Atrides firft difcharg'd the miffive spear;
The Trojan ftoop'd, the javelin pafs'd in air. 300
Then near the corfelet, at the monarch's heart,
With all his-trength the youth directs his dart:
But the broad belt, with plates of filver bound,
The point rebated, and repell'd the wound,
Encumber'd with the dart, Atrides ftands,
Till, grafp'd with force, he wrench'd it from his
hands.

At once his weighty fword difcharg'd a wound
Full on his neck, that fell'd him to the ground.
Stretch'd in the duft th' unhappy warrior lies,
And fleep eternal feals his fwimming eyes.
Oh worthy better fate! oh early flain!
Thy country's friend; and virtuous, though in
vain!

310

315

No more the youth fhall join his confort's fide,
At once a virgin, and at once a bride!
No more with prefents her embraces meet,
Or lay the fpoils of conqueft at her feet,
On whom his paffion, lavish of his ftore,
Beftow'd fo much, and vainly promis'd more!
Unwept, uncover'd, on the plain he lay,
While the prond victor bore his arms away.
Coon, Antenor's eldest hope, was nigh:
Tears, at the fight, came starting from his eye,
While pierc'd with grief the much-lov'd youth he
view'd,

320

And the pale features, now deform'd with blood, Then with his fpear, unfeen, his time he took, 325

339

Aim'd at the king, and near his elbow ftrook.
The thrilling steel tranfpierc'd the brawny part,
And through his arm stood forth the barbed dart.
Surpriz'd the monarch feels, yet void of fear
On Coon rufhes with his lifted fpear:
His brother's corpfe the pious Trojan draws,
And calls his country to affert his caufe,
Defends him breathlefs on the fanguine field,
And o'er the body fpreads his ample shield.
Atrides, marking an unguarded part,
Transfix'd the warriour with a brazen dart;
Prone on his brother's bleeding breast he lay,
The monarch's faulchion lopp'd his head away:
The focial fhades the fame dark journey go,
And join each other in the realms below.

335

340

The reft were vulgar deaths, unknown to fame. As when a western whirlwind, charg'd with ftorms,

395

Difpels the gather'd clouds that Notus forms;
The guft continued, violent, and strong,
Rolls fable clouds in heaps on heaps along;
Now to the fkies the foaming billows rears,
Now breaks the furge, and wide the bottom bares:
400

495

Thus raging Hector, with refistless hands,
O'erturns, confounds, and fcatters all their bands.
Now the laft ruin the whole hoft appalls;
Now Greece had trembled in her wooden walls;
But wife Ulyffes call'd Tydides forth,
His foul rekindled, and awak'd his worth.
And stand we deedlefs, O eternal fhame!
Till Hector's arm involve the thips in flame?
Hafte, let us join, and combat fide by fide.
The warriour thus: and thus the friend reply'd:
410

No martial toil I fhun, no danger fear;
Let Hector come; I wait his fury here.

But Jove with conqueft crowns the Trojan train;
And, Jove our foe, all human force is vain.
He figh'd; but, fighing, rais'd his vengeful
fteel,
415

And from his car the proud Thymbræus fell;
Molion, the charioteer, pursued his lord,
His death ennobled by Ulyffes' fword.
There flain, they left them in eternal night,
Then plung'd amidst the thickest ranks of fight:
420

So two wild boars outftrip the following hounds,
Then swift revert, and wounds return for wounds.
Stern Hector's conquefts in the middle plain
Stood check'd awhile, and Greece refpir'd again,
The fons of Merops fhone amidst the war; 425
Towering they rode in one refulgent car:
In deep prophetic arts their father skill'd,
Had warn'd his children from the Trojan field;
Fate urg'd them on; the father warn'd in vain,
They rush'd to fight, and perish'd on the plain!
430

Their breasts no more the vital spirit warms;
The ftern Tydides ftrips their fhining arms.
Hypirochus by great Ulyffes dies,
And rich Hippodamus becomes his prize;

Great Jove from Ide with slaughter Nls his fight,

435

And level hangs the doubtful scale of fight.
By Tydeus' lance Agaftrophus was flain,
The far-fam'd hero of Pæonian stroin;
Wing'd with his fears, on foot he ftrove to fly,
His fteeds too diftant, and the foe too nigh; 440
Through broken orders, fwifter than the wind
He fled, but flying left his life behind.
This Hector fees, as his experienc'd eyes
Traverse the files, and to the refcue flies;
Shouts, as he paft, the crystal regions rend,
And moving armies on his march attend.
Great Diomed himself was feiz'd with fear,
And thus bespoke his brother of the war:
Mark how this way yon bending fquadrons
yield!

