diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore index 7fa70cb..0b01a4b 100644 --- a/.gitignore +++ b/.gitignore @@ -1,3 +1,6 @@ .DS_Store # Ignore i/o practice files -iliad_*.txt \ No newline at end of file +iliad_*.txt + +.DS_Store +Iliad15_*.txt \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/file-io.ipynb b/file-io.ipynb index 5560737..0883fa3 100644 --- a/file-io.ipynb +++ b/file-io.ipynb @@ -155,6 +155,1125 @@ " with open(iliad_file, \"r\") as f:\n", " a.write(f.read() + \"\\n\")\n" ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "code", + "execution_count": 50, + "metadata": {}, + "outputs": [], + "source": [ + "Iliad15_1 = \"\"\"“Here, proud Polydamas, here turn thy eyes!\n", + "(The towering Ajax loud-insulting cries:)\n", + "Say, is this chief extended on the plain\n", + "A worthy vengeance for Prothoënor slain?\n", + "Mark well his port! his figure and his face\n", + "Nor speak him vulgar, nor of vulgar race;\n", + "Some lines, methinks, may make his lineage known,\n", + "Antenor’s brother, or perhaps his son.”\n", + "\n", + "He spake, and smiled severe, for well he knew\n", + "The bleeding youth: Troy sadden’d at the view.\n", + "But furious Acamas avenged his cause;\n", + "As Promachus his slaughtered brother draws,\n", + "He pierced his heart—“Such fate attends you all,\n", + "Proud Argives! destined by our arms to fall.\n", + "Not Troy alone, but haughty Greece, shall share\n", + "The toils, the sorrows, and the wounds of war.\n", + "Behold your Promachus deprived of breath,\n", + "A victim owed to my brave brother’s death.\n", + "Not unappeased he enters Pluto’s gate,\n", + "Who leaves a brother to revenge his fate.”\n", + "\n", + "Heart-piercing anguish struck the Grecian host,\n", + "But touch’d the breast of bold Peneleus most;\n", + "At the proud boaster he directs his course;\n", + "The boaster flies, and shuns superior force.\n", + "But young Ilioneus received the spear;\n", + "Ilioneus, his father’s only care:\n", + "(Phorbas the rich, of all the Trojan train\n", + "Whom Hermes loved, and taught the arts of gain:)\n", + "Full in his eye the weapon chanced to fall,\n", + "And from the fibres scoop’d the rooted ball,\n", + "Drove through the neck, and hurl’d him to the plain;\n", + "He lifts his miserable arms in vain!\n", + "Swift his broad falchion fierce Peneleus spread,\n", + "And from the spouting shoulders struck his head;\n", + "To earth at once the head and helmet fly;\n", + "The lance, yet sticking through the bleeding eye,\n", + "The victor seized; and, as aloft he shook\n", + "The gory visage, thus insulting spoke:\n", + "\n", + "“Trojans! your great Ilioneus behold!\n", + "Haste, to his father let the tale be told:\n", + "Let his high roofs resound with frantic woe,\n", + "Such as the house of Promachus must know;\n", + "Let doleful tidings greet his mother’s ear,\n", + "Such as to Promachus’ sad spouse we bear,\n", + "When we victorious shall to Greece return,\n", + "And the pale matron in our triumphs mourn.”\n", + "\n", + "Dreadful he spoke, then toss’d the head on high;\n", + "The Trojans hear, they tremble, and they fly:\n", + "Aghast they gaze around the fleet and wall,\n", + "And dread the ruin that impends on all.\n", + "\n", + "Daughters of Jove! that on Olympus shine,\n", + "Ye all-beholding, all-recording nine!\n", + "O say, when Neptune made proud Ilion yield,\n", + "What chief, what hero first embrued the field?\n", + "Of all the Grecians what immortal name,\n", + "And whose bless’d trophies, will ye raise to fame?\n", + "\n", + "Thou first, great Ajax! on the unsanguined plain\n", + "Laid Hyrtius, leader of the Mysian train.\n", + "Phalces and Mermer, Nestor’s son o’erthrew,\n", + "Bold Merion, Morys and Hippotion slew.\n", + "Strong Periphaetes and Prothoon bled,\n", + "By Teucer’s arrows mingled with the dead,\n", + "Pierced in the flank by Menelaus’ steel,\n", + "His people’s pastor, Hyperenor fell;\n", + "Eternal darkness wrapp’d the warrior round,\n", + "And the fierce soul came rushing through the wound.\n", + "But stretch’d in heaps before Oïleus’ son,\n", + "Fall mighty numbers, mighty numbers run;\n", + "Ajax the less, of all the Grecian race\n", + "Skill’d in pursuit, and swiftest in the chase.\n", + "\n", + "\n", + "[Illustration: ] BACCHUS\n", + "\n", + "\n", + "\n", + "\n", + "BOOK XV.\n", + "\n", + "\n", + "ARGUMENT.\n", + "\n", + "\n", + "THE FIFTH BATTLE AT THE SHIPS; AND THE ACTS OF AJAX.\n", + "\n", + "\n", + "Jupiter, awaking, sees the Trojans repulsed from the trenches, Hector\n", + "in a swoon, and Neptune at the head of the Greeks: he is highly\n", + "incensed at the artifice of Juno, who appeases him by her submissions;\n", + "she is then sent to Iris and Apollo. Juno, repairing to the assembly of\n", + "the gods, attempts, with extraordinary address, to incense them against\n", + "Jupiter; in particular she touches Mars with a violent resentment; he\n", + "is ready to take arms, but is prevented by Minerva. Iris and Apollo\n", + "obey the orders of Jupiter; Iris commands Neptune to leave the battle,\n", + "to which, after much reluctance and passion, he consents. Apollo\n", + "reinspires Hector with vigour, brings him back to the battle, marches\n", + "before him with his ægis, and turns the fortune of the fight. He\n", + "breaks down great part of the Grecian wall: the Trojans rush in, and\n", + "attempt to fire the first line of the fleet, but are, as yet, repelled\n", + "by the greater Ajax with a prodigious slaughter.\n", + "\n", + "\n", + "Now in swift flight they pass the trench profound,\n", + "And many a chief lay gasping on the ground:\n", + "Then stopp’d and panted, where the chariots lie\n", + "Fear on their cheek, and horror in their eye.\n", + "Meanwhile, awaken’d from his dream of love,\n", + "On Ida’s summit sat imperial Jove:\n", + "Round the wide fields he cast a careful view,\n", + "There saw the Trojans fly, the Greeks pursue;\n", + "These proud in arms, those scatter’d o’er the plain\n", + "And, ’midst the war, the monarch of the main.\n", + "Not far, great Hector on the dust he spies,\n", + "(His sad associates round with weeping eyes,)\n", + "Ejecting blood, and panting yet for breath,\n", + "His senses wandering to the verge of death.\n", + "The god beheld him with a pitying look,\n", + "And thus, incensed, to fraudful Juno spoke:\n", + "\n", + "“O thou, still adverse to the eternal will,\n", + "For ever studious in promoting ill!\n", + "Thy arts have made the godlike Hector yield,\n", + "And driven his conquering squadrons from the field.\n", + "Canst thou, unhappy in thy wiles, withstand\n", + "Our power immense, and brave the almighty hand?\n", + "Hast thou forgot, when, bound and fix’d on high,\n", + "From the vast concave of the spangled sky,\n", + "I hung thee trembling in a golden chain,\n", + "And all the raging gods opposed in vain?\n", + "Headlong I hurl’d them from the Olympian hall,\n", + "Stunn’d in the whirl, and breathless with the fall.\n", + "For godlike Hercules these deeds were done,\n", + "Nor seem’d the vengeance worthy such a son:\n", + "When, by thy wiles induced, fierce Boreas toss’d\n", + "The shipwreck’d hero on the Coan coast,\n", + "Him through a thousand forms of death I bore,\n", + "And sent to Argos, and his native shore.\n", + "Hear this, remember, and our fury dread,\n", + "Nor pull the unwilling vengeance on thy head;\n", + "Lest arts and blandishments successless prove,\n", + "Thy soft deceits, and well-dissembled love.”\n", + "\n", + "The Thunderer spoke: imperial Juno mourn’d,\n", + "And, trembling, these submissive words return’d:\n", + "\n", + "“By every oath that powers immortal ties,\n", + "The foodful earth and all-infolding skies;\n", + "By thy black waves, tremendous Styx! that flow\n", + "Through the drear realms of gliding ghosts below;\n", + "By the dread honours of thy sacred head,\n", + "And that unbroken vow, our virgin bed!\n", + "Not by my arts the ruler of the main\n", + "Steeps Troy in blood, and ranges round the plain:\n", + "By his own ardour, his own pity sway’d,\n", + "To help his Greeks, he fought and disobey’d:\n", + "Else had thy Juno better counsels given,\n", + "And taught submission to the sire of heaven.”\n", + "\n", + "“Think’st thou with me? fair empress of the skies!\n", + "(The immortal father with a smile replies;)\n", + "Then soon the haughty sea-god shall obey,\n", + "Nor dare to act but when we point the way.\n", + "If truth inspires thy tongue, proclaim our will\n", + "To yon bright synod on the Olympian hill;\n", + "Our high decree let various Iris know,\n", + "And call the god that bears the silver bow.\n", + "Let her descend, and from the embattled plain\n", + "Command the sea-god to his watery reign:\n", + "While Phœbus hastes great Hector to prepare\n", + "To rise afresh, and once more wake the war:\n", + "His labouring bosom re-inspires with breath,\n", + "And calls his senses from the verge of death.\n", + "Greece chased by Troy, even to Achilles’ fleet,\n", + "Shall fall by thousands at the hero’s feet.\n", + "He, not untouch’d with pity, to the plain\n", + "Shall send Patroclus, but shall send in vain.\n", + "What youths he slaughters under Ilion’s walls!\n", + "Even my loved son, divine Sarpedon, falls!\n", + "Vanquish’d at last by Hector’s lance he lies.\n", + "Then, nor till then, shall great Achilles rise:\n", + "And lo! that instant, godlike Hector dies.\n", + "From that great hour the war’s whole fortune turns,\n", + "Pallas assists, and lofty Ilion burns.\n", + "Not till that day shall Jove relax his rage,\n", + "Nor one of all the heavenly host engage\n", + "In aid of Greece. The promise of a god\n", + "I gave, and seal’d it with the almighty nod,\n", + "Achilles’ glory to the stars to raise;\n", + "Such was our word, and fate the word obeys.”\n", + "\n", + "The trembling queen (the almighty order given)\n", + "Swift from the Idaean summit shot to heaven.\n", + "As some wayfaring man, who wanders o’er\n", + "In thought a length of lands he trod before,\n", + "Sends forth his active mind from place to place,\n", + "Joins hill to dale, and measures space with space:\n", + "So swift flew Juno to the bless’d abodes,\n", + "If thought of man can match the speed of gods.\n", + "There sat the powers in awful synod placed;\n", + "They bow’d, and made obeisance as she pass’d\n", + "Through all the brazen dome:[239] with goblets crown’d\n", + "They hail her queen; the nectar streams around.\n", + "Fair Themis first presents the golden bowl,\n", + "And anxious asks what cares disturb her soul?\n", + "\n", + "To whom the white-arm’d goddess thus replies:\n", + "“Enough thou know’st the tyrant of the skies,\n", + "Severely bent his purpose to fulfil,\n", + "Unmoved his mind, and unrestrain’d his will.\n", + "Go thou, the feasts of heaven attend thy call;\n", + "Bid the crown’d nectar circle round the hall:\n", + "But Jove shall thunder through the ethereal dome\n", + "Such stern decrees, such threaten’d woes to come,\n", + "As soon shall freeze mankind with dire surprise,\n", + "And damp the eternal banquets of the skies.”\n", + "\n", + "The goddess said, and sullen took her place;\n", + "Black horror sadden’d each celestial face.\n", + "To see the gathering grudge in every breast,\n", + "Smiles on her lips a spleenful joy express’d;\n", + "While on her wrinkled front, and eyebrow bent,\n", + "Sat stedfast care, and lowering discontent.\n", + "Thus she proceeds—“Attend, ye powers above!\n", + "But know, ’tis madness to contest with Jove:\n", + "Supreme he sits; and sees, in pride of sway.\n", + "Your vassal godheads grudgingly obey:\n", + "Fierce in the majesty of power controls;\n", + "Shakes all the thrones of heaven, and bends the poles.\n", + "Submiss, immortals! all he wills, obey:\n", + "And thou, great Mars, begin and show the way.\n", + "Behold Ascalaphus! behold him die,\n", + "But dare not murmur, dare not vent a sigh;\n", + "Thy own loved boasted offspring lies o’erthrown,\n", + "If that loved boasted offspring be thy own.”\n", + "\n", + "Stern Mars, with anguish for his slaughter’d son,\n", + "Smote his rebelling breast, and fierce begun:\n", + "“Thus then, immortals! thus shall Mars obey;\n", + "Forgive me, gods, and yield my vengeance way:\n", + "Descending first to yon forbidden plain,\n", + "The god of battles dares avenge the slain;\n", + "Dares, though the thunder bursting o’er my head\n", + "Should hurl me blazing on those heaps of dead.”\n", + "\n", + "With that he gives command to Fear and Flight\n", + "To join his rapid coursers for the fight:\n", + "Then grim in arms, with hasty vengeance flies;\n", + "Arms that reflect a radiance through the skies.\n", + "And now had Jove, by bold rebellion driven,\n", + "Discharged his wrath on half the host of heaven;\n", + "But Pallas, springing through the bright abode,\n", + "Starts from her azure throne to calm the god.\n", + "Struck for the immortal race with timely fear,\n", + "From frantic Mars she snatch’d the shield and spear;\n", + "Then the huge helmet lifting from his head,\n", + "Thus to the impetuous homicide she said:\n", + "\n", + "“By what wild passion, furious! art thou toss’d?\n", + "Striv’st thou with Jove? thou art already lost.\n", + "Shall not the Thunderer’s dread command restrain,\n", + "And was imperial Juno heard in vain?\n", + "Back to the skies wouldst thou with shame be driven,\n", + "And in thy guilt involve the host of heaven?\n", + "Ilion and Greece no more should Jove engage,\n", + "The skies would yield an ampler scene of rage;\n", + "Guilty and guiltless find an equal fate\n", + "And one vast ruin whelm the Olympian state.\n", + "Cease then thy offspring’s death unjust to call;\n", + "Heroes as great have died, and yet shall fall.\n", + "Why should heaven’s law with foolish man comply\n", + "Exempted from the race ordain’d to die?”\n", + "\n", + "This menace fix’d the warrior to his throne;\n", + "Sullen he sat, and curb’d the rising groan.\n", + "Then Juno call’d (Jove’s orders to obey)\n", + "The winged Iris, and the god of day.\n", + "“Go wait the Thunderer’s will (Saturnia cried)\n", + "On yon tall summit of the fountful Ide:\n", + "There in the father’s awful presence stand,\n", + "Receive, and execute his dread command.”\n", + "\n", + "She said, and sat; the god that gilds the day,\n", + "And various Iris, wing their airy way.\n", + "Swift as the wind, to Ida’s hills they came,\n", + "(Fair nurse of fountains, and of savage game)\n", + "There sat the eternal; he whose nod controls\n", + "The trembling world, and shakes the steady poles.\n", + "Veil’d in a mist of fragrance him they found,\n", + "With clouds of gold and purple circled round.\n", + "Well-pleased the Thunderer saw their earnest care,\n", + "And prompt obedience to the queen of air;\n", + "Then (while a smile serenes his awful brow)\n", + "Commands the goddess of the showery bow:\n", + "\n", + "“Iris! descend, and what we here ordain,\n", + "Report to yon mad tyrant of the main.\n", + "Bid him from fight to his own deeps repair,\n", + "Or breathe from slaughter in the fields of air.\n", + "If he refuse, then let him timely weigh\n", + "Our elder birthright, and superior sway.\n", + "How shall his rashness stand the dire alarms,\n", + "If heaven’s omnipotence descend in arms?\n", + "Strives he with me, by whom his power was given,\n", + "And is there equal to the lord of heaven?”\n", + "\n", + "The all-mighty spoke; the goddess wing’d her flight\n", + "To sacred Ilion from the Idaean height.\n", + "Swift as the rattling hail, or fleecy snows,\n", + "Drive through the skies, when Boreas fiercely blows;\n", + "So from the clouds descending Iris falls,\n", + "And to blue Neptune thus the goddess calls:\n", + "\n", + "“Attend the mandate of the sire above!\n", + "In me behold the messenger of Jove:\n", + "He bids thee from forbidden wars repair\n", + "To thine own deeps, or to the fields of air.\n", + "This if refused, he bids thee timely weigh\n", + "His elder birthright, and superior sway.\n", + "How shall thy rashness stand the dire alarms\n", + "If heaven’s omnipotence descend in arms?\n", + "Striv’st thou with him by whom all power is given?\n", + "And art thou equal to the lord of heaven?”\n", + "\n", + "“What means the haughty sovereign of the skies?\n", + "(The king of ocean thus, incensed, replies;)\n", + "Rule as he will his portion’d realms on high;\n", + "No vassal god, nor of his train, am I.\n", + "Three brother deities from Saturn came,\n", + "And ancient Rhea, earth’s immortal dame:\n", + "Assign’d by lot, our triple rule we know;\n", + "Infernal Pluto sways the shades below;\n", + "O’er the wide clouds, and o’er the starry plain,\n", + "Ethereal Jove extends his high domain;\n", + "My court beneath the hoary waves I keep,\n", + "And hush the roarings of the sacred deep;\n", + "Olympus, and this earth, in common lie:\n", + "What claim has here the tyrant of the sky?\n", + "Far in the distant clouds let him control,\n", + "And awe the younger brothers of the pole;\n", + "There to his children his commands be given,\n", + "The trembling, servile, second race of heaven.”\n", + "\n", + "“And must I then (said she), O sire of floods!\n", + "Bear this fierce answer to the king of gods?\n", + "Correct it yet, and change thy rash intent;\n", + "A noble mind disdains not to repent.\n", + "To elder brothers guardian fiends are given,\n", + "To scourge the wretch insulting them and heaven.”\n", + "\n", + "“Great is the profit (thus the god rejoin’d)\n", + "When ministers are blest with prudent mind:\n", + "Warn’d by thy words, to powerful Jove I yield,\n", + "And quit, though angry, the contended field:\n", + "Not but his threats with justice I disclaim,\n", + "The same our honours, and our birth the same.\n", + "If yet, forgetful of his promise given\n", + "To Hermes, Pallas, and the queen of heaven,\n", + "To favour Ilion, that perfidious place,\n", + "He breaks his faith with half the ethereal race;\n", + "Give him to know, unless the Grecian train\n", + "Lay yon proud structures level with the plain,\n", + "Howe’er the offence by other gods be pass’d,\n", + "The wrath of Neptune shall for ever last.”\n", + "\n", + "Thus speaking, furious from the field he strode,\n", + "And plunged into the bosom of the flood.\n", + "The lord of thunders, from his lofty height\n", + "Beheld, and thus bespoke the source of light:\n", + "\n", + "“Behold! the god whose liquid arms are hurl’d\n", + "Around the globe, whose earthquakes rock the world,\n", + "Desists at length his rebel-war to wage,\n", + "Seeks his own seas, and trembles at our rage;\n", + "Else had my wrath, heaven’s thrones all shaking round,\n", + "Burn’d to the bottom of his seas profound;\n", + "And all the gods that round old Saturn dwell\n", + "Had heard the thunders to the deeps of hell.\n", + "Well was the crime, and well the vengeance spared;\n", + "Even power immense had found such battle hard.\n", + "Go thou, my son! the trembling Greeks alarm,\n", + "Shake my broad ægis on thy active arm,\n", + "Be godlike Hector thy peculiar care,\n", + "Swell his bold heart, and urge his strength to war:\n", + "Let Ilion conquer, till the Achaian train\n", + "Fly to their ships and Hellespont again:\n", + "Then Greece shall breathe from toils.” The godhead said;\n", + "His will divine the son of Jove obey’d.\n", + "Not half so swift the sailing falcon flies,\n", + "That drives a turtle through the liquid skies,\n", + "As Phœbus, shooting from the Idaean brow,\n", + "Glides down the mountain to the plain below.\n", + "There Hector seated by the stream he sees,\n", + "His sense returning with the coming breeze;\n", + "Again his pulses beat, his spirits rise;\n", + "Again his loved companions meet his eyes;\n", + "Jove thinking of his pains, they pass’d away,\n", + "To whom the god who gives the golden day:\n", + "\n", + "“Why sits great Hector from the field so far?\n", + "What grief, what wound, withholds thee from the war?”\n", + "\n", + "The fainting hero, as the vision bright\n", + "Stood shining o’er him, half unseal’d his sight:\n", + "\n", + "“What blest immortal, with commanding breath,\n", + "Thus wakens Hector from the sleep of death?\n", + "Has fame not told, how, while my trusty sword\n", + "Bathed Greece in slaughter, and her battle gored,\n", + "The mighty Ajax with a deadly blow\n", + "Had almost sunk me to the shades below?\n", + "Even yet, methinks, the gliding ghosts I spy,\n", + "And hell’s black horrors swim before my eye.”\n", + "\n", + "To him Apollo: “Be no more dismay’d;\n", + "See, and be strong! the Thunderer sends thee aid.\n", + "Behold! thy Phœbus shall his arms employ,\n", + "Phœbus, propitious still to thee and Troy.\n", + "Inspire thy warriors then with manly force,\n", + "And to the ships impel thy rapid horse:\n", + "Even I will make thy fiery coursers way,\n", + "And drive the Grecians headlong to the sea.”\n", + "\n", + "Thus to bold Hector spoke the son of Jove,\n", + "And breathed immortal ardour from above.