Shall call Achilles, she shall call in vain. He spoke; and furious hurl'd against the ground To calm their passion with the words of age, “What shame, what woe is this to Greece ! what joy * Compare Milton, “Paradise Lost,” bk. i.: “ Though his tongue Dropp'd manna.” So Proverbs v. 3," For the lips of a strange woman drop as an honey-comb." THE ILIAD. Book I.} If in my youth, even these esteem'd me wise ; This said, he ceased. The king of men replies : Here on the monarch's speech Achilles broke, At this they ceased : the stern debate expired; Achilles with Patroclus took his way And sage Ulysses with the conduct graced ; The host to expiate next the king prepares, The army thus in sacred rites engaged, The unwilling heralds act their lord's commands “ With leave and honor enter our abodes, Ye sacred ministers of men and gods! | I know your message ; by constraint you came ; Not you, but your imperious lord I blame. Patroclus, haste, the fair Briseïs bring; Conduct my captive to the baughty king. But witness, heralds, and proclaim my vow, Witness to gods above, and men below! But first, and loudest, to your prince declare (That lawless tyrant whose commands you hear), Unmoved as death Achilles shall remain, Though prostrate Greece shall bleed at every vein : * Salt water was chiefly used in lustrations, from its being supposed to possess certain fiery particles. Hence, if sea-water could not be obtained, salt was thrown into the fresh water to be used for the lustration. Menander, in Clem. Alex. vii. p. 713, ύδατι περριράναι, εμβάλων άλας, φάκοις. °+ The persons of heralds were held inviolable, and they were at liberty to travel whither they would without fear of molestation. Pollux, Onom. viii. p. 159. The office was generally given to old men, and they were believed to be under the especial protection of Jove and Mercury. * The raging chief in frantic passion lost, Patroclus now the unwilling beauty brought; "O parent goddess! since in early bloom Far from the deep recesses of the main, and trust a parent's care.” * His mother, Thetis, the daughter of Nereus and Doris, who was courted by Neptune and Jupiter. When, however, it was known that the son to whom she would give birth must prove greater than his father, it was determined to wed her to a mortal, and Peleus, with great difficulty, succeeded in obtaining her hand, as she eluded him by assuming various forms. Her children were all destroyed by, fire through her attempts to see whether they were immortal, and Achilles would have shared the same fate had not his father rescued him. She afterwards rendered him invulnerable by plunging him into the waters of the Styx, with the exception of that part of the heel by which she held him. Hygin. Fab. 54. † Thebé was a city of Mysia, north of Adramyttium. The priest of Phoebus sought by gifts to gain His beauteous daughter from the victor's chain; The fleet he reach'd, and, lowly bending down, Held forth the sceptre and the laurel crown, Intreating all; but chief implored for grace The brother-kings of Atreus' royal race : The generous Greeks their joint consent declare, The priest to reverence, and release the fair; Not so Atrides : he, with wonted pride, The sire insulted, and his gifts denied : The insulted sire (his god's peculiar care) To Phobus pray'd, and Phæbus heard the prayer ; A dreadful plague ensues: the avenging darts Incessant fly, and pierce the Grecian hearts. A prophet then, inspired by heaven, arose, And points the crime, and thence derives the woes : Myself the first the assembled chiefs incline To avert the vengeance of the power divine ; Then rising in his wrath, the monarch storm'd; Incensed he threaten'd, and his threats perform’d: The fair Chryseïs to her sire was sent, With offer'd gifts to make the god relent; But now he seized Briseïs' heavenly charms, And of my valor's prize defrauds my arms, Defrauds the votes of all the Grecian train ; And service, faith, and justice, plead in vain. But, goddess ! thou thy suppliant son attend. To high Olympus' shining court ascend, Urge all the ties to former service owed, And sue for vengeance to the thundering god. Oft hast thou triumph'd in the glorious boast, That thou stood'st forth of all the ethereal host, When bold rebellion shook the realms above, The undaunted guard of cloud-compelling Jove ; When the bright partner of his awful reign, The warlike maid, and monarch of the main, The traitor-gods, by mad ambition driven, Durst threat with chains the omnipotence of Heaven. Then, call'd by thee, the monster Titan came (Whom gods Briareus, men Ægeon name), Through wondering skies enormous stalk'd along ; Not he that shakes the solid earth so strong: With giant-pride at Jove's high throne he stands, And brandish'd round him all his hundred hands : The affrighted gods confess'd their awful lord, * . That is, defrauds me of the prize allotted me by their votes |