Of ravenous war, and, in the tenth, take in this broad-way'd town.' Thus he interpreted this sign; and all

things have their crown

As he interpreted, till now. The rest, then, to succeed

Believe as certain. Stay we all till that most glorious deed

Of taking this rich town, our hands are

honour'd with." This said, The Greeks gave an unmeasured shout; which back the ships repaid With terrible echoes, in applause of that persuasion [comparison Divine Ulysses used; which yet held no With Nestor's next speech, which was this: "O shameful thing! ye talk Like children all, that know not war. In what air's region walk

Our oaths, and covenants? Now, I see the fit respects of men

Are vanish'd quite; our right hands given, our faiths, our counsels vain,

Our sacrifice with wine, all fled in that profaned flame

His country's spirit) fate, and death, may first his spirit let go.

But be thou wise, king, do not trust thyself, but others. Know

I will not use an abject word. See all thy men array'd

In tribes and nations that tribes, tribes; nations, may nations aid.

Which doing, thou shalt know what chiefs, what soldiers play the men, And what the cowards; for they all, will fight in several then,

Easy for note. And then shalt thou, if thou destroy'st not Troy,

Know if the prophecy's defect, or men thou dost employ

In their approved arts, want in war; or lack of that brave heat

Fit for the venturous spirits of Greece, was cause to thy defeat."

To this the king of men replied: "O father, all the sons

persuasions frame,

And strive to work our end with words, not joining stratagems

And hands together, though, thus long, the power of our extremes Hath urged us to them. Atreus' son, firm as at first hour stand:

Make good thy purpose; talk no more in

councils, but command

In active field. Let two or three, that by themselves advise,

Faint in their crowning; they are such as

are not truly wise;

They will for Argos, ere they know if that which Jove hath said

Be false or true. I tell them all, that high Jove bow'd his head,

As first we went aboard our fleet, for sign we should confer

These Trojans their due fate and death; almighty Jupiter

All that day darting forth his flames, in an unmeasured light,

On our right hands. Let therefore none once dream of coward flight, Till (for his own) some wife of Troy he sleeps withal, the rape

Of Helen wreaking, and our sighs enforced for her escape.

If any yet dare dote on home, let his dishonour'd haste

His black and well-built bark but touch, that (as he first disgraced VOL. III.

stantly would shake

King Priam's city, by our hands laid hold on and laid waste.

But Jove hath order'd I should grieve, and to that end hath cast

My life into debates past end. Myself, and Thetis' son,

Like girls, in words fought for a girl, and I th' offence begun :

But if we ever talk as friends, Troy's thus deferred fall

Shall never vex us more one hour. Come then, to victuals all,

That strong Mars all may bring to field.
Each man his lance's steel
See sharpen'd well, his shield well lined
his horses meated well,

His chariot carefully made strong, that these affairs of death

We all day may hold fiercely out. No man must rest, or breathe;

The bosoms of our targeteers must all be steep'd in sweat ;

The lancer's arm must fall dissolved; our
chariot-horse with heat
Must seem to melt.
But if I find one

soldier take the chase, Or stir from fight, or fight not still fix'd in his enemy's face,

Or hid a shipboard, all the world, for force, nor price, shall save

His hated life; but fowls and dogs be his abhorred grave."

D

Of Tydeus; Ithacus the sixth, in counsel paragon

To Jove himself. All these he bade; but at-a-martial-cry3 [busily Good Menelaus, since he saw his brother Employ'd at that time, would not stand on invitation,

But of himself came. All about the offering overthrown

Stood round, took salt-cakes, and the king himself thus pray'd for all :

"O Jove, most great, most glorious, that, in that starry hall, Sitt'st drawing dark clouds up to air, let not the sun go down,

Darkness supplying it, till my hands the palace and the town

Of Priam overthrow and burn; the arms on Hector's breast Dividing; spoiling with my sword thousands, in interest

Of his bad quarrel, laid by him in dust, and eating earth."