445

Thou shalt not long the death deferv'd withstand'
If any God affift Tydides' hand.
Fly then, inglorious! but thy flight, this day,
Whole hecatombs of Trojan ghofts thall pay.

Him, while he triumph'd, Paris ey'd from far (The spouse of Helen, the fair cause of war) Around the fields his feather'd fhafts he fent, 475 From ancient Ilus' ruin'd monument: Behind the column plac'd, he bent his bow, And wing'd an arrow at th' unwary foe; Just as he ftoop'd, Agaftrophus's crest To feize, and drew the corfelet from his breaft, 480 The bow-ftring twang'd; nor flew the fhaft in vain,

But pierc'd his foot, and nail'd it to the plain.
The laughing Trojan, with a joyful spring,
Leaps from his ambush, and infults the king.
He bleeds! (he cries) fome God has fped my
dart;

Would the fame God had fixt it in his heart!
So Troy, reliev'd from that wide-wasting hand,
Should breathe from flaughter, and in combat

515

Now on the field Ulyffes ftands alone, The Greeks all fled, the Trojans pouring on: 510 But ftands collected in himself and whole, And questions thus his own unconquer'd foul : What farther fubterfuge, what hopes remain? What fhame, inglorious, if I quit the plain? What danger, fingly if I ftand the ground, My friends all fcatter'd, all the foes around? Yet wherefore doubtful? let this truth fuffice; The brave meets danger, and the coward flies: To die or conquer, proves a hero's heart; And knowing this, I know a foldier's part. 520 Such thoughts revolving in his careful breaft, Near, and more near, the fhady cohorts preft; Thefe, in the warriour, their own fate inclofe: And round him deep the fteely circle grows. So fares a boar, whom all the troop furrounds 525

Of shouting huntsmen, and of clamorous hounds;

535

Fails prone to earth, and grafps the bloody duft,
Charops, the fon of Hippafus, was near;
Ulyffes reach'd him with the fatal spear;
But to his aid his brother Socus flies,
Socus, the brave, the generous, and the wife:
Near as he drew, the warriour thus began:
O grea. Ulyffes, much-enduring man!
Not deeper kill'd in every martial fleight,
Than worn to toils, and active in the fight!
This day two brothers fhall thy conqueft grace,
And end at once the great Hippafian race,
Or thou beneath this lance muft prefs the field-
545

540

He faid, and forceful pierc'd his fpacious fhield: Through the ftrong brafs the ringing javelin thrown,

Plough'd half his fide, and bar'd it to the bone. By Pallas' care, the fpear, though deep infix'd, Stopt fhort of life, nor with his entrails mix'd.

550 The wound not mortal wife Ulysses knew, Then furious thus (but first fome steps withdrew):

Unhappy man! whofe death our hands fhall grace!

Fate calls thee hence, and finish'd is thy race.
No longer check my conquefts on the foe; 5557
But, pierc'd by this, to endless darkness go,
And add one fpectre to the realms below!

He fpoke; while Socus, feiz'd with fudden
fright,

Trembling gave way, and turn'd his back to flight;

Between his shoulders pierc'd the following dart,

560

And held its paffage through the panting heart.
Wide in his breaft appear'd the grizly wound;
He falls; his armour rings against the ground.
Then thus Ulyffes, gazing on the flain:
Fam'd fon of Hippafus! there prefs the plain; 565
There ends thy narrow fpan affign'd by Fate,
Heaven owes Ulyffes yet a longer date.
Ah, wretch no father fhall thy corpfe compofe,
Thy dying eyes no tender mother clofe;
But hungry birds fhall tear those balls away, 570
And hovering vultures fcream around their prey.
Me Greece fhall honour, when I meet my doom,
With folemn funerals and a lafting tomb.