\n", + "As when the pamper’d steed, with reins unbound,\n", + "Breaks from his stall, and pours along the ground;\n", + "With ample strokes he rushes to the flood,\n", + "To bathe his sides, and cool his fiery blood;\n", + "His head, now freed, he tosses to the skies;\n", + "His mane dishevell’d o’er his shoulders flies:\n", + "He snuffs the females in the well-known plain,\n", + "And springs, exulting, to his fields again:\n", + "Urged by the voice divine, thus Hector flew,\n", + "Full of the god; and all his hosts pursue.\n", + "As when the force of men and dogs combined\n", + "Invade the mountain goat, or branching hind;\n", + "Far from the hunter’s rage secure they lie\n", + "Close in the rock, (not fated yet to die)\n", + "When lo! a lion shoots across the way!\n", + "They fly: at once the chasers and the prey.\n", + "So Greece, that late in conquering troops pursued,\n", + "And mark’d their progress through the ranks in blood,\n", + "Soon as they see the furious chief appear,\n", + "Forget to vanquish, and consent to fear.\n", + "\n", + "Thoas with grief observed his dreadful course,\n", + "Thoas, the bravest of the Ætolian force;\n", + "Skill’d to direct the javelin’s distant flight,\n", + "And bold to combat in the standing fight,\n", + "Not more in councils famed for solid sense,\n", + "Than winning words and heavenly eloquence.\n", + "“Gods! what portent (he cried) these eyes invades?\n", + "Lo! Hector rises from the Stygian shades!\n", + "We saw him, late, by thundering Ajax kill’d:\n", + "What god restores him to the frighted field;\n", + "And not content that half of Greece lie slain,\n", + "Pours new destruction on her sons again?\n", + "He comes not, Jove! without thy powerful will;\n", + "Lo! still he lives, pursues, and conquers still!\n", + "Yet hear my counsel, and his worst withstand:\n", + "The Greeks’ main body to the fleet command;\n", + "But let the few whom brisker spirits warm,\n", + "Stand the first onset, and provoke the storm.\n", + "Thus point your arms; and when such foes appear,\n", + "Fierce as he is, let Hector learn to fear.”\n", + "\n", + "The warrior spoke; the listening Greeks obey,\n", + "Thickening their ranks, and form a deep array.\n", + "\n", + "Each Ajax, Teucer, Merion gave command,\n", + "The valiant leader of the Cretan band;\n", + "And Mars-like Meges: these the chiefs excite,\n", + "Approach the foe, and meet the coming fight.\n", + "Behind, unnumber’d multitudes attend,\n", + "To flank the navy, and the shores defend.\n", + "Full on the front the pressing Trojans bear,\n", + "And Hector first came towering to the war.\n", + "Phœbus himself the rushing battle led;\n", + "A veil of clouds involved his radiant head:\n", + "High held before him, Jove’s enormous shield\n", + "Portentous shone, and shaded all the field;\n", + "Vulcan to Jove the immortal gift consign’d,\n", + "To scatter hosts and terrify mankind,\n", + "The Greeks expect the shock, the clamours rise\n", + "From different parts, and mingle in the skies.\n", + "Dire was the hiss of darts, by heroes flung,\n", + "And arrows leaping from the bow-string sung;\n", + "These drink the life of generous warriors slain:\n", + "Those guiltless fall, and thirst for blood in vain.\n", + "As long as Phœbus bore unmoved the shield,\n", + "Sat doubtful conquest hovering o’er the field;\n", + "But when aloft he shakes it in the skies,\n", + "Shouts in their ears, and lightens in their eyes,\n", + "Deep horror seizes every Grecian breast,\n", + "Their force is humbled, and their fear confess’d.\n", + "So flies a herd of oxen, scatter’d wide,\n", + "No swain to guard them, and no day to guide,\n", + "When two fell lions from the mountain come,\n", + "And spread the carnage through the shady gloom.\n", + "Impending Phœbus pours around them fear,\n", + "And Troy and Hector thunder in the rear.\n", + "Heaps fall on heaps: the slaughter Hector leads,\n", + "First great Arcesilas, then Stichius bleeds;\n", + "One to the bold Bœotians ever dear,\n", + "And one Menestheus’ friend and famed compeer.\n", + "Medon and Iasus, Æneas sped;\n", + "This sprang from Phelus, and the Athenians led;\n", + "But hapless Medon from Oïleus came;\n", + "Him Ajax honour’d with a brother’s name,\n", + "Though born of lawless love: from home expell’d,\n", + "A banish’d man, in Phylacè he dwell’d,\n", + "Press’d by the vengeance of an angry wife;\n", + "Troy ends at last his labours and his life.\n", + "Mecystes next Polydamas o’erthrew;\n", + "And thee, brave Clonius, great Agenor slew.\n", + "By Paris, Deiochus inglorious dies,\n", + "Pierced through the shoulder as he basely flies.\n", + "Polites’ arm laid Echius on the plain;\n", + "Stretch’d on one heap, the victors spoil the slain.\n", + "The Greeks dismay’d, confused, disperse or fall,\n", + "Some seek the trench, some skulk behind the wall.\n", + "While these fly trembling, others pant for breath,\n", + "And o’er the slaughter stalks gigantic death.\n", + "On rush’d bold Hector, gloomy as the night;\n", + "Forbids to plunder, animates the fight,\n", + "Points to the fleet: “For, by the gods! who flies,[240]\n", + "Who dares but linger, by this hand he dies;\n", + "No weeping sister his cold eye shall close,\n", + "No friendly hand his funeral pyre compose.\n", + "Who stops to plunder at this signal hour,\n", + "The birds shall tear him, and the dogs devour.”\n", + "Furious he said; the smarting scourge resounds;\n", + "The coursers fly; the smoking chariot bounds;\n", + "The hosts rush on; loud clamours shake the shore;\n", + "The horses thunder, earth and ocean roar!\n", + "Apollo, planted at the trench’s bound,\n", + "Push’d at the bank: down sank the enormous mound:\n", + "Roll’d in the ditch the heapy ruin lay;\n", + "A sudden road! a long and ample way.\n", + "O’er the dread fosse (a late impervious space)\n", + "Now steeds, and men, and cars tumultuous pass.\n", + "The wondering crowds the downward level trod;\n", + "Before them flamed the shield, and march’d the god.\n", + "Then with his hand he shook the mighty wall;\n", + "And lo! the turrets nod, the bulwarks fall:\n", + "Easy as when ashore an infant stands,\n", + "And draws imagined houses in the sands;\n", + "The sportive wanton, pleased with some new play,\n", + "Sweeps the slight works and fashion’d domes away:\n", + "Thus vanish’d at thy touch, the towers and walls;\n", + "The toil of thousands in a moment falls.\n", + "\n", + "The Grecians gaze around with wild despair,\n", + "Confused, and weary all the powers with prayer:\n", + "Exhort their men, with praises, threats, commands;\n", + "And urge the gods, with voices, eyes, and hands.\n", + "Experienced Nestor chief obtests the skies,\n", + "And weeps his country with a father’s eyes.\n", + "\n", + "“O Jove! if ever, on his native shore,\n", + "One Greek enrich’d thy shrine with offer’d gore;\n", + "If e’er, in hope our country to behold,\n", + "We paid the fattest firstlings of the fold;\n", + "If e’er thou sign’st our wishes with thy nod:\n", + "Perform the promise of a gracious god!\n", + "This day preserve our navies from the flame,\n", + "And save the relics of the Grecian name.”\n", + "\n", + "Thus prayed the sage: the eternal gave consent,\n", + "And peals of thunder shook the firmament.\n", + "Presumptuous Troy mistook the accepting sign,\n", + "And catch’d new fury at the voice divine.\n", + "As, when black tempests mix the seas and skies,\n", + "The roaring deeps in watery mountains rise,\n", + "Above the sides of some tall ship ascend,\n", + "Its womb they deluge, and its ribs they rend:\n", + "Thus loudly roaring, and o’erpowering all,\n", + "Mount the thick Trojans up the Grecian wall;\n", + "Legions on legions from each side arise:\n", + "Thick sound the keels; the storm of arrows flies.\n", + "Fierce on the ships above, the cars below,\n", + "These wield the mace, and those the javelin throw.\n", + "\n", + "While thus the thunder of the battle raged,\n", + "And labouring armies round the works engaged,\n", + "Still in the tent Patroclus sat to tend\n", + "The good Eurypylus, his wounded friend.\n", + "He sprinkles healing balms, to anguish kind,\n", + "And adds discourse, the medicine of the mind.\n", + "But when he saw, ascending up the fleet,\n", + "Victorious Troy; then, starting from his seat,\n", + "With bitter groans his sorrows he express’d,\n", + "He wrings his hands, he beats his manly breast.\n", + "“Though yet thy state require redress (he cries)\n", + "Depart I must: what horrors strike my eyes!\n", + "Charged with Achilles’ high command I go,\n", + "A mournful witness of this scene of woe;\n", + "I haste to urge him by his country’s care\n", + "To rise in arms, and shine again in war.\n", + "Perhaps some favouring god his soul may bend;\n", + "The voice is powerful of a faithful friend.”\n", + "\n", + "He spoke; and, speaking, swifter than the wind\n", + "Sprung from the tent, and left the war behind.\n", + "The embodied Greeks the fierce attack sustain,\n", + "But strive, though numerous, to repulse in vain:\n", + "Nor could the Trojans, through that firm array,\n", + "Force to the fleet and tents the impervious way.\n", + "As when a shipwright, with Palladian art,\n", + "Smooths the rough wood, and levels every part;\n", + "With equal hand he guides his whole design,\n", + "By the just rule, and the directing line:\n", + "The martial leaders, with like skill and care,\n", + "Preserved their line, and equal kept the war.\n", + "Brave deeds of arms through all the ranks were tried,\n", + "And every ship sustained an equal tide.\n", + "At one proud bark, high-towering o’er the fleet,\n", + "Ajax the great, and godlike Hector meet;\n", + "For one bright prize the matchless chiefs contend,\n", + "Nor this the ships can fire, nor that defend:\n", + "One kept the shore, and one the vessel trod;\n", + "That fix’d as fate, this acted by a god.\n", + "The son of Clytius in his daring hand,\n", + "The deck approaching, shakes a flaming brand;\n", + "But, pierced by Telamon’s huge lance, expires:\n", + "Thundering he falls, and drops the extinguish’d fires.\n", + "Great Hector view’d him with a sad survey,\n", + "As stretch’d in dust before the stern he lay.\n", + "“Oh! all of Trojan, all of Lycian race!\n", + "Stand to your arms, maintain this arduous space:\n", + "Lo! where the son of royal Clytius lies;\n", + "Ah, save his arms, secure his obsequies!”\n", + "\n", + "This said, his eager javelin sought the foe:\n", + "But Ajax shunn’d the meditated blow.\n", + "Not vainly yet the forceful lance was thrown;\n", + "It stretch’d in dust unhappy Lycophron:\n", + "An exile long, sustain’d at Ajax’ board,\n", + "A faithful servant to a foreign lord;\n", + "In peace, and war, for ever at his side,\n", + "Near his loved master, as he lived, he died.\n", + "From the high poop he tumbles on the sand,\n", + "And lies a lifeless load along the land.\n", + "With anguish Ajax views the piercing sight,\n", + "And thus inflames his brother to the fight:\n", + "\n", + "“Teucer, behold! extended on the shore\n", + "Our friend, our loved companion! now no more!\n", + "Dear as a parent, with a parent’s care\n", + "To fight our wars he left his native air.\n", + "This death deplored, to Hector’s rage we owe;\n", + "Revenge, revenge it on the cruel foe.\n", + "Where are those darts on which the fates attend?\n", + "And where the bow which Phœbus taught to bend?”\n", + "\n", + "Impatient Teucer, hastening to his aid,\n", + "Before the chief his ample bow display’d;\n", + "The well-stored quiver on his shoulders hung:\n", + "Then hiss’d his arrow, and the bowstring sung.\n", + "Clytus, Pisenor’s son, renown’d in fame,\n", + "(To thee, Polydamas! an honour’d name)\n", + "Drove through the thickest of the embattled plains\n", + "The startling steeds, and shook his eager reins.\n", + "As all on glory ran his ardent mind,\n", + "The pointed death arrests him from behind:\n", + "Through his fair neck the thrilling arrow flies;\n", + "In youth’s first bloom reluctantly he dies.\n", + "Hurl’d from the lofty seat, at distance far,\n", + "The headlong coursers spurn his empty car;\n", + "Till sad Polydamas the steeds restrain’d,\n", + "And gave, Astynous, to thy careful hand;\n", + "Then, fired to vengeance, rush’d amidst the foe:\n", + "Rage edged his sword, and strengthen’d every blow.\n", + "\n", + "Once more bold Teucer, in his country’s cause,\n", + "At Hector’s breast a chosen arrow draws:\n", + "And had the weapon found the destined way,\n", + "Thy fall, great Trojan! had renown’d that day.\n", + "But Hector was not doom’d to perish then:\n", + "The all-wise disposer of the fates of men\n", + "(Imperial Jove) his present death withstands;\n", + "Nor was such glory due to Teucer’s hands.\n", + "At its full stretch as the tough string he drew,\n", + "Struck by an arm unseen, it burst in two;\n", + "Down dropp’d the bow: the shaft with brazen head\n", + "Fell innocent, and on the dust lay dead.\n", + "The astonish’d archer to great Ajax cries;\n", + "“Some god prevents our destined enterprise:\n", + "Some god, propitious to the Trojan foe,\n", + "Has, from my arm unfailing, struck the bow,\n", + "And broke the nerve my hands had twined with art,\n", + "Strong to impel the flight of many a dart.”\n", + "\n", + "“Since heaven commands it (Ajax made reply)\n", + "Dismiss the bow, and lay thy arrows by:\n", + "Thy arms no less suffice the lance to wield,\n", + "And quit the quiver for the ponderous shield.\n", + "In the first ranks indulge thy thirst of fame,\n", + "Thy brave example shall the rest inflame.\n", + "Fierce as they are, by long successes vain;\n", + "To force our fleet, or even a ship to gain,\n", + "Asks toil, and sweat, and blood: their utmost might\n", + "Shall find its match—No more: ’tis ours to fight.”\n", + "\n", + "Then Teucer laid his faithless bow aside;\n", + "The fourfold buckler o’er his shoulder tied;\n", + "On his brave head a crested helm he placed,\n", + "With nodding horse-hair formidably graced;\n", + "A dart, whose point with brass refulgent shines,\n", + "The warrior wields; and his great brother joins.\n", + "\n", + "This Hector saw, and thus express’d his joy:\n", + "“Ye troops of Lycia, Dardanus, and Troy!\n", + "Be mindful of yourselves, your ancient fame,\n", + "And spread your glory with the navy’s flame.\n", + "Jove is with us; I saw his hand, but now,\n", + "From the proud archer strike his vaunted bow:\n", + "Indulgent Jove! how plain thy favours shine,\n", + "When happy nations bear the marks divine!\n", + "How easy then, to see the sinking state\n", + "Of realms accursed, deserted, reprobate!\n", + "Such is the fate of Greece, and such is ours:\n", + "Behold, ye warriors, and exert your powers.\n", + "Death is the worst; a fate which all must try;\n", + "And for our country, ’tis a bliss to die.\n", + "The gallant man, though slain in fight he be,\n", + "Yet leaves his nation safe, his children free;\n", + "Entails a debt on all the grateful state;\n", + "His own brave friends shall glory in his fate;\n", + "His wife live honour’d, all his race succeed,\n", + "And late posterity enjoy the deed!”\n", + "\n", + "This roused the soul in every Trojan breast:\n", + "The godlike Ajax next his Greeks address’d:\n", + "\n", + "“How long, ye warriors of the Argive race,\n", + "(To generous Argos what a dire disgrace!)\n", + "How long on these cursed confines will ye lie,\n", + "Yet undetermined, or to live or die?\n", + "What hopes remain, what methods to retire,\n", + "If once your vessels catch the Trojan fire?\n", + "Mark how the flames approach, how near they fall,\n", + "How Hector calls, and Troy obeys his call!\n", + "Not to the dance that dreadful voice invites,\n", + "It calls to death, and all the rage of fights.\n", + "’Tis now no time for wisdom or debates;\n", + "To your own hands are trusted all your fates;\n", + "And better far in one decisive strife,\n", + "One day should end our labour or our life,\n", + "Than keep this hard-got inch of barren sands,\n", + "Still press’d, and press’d by such inglorious hands.”\n", + "\n", + "The listening Grecians feel their leader’s flame,\n", + "And every kindling bosom pants for fame.\n", + "Then mutual slaughters spread on either side;\n", + "By Hector here the Phocian Schedius died;\n", + "There, pierced by Ajax, sunk Laodamas,\n", + "Chief of the foot, of old Antenor’s race.\n", + "Polydamas laid Otus on the sand,\n", + "The fierce commander of the Epeian band.\n", + "His lance bold Meges at the victor threw;\n", + "The victor, stooping, from the death withdrew;\n", + "(That valued life, O Phœbus! was thy care)\n", + "But Croesmus’ bosom took the flying spear:\n", + "His corpse fell bleeding on the slippery shore;\n", + "His radiant arms triumphant Meges bore.\n", + "Dolops, the son of Lampus, rushes on,\n", + "Sprung from the race of old Laomedon,\n", + "And famed for prowess in a well-fought field,\n", + "He pierced the centre of his sounding shield:\n", + "But Meges, Phyleus’ ample breastplate wore,\n", + "(Well-known in fight on Sellè’s winding shore;\n", + "For king Euphetes gave the golden mail,\n", + "Compact, and firm with many a jointed scale)\n", + "Which oft, in cities storm’d, and battles won,\n", + "Had saved the father, and now saves the son.\n", + "Full at the Trojan’s head he urged his lance,\n", + "Where the high plumes above the helmet dance,\n", + "New ting’d with Tyrian dye: in dust below,\n", + "Shorn from the crest, the purple honours glow.\n", + "Meantime their fight the Spartan king survey’d,\n", + "And stood by Meges’ side a sudden aid.\n", + "Through Dolops’ shoulder urged his forceful dart,\n", + "Which held its passage through the panting heart,\n", + "And issued at his breast. With thundering sound\n", + "The warrior falls, extended on the ground.\n", + "In rush the conquering Greeks to spoil the slain:\n", + "But Hector’s voice excites his kindred train;\n", + "The hero most, from Hicetaon sprung,\n", + "Fierce Melanippus, gallant, brave, and young.\n", + "He (ere to Troy the Grecians cross’d the main)\n", + "Fed his large oxen on Percotè’s plain;\n", + "But when oppress’d, his country claim’d his care,\n", + "Return’d to Ilion, and excell’d in war;\n", + "For this, in Priam’s court, he held his place,\n", + "Beloved no less than Priam’s royal race.\n", + "Him Hector singled, as his troops he led,\n", + "And thus inflamed him, pointing to the dead.\n", + "\n", + "“Lo, Melanippus! lo, where Dolops lies;\n", + "And is it thus our royal kinsman dies?\n", + "O’ermatch’d he falls; to two at once a prey,\n", + "And lo! they bear the bloody arms away!\n", + "Come on—a distant war no longer wage,\n", + "But hand to hand thy country’s foes engage:\n", + "Till Greece at once, and all her glory end;\n", + "Or Ilion from her towery height descend,\n", + "Heaved from the lowest stone; and bury all\n", + "In one sad sepulchre, one common fall.”\n", + "\n", + "Hector (this said) rush’d forward on the foes:\n", + "With equal ardour Melanippus glows:\n", + "Then Ajax thus—“O Greeks! respect your fame,\n", + "Respect yourselves, and learn an honest shame:\n", + "Let mutual reverence mutual warmth inspire,\n", + "And catch from breast to breast the noble fire,\n", + "On valour’s side the odds of combat lie;\n", + "The brave live glorious, or lamented die;\n", + "The wretch that trembles in the field of fame,\n", + "Meets death, and worse than death, eternal shame.”\n", + "\n", + "His generous sense he not in vain imparts;\n", + "It sunk, and rooted in the Grecian hearts:\n", + "They join, they throng, they thicken at his call,\n", + "And flank the navy with a brazen wall;\n", + "Shields touching shields, in order blaze above,\n", + "And stop the Trojans, though impell’d by Jove.\n", + "The fiery Spartan first, with loud applause.\n", + "Warms the bold son of Nestor in his cause.\n", + "“Is there (he said) in arms a youth like you,\n", + "So strong to fight, so active to pursue?\n", + "Why stand you distant, nor attempt a deed?\n", + "Lift the bold lance, and make some Trojan bleed.”\n", + "\n", + "He said; and backward to the lines retired;\n", + "Forth rush’d the youth with martial fury fired,\n", + "Beyond the foremost ranks; his lance he threw,\n", + "And round the black battalions cast his view.\n", + "The troops of Troy recede with sudden fear,\n", + "While the swift javelin hiss’d along in air.\n", + "Advancing Melanippus met the dart\n", + "With his bold breast, and felt it in his heart:\n", + "Thundering he falls; his falling arms resound,\n", + "And his broad buckler rings against the ground.\n", + "The victor leaps upon his prostrate prize:\n", + "Thus on a roe the well-breath’d beagle flies,\n", + "And rends his side, fresh-bleeding with the dart\n", + "The distant hunter sent into his heart.\n", + "Observing Hector to the rescue flew;\n", + "Bold as he was, Antilochus withdrew.\n", + "So when a savage, ranging o’er the plain,\n", + "Has torn the shepherd’s dog, or shepherd’s swain,\n", + "While conscious of the deed, he glares around,\n", + "And hears the gathering multitude resound,\n", + "Timely he flies the yet-untasted food,\n", + "And gains the friendly shelter of the wood:\n", + "So fears the youth; all Troy with shouts pursue,\n", + "While stones and darts in mingled tempest flew;\n", + "But enter’d in the Grecian ranks, he turns\n", + "His manly breast, and with new fury burns.