He pray'd; Jove heard him not, but made more plentiful the birth Of his sad toils, yet took his gifts. Prayers past, cakes on they threw ;

The ox then, to the altar drawn, they kill'd, and from him drew

His hide; then cut him up; his thighs (in

two hewn), dubb'd with fat, Prick'd on the sweetbreads; and with wood, leaveless, and kindled at Apposed fire, they burn the thighs; which done, the inwards, slit,

They broil'd on coals and eat; the rest, in

giggots cut, they spit,

Roast cunningly, draw, sit, and feast;
nought lack'd to leave allay'd
Each temperate appetite; which served,
Nestor began and said:

"Atrides, most graced king of men,

now no more words allow,

Nor more defer the deed Jove vows. Let heralds summon now

The brazen-coated Greeks, and us range everywhere the host,

To stir a strong war quickly up." This speech no syllable lost;

The high-voiced heralds instantly he charged to call to arms

The curl'd-head Greeks; they call'd; the

Greeks straight answer'd their alarms. The Jove-kept kings, about the king all gather'd, with their aid

Ranged all in tribes and nations. With them the grey-eyed Maid

Great Ægis (Jove's bright shield) sustain'd, that can be never old,

Never corrupted, fringed about with serpents forged of gold,

As

A

many as sufficed to make an hundred fringes, worth

hundred oxen, every snake all sprawling, all set forth

With wondrous spirit.

In

Through the host

with this the Goddess ran,

fury, casting round her eyes, and furnish'd every man

With strength, exciting all to arms, and fight incessant. None

Now liked their loved homes like the wars. And as a fire upon

A huge wood, on the heights of hills, that far off hurls his light;

So the divine brass shined on these, thus thrusting on for fight,

Their splendour through the air reach'd heaven. And as about the flood Caïster, in an Asian mead, flocks of the airy brood,

Cranes, geese, or long-neck'd swans, here, there, proud of their pinions fly, And in their falls lay out such throats, that with their spiritful cry

The meadow shrieks again; so here, these many-nation'd men

Flow'd over the Scamandrian field, from tents and ships; the din

Was dreadful, that the feet of men and horse beat out of earth.

And in the flourishing mead they stood, thick as the odorous birth

Of flowers, or leaves bred in the spring; or thick as swarms of flies Throng then to sheep-cotes, when each swarm his erring wing applies To milk dew'd on the milk-maid's pails; all eagerly disposed [heaps closed, To give to ruin th' Ilians. And as in rude

Though huge goatherds are at their food,

the goatherds easily yet

Sort into sundry herds; so here the chiefs in battle set

Here tribes, here nations, ordering all.
Amongst whom shined the king,
With eyes like lightning-loving Jove, his
forehead answering,

In breast like Neptune, Mars in waist.
And as a goodly bull

Most eminent of all a herd, most strong, most masterful,

So Agamemnon, Jove that day made overheighten clear

That heaven-bright army, and preferr'd to all the heroes there.

Now tell me, Muses, you that dwell in

heavenly roofs, (for you

Are Goddesses, are present here, are wise, and all things know,

We only trust the voice of fame, know nothing), who they were

That here were captains of the Greeks, commanding princes here. The multitude exceed my song, though fitted to my choice

Ten tongues were, harden'd palates ten, a breast of brass, a voice Infract and trump-like; that great work, unless the seed of Jove,

The deathless Muses, undertake, maintains a pitch above

All mortal powers. The princes then, and navy that did bring These so inenarrable troops, and all their soils, I sing.

THE CATALOGUE OF THE GRECIAN SHIPS AND CAPTAINS.

Peneleus, and Leitus, all that Boeotia bred,

Arcesilaus, Clonius, and Prothoenor, led; Th' inhabitants of Hyria, and stony Aulida, Schæne, Scole, the hilly Eteon, and holy Thespia,

Of Græa, and great Mycalesse, that hath the ample plain, [remain Of Harma, and Ilesius, and all that did In Eryth, and in Eleon, in Hylen, Petcona, In fair Ocalea, and, the town well-builded, Medeona,

Copas, Eutresis, Thisbe, that for pigeons doth surpass, [of grass, Of Coroneia, Haliart, that hath such store All those that in Platæa dwelt, that (ilissa

did possess,

And Hypothebs, whose well-built walls are rare and fellowless,

In rich Onchestus' famous wood, to watery Neptune vow'd,

And Arne, where the vine-trees are with vigorous bunches bow'd,

With them that dwelt in Midea, and Nissa most divine,

All those whom utmost Anthedon did wealthily confine.