575

Then, raging with intolerable smart, He writhes his body, and extracts the dart. The dart a tide of fpouting gore purfued, And gladden'd Troy with fight of hoftile blood. Now troops on troops the fainting chief invade, Forc'd he recedes, and loudly calls for aid. Thrice to its pitch his lofty voice he rears; The well-known voice thrice Menelaus hears: Alarm'd, to Ajax Telamon he cry'd, Who shares his labours, and defends his fide: O friend! Ulyffes' fhouts invade my ear; Dift.efs'd be feems, and no afsistance near:

500

585

605

Juft as their jaws his proftrate limbs invade, 600
The lion rushes through the woodland shade,
The wolves, though hungry, fcour difpers'd away;
The lordly favage vindicates his prey.
Ulyffes thus, unconquer'd by his pains,
A fingle warriour, half an hoft fuftains:
But foon as Ajax heaves his tower-like shield,
The scatter'd crouds fly frighted o'er the field;
Atrides' arm the finking hero ftays,
And, fav'd from numbers, to his car conveys.
Victorious Ajax plies the routed crew;
And firft Doryclus, Priam's fon, he flew.
On ftrong Pandocus next inflicts a wound,
And lays Lyfander bleeding on the ground.
As when a torrent, fwell'd with wintery rains,
Pours from the mountains o'er the delug'd plains,

610

515

And pines and oaks, from their foundations torn,
A country's ruins! to the feas are borne:
Fierce Ajax thus o'erwhelms the yielding throng;
Men, fteeds, and chariots, roll in heaps along.

But Hector, from this fcene of laughter far, 620

Rag'd on the left, and rul'd the tide of war: Loud groans proclaim his progress through the plain,

And deep Scamander fwells with heaps of flain.
There Neftor and Idomeneus oppofe

The warriour's fury, there the battle glows; 625
There fierce on foot, or from the chariot's height,
His fword deforms the beauteous ranks of fight.
The fpoufe of Helen, dealing darts around,
Had pierc'd Machaon with a distant wound:
In his right fhoulder the broad fhaft appear'd, 639
And trembling Greece for her phyfician fear'd.
To Neftor then Idomeneus begun :
Glory of Greece, old Neleus' valiant fon!
Afcend thy chariot, hafte with speed away,
And great Machaon to the fhips convey.
A wife phyfician, fkill'd our wounds to heal,
Is more than armies to the public weal.
Old Neftor mounts the feat: befide him rode
The wounded offspring of the healing God.
He lends the lath; the fteeds with founding feet
640
Shake the dry field, and thunder tow'rd the fleet.
But now Cebriones, from Hector's car,
Survey'd the various fortune of the war.

635

645

While here (he cry'd) the flying Greeks are
flain;
Trojans on Trojans yonder load the plain.
Before great Ajax fee the mingled throng
Of men and chariots driven in heaps along!
I know him well, diftinguish'd o'er the field
By the broad glittering of the feven-fold thield.
Thither, O Hector, thither urge thy fteeds, 650
There danger calls, and there the combat bleeds;
There horse and foot in mingled deaths unite,
And groans of flaughter mix with fhouts of fight.
Thus having fpoke, the driver's lafh refounds;
Swift through the ranks the rapid chariot bounds;
655
Stung by the stroke, the courfers fcour the fields,
O'er heaps of carcafes, and hills of thields.
The horfes' hoofs are bath'd in heroes' gore,
And, dafhing, purple all the car before;
The groaning axle fable drops diftils,
And mangled carnage clogs the rapid wheels.
Here Hector, plunging through the thickest
fight,

660

Broke the dark phalanx, and let in the light: (By the long lance, the fword, or ponderous stone,

The ranks lie fcatter'd, and the troops o'erthrown)