\n", + "\n", + "Now on the fleet the tides of Trojans drove,\n", + "Fierce to fulfil the stern decrees of Jove:\n", + "The sire of gods, confirming Thetis’ prayer,\n", + "The Grecian ardour quench’d in deep despair;\n", + "But lifts to glory Troy’s prevailing bands,\n", + "Swells all their hearts, and strengthens all their hands.\n", + "On Ida’s top he waits with longing eyes,\n", + "To view the navy blazing to the skies;\n", + "Then, nor till then, the scale of war shall turn,\n", + "The Trojans fly, and conquer’d Ilion burn.\n", + "These fates revolved in his almighty mind,\n", + "He raises Hector to the work design’d,\n", + "Bids him with more than mortal fury glow,\n", + "And drives him, like a lightning, on the foe.\n", + "So Mars, when human crimes for vengeance call,\n", + "Shakes his huge javelin, and whole armies fall.\n", + "Not with more rage a conflagration rolls,\n", + "Wraps the vast mountains, and involves the poles.\n", + "He foams with wrath; beneath his gloomy brow\n", + "Like fiery meteors his red eye-balls glow:\n", + "The radiant helmet on his temple burns,\n", + "Waves when he nods, and lightens as he turns:\n", + "For Jove his splendour round the chief had thrown,\n", + "And cast the blaze of both the hosts on one.\n", + "Unhappy glories! for his fate was near,\n", + "Due to stern Pallas, and Pelides’ spear:\n", + "Yet Jove deferr’d the death he was to pay,\n", + "And gave what fate allow’d, the honours of a day!\n", + "\n", + "Now all on fire for fame, his breast, his eyes\n", + "Burn at each foe, and single every prize;\n", + "Still at the closest ranks, the thickest fight,\n", + "He points his ardour, and exerts his might.\n", + "The Grecian phalanx, moveless as a tower,\n", + "On all sides batter’d, yet resists his power:\n", + "So some tall rock o’erhangs the hoary main,[241]\n", + "By winds assail’d, by billows beat in vain,\n", + "Unmoved it hears, above, the tempest blow,\n", + "And sees the watery mountains break below.\n", + "Girt in surrounding flames, he seems to fall\n", + "Like fire from Jove, and bursts upon them all:\n", + "Bursts as a wave that from the cloud impends,\n", + "And, swell’d with tempests, on the ship descends;\n", + "White are the decks with foam; the winds aloud\n", + "Howl o’er the masts, and sing through every shroud:\n", + "Pale, trembling, tired, the sailors freeze with fears;\n", + "And instant death on every wave appears.\n", + "So pale the Greeks the eyes of Hector meet,\n", + "The chief so thunders, and so shakes the fleet.\n", + "\n", + "As when a lion, rushing from his den,\n", + "Amidst the plain of some wide-water’d fen,\n", + "(Where numerous oxen, as at ease they feed,\n", + "At large expatiate o’er the ranker mead)\n", + "Leaps on the herds before the herdsman’s eyes;\n", + "The trembling herdsman far to distance flies;\n", + "Some lordly bull (the rest dispersed and fled)\n", + "He singles out; arrests, and lays him dead.\n", + "Thus from the rage of Jove-like Hector flew\n", + "All Greece in heaps; but one he seized, and slew:\n", + "Mycenian Periphes, a mighty name,\n", + "In wisdom great, in arms well known to fame;\n", + "The minister of stern Eurystheus’ ire\n", + "Against Alcides, Copreus was his sire:\n", + "The son redeem’d the honours of the race,\n", + "A son as generous as the sire was base;\n", + "O’er all his country’s youth conspicuous far\n", + "In every virtue, or of peace or war:\n", + "But doom’d to Hector’s stronger force to yield!\n", + "Against the margin of his ample shield\n", + "He struck his hasty foot: his heels up-sprung;\n", + "Supine he fell; his brazen helmet rung.\n", + "On the fallen chief the invading Trojan press’d,\n", + "And plunged the pointed javelin in his breast.\n", + "His circling friends, who strove to guard too late\n", + "The unhappy hero, fled, or shared his fate.\n", + "\n", + "Chased from the foremost line, the Grecian train\n", + "Now man the next, receding toward the main:\n", + "Wedged in one body at the tents they stand,\n", + "Wall’d round with sterns, a gloomy, desperate band.\n", + "Now manly shame forbids the inglorious flight;\n", + "Now fear itself confines them to the fight:\n", + "Man courage breathes in man; but Nestor most\n", + "(The sage preserver of the Grecian host)\n", + "Exhorts, adjures, to guard these utmost shores;\n", + "And by their parents, by themselves implores.\n", + "\n", + "“Oh friends! be men: your generous breasts inflame\n", + "With mutual honour, and with mutual shame!\n", + "Think of your hopes, your fortunes; all the care\n", + "Your wives, your infants, and your parents share:\n", + "Think of each living father’s reverend head;\n", + "Think of each ancestor with glory dead;\n", + "Absent, by me they speak, by me they sue,\n", + "They ask their safety, and their fame, from you:\n", + "The gods their fates on this one action lay,\n", + "And all are lost, if you desert the day.”\n", + "\n", + "He spoke, and round him breathed heroic fires;\n", + "Minerva seconds what the sage inspires.\n", + "The mist of darkness Jove around them threw\n", + "She clear’d, restoring all the war to view;\n", + "A sudden ray shot beaming o’er the plain,\n", + "And show’d the shores, the navy, and the main:\n", + "Hector they saw, and all who fly, or fight,\n", + "The scene wide-opening to the blaze of light,\n", + "First of the field great Ajax strikes their eyes,\n", + "His port majestic, and his ample size:\n", + "A ponderous mace with studs of iron crown’d,\n", + "Full twenty cubits long, he swings around;\n", + "Nor fights, like others, fix’d to certain stands\n", + "But looks a moving tower above the bands;\n", + "High on the decks with vast gigantic stride,\n", + "The godlike hero stalks from side to side.\n", + "So when a horseman from the watery mead\n", + "(Skill’d in the manage of the bounding steed)\n", + "Drives four fair coursers, practised to obey,\n", + "To some great city through the public way;\n", + "Safe in his art, as side by side they run,\n", + "He shifts his seat, and vaults from one to one;\n", + "And now to this, and now to that he flies;\n", + "Admiring numbers follow with their eyes.\n", + "\n", + "From ship to ship thus Ajax swiftly flew,\n", + "No less the wonder of the warring crew.\n", + "As furious, Hector thunder’d threats aloud,\n", + "And rush’d enraged before the Trojan crowd;\n", + "Then swift invades the ships, whose beaky prores\n", + "Lay rank’d contiguous on the bending shores;\n", + "So the strong eagle from his airy height,\n", + "Who marks the swans’ or cranes’ embodied flight,\n", + "Stoops down impetuous, while they light for food,\n", + "And, stooping, darkens with his wings the flood.\n", + "Jove leads him on with his almighty hand,\n", + "And breathes fierce spirits in his following band.\n", + "The warring nations meet, the battle roars,\n", + "Thick beats the combat on the sounding prores.\n", + "Thou wouldst have thought, so furious was their fire,\n", + "No force could tame them, and no toil could tire;\n", + "As if new vigour from new fights they won,\n", + "And the long battle was but then begun.\n", + "Greece, yet unconquer’d, kept alive the war,\n", + "Secure of death, confiding in despair:\n", + "Troy in proud hopes already view’d the main\n", + "Bright with the blaze, and red with heroes slain:\n", + "Like strength is felt from hope, and from despair,\n", + "And each contends, as his were all the war.\n", + "\n", + "’Twas thou, bold Hector! whose resistless hand\n", + "First seized a ship on that contested strand;\n", + "The same which dead Protesilaüs bore,[242]\n", + "The first that touch’d the unhappy Trojan shore:\n", + "For this in arms the warring nations stood,\n", + "And bathed their generous breasts with mutual blood.\n", + "No room to poise the lance or bend the bow;\n", + "But hand to hand, and man to man, they grow:\n", + "Wounded, they wound; and seek each other’s hearts\n", + "With falchions, axes, swords, and shorten’d darts.\n", + "The falchions ring, shields rattle, axes sound,\n", + "Swords flash in air, or glitter on the ground;\n", + "With streaming blood the slippery shores are dyed,\n", + "And slaughter’d heroes swell the dreadful tide.\n", + "\n", + "Still raging, Hector with his ample hand\n", + "Grasps the high stern, and gives this loud command:\"\"\"" + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "code", + "execution_count": 51, + "metadata": {}, + "outputs": [], + "source": [ + "with open(\"./Iliad15_1.txt\", \"w\") as f:\n", + " chars = f.write(Iliad15_1)" + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "code", + "execution_count": 52, + "metadata": {}, + "outputs": [], + "source": [ + "with open(f\"./Iliad15_1.txt\", \"r\") as f:\n", + " all_lines = f.read()" + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "code", + "execution_count": 53, + "metadata": {}, + "outputs": [ + { + "name": "stdout", + "output_type": "stream", + "text": [ + "['“Here, proud Polydamas, here turn thy eyes!', '(The towering Ajax loud-insulting cries:)', 'Say, is this chief extended on the plain', 'A worthy vengeance for Prothoënor slain?', 'Mark well his port! his figure and his face', 'Nor speak him vulgar, nor of vulgar race;', 'Some lines, methinks, may make his lineage known,', 'Antenor’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 slaughtered brother draws,', 'He pierced his heart—“Such fate attends you 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 my 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,', 'But 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.', '', 'Daughters of Jove! that on Olympus shine,', 'Ye all-beholding, all-recording nine!', 'O say, when Neptune made proud Ilion yield,', 'What chief, what 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 unsanguined plain', 'Laid Hyrtius, leader of the Mysian train.', 'Phalces and Mermer, Nestor’s son o’erthrew,', 'Bold Merion, Morys and Hippotion slew.', 'Strong Periphaetes and Prothoon bled,', 'By Teucer’s arrows mingled with the dead,', 'Pierced in the flank by Menelaus’ steel,', 'His people’s pastor, Hyperenor fell;', 'Eternal darkness wrapp’d the warrior round,', 'And the fierce soul came rushing through the wound.', 'But stretch’d in heaps before Oïleus’ son,', 'Fall mighty numbers, mighty numbers run;', 'Ajax the less, of all the Grecian race', 'Skill’d in pursuit, and swiftest in the chase.', '', '', '[Illustration: ] BACCHUS', '', '', '', '', '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 Neptune 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 vigour, brings him back to the battle, marches', 'before him with his ægis, 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 fleet, but are, as yet, repelled', '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:', 'Then stopp’d and panted, where the chariots lie', 'Fear on their cheek, and horror in their 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 with 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:', '', '“O thou, still adverse to the eternal will,', 'For ever studious in promoting ill!', '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 seem’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 I 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 that powers immortal ties,', 'The foodful earth and all-infolding skies;', 'By thy black waves, tremendous Styx! that flow', 'Through the drear realms of gliding ghosts below;', 'By the dread honours 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 ardour, his own pity sway’d,', 'To help his Greeks, he fought and disobey’d:', 'Else had thy Juno better counsels given,', 'And taught submission to the sire of heaven.”', '', '“Think’st thou with me? fair empress of the skies!', '(The immortal father with a smile replies;)', 'Then soon the haughty sea-god shall obey,', 'Nor dare to act but when we point the way.', 'If truth inspires thy tongue, proclaim our will', 'To yon bright synod on the Olympian hill;', 'Our high decree let various Iris know,', 'And call the god that bears the silver bow.', 'Let her descend, and from the embattled plain', 'Command the sea-god to his watery reign:', 'While Phœbus hastes great Hector to prepare', 'To rise afresh, and once more wake the war:', 'His labouring 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 Patroclus, 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 Idaean 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 sat the powers in awful synod placed;', 'They bow’d, and made obeisance as she pass’d', 'Through all the brazen dome:[239] 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 fulfil,', 'Unmoved his mind, and unrestrain’d his will.', 'Go thou, the feasts of heaven attend thy call;', 'Bid 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,', 'As soon shall freeze mankind 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,', 'Sat stedfast care, and lowering discontent.', 'Thus 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 Ascalaphus! 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 that he gives command to Fear and Flight', 'To join his rapid coursers for the fight:', 'Then grim in arms, 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 snatch’d the shield and spear;', 'Then the huge helmet lifting from his head,', 'Thus to the impetuous homicide she said:', '', '“By what wild passion, furious! art thou toss’d?', 'Striv’st thou with Jove? thou art already lost.', 'Shall not the Thunderer’s dread command restrain,', 'And was imperial Juno heard in vain?', 'Back to the skies wouldst thou with shame be driven,', '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 whelm 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 whose nod controls', 'The trembling world, and shakes the steady poles.', 'Veil’d in a mist of fragrance him they found,', 'With clouds of gold and purple 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,', 'Report 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 Idaean 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:', '', '“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;)', 'Rule 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, our triple rule we know;', 'Infernal Pluto sways the shades below;', '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 the 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), O sire of floods!', 'Bear this fierce answer to the king of gods?', 'Correct it yet, and 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 prudent mind:', 'Warn’d by thy words, to powerful Jove I yield,', 'And quit, though angry, the contended field:', 'Not but his threats with justice I disclaim,', 'The same our honours, and our birth the same.', 'If yet, forgetful of his promise given', 'To Hermes, Pallas, and the queen of heaven,', 'To favour Ilion, that perfidious place,', 'He breaks his faith with half the ethereal race;', 'Give him to know, unless the Grecian train', 'Lay yon proud structures level with the plain,', 'Howe’er the offence by other gods be pass’d,', 'The wrath of Neptune shall for ever 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 ægis 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 sailing falcon flies,', 'That drives a turtle through the liquid skies,', 'As Phœbus, shooting from the Idaean 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', '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 Phœbus shall his arms employ,', 'Phœbus, 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 ardour 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 flood,', '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 rage secure they lie', 'Close in the rock, (not fated yet to die)', 'When lo! a lion shoots across the way!', 'They fly: at once the chasers and the prey.', 'So Greece, that 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.', '', 'Thoas with grief observed his dreadful course,', 'Thoas, the bravest of the Ætolian force;', 'Skill’d to direct the javelin’s distant flight,', 'And bold to combat in the standing fight,', 'Not more in councils famed for solid sense,', 'Than winning words and heavenly eloquence.', '“Gods! what portent (he cried) these eyes invades?', 'Lo! Hector rises from the Stygian shades!', 'We saw him, late, by thundering Ajax kill’d:', 'What god restores him to the frighted field;', 'And not content that half of Greece lie slain,', 'Pours new destruction on her sons again?', '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, unnumber’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.', 'Phœbus 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 clamours rise', 'From different parts, and mingle in the skies.', 'Dire was the hiss of darts, by heroes flung,', 'And arrows leaping from the bow-string sung;', 'These drink the life of generous warriors slain:', 'Those guiltless fall, and thirst for blood in vain.', 'As long as Phœbus 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 come,', 'And spread the carnage through the shady gloom.', 'Impending Phœbus pours around them fear,', 'And Troy and Hector thunder in the rear.', 'Heaps fall on heaps: the slaughter Hector leads,', 'First great Arcesilas, then Stichius bleeds;', 'One to the bold Bœotians ever dear,', 'And one Menestheus’ friend and famed compeer.', 'Medon and Iasus, Æneas sped;', 'This sprang from Phelus, and the Athenians led;', 'But hapless Medon from Oïleus came;', 'Him Ajax honour’d with a brother’s name,', 'Though born of lawless love: from home expell’d,', 'A banish’d man, in Phylacè he dwell’d,', 'Press’d by the vengeance of an angry wife;', 'Troy ends at last his labours and his life.', 'Mecystes next Polydamas o’erthrew;', 'And thee, brave Clonius, great Agenor slew.', 'By Paris, Deiochus 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 night;', 'Forbids to plunder, animates the fight,', 'Points to the fleet: “For, by the gods! who flies,[240]', 'Who dares but linger, by this hand he dies;', 'No weeping sister his cold eye shall close,', 'No friendly hand his funeral pyre compose.', 'Who stops to plunder at this signal hour,', 'The birds shall tear him, and the dogs devour.”', 'Furious he said; the smarting scourge resounds;', 'The coursers fly; the smoking chariot bounds;', 'The hosts rush on; loud clamours shake the shore;', 'The horses thunder, earth and ocean roar!', 'Apollo, planted at the trench’s bound,', 'Push’d at the bank: down sank the enormous mound:', 'Roll’d in the ditch the heapy ruin lay;', 'A sudden road! a long and ample way.', 'O’er the dread fosse (a late impervious space)', '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 all the powers with prayer:', '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.', '', '“O Jove! if ever, on his native shore,', 'One Greek enrich’d thy shrine with offer’d 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 labouring 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.', 'But when he saw, ascending up the fleet,', 'Victorious Troy; then, starting from his seat,', 'With bitter groans his sorrows he express’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 scene of woe;', 'I haste to urge him by his country’s care', 'To rise in arms, and shine again in war.', 'Perhaps some favouring 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 ship 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 Clytius in his daring hand,', 'The deck approaching, shakes a flaming brand;', 'But, pierced by Telamon’s huge lance, expires:', 'Thundering he falls, and drops the extinguish’d fires.', 'Great Hector view’d him with a sad survey,', 'As stretch’d in dust before the stern he lay.', '“Oh! all of Trojan, all of Lycian race!', 'Stand to your arms, maintain this arduous space:', 'Lo! where the son of royal Clytius lies;', 'Ah, save his arms, secure his obsequies!”', '', 'This said, his eager javelin sought the foe:', 'But Ajax shunn’d the meditated blow.', 'Not vainly yet the forceful lance was thrown;', 'It stretch’d in dust unhappy Lycophron:', 'An exile long, sustain’d at Ajax’ 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;', 'Revenge, revenge it on the cruel foe.', 'Where are those darts on which the fates attend?', 'And where the bow which Phœbus 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:', 'Then hiss’d his arrow, and the bowstring sung.', 'Clytus, Pisenor’s son, renown’d in fame,', '(To thee, Polydamas! an honour’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 in two;', 'Down dropp’d the bow: the shaft with brazen head', 'Fell innocent, and on the dust lay dead.', 'The astonish’d archer to great Ajax cries;', '“Some god prevents our 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; I saw his hand, but now,', 'From the proud archer strike his vaunted bow:', 'Indulgent Jove! how plain thy favours shine,', 'When happy nations bear the marks divine!', 'How easy then, to see the sinking state', 'Of realms accursed, deserted, reprobate!', 'Such is the fate of Greece, and such is ours:', 'Behold, ye warriors, and exert your powers.', '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 be,', 'Yet leaves his nation safe, his children free;', 'Entails a debt on all the grateful state;', 'His own brave friends shall glory in his fate;', 'His wife live honour’d, all his race succeed,', 'And late posterity enjoy the deed!”', '', 'This roused the soul in every Trojan breast:', 'The godlike Ajax next his Greeks address’d:', '', '“How long, ye 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 fall,', '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 labour 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, O Phœbus! 