands a goblet, massy, large, and round.
Achilles rising, thus: "IjOt Greece excite
Two heroes equal t(j this hardy figbt;
Who dare the foe with lifted arms provoke.
And rush Ijcneath the long-descending stroke.
On whom .Vpoilo shall the palm bestow.
And whom the Greeks .sii[ireme by conquest know,
This mule iiis dauntless labors shall re|iay.
The vaii<|iiishM Ix^ir the massy bowl away."
This dreadful combat great Kjiriis chose;*
* Virffil. l>y making tlie }K)a«tfr vnnquislif^d. lias drawn a hotter
moral I'roiii tliis opiMoflt! tliiin lloim r. Tin- lollowini,' lines dc-
8erv«' cniMimrison:
" 'lln' liHti>,flify Dan-H in llif lists ji|i|)(urH:
Walking' he .strides, hi» head erected hears:
514 THE ILIAD.
Uigh o'er the crowd, enormous bulk! he rose,
And seized the beast, and thus began to say:
"Stand fortli some man, to bear the bowl away!
(Price of his ruin): for who dares deny
This mule my right; the undoubted victor I?
Others, 'tis own'd, in fields of battle shine.
But the first honors of this fight are mine;
For who excels in all? Then let my foe
Draw near, but first his certain fortune know;
Secure this hand shall his whole frame confound,
Mash all his bones, and all his body pound:
So let his friends be nigh, a needful train,
To heave the batter'd carcase off the plain."
The giant spoke; and in a stupid gaze
The host beheld him, silent with amaze!
'Twas thou, Euryalus! who durst aspire
To meet his might, and emulate thy sire.
The great Mecistheus; who in days of yore
In Theban games tlie noblest trophy bore
(The games ordain'd dead CEdipus to grace),
And singly vanquish the Cadmean race.
Him great Tydides urges to contend.
Warm with the hopes of conquest for his friend;
Officious with the cincture girds him round;
And to his wrist the gloves of death are bound.
Amid the circle now each champion stands,
And poises high in air his iron hands;
With clashing gauntlets now they fiercely close,
Their crackling jaws re-echo to the blows,
And painful sweat from all their members flows.
At length Epeiis dealt a weighty blow
His nervous arms the weighty gauntlet wield,
And loud applauses echo through the field.
Such Dares was, and such he strode along.
And drew the wonder of the gazing throng.
His brawny breast and ample chest he shows;
His lifted arms around his head he throws.
And deals in whistling air his empty blows.
His match is sougbt; but, through the trembling baud,
No one dares answer to the proud demand.
Presuming of his force, with sparkling eyes,
Already he devours the promised prize.
f T" ^ Jt* " "T*
If none my matchless valor dares oppose.
How long shall Dares wait bis dastard foes ?"
— Dryden's Virgil, v. 486, seq.
rUE ILIAD. 515
Full on the cheek of his unwary foe;
Beneath that ponderous arm's resistless sway
Down (Iropp'd he, nerveless, and extended lay.
As a large fish, when winds and waters roar.
By some huge hillow dash'd against the shore.
Lies panting; not less hatter'd with his wound
The bleeding hero pants upon the ground.
To rear his fallen foe, the victor lends,
Scornful, his hand; and gives him to his friends;
Whose arms support him, reeling through the throng,
And dragging his disabled legs along;
Nodding, his head hangs down his shoulder o'er;
His mouth and nostrils pour the clotted gore;*
Wrapp'd round in mists he lies, and lost to thought;
His friends receive the bowl, too dearly bought.
■ The third bold game Achilles next demands
And calls the wrestlers to the level sands:
A massy tripod for the victor lies,
Of twice six oxen its reputed price;
And next, the loser's spirits to restore,
A female captive, valued but at four.
Scarce did the chief the vigorous strife propose
When tower-like Ajax and Ulysses rose.
Amid the ring eacii nervous rival stands,
Embracing rigid witii implicit hands.
Close luck'<l above, their heads and arms are mix'd;
Below, their planted feet at distance tix'd;
Like two strong rafters which the builder forms,
Proof to the wintry winds and liowling storms,
Their tops connected, but at wider space
Fix'd on the centre stands their solid base.
Now to the grasp each manly body bends;
The humid sweat from every pore descends;
Their bones rosoiunl with blows: sides, shoulders,
tiiighs.
Swell to each gripe, and bloody tiunors rise.
Nor could Ulysses, for liis art reiunvn'd,
O'orturn the strength of Ajax on the ground;
Nor could the strength of Ajax overthrow
The watchful caution of Ills artful foe.
♦ " Tlip k'i"'>''*''-^k1'^ '1""* f"'!'''''!. from tlin Hlinro
His faithful frif-nds iiiiiiappy I'lircs bori':
His moiitli ntul noHtrilH poiirM h jiiirjil** flood,
And pounded teeth came ruHhiiit: with liis 1)1o(k1."
— I)rvd<-nV Virgil, v. 023.
516 THE ILIAD.
While the long strife even tired the lookers on.
Thus to Ulysses spoke great Telamon:
"Or let me lift thee, chief, or lift thou me:
Prove we our force, and Jove the rest decree."
He said; and, straining, heaved him off the ground
With matchless strength; that time Ulysses found
The strength to evade, and where the nerves combine
His ankle struck: the giant fell supine;
Ulysses, following, on his bosom lies;
Shouts of applause run rattling through the skies.
Ajax to lift Ulysses next essays;
He barely stirr'd him, but he could not raise:
His knee lock'd fast, the foe's attempt denied;
And grappling close, they tumbled side by side.
Defiled with honorable dust they roll,
Still breathing strife, and unsubdued of soul:
Again they rage, again to combat rise;
When great Achilles thus divides the prize:
"Your noble vigor, my friends, restrain;
Nor weary out your generous strength in vain.
Ye both have won: let others v/ho excel,
Now prove that prowess you have proved so well."
The hero's words the willing chiefs obey,
From their tired bodies wipe the dust away,
And clothed anew, the following games survey.
And now succeed the gifts ordain'd to grace
The youths contending in the rapid race:
A silver urn that full six measures held.
By none in weight or workmanship excell'dj
Sidonian artists taught the frame to shine,
Elaborate, with artifice divine;
Whence Tyrian sailors did the prize transport,
And gave to Thoas at the Lemnian port:
From him descended, good Eunaeus heir'd
The glorious gift; and, for Lycaon spared,
To brave Patroclus gave the rich reward:
Now, the same hero's funeral rites to grace.
It stands the ])rize of swiftness in the race.
A well-fed ox was for the second placed;
And half a talent must content the last.
Achilles rising then bespoke the train:
"Who hope the palm of swiftness to obtain.
Stand forth, and bear these prizes from the plain."
The hero said, and starting from his place,
Oilean Ajax rises to the race;
THE ILIAD. 517
ITlysses next; and he whose speed surpass'd
His youthful equals, Nestor's son, the last.
Kanged in a line the ready racers stand;
Pelides points the harrier with liis hand;
All start at once; Oileus led the race;
The next Ulysses, measuring pace with pace;
Behind him," diligently close, he sped.
As closely following as the running thread
The spindle follows, and displays the charms
Of the fair spinster's breast and moving arms:
Graceful in motion thus, his foe he plies,
And treads eacli footstep ere the dust can rise;
His glowing breath upon his shoulders plays:
The admiring Greeks loud acclamations raise:
To him they give their wishes, hearts, and eyes,
And send their souls before him as he flies.
Now three times turn'd in prospect of the goal
The panting chief to Pallas lifts his soul:
"Assist, goddess!'" thus in thought he pray'd!
And present at his thought descends the maid.
Buoy'd by her heavenly force, he seems to swim.
And" feels a jjinion lifting every limb.
All fierce, and ready now the ])rize to gain,
Unhappy Ajax stumbles on the plain
(O'erturn'd by Pallas), where the slij)pery shore
Was clogg'd with slimy dung and mingled gore.
(The self-same place beside Patroclus' pyre.
Where late the shiughter'd victims fed the fire.)
liesmear'd with hit)), and blotted <j'er with clay,
Obscene to fight, the rueful racer lay;
'I'he well-fod bull (the second prize) he shared,
And left the urn Ulysses' rich reward.
Then, grasping bv the horn the mighty beast,
The bank'd hero thua the (Jreeks address'd:
"Accursed fate! the conquest I forego;
A mortal, i, a goddess was my foe;
She urged her favorite on the rapid way.
And Pallas, nnt Ulysses, won the day."
'i'lius sourly wail'd he, sputtering dirt and gore;
A liurst of laughter echoed through the shore.
Antilochus, more huiiMirouH than the rest.
Takes the last prize, and takes it with a jest:
"Whv with our wiser elders shfiild we Ktrivo?
The gods still love them, and they always thrive.
Ye see, to Ajax I must yield the prize:
518 THE ILIAD.
He to Ulysses, still more aged and wise;
(A green old age unconscious of decays,
That proves the hero born in better days!)
