530

535

With this each Grecian's manly breast she warms
Swells their bold hearts, and strings their nervous arms;
No more they sigh, inglorious to return,
But breathe revenge, and for the combat burn.
As on some mountain, through the lofty grove,
The crackling flames ascend, and blaze above:
The fires expanding as the winds arise,
Shoot their long beams, and kindle half the skies:
So from the polish'd arms, and brazen shields,
A gleamy splendour flash'd along the fields.
Not less their number than the embodied cranes,
Or milk-white swans in Asius' watry plains,
That o'er the winding of Cäyster's springs,
Stretch their long necks, and clap their rustling wings,
Now tower aloft, and course in airy rounds;
Now light with noise: with noise the field resounds. 545
Thus numerous and confused extending wide,
The legions croud Seamander's flowery side;
With rushing troops the plains are cover'd o'er,
And thundering footsteps shake the sounding shore.
Along the river's level meads they stand,
Thick as in spring the flowers adorn the land,
Or leaves the trees; or thick as insects play,
The wandering nation of a summer's day,

That, drawn by milky ateams at evening hours,
In gather'd swarms surround the rural bowers;
From pail to pail with busy murmur run
The gilded legions, glittering in the sun.

So throng'd, so close the Grecian squadrons stood
In radiant arms, and thirst for Trojan blood.
Each leader now his scatter'd force conjoins,
In close array, and forms the deepening lines.
Not with more ease, the skilful shepherd swain
Collects his flock from thousands on the plain.
The king of kings, majestically tall,
'Towers o'er his armies, and outshines them all:
Like some proud bull that round the pastures leads
His subject herds, the monarch of the meads.
Great as the gods, the exalted chief was seen,
His strength like Neptune, and like Mars his mien;
Jove o'er his eyes celestial glories spread,
And dawning conquest play'd around his head.
Say, virgins, seated round the throne divine,
All-knowing goddesses! immortal Nine!
Since earth's wide regions, heaven's unmeasured
And hell's abyss, hide nothing from your sight,
(We, wretched mortals! lost in doubts below,
But guess by rumour, and but boast we know,)
Oh say what heroes, fired by thirst of fame,
Or urged by wrongs, to Troy's destruction came?
To count them all, demands a thousand tongues,
A throat of brass, and adamantine lungs.
Daughters of Jove, assist! inspired by you,
The mighty labour dauntless I pursue:
What crowded armies, from what climes they bring,
Their names, their numbers, and their chiefs, I sing.

The Catalogue of the Ships.

The hardy warriors whom Boeotia bred,
Penelius, Leitus, Prothoënor led:
With these Arcesilaus and Clonius stand,
Equal in arms, and equal in command.
These head the troops that rocky Aulis yields
And Eteon's hills, aud Hyrie's watry fields,
And Schoenos, Scholos, Græa near the main,
And Mycalessia's ample piny plain.
Those who in Peteon or Ilesion dwell,
Or Harma where Apollo's prophet fell;
Heleon and Hyle, which the springs o'erflow;
And Medeon lofty, and Ocalea low;
Or in the meads of Haliartus stray,
Or Thespia sacred to the god of day.
Onchestus, Neptune's celebrated groves;
Copæ, and Thisbè, famed for silver doves,
For flocks Erythræ, Glissa for the vine;
Platea green, and Nisa the divine.

And they whom Thebe's well-built walls inclosc,
Where Mydė, Eutresis, Coronè rose;
And Arne rich, with purple harvests crown'd:
And Anthedon, Boeotia's utmost bound.
Full fifty ships they send, and each conveys
Twice sixty warriors through the foaming seas.
To these succeed Aspledon's martial train,
Who plough the spacious Orchomenian plain.
Two valiant brothers rule the undaunted throng,
Iälmen and Ascalaphus the strong,
Sons of Astyochè, the heavenly fair,
Whose virgin charms subdued the god of war:
(In Actor's court as she retired to rest,

Their troops in thirty sable vessels sweep,
With equal oars, the hoarse-resounding deep.
The Phocians next in forty barks repair,
Epistrophus and Schedius head the war.
Prom those rich regions where Cephissus leads
His silver current through the flowery meads;
From Panopëa, Chrysa the divine,
Where Anemoria's stately turrets shine,
Where Pytho, Daulis, Cyparissus, stood,
And fair Lilæa views the rising flood.