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 Sellè’s winding shore;', 'For king Euphetes 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 high plumes above the helmet dance,', 'New ting’d with Tyrian dye: in dust below,', 'Shorn from the crest, the purple honours glow.', 'Meantime their fight the Spartan king survey’d,', 'And stood by Meges’ side a sudden aid.', 'Through Dolops’ 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 Percotè’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, Melanippus! 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 wage,', 'But hand to hand thy country’s foes engage:', 'Till Greece at once, and all her glory end;', 'Or Ilion from her towery 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 ardour Melanippus glows:', 'Then Ajax thus—“O Greeks! respect your fame,', 'Respect yourselves, and learn an honest shame:', 'Let mutual reverence mutual warmth inspire,', 'And catch from breast to breast the noble fire,', 'On valour’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 imparts;', '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;', 'Shields touching shields, in order blaze above,', 'And stop the Trojans, though impell’d by Jove.', 'The fiery Spartan first, with loud 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 bold 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 Melanippus 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 leaps upon his prostrate prize:', 'Thus on a roe the well-breath’d beagle flies,', '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 fulfil the stern decrees of Jove:', 'The sire of gods, confirming Thetis’ prayer,', 'The Grecian ardour 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 he 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’d,', 'Bids him with more than mortal fury glow,', 'And drives him, like a lightning, on the foe.', 'So Mars, 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 fiery meteors his red eye-balls glow:', 'The radiant helmet on his temple burns,', 'Waves when he nods, and lightens as he turns:', 'For Jove his splendour round the chief had thrown,', 'And cast the blaze of both the hosts on one.', 'Unhappy glories! 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 honours 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 fight,', 'He points his ardour, and exerts his 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,[241]', '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 masts, 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 when a lion, rushing from his den,', 'Amidst the plain of some wide-water’d fen,', '(Where numerous oxen, as at ease they feed,', 'At large expatiate o’er the ranker mead)', 'Leaps on 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 the honours 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 up-sprung;', '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 breathes 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 honour, 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.”', '', 'He spoke, and round him breathed heroic fires;', 'Minerva seconds what the sage inspires.', 'The mist of darkness Jove around them threw', '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 horseman 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,', 'No less the wonder of the warring crew.', 'As furious, Hector thunder’d threats aloud,', 'And 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 the 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 prores.', 'Thou wouldst have thought, so furious was their fire,', 'No force could tame them, and no toil could tire;', 'As if new vigour from new fights they won,', 'And the long battle was but then begun.', 'Greece, yet unconquer’d, kept alive the war,', 'Secure of death, confiding in despair:', 'Troy in proud hopes already view’d the main', 'Bright with the blaze, and red with heroes slain:', 'Like strength is felt from hope, and from despair,', 'And each contends, as his were all the war.', '', '’Twas thou, bold Hector! whose resistless hand', 'First seized a ship on that contested strand;', 'The same which dead Protesilaüs bore,[242]', '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:']\n" + ] + } + ], + "source": [ + "total_lines = Iliad15_1.splitlines()\n", + "\n", + "print (total_lines)" + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "code", + "execution_count": 54, + "metadata": {}, + "outputs": [], + "source": [ + "for index in range(len(total_lines)):\n", + " with open (f\"Iliad15_{index}.txt\", \"w\") as f:\n", + " f.write(total_lines[index])" + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "code", + "execution_count": 55, + "metadata": {}, + "outputs": [], + "source": [ + "from pathlib import Path\n", + "\n", + "out_dir = Path(\"my_Labfiles\")\n", + "\n", + "outfile = out_dir / Path(\"./total_lines.txt\")\n", + "\n", + "if not out_dir.exists():\n", + " out_dir.mkdir()" + ] + }, + { + "cell_type": "code", + "execution_count": 56, + "metadata": {}, + "outputs": [], + "source": [ + "with open(outfile, \"a\") as a:\n", + " for Iliad15_file in Path(\".\").glob(\"Iliad15_*\"):\n", + " with open (Iliad15_file, \"r\") as f:\n", + " a.write(f.read())" + ] } ], "metadata": { diff --git a/my_Labfiles/total_lines.txt b/my_Labfiles/total_lines.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a9f3847 --- /dev/null +++ b/my_Labfiles/total_lines.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1033 @@ +“Here, proud Polydamas, here turn thy eyes! +(The towering Ajax loud-insulting cries:) +Say, is this chief extended on the plain +A worthy vengeance for Prothoënor slain? +Mark well his port! his figure and his face +Nor speak him vulgar, nor of vulgar race; +Some lines, methinks, may make his lineage known, +Antenor’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 slaughtered brother draws, +He pierced his heart—“Such fate attends you 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 my 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, +But 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. + +Daughters of Jove! that on Olympus shine, +Ye all-beholding, all-recording nine! +O say, when Neptune made proud Ilion yield, +What chief, what 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 unsanguined plain +Laid Hyrtius, leader of the Mysian train. +Phalces and Mermer, Nestor’s son o’erthrew, +Bold Merion, Morys and Hippotion slew. +Strong Periphaetes and Prothoon bled, +By Teucer’s arrows mingled with the dead, +Pierced in the flank by Menelaus’ steel, +His people’s pastor, Hyperenor fell; +Eternal darkness wrapp’d the warrior round, +And the fierce soul came rushing through the wound. +But stretch’d in heaps before Oïleus’ son, +Fall mighty numbers, mighty numbers run; +Ajax the less, of all the Grecian race +Skill’d in pursuit, and swiftest in the chase. + + +[Illustration: ] BACCHUS + + + + +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 Neptune 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 vigour, brings him back to the battle, marches +before him with his ægis, 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 fleet, but are, as yet, repelled +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: +Then stopp’d and panted, where the chariots lie +Fear on their cheek, and horror in their 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 with 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: + +“O thou, still adverse to the eternal will, +For ever studious in promoting ill! +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 seem’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 I 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 that powers immortal ties, +The foodful earth and all-infolding skies; +By thy black waves, tremendous Styx! that flow +Through the drear realms of gliding ghosts below; +By the dread honours 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 ardour, his own pity sway’d, +To help his Greeks, he fought and disobey’d: +Else had thy Juno better counsels given, +And taught submission to the sire of heaven.” + +“Think’st thou with me? fair empress of the skies! +(The immortal father with a smile replies;) +Then soon the haughty sea-god shall obey, +Nor dare to act but when we point the way. +If truth inspires thy tongue, proclaim our will +To yon bright synod on the Olympian hill; +Our high decree let various Iris know, +And call the god that bears the silver bow. +Let her descend, and from the embattled plain +Command the sea-god to his watery reign: +While Phœbus hastes great Hector to prepare +To rise afresh, and once more wake the war: +His labouring 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 Patroclus, 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 Idaean 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 sat the powers in awful synod placed; +They bow’d, and made obeisance as she pass’d +Through all the brazen dome:[239] 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 fulfil, +Unmoved his mind, and unrestrain’d his will. +Go thou, the feasts of heaven attend thy call; +Bid 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, +As soon shall freeze mankind 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, +Sat stedfast care, and lowering discontent. +Thus 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 Ascalaphus! 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 that he gives command to Fear and Flight +To join his rapid coursers for the fight: +Then grim in arms, 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 snatch’d the shield and spear; +Then the huge helmet lifting from his head, +Thus to the impetuous homicide she said: + +“By what wild passion, furious! art thou toss’d? +Striv’st thou with Jove? thou art already lost. +Shall not the Thunderer’s dread command restrain, +And was imperial Juno heard in vain? +Back to the skies wouldst thou with shame be driven, +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 whelm 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 whose nod controls +The trembling world, and shakes the steady poles. +Veil’d in a mist of fragrance him they found, +With clouds of gold and purple 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, +Report 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 Idaean 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: + +“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;) +Rule 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, our triple rule we know; +Infernal Pluto sways the shades below; +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 the 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), O sire of floods! +Bear this fierce answer to the king of gods? +Correct it yet, and 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 prudent mind: +Warn’d by thy words, to powerful Jove I yield, +And quit, though angry, the contended field: +Not but his threats with justice I disclaim, +The same our honours, and our birth the same. +If yet, forgetful of his promise given +To Hermes, Pallas, and the queen of heaven, +To favour Ilion, that perfidious place, +He breaks his faith with half the ethereal race; +Give him to know, unless the Grecian train +Lay yon proud structures level with the plain, +Howe’er the offence by other gods be pass’d, +The wrath of Neptune shall for ever 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 ægis 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 sailing falcon flies, +That drives a turtle through the liquid skies, +As Phœbus, shooting from the Idaean 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 +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 Phœbus shall his arms employ, +Phœbus, 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 ardour 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 flood, +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 rage secure they lie +Close in the rock, (not fated yet to die) +When lo! a lion shoots across the way! +They fly: at once the chasers and the prey. +So Greece, that 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. + +Thoas with grief observed his dreadful course, +Thoas, the bravest of the Ætolian force; +Skill’d to direct the javelin’s distant flight, +And bold to combat in the standing fight, +Not more in councils famed for solid sense, +Than winning words and heavenly eloquence. +“Gods! what portent (he cried) these eyes invades? +Lo! Hector rises from the Stygian shades! +We saw him, late, by thundering Ajax kill’d: +What god restores him to the frighted field; +And not content that half of Greece lie slain, +Pours new destruction on her sons again? +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, unnumber’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. +Phœbus 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 clamours rise +From different parts, and mingle in the skies. +Dire was the hiss of darts, by heroes flung, +And arrows leaping from the bow-string sung; +These drink the life of generous warriors slain: +Those guiltless fall, and thirst for blood in vain. +As long as Phœbus 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 come, +And spread the carnage through the shady gloom. +Impending Phœbus pours around them fear, +And Troy and Hector thunder in the rear. +Heaps fall on heaps: the slaughter Hector leads, +First great Arcesilas, then Stichius bleeds; +One to the bold Bœotians ever dear, +And one Menestheus’ friend and famed compeer. +Medon and Iasus, Æneas sped; +This sprang from Phelus, and the Athenians led; +But hapless Medon from Oïleus came; +Him Ajax honour’d with a brother’s name, +Though born of lawless love: from home expell’d, +A banish’d man, in Phylacè he dwell’d, +Press’d by the vengeance of an angry wife; +Troy ends at last his labours and his life. +Mecystes next Polydamas o’erthrew; +And thee, brave Clonius, great Agenor slew. +By Paris, Deiochus 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 night; +Forbids to plunder, animates the fight, +Points to the fleet: “For, by the gods! who flies,[240] +Who dares but linger, by this hand he dies; +No weeping sister his cold eye shall close, +No friendly hand his funeral pyre compose. +Who stops to plunder at this signal hour, +The birds shall tear him, and the dogs devour.” +Furious he said; the smarting scourge resounds; +The coursers fly; the smoking chariot bounds; +The hosts rush on; loud clamours shake the shore; +The horses thunder, earth and ocean roar! +Apollo, planted at the trench’s bound, +Push’d at the bank: down sank the enormous mound: +Roll’d in the ditch the heapy ruin lay; +A sudden road! a long and ample way. +O’er the dread fosse (a late impervious space) +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 all the powers with prayer: +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. + +“O Jove! if ever, on his native shore, +One Greek enrich’d thy shrine with offer’d 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 labouring 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. +But when he saw, ascending up the fleet, +Victorious Troy; then, starting from his seat, +With bitter groans his sorrows he express’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 scene of woe; +I haste to urge him by his country’s care +To rise in arms, and shine again in war. +Perhaps some favouring 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 ship 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 Clytius in his daring hand, +The deck approaching, shakes a flaming brand; +But, pierced by Telamon’s huge lance, expires: +Thundering he falls, and drops the extinguish’d fires. +Great Hector view’d him with a sad survey, +As stretch’d in dust before the stern he lay. +“Oh! all of Trojan, all of Lycian race! +Stand to your arms, maintain this arduous space: +Lo! where the son of royal Clytius lies; +Ah, save his arms, secure his obsequies!” + +This said, his eager javelin sought the foe: +But Ajax shunn’d the meditated blow. +Not vainly yet the forceful lance was thrown; +It stretch’d in dust unhappy Lycophron: +An exile long, sustain’d at Ajax’ 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; +Revenge, revenge it on the cruel foe. +Where are those darts on which the fates attend? +And where the bow which Phœbus 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: +Then hiss’d his arrow, and the bowstring sung. +Clytus, Pisenor’s son, renown’d in fame, +(To thee, Polydamas! an honour’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 in two; +Down dropp’d the bow: the shaft with brazen head +Fell innocent, and on the dust lay dead. +The astonish’d archer to great Ajax cries; +“Some god prevents our 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; I saw his hand, but now, +From the proud archer strike his vaunted bow: +Indulgent Jove! how plain thy favours shine, +When happy nations bear the marks divine! +How easy then, to see the sinking state +Of realms accursed, deserted, reprobate! +Such is the fate of Greece, and such is ours: +Behold, ye warriors, and exert your powers. +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 be, +Yet leaves his nation safe, his children free; +Entails a debt on all the grateful state; +His own brave friends shall glory in his fate; +His wife live honour’d, all his race succeed, +And late posterity enjoy the deed!” + +This roused the soul in every Trojan breast: +The godlike Ajax next his Greeks address’d: + +“How long, ye 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 fall, +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 labour 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, O Phœbus! 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 Sellè’s winding shore; +For king Euphetes 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 high plumes above the helmet dance, +New ting’d with Tyrian dye: in dust below, +Shorn from the crest, the purple honours glow. +Meantime their fight the Spartan king survey’d, +And stood by Meges’ side a sudden aid. +Through Dolops’ 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 Percotè’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, Melanippus! 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 wage, +But hand to hand thy country’s foes engage: +Till Greece at once, and all her glory end; +Or Ilion from her towery 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 ardour Melanippus glows: +Then Ajax thus—“O Greeks! respect your fame, +Respect yourselves, and learn an honest shame: +Let mutual reverence mutual warmth inspire, +And catch from breast to breast the noble fire, +On valour’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 imparts; +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; +Shields touching shields, in order blaze above, +And stop the Trojans, though impell’d by Jove. +The fiery Spartan first, with loud 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 bold 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 Melanippus 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 leaps upon his prostrate prize: +Thus on a roe the well-breath’d beagle flies, +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 fulfil the stern decrees of Jove: +The sire of gods, confirming Thetis’ prayer, +The Grecian ardour 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 he 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’d, +Bids him with more than mortal fury glow, +And drives him, like a lightning, on the foe. +So Mars, 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 fiery meteors his red eye-balls glow: +The radiant helmet on his temple burns, +Waves when he nods, and lightens as he turns: +For Jove his splendour round the chief had thrown, +And cast the blaze of both the hosts on one. +Unhappy glories! 