Behold his vigor in this active race!
Achilles only boasts a swifter pace:
For who can match Achilles? He who can,
Must yet be more than hero, more than man."
The effect succeeds the speech. Pelides cries,
"Thy artful praise deserves a better prize.
Nor Greece in vain shall hear thy friend extoll'd,
Receive a talent of the purest gold."
The youth departs content. The host admire
The son of Nestor, worthy of his sire.
Next these a buckler, spear, and helm, he brings;
Cast on the plain, the brazen burden rings:
Arms which of late divine Sarpedon Avore,
And great Patrochis in short triumph bore.
"Stand forth the bravest of our host! (he cries)
Whoever dares deserve so rich a prize.
Now grace the lists before our army's sight,
And sheathed in steel, provoke his foe to fight.
Who first the jointed armor shall explore,
And stain his rival's mail with issuing gore,
The sword Asteropseus possess'd of old
(A Thracian blade, distinct with studs of gold),
Shall pay the stroke, and grace the striker's side:
These arms in common let the chiefs divide:
For each brave champion, when the combat ends,
A sumptuous banquet at our tents attends."
Fierce at the word uprose great Tydeus' son,
And the huge bulk of Ajax 'J'elamon.
Clad in refulgent steel, on either hand.
The dreadful chiefs amid the circle stand;
Louring they meet, tremendous to the sight;
Each Argive bosom beats with fierce delight.
Opposed in arms not long they idly stood.
But thrice they closed, and thrice the charge renew'd.
A furious pass the spear of Ajax made
Through the broad shield, but at the corslet stay'd.
Not thus the foe: his javelin aim'd above
The buckler's margin, at the neck he drove.
But Greece, now trembling for her hero's life,
Bade share the honors, and surcease the strife.
Yet still the victor's due Tydides gains.
With him the sword and studded belt remains.
THE ILIAD. 519
Then hurl'd the hero, thundering ou the ground,
A mass of iron (au enormous round),
Whose weight and size the circling Greeks admire,
Rude from the furnace, and but shaped by fire.
This mighty quoit Aetion wout to rear.
And from his whirling arm dismiss in air:
The giant by Achilles slain, he stow'd
Among his spoils this memorable load.
For this, he bids those nervous artists vie,
That teach the disk to sound along the sky.
'•Let him, whose might can hurl this bowl, arise;
Who farthest hurls it, take it as his prize;
If he be one enrich'd with large domain
Of downs for flocks, and arable for grain,
Small stock of iron needs that man provide;
His hinds and swains whole years shall be supplied
From hence; nor ask the neighboring city's aid
For ploughshares, wheels, and all tiie rural trade."
Stern Polypoetes stepp'd before the throng,
And great Leonteus, more than mortal strong;
Whose force with rival forces to oppose,
Uprose great Ajax; up Epeus rose.
Each stood in order: first Epeus threw;
* High o'er the wondering crowds the whirling circle
flew.
Leonteus next a little space surpass'd;
And third, the strength of godlike Ajax cast.
O'er both their marks it flew; till liercoly Hung
From Polypd.'tes' arm the discus sung:
Far as a swain his whirling sheephook throws,
That distant falls among the grazing cows,
So past thoin all the rapid circle Hies:
His friends, while loud applauses shako the skies,
Witli force conjoin'd heave off tint weighty })rizo.
Those, who in skillful archery contend.
He next invites the twanging bow to bond;
And twice ton axes casts amidst the round,
Ton double-odgod, and ton that singly wound
Tho mast, whicli lato a first-rato galley bore,
The hero fixes in tho sandy shore;
To tho tall top a niilk-whito dove thoy tio,
Tii(! trembling mark at which tlioir arrows lly.
"Whose weapon strikes yon llnttoring bird, shall boar
Those two-edged axes, terrible in war;
Tho single, ho whose shaft divides tlu! cord."
Ho said: oxperioncod .Morion took tho word;
55iO THE ILIAD.
Aud skillful Ttiucer: in the helm they threw
Their lots inscribed, and forth the hitter flew.
Swift from the sting the sounding arrow flies;
But flies unbless'd! No grateful sacrifice,
No firstling lambs, unheedful! didst thou vow
To Phoebus, patron of the shaft and bow.
For this, thy well-aim'd arrow turn'd aside,
Err'd from the dove, yet cut the cord that tied:
Adown the mainmast fell the parted string,
And the free bird to heaven displays her wing:
^a, shores, and skies, with loud applause resound,
And Merion eager meditates the wound:
He takes the bow, directs the shaft above,
Aud following with liis eye the soaring dove.
Implores the god to speed it through the skies.
With vows of firstling lambs, and grateful sacrifice.
The dove, in airy circles as she wheels.
Amid the clouds the piercing arrow feels;
Quite through and through the point its passage found,
And at his feet fell bloody to the ground.
The wounded bird, ere yet she breathed her last.
With flagging wings alighted on the mast,
A moment hung, and spread her pinions there.
Then sudden dropp'd, and left her life in air.
From the pleased crowd new peals of thunder rise,
And to the ships brave Merion bears the prize.
To close the funeral games, Achilles last
A massy spear amid the circle placed.
And ample charger of unsullied frame,
With flowers high-wrought, not blacken'd yet by flame.
For these he bids tlie heroes prove their art.
Whose dexterous skill directs the flying dart.
Here too great Merion hopes the noble prize;
Nor here disdain'd tlie king of men to rise.
With joy Pelides saw the honor paid,
Eose to the monarch, and respectful said:
"Thee first in virtue, as in. power supreme,
king of nations! all thy Greeks proclaim;
In every martial game thy worth attest.
And know thee both their greatest and their best.
Take then the prize, but let brave Merion bear
This beamy javelin in thy brother's war."
Pleased from the hero's lips liis praise to hear,
The king to Merion gives the brazen spear:
But, set apart for sacred use, commands
The glittering charger to Talthybius' hands.
TEE ILIAD. 521
BOOK XXIV.
AEGUMENT.
THE REDEMPTION" OF THE BODY OF HECTOR.
The gods deliberate about the redemption of Hector's body.
Jupiter sends Thetis to Achilles, to dispohf him for the restor-
ing it, and Iris to Priam, to encourage him to go in person
and treat for it. The old king, notwithstanding the remon-
strances of his queen, makes ready for the journey, to which
he is encouraged by an omen from Jupiter. He sets forth in
bis chariot, with a wagon loaded with jiresents, under
the charge of Idanis the herald. Mercury descends in the
shape of a young n;an, and conilucts him to the pavilion of
Achilles. Their conversation on the way. Priam finds
Achilles at his table, casts himself at his feet, and begs for
the body of his son: Achilles, moved with compassion, grants
his request, detains him one night in his tent, and the next
morning sends him home with the body: the 'i'rojans runout
to meet him. 'J'he lamentations of Andromache, Hecuba,
and Helen, with the solemnities of the funeral.
'i'lie time of twelve days is employed in this book, while
the body of Hector lies in the tent of Achilles; and as many
more are spent in the truce allowed for his interment. The
scene is partly in Achilles' camp, and partly in Troy.
Now from tlie fiiii.sh'tl gume.s the Grecian band
Seek tlieir black sbip.s, and clear the crowded strand,
Ail fitretob'd at caso the gonial baiir]nct .siiaro,
Ajid jjk'a.sing slumbers quiet all tiioir care.
Not so Acliillcs: lie, to grief resign'd,
Ili.s friend's dear image present to bis mind,
Takes bis sad coiu-b, more unolKscrvud to weep;
Nor tastes tlio gifts of all-fomjiosing sleep.
Restless bo roll'd around bis weary bed,
And all bis soul on bis I'atroeliis fcrl :
Tbo form so pleasing, and tlic beart so kind,
That yotitbful vigor, and that nninly mind,
What toils tboy sbarcd, wbat martial works tboy
•wrougbt.
What seas they measured, and wbat Golds they fought;
522 THE ILIAD.
All pass'tl before him in remembrance dear,
Thought follows thought, and tear succeeds to tear.
And now supine, now prone, the hero lay.
Now shifts his side, impatient for the day!
Then starting up, disconsolate- he goes
Wide on the lonely beach to vent his woes.
There as the solitary mourner raves.
The ruddy morning rises o'er the waves:
Soon as it rose, his furious steeds he join'd!
The chariot flies, and Hector trails behind.
And thrice, Patroclus! round thy monument
Was Hector dragg'd, then hurried to the tent.
There sleep at last o'ercomes the hero's eyes;
While foul in dust tlie unhonor'd carcase lies.
But not deserted by the pitying skies:
For Phoebus watch'd it with superior care.
Preserved from gaping wounds and tainting air,
And, ignominious as it swept the field.
Spread o'er the sacred corse his golden shield.
