For whose impiety, she ask'd, if, with his wished love,

Herself might free the field of him? He bade her rather move

Athenia to the charge she sought, who used of old to be

The bane of Mars, and had as well the gift of spoil as he.

This grace she slack'd not, but her horse scourged, that in nature flew Betwixt the cope of stars and carth; and how far at a view

A man into the purple sea may from a hill descry,

So far a high-neighing horse of heaven at every jump would fly.*

Arrived at Troy, where, broke in curls, the two floods mix their force, Scamander and bright Simois, Saturnia stay'd her horse,

Took them from chariot, and a cloud of

mighty depth diffused

About them; and the verdant banks of Simois produced

In nature what they eat in heaven. Then both the Goddesses

March'd, like a pair of timorous doves, in hasting their access To th' Argive succour.

Being arrived, where both the most and best Were heap'd together (shewing all, like lions at a feast

Of new-slain carcases, or boars, beyond

encounter strong)

There found they Diomed; and there, 'midst all th' admiring throng, Saturnia put on Stentor's shape, that had a brazen voice, [she made a noise, And spake as loud as fifty men; like whom And chid the Argives: "O ye Greeks, in name and outward rite [what despite, But princes only, not in act; what scandal,

*How far a heavenly horse took at one reach

or stroke in galloping or running; wherein Homer's mind is far from being expressed in his interpreters, all taking it for how far Deities were borne from the earth; when instantly they came down to earth: Tooooν éпoрwσкоνσL, &c. tantum uno saltu conficiunt, vel, tantum subsultim progrediuntur, deorum altizoni equi, &c., uno being understood, and the horse's swiftness highly expressed. The sense, otherwise, is senseless and contradictory.

Außpooíny is the original word, which Scaliger taxeth very learnedly, asking how the horse came by it on those banks, when the text tells him Simois produced it; being willing to express by hyperbole the delicacy of that soil. If not, I hope the Deities could ever command

it.

Use ye to honour? All the time the great Eacides

Was conversant in arms, your foes durst not a foot address

Without their ports; so much they fear'd his lance that all controll'd,

And now they out-ray to your fleet."
This did with shame make bold
The general spirit and power of Greece;
when, with particular note

Of their disgrace, Athenia made Tydeus' issue hot.

She found him at his chariot, refreshing of his wound

Inflicted by slain Pandarus; his sweat did so abound,

It

much annoy'd him, underneath the broad belt of his shield;

With which, and tired with his toil, his soul could hardly yield

His body motion. With his hand he lifted up the belt,

And wiped away that clotter'd blood the fervent wound did melt.

Minerva lean'd against his horse, and near their withers laid

Her sacred hand, then spake to him: "Believe me, Diomed,

Tydeus exampled not himself in thee his son; not great, [much heat, But yet he was a soldier; a man of so That in his ambassy for Thebes, when I forbad his mind

To be too venturous, and when feasts his heart might have declined, With which they welcomed him, he made a challenge to the best,

And foil'd the best; I gave him aid, because the rust of rest,

That would have seized another mind, he suffer'd not, but used

The trial I made like a man, and their soft feasts refused.

Yet, when I set thee on, thou faint'st; I guard thee, charge, exhort

That, I abetting thee, thou shouldst be to the Greeks a fort,

And a dismay to Ilion, yet thou obey'st in Afraid, or slothful, or else both; hencenought, forth renounce all thought That ever thou wert Tydeus' son." He answer'd her: "I know

Thou art Jove's daughter, and, for that, Thy speeches reverence, yet affirm inin all just duty owe genuously that fear

Doth neither hold me spiritless, nor sloth. I only bear

true, Mars hath just rule in war, But just war; otherwise he raves, not fights. He's alter'd far.

He vow'd to Juno, and myself, that his aid should be used

Against the Trojans, whom it guards; and therein he abused

His rule in arms, infringed his word, and made his war unjust.

He is inconstant, impious, mad. Resolve then; firmly trust

My aid of thee against his worst, or any Deity;

Add scourge to thy free horse, charge home; he fights perfidiously." This said; as that brave king, her knight, with his horse-guiding friend, Were set before the chariot, for sign he should descend,

That she might serve for waggoness, she pluck'd the waggoner back,

And up into his seat she mounts; the

beechen tree did crack Beneath the burthen; and good cause, it bore so huge a thing,

A Goddess so replete with power, and such a puissant king.

