The sacred stream unmix'd with streams below,
Sacred and awful! from the dark abodes
Styx pours them forth, the dreadful oath of gods !
Last, under Prothous the Magnesians stood,
(Prothous the swift, of old Tenthredon's blood ;)
Who dwell where Pelion, crown'd with piny boughs,
Obscures the glade, and nods his shaggy brows;
Or where through flowery Tempé Peneus stray’l:
(The region stretch'd beneath his mighty shade :)
In forty sable barks they stemm'd the main ;
Such were the chiefs, and such the Grecian train.
Say next, O Muse! of all Achaia vreeds, Who bravest fought, or rein'd the noblest steeds ? Eumelus' mares were foremost in the chase, As eagles fleet, and of Pheretian race; Bred where Pieria's fruitful fountains flow, And train’d by him who bears the silver bow. Fierce in the fight their nostrils breathed a flame, Their height, their color, and their age t'ie same; O'er fiel is of death they whirl the rapid car, And break the ranks, and thunder through the war. Ajax in arms the first renown acquired, While stern Achilles in his wrath retired : (His was the strength that mortal might exceeds, And his the unrivalla race of heavenly steeds :) But Thetis' son now shines in arms no more ; His troops, neglected on the sandy shore. In empty air their sportive javelins throw, Or whirl the disk, or bend an idle bow: Unstain'd with blood his cover'd chariots stand ; The immortal coursers graze along the strand; But the brave chiefs ihe inglorious life deplored, And, wandering o'er the camp, required their lord.
Now, like a deluge, covering all around, The shining armies sweep along the ground; Swift as a flood of fire, when storms arise, Floats the wild field, and blazes to the skies. Earth groan'd beneath them; as when angry Jove Hurls down the forky lightning from above, On Arimé when he the thunder throws, And fires Typhæus with redoubled blows, Where Typhon, pressd beneath the burning load, Still feels the fury of the avenging god.
But various Iris, Jove's commands to bear, Speeds on the wings of winds through liquid air; In Priam's porch the Trojan chiefs she found, The old consulting, and the youths around.
Polites' shape, the monarch's son, she chose,
Who from Æsetes' tomb observed the foes,*
High on the mound; from whence in prospect lay
The fields, the tents, the navy, and the bay.
In this dissembled form, she hastes to bring
The unwelcome message to the Phrygian king.
• Cease to consult, the time for action calls;
War, horrid war, approaches to your walls !
Assembled armies oft have I beheld ;
But ne'er till now such numbers charged a field :
Thick as autumnal leaves or driving sand,
The moving squadrons blacken all the strand.
Thou, godlike Hector ! all thy force employ,
Assemble all the united bands of Troy ;
In just array let every leader call
The foreign troops : this day demands them all!”
The voice divine the mighty chief alarms ;
The council breaks, the warriors rush to arms.
The gates unfolding pour forth all their train,
Nations on nations fill the dusky plain,
Men, steeds, and chariots, shake the trembling ground:
The tumult thickens, and the skies resound.
Amidst the plain, in sight of Ilion, stands
A rising mount, the work of human hands;
('This for Myrinne's tomb the immortals know,
Though call'd Bateïa in the world below ;)
Beneath their chiefs in martial order here,
The auxiliar troops and Trojan hosts appear.
The godlike Hector, high above the rest,
Shakes his huge spear, and nods his plumy crest:
In throngs around his native bands repair,
And groves of lances glitter in the air.
Divine Æneas brings the Dardan race,
Anchises’ son, by Venus' stolen embrace,
Born in the shades of 'da's secret grove;
(A mortal mixing with the queen of love ;)
Archilochus and Acamas divide
The warrior's toils, and combat by his side.
Who fair Zeleia's wealthy valleys till, t
Fast by the foot of Ida's sacred hill,
Or drink, Æsepus, of thy sable flood,
Were led by Pandarus, of royal blood ;
To whom his art Apollo deign'd to show,
Graced with the presents of his shafts and bow
From rich Apæsus and Adrestia's towers,
High Teree's summits, and Pityea's bowers ;
From these the congregated troops obey
Young Amphius and Adrastus' equal sway;
Old Merops' sons; whom, skill'd in fates to come,
The sire forewarn'd, and prophesied their doom :
Fate urged them on the sire forewarn’d in vain,
They rush'd to war, and perish'd on the plain.
From Practius' stream, Percotè's pasture lands.
And Sestos and Abydos' neighboring strands,
From great Arisba's walls and Sellè's coast,
Asius Hyrtacides conducts his host :
High on his car he shakes the flowing reins,
His fiery coursers thunder o'er the plains.