All heaven was moved, and Hermes will'd to go
By stealth to suatcli him from the insulting foe:
But Neptune this, and Pallas this denies.
And th' unrelenting empress of the skies,
E'er since that day implacable to Troy,
What time young Paris, simple shepherd boy,
Won by destructive lust (reward obscene),
Their charms rejected for the Cyprian queen.
But when the tentli celestial morning broke,
To heaven assembled, thus Apollo spoke:
"Unpitying powers! how oft each holy fane
Has Hector tinged with blood of victims slain?
And can ye still his cold remains pursue?
Still grudge his body to the Trojan's view?
Deny to consort, mother, son, and sire.
The last sad honors of a funeral fire?
Is then the dire Achilles all your care?
Tliat iron heart, inflexibly severe;
A lion, not a man, who shiughters wide.
In strength of rage, and impotence of pride;
Wlio hastes to murder with a savage joy,
Invades around, and breathes but to destroy!
Shame is not of his soul; nor understood.
The greatest evil and the greatest good.
Still for one loss he rages unresign'd,
Repugnant to the lot of all mankind;
THE ILIAD. 523
To lose a friend, a brother, or a son,
Heaveu dooms each mortal, and its will is done:
Awhile they sorrow, then dismiss their care;
Fate gives the wound, and man is born to bear.
But this insatiate, the commission given
By fate exceeds, and tempts the wrath of heaven:
Lo, how his rage dishonest drags along
Hector's dead earth, insensible of wrong,
Brave though he be, yet by no reason awed,
He viohites the laws of man and god."
**If equal honors by the partial skies
Are doom'd botli heroes (Juno thus replies).
If Thetis' son must no distinction know.
Then hear, ye godsl the patron of the bow.
But Hector only boasts a mortal claim,
His birth deriving from a mortal dame:
Achilles, of your own ethereal race.
Springs from a goddess by a man's embrace
(A goddess by ourself to Pelous given,
A man divine, and chosen friend of heaven)
To grace those nuptials, from tiie bright abode
Yourselves were present; where this minstrel-god,
Well pleased to share the feast, amid the quire
Stood proud to hvmn, and tune his youthful lyre."
Then thus the "Thunderer checks the imperial dame;
"Let not thy wrath the court of heaven iiillame;
Their merits, nor their honors, are the sauiO.
But mine, and every god's peculiar grace
Hector deserves, of all the Trojan race:
Still on our shrines his gratoful olTerings lay
(The only honors men to gods can pay),
Nor ever from our smoking altar ceased
Tiie pure libation, and the holy feast:
lI(jwo'er by st<!alth to snatch the corso away,
\Vo will not: Thetis guards it night ami day.
liut haste, ami summon to our courts above
The azure quefiii; let her persuasion move
H('r furious son from I'riam to receive
The proffered ransom, and the (lorso to leave.
Ho added rjot: and Iris from the skies,
Swift as a whirlwind, on the message lliea,
Meteorous the face of ocean sweeps,
Refulgent gliding o'or tho sjiblc (feepfi.
J{etw(ron where Samos wide his forests spreads,
And rocky Imbrus lifts its pointed heads,
524 THE ILIAD.
Down plunged the maid (the parted waves resound);
She plunged and instant shot the dark profound.
As bearing death in the fallacious bait,
From the bent angle sinks the leaden weight;
So pass'd the goddess through the closing wave,
Where Thetis sorrow'd in her secret cave:
There placed amidst her melancholy train
(The blue-haired sisters of the sacred main),
Pensive she sat, ravolving fates to come,
And wept her godlike son's approaching doom.
Tlien thus the goddess of the painted bow:
"Arise, Thetis! from thy seats below.
'Tis Jove that calls."— "And why (the dame replies)
Calls Jove his Thetis to the hated skies?
Sad object as I am for heavenly sight!
Ah may my sorrows ever shun the light!
Howe'er, be heaven's almighty sire obey'd — '*
She spake, and veil'd her head in sable shade,
Which, flowing long, her graceful person clad;
And forth she paced, majestically sad.
Then through the world of waters they repair
(The way fair Iris led) to upper air.
The deeps dividing, o'er the coast they rise,
And touch with momentary flight the skies.
There in the lightning's blaze the sire they found.
And all the gods in shining synod round.
Thetis approach'd with anguish in her face
(Minerva rising, gave the mourner place),
Even Juno sought her sorrows to console,
And offer'd from her hand the nectar-bowl:
She tasted, and resign'd it: then began
The sacred sire of gods and mortal man:
"Thou comest, fair Thetis, but with grief overcast;
Maternal sorrows; long, ah, long to last!
Suffice, we know and we partake thy cares;
But yield to fate, and hear what Jove declares:
Nino days are past since all the courts above
In Hector's cause have moved the ear to Jove;
'Twas voted, Hermes from his godlike foe
By stealth should bear him, but we wiil'd not so:
We will, thy son himself the corse restore.
And to his conquest add this glory more.
Then hie thee to him, and our mandate bear;
Tell him he tempts the wrath of heaven too far;
Nor let him more (our anger if he dread)
THE ILIAD. 525
Veut his mail vengeance on the sacred dead;
But yield to ransom and the father's prayer;
The mournful father, Iris shall prepare
With gifts to sue; and offer to his hands
Whate'er his honor asks, or heart demands."
His word the silver-footed queen attends,
Anc\ from Olympus' snowy tops descends.
Arrived, she heard the voice of loud lament,
And echoing groans that shook the lofty tent:
His friends prepare the victim, and dispose
Kepast unheeded, while he vents his woes;
The goddess seats her by her pensive son,
She press'd liis hand, and tender thus begun.
"How long, unhappy! shall thy sorrows flow,
And thy heart waste with life-consuming woe:
Mindless of food, or love, whose pleasing reign
Soothes weary life, and softens Iniman pain?
snatch the moments yet within thy ])ower;
Not long to live, indulge the amorous hour!
Lo! Jove himself (for Jove's command I bear)
Forbids to tempt the wrath of heaven too far.
No longer then (his fury if thou dread)
Detain the relics of great Hector dead;
Nor vent on senseless earth thy vengeance vain,
But yield to ransom, and restore the slain."
To whom Achilles: "Be the ransom given.
And wo submit, since such the will of heaven."
While thus they communed, from the Olympian
bowers
Jovo orders Iris to the Trojan towers:
"Haste, wingod goildess! to the sacred town.
And urge her monarch U) redeem his son
Alono tiio Ilian ramparts let him leave,
And boar what stern A(;hilh's may receive:
Alone, for so wo will; no Trojan near
Except to place the dead with decent care.
Some aged herald who with gcMitlo hand
May tho slow mules and funeral ear command.
Nor let him death, nor let liini danger dread.
Safe through the foo by our nrotection led:
Him II(;rmes to Achilhis shall eonvcfy,
(iiiard of hiri life, and partner of lii.s way.
Fierce as ho is, Achilles' self shall sjtaro
His age, n(»r touch one venerable hair:
Some thought there must be in a soul so bravo.
526 THE ILIAD.
Some sense of duty, some desire to save."
Tlieu down her bow the winged Iris drives,
And swift at Priam's mournful court arrives:
Where the sad sons beside their father's tlirone
Sat bathed in tears, and answer'd groan with groan.
And all amidst them lay the hoary sire,
(Sad scene of woe!) his face his wrapp'd attire
Conceal 'd from sight; with frantic hands he spread
A shower of ashes o'er his neck and head.
From room to room his pensive daughters roam;
Whose shrieks and clamors fill the vaulted dome;
Mindful of those, who late their pride and joy,
liie pale and breathless round the fields of Troy!
Before the king Jove's messenger appears,
And thus in whispers greets his trembling ears:
"Fear not, father! no ill news I bear;
From Jove I come, Jove makes thee still his care;
For Hector's sake these walls he bids thee leave.
And bear what stern Achilles may receive;
Alone, for so he wills; no Trojan near.
Except, to place the dead with decent care,
Some aged herald, who with gentle hand
May the slow mules and funeral car command.
Nor shalt thou death, nor shalt thou danger dread:
Safe. through the foe by his protection led:
Thee Hermes to Pelides shall convey,
Guard of thy life, and partner of thy way.
Fierce as he is, Achilles' self shall spare
Thy age, nor touch one venerable hair;
Some thought there must be in a soul so brave.
Some sense of duty, some desire to save."
She spoke, and vanish'd. Priam bids prepare
His gentle mules and harness to the car;
There, for the gifts, a polish'd casket lay:
His pious sons the king's command obey.
Then pass'd the monarch to his bridal-room,
Where cedar-beams the lofty roofs perfume.
And where the treasures of his empire lay;
Then call'd his queen, and thus began to say:
"Unhappy consort of a king distress'd!
Partake the troubles of thy husband's breast:
I saw descend the messenger of Jove,
Who bids me try Achilles' mijid to move;
Forsake these ramparts, and with gifts obtain
The corse of Heotor, at yon navy slain.