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 honours 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 fight, +He points his ardour, and exerts his 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,[241] +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 masts, 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 when a lion, rushing from his den, +Amidst the plain of some wide-water’d fen, +(Where numerous oxen, as at ease they feed, +At large expatiate o’er the ranker mead) +Leaps on 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 the honours 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 up-sprung; +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 breathes 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 honour, 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.” + +He spoke, and round him breathed heroic fires; +Minerva seconds what the sage inspires. +The mist of darkness Jove around them threw +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 horseman 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, +No less the wonder of the warring crew. +As furious, Hector thunder’d threats aloud, +And 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 the 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 prores. +Thou wouldst have thought, so furious was their fire, +No force could tame them, and no toil could tire; +As if new vigour from new fights they won, +And the long battle was but then begun. +Greece, yet unconquer’d, kept alive the war, +Secure of death, confiding in despair: +Troy in proud hopes already view’d the main +Bright with the blaze, and red with heroes slain: +Like strength is felt from hope, and from despair, +And each contends, as his were all the war. + +’Twas thou, bold Hector! whose resistless hand +First seized a ship on that contested strand; +The same which dead Protesilaüs bore,[242] +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:And, swell’d with tempests, on the ship descends;In one sad sepulchre, one common fall.”Forgive me, gods, and yield my vengeance way:Shall fall by thousands at the hero’s feet.On his brave head a crested helm he placed,So some tall rock o’erhangs the hoary main,[241]Black horror sadden’d each celestial face.And was imperial Juno heard in vain?To force our fleet, or even a ship to gain,Guilty and guiltless find an equal fateVictorious Troy; then, starting from his seat,The warrior wields; and his great brother joins.At one proud bark, high-towering o’er the fleet,Soon as they see the furious chief appear,Receive, and execute his dread command.”Chased from the foremost line, the Grecian trainBut hand to hand thy country’s foes engage:A dart, whose point with brass refulgent shines,So when a horseman from the watery meadThen soon the haughty sea-god shall obey,There Hector seated by the stream he sees,And Troy and Hector thunder in the rear.And thus inflames his brother to the fight:Phalces and Mermer, Nestor’s son o’erthrew,The winged Iris, and the god of day.With streaming blood the slippery shores are dyed,Well-pleased the Thunderer saw their earnest care,Meanwhile, awaken’d from his dream of love,Then, nor till then, the scale of war shall turn,The birds shall tear him, and the dogs devour.”And broke the nerve my hands had twined with art,With ample strokes he rushes to the flood,Fly to their ships and Hellespont again:Through his fair neck the thrilling arrow flies;And in thy guilt involve the host of heaven?Minerva seconds what the sage inspires.The wondering crowds the downward level trod;He shifts his seat, and vaults from one to one;Thy arts have made the godlike Hector yield,A mournful witness of this scene of woe;While conscious of the deed, he glares around,Olympus, and this earth, in common lie:Then Teucer laid his faithless bow aside;Not more in councils famed for solid sense,“Oh! all of Trojan, all of Lycian race!Those guiltless fall, and thirst for blood in vain.And adds discourse, the medicine of the mind.Thick beats the combat on the sounding prores.Force to the fleet and tents the impervious way.When lo! a lion shoots across the way!Bright with the blaze, and red with heroes slain:Pale, trembling, tired, the sailors freeze with fears;The well-stored quiver on his shoulders hung:For ever studious in promoting ill!(To generous Argos what a dire disgrace!)Before the chief his ample bow display’d;To sacred Ilion from the Idaean height.Mark how the flames approach, how near they fall,Wedged in one body at the tents they stand,Which held its passage through the panting heart,And whose bless’d trophies, will ye raise to fame?Burn’d to the bottom of his seas profound;Canst thou, unhappy in thy wiles, withstandAnd quit, though angry, the contended field:With mutual honour, and with mutual shame!She clear’d, restoring all the war to view;Nor could the Trojans, through that firm array,I haste to urge him by his country’s careNow steeds, and men, and cars tumultuous pass.In every virtue, or of peace or war:But hapless Medon from Oïleus came;(Skill’d in the manage of the bounding steed)And that unbroken vow, our virgin bed!Yet Jove deferr’d the death he was to pay,Nor one of all the heavenly host engageHow shall his rashness stand the dire alarms,And now to this, and now to that he flies;His lance bold Meges at the victor threw;And instant death on every wave appears.Great Hector view’d him with a sad survey,Impatient Teucer, hastening to his aid,Dear as a parent, with a parent’s careThen Ajax thus—“O Greeks! respect your fame,Apollo, planted at the trench’s bound,The Trojans fly, and conquer’d Ilion burn.Exempted from the race ordain’d to die?”(The immortal father with a smile replies;)Else had my wrath, heaven’s thrones all shaking round,Press’d by the vengeance of an angry wife;To him Apollo: “Be no more dismay’d;This if refused, he bids thee timely weighHim Ajax honour’d with a brother’s name,His circling friends, who strove to guard too lateHe singles out; arrests, and lays him dead.Drives four fair coursers, practised to obey,And, ’midst the war, the monarch of the main.He spake, and smiled severe, for well he knewNow on the fleet the tides of Trojans drove,The pointed death arrests him from behind:Striv’st thou with Jove? thou art already lost.Had almost sunk me to the shades below?All Greece in heaps; but one he seized, and slew:The warrior spoke; the listening Greeks obey,Bid the crown’d nectar circle round the hall:I gave, and seal’d it with the almighty nod,Thundering he falls, and drops the extinguish’d fires.Skill’d to direct the javelin’s distant flight,Then hiss’d his arrow, and the bowstring sung.Mycenian Periphes, a mighty name,Man courage breathes in man; but Nestor mostFrom frantic Mars she snatch’d the shield and spear;Command the sea-god to his watery reign:And famed for prowess in a well-fought field,And labouring armies round the works engaged,And breathed immortal ardour from above.We paid the fattest firstlings of the fold;Such stern decrees, such threaten’d woes to come,To flank the navy, and the shores defend.And art thou equal to the lord of heaven?”High held before him, Jove’s enormous shieldWell was the crime, and well the vengeance spared;He snuffs the females in the well-known plain,It stretch’d in dust unhappy Lycophron:Pierced through the shoulder as he basely flies.While these fly trembling, others pant for breath,Than winning words and heavenly eloquence.Shouts in their ears, and lightens in their eyes,So from the clouds descending Iris falls,BOOK XV.breaks down great part of the Grecian wall: the Trojans rush in, andThe gallant man, though slain in fight he be,The victor leaps upon his prostrate prize:And hush the roarings of the sacred deep;’Twas thou, bold Hector! whose resistless handTo favour Ilion, that perfidious place,Submiss, immortals! all he wills, obey:If e’er thou sign’st our wishes with thy nod:“O Jove! if ever, on his native shore,Bids him with more than mortal fury glow,The martial leaders, with like skill and care,Haste, to his father let the tale be told:Has fame not told, how, while my trusty swordAnd gave, Astynous, to thy careful hand;The embodied Greeks the fierce attack sustain,We saw him, late, by thundering Ajax kill’d:Thus to bold Hector spoke the son of Jove,And issued at his breast. With thundering soundEasy as when ashore an infant stands,(That valued life, O Phœbus! was thy care)“Teucer, behold! extended on the shoreStruck for the immortal race with timely fear,Leaps on the herds before the herdsman’s eyes;Sat doubtful conquest hovering o’er the field;Thy soft deceits, and well-dissembled love.”What claim has here the tyrant of the sky?It calls to death, and all the rage of fights.Observing Hector to the rescue flew;And by their parents, by themselves implores.Behind, unnumber’d multitudes attend,With equal ardour Melanippus glows:The victor seized; and, as aloft he shookFull in his eye the weapon chanced to fall,Around the globe, whose earthquakes rock the world,The distant hunter sent into his heart.Not till that day shall Jove relax his rage,Starts from her azure throne to calm the god.Strong to impel the flight of many a dart.”Smiles on her lips a spleenful joy express’d;Howl o’er the masts, and sing through every shroud:Push’d at the bank: down sank the enormous mound:Invade the mountain goat, or branching hind;The gory visage, thus insulting spoke:“What blest immortal, with commanding breath,When two fell lions from the mountain come,And prompt obedience to the queen of air;He said; and backward to the lines retired;His port majestic, and his ample size:Descending first to yon forbidden plain,Jove leads him on with his almighty hand,As some wayfaring man, who wanders o’erLet her descend, and from the embattled plainO say, when Neptune made proud Ilion yield,Thus point your arms; and when such foes appear,While stones and darts in mingled tempest flew;Fair Themis first presents the golden bowl,Far from the hunter’s rage secure they lieNow manly shame forbids the inglorious flight;And sent to Argos, and his native shore.Meets death, and worse than death, eternal shame.”Such was our word, and fate the word obeys.”Through Dolops’ shoulder urged his forceful dart,And had the weapon found the destined way,Heaps fall on heaps: the slaughter Hector leads,Shake my broad ægis on thy active arm,Far in the distant clouds let him control,So when a savage, ranging o’er the plain,Down dropp’d the bow: the shaft with brazen headNot unappeased he enters Pluto’s gate,Pierced in the flank by Menelaus’ steel,Rage edged his sword, and strengthen’d every blow.Pallas assists, and lofty Ilion burns.The mighty Ajax with a deadly blowSo strong to fight, so active to pursue?Polydamas laid Otus on the sand,Swells all their hearts, and strengthens all their hands.She said, and sat; the god that gilds the day,He spoke; and, speaking, swifter than the windNor pull the unwilling vengeance on thy head;Furious he said; the smarting scourge resounds;To earth at once the head and helmet fly;Nor seem’d the vengeance worthy such a son:“Attend the mandate of the sire above!Not half so swift the sailing falcon flies,And to the ships impel thy rapid horse:He pierced the centre of his sounding shield:Thus from the rage of Jove-like Hector flewHe comes not, Jove! without thy powerful will;And save the relics of the Grecian name.”Drove through the neck, and hurl’d him to the plain;And quit the quiver for the ponderous shield.But Hector’s voice excites his kindred train;So the strong eagle from his airy height,On all sides batter’d, yet resists his power:Back to the skies wouldst thou with shame be driven,What chief, what hero first embrued the field?The lance, yet sticking through the bleeding eye,His senses wandering to the verge of death.Think of each living father’s reverend head;He struck his hasty foot: his heels up-sprung;Troy ends at last his labours and his life.If truth inspires thy tongue, proclaim our willTo elder brothers guardian fiends are given,“Some god prevents our destined enterprise:Where are those darts on which the fates attend?The god beheld him with a pitying look,The sire of gods, confirming Thetis’ prayer,(Fair nurse of fountains, and of savage game)He raises Hector to the work design’d,Severely bent his purpose to fulfil,What youths he slaughters under Ilion’s walls!But dare not murmur, dare not vent a sigh;The brave live glorious, or lamented die;With falchions, axes, swords, and shorten’d darts.Such as the house of Promachus must know;As stretch’d in dust before the stern he lay.But furious Acamas avenged his cause;Infernal Pluto sways the shades below;Thundering he falls; his falling arms resound,And thus inflamed him, pointing to the dead.Fierce to fulfil the stern decrees of Jove:And spread the carnage through the shady gloom.The Grecian phalanx, moveless as a tower,“And must I then (said she), O sire of floods!Thou wouldst have thought, so furious was their fire,Again his pulses beat, his spirits rise;There to his children his commands be given,This roused the soul in every Trojan breast:As soon shall freeze mankind with dire surprise,Swords flash in air, or glitter on the ground;Has torn the shepherd’s dog, or shepherd’s swain,The fourfold buckler o’er his shoulder tied;Mecystes next Polydamas o’erthrew;The warring nations meet, the battle roars,Now in swift flight they pass the trench profound,Breaks from his stall, and pours along the ground;And his broad buckler rings against the ground.The son of Clytius in his daring hand,Timely he flies the yet-untasted food,Though born of lawless love: from home expell’d,And now had Jove, by bold rebellion driven,Lay yon proud structures level with the plain,“Since heaven commands it (Ajax made reply)By the just rule, and the directing line:Swift as the wind, to Ida’s hills they came,Fell innocent, and on the dust lay dead.Then with his hand he shook the mighty wall;The chief so thunders, and so shakes the fleet.Bursts as a wave that from the cloud impends,Ethereal Jove extends his high domain;His mane dishevell’d o’er his shoulders flies:His sense returning with the coming breeze;So Greece, that late in conquering troops pursued,Had saved the father, and now saves the son.Be mindful of yourselves, your ancient fame,In the first ranks indulge thy thirst of fame,Some seek the trench, some skulk behind the wall.The trembling world, and shakes the steady poles.The hosts rush on; loud clamours shake the shore;The fiery Spartan first, with loud applause.While thus the thunder of the battle raged,Stood shining o’er him, half unseal’d his sight:As all on glory ran his ardent mind,Discharged his wrath on half the host of heaven;Once more bold Teucer, in his country’s cause,Three brother deities from Saturn came,Preserved their line, and equal kept the war.Polites’ arm laid Echius on the plain;A sudden ray shot beaming o’er the plain,What hopes remain, what methods to retire,The god of battles dares avenge the slain;The Greeks’ main body to the fleet command;Thus vanish’d at thy touch, the towers and walls;Heaved from the lowest stone; and bury allStunn’d in the whirl, and breathless with the fall.And mark’d their progress through the ranks in blood,Now man the next, receding toward the main:Not to the dance that dreadful voice invites,And lo! the turrets nod, the bulwarks fall:The wretch that trembles in the field of fame,Full twenty cubits long, he swings around;The son redeem’d the honours of the race,What god restores him to the frighted field;With anguish Ajax views the piercing sight,Thus loudly roaring, and o’erpowering all,Portentous shone, and shaded all the field;Urged by the voice divine, thus Hector flew,Like fire from Jove, and bursts upon them all:Thickening their ranks, and form a deep array.Still at the closest ranks, the thickest fight,“Enough thou know’st the tyrant of the skies,And better far in one decisive strife,Still raging, Hector with his ample handWhile Phœbus hastes great Hector to prepareConfused, and weary all the powers with prayer:But know, ’tis madness to contest with Jove:The mist of darkness Jove around them threwAnd driven his conquering squadrons from the field.Meantime their fight the Spartan king survey’d,The skies would yield an ampler scene of rage;With nodding horse-hair formidably graced;Pours new destruction on her sons again?Supreme he sits; and sees, in pride of sway.Commands the goddess of the showery bow:Stern Mars, with anguish for his slaughter’d son,These wield the mace, and those the javelin throw.Like strength is felt from hope, and from despair,Medon and Iasus, Æneas sped;And gave what fate allow’d, the honours of a day!And Mars-like Meges: these the chiefs excite,For one bright prize the matchless chiefs contend,To scourge the wretch insulting them and heaven.”Wall’d round with sterns, a gloomy, desperate band.And rush’d enraged before the Trojan crowd;Let doleful tidings greet his mother’s ear,And drives him, like a lightning, on the foe.And calls his senses from the verge of death.And flank the navy with a brazen wall;As furious, Hector thunder’d threats aloud,Of realms accursed, deserted, reprobate!Before them flamed the shield, and march’d the god.From ship to ship thus Ajax swiftly flew,Yet hear my counsel, and his worst withstand:From the high poop he tumbles on the sand,Charged with Achilles’ high command I go,In rush the conquering Greeks to spoil the slain:Then Greece shall breathe from toils.” The godhead said;And each contends, as his were all the war.Heart-piercing anguish struck the Grecian host,Death is the worst; a fate which all must try;Come on—a distant war no longer wage,Hector (this said) rush’d forward on the foes:Else had thy Juno better counsels given,Sweeps the slight works and fashion’d domes away:No force could tame them, and no toil could tire;incensed at the artifice of Juno, who appeases him by her submissions;Nor this the ships can fire, nor that defend:There, pierced by Ajax, sunk Laodamas,His generous sense he not in vain imparts;And hears the gathering multitude resound,The foodful earth and all-infolding skies;With equal hand he guides his whole design,And o’er the slaughter stalks gigantic death.“Is there (he said) in arms a youth like you,Vanquish’d at last by Hector’s lance he lies.(Where numerous oxen, as at ease they feed,And bold to combat in the standing fight,Behold Ascalaphus! behold him die,Some lordly bull (the rest dispersed and fled)And from the fibres scoop’d the rooted ball,My court beneath the hoary waves I keep,reinspires Hector with vigour, brings him back to the battle, marchesIn peace, and war, for ever at his side,Let Ilion conquer, till the Achaian trainIf e’er, in hope our country to behold,The startling steeds, and shook his eager reins.He breaks his faith with half the ethereal race;Ilion and Greece no more should Jove engage,Thus on a roe the well-breath’d beagle flies,He wrings his hands, he beats his manly breast.And Hector first came towering to the war.On Ida’s summit sat imperial Jove:This Hector saw, and thus express’d his joy:’Tis now no time for wisdom or debates;Points to the fleet: “For, by the gods! who flies,[240]That drives a turtle through the liquid skies,Desists at length his rebel-war to wage,Lay rank’d contiguous on the bending shores;Even yet, methinks, the gliding ghosts I spy,His corpse fell bleeding on the slippery shore;Chief of the foot, of old Antenor’s race.With that he gives command to Fear and FlightThe Thunderer spoke: imperial Juno mourn’d,If that loved boasted offspring be thy own.”Shields touching shields, in order blaze above,Why should heaven’s law with foolish man complyThus prayed the sage: the eternal gave consent,Asks toil, and sweat, and blood: their utmost mightThe toils, the sorrows, and the wounds of war.“By what wild passion, furious! art thou toss’d?Like fiery meteors his red eye-balls glow:But young Ilioneus received the spear;Depart I must: what horrors strike my eyes!No less the wonder of the warring crew.New ting’d with Tyrian dye: in dust below,Shall not the Thunderer’s dread command restrain,By his own ardour, his own pity sway’d,Fierce Melanippus, gallant, brave, and young.Beloved no less than Priam’s royal race.How Hector calls, and Troy obeys his call!As long as Phœbus bore unmoved the shield,But lifts to glory Troy’s prevailing bands,There sat the powers in awful synod placed;They hail her queen; the nectar streams around.With his bold breast, and felt it in his heart:The falchions ring, shields rattle, axes sound,A sudden road! a long and ample way.And hell’s black horrors swim before my eye.”His will divine the son of Jove obey’d.Through all the brazen dome:[239] with goblets crown’dOur elder birthright, and superior sway.Compact, and firm with many a jointed scale)Struck by an arm unseen, it burst in two;“Trojans! your great Ilioneus behold!And is there equal to the lord of heaven?”These fates revolved in his almighty mind,Girt in surrounding flames, he seems to fallAnd various Iris, wing their airy way.The trembling queen (the almighty order given)From the vast concave of the spangled sky,ARGUMENT.The trembling, servile, second race of heaven.”Exhorts, adjures, to guard these utmost shores;Lo! where the son of royal Clytius lies;Then (while a smile serenes his awful brow)When ministers are blest with prudent mind:Close in the rock, (not fated yet to die)Their force is humbled, and their fear confess’d.Till Greece at once, and all her glory end;Your vassal godheads grudgingly obey:“Here, proud Polydamas, here turn thy eyes!Dire was the hiss of darts, by heroes flung,Inspire thy warriors then with manly force,Sullen he sat, and curb’d the rising groan.Revenge, revenge it on the cruel foe.