The fierce Pelasgi next, in war renown'd,
March from Larissa's ever-fertile ground:
In equal arms their brother leaders shine,
Hippothous bold, and Pyleus the divine.
Next Acamas and Pyrous lead their hosts,
In dread array, from Thracia's wintry coasts ;
Round the bleak realms where Hellespontus roars,
And Boreas beats the hoarse-resounding shores
With great Euphemus the Ciconians move,
Sprung from Troezenian Ceüs, loved by Jove.
Pyræchmes the Pæonian troops attend,
Skill'd in the fight their crooked bows to bend;
From Axius' ample bed he leads them on,
Axius, that laves the distant Amydon,
Axius, that swells with all his neighboring rills,
And wide around the floating region fills.
The Paphlagonians Pylæmenes rules,
Where rich Henetia breeds her savage mules,
Where Erythinus' rising cliffs are seen,
Thy groves of box, Cytorus! ever green,
And where Ægialus and Cromna lie,
And lofty Sesamus invades the sky,
And where Parthenius, roll'd through banks of flowers,
Reflects her bordering palaces and bowers.
Here march'd in arms he Halizonian band,
Whom Odius and Epistrophus command,
From those far regions where the sun refines
The ripening silver in Alybean mines.
There mighty Chromis led the Mysian train,
And augur Ennomus, inspired in vain ;
For stern Achilles lopp'd his sacred head,
Roll'd down Scamander with the vulgar dead.
Phorcys and brave Ascanius here unite
The Ascanian Phrygians, eager for the fight.
Of those who round Mæonia's realms reside,
Or whom the vales in shades of Tmolus hide,
Mestles and Antiphus the charge partake,
Born on the banks of Gyges' silent lake.
There, from the fields where wild Mæander flows,
High Mycalè, and Latmos' shady brows,
And proud Miletus, came the Carian throngs,
With mingled clamors and with barbarous tongues.
Amphimachus and Naustes guide the train,
Naustes the bold, Amphimachus the vain,
Who, trick'd with gold, and glittering on his car,
Rode like a woman to the field of war.
Fool that he was ! by fierce Achilles slain,
The river swept him to the briny main:
There whelm'd with waves the gaudy warrior lies
The valiant victor seized the golden prize.
The forces last in fair array succeed,
Which blameless Glaucus and Sarpedon lead
The warlike bands that distant Lycia yields,
Where gulfy Xanthus foams along the fields.
* Barbarous tongues. “Various as were the dialects of the Greeks--and these differences existed not only between the several tribes, but even between neigh. boring cities--they yet acknowledged in their language that they formed Lut one nation-were but branches of the same family. Homer has ‘men of other tongues ; an
Homer had no general name for the Greek nation."--Heeren, “ Ancient Greece," $ vii. p. 107, sq.
THE DUEL OF MENELAUS AND PARIS.
The armies being ready to engage, a single combat is agreed upon between Mene.
laüs and Paris (by the intervention of Hector) for the determination of the war. Iris is sent to call Helen to behold the fight. She leads her to the walıs of Troy, where Priam sat with his counsellors observing the Grecian leaders on the plain below, to whom Helen gives an account of the chief of them. The kings on either part take the solemn oath for the conditions of the combat. The duel ensues ; wherein Paris being overcome, he is snatched away in a cloud by Venus, and transported to his apartment. She then calls Helen from the walls, and brings the lovers together. Agamemnon, on the part of the Grecians, demands the restoration of Helen, and the performance of the articles.
The three-and-twentieth day still continues throughout this book. The scene is sometimes in the fields before Troy, and sometimes in Troy itself.
Thus by their leaders' care each martial band
Moves into ranks, and stretches o'er the land.
With shouts the Trojans, rushing from afar,
Proclaim their motions, and provoke the war.
So when inclement winters vex the plain
With piercing frosts, or thick-descending rain,
To warmer seas the cranes embodied fly, *
With noise, and order, through the midway sky;'
To pigmy nations wounds and death they bring,
And all the war descends upon the wing,
But silent, breathing rage, resolved and skill'd †
By mutual aids to fix a doubtful field,
Swift march the Greeks : the rapid dust around
Darkening arises from the labor'd ground.
Thus from his faggy wings when Notus sheds
A night of vapors round the mountain heads,
* The cranes.
Marking the tracts of air, the clamorous cranes
Wheel their due flight in varied ranks descried :
And each with outstretch'd neck his rank maintains,
In marshal!'d order through th' ethereal void.”
Lorenzo de Medici, in Roscoe's Life, Appendix. See Cary's Dante : Hell," canto v. † Silent, breathing rage.
“ Thus they
Breathing united force with fixed thought,
Moved on in silence."
" Paradise Lost," book i. 559. 7
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