THE ILIAD. 527
Tell me thy thought: my heart impels to go
Through hostile camps, aud bears me to the foe."
The hoary monarch thus. Her piercing (iries
Sad Hecuba renews, and then replies:
"Ah! whither wamlers thy disteniper'd mind?
And where the prudence now that awed mankind?
Though Phrygia once anl foreign regions known;
Now all confused, distracted, ove.rthrown!
Singly to pass through hosts of foes! to face
(0 heart of steel!) the murderer of thy race!
To view that deathful eye, and wander o'er
Those hands yet red witli Hector's noble gore!
^Alas! my lord! he knows not how to spare,
And what liis mercy, thy slain sons declare;
So brave! so many fallen! To claim liis rage
Vain were thy dignity, and vain thy age.
No — pent in this sad palace, let us give
To grief the wretche<l days we have to live.
Still, still for Hector let our sorrows flow,
Born to his own, and to his parents' woe!
Doom'd from the hour his luckless life begun,
To dogs, to vultures, and to Peleus' son!
Oh! in his dearest blood might I allay
My rage, and these barbarities repay!
For ah! could Hector merit thus, whose breath
Expired not meanly, in unactivo tieath?
Ho poured his latest blood in manly fight,
And fell a hero in his country's right."
"Seek not to stay me, nor my soul alTright
With words of omen, like a bird of night
(Heplied unmoved the veneraljle man);
'Tis heaven commands me. and you urge in vain.
Had any mortal v(ji(;e the injunction laid,
Nor augur, priest, jjor seer, had been obey'd.
A present goddess brought the liigh conimand,
I saw, I Ijoarij iiur, and the word shall stand.
I go, ye gods! obodient to your call :
If in yon camp your powers liav(3 doom'd my fall,
Content — Hy the same hand h-t me «;xpire!
Add to the slaughter'd son the wretchod sire!
One colli embrace at least may be allow'd,
And my last tears flow mingled with his blood!"
From forth liis opcnM stores, this Haiti, he drew
Twelve costly carpets of refulgent hue.
As many vests, a.s many mantles told.
528 THE ILTAD.
And twelve fair veils, and garments stiff with gold.
Two tripods next, and twice two chargers shine,
With ten pure talents from the richest mine;
And last a large well-hibor'd bowl had place
(The pledge of treaties once with friendly Thrace):
Seem'd all too mean the stores he could employ,
For one last look to buy him back to Troy!
Lo! the sad father, frantic with his pain,
Aiound him furious drives his menial train:
In vain each slave with duteous care attends,
Each office hurts him, and each face offends.
"What make ye here, officious crowd! (he cries):
Hence! nor obtrude your anguish on my eyes.
Have ye no griefs at home, to fix ye there:
Am I the only object of despair?
Am I become my people's common show,
Set up by Jove your spectacle of woe?
No, you must feel him too; yourselves must fall;
The same stern god to ruin gives you all:
Nor is great Hector lost by me alone;
Your sole defence, your guardian power is gone!
I see your blood the fields of Phrygia drown,
I see the ruins of your smoking town!
send me, gods! ere that sad day shall come,
A willing ghost to Pluto's dreary dome!"
He said, and feebly drives his friends away:
The sorrowing friends his frantic rage obey.
Next on his sons his erring fury falls,
Polites, Paris, Agathon, he calls;
His threats Dei'phobus and Dius hear,
Hippothous, Pammon, Helenes the seer,_
And generous Antiphon: for yet these nine
Survived, sad relics of his numerous line,
"Inglorious sons of an unhappy sire!
Why did not all in Hector's cause expire?
Wretch that I am ! my bravest offspring slain,
You, the disgrace of Priam's house, remain!
Mestor the brave, renown'd in ranks of war.
With Troilus, dreadful on his rushing oar,*
And last great Hector, more than man divine.
For sure he seem'd not of terrestrial line!
* " Troilus is only once named in tlie Iliad; be was mentioned
also in the Cypriad, but bis youth, beauty and untimely end
made him an object of great interest with the subsequent poets."
— Grote, i. p. 399.
TI]E ILIAD. 529
All those relentless Mars untimely slew,
And left me these, a soft and servile crew.
Whose days the feast and wanton dance employ,
Gluttons and flatterers, the contempt of Troy!
Why teach ye not my rapid wheels to run.
And speed mv journey to redeem my son?"
The sons their fatlier's wretclied age revere,
Forgive his anger, and produce the car.
High on the seat the cabinet they bind:
The new-made car with solid beauty shined;
13ox was the yoke, emboss'd with costly pains.
And hung with ringlets to receive the reins;
Nine cubits long, tiio traces swept the ground:
These to the chariot's polish'd pole they bound,
Then fix'd a ring the running reins to guide,
And close beneath the gather'd ends were tied.
Next with the gifts (the price of Hector slain)
The sad attendants load the groaning wain :
Last to the yoke the well-matched mules they bring
(The gift of\Mysia to the Trojan king).
lint the fair iiorses, long his darling care.
Himself received, and harness'd to his car:
Grieved as he was, he not this task denied;
The hoary herald hcli)"d him, at his side.
While careful these the gentle coursers join'd.
Sad Hecuba approach'd with anxious mind;
A golden bowl tiiat foam'd with fr:igrant wine
(Libation destined to the power divine),
Held in her right, before the steed she stands.
And thus consigns it to the monarcdi's hands:
"Take this, and pour to Jove; that safe from harms
His grace restore thee to our roof and arms.
Since victor of thy fears, anri slighting mine.
Heaven, or thy soul, insjiires this Ijold ilesign;
I'ray to that god, who high on Idii's brow
Surveys thy desolated realms below,
Jlis winged messenger to send from high.
And lead thy way with heaveidy augury:
Let tiio Htrong sovcreigu of tlic phiniy race
Tower on the right of yon ctln'real .si)act'.
That sign beheld, and streiigtlienM from above,
Boldly pursue the j<»urney mark'd by Jovo:
liut if the god his augury donies,
Suppress thy impulse, nor reject advice."
530 THE ILIAD.
" 'Tis just (said Priam) to the sire above
To raise our hands; for who so good as Jove?"
He spoke, and hade the attendant handmaid bring
The purest water of the living spring
(Her ready hands the ewer and bason held):
Then took the golden cup his queen had fill'd;
On the mid pavement pours the rosy wine,
Uplifts his eyes, and calls the power divine:
"0 first and greatest I heaven's imperial lord!
On lofty Ida's holy hill adored!
To stern Achilles now direct my ways,
And teach him mercy when a father prays.
If such thy will, despatcli from yonder sky
Thy sacred bird, celestial augury!
Let the strong sovereign of the plumy race
Tower on the right of yon ethereal space;.
So shall thy suppliant, strengthen 'd from above,
Fearless pursue the journey mark'd by Jove."
Jove heard his prayer, and from the throne on high,
Despatch'd his bird, celestial augury.
The swift-wing'd chaser of the feather'd game,
And known to gods by Percnos' lofty name.
Wide as appears some palace-gate display'd,
So broad, his pinions stretch'd their ample shade,
As stooping dexter with resounding wings
The imperial bird descends in airy rings.
A dawn of joy in every face ajipears:
The mourning matron dries her timorous tears:
Swift on his car the impatient monarch sprung;
The brazen portal in his passage rung;
The mules preceding draw the loaded wain,
Charged with the gifts: Ida^us holds the rein:
The king himself his gentle steeds controls.
And through surrounding friends the chariot rolls.
On his slow wheels the following people wait,
Mourn at each step, and give him up to fate;
With hands uplifted eye him as he pass'd.
And gaze upon him as they gazed their last.
Now forward fares the father on his way.
Through the lone fields, and back to Ilion they.
Great Jove beheld liim as he cross'd the plain,
And felt the woes of miserable man.
Then thus to Hermes: "Thou Avhose constant cares
Sitll succor mortals, and attend their prayers;
Behold an object to thy charge consign 'd:
THE ILIAD. 531
If ever pity tonclrd thee for maukind.
Go, guard the sire: the observing foe prevent,
And safe conduct him to Achilles' teut."
The god obeys, his golden pinions binds,*
And mounts incumbent on the wings of winds.
That high, through fields of air, his flight sustain.
O'er the wide earth, and o'er the boundless main;
Then grasps the wand that causes sleep to fly.
Or in soft slumbers seals the wakeful eye:
Thus arm'd, swift Hermes steers his airy way,
And stoops on Hellespont's resounding sea.
A beauteous youth, majestic and divine.
He seem'd; fair offspring of some princely lino!
Now twilight veil'd the glaring face of day.
And clad the dusky fields in sober gray;
What time the herald and the hoary king
(Their chariots stop])ing at the silver spring,
That circling II us' ancient marble flows),
Ailow'd their mules and steeds a short repose,
Through the dim shade the herald first espies
A man's approacii, and thus to Priam cries:
* Milton lias rivalled this passage describing the descent of
Gabriel, " Paradise Lost," bk. v. 266, seq.