“Though yet thy state require redress (he cries)And the fierce soul came rushing through the wound.Entails a debt on all the grateful state;Beheld, and thus bespoke the source of light:And catch from breast to breast the noble fire,But hand to hand, and man to man, they grow:Bear this fierce answer to the king of gods?His wife live honour’d, all his race succeed,A victim owed to my brave brother’s death.Secure of death, confiding in despair:When we victorious shall to Greece return,These proud in arms, those scatter’d o’er the plainTHE FIFTH BATTLE AT THE SHIPS; AND THE ACTS OF AJAX.Presumptuous Troy mistook the accepting sign,The horses thunder, earth and ocean roar!Nor fights, like others, fix’d to certain standsthe gods, attempts, with extraordinary address, to incense them againstNo swain to guard them, and no day to guide,“Great is the profit (thus the god rejoin’d)Even power immense had found such battle hard.And gains the friendly shelter of the wood:But enter’d in the Grecian ranks, he turnsSo flies a herd of oxen, scatter’d wide,The listening Grecians feel their leader’s flame,Against Alcides, Copreus was his sire:Ajax the less, of all the Grecian raceBut stretch’d in heaps before Oïleus’ son,As Phœbus, shooting from the Idaean brow,And springs, exulting, to his fields again:At the proud boaster he directs his course;His manly breast, and with new fury burns.“Iris! descend, and what we here ordain,As if new vigour from new fights they won,The fierce commander of the Epeian band.The sportive wanton, pleased with some new play,Stand to your arms, maintain this arduous space:O’er the dread fosse (a late impervious space)And bathed their generous breasts with mutual blood.Absent, by me they speak, by me they sue,Experienced Nestor chief obtests the skies,The Greeks dismay’d, confused, disperse or fall,Warms the bold son of Nestor in his cause.Smooths the rough wood, and levels every part;The coursers fly; the smoking chariot bounds;Fed his large oxen on Percotè’s plain;One to the bold Bœotians ever dear,Vulcan to Jove the immortal gift consign’d,Has, from my arm unfailing, struck the bow,Still in the tent Patroclus sat to tendHe pierced his heart—“Such fate attends you all,in a swoon, and Neptune at the head of the Greeks: he is highlyHis people’s pastor, Hyperenor fell;Swift from the Idaean summit shot to heaven.Thus she proceeds—“Attend, ye powers above!He spoke, and round him breathed heroic fires;The first that touch’d the unhappy Trojan shore:Bid him from fight to his own deeps repair,It sunk, and rooted in the Grecian hearts:“How long, ye warriors of the Argive race,Should hurl me blazing on those heaps of dead.”He (ere to Troy the Grecians cross’d the main)The radiant helmet on his temple burns,Your wives, your infants, and your parents share:By thy black waves, tremendous Styx! that flowby the greater Ajax with a prodigious slaughter.As when the pamper’d steed, with reins unbound,Not Troy alone, but haughty Greece, shall shareStretch’d on one heap, the victors spoil the slain.Thoas, the bravest of the Ætolian force;Ajax the great, and godlike Hector meet;(The towering Ajax loud-insulting cries:)How long on these cursed confines will ye lie,Whom Hermes loved, and taught the arts of gain:)By the dread honours of thy sacred head,Lo! still he lives, pursues, and conquers still!His head, now freed, he tosses to the skies;But when he saw, ascending up the fleet,Steeps Troy in blood, and ranges round the plain:Smote his rebelling breast, and fierce begun:Such is the fate of Greece, and such is ours:So Mars, when human crimes for vengeance call,Clytus, Pisenor’s son, renown’d in fame,This sprang from Phelus, and the Athenians led;Thus speaking, furious from the field he strode,This menace fix’d the warrior to his throne;When, by thy wiles induced, fierce Boreas toss’dSkill’d in pursuit, and swiftest in the chase.she is then sent to Iris and Apollo. Juno, repairing to the assembly ofAnd thus, incensed, to fraudful Juno spoke:Still press’d, and press’d by such inglorious hands.”Full of the god; and all his hosts pursue.(To thee, Polydamas! an honour’d name)O’ermatch’d he falls; to two at once a prey,To rise afresh, and once more wake the war:From that great hour the war’s whole fortune turns,Nor speak him vulgar, nor of vulgar race;He sprinkles healing balms, to anguish kind,To Hermes, Pallas, and the queen of heaven,And lies a lifeless load along the land.If heaven’s omnipotence descend in arms?Not with more rage a conflagration rolls,Greece chased by Troy, even to Achilles’ fleet,He bids thee from forbidden wars repairGlides down the mountain to the plain below.Think of your hopes, your fortunes; all the careThe same our honours, and our birth the same.And late posterity enjoy the deed!”And dread the ruin that impends on all.The voice is powerful of a faithful friend.”Thy fall, great Trojan! had renown’d that day.Why stand you distant, nor attempt a deed?To scatter hosts and terrify mankind,Nor dare to act but when we point the way.No vassal god, nor of his train, am I.Now all on fire for fame, his breast, his eyesAnd drive the Grecians headlong to the sea.”Burn at each foe, and single every prize;Beyond the foremost ranks; his lance he threw,Proud Argives! destined by our arms to fall.Full on the front the pressing Trojans bear,Forbids to plunder, animates the fight,Swell his bold heart, and urge his strength to war:O’er all his country’s youth conspicuous farThan keep this hard-got inch of barren sands,His elder birthright, and superior sway.By Paris, Deiochus inglorious dies,At large expatiate o’er the ranker mead)His radiant arms triumphant Meges bore.Phœbus himself the rushing battle led;The good Eurypylus, his wounded friend.If thought of man can match the speed of gods.Shall find its match—No more: ’tis ours to fight.”A banish’d man, in Phylacè he dwell’d,Advancing Melanippus met the dartAnd peals of thunder shook the firmament.To whom the white-arm’d goddess thus replies:Round the wide fields he cast a careful view,Then stopp’d and panted, where the chariots lieTo bathe his sides, and cool his fiery blood;He points his ardour, and exerts his might.For this in arms the warring nations stood,But Jove shall thunder through the ethereal domeLaid Hyrtius, leader of the Mysian train.How easy then, to see the sinking stateFirst great Arcesilas, then Stichius bleeds;If once your vessels catch the Trojan fire?And all the raging gods opposed in vain?A son as generous as the sire was base;Yet leaves his nation safe, his children free;Correct it yet, and change thy rash intent;“By every oath that powers immortal ties,To some great city through the public way;Due to stern Pallas, and Pelides’ spear:They ask their safety, and their fame, from you:The gods their fates on this one action lay,No friendly hand his funeral pyre compose.Admiring numbers follow with their eyes.And show’d the shores, the navy, and the main:A worthy vengeance for Prothoënor slain?The boaster flies, and shuns superior force.Dares, though the thunder bursting o’er my headAnd stop the Trojans, though impell’d by Jove.As when a lion, rushing from his den,(The king of ocean thus, incensed, replies;)Heroes as great have died, and yet shall fall.The trembling herdsman far to distance flies;He, not untouch’d with pity, to the plainLet mutual reverence mutual warmth inspire,No weeping sister his cold eye shall close,Our friend, our loved companion! now no more!attempt to fire the first line of the fleet, but are, as yet, repelledThe godlike hero stalks from side to side.And rends his side, fresh-bleeding with the dartBy Teucer’s arrows mingled with the dead,The toil of thousands in a moment falls.Hast thou forgot, when, bound and fix’d on high,Who leaves a brother to revenge his fate.”Shorn from the crest, the purple honours glow.How shall thy rashness stand the dire alarmsAs when the force of men and dogs combinedDaughters of Jove! that on Olympus shine,What grief, what wound, withholds thee from the war?”On rush’d bold Hector, gloomy as the night;Or Ilion from her towery height descend,Each Ajax, Teucer, Merion gave command,But Hector was not doom’d to perish then:(His sad associates round with weeping eyes,)He foams with wrath; beneath his gloomy browAnd weeps his country with a father’s eyes.If he refuse, then let him timely weighYet undetermined, or to live or die?Headlong I hurl’d them from the Olympian hall,obey the orders of Jupiter; Iris commands Neptune to leave the battle,Thou first, great Ajax! on the unsanguined plainTo help his Greeks, he fought and disobey’d:And plunged the pointed javelin in his breast.With bitter groans his sorrows he express’d,Strives he with me, by whom his power was given,Now fear itself confines them to the fight:Had heard the thunders to the deeps of hell.Hector they saw, and all who fly, or fight,And taught submission to the sire of heaven.”Assign’d by lot, our triple rule we know;Even I will make thy fiery coursers way,And arrows leaping from the bow-string sung;Sprung from the tent, and left the war behind.(Phorbas the rich, of all the Trojan train“Behold! the god whose liquid arms are hurl’dAnd the long battle was but then begun.Wraps the vast mountains, and involves the poles.Indulgent Jove! how plain thy favours shine,By Hector here the Phocian Schedius died;Again his loved companions meet his eyes;Who stops to plunder at this signal hour,Him through a thousand forms of death I bore,In me behold the messenger of Jove:To whom the god who gives the golden day:In thought a length of lands he trod before,Ilioneus, his father’s only care:But touch’d the breast of bold Peneleus most;Then the huge helmet lifting from his head,Till sad Polydamas the steeds restrain’d,To join his rapid coursers for the fight:In wisdom great, in arms well known to fame;(The sage preserver of the Grecian host)Or breathe from slaughter in the fields of air.Not by my arts the ruler of the mainFierce as he is, let Hector learn to fear.”Deep horror seizes every Grecian breast,Thoas with grief observed his dreadful course,“Why sits great Hector from the field so far?And call the god that bears the silver bow.Shall send Patroclus, but shall send in vain.Dolops, the son of Lampus, rushes on,The wrath of Neptune shall for ever last.”Full at the Trojan’s head he urged his lance,But looks a moving tower above the bands;To rise in arms, and shine again in war.And ancient Rhea, earth’s immortal dame:The scene wide-opening to the blaze of light,to which, after much reluctance and passion, he consents. ApolloTo thine own deeps, or to the fields of air.But when aloft he shakes it in the skies,Warn’d by thy words, to powerful Jove I yield,Think of each ancestor with glory dead;This said, his eager javelin sought the foe:The same which dead Protesilaüs bore,[242]The godlike Ajax next his Greeks address’d:And from the spouting shoulders struck his head;And where the bow which Phœbus taught to bend?”On yon tall summit of the fountful Ide:For godlike Hercules these deeds were done,Approach the foe, and meet the coming fight.Thus to the impetuous homicide she said:The fainting hero, as the vision brightSwift his broad falchion fierce Peneleus spread,Cease then thy offspring’s death unjust to call;Thus wakens Hector from the sleep of death?But Pallas, springing through the bright abode,O’er the wide clouds, and o’er the starry plain,Bathed Greece in slaughter, and her battle gored,Sends forth his active mind from place to place,The shipwreck’d hero on the Coan coast,Jove thinking of his pains, they pass’d away,Rule as he will his portion’d realms on high;By winds assail’d, by billows beat in vain,They fly: at once the chasers and the prey.Jupiter; in particular she touches Mars with a violent resentment; heGreece, yet unconquer’d, kept alive the war,[Illustration: ] BACCHUSFrom different parts, and mingle in the skies.Through the drear realms of gliding ghosts below;The Trojans hear, they tremble, and they fly:One Greek enrich’d thy shrine with offer’d gore;Behold your Promachus deprived of breath,Respect yourselves, and learn an honest shame:See, and be strong! the Thunderer sends thee aid.Thy arms no less suffice the lance to wield,Nor was such glory due to Teucer’s hands.Even my loved son, divine Sarpedon, falls!This day preserve our navies from the flame,Bold as he was, Antilochus withdrew.And sees the watery mountains break below.On Ida’s top he waits with longing eyes,And for our country, ’tis a bliss to die.Mount the thick Trojans up the Grecian wall;Then Juno call’d (Jove’s orders to obey)Lo! Hector rises from the Stygian shades!To your own hands are trusted all your fates;Joins hill to dale, and measures space with space:Forget to vanquish, and consent to fear.That fix’d as fate, this acted by a god.Fierce on the ships above, the cars below,Be godlike Hector thy peculiar care,First seized a ship on that contested strand;In youth’s first bloom reluctantly he dies.For Jove his splendour round the chief had thrown,And every kindling bosom pants for fame.Let his high roofs resound with frantic woe,First of the field great Ajax strikes their eyes,But Ajax shunn’d the meditated blow.But strive, though numerous, to repulse in vain:Behold, ye warriors, and exert your powers.His own brave friends shall glory in his fate;This death deplored, to Hector’s rage we owe;Give him to know, unless the Grecian trainNot but his threats with justice I disclaim,No room to poise the lance or bend the bow;(Imperial Jove) his present death withstands;And draws imagined houses in the sands;Waves when he nods, and lightens as he turns:Such as to Promachus’ sad spouse we bear,And anxious asks what cares disturb her soul?“Think’st thou with me? fair empress of the skies!And urge the gods, with voices, eyes, and hands.To see the gathering grudge in every breast,Then, nor till then, shall great Achilles rise:Seeks his own seas, and trembles at our rage;Antenor’s brother, or perhaps his son.”On valour’s side the odds of combat lie;There in the father’s awful presence stand,Our high decree let various Iris know,There saw the Trojans fly, the Greeks pursue;Not far, great Hector on the dust he spies,There sat the eternal; he whose nod controlsThey join, they throng, they thicken at his call,Go thou, my son! the trembling Greeks alarm,Ah, save his arms, secure his obsequies!”“Ye troops of Lycia, Dardanus, and Troy!Brave deeds of arms through all the ranks were tried,While on her wrinkled front, and eyebrow bent,Some god, propitious to the Trojan foe,If heaven’s omnipotence descend in arms?The minister of stern Eurystheus’ ire“Gods! what portent (he cried) these eyes invades?Then grim in arms, with hasty vengeance flies;And, trembling, these submissive words return’d:Report to yon mad tyrant of the main.Howe’er the offence by other gods be pass’d,Dismiss the bow, and lay thy arrows by:The headlong coursers spurn his empty car;At Hector’s breast a chosen arrow draws:Stand the first onset, and provoke the storm.And spread your glory with the navy’s flame.before him with his ægis, and turns the fortune of the fight. HeThe valiant leader of the Cretan band;Unmoved it hears, above, the tempest blow,The Greeks expect the shock, the clamours riseFierce in the majesty of power controls;Drive through the skies, when Boreas fiercely blows;One day should end our labour or our life,Some lines, methinks, may make his lineage known,Not vainly yet the forceful lance was thrown;White are the decks with foam; the winds aloudThe Grecians gaze around with wild despair,Ye all-beholding, all-recording nine!Troy in proud hopes already view’d the mainAnd to blue Neptune thus the goddess calls:One kept the shore, and one the vessel trod;And round the black battalions cast his view.And awe the younger brothers of the pole;But when oppress’d, his country claim’d his care,Mark well his port! his figure and his faceShakes his huge javelin, and whole armies fall.The all-mighty spoke; the goddess wing’d her flightIn aid of Greece. The promise of a godThe victor, stooping, from the death withdrew;Bold Merion, Morys and Hippotion slew.From the proud archer strike his vaunted bow:The unhappy hero, fled, or shared his fate.And catch’d new fury at the voice divine.Go thou, the feasts of heaven attend thy call;Fear on their cheek, and horror in their eye.Fall mighty numbers, mighty numbers run;But let the few whom brisker spirits warm,A veil of clouds involved his radiant head:Say, is this chief extended on the plainEjecting blood, and panting yet for breath,Arms that reflect a radiance through the skies.Exhort their men, with praises, threats, commands;And many a chief lay gasping on the ground:Where the high plumes above the helmet dance,These drink the life of generous warriors slain:Him Hector singled, as his troops he led,I hung thee trembling in a golden chain,Achilles’ glory to the stars to raise;High on the decks with vast gigantic stride,(Well-known in fight on Sellè’s winding shore;The all-wise disposer of the fates of menVeil’d in a mist of fragrance him they found,And thee, brave Clonius, great Agenor slew.Behold! thy Phœbus shall his arms employ,And cast the blaze of both the hosts on one.The deck approaching, shakes a flaming brand;And one Menestheus’ friend and famed compeer.Jupiter, awaking, sees the Trojans repulsed from the trenches, HectorSo fears the youth; all Troy with shouts pursue,And breathes fierce spirits in his following band.Legions on legions from each side arise:Safe in his art, as side by side they run,Of all the Grecians what immortal name,As Promachus his slaughtered brother draws,Return’d to Ilion, and excell’d in war;Then swift invades the ships, whose beaky proresAnd the pale matron in our triumphs mourn.”As when a shipwright, with Palladian art,So pale the Greeks the eyes of Hector meet,Fierce as they are, by long successes vain;Drove through the thickest of the embattled plainsUnhappy glories! for his fate was near,And not content that half of Greece lie slain,Dreadful he spoke, then toss’d the head on high;As, when black tempests mix the seas and skies,When happy nations bear the marks divine!And one vast ruin whelm the Olympian state.And all are lost, if you desert the day.”Swift as the rattling hail, or fleecy snows,Aghast they gaze around the fleet and wall,Grasps the high stern, and gives this loud command:Phœbus, propitious still to thee and Troy.And thou, great Mars, begin and show the way.But, pierced by Telamon’s huge lance, expires:Roll’d in the ditch the heapy ruin lay;Thy own loved boasted offspring lies o’erthrown,Sprung from the race of old Laomedon,Perform the promise of a gracious god!Sat stedfast care, and lowering discontent.“What means the haughty sovereign of the skies?Above the sides of some tall ship ascend,To fight our wars he left his native air.Then, fired to vengeance, rush’d amidst the foe:For this, in Priam’s court, he held his place,Striv’st thou with him by whom all power is given?So swift flew Juno to the bless’d abodes,The troops of Troy recede with sudden fear,Amidst the plain of some wide-water’d fen,A ponderous mace with studs of iron crown’d,Jove is with us; I saw his hand, but now,“Oh friends! be men: your generous breasts inflameThe lord of thunders, from his lofty heightHe lifts his miserable arms in vain!The warrior falls, extended on the ground.But Croesmus’ bosom took the flying spear:Then mutual slaughters spread on either side;Lift the bold lance, and make some Trojan bleed.”And all the gods that round old Saturn dwellOn the fallen chief the invading Trojan press’d,At its full stretch as the tough string he drew,Hear this, remember, and our fury dread,While the swift javelin hiss’d along in air.Perhaps some favouring god his soul may bend;To view the navy blazing to the skies;And every ship sustained an equal tide.Thy brave example shall the rest inflame.A faithful servant to a foreign lord;The goddess said, and sullen took her place;Lest arts and blandishments successless prove,Shakes all the thrones of heaven, and bends the poles.“Thus then, immortals! thus shall Mars obey;Forth rush’d the youth with martial fury fired,The bleeding youth: Troy sadden’d at the view.And damp the eternal banquets of the skies.”Which oft, in cities storm’d, and battles won,And, stooping, darkens with his wings the flood.Unmoved his mind, and unrestrain’d his will.A noble mind disdains not to repent.They bow’d, and made obeisance as she pass’dAnd plunged into the bosom of the flood.“Lo, Melanippus! lo, where Dolops lies;And lo! that instant, godlike Hector dies.An exile long, sustain’d at Ajax’ board,“O thou, still adverse to the eternal will,Impending Phœbus pours around them fear,The hero most, from Hicetaon sprung,The astonish’d archer to great Ajax cries;The Grecian ardour quench’d in deep despair;And is it thus our royal kinsman dies?And lo! they bear the bloody arms away!But Meges, Phyleus’ ample breastplate wore,But doom’d to Hector’s stronger force to yield!Against the margin of his ample shieldWho dares but linger, by this hand he dies;Our power immense, and brave the almighty hand?With clouds of gold and purple circled round.If yet, forgetful of his promise givenEternal darkness wrapp’d the warrior round,Near his loved master, as he lived, he died.