540 These ranged in order on the floating tide,
Close, on the left, the bold Boeotians' side.
Fierce Ajax led the Locrian squadrons on,
Ajax the less, Oileus' valiant son;
Skill'd to direct the flying dart aright;
Swift in pursuit, and active in the fight.
Him, as their chief, the chosen troops attend,
Which Bessa, Thronus, and rich Cynos send:
Opus, Calliarus, and Scarphè's bands;

620

625

630

635

550

And those who dwell where pleasing Augia stands,
And where Boägrius floats the lowly lands,

Or in fair Tarphe's sylvan seats reside,

In forty vessels cut the liquid tide.
Euboë next her martial sons prepares,
And sends the brave Abantes to the wars:

610

555 Breathing revenge, in arms they take their way
From Chalcis' walls, and strong Eretria;
The Isteian fields for generous vines renown'd,
The fair Carystos, and the Styrian ground;
Where Dios from her towers o'erlooks the plain,

645

565

570

575

560 And high Cerinthus views the neighbouring main.
Down their broad shoulders falls a length of hair;
Their hands dismiss not the long lance in air;
But with protended spears in fighting fields,
Pierce the tough corslets and the brazen shields.
Twice twenty ships transport the warlike bands,
Which bold Elphenor, fierce in arms, commands.
Full fifty more from Athens stem the main,
Led by Menestheus through the liquid plain,
(Athens the fair, where great Erectheus sway'd,
That owed his nurture to the blue-eyed maid,
But from the teeming furrow took his birth,
The mighty offspring of the foodful earth.
Him Pallas placed amidst her wealthy fane,
Adored with sacrifice and oxen slain;
Where, as the years revolve, her altars blaze,
And all the tribes resound the goddess' praise).

650

655

660

height,

670

No chief like thee, Menestheus!Greece could yield, 665
To marshal armies in the dusty field,
The extended wings of battle to display,
580 Or close the embodied host in firm array.
Nestor alone, improved by length of days,
For martial conduct bore an equal praise.
With these appear the Salaminian bands,
Whom the gigantic Telamon commands;
In twelve black ships to Troy they steer their course,
And with the great Athenians join their force.
Next move to war the generous Argive train,
From high Træezenè, and Maseta's plain,
And fair Ægina circled by the main :
Whom strong Tyrithe's lofty walls surround,
And Epidaure with viny harvests crown'd;
And where fair Asinen and Hermion shew
Their cliffs above, and ample bay below.
590 These by the brave Euryalus were led,

Great Sthenelus, and greater Diomed,
But chief Tydides bore the sovereign sway;
In fourscore barks they plough the watry way.
The proud Mycenè arms her martial powers,
595 Cleonè, Corinth, with imperial towers,
Fair Aræthyrea, Ornia's fruitful plain,
And Ægion, and Adrastus' ancient reign:
And those who dwell along the sandy shore,
And where Pellenè yields her fleecy store,

770 Nor he unworthy to command the host;
Yet still they mourn'd their ancient leader lost.
The men who Giaphyra's fair soil partake,
Where hills encircle Boebe's lowly lake,
Where Phære hears the neighbouring waters fall,