From all these coasts, in general, full fifty sail were sent ;

And six-score strong, Boeotian youths in every burthen went.

But those who in Aspledon dwelt, and Minian Orchomen,

God Mars his sons did lead (Ascalaphus and Ialmen),

Who in Azidon Actor's house did of Astyoche come ;

The bashful maid, as she went up into the higher room,

The War-god secretly compress'd. In safe conduct of these,

Did thirty hollow-bottom'd barks divide the wavy seas.

Brave Schedius and Epistrophus, the Phocian captains were, (Naubolida-Iphitus' sons all-proof 'gainst any fear;

With them the Cyparisians went, and bold Pythonians,

Men of religious Chrysa's soil, and fat Daulidians,

Panopæans, Anemores, and fierce Hyampolists;

And those that dwell where Cephisus casts up his silken mists;

The men that fair Lilæa held, near the Cephisian spring;

All which did forty sable barks to that 4 designment bring.

About th' entoil'd Phocensian fleet had these their sail assign'd;

And near to the sinister wing the arm'd Boeotians shined.

Ajax the less, Oileus' son, the Locrians led to war;

Not like to Ajax Telamon, but lesser man by far,

Little he was, and ever wore a breastplate made of linne,

But for the manage of his lance he general praise did win.

The dwellers of Caliarus, of Bessa, Opoën, The youths of Cynus, Scarphis, and Augias, lovely men,

Of Tarphis, and of Thronius, near flood Boagrius' fall;

Twice-twenty martial barks of these, less Ajax sail'd withal.

Who near Euboea's blessed soil their habitations had, Strength-breathing Abants, who their seats in sweet Euboea made,

The Histiaans rich in grapes, the men of Chalcida,

The Cerinths bordering on the sea, of rich Eretria,

Of Dion's highly-seated town, Charistus, and of Styre,

All these the duke Alphenor led, a flame of Mars his fire,

Surnamed Chalcodontiades, the mighty Abants' guide,

Swift men of foot, whose broad-set backs their trailing hair did hide, Well-seen in fight, and soon could pierce with far extended darts The breastplates of their enemies, and reach their dearest hearts.

Forty black men of war did sail in this

Alphenor's charge.

The soldiers that in Athens dwelt, a city builded large,

The people of Eristhius, whom Jove-sprung Pallas fed,

And plenteous-feeding Tellus brought out of her flowery bed;

Him Pallas placed in her rich fane, and, every ended year,

Of bulls and lambs th' Athenian youths please him with offerings there; Mighty Menestheus, Peteus' son, had their divided care;

For horsemen and for targeteers none could with him compare,

Nor put them into better place, to hurt or to defend ;

But Nestor (for he elder was) with him did sole contend;

With him came fifty sable sail. And out of Salamine

Great Ajax brought twelve sail, that with
th' Athenians did combine.
Who did in fruitful Argos dwell, or
strong Tiryntha keep,
Hermion, or in Asinen, whose bosom is so
deep,

Trozena, Eïon, Epidaure, where Bacchus
crowns his head,
Ægina, and Maseta's soil, did follow
Diomed,

And Sthenelus, the dear-loved son of
famous Capaneus,
Together with Euryalus, heir of Mecisteus,
The king of Talæonides; past whom, in
deeds of war,

The famous soldier Diomed of all was held by far.

Most strong and full of valour went, and he in triumph then

Put on his most resplendent arms, since he did overshine

The whole heroic host of Greece, in power of that design.

