There Strife, there Fortitude, ne'er known to His radiant arms preserved from hostile spoil,

yield,

There merciless Pursuit, that wastes the field,
And Jove's dire omen nameless horrors spread,
Th' appalling monster, the Gorgonian head-
Then brac'd her casque, all gold, whose four-
coned height

And laid him decent on the funeral pile.
Then raised a mountain, where his bones were
burn'd,

The mountain nymphs the rural tomb adorn'd,
Jove's sylvan daughters bade the elms bestow
A barren shade, and in his honour grow.

Spreads, o'er an hundred hosts, o'ershadowing By the same arm my seven brave brothers fell;

night.

Thus, in her terror mail'd, the goddess leapt

In her bright car, whence flame-wing'd lightnings swept,

In one sad day beheld the gates of hell:
While the fat herds and snowy flocks they fed,
Amid their fields the hapless heroes bled!
My mother lived to bear the victor's bands,

And grasp'd the spear, which, when her fury The queen of Hippoplacia's sylvan lands:

burns,

Redeem'd too late, she scarce beheld again

Proud tyrants humbles and whole hosts o'er- Her pleasing empire, and her native plain,

turns.

Book VI.

THE RACE OF MAN.

LIKE leaves on trees the Race of Man is found;
Now green in youth, now withering on the
ground:

Another race the following spring supplies;
They fall successive, and successive rise:

So generations in their course decay,

When ah! opprest by life-consuming woe,
She fell a victim to Diana's bow.
"Yet, while my Hector still survives, I see
My father, mother, brethren, all in thee:
Alas! my parents, brothers, kindred, all
Once more will perish, if my Hector fall.
Thy wife, thy infant, in thy danger share:
Oh prove a husband's and a father's care!
That quarter most the skilful Greeks annoy,
Where yon wild fig-trees join the walls of Troy :
Thou, from this tower, defend th' important post;
There Agamemnon points his dreadful host,

So flourish these, when those have pass'd away. That pass Tydides, Ajax, strive to gain,

GLAUCUS.

From Hippolochus I came,

The honour'd author of my birth and name;
By his decree I sought the Trojan town,
By his instructions learn to win renown,
To stand the first in worth as in command,
And add new honours to my native land,
Before mine eyes my mighty sires to place,
And emulate the glories of our race.*

THE PARTING OF HECTOR AND ANDROMACHE.

"Too daring prince! ah, whither dost thou run?
Ah, too forgetful of thy wife and son!
And think'st thou not how wretched we shall be,
A widow I, an helpless orphan he?
For sure such courage length of life denies,
And thou must fall, thy virtue's sacrifice.
Greece in her single heroes strove in vain;
Now hosts oppose thee, and thou must be slain!
Oh, grant me, gods! ere Hector meets his doom,
All I can ask of heaven, an early tomb!
So shall my days in one sad tenor run,
And end with sorrows as they first begun.
No parent now remains my grief to share,
No father's aid, no mother's tender care.
The fierce Achilles wrapp'd our walls in fire,
Laid Thebe waste, and slew my warlike sire!
His fate compassion in the victor bred.
Stern as he was, he yet revered the dead,

* Ιππόλοχος δέ μ ̓ ἔτικτε, καὶ ἐκ τοῦ φημὶ γενέθαι·
Πέμπε δέ μ ̓ ἐσ Τρόιην, καὶ μοι μάλα πόλλ' ἐπέτελλεν,
Αἱὲν ἀριστεύειν, καὶ ὑπείροχον ἔμμεναι άλλων
Μηδὲ γένος Πατέρων αἰσχυνέμεν· οἳ μέγ' άριστοι
Εντ ̓ Εφύρῃ ἐγενόντο καὶ ἐν Λυκίῃ εὐρείῃ·
Ταύτης του γενεής τε καὶ αἵματος εὔχομαι εἶναι.

And there the vengeful Spartan fires his train.
Thrice our bold foes the fierce attack have given,
Or led by hopes, or dictated from heav'n.
Let others in the field their arms employ,
But stay my Hector here, and guard his Troy."
The chief replied: "That post shall be my care,
Nor that alone, but all the works of war.
How would the sons of Troy, in arms renown'd,
And Troy's proud dames, whose garments sweep
the ground,

Attaint the lustre of my former name,
Should Hector basely quit the field of fame?
My early youth was bred to martial pains,
My soul impels me to th' embattled plains:
Let me be foremost to defend the throne,
And guard my father's glories, and my own.
Yet come it will, the day decreed by fates:
(How my heart trembles, while my tongue re-
lates :)

The day when thou, imperial Troy! must bend,
And see thy warriors fall, thy glories end.
And yet no dire presage so wounds my mind,
My mother's death, the ruin of my kind,
Not Priam's hoary head defil'd with gore,
Not all my brothers gasping on the shore,
As thine, Andromache! thy griefs I dread;
I see thee trembling, weeping, captive led!
In Argive looms our battles to design,
And woes, of which so large a part was thine!
To bear the victor's hard commands, or bring
The weight of waters from Hyperia's spring.
There, while you groan beneath the load of
life,