" Down thither prone in flipht
He speeds, and throuji^h tlie vast ethc^real sky
Sails between worlds and worlds, with steady wing,
Now on the polar winds, then with quick faa
Winnows the buxoui air.
• • * * * «
At once on th' eastern clifT of Panuliso
He lif^hts, and to his propt-r shape returns
A seraph wing'd. ♦ » ♦
Like Maia's son he stood,
And shook his plunies, that heavenly fragrance fill'd
Tlie circuit wide."
Virgil, .Kn. iv. 'A'tii:
" Hernifs f)i)fys; with golden pinions binds
His Hying feet and mounts tin- wistt-m winds;
And wiiether o'er the seas or ••urlii he Hies,
Witii rapid force they l)enr iiiin down the skies.
But first hi- grasps within his awful hand
Th»! mark of sovfrt-igM |M)wer, his magic wand;
With this liM draws tin* gb«»^'l from hollow grav«'S;
With tliis lie tirives them frnm the Stygian waves:
Thns arm'd, the go<l begins his airy race.
And drives the racking clouds along the liquid space. "
— Dry den.
532 THE ILIAD.
"I mark some foe's advance: king! beware;
This hard adventure chiims thy utmost care!
For much I fear destruction hovers nigh:
Our state asks counsel ; is it best to fly?
Or old and helpless, at liis feet to fall,
Two wretched suppliants, and for mercy call?"
The afflicted monarch shiver'd with despair;
Pale grew his face, and upright stood his hair;
Sunk was his heart; his color went and came;
A sudden trembling shook Jiis aged frame:
When Hermes, greeting, touch 'd his royal hand,
And, gentle, thus accosts with kind demand:
"Say whither, father! when each mortal sight
Is seal'd in sleep, thou wauderest through the night?
Why roam thy mules and steeds the plains along,
Through Grecian foes, so numerous and so strong?
What couldst though hope, should these thy treasures
view;
These, who with endless hate thy race pursue?
For what defence, alas! could'st thou provide;
Thyself not young, a weak old man thy guide?
Yet sufEer not thy soul to sink with dread ;
Froni me no harm shall touch thy reverend head;
From' Greece I'll guard thee too; for in those lines
The living image of my fatlier shines."
"Thy words, that speak benevolence of mind.
Are true, my son! (the godlike sire rejoin'd):
Great are my hazards; but the gods survey
My steps, and send thee, guardian of my way.
Hail, and be bless'd! P'or scarce of mortal kind
Appear thy form, thy feature, and thy mind."
"Nor true are all thy words, nor erring wide
(The sacred messenger of heaven replied);
But say, convey'st thou through the lonely plains
What yet most precious of thy store remains,
To lodge in safety with some friendly hand:
Prepared, perphance, to leave thy native land?
Or fliest thou Jiow? — What hopes can Troy retain,
Thy matchless son, her guard and glory, slain?"
The king, alarm'd: "Say what, and whence thou art
Who search the sorrows of a parent's heart.
And know so well how godlike Hector died?"
Thus Priam spoke, and Hermes thus replied:
"You tempt me, father, and with pity touch:
On this sad subject you inquire toe i.;uch.
THE ILIAD. 533
Oft have these eyes that godlike Hector view'd
In glorious fight, with Grecian blood embrued:
I saw him when, lii^e Jove, his flames he toss'd
On thousand ships, and witherM half a host:
I saw, but help'd not: stern Acliilles' ire
Forbade assistance, and enjoy'd the fire.
For him 1 serve, of Myrmidonian race;
One ship convey'd us from our native place.
Polyctor is my sire, an honor'd name.
Old like thyself, and not unknown to fame;
Of seven his sons, by whom the lot was cast
To serve our prince, it fell on me, the last.
To watch this quarter, my adventure falls:
For with the morn the Greeks attack your walls;
Sleepless they sit, impatient to engage.
And scarce their rulers check their martial rage."
'*lf then thou art cf stern Pelides' train
(The mournful monarch thus rejoin'd again),
Ah tell me truly, where, oh I where are laid
My son's dear relics? what befalls him dead?
Have dogs dismember'd (on the naked j)lains).
Or yet unmangled rest, his cold remains?"
"0 favor'd of the skies! (thus answer'd then
The power that meditates between god and men.)
Nor drtgs nor vultures have thy Hector rent,
Hut whole he lies, neglected in the tent:
This the twelfth evening since ho rested there,
Untouch'd l)y worms, tintaintcd by the air.
Still as Aurora's ruddy beam is spread,
Uuund his friend's tomb Achilles drags the dead
Vet undisfigurcd, or in liml) or fafo.
All fresh lie lies, with every living grace,
Majestical in death ! No stains are found
O'er all the corse, and chtsed is every wound.
Though many a wound they gave. Souk! heavenly care,
S<ime hand divine, preserves him ever fair:
Or all the host of Imavcn, to whom he led
A life so gratctfiil. still regard him dead."
Thus spfiko to I'riam the rwdrstial guide,
And joyful thus the royal sire replied:
"HIest is \ho. man who pays the gods attove
The constant tribute of respect and lovel
Those who inhabit the Olympian bower
My son forgot not. in cxalffd power;
And heaven, that every virtue bears in mind,
534 THE ILIAD.
Even to the ashes of the just is kind.
But thou, generous youth! this goblet take,
A pledge of gratitude for Hector's sake;
And while the favoring gods our steps survey,
Safe to Pelides' tent conduct my way."
To whom the latent god: "0 king, forbear
To tempt my youth, for apt is youth to err:
But can I, absent from my prince's sight,
Take gifts in secret, that must shun the light?
What from our master's interest thus we draw,
Is but a licensed theft that 'scapes the law.
Respecting him, my soul abjures the offence;
Anct as the crime, I dread the consequence.
Thee, far as Argos, pleased I could convey;
Guard of thy life, and partner of thy way:
On thee attend, thy safety to maintain,
O'er pathless forests, or the roaring main."
He. said, then took the chariot at a bound,
And snatch'd the reins, and whirl'd the lash around:
Before the inspiring god that urged them on,
The coursers fly with spirit not their own.
And now they reach 'd the naval walls, and found
The guards repasting, while the bowls go round;
On these the virtue of his wand he tries.
And pours dee]) slumber on their watchful eyes:
Then heaved the massy gates, removed the bars,
And o'er the trenches led the rolling cars.
Unseen, through all the hostile camp they went.
And now approach 'd Pelides' lofty tent.
On hrs the roof was raised, and cover'd o'er
With reeds collected from the marshy shore;
And, fenced with palisades, a hall of state
(The work of soldiers), where the heroes sate.
Large was the door, whose well-compacted strength
A solid pine-tree barr'd of wondrous length:
Scarce three strong Greeks could lift its mighty weight,
But great Achilles singly closed the gate.
This Hermes (such the power of gods) set wide;
Then swift alighted the celestial guide,
And thus reveal'd — "Hear, prince! and understand
Thou ow'st thy guidance to no mortal hand:
Hermes I am, descended from above,
The king of arts, the messenger of Jove.
Farewell: to shun Achilles' sight I fly;
Uncommon are such favors of the sky,
THE ILIAD. 535
Nor stand confess'd to frail mortalit}'.
Now fearless enter, and prefer thy pra3'ers;
Adjure liim by his father's silver hairs,
His son, his motherl urge him to bestow
Whatever pity that stern heart can know."
Thus having said, he vanish 'd from his eyes,
And in a moment shot into the skies:
The king, contirm'd from heaven, alighted there,
And left his aged herald on the car,
With solemn pace through various rooms he went.
And found Achilles in his inner tent:
There sat the hero: Alcimus the brave.
And great Automedon, attendance gave:
These served his person at the royal feast;
Around, at awful distance, stood the rest.
Unseen by these, the king liis entry made:
And, prostrate now before Achilles laid,
.Sudden (a venerable sight I) appears;
Enjbraced i)is knees, and bathed his hands in tears;
Those direful hands his kisses press'd, embrued
Even with the best, the dearest of his blood!
As when a wretch (who, conscious of his crime,
Pursued for murder, flies his native clime)
Just gains some frontier, breathless, pale, amazed,
All gaze, all womhu': thus Achilles gazed:
Thus stood the attendants stupid with surprise:
All mute, yet seem'd to question with their eyes:
Hacii lookM on other, none the silence broke.