665

Ajax he fhuns through all the dire debate,
And fears that arm whofe force he felt fo late.
But partial Jove, efpoufing Hector's part,
Shot heaven-bred horrour through the Grecian's
heart;

Confus'd, unnerv'd in Hector's prefence grown, 670

Amaz'd he stood, with terrours not his own.
O'er his broad back his moony shield he threw,
And, glaring round, with tardy steps withdrew.
Thus the grim lion his retreat maintains,
Befet with watchful dogs and shouting fwains,
675

Repuls'd by numbers from the nightly stalls, Though rage impels him, and though hunger calls,

Long ftands the fhowering darts, and miffile fires;

Then fourly flow th' indignant beast retires.
So turn'd ftern Ajax, by whole hofts repell'd,

While his fwoln heart at every step rebell'd.

680

As the flow beast with heavy strength endued, In fome wide field by troops of boys pursued, Though round his fides a wooden tempeft rain, Crops the tall harvest, and lays waste the plain;

685

690

Thick on his hide the hollow blows refound,
The patient animal maintains his ground,
Scarce from the field with all their efforts chac'd,
And ftirs but flowly when he ftirs at last.
On Ajax thus a weight of Trojans hung,
The strokes redoubled on his buckler rung;
Confiding now in bulky strength he stands,
Now turns, and backwards bears the yielding
bands;

700

705

Fix'd as the bar between two warring powers,
While hifling darts defcend in iron fhowers:
In his broad buckler many a weapon ftood,
Its furface briftled with a quivering wood;
And many a javelin, guiltless on the plain,
Marks the dry duft, and thirsts for blood in vain.
But bold Eurypylus his aid imparts,
And dauhtlefs fprings beneath a cloud of darts;
Whofe eager javelin launch'd against the foe,
Great Apifaon felt the fatal blow;
From his torn liver the red current flow'd,
And his flack knees defert their dying load.
The victor rufhing to defpoil the dead,
From Paris' bow a vengeful arrow fled:
Fix'd in his nervous thigh the weapon ftood, 710
Fix'd was the point, but broken was the wood.
Back to the lines the wounded Greek retir'd,
Yet thus, retreating, his affociates fir'd:
What God, O Grecians
may'd?

has your heart dif

Oh, turn to arms; 'tis Ajax claims your aid. 715
This hour he ftands the mark of hoftile rage,
And this the laft brave battle he thall wage;
Hafte, join your forces; from the gloomy grave
The warriour refcue, and your country fave.
Thus urg'd the chief; a generous troop ap-
pears,

720 Who fpread their bucklers, and advance their fpears,

To guard their wounded friend: while thus they ftand

With pious care, great Ajax joins the band:
Each takes new courage at the hero's fight;
The hero rallies and renews the fight.

725

Thus rag'd both armies like conflicting fires,
While Neftor's chariot far from fight retires:
His courfers, fteep'd in fweat, and ftain'd with
gore,

The Greeks' preferver, great Machaon, bore,
That hour Achilles, from the topmoft height 730
Of his proud fleet, o'erlook'd the fields of fight;
His feafted eyes beheld around the plain
The Grecian rout, the flaying, and the flain,
His friend Machaon fingled from the reft,
A tranfient pity touch'd his vengeful breaft. 735
Straight to Menatius' much-lov'd son he fent;
Graceful as Mars, Patroclus quits his tent:
In evil hour! Then fate decreed his doom;
And fix'd the date of all his woes to come.
Why calls my friend? Thy lov'd injunctions

lay;

Whate'er they will, Patroclus fhall obey.