Who did in Lacedæmon's rule th' unmeasured concave hold,

High Pharis', Sparta's, Messe's towers, or doves so much extoll'd;

Bryseia's and Augia's ground; strong Laa, Oetylon,

Amyclas, Helos' harbour-town, that Neptune beats upon;

All these did Menelaus lead (his brother, that in cries

Of war was famous); sixy ships convey'd these enemies 72.80

To Troy in chief; because their king was chiefly injured there,

In

Helen's rape; and did his best to make them buy it dear.

Who dwelt in Pylos' sandy soil, and

Arene the fair,

And of his skill to touch his harp disfurnished his hand.

All these in ninety hollow keels grave Nestor did command. 10,00

The richly-blest inhabitants of the Arcadian land

Below Cyllene's mount (that by Epyrus' tomb did stand)

Where dwell the bold near-fighting men,

who did in Phæneus live,

And Orchomen, where flocks of sheep the shepherds clustering drive,

In Ripe, and in Stratie, the fair Mantinean town,

And strong Enispe, that for height is ever weather-blown ;

Tegea, and in Stymphalus, Parrhasia strongly wall'd,

All these Alcaus' son to field (king Agapenor) call'd;

In sixty barks he brought them on, and every bark well-mann'd 1100 With fierce Arcadians, skill'd to use the utmost of a band.

King Agamemnon, on these men, did well-built ships bestow

To pass the gulfy purple sea, that did no sea rites know.

They who in Hermin, Buphrasis, and
Elis, did remain,

What Olen's cliffs, Alisius, and Myrsin did contain,

Were led to war by twice two dukes and each ten ships did bring, 400 Which many venturous Epians did serve for burthening,

Beneath Amphimachus his charge, and valiant Thalpius,

Son of Eurytus-Actor one, the other Cteatus,

Diores Amaryncides the other did employ; The fourth divine Polixenus, Agasthenes his joy.

The king of fair Angelades, who from
Dulichius came,

And from Echinaus' sweet isles, which hold their holy frame

By ample Elis' region, Meges Phylides

led; Whom duke Phyleus, Jove's beloved, begat, and whilom fled

To large Dulichius, for the wrath that fired his father's breast. Twice-twenty ships with ebon sails were in his charge address'd. 4、

The warlike men of Cephale, and those of Ithaca,

Woody Neritus, and the men of wet Crocylia,

Sharp Ægilipha, Samos' isle, Zacynthus, sea-enclosed,

Epirus, and the men that hold the continent opposed;

All these did wise Ulysses lead, in counsel peer to Jove;

Twelve ships he brought, which in their course vermilion sterns did move. 4 Thoas, Andremon's well-spoke son, did guide the Ætolians well,"

Those that in Pleuron, Olenon, and strong Pylene dwell,

Great Chalcis, that by sea-side stands, and stony Calydon;

(For now no more of Eneus' sons survived; they all were gone;

No more his royal self did live, no more his noble son,

The golden Meleager now, their glasses all were run.)

All things were left to him in charge, th' Etolians' chief he was,

And forty ships to Trojan wars the seas with him did pass. 4

The royal soldier Idomen did lead the
Cretans stout,

The men of Gnossus, and the town
Gortyna wall'd about,

Of Lictus, and Miletus' towers, of white Lycastus' state,

Of Phæstus, and of Rhytius, the cities fortunate,

And all the rest inhabiting the hundred towns of Crete;

Whom warlike Idomen did lead, co-partner in the fleet

With kill-man Merion. Eighty ships with them did Troy invade.

Tlepolemus Heraclides, right strong and bigly made,

Brought nine tall ships of war from Rhodes, which haughty Rhodians mann'd, Ute Who dwelt in three dissever'd parts of that most pleasant land,

Which Lyndus and Jalissus were, and bright Camirus, call'd.

Tlepolemus commanded these, in battle unappall'd;

force of Hercules,

Whom fair Astyoche brought forth, by [Sellees, Led out of Ephyr with his hand, from river When many towns of princely youths he levell'd with the ground.

Tlepolem, in his father's house (for building much renown'd)

Brought up to headstrong state of youth, his mother's brother slew, The flower of arms, Licynius, that somewhat aged grew;