Till thus at last the kingly sujipliant spoke:
"All think, thou-favor'd of the powers divine!*
* In reference to ili« wliole scene that follows, the remarks of
<'<>lcriilir<' are \v«;ll worth readiiif^':
" H_v a r;lf)si' stiuly of lift', and l)y a true and natural mode of
<'X|>rHSMinf^ every thinj,'. Homer was eiialile<l to venttin- iiixm the
most peculiar and ditiicult situations, and to extricate hiniHeif
from them with the rrdnpletest success. The whole scene be-
tween Achilles and Priam, when tlie lattrT comes to the (Ireek
rHm|> for the piir|ioHe f(f redeeming; the hody of Hector, is at once
the ifi'iHi profoundly skillful, and yet ihe >imidest anil most ulTect-
in^ pa^saj^e in the Iliad. Cjuinctilian has taken notice of the fol-
lowing sjieech of I'riam, the rhetorical artilice of which is so
tran.scendant, that if genius did not often, especially in oratr)ry,
inconsciously fulfill tiie most Huhtle precepta of criticism, we
might he induced, on tliis account alone, lo consiiler the last luMtk
of the Iliad as what is called spurious, in r>tlier worils, of later
date than the rest of the poem. Oliserve the exiiuisite taste of
I'riam in occupying the mind of AcbilleH, from the outaut, wilU
536 THE ILIAD.
Think of thy father's age, aud pity mine!
In me that father's reverend image trace.
Those silver liairs, that venerable face;
His trembling limbs, his helpless person, see!
Is all my equal, but in misery!
Yet now, perhaps, some turn of human fate
Expels him helpless from his peaceful state;
Think, from some powerful foe thou seest him fly,
And beg protection with a feeble cry.
Yet still one comfort in his soul may rise;
He hears his son still lives to glad his eyes,
And, hearing, still may hope a better day
May send him thee, to chase that foe away.
No comfort to my griefs, no hopes remain.
The best, the bravest, of my sons are slain!
Yet what a race! ere Greece to Ilion came.
The pledge of many a loved and loving dame:
Nineteen one mother bore — Dead, all are dead!
How oft, alas! has wretched Priam bled!
Still one was left their loss to recompense;
His father's hope, his country's last defence.
Him too thy rage has slain ! beneath thy steel,
Unhappy in his country's cause he fell!
"For him through hostile camps I bent my way,
For him thus prostrate at thy feet I lay;
Large gifts proportion'd to thy wrath I bear;
hear the wretched, and the gods revere!
"Think of thy father, and this face behold!
See him in me, as helpless and as old!
Though not so wretched: there he yields to me,
The first of men in sovereign misery!
Thus forced to kneel, thus grovelling to embrace
The scourge and ruin of my realm and race;
Suppliant my children's murderer to implore,
And kiss those hands yet reeking with their gore!"
the image of bis father; in gradually introducing the parallel of
his own situation; aud, lastly, mentioning Hector's name when
he perceives that the hero is softened, and then only in such a
manner as to flatter the pride of the conqueror. The eyoo 5'
eXeEtvoTEpoi nap, 'and the dnvdazo rjxoc yepovra, are not
exactly like the tone of the earlier parts of the Iliad. They are
almost too fine and pathetic. The whole passage defies trans-
lation, for there is that about the Greek which has no name, but
which is of so fine and ethereal a subtlety that it can only be felt
in the original, and is lost in an attempt to transfuse it into
another language " — Coleridge, p. 195.
TEE ILIAD. 537
These \vor(]s soft pity in the chief inspire,
Touch'd witli the dear remembrance of his sire.
Then with his hand (as prostrate still he lay)
The old man's cheek he gently turn'd away.
Now each by turns indulged tlie gush of woe;
And now the mingled tides together flow:
This low on earth, that gently bending o'er;
A father one, and one a son deplore:
But great Achilles different passions rend,
And now his sire he mourns, and now his friend.
The infectious softness through the heroes ran
One universal solemn shower began;
They bore as heroes, but they felt as man.
Satiate at length with unavailing woes,
From the high throne divine Achilles rose;
The reverend monarch by the hand he raised;
On his white beard and form majestic gazed,
Not unrelenting; then serene began
AVith words to soothe the miserable man:
"Alas, what w«dght of anguish hast thou known,
Unhappy princel thus guardless and alone
To pass through foes, and thus undaunted face
The man whose fury has destroy 'd thy race!
Heaven sure has arm'd thee with a heart of steel,
A strength proportion'd to the woes you feel.
Ki.se, then: let reason mitigate your care:
To mourn avails not: man is born to bear.
Such is, alas I the gods' severe decree:
They, only they are blent, and only free.
Two urns by .Jove's high throne have ever stood,
The source of evil one, and one of good;
From thence the cup of mortal man ho tills,
IJlessingri to these, to those distributes ill;
To most he mingles both: the wretch dectreod
To taste the bad unmix'd, is cursed indeed;
Pursue<l by wr<mgs, by meagre famine driven,
He wanders, outcast both of earth and lieaven.
The happiest taste not hapj inexs Hiiircrc;
]iut find the cordial liraugbt is dasliM with care.
Who more than I'eleus shone in wealtii irnd nowor
"What stars concurring IjJess'd his natal hour;
A realm, a goddess, to his wishes given;
Graced l)y the gods witli all tli(! gifts of Jioavcn.
One evil yet o'crtakcs his latest day:
No race auccccding to imperial sway;
538 ' THE ILIAD.
An only son; and he^ alas! ordaiu'd
To fall iintinielv in a foreign land.
See him, in Troy, the pious care decline
Of his weak age, to live the curse of thine!
Thou too, old man, hast happier days heheld;
In riches once, in children once excell'd;
Extended Phrygia own'd thy ample reign,
And all fair Lesbos' blissful seats contain,
And all wide Hellespont's unmeasured main.
But since the god his hand has j^leased to turn,
And fill thy measure from his bitter urn.
What sees the sun, but hapless heroes' falls?
War, and the blood of men, surround thy walls!
What must be, must be. Bear thy lot, nor shed
These unavailing sorrows o'er the dead;
Thou canst not call him from the Stygian shore,
But thou, alas! may'st live to suffer more!"
To Avhom the king: "0 favor'd of the skies!
Here let me grow to earth! since Hector lies
On the bare beach deprived of obsequies.
give me Hector! to my eyes restore
His corse, and take the gifts: I ask no more.
Thou, as thou may'st, these boundless stores enjoy;
Safe may'st thou sail, and turn thy wrath from Troy:
So shall thy jDity and forbearance give
A weak old man to see the light and live!"
"Move me no more (Achilles thus replies,
While kindling anger sparkled in his eyes).
Nor seek by tears my steady soul to bend:
To yield thy Hector I myself intend:
For know, from Jove my goddess-mother came
(Old Ocean's daughter, silver-footed dame),
Nor comest thou but by heaven; nor comest alone,
Some god impels with courage not thy own:
No human hand the weighty gates unbarr'd.
Nor could the boldest of our youth have dared
To pass our outworks, or elude the guard.
Cease; lest, neglectful of high Jove's command,
1 show thee, king! thou tread'st on hostile laud;
Release my krtees, thy suppliaiit arts give o'er,
And shake the purpose of my soul no more,"
The sire obey'd him, trembling and o'eraw'd.
Achilles like a lion, rush'd abroad:
Automedon and Alcimus attend
(Whom most he honor'd since he lost his friend),
THE ILIAD. 539
These to unyoke the mules aud horses went,
And led the hoary herakl to the tent;
Next, heap'd on high, the numerous presents bear
(Great Hector's ransom), from the polish 'd car.
Two splendid mantles, and a carpet spread,
They leave; to cover and enwrap the dead.
Then call the handmaids, with assistant toil
To wash the body and anoint with oil,
Apart from Priam : lest the unhappy sire.
Provoked to passion, once more rouse to ire
The stern Pelides; and nor sacred age.
Nor Jove's command, should check the rising rage.
This done, the garments o'er the corse they spread;
Achilles lifts it to tlie funeral bed :
Then, while the body on the car they laid,
He groans, and calls on loved Patroclus' shade:
"If, in that gloom which never light must know,
The deeds of mortals touch the ghosts below,
friend! forgive me, that I thus fulfill
(Restoring Hector) heaven's unquestiou'd will.
The gifts the father gave, be ever thine,
To grace thy manes, and adorn thy shrine.*'*
He said, and, entering, took his sciit of state;
"Where full before him reverend Priam sate;
To whom, composed, the godlike chief begun:
"Lo! to thy prayer restored, thy breathless sou;
Extended on ti»e funeral couch he lies;
And soon as morning paints the eastern skies.
* " Achillea' ferocious treatment of the corpse of Hector cannot
Vjut offend as referred to the modern standard of humanity. The
iKToio ai,'e, lio\v(5Vt;r, must be judged in' its own moral laws. Ile-
trii»utivo vengeance on the dead, as well as the livinj^, was a duty
inculcated by the r<dif^ii)n of those i>arl)uri)us times, which not
only taught that evil intlicled on the autimr of evil was a sidace
to the injureil man; but made the wtdfuit' of the soul after death
dependent on the fate of the body from which it had scrparated.
