THE ILIAD.

Or, if our royal pleasure shall ordain,
Achilles' self conduct her o'er the main ;
Let fierce Achilles, dreadful in his rage,
The god propitiate, and the pest assuage."

At this, Pelides, frowning stern, replied:
“O tyrant, arm’d with insolence and pride !
Inglorious slave to interest, ever join'd
With fraud, unworthy of a royal mind!
What

generous Greek, obedient to thy word,
Shall form an ambush, or shall lift the sword ?
What cause have I to war at thy decree?
The distant Trojans never injured me;

To Pythia's realms no hostile troops they led :
Safe in her vales my warlike coursers fed ;
Far hence removed, the hoarse-resounding main,
And walls of rocks, secure my native reign,
Whose fruitful soil luxuriant harvests grace,
Rich in her fruits, and in her martial race.
Hither we sail'd, a voluntary throng,
To avenge a private, not a public wrong:
What else to Troy the assembled nations draws,
But thine, ungrateful, and thy brother's cause?
Is this the pay our blood and toils deserve ;
Disgraced and injured by the man we serve ?
And darest thou threat to snatch my prize away,
Due to the deeds of many a dreadful day?
A prize as small, O tyrant! match'd with thine,
As thy own actions is compared to mine.
Thine in each conquest is the wealthy prey,
Though mine the sweat and danger of the day.
Some trivial present to my ships I bear :
Or barren praises pay the wounds of war.
But now, proud monarch, I'm thy slave no more;
My feet shall waft me to Thessalia's shore :
Left by Achilles on the Trojan plain,
What spoils, what conquests, shall Atrides gain ?

To this the king: “Ély, mighty warrior ! fly;
Thy aid we need not, and thy threats defy
There want not chiefs in such a cause to fight,
And Jove himself shall guard a monarch's right.
Of all the kings (the god's distinguish'd care)
To power superior none such hatred bear
Strife and debate thy restless soul employ,
And wars and horrors are thy savage joy.
If thou hast strength, 'twas Heaven that strength bestow'd
For know, vain man! thy valor is from God.
Haste, launch thy vessels, fly with speed away ;

Rule thy own realms with arbitrary sway ;
I heed thee not, but prize at equal rate
Thy short-lived friendship, and thy groundless hate.
Go, threat thy earth-born Myrmidons :—but here *
'Tis mine to threaten, prince, and thine to fear.
Know, if the god the beauteous dame demand,
My bark shall waft her to her native land ;
But then prepare, imperious prince! prepare,
Fierce as thou art, to yield thy captive fair:
Even in thy tent I'll seize the blooming prize,
Thy loved Briseïs with the radiant eyes.
Hence shalt thou prove my might, and curse the hour
Thou stood'st a rival of imperial power;
And hence, to all our hosts it shall be known,
That kings are subject to the gods alone.”

Achilles heard, with grief and rage oppress'd,
His heart swellid high, and labor'd in his breast ;
Distracting thoughts by turns his bosom ruled ;
Now fired by wrath, and now by reason cool'd :
That prompts his hand to draw the deadly sword,
Force through the Greeks, and pierce their haughty lord ;
This whispers soft his vengeance to control,
And calm the rising tempest of his soul.
Just as in anguish of suspense he stay'd,
While half unsheathed appear’d the glittering blade,
Minerva swift descended from above,
Sent by the sister and the wife of Jove
(For both the princes claim'd her equal care);
Behind she stood, and by the golden hair
Achilles seized; to him alone confess'd ;
A sable cloud concealed her from the rest.
He sees, and sudden to the goddess cries,
Known by the flames that sparkle from her eyes :

“Descends Minerva, in her guardian care,
A heavenly witness of the wrongs I bear

* The Myrmidoms dwelt on the southern borders of Thessaly, and took their origm from Myrmido, son of Jupiter and Eurymedusa. It is fancifully supposed that the name was derived from u upung, an ant, " because they imitated the diligence of the ants, and like them were indefatigable, continually employed in culuvating the earth; the change from ants to men is founded merely on the equivocation of their name, which resembles that of the ant: they bore a further resemblance to these little animals, in that instead of inhabiting towns or villages, at first they commonly resided m the open fields, having no other retreats but dens and the cavities of trees, until Ithacus brought them together, and settled them in more secure and comfortable habitations.” – Anthon's “ Lempriere.'

From Atreus' son ?- Then let those eyes 'nat view
The daring crime, behold the vengeance too."

“Forbear (the progeny of Jove replies),
To calm thy fury I forsake the skies:
Let great Achilles, to the gods resign'd,
To reason yield the empire o'er his mind.
By awful Júno this command is given :
The king and you are both the care of heaven,
The force of keen reproaches let him feel ;
But sheathe, obedient, thy revenging steel.
For I pronounce (and trust a heavenly power)
Thy injured honor has its fated hour,
When the proud monarch shall thy arms implore,
And bribe thy friendship with a boundless store.
Then let revenge no longer bear the sway;
Command thy passions, and the gods obey."

To her Pelides :—“ With regardful ear,
'Tis just, 0 goddess ! I thy dictates hear.
Hard as it is, my vengeance I suppress:

Those who revere the gods the gods will bless."
He said, observant of the blue-eyed maid ;
Then in the sheath return'd the shining blade.
The goddess swift to high Olympus flies,
And joins the sacred senate of the skies.

Nor yet the rage his boiling breast forsook,
Which thus redoubling on Atrides broke :
“O monster! mix'd of insolence and fear,
Thou dog in forehead, but in heart a deer !
When wert thou known in ambush'd fights to dare,
Or nobly face, the horrid front of war?
'Tis ours, the chance of fighting fields to try;
Thine to look on, and bid the valiant die :
So much 'tis safer through the camp to go,
And rob a subject, than despoil a foe.
Scourge of thy people, violent and base !
Sent in Jove's anger on a slavish race;
Who, lost to sense of generous freedom past,
Are tamed to wrongs -or this had been thy last.
Now by this sacred sceptre hear me swear,
Which never more shall leaves or blossoms bear,
Which sever'd from the trunk (as I from thee)
On the bare mountains left its parent tree;
This sceptre, form'd by temper'd steel to prove
An ensign of the delegates of Jove,
From whom the power of iaws and justice springs
(Tremendous oath! inviolate to kings) :
By this I swear :—when bleeding Greece again