“Go wait the Thunderer’s will (Saturnia cried)To yon bright synod on the Olympian hill;Wounded, they wound; and seek each other’s heartsFor king Euphetes gave the golden mail,The roaring deeps in watery mountains rise,And slaughter’d heroes swell the dreadful tide.Who marks the swans’ or cranes’ embodied flight,Thick sound the keels; the storm of arrows flies.Its womb they deluge, and its ribs they rend:Hurl’d from the lofty seat, at distance far,His labouring bosom re-inspires with breath,And stood by Meges’ side a sudden aid.Stoops down impetuous, while they light for food,Supine he fell; his brazen helmet rung.Strong Periphaetes and Prothoon bled,is ready to take arms, but is prevented by Minerva. Iris and ApolloAnd, swell’d with tempests, on the ship descends;In one sad sepulchre, one common fall.”Forgive me, gods, and yield my vengeance way:Shall fall by thousands at the hero’s feet.On his brave head a crested helm he placed,So some tall rock o’erhangs the hoary main,[241]Black horror sadden’d each celestial face.And was imperial Juno heard in vain?To force our fleet, or even a ship to gain,Guilty and guiltless find an equal fateVictorious Troy; then, starting from his seat,The warrior wields; and his great brother joins.At one proud bark, high-towering o’er the fleet,Soon as they see the furious chief appear,Receive, and execute his dread command.”Chased from the foremost line, the Grecian trainBut hand to hand thy country’s foes engage:A dart, whose point with brass refulgent shines,So when a horseman from the watery meadThen soon the haughty sea-god shall obey,There Hector seated by the stream he sees,And Troy and Hector thunder in the rear.And thus inflames his brother to the fight:Phalces and Mermer, Nestor’s son o’erthrew,The winged Iris, and the god of day.With streaming blood the slippery shores are dyed,Well-pleased the Thunderer saw their earnest care,Meanwhile, awaken’d from his dream of love,Then, nor till then, the scale of war shall turn,The birds shall tear him, and the dogs devour.”And broke the nerve my hands had twined with art,With ample strokes he rushes to the flood,Fly to their ships and Hellespont again:Through his fair neck the thrilling arrow flies;And in thy guilt involve the host of heaven?Minerva seconds what the sage inspires.The wondering crowds the downward level trod;He shifts his seat, and vaults from one to one;Thy arts have made the godlike Hector yield,A mournful witness of this scene of woe;While conscious of the deed, he glares around,Olympus, and this earth, in common lie:Then Teucer laid his faithless bow aside;Not more in councils famed for solid sense,“Oh! all of Trojan, all of Lycian race!Those guiltless fall, and thirst for blood in vain.And adds discourse, the medicine of the mind.Thick beats the combat on the sounding prores.Force to the fleet and tents the impervious way.When lo! a lion shoots across the way!Bright with the blaze, and red with heroes slain:Pale, trembling, tired, the sailors freeze with fears;The well-stored quiver on his shoulders hung:For ever studious in promoting ill!(To generous Argos what a dire disgrace!)Before the chief his ample bow display’d;To sacred Ilion from the Idaean height.Mark how the flames approach, how near they fall,Wedged in one body at the tents they stand,Which held its passage through the panting heart,And whose bless’d trophies, will ye raise to fame?Burn’d to the bottom of his seas profound;Canst thou, unhappy in thy wiles, withstandAnd quit, though angry, the contended field:With mutual honour, and with mutual shame!She clear’d, restoring all the war to view;Nor could the Trojans, through that firm array,I haste to urge him by his country’s careNow steeds, and men, and cars tumultuous pass.In every virtue, or of peace or war:But hapless Medon from Oïleus came;(Skill’d in the manage of the bounding steed)And that unbroken vow, our virgin bed!Yet Jove deferr’d the death he was to pay,Nor one of all the heavenly host engageHow shall his rashness stand the dire alarms,And now to this, and now to that he flies;His lance bold Meges at the victor threw;And instant death on every wave appears.Great Hector view’d him with a sad survey,Impatient Teucer, hastening to his aid,Dear as a parent, with a parent’s careThen Ajax thus—“O Greeks! respect your fame,Apollo, planted at the trench’s bound,The Trojans fly, and conquer’d Ilion burn.Exempted from the race ordain’d to die?”(The immortal father with a smile replies;)Else had my wrath, heaven’s thrones all shaking round,Press’d by the vengeance of an angry wife;To him Apollo: “Be no more dismay’d;This if refused, he bids thee timely weighHim Ajax honour’d with a brother’s name,His circling friends, who strove to guard too lateHe singles out; arrests, and lays him dead.Drives four fair coursers, practised to obey,And, ’midst the war, the monarch of the main.He spake, and smiled severe, for well he knewNow on the fleet the tides of Trojans drove,The pointed death arrests him from behind:Striv’st thou with Jove? thou art already lost.Had almost sunk me to the shades below?All Greece in heaps; but one he seized, and slew:The warrior spoke; the listening Greeks obey,Bid the crown’d nectar circle round the hall:I gave, and seal’d it with the almighty nod,Thundering he falls, and drops the extinguish’d fires.Skill’d to direct the javelin’s distant flight,Then hiss’d his arrow, and the bowstring sung.Mycenian Periphes, a mighty name,Man courage breathes in man; but Nestor mostFrom frantic Mars she snatch’d the shield and spear;Command the sea-god to his watery reign:And famed for prowess in a well-fought field,And labouring armies round the works engaged,And breathed immortal ardour from above.We paid the fattest firstlings of the fold;Such stern decrees, such threaten’d woes to come,To flank the navy, and the shores defend.And art thou equal to the lord of heaven?”High held before him, Jove’s enormous shieldWell was the crime, and well the vengeance spared;He snuffs the females in the well-known plain,It stretch’d in dust unhappy Lycophron:Pierced through the shoulder as he basely flies.While these fly trembling, others pant for breath,Than winning words and heavenly eloquence.Shouts in their ears, and lightens in their eyes,So from the clouds descending Iris falls,BOOK XV.breaks down great part of the Grecian wall: the Trojans rush in, andThe gallant man, though slain in fight he be,The victor leaps upon his prostrate prize:And hush the roarings of the sacred deep;’Twas thou, bold Hector! whose resistless handTo favour Ilion, that perfidious place,Submiss, immortals! all he wills, obey:If e’er thou sign’st our wishes with thy nod:“O Jove! if ever, on his native shore,Bids him with more than mortal fury glow,The martial leaders, with like skill and care,Haste, to his father let the tale be told:Has fame not told, how, while my trusty swordAnd gave, Astynous, to thy careful hand;The embodied Greeks the fierce attack sustain,We saw him, late, by thundering Ajax kill’d:Thus to bold Hector spoke the son of Jove,And issued at his breast. With thundering soundEasy as when ashore an infant stands,(That valued life, O Phœbus! was thy care)“Teucer, behold! extended on the shoreStruck for the immortal race with timely fear,Leaps on the herds before the herdsman’s eyes;Sat doubtful conquest hovering o’er the field;Thy soft deceits, and well-dissembled love.”What claim has here the tyrant of the sky?It calls to death, and all the rage of fights.Observing Hector to the rescue flew;And by their parents, by themselves implores.Behind, unnumber’d multitudes attend,With equal ardour Melanippus glows:The victor seized; and, as aloft he shookFull in his eye the weapon chanced to fall,Around the globe, whose earthquakes rock the world,The distant hunter sent into his heart.Not till that day shall Jove relax his rage,Starts from her azure throne to calm the god.Strong to impel the flight of many a dart.”Smiles on her lips a spleenful joy express’d;Howl o’er the masts, and sing through every shroud:Push’d at the bank: down sank the enormous mound:Invade the mountain goat, or branching hind;The gory visage, thus insulting spoke:“What blest immortal, with commanding breath,When two fell lions from the mountain come,And prompt obedience to the queen of air;He said; and backward to the lines retired;His port majestic, and his ample size:Descending first to yon forbidden plain,Jove leads him on with his almighty hand,As some wayfaring man, who wanders o’erLet her descend, and from the embattled plainO say, when Neptune made proud Ilion yield,Thus point your arms; and when such foes appear,While stones and darts in mingled tempest flew;Fair Themis first presents the golden bowl,Far from the hunter’s rage secure they lieNow manly shame forbids the inglorious flight;And sent to Argos, and his native shore.Meets death, and worse than death, eternal shame.”Such was our word, and fate the word obeys.”Through Dolops’ shoulder urged his forceful dart,And had the weapon found the destined way,Heaps fall on heaps: the slaughter Hector leads,Shake my broad ægis on thy active arm,Far in the distant clouds let him control,So when a savage, ranging o’er the plain,Down dropp’d the bow: the shaft with brazen headNot unappeased he enters Pluto’s gate,Pierced in the flank by Menelaus’ steel,Rage edged his sword, and strengthen’d every blow.Pallas assists, and lofty Ilion burns.The mighty Ajax with a deadly blowSo strong to fight, so active to pursue?Polydamas laid Otus on the sand,Swells all their hearts, and strengthens all their hands.She said, and sat; the god that gilds the day,He spoke; and, speaking, swifter than the windNor pull the unwilling vengeance on thy head;Furious he said; the smarting scourge resounds;To earth at once the head and helmet fly;Nor seem’d the vengeance worthy such a son:“Attend the mandate of the sire above!Not half so swift the sailing falcon flies,And to the ships impel thy rapid horse:He pierced the centre of his sounding shield:Thus from the rage of Jove-like Hector flewHe comes not, Jove! without thy powerful will;And save the relics of the Grecian name.”Drove through the neck, and hurl’d him to the plain;And quit the quiver for the ponderous shield.But Hector’s voice excites his kindred train;So the strong eagle from his airy height,On all sides batter’d, yet resists his power:Back to the skies wouldst thou with shame be driven,What chief, what hero first embrued the field?The lance, yet sticking through the bleeding eye,His senses wandering to the verge of death.Think of each living father’s reverend head;He struck his hasty foot: his heels up-sprung;Troy ends at last his labours and his life.If truth inspires thy tongue, proclaim our willTo elder brothers guardian fiends are given,“Some god prevents our destined enterprise:Where are those darts on which the fates attend?The god beheld him with a pitying look,The sire of gods, confirming Thetis’ prayer,(Fair nurse of fountains, and of savage game)He raises Hector to the work design’d,Severely bent his purpose to fulfil,What youths he slaughters under Ilion’s walls!But dare not murmur, dare not vent a sigh;The brave live glorious, or lamented die;With falchions, axes, swords, and shorten’d darts.Such as the house of Promachus must know;As stretch’d in dust before the stern he lay.But furious Acamas avenged his cause;Infernal Pluto sways the shades below;Thundering he falls; his falling arms resound,And thus inflamed him, pointing to the dead.Fierce to fulfil the stern decrees of Jove:And spread the carnage through the shady gloom.The Grecian phalanx, moveless as a tower,“And must I then (said she), O sire of floods!Thou wouldst have thought, so furious was their fire,Again his pulses beat, his spirits rise;There to his children his commands be given,This roused the soul in every Trojan breast:As soon shall freeze mankind with dire surprise,Swords flash in air, or glitter on the ground;Has torn the shepherd’s dog, or shepherd’s swain,The fourfold buckler o’er his shoulder tied;Mecystes next Polydamas o’erthrew;The warring nations meet, the battle roars,Now in swift flight they pass the trench profound,Breaks from his stall, and pours along the ground;And his broad buckler rings against the ground.The son of Clytius in his daring hand,Timely he flies the yet-untasted food,Though born of lawless love: from home expell’d,And now had Jove, by bold rebellion driven,Lay yon proud structures level with the plain,“Since heaven commands it (Ajax made reply)By the just rule, and the directing line:Swift as the wind, to Ida’s hills they came,Fell innocent, and on the dust lay dead.Then with his hand he shook the mighty wall;The chief so thunders, and so shakes the fleet.Bursts as a wave that from the cloud impends,Ethereal Jove extends his high domain;His mane dishevell’d o’er his shoulders flies:His sense returning with the coming breeze;So Greece, that late in conquering troops pursued,Had saved the father, and now saves the son.Be mindful of yourselves, your ancient fame,In the first ranks indulge thy thirst of fame,Some seek the trench, some skulk behind the wall.The trembling world, and shakes the steady poles.The hosts rush on; loud clamours shake the shore;The fiery Spartan first, with loud applause.While thus the thunder of the battle raged,Stood shining o’er him, half unseal’d his sight:As all on glory ran his ardent mind,Discharged his wrath on half the host of heaven;Once more bold Teucer, in his country’s cause,Three brother deities from Saturn came,Preserved their line, and equal kept the war.Polites’ arm laid Echius on the plain;A sudden ray shot beaming o’er the plain,What hopes remain, what methods to retire,The god of battles dares avenge the slain;The Greeks’ main body to the fleet command;Thus vanish’d at thy touch, the towers and walls;Heaved from the lowest stone; and bury allStunn’d in the whirl, and breathless with the fall.And mark’d their progress through the ranks in blood,Now man the next, receding toward the main:Not to the dance that dreadful voice invites,And lo! the turrets nod, the bulwarks fall:The wretch that trembles in the field of fame,Full twenty cubits long, he swings around;The son redeem’d the honours of the race,What god restores him to the frighted field;With anguish Ajax views the piercing sight,Thus loudly roaring, and o’erpowering all,Portentous shone, and shaded all the field;Urged by the voice divine, thus Hector flew,Like fire from Jove, and bursts upon them all:Thickening their ranks, and form a deep array.Still at the closest ranks, the thickest fight,“Enough thou know’st the tyrant of the skies,And better far in one decisive strife,Still raging, Hector with his ample handWhile Phœbus hastes great Hector to prepareConfused, and weary all the powers with prayer:But know, ’tis madness to contest with Jove:The mist of darkness Jove around them threwAnd driven his conquering squadrons from the field.Meantime their fight the Spartan king survey’d,The skies would yield an ampler scene of rage;With nodding horse-hair formidably graced;Pours new destruction on her sons again?Supreme he sits; and sees, in pride of sway.Commands the goddess of the showery bow:Stern Mars, with anguish for his slaughter’d son,These wield the mace, and those the javelin throw.Like strength is felt from hope, and from despair,Medon and Iasus, Æneas sped;And gave what fate allow’d, the honours of a day!And Mars-like Meges: these the chiefs excite,For one bright prize the matchless chiefs contend,To scourge the wretch insulting them and heaven.”Wall’d round with sterns, a gloomy, desperate band.And rush’d enraged before the Trojan crowd;Let doleful tidings greet his mother’s ear,And drives him, like a lightning, on the foe.And calls his senses from the verge of death.And flank the navy with a brazen wall;As furious, Hector thunder’d threats aloud,Of realms accursed, deserted, reprobate!Before them flamed the shield, and march’d the god.From ship to ship thus Ajax swiftly flew,Yet hear my counsel, and his worst withstand:From the high poop he tumbles on the sand,Charged with Achilles’ high command I go,In rush the conquering Greeks to spoil the slain:Then Greece shall breathe from toils.” The godhead said;And each contends, as his were all the war.Heart-piercing anguish struck the Grecian host,Death is the worst; a fate which all must try;Come on—a distant war no longer wage,Hector (this said) rush’d forward on the foes:Else had thy Juno better counsels given,Sweeps the slight works and fashion’d domes away:No force could tame them, and no toil could tire;incensed at the artifice of Juno, who appeases him by her submissions;Nor this the ships can fire, nor that defend:There, pierced by Ajax, sunk Laodamas,His generous sense he not in vain imparts;And hears the gathering multitude resound,The foodful earth and all-infolding skies;With equal hand he guides his whole design,And o’er the slaughter stalks gigantic death.“Is there (he said) in arms a youth like you,Vanquish’d at last by Hector’s lance he lies.(Where numerous oxen, as at ease they feed,And bold to combat in the standing fight,Behold Ascalaphus! behold him die,Some lordly bull (the rest dispersed and fled)And from the fibres scoop’d the rooted ball,My court beneath the hoary waves I keep,reinspires Hector with vigour, brings him back to the battle, marchesIn peace, and war, for ever at his side,Let Ilion conquer, till the Achaian trainIf e’er, in hope our country to behold,The startling steeds, and shook his eager reins.He breaks his faith with half the ethereal race;Ilion and Greece no more should Jove engage,Thus on a roe the well-breath’d beagle flies,He wrings his hands, he beats his manly breast.And Hector first came towering to the war.On Ida’s summit sat imperial Jove:This Hector saw, and thus express’d his joy:’Tis now no time for wisdom or debates;Points to the fleet: “For, by the gods! who flies,[240]That drives a turtle through the liquid skies,Desists at length his rebel-war to wage,Lay rank’d contiguous on the bending shores;Even yet, methinks, the gliding ghosts I spy,His corpse fell bleeding on the slippery shore;Chief of the foot, of old Antenor’s race.With that he gives command to Fear and FlightThe Thunderer spoke: imperial Juno mourn’d,If that loved boasted offspring be thy own.”Shields touching shields, in order blaze above,Why should heaven’s law with foolish man complyThus prayed the sage: the eternal gave consent,Asks toil, and sweat, and blood: their utmost mightThe toils, the sorrows, and the wounds of war.“By what wild passion, furious! art thou toss’d?Like fiery meteors his red eye-balls glow:But young Ilioneus received the spear;Depart I must: what horrors strike my eyes!No less the wonder of the warring crew.New ting’d with Tyrian dye: in dust below,Shall not the Thunderer’s dread command restrain,By his own ardour, his own pity sway’d,Fierce Melanippus, gallant, brave, and young.Beloved no less than Priam’s royal race.How Hector calls, and Troy obeys his call!As long as Phœbus bore unmoved the shield,But lifts to glory Troy’s prevailing bands,There sat the powers in awful synod placed;They hail her queen; the nectar streams around.With his bold breast, and felt it in his heart:The falchions ring, shields rattle, axes sound,A sudden road! a long and ample way.And hell’s black horrors swim before my eye.”His will divine the son of Jove obey’d.Through all the brazen dome:[239] with goblets crown’dOur elder birthright, and superior sway.Compact, and firm with many a jointed scale)Struck by an arm unseen, it burst in two;“Trojans! your great Ilioneus behold!And is there equal to the lord of heaven?”These fates revolved in his almighty mind,Girt in surrounding flames, he seems to fallAnd various Iris, wing their airy way.The trembling queen (the almighty order given)From the vast concave of the spangled sky,ARGUMENT.The trembling, servile, second race of heaven.”Exhorts, adjures, to guard these utmost shores;Lo! where the son of royal Clytius lies;Then (while a smile serenes his awful brow)When ministers are blest with prudent mind:Close in the rock, (not fated yet to die)Their force is humbled, and their fear confess’d.Till Greece at once, and all her glory end;Your vassal godheads grudgingly obey:“Here, proud Polydamas, here turn thy eyes!Dire was the hiss of darts, by heroes flung,Inspire thy warriors then with manly force,Sullen he sat, and curb’d the rising groan.Revenge, revenge it on the cruel foe.“Though yet thy state require redress (he cries)And the fierce soul came rushing through the wound.Entails a debt on all the grateful state;Beheld, and thus bespoke the source of light:And catch from breast to breast the noble fire,But hand to hand, and man to man, they grow:Bear this fierce answer to the king of gods?His wife live honour’d, all his race succeed,A victim owed to my brave brother’s death.Secure of death, confiding in despair:When we victorious shall to Greece return,These proud in arms, those scatter’d o’er the plainTHE FIFTH BATTLE AT THE SHIPS; AND THE ACTS OF AJAX.Presumptuous Troy mistook the accepting sign,The horses thunder, earth and ocean roar!Nor fights, like others, fix’d to certain standsthe gods, attempts, with extraordinary address, to incense them againstNo swain to guard them, and no day to guide,“Great is the profit (thus the god rejoin’d)Even power immense had found such battle hard.And gains the friendly shelter of the wood:But enter’d in the Grecian ranks, he turnsSo flies a herd of oxen, scatter’d wide,The listening Grecians feel their leader’s flame,Against Alcides, Copreus was his sire:Ajax the less, of all the Grecian raceBut stretch’d in heaps before Oïleus’ son,As Phœbus, shooting from the Idaean brow,And springs, exulting, to his fields again:At the proud boaster he directs his course;His manly breast, and with new fury burns.