She snatch'd the scourge up and the reins, and shut her heavenly look In Hell's vast helm from Mars his eyes;

and full career she took

At him, who then had newly slain the mighty Periphas, [strongest was Renown'd son to Ochesius, and far the Of all th' Etolians; to whose spoil the

bloody God was run.

But when this man-plague saw th' approach of god-like Tydeus' son, He let his mighty Periphas lie, and in full charge he ran

At Diomed; and he at him. Both near; the God began,

And, thirsty of his blood, he throws a brazen lance that bears

Full on the breast of Diomed, above the reins and gears;

But Pallas took it on her hand, and strook the eager lance

Beneath the chariot. Then the knight of Pallas doth advance,

And cast a javelin off at Mars, Minerva sent it on,

That, where his arming girdle girt, his belly grazed upon,

Just at the rim, and ranch'd the flesh; the lance again he got,

But left the wound, that stung him so, he laid out such a throat

As if nine or ten thousand men had bray'd out all their breaths

To

see us take these wrongs from men? extreme griefs we have got

Even by our own deep councils, held for gratifying them;

And thou, our council's president, concludest in this extreme

Of fighting ever; being ruled by one that thou hast bred; [full of head One never well, but doing ill; a girl so That, though all other Gods obey, her mad moods must command, By thy indulgence; nor by word, nor any touch of hand,

Correcting her; thy reason is, she is a spark of thee,

And therefore she may kindle rage in men 'gainst Gods, and she

May make men hurt Gods, and those
Gods that are besides thy seed.
First in the palm's hit Cyprides; then
runs the impious deed

Thus answer'd Mars: "Thou many minds,

inconstant changeling thou,

Sit not complaining thus by me, whom most of all the Gods,

Inhabiting the starry hill, I hate; no periods

Being set to thy contentions, brawls, fights, and pitching fields;

Just of thy mother Juno's moods, stiffneck'd, and never yields,

Though I correct her still, and chide, nor can forbear offence,

Though to her son; this wound I know tastes of her insolence;

But I will prove more natural; thou shalt be cured, because

Thou comest of me, but hadst thou been so cross to sacred laws,

Being borne to any other God, thou hadst been thrown from heaven

Long since, as low as Tartarus, beneath the giants driven."

This said, he gave his wound in charge to Pæon, who applied

Such sovereign medicines, that as soon the pain was qualified,

And he recured; as nourishing milk, when runnet is put in,

Runs all in heaps of tough thick curd, though in his nature thin,

Even so soon his wound's parted sides ran close in his recure ;

For he, all deathless, could not long the parts of death endure.

Then Hebe bathed, and put on him fresh garments, and he sate

Exulting by his sire again, in top of all his

state.

So, having, from the spoils of men, made his desired remove,

Juno and Pallas reascend the starry court of Jove.

THE ARGUMENT.

THE Gods now leaving an indifferent field,

The Greeks prevail, the slaughter'd Trojans yield.

Hector, by Helenus' advice, retires

In haste to Troy, and Hecuba desires
Το Minerva to remove from fight
pray
The son of Tydeus, her affected knight,
And vow to her, for favour of such price,
Twelve oxen should be slain in sacrifice.
In mean space Glaucus and Tydides meet;
And either other with remembrance greet
Of old love 'twixt their fathers, which inclines
Their hearts to friendship; who change arms
for signs

Of a continued love for either's life.

Hector, in his return, meets with his wife,
And, taking in his armed arms his son,
He prophesies the fall of Ilion.

ANOTHER ARGUMENT.

In Zeta, Hector prophesies; Prays for his son; wills sacrifice.

THE stern fight freed of all the Gods, conquest with doubtful wings

Flew on their lances; every way the restless field she flings

Betwixt the floods of Simois and Xanthus, that confined

All their affairs at Ilion, and round about them shined.

The first that weigh'd down all the field, of one particular side,

Was Ajax, son of Telamon; who, like a bulwark, plied

The Greeks' protection, and of Troy the knotty orders brake,

Held out a light to all the rest, and shew'd them how to make

Way to their conquest.

He did wound the strongest man of Thrace, The tallest and the biggest set, Eussorian Acamas;

His lance fell on his casque's plumed top, in stooping; the fell head Drave through his forehead to his jaws; his eyes night shadowed. Tydides slew Teuthranides Axylus, that did dwell

In fair Arisba's well-built towers. He had of wealth a well,

VOL. III.