Hence a denial of the rites essential to tlie soul's admission into
the more favored re>,'i(ins of the biwer world was a <ruul punish-
ment to the wanderer <»n tlie dreary shores of the infernal river.
The compbiint of ihej^host of I'atrocius to Acliiib-s, of but a brief
j)ost|)onement of his own ol)se(piies, sliows how etUcacious their
refu.sai to the remains <d' liis destroyer must have been in satiating,'
the thirst of reven(,'e, whi(di, even after death, was sup])Osed to
torment the dwellers in Hades. Hence, before yielding uji the
body of liecff)r to I'riam, Achilles asks pardon of I'utrorlus for
even this partial cesaion of his ju.st rights of retribution." — Mure,
vol. i. 2«9.
540 THE ILIAD.
The sight is granted to thy longing eyes;
But now the peaceful hours of sacred night
Demand reflection, and to rest invite:
Nor thou, father! thus consumed with woe,
The common cares that nourish life forego.
"Not thus did Niobe, of form divine,
A parent once, whose sorrows equall'd thine:
Six youthful sons, as many blooming maids,
In one sad Jay beheld the Stygian shades;
Those by Apollo's silver bow were slain,
These, Cynthia's arrows stretch'd upon the plain:
So was her pride chastised by wrath divine,
Who match'd her own with bright Latona's line;
But two the goddess, twelve the queen enjoy'd;
Those boasted twelve, the avenging two destroy'd.
Steep'd in their blood, and in the dust outspread.
Nine days, neglected, lay exposed tlie dead;
None by to weep them, to inhume them none
(For Jove had turn'd the nation all to stone).
The gods themselves, at length relenting gave
The unhappy race the honors of a grave.
Herself a rock (for such was heaven's high will)
Through deserts wild now pours a weeping rill;
Where round the bed whence Acheloiis springs,
The watery fairies dance in mazy rings;
There high on Sipylus' shaggy brow,
She stands, her own sad monument of woe;
The rock forever lasts, the tears forever flow.
"Such griefs, king! have other parents known;
Remember tiieirs, and mitigate thy own.
The care of heaven tliy Hector has appear'd.
Nor shall he lie unwept, and uninterr'd;
Soon may thy aged cheeks in tears be drown'd,
And all the eyes of Ilion stream around."
He said, and, rising, chose the victim ewe
With silver fleece, which his attendants slew.
The limbs they sever from the reeking hide,
With skill prepare them, and in parts divide:
Each on the coals the separate morsels lays,
And, hasty, snatches from the rising blaze.
With bread the glittering canisters they load,
Which round the board Automedou bestow'd.
The chief himself to each his portion placed.
And each indulging shared in sweet repast.
When now the rage of hunger was repress'd.
THE ILIAD. 641
The wondering hero eves his royal guest;
No less the royal guest the hero eyes,
His godlike aspect and majestic size;
Here, youthful grace and noble fire engage;
And there, the mild benevolence of age.
Thus gazing long, the silence neither broke
(A solemn scenel) at length the father spoke:
"Permit me now, beloved of Jove! to steep
^ly careful temples in the dew of sleep:
For, since the day that number'd with the dead
My hapless son, the dust has been my bed;
Soft sleep a stranger to my weeping eyes;
My only food, my sorrows and my sighs!
Till now, encouraged by the grace you give,
I share thy bantjuet, and consent to live."
With that, Achilles bade prepare the bed,
With purple soft and shaggy carpets spread;
Forth, by the llaming lights, they bend their way,
And place the couches and the coverings lay.
Then he: "Xow, father, sleep, but sleep not here;
Consult thy safety, and forgive my fear,
Lest any Argive at this hour awake,
To ask our counsel, or our orders take.
Approaching sudden to our open'd tent,
Perchance behold thee, and our grace prevent.
Should such report thy honor'd person here,
The king of men the ransom might defer:
But say with speed, if aught of thy desire
llemains unask'd; what time the rites require
To inter thy Hector? For, so long we stay
Our slaughtering arm, and bid the hosts obey.'*
''H then tiiy will permit (the monarch said)
To tinish all due honors to the dead.
This of thy grace accord: to thee are known
The fears of Jlion, closed within her town;
And at what distance from our walls aspire
The hills of Idc, and forests for the lire.
Nine days to vent our sorrows I rcfpiest.
The tenlli shall see the funeral and the feast;
The next, to raise liis monument be given;
The tw«-Uli wo war, if war be doom'*! Ijy heaven!"
"This thy re'piest (replied the rhiof) enjoy:
Till then our arms suspend the fall <if Troy."
Then gave his hand at parting, to prevent
The old man's fears, and ttirn'd within the tent,
542 THE ILIAD.
Where fair Briseis, bright in blooming charms,
Expects her hero with desiring arms.
But in the porch the king and herald rest;
Sad dreams of care yet wandering in their breast.
Now gods and men the gifts of sleep partake;
Industrious Hermes only was awake^
The king's return revolving in his mind,
To pass the ramparts, and the watch to blind.
The power descending hover'd o'er his head:
''And sleep'st thou, father I (thus the vision said);
Now dost thou sleep, when Hector is restor'd?
Nor fear the Grecian foes, or Grecian lord?
Thy presence here should stern Atrides see,
Thy still surviving sons may sue for thee;
May offer all thy treasures yet contain,
To spare thy age; and offer all in vain."
Waked with the word the trembling sire arose.
And raised his friend: the god before him goes:
He joins the mules, directs them with his hand,
And moves in silence through the hostile land.
When now to Xanthus' yellow stream they drove
(Xanthus, immortal progeny of Jove),
The winged deity forsook their view.
And in a moment to Olympus flew.
Now shed Aurora round her saffron ray,
Sprang through the gates of light, and gave the day:
Charged with the mournful load, to Ilion go
The sage and king, majestically slow.
Cassandra first beholds, from llion's spire.
The sad procession of a hoary sire;
Then as the pensive pomp advanced more near
(Her breathless brother stretched upon the bier),
A shower of tears o'erflows her beauteous eyes.
Alarming thus all Hion with her cries:
"Turn here your steps, and here your eyes employ,
Ye wretched daughters, and ye sons of Troy!
If e'er ye rush'd in crowds, with vast delight,
To hail your hero, glorious from the fight.
Now meet him dead, and let your sorrows flow;
Your common triumph, and your common woe.'*
In thronging crowds they issue to the plains;
Nor man nor Avoman in the walls remains;
In every face the self-same grief is shown;
And Troy sends forth one universal groan.
THE ILIAD. 543
At Scaea's gates they meet the nionrning wain,
Hang on the wheels, and grovel ronnd the shiin.
The wife and mother, frantic with despair,
Kiss his pale cheek, and rend their scatter'd hair:
Thns wildly wailing, at the gates they lay;
And there had sigh'd and sorrow'd out the day;
But godlike Priam from the chariot rose:
"Forbear (he cried) this violence of woes;
First to the palace let the car proceed,
Then pour your boundless sorrows o'er the dead."
The waves of people at his word divide,
Slow rolls the chariot through the following tide;
Even to the palace the sad pom]) they wait:
They weep, and place him on the bed of state.
A melancholy choir attend around,
AVith plaintive sighs, and music's solemn sound:
Alternately they sing, alternate flow
The obedient tears, melodious in their woe.
While deeper sorrows groan from each full heart,
And nature speaks at every pause of art.
First to the corse the weeping consort flew;
Around his neck her milk-white arms she threw,
"And oh, my Hector I Oh, my lord! (she cries)
Snatch'd in thy bloom from these desiring eyes!
Thou to the distant realms forever gone!
And I abandon'd, desolate, alone!
An only son, once comfort of our pains,
Sad product now of hapless love, remains!
Never to manly ago that son shall rise,
Or with increasing graces glad my eyes:
For Hion now (her great defender slain)
Shall sink a smoking ruin on the i)lain.
Who now protects her wives with guardian care?
Who saves her infants from the ragi^ of war?
Now hostile fleets must waft those iiifants o'er
(Those wives must wait them) to a foreign shore:
Thou too, my son, fo barbarous climes shalt go,
The sad companion of thy motl^er's woe;
Driven hencr' ;i slave licfore tlio victor's sword,
(y'ondemn'd to tr)il for sfiine inhuman lord:
Or else some fJreek whose father itrcss'd the plain.
Or son, or brother, Ijy great Hector slain,
Jn Hector's blood his vengeance .shall enjoy,
544 THE ILIAD.
And liurl thee headlong from the towers of Troy.*
For thy stern father never spared a foe:
Thence all these tears, and all this scene of woe!
Thence many evils his sad parents bore,
His parents many, but his consort more.
Why gav'st thou not to me thy dying hand?
And why received not I thy last command?
Some word thou wouldst have spoke, which, sadly dear,
My soul might keep, or utter with a tear;
Which never, never could be lost in air,
Eix'd in my heart, and oft repeated there!'*
Thus to her weeping maids she makes her moan,
Her weeping handmaids echo groan for groan.