“Iris! descend, and what we here ordain,As if new vigour from new fights they won,The fierce commander of the Epeian band.The sportive wanton, pleased with some new play,Stand to your arms, maintain this arduous space:O’er the dread fosse (a late impervious space)And bathed their generous breasts with mutual blood.Absent, by me they speak, by me they sue,Experienced Nestor chief obtests the skies,The Greeks dismay’d, confused, disperse or fall,Warms the bold son of Nestor in his cause.Smooths the rough wood, and levels every part;The coursers fly; the smoking chariot bounds;Fed his large oxen on Percotè’s plain;One to the bold Bœotians ever dear,Vulcan to Jove the immortal gift consign’d,Has, from my arm unfailing, struck the bow,Still in the tent Patroclus sat to tendHe pierced his heart—“Such fate attends you all,in a swoon, and Neptune at the head of the Greeks: he is highlyHis people’s pastor, Hyperenor fell;Swift from the Idaean summit shot to heaven.Thus she proceeds—“Attend, ye powers above!He spoke, and round him breathed heroic fires;The first that touch’d the unhappy Trojan shore:Bid him from fight to his own deeps repair,It sunk, and rooted in the Grecian hearts:“How long, ye warriors of the Argive race,Should hurl me blazing on those heaps of dead.”He (ere to Troy the Grecians cross’d the main)The radiant helmet on his temple burns,Your wives, your infants, and your parents share:By thy black waves, tremendous Styx! that flowby the greater Ajax with a prodigious slaughter.As when the pamper’d steed, with reins unbound,Not Troy alone, but haughty Greece, shall shareStretch’d on one heap, the victors spoil the slain.Thoas, the bravest of the Ætolian force;Ajax the great, and godlike Hector meet;(The towering Ajax loud-insulting cries:)How long on these cursed confines will ye lie,Whom Hermes loved, and taught the arts of gain:)By the dread honours of thy sacred head,Lo! still he lives, pursues, and conquers still!His head, now freed, he tosses to the skies;But when he saw, ascending up the fleet,Steeps Troy in blood, and ranges round the plain:Smote his rebelling breast, and fierce begun:Such is the fate of Greece, and such is ours:So Mars, when human crimes for vengeance call,Clytus, Pisenor’s son, renown’d in fame,This sprang from Phelus, and the Athenians led;Thus speaking, furious from the field he strode,This menace fix’d the warrior to his throne;When, by thy wiles induced, fierce Boreas toss’dSkill’d in pursuit, and swiftest in the chase.she is then sent to Iris and Apollo. Juno, repairing to the assembly ofAnd thus, incensed, to fraudful Juno spoke:Still press’d, and press’d by such inglorious hands.”Full of the god; and all his hosts pursue.(To thee, Polydamas! an honour’d name)O’ermatch’d he falls; to two at once a prey,To rise afresh, and once more wake the war:From that great hour the war’s whole fortune turns,Nor speak him vulgar, nor of vulgar race;He sprinkles healing balms, to anguish kind,To Hermes, Pallas, and the queen of heaven,And lies a lifeless load along the land.If heaven’s omnipotence descend in arms?Not with more rage a conflagration rolls,Greece chased by Troy, even to Achilles’ fleet,He bids thee from forbidden wars repairGlides down the mountain to the plain below.Think of your hopes, your fortunes; all the careThe same our honours, and our birth the same.And late posterity enjoy the deed!”And dread the ruin that impends on all.The voice is powerful of a faithful friend.”Thy fall, great Trojan! had renown’d that day.Why stand you distant, nor attempt a deed?To scatter hosts and terrify mankind,Nor dare to act but when we point the way.No vassal god, nor of his train, am I.Now all on fire for fame, his breast, his eyesAnd drive the Grecians headlong to the sea.”Burn at each foe, and single every prize;Beyond the foremost ranks; his lance he threw,Proud Argives! destined by our arms to fall.Full on the front the pressing Trojans bear,Forbids to plunder, animates the fight,Swell his bold heart, and urge his strength to war:O’er all his country’s youth conspicuous farThan keep this hard-got inch of barren sands,His elder birthright, and superior sway.By Paris, Deiochus inglorious dies,At large expatiate o’er the ranker mead)His radiant arms triumphant Meges bore.Phœbus himself the rushing battle led;The good Eurypylus, his wounded friend.If thought of man can match the speed of gods.Shall find its match—No more: ’tis ours to fight.”A banish’d man, in Phylacè he dwell’d,Advancing Melanippus met the dartAnd peals of thunder shook the firmament.To whom the white-arm’d goddess thus replies:Round the wide fields he cast a careful view,Then stopp’d and panted, where the chariots lieTo bathe his sides, and cool his fiery blood;He points his ardour, and exerts his might.For this in arms the warring nations stood,But Jove shall thunder through the ethereal domeLaid Hyrtius, leader of the Mysian train.How easy then, to see the sinking stateFirst great Arcesilas, then Stichius bleeds;If once your vessels catch the Trojan fire?And all the raging gods opposed in vain?A son as generous as the sire was base;Yet leaves his nation safe, his children free;Correct it yet, and change thy rash intent;“By every oath that powers immortal ties,To some great city through the public way;Due to stern Pallas, and Pelides’ spear:They ask their safety, and their fame, from you:The gods their fates on this one action lay,No friendly hand his funeral pyre compose.Admiring numbers follow with their eyes.And show’d the shores, the navy, and the main:A worthy vengeance for Prothoënor slain?The boaster flies, and shuns superior force.Dares, though the thunder bursting o’er my headAnd stop the Trojans, though impell’d by Jove.As when a lion, rushing from his den,(The king of ocean thus, incensed, replies;)Heroes as great have died, and yet shall fall.The trembling herdsman far to distance flies;He, not untouch’d with pity, to the plainLet mutual reverence mutual warmth inspire,No weeping sister his cold eye shall close,Our friend, our loved companion! now no more!attempt to fire the first line of the fleet, but are, as yet, repelledThe godlike hero stalks from side to side.And rends his side, fresh-bleeding with the dartBy Teucer’s arrows mingled with the dead,The toil of thousands in a moment falls.Hast thou forgot, when, bound and fix’d on high,Who leaves a brother to revenge his fate.”Shorn from the crest, the purple honours glow.How shall thy rashness stand the dire alarmsAs when the force of men and dogs combinedDaughters of Jove! that on Olympus shine,What grief, what wound, withholds thee from the war?”On rush’d bold Hector, gloomy as the night;Or Ilion from her towery height descend,Each Ajax, Teucer, Merion gave command,But Hector was not doom’d to perish then:(His sad associates round with weeping eyes,)He foams with wrath; beneath his gloomy browAnd weeps his country with a father’s eyes.If he refuse, then let him timely weighYet undetermined, or to live or die?Headlong I hurl’d them from the Olympian hall,obey the orders of Jupiter; Iris commands Neptune to leave the battle,Thou first, great Ajax! on the unsanguined plainTo help his Greeks, he fought and disobey’d:And plunged the pointed javelin in his breast.With bitter groans his sorrows he express’d,Strives he with me, by whom his power was given,Now fear itself confines them to the fight:Had heard the thunders to the deeps of hell.Hector they saw, and all who fly, or fight,And taught submission to the sire of heaven.”Assign’d by lot, our triple rule we know;Even I will make thy fiery coursers way,And arrows leaping from the bow-string sung;Sprung from the tent, and left the war behind.(Phorbas the rich, of all the Trojan train“Behold! the god whose liquid arms are hurl’dAnd the long battle was but then begun.Wraps the vast mountains, and involves the poles.Indulgent Jove! how plain thy favours shine,By Hector here the Phocian Schedius died;Again his loved companions meet his eyes;Who stops to plunder at this signal hour,Him through a thousand forms of death I bore,In me behold the messenger of Jove:To whom the god who gives the golden day:In thought a length of lands he trod before,Ilioneus, his father’s only care:But touch’d the breast of bold Peneleus most;Then the huge helmet lifting from his head,Till sad Polydamas the steeds restrain’d,To join his rapid coursers for the fight:In wisdom great, in arms well known to fame;(The sage preserver of the Grecian host)Or breathe from slaughter in the fields of air.Not by my arts the ruler of the mainFierce as he is, let Hector learn to fear.”Deep horror seizes every Grecian breast,Thoas with grief observed his dreadful course,“Why sits great Hector from the field so far?And call the god that bears the silver bow.Shall send Patroclus, but shall send in vain.Dolops, the son of Lampus, rushes on,The wrath of Neptune shall for ever last.”Full at the Trojan’s head he urged his lance,But looks a moving tower above the bands;To rise in arms, and shine again in war.And ancient Rhea, earth’s immortal dame:The scene wide-opening to the blaze of light,to which, after much reluctance and passion, he consents. ApolloTo thine own deeps, or to the fields of air.But when aloft he shakes it in the skies,Warn’d by thy words, to powerful Jove I yield,Think of each ancestor with glory dead;This said, his eager javelin sought the foe:The same which dead Protesilaüs bore,[242]The godlike Ajax next his Greeks address’d:And from the spouting shoulders struck his head;And where the bow which Phœbus taught to bend?”On yon tall summit of the fountful Ide:For godlike Hercules these deeds were done,Approach the foe, and meet the coming fight.Thus to the impetuous homicide she said:The fainting hero, as the vision brightSwift his broad falchion fierce Peneleus spread,Cease then thy offspring’s death unjust to call;Thus wakens Hector from the sleep of death?But Pallas, springing through the bright abode,O’er the wide clouds, and o’er the starry plain,Bathed Greece in slaughter, and her battle gored,Sends forth his active mind from place to place,The shipwreck’d hero on the Coan coast,Jove thinking of his pains, they pass’d away,Rule as he will his portion’d realms on high;By winds assail’d, by billows beat in vain,They fly: at once the chasers and the prey.Jupiter; in particular she touches Mars with a violent resentment; heGreece, yet unconquer’d, kept alive the war,[Illustration: ] BACCHUSFrom different parts, and mingle in the skies.Through the drear realms of gliding ghosts below;The Trojans hear, they tremble, and they fly:One Greek enrich’d thy shrine with offer’d gore;Behold your Promachus deprived of breath,Respect yourselves, and learn an honest shame:See, and be strong! the Thunderer sends thee aid.Thy arms no less suffice the lance to wield,Nor was such glory due to Teucer’s hands.Even my loved son, divine Sarpedon, falls!This day preserve our navies from the flame,Bold as he was, Antilochus withdrew.And sees the watery mountains break below.On Ida’s top he waits with longing eyes,And for our country, ’tis a bliss to die.Mount the thick Trojans up the Grecian wall;Then Juno call’d (Jove’s orders to obey)Lo! Hector rises from the Stygian shades!To your own hands are trusted all your fates;Joins hill to dale, and measures space with space:Forget to vanquish, and consent to fear.That fix’d as fate, this acted by a god.Fierce on the ships above, the cars below,Be godlike Hector thy peculiar care,First seized a ship on that contested strand;In youth’s first bloom reluctantly he dies.For Jove his splendour round the chief had thrown,And every kindling bosom pants for fame.Let his high roofs resound with frantic woe,First of the field great Ajax strikes their eyes,But Ajax shunn’d the meditated blow.But strive, though numerous, to repulse in vain:Behold, ye warriors, and exert your powers.His own brave friends shall glory in his fate;This death deplored, to Hector’s rage we owe;Give him to know, unless the Grecian trainNot but his threats with justice I disclaim,No room to poise the lance or bend the bow;(Imperial Jove) his present death withstands;And draws imagined houses in the sands;Waves when he nods, and lightens as he turns:Such as to Promachus’ sad spouse we bear,And anxious asks what cares disturb her soul?“Think’st thou with me? fair empress of the skies!And urge the gods, with voices, eyes, and hands.To see the gathering grudge in every breast,Then, nor till then, shall great Achilles rise:Seeks his own seas, and trembles at our rage;Antenor’s brother, or perhaps his son.”On valour’s side the odds of combat lie;There in the father’s awful presence stand,Our high decree let various Iris know,There saw the Trojans fly, the Greeks pursue;Not far, great Hector on the dust he spies,There sat the eternal; he whose nod controlsThey join, they throng, they thicken at his call,Go thou, my son! the trembling Greeks alarm,Ah, save his arms, secure his obsequies!”“Ye troops of Lycia, Dardanus, and Troy!Brave deeds of arms through all the ranks were tried,While on her wrinkled front, and eyebrow bent,Some god, propitious to the Trojan foe,If heaven’s omnipotence descend in arms?The minister of stern Eurystheus’ ire“Gods! what portent (he cried) these eyes invades?Then grim in arms, with hasty vengeance flies;And, trembling, these submissive words return’d:Report to yon mad tyrant of the main.Howe’er the offence by other gods be pass’d,Dismiss the bow, and lay thy arrows by:The headlong coursers spurn his empty car;At Hector’s breast a chosen arrow draws:Stand the first onset, and provoke the storm.And spread your glory with the navy’s flame.before him with his ægis, and turns the fortune of the fight. HeThe valiant leader of the Cretan band;Unmoved it hears, above, the tempest blow,The Greeks expect the shock, the clamours riseFierce in the majesty of power controls;Drive through the skies, when Boreas fiercely blows;One day should end our labour or our life,Some lines, methinks, may make his lineage known,Not vainly yet the forceful lance was thrown;White are the decks with foam; the winds aloudThe Grecians gaze around with wild despair,Ye all-beholding, all-recording nine!Troy in proud hopes already view’d the mainAnd to blue Neptune thus the goddess calls:One kept the shore, and one the vessel trod;And round the black battalions cast his view.And awe the younger brothers of the pole;But when oppress’d, his country claim’d his care,Mark well his port! his figure and his faceShakes his huge javelin, and whole armies fall.The all-mighty spoke; the goddess wing’d her flightIn aid of Greece. The promise of a godThe victor, stooping, from the death withdrew;Bold Merion, Morys and Hippotion slew.From the proud archer strike his vaunted bow:The unhappy hero, fled, or shared his fate.And catch’d new fury at the voice divine.Go thou, the feasts of heaven attend thy call;Fear on their cheek, and horror in their eye.Fall mighty numbers, mighty numbers run;But let the few whom brisker spirits warm,A veil of clouds involved his radiant head:Say, is this chief extended on the plainEjecting blood, and panting yet for breath,Arms that reflect a radiance through the skies.Exhort their men, with praises, threats, commands;And many a chief lay gasping on the ground:Where the high plumes above the helmet dance,These drink the life of generous warriors slain:Him Hector singled, as his troops he led,I hung thee trembling in a golden chain,Achilles’ glory to the stars to raise;High on the decks with vast gigantic stride,(Well-known in fight on Sellè’s winding shore;The all-wise disposer of the fates of menVeil’d in a mist of fragrance him they found,And thee, brave Clonius, great Agenor slew.Behold! thy Phœbus shall his arms employ,And cast the blaze of both the hosts on one.The deck approaching, shakes a flaming brand;And one Menestheus’ friend and famed compeer.Jupiter, awaking, sees the Trojans repulsed from the trenches, HectorSo fears the youth; all Troy with shouts pursue,And breathes fierce spirits in his following band.Legions on legions from each side arise:Safe in his art, as side by side they run,Of all the Grecians what immortal name,As Promachus his slaughtered brother draws,Return’d to Ilion, and excell’d in war;Then swift invades the ships, whose beaky proresAnd the pale matron in our triumphs mourn.”As when a shipwright, with Palladian art,So pale the Greeks the eyes of Hector meet,Fierce as they are, by long successes vain;Drove through the thickest of the embattled plainsUnhappy glories! for his fate was near,And not content that half of Greece lie slain,Dreadful he spoke, then toss’d the head on high;As, when black tempests mix the seas and skies,When happy nations bear the marks divine!And one vast ruin whelm the Olympian state.And all are lost, if you desert the day.”Swift as the rattling hail, or fleecy snows,Aghast they gaze around the fleet and wall,Grasps the high stern, and gives this loud command:Phœbus, propitious still to thee and Troy.And thou, great Mars, begin and show the way.But, pierced by Telamon’s huge lance, expires:Roll’d in the ditch the heapy ruin lay;Thy own loved boasted offspring lies o’erthrown,Sprung from the race of old Laomedon,Perform the promise of a gracious god!Sat stedfast care, and lowering discontent.“What means the haughty sovereign of the skies?Above the sides of some tall ship ascend,To fight our wars he left his native air.Then, fired to vengeance, rush’d amidst the foe:For this, in Priam’s court, he held his place,Striv’st thou with him by whom all power is given?So swift flew Juno to the bless’d abodes,The troops of Troy recede with sudden fear,Amidst the plain of some wide-water’d fen,A ponderous mace with studs of iron crown’d,Jove is with us; I saw his hand, but now,“Oh friends! be men: your generous breasts inflameThe lord of thunders, from his lofty heightHe lifts his miserable arms in vain!The warrior falls, extended on the ground.But Croesmus’ bosom took the flying spear:Then mutual slaughters spread on either side;Lift the bold lance, and make some Trojan bleed.”And all the gods that round old Saturn dwellOn the fallen chief the invading Trojan press’d,At its full stretch as the tough string he drew,Hear this, remember, and our fury dread,While the swift javelin hiss’d along in air.Perhaps some favouring god his soul may bend;To view the navy blazing to the skies;And every ship sustained an equal tide.Thy brave example shall the rest inflame.A faithful servant to a foreign lord;The goddess said, and sullen took her place;Lest arts and blandishments successless prove,Shakes all the thrones of heaven, and bends the poles.“Thus then, immortals! thus shall Mars obey;Forth rush’d the youth with martial fury fired,The bleeding youth: Troy sadden’d at the view.And damp the eternal banquets of the skies.”Which oft, in cities storm’d, and battles won,And, stooping, darkens with his wings the flood.Unmoved his mind, and unrestrain’d his will.A noble mind disdains not to repent.They bow’d, and made obeisance as she pass’dAnd plunged into the bosom of the flood.“Lo, Melanippus! lo, where Dolops lies;And lo! that instant, godlike Hector dies.An exile long, sustain’d at Ajax’ board,“O thou, still adverse to the eternal will,Impending Phœbus pours around them fear,The hero most, from Hicetaon sprung,The astonish’d archer to great Ajax cries;The Grecian ardour quench’d in deep despair;And is it thus our royal kinsman dies?And lo! they bear the bloody arms away!But Meges, Phyleus’ ample breastplate wore,But doom’d to Hector’s stronger force to yield!Against the margin of his ample shieldWho dares but linger, by this hand he dies;Our power immense, and brave the almighty hand?With clouds of gold and purple circled round.If yet, forgetful of his promise givenEternal darkness wrapp’d the warrior round,Near his loved master, as he lived, he died.“Go wait the Thunderer’s will (Saturnia cried)To yon bright synod on the Olympian hill;Wounded, they wound; and seek each other’s heartsFor king Euphetes gave the golden mail,The roaring deeps in watery mountains rise,And slaughter’d heroes swell the dreadful tide.Who marks the swans’ or cranes’ embodied flight,Thick sound the keels; the storm of arrows flies.Its womb they deluge, and its ribs they rend:Hurl’d from the lofty seat, at distance far,His labouring bosom re-inspires with breath,And stood by Meges’ side a sudden aid.Stoops down impetuous, while they light for food,Supine he fell; his brazen helmet rung.Strong Periphaetes and Prothoon bled,is ready to take arms, but is prevented by Minerva. Iris and Apollo \ No newline at end of file