And yet was kind and bountiful; he would

a traveller pray

To be his guest, his friendly house stood in the broad highway,

In which he all sorts nobly used; yet none of them would stand

"Twixt him and death; but both himself, and he that had command

Of his fair horse, Calesius, fell lifeless on the ground.

Euryalus, Opheltius and Dresus, dead did wound;

Nor ended there his fiery course, which he again begins,

[twins, And ran to it successfully, upon a pair of Esepus, and bold Pedasus, whom good Bucolion

(That first call'd father, though base born, renown'd Laomedon)

On Nais Abarbaræa got, a nymph that, as she fed

Her curled flocks, Bucolion woo'd, and mix'd in love and bed.

Both these were spoil'd of arms and life, by Mecistiades.

Then Polypotes, for stern death, Astyalus

did seize;

Ulysses slew Percosius; Teucer Aretaön; Antilochus (old Nestor's joy) Ablerus; the great son

Of Atreus, and king of men, Elatus, whose abode [river flow'd; He held at upper Pedasus, where Satnius' The great heroe Leitus stay'd Phylacus in flight [reft of light. From further life; Eurypylus, Melanthius The brother to the king of men, Adrestus took alive;

Whose horse, affrighted with the flight, their driver now did drive Amongst the low-grown tamarisk trees; and at an arm of one

The chariot in the draught-tree brake; the horse brake loose, and ron The same way other flyers fled, contending all to town;

Himself close at the chariot wheel, upon his face was thrown,

And there lay flat, roll'd up in dust. Atrides inwards drave;

And, holding at his breast his lance, Adrestus sought to save

G

News of my safety to his ears, he largely will divide

With your rare bounties."

Atreus' son

thought this the better side, And meant to take it, being about to send him safe to fleet;

Which when, far off, his brother saw, he wing'd his royal feet,

And came in threatening, crying out: "O soft heart! what's the cause Thou sparest these men thus? have not they observed these gentle laws Of mild humanity to thee, with mighty argument

Why thou shouldst deal thus ; in thy house, and with all precedent

Of honour'd guest-rites entertain'd? not one of them shall fly

A bitter end for it from heaven, and much less, dotingly,

'Scape our revengeful fingers; all, even th' infant in the womb, [no other tomb Shall taste of what they merited, and have Than razed Ilion; nor their race have

more fruit than the dust."

This just cause turn'd his brother's mind, who violently thrust

The prisoner from him; in whose guts the king of men impress'd

His ashen lance, which (pitching down his foot upon the breast

Of him that upwards fell) he drew; then Nestor spake to all:

"O friends, and household men of Mars, let not your pursuit fall, With those ye fell, for present spoil; nor, like the king of men,

Let any scape unfell'd; but on, despatch them all, and then

Ye shall have time enough to spoil." This made so strong their chase,

That all the Trojans had been housed, and never turn'd a face, Had not the Priamist Helenus, an augur most of name, [Anchises' fame! Will'd Hector and Æneas thus: "Hector!

This Virgil imitates.

Lest, fled into their wives' kind arms, they there be made the sports

Of the pursuing enemy: exhort, and force your bands

To turn their faces; and, while we employ our ventured hands,

Though in a hard condition, to make the other stay,

Hector, go thou to Ilion, and our queenmother pray

To

To

take the richest robe she hath; the same that's chiefly dear

her court fancy; with which gem, assembling more to her

Of Troy's chief matrons, let all go, for fear of all our fates,

To Pallas' temple, take the key, unlock the leavy gates,

Enter, and reach the highest tower, where her Palladium stands,

And on it put the precious veil with pure and reverend hands,

And vow to her, besides the gift, a sacrificing stroke [felt the yoke Of twelve fat heifers of a year, that never (Most answering to her maiden state), if she will pity us,

Our town, our wives, our youngest joys, and him, that plagues them thus,

Take from the conflict, Diomed, that fury in a fight,

That true son of great Tydeus, that cunning lord of flight,

Whom I esteem the strongest Greek; for we have never fled

Achilles, that is prince of men, and whom a Goddess bred,

Like him; his fury flies so high, and all men's wraths commands."

Hector intends his brother's will, but first through all his hands

He made quick way, encouraging; and all, to fear afraid,

All turn'd their heads, and made Greece turn. Slaughter stood still dismay'd On their parts, for they thought some God, fall'n from the vault of stars, Was rush'd into the Ilions' aid, they made such dreadful wars.