The mournful mother next sustains her part:
*'0 thou, the best, the dearest to my heart!
Of all my race thou most by heaven approved,
And by the immortals even in death beloved!
While all my other sons in barbarous bands
Achilles bound, and sold to foreign lands.
This felt no chains, but went a glorious ghost.
Free, and a hero, to the Stygian coast.
Sentenced, 'tis true, by his inhuman doom,
Thy noble corse was dragg'd around the tomb
(The tomb of him thy warlike arm had slain);
Ungenerous insult, impotent and vain!
Yet glow'st thou fresh with every living grace;
No mark of pain, or violence of face:
Eosy and fair! as Phoebus' silver bow
Dismiss'd thee gently to the shades below."
Tiius spoke the dame, and melted into tears.
Sad Helen next in pomp of grief appears;
Fast from the shining sluices of her eyes
Fall the round crystal drops, while thus she cries:
"Ah, dearest friend! in whom the gods had join'df
* Such was the fate of Astyanax, when Troy was taken.
" Here, from the tow'r by stern Ulysses thrown,
Andromache bevvail'd her infant son."
— Merrick's Tryphiodorus, v. 875.
\ The following observations of Coleridge furnish a most gal-
lant and interesting view of Helen's character:
" Few things are more interesting than to observe how the
same hand that has given us the fury and inconsistency of Achilles
gives us also the consummate elegance and tenderness of Helen.
She is through the Iliad a genuine lady, graceful in motion and
speech, noble in her associations, full of remorse for a fault for
which higher powers seem responsible, yet graceful and affec-
tionate toward those with whom that fault had committed her.
THE ILIAD. 545
The mildest manners with the bravest mind ;
Now twice ten years (unhappy years) are o'er
Since Paris brought me to the Trojan shore;
(0 had I perish'd, ere tliat form divine
Sedaced this soft, this easy heart of mine I)
Yet was it ne'er my fate, from thee to find
A deed unsfentle, or a word nnkind:
When others cursed the autlioress of their woe,
Tliy pity check'd my sorrows in tlieir flow:
If some proud brother eyed me with disdain,
Or scornful sister with her sweeping train.
Thy gentle accents soften'd all my pain.
For thee I mourn; and mourn myself in thee
The wretched source of all this misery:
The fate I caused, forever I bemoan;
Sad Helen has no friend, now thou art gone!
Tiirough Troy's wide streets abandoned shall I roam:
In Troy deserted, as abhorr'd at home I"
So spoke the fair, with sorrow-streaming eye:
l^istressful beauty melts each stander-by:
On all around the infectious sorrow grows;
IJut Priam check'd the torrent as it rose:
"Perforin, ye Trojans! what the rites require,
And fell the forests for a funeral pyre;
Twelve days, nor foes nor secret ambush dread;
Achilles grants those iionors to tlie dead."*
He spoke; and, at his word, the Trojan train
Their mules and oxen harness to the wain,
I have always tbouglit the followintj speech, in which Helen
laments Hector, and hints at her own invidious and unprotected
situation in Troy, as almost the sweetest j)assafce in tlie poem. It
is another strikiiif^ instance of that refinement of feeiinj^and soft-
ness of tone which so penerally distinguish the last book of the
Iliad from the rest." — Classic I'oets, ji. 19M, set].
* " And iiere we jiart with .Xrdiilles. at tiie moment best cal-
culated to exalt and |)urify our impression f)f his charurter. \N'e
had accompanied him through tlie effervescence, undulations,
and final sulisidence of his stormy passions. We now leav<! him
in re[)ose, and under the full influenre of the niore amiable alTec-
tions; while our admiration of his great tpialities is cliastt-ned by
the reflection that, within a few siiort <lays, the mighty being in
whom tli»*y were uiiit<'d wiis himself tf> In- cut off sud<l<Mily in the
full vigor of their exercise. * * * The fn-ijuent and touching
allusions, interspersed throughout tlie Hiad, to the H|)eedy ter-
mination of its hero's course, and the moral on the vanity of
human life wliicli tiiey indicate, are among the finest evidences
of tin- s;>irit of ••thir unity by wiiirh the whole framework of the
poem is united." — Mure, vol. i. p. 201.
546 THE ILIAD
Pour throngh the gates, and fell'd from Ida's crown,
Roll back the gather'd forests to the town.
These toils continue nine succeeding days,
And high in air a sylvan structure raise.
But when the tenth fair morn began to shine,
Forth to the pile was borne the man divine,
And placed aloft; while all, with streaming eyes,
Beheld the flames and rolling smokes arise.
Soon as Aurora, daughter of the dawn,
With rosy lustre streak'd the dewy lawn,
Again the mournful crowds surround the pyre,
And quench with wine the yet remaining fire.
The snowy bones his friends and brothers place
(With tears collected) in a golden vase;
The golden vase in purple palls they roll'd,
Of softest texture, and inwrought with gold.
Last o'er the urn the sacred earth they spread.
And raised the tomb, memorial of the dead.
(Strong guards and spies, till all the rites were done,
Watch'd from the rising to the setting sun.)
All Troy then moves to Priam's court again,
A solemn, silent, melancholy train:
Assembled there, from pious toil they rest.
And sadly shared the last sepulchral feast.
Such honors Ilion to her hero paid.
And peaceful slept the mighty Hector's shade.*
* Cowper says, "I cannot take my ]eave of this noble poem
without expressing bow mucb I am struck witb tbe plain con-
clusion of it. It is like tbe exit of a great man out of company,
whom be has entertained magnificently: neitber pompous nor
familiar; not contemptuous, yet witbout mucb ceremony." Cole-
ridge, p. 227, considers tbe termination of " Paradise Lost," some-
what similar.
THE ILIAD. 547
CONCLUDING NOTE.
We liave now passed throupb tlie Iliad, and seen the anger of
Achilles, and the terrible effects of it, at an end: as that only was
the subject of the poem, and the nature of epic poetry would not
permit our author to proceed to the event of the war, it perhaps
may be acceptable to the common reader to give a short account
of what ha])pened to Troy and the chief actors in this poem after
the conclusion of it.
I need not mention that Troy was taken soon after the death of
Hector by the stratagem of the wooden horse, the particulars of
which are described by Virgil in the second book of the .Eneid.
Achilles fell before Troy by the hand of Paris, by the shot of
an arrow in his heel, as Hector had prophesied at his death, lib.
xxii.
The unfortunate Priam was killed by Pyrrhus, the son of
Achilles.
Ajax, after the death of Achilles, had a contest with Ulysses
for the armor of Vulcan; but being defeated in his aim, be slew
himself through indignation.
Helen, after tlm death of Paris, married Deiphobus his brother,
and at the taking <if Troy bt^trayed him, in order to reconcile her-
self to -Menelaiis her first husband, who received her again into
favor.
.Agamemnon at his return was barbarously murdered by
.Kgysthus, at the instigation of Clytemnestra his wife, who in
his absence liad dishonun-d his bed with .l"]gysthus.
Diomed, afti^r the fall of Troy, wjis expelled his own country,
and scarce escaped with his life from his adulterous wife .l-'giale:
but at hi.':t was received i)y i)auiius in .\|)ulia, anil sliared bis
kingdom; it is uncertain how he <iii*d.
Nestor lived in peace with his childrcai, in J'ylos, his native
■ ountry.
I'lyH.ses also, after innuinerablo troubles by sr-a and land, at
last returnfrd in safety to Ithaca, wliidi is the subject of Homer's
Odyssey,
I'"r»r what remains, I l)eg to be excused frnm the ceremonies of
taking leave at the end of my work; and from ombarraHKing my-
.self, or others, witli aiiy defences or apologies about it. Hut iu-
Htead of endeavoring to raise n vuin monuui'Mil to iiivself, of tlie
merits or fliHiculties of it (wliirli must be left to IIm- world, to
truth, ninl to posterity), let ni« leave iiehjnd me a memorial of
my friendship with one of the most valuable of men, as well as
(iiiest writers, of my age mid coiintiv one who lias trii-cl. ;ind
548 THE ILIAD.
knows by liis own experience, how hard an undertaking it is to
do justice to Homer; and one who (I am sure) sincerely rejoices
with me at the period of my labors. To him, therefore, having
brought this long work to a conclusion, I desire to dedicate it;
and to have the honor and satisfaction of placing together, in this
manner, the names of Mr. CONGREVE, and of
March 25, 1720, A. POPE.
T(3v GscSvdk EVTtoiia — to nrj £7ti itXiov jxe Ttponoqiai kv
Uoiiirixrj xai aXXo/u eTnrr/dEv/iadi, kv oh i6ooi av HaTEdxsQr^v,
si rjdOojiiTfv ejLiavTov avodooi npoLovra.
M. AuREL. Anton, de Seipso, lib. i. § 7.
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