They cry, Behold the mighty Hector's wife !
Some haughty Greek, who lives thy tears to see,
Embitters all thy woes, by naming me.
The thoughts of glory past, and present shame,
A thousand griefs, shall waken at the name!

| To Neptune, ruler of the seas profound,
Whose liquid arms the mighty globe surround,
They pour forth vows their embassy to bless,

| And now arriv'd, where, on the sandy bay,
The Myrmidonian tents and vessels lay;
Amus'd, at ease, the godlike man they found,
Pleas'd with the solemn harp's harmonious sound.
With this he soothes his angry soul, and sings
The immortal deeds of heroes and of kings.
Patroclus only of the royal train,
Placed in his tent, attends the lofty strain.
Full opposite he sat, and listen'd long,
In silence waiting till he ceased the song.
Unseen the Grecian embassy proceeds
To his high tent; the great Ulysses leads.
Achilles starting, as the chiefs he spied,
Leap'd from his seat, and laid his harp aside.
With like surprise arose Menœtius' son:
Pelides grasp'd their hands, and thus begun.

HOSPITALITY OF ACHILLES-PATRIARCHAL

MANNERS.

May I lie cold before that dreadful day,
Prest with a heap of monumental clay!
Thy Hector, wrapt in everlasting sleep,
Shall neither hear thee sigh, nor see thee weep." | And calm the rage of stern acides.
Thus having spoke, th' illustrious chief of Troy
Stretch'd his fond arms to clasp the lovely boy.
The babe clung crying to his nurse's breast,
Scar'd at the dazzling helm, and nodding crest.
With secret pleasure each fond parent smil'd,
And Hector hasted to relieve his child-
The glittering terrors from his brows unbound,
And placed the beaming helmet on the ground;
Then kiss'd the child, and, lifting high in air,
Thus to the gods preferred a father's prayer:
"O Thou! whose glory fills the ethereal throne,
And all ye deathless powers! protect my son.
Grant him, like me, to purchase just renown,
To guard the Trojans, to defend the crown;
Against his country's foes the war to wage,
And rise the Hector of a future age.
So, when triumphant from successful toils
Of heroes slain he bears the recking spoils,
Whole hosts may hail him with deserved acclaim,
And say, this chief transcends his father's fame:
While pleased, amidst the general shouts of Troy,
His mother's conscious heart o'erflows with joy."
He spoke, and fondly gazing on her charms,
Restored the pleasing burden to her arms:
Soft on her fragrant breast the babe he laid,
Hush'd to repose, and with a smile survey'd.
The troubled pleasure soon chastis'd by fear,
She mingled with the smile a tender tear.
The soften'd chief with kind compassion view'd,
And dried the falling drops, and thus pursued:
"Andromache! my soul's far better part!
Why with untimely sorrow heaves thy heart?
No hostile hand can antedate my doom,
Till fate condemns me to the silent tomb:
Fix'd is the term to all the race of earth;
And such the hard condition of our birth,
No force can then resist, no flight can save;
All sink alike, the fearful and the brave.
No more-but hasten to thy tasks at home;
There guide the spindle, and direct the loom.
Me glory summons to the martial scene,
The field of combat is the sphere for men;
Where heroes war, the foremost place I claim,
The first in danger, as the first in fame."

Thus having said, the glorious chief resumes
His towery helmet, black with shading plumes.
His princess parts with a prophetic sigh,
Unwilling parts, and oft reverts her eye,
That stream'd at every look: then, moving slow,
Sought her own palace, and indulged her woe.
There, while her tears deplored the godlike man,
Through all her train the soft infection ran;
The pious maids their mingled sorrows shed,
And mourn'd the living Hector, as the dead.

He spake nor him Patroclus disobeyed-
Then, nigh the fire, his lord a basket laid;
There cast a goat's and sheep's extended chine,
And the huge carcase of a fatted swine,
Served by Automedon, with dext'rous art:
Achilles' self divided part from part.

Fixed on the spits the flesh, where brightly
blaz'd

The fire's pure splendour, by Patroclus rais'd.
Patroclus next, when sank the flame, subdued,
O'er the raked embers placed the spitted food;
Then rais'd it from the props-then, salted o'er,
And duly roasted, to the dresser bore:
Next to each guest, along the table spread,
In beauteous baskets, the allotted bread:
Achilles' self distributed the meat,
And placed against his own Ulysses' seat.
And now Patroclus, at his lord's desire,
The hallowed offering cast amid the fire:
The guests then feasted, and, the banquet o'er,
When satiate thirst and hunger claim'd no more,
Ulysses mindful, crown'd his cup with wine,
And to Achilles drank.

ACHILLES' ABHORRENCE OF FALSEHOOD.
WHO dares think one thing and another tell,
My soul detests him as the gates of hell.

Another translation of the Same.
LOATHED as the gates of Hades, I despise
The lip that utters what the heart denies.

PHENIX'S ENDEAVOUR TO APPEASE ACHILLES.

ACHILLES! bid thy mighty spirit down: Thou shouldst not be thus merciless; the gods, Although more honourable, and in power EMBASSY OF PHOENIX, AJAX, AND ULYSSES TO THE And virtue thy superiors, are themselves

Book IX.