O first of friends! (Pelides thus reply'd) Still at my heart, and ever at my fide! The time is cone, when yon defpairing host Shall learn the value of the man they loft: 745 Now at my knees the Greeks fhall pour their

moan,

Now stiff recedes, yet hardly feems to fly,

The hero faid. His friend obey'd with hafte, Through intermingled fhips and tents he país'd;

755

760

The chiefs defcending from their car he found;
The panting steeds Eurymedon unbound.
The warriours ftanding on the breezy score,
To dry their fweat, and wash away the gore,
He paus'd a moment, while the gentle gåle
Convey'd that frefhnefs the cool feas exhale;
Then to confult on farther methods went,
And took their feats beneath the fhady tent.
The draught prefcrib'd, fair Hecamede pre-
pares,

Arfinous' daughter, grac'd with golden hairs: 765 (Whom to his aged arms, a royal flave,

Greece, as the prize of Neftor's wifdom, gave)
A table firft with azure feet the plac'd;
Whofe ample orb a brazen charger grac'd:
Honey new prefs'd, the facred flower of wheat,
770
And wholesome garlick, crowned the favoury

treat.

Next her white hand an antique goblet brings,
A goblet facred to the Pylian kings
From eldest times: the maffy fculptur'd vafe,
Glittering with golden ftuds, four handles grace;

775

And curling vines around each handle roll'd
Support two turtle-doves embofs'd in gold.
A mafly weight, yet heav'd with ease by him,
When the brifk nectar overlook'd the brim.
Temper'd in this, the nymph of form divine 780
Pours a large portion of the Pramnian wine;
With goat's-milk cheefe a flavourous taste be-
ftows,

And last with flour the fmiling furface ftrows.
This for the wounded prince the dame prepares;
The cordial beverage reverend Neftor fhares: 785
Salubrious draughts the warriours' thirst allay,
And pleafing conference beguiles the day.
Meantime Patroclus, by Achilles fent,
Unheard approach'd, and stood before the tent.
Old Neftor rifing then, the hero led
To his high feat; the chief refus'd, and faid:
'Tis now no feafon for thefe kind delays;

Chief after chief the raging foe deftroys;
Calm he looks on, and every death enjoys.
Now the flow courfe of all-impairing time
Unftrings my nerves, and ends my manly prime;
815
Oh! had I ftill that ftrength my youth poffefs'd.
When this bold arm th' Epeian powers opprefs'd,
The bulls of Elis in glad triumph led,
And stretch'd the great Itymonæus dead!
Then, from my fury fled the trembling swains,
820

And ours was all the plunder of the plains:
Fifty white flocks, full fifty herds of fwine,
As
many goats, as many lowing kine:
And thrice the number of unrivall'd fteeds,
All teeming females, and of generous breeds. 825
Thefe, as my first essay of arms, I won;
Old Neleus glory'd in his conquering fon.
Thus Elis forc'd, her long arrears reftor'd,
And shares were parted to each Pylian lord.
The state of Pyle was funk to laft despair,
When the proud Elians firft commenc'd the war ;
For Neleus' fons Alcides' rage had flain;
Of twelve bold brothers, I alone remain !
Opprefs'd, we arm'd; and now this conquest
gain'd,

830

My fire three hundred chofen fheep obtain'd. 835

(That large reprifal he might juftly claim,
For prize defrauded, and infulted fame,
When Elis' monarch at the public course
Detain'd his chariot and victorious horse.)
The reft the people fhar'd; myself survey'd 840
The juft partition, and due victims pay'd.
Three days were paft, when Elis rofe to war,
With many a courfer, and with many a car;
The fons of Actor at their army's head

(Young as they were) the vengeful squadrons led.

790

pride;

Myfelf the foremost; but my fire deni'd;
Fear'd for my youth, expos'd to ftern alarms;
And stopp'd my chariot, and detain'd my arms.

855

Excite compaffion in Achilles' mind? Seeks he the forrows of our hoft to know?

This is not half the ftory of our woe.
Tell him, not great Machaon bleeds alone,
Our bravest heroes in the navy groan,
Ulyffes, Agamemnon, Diomed,
And ftern Eurypylus, already bleed.
But ah! what flattering hopes I entertain!
Achilles heeds not, but derides our pain:

Ev'n till the flames confume our fleet he stays, 810
And waits the rifing of the fatal blaze.

| My fire deny'd in vain: on foot I fled
Amidit our chariots: for the Goddess led.
Along fair Arene's delightful plain,
Soft Minyas rolls his waters to the main.
There, horfe and foot, the Pylian troops unite,

860