TENT OF ACHILLES.

Yet placable; and, if a mortal man

THROUGH the still night they march, and hear Offend them by transgression of their laws,

the roar

Of murmuring billows on the sounding shore.

Libation, incense, sacrifice and prayer,
In meekness offered, turn their wrath away.

Pursued, loud clamouring, where he led the way: ATTACK OF THE TROJANS ON THE GREEKS From Ida's topmost brow the Thunderer, Jove,

treads,

Rocks, mountains, forests, bow their conscious

heads;

Such, they may cry, deserve the sovereign state, Down sweeps the god; and trembling, where he
Whom those that envy, dare not imitate!
Could all our care elude the gloomy grave,
Which claims no less the fearful than the brave,
For lust of fame I should not vainly dare
In fighting fields, nor urge thy soul to war:-
But since, alas! ignoble age must come,
Disease, and death's inexorable doom;
The life which others pay, let us bestow,
And give to fame what we to nature owe;
Brave though we fall, and honour'd if we live,
Or let us glory gain, or glory give!

DEEDS OF HECTOR.

O'er isle, o'er sea, at three vast strides he wends,
And, with the fourth, on Ægæ's shore descends,
His goal;-where bright, nor built by mortal
hands,

Deep midst the waves, his ocean-palace stands;-
There, brazen-hoof'd, gold-man'd, to their fleet car
His steeds he yokes, and arms himself for war,
Grasps the bright scourge, and forth, in gold array,
Swift, through the onward billows, shoots his
way;

As when two scales are charged with doubt-Up from their caves the whales exulting spring,

ful loads,

From side to side the trembling balance nods
(While some laborious matron, just and poor,
With nice exactness weighs her woolly store,)
Till, poised aloft, the resting beam suspends
Each equal weight; nor this, nor that descends:
So stood the war, till Hector's matchless might
With fates prevailing, turn'd the scale of fight.
Fierce as a whirlwind up the wall he flies,
And fires his host with loud repeated cries:
Advance, ye Trojans! lend your valiant hands,
Haste to the fleet, and toss the blazing brands.
They hear, they run; and, gathering at his call,
Raise scaling engines, and ascend the wall:
Around the works a wood of glittering spears
Shoots up, and all the rising host appears.
A ponderous stone bold Hector heaved to throw,
Pointed above, and rough and gross below:
Not two strong men the enormous weight could
raise,

Such men as live in these degenerate days.;
Yet this, as easy as a swain could bear
The snowy fleece, he toss'd, and shook in air:
For Jove upheld, and lighten'd of its load
The unwieldy rock, the labour of a god.
Thus arm'd, before the folded gates he came,
Of massy substance, and stupendous frame;
With iron bars and brazen hinges strong,
On lofty beams of solid timber hung:

Sport round his track, and hail their ocean-king;
Subsiding seas a leveller space supply,
And waves, disparting, leave his axle dry.

THE GIRDLE OF VENUS.

The embroidered zone,
Where each embellishment divinely shone:
There dwell the allurements, all that love inspire;
There soft seduction, there intense desire;
There witchery of words, whose flatteries weave
Wiles, that the wisdom of the wise deceive.
The Same paraphrased.

The zone

With various skill and high embroidery grac'd,
In which was every art, and every charm,
To win the wisest, and the coldest warm:
Fond love, the gentle vow, the gay desire,
The kind deceit, the still-reviving fire;
Persuasive speech, and more persuasive sighs,
Silence that spoke, and eloquence of eyes.

Book XVIII.

ACHILLES SHOWING HIMSELF AT THE HEAD OF
THE ENTRENCHMENTS.

Forth marched the chief, and, distant from the
crowd,

Then, thundering through the planks with force- High on the rampart rais'd his voice aloud;

ful sway,
Drives the sharp rock; the solid beams give way,
The folds are shatter'd; from the crackling door
Leap the resounding bars, the flying hinges roar.
Now rushing in, the furious chief appears,
Gloomy as night! and shakes two shining spears:
A dreadful gleam from his bright armour came,
And from his eye-balls flash'd a living flame.

* This description of the Sea-God has been quoted by Longinus as a specimen of the sublime; but how infinitely inferior is it (as Dr. Smith has truly observed) to a thousand passages in Scripture, descriptive of the divine Psalm xviii. 7-10; and Ixxvii. 16-19, &c. See also, presence. See the Book of Job and Psalms-particularly Milton's description of the Messiah, b. vi. 772 and 781.

With her own shout, Minerva swells the sound; | Diverse their counsel: these, to burn, decide,
Troy starts astonished, and the shores rebound.
As the loud trumpet's brazen mouth from far,
With shrilling clangour sounds the alarm of war,
Struck from the walls, the echoes float on high,
And the round bulwarks and thick towers reply,
So high his brazen voice the hero rear'd:
Hosts dropp'd their arms, and tremble as they Mars, Pallas, led their host: gold either god,

And those to seize, and all its wealth divide.
The town their summons scorn'd, resistance
dar'd,