775 Or proud Iolcus lifts her airy wall,

780

In ten black ships embark'd for Ilion's shore, With bold Eumelus, whom Alcestè bore: All Pelias' race Alceste far outshined, The grace and glory of the beauteous kind. The troops Methomè or Thaumacia yields, Olizon's rocks, or Meliboa's fields, With Philoctetes sail'd whose matchless art, From the tough bow directs the feather'd dart. Seven were his ships; each vessel fifty row, 785 Skill'd in his science of the dart and bow: But he lay raging on the Lemnian ground, A poisonous Hydra gave the burning wound; There groan'd the chief in agonising pain, Whom Greece at length shall wish, nor wish in vain. 790 His forces Medon led from Lemnos' shore,

Yet o'er the silver surface pure they flow,

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 Tenthedron'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'd,
(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 breeds,
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 breath'd a flame,
Their height, their colour, and their age the same;
O'er fields 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 unrival'd 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 the inglorious life deplored,
And wandering o'er the camp, required their lord.
Now like a deluge, covering all around,
The shining armies swept along the ground;
Swift as a flood of fire, when storms arise,
Floats the wide 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, press'd 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 Esetes' 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.

(This for Myrinné's tomb the immortals know,
Though call'd Bateïa in the world below);
Beneath their chiefs in martial order bere,
895 The auxiliar troops and Trojan hosts appear.

900

910

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 and lances glitter in the air.
Divine Æneas brings the Dardan race,
Anchises son by Venus' stolen embrace,
Born in the shades of Ida's secret grove
(A mortal mixing with the queen of love).
Archilochus and Acamas divide

905 The warrior's toils, and combat by his side.
Who fair Zeleia's wealthy valleys till,
Fast by the foot of Ida's sacred hill;
Or drink, sepus, of thy sable flood;
Were led by Pandarus of royal blood;
To whom his art Apollo deign'd to shew,
Graced with the present of his shafts and bow.
From rich Apæesus and Adrestia's towers,
High Teree's summits, and Pityea's bowers;
From these the congregated troops obey
915 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, Percoté's pasture lands,
And Sestos and Abydos' neighbouring strands,
From great Arisba's walls and Sellé's coast,
Asius Hyrtacides conducts his host:
High on his car he shakes the flowing reins,
925 His fiery coursers thunder o'er the plains.

920

930

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.

985

990

995

1000

1005

1010

1015

1020

935

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 Trozenian Ceus, 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 Amydou;

1025

1030

940 Axius, that swells with all his neighbouring rills,
And wide around the floating region fills.

The Paphlagonians Pyloemenes rules,
Where rich Henetia breeds her savage mules,
Where Erythinus' rising cliffs are seen,

1035.

945 Thy groves of box, Cytorus! ever green;
And where Egialus and Cronma lie,
And lofty Sesamus invades the sky;

And where Parthenius, roll'd through banks of flowers,
Reflects her bordering palaces and bowers.

1041

950

Here march'd in arms the 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,
955 And augur Ennomus, inspired in vain,
For stern Achilles lopp'd his sacred head,
Roll'd down Scamander with the vulgar dead.
Phoreys 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 shade 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,

BOOK III.

Oh! hadst thou died when first thou saw'st the light,
Or died at least before thy nuptial rite!
A better fate than vainly thus to boast,
And fly, the scandal of thy Trojan host.
Gods! how the scornful Greeks exult to see

60

Their fears of danger undeceived in thee!

the war.

ARGUMENT.

The Duel of Menelaus and Paris.

65

70

Thy figure promised with a martial air, But ill thy soul supplies a form so fair. In former days, in all thy gallant pride, When thy tall ships triumphant stemm'd the tide, The armies being ready to engage, a single combat is And crowds stood wondering at the passing show; When Greece beheld thy painted canvass flow, agreed upon between Menelaus and Paris (by the Say, was it thus, with such a baffled mien, intervention of Hector) for the determination of You met the approaches of the Spartan queen, Iris is sent to call Helena to behold the Thus from her realm convey'd the beauteous prize, fight. She leads her to the walls of Troy, where And both her warlike lords outshined in Helen's eyes? Priam sat with his counsellors, observing the Gre-This deed, thy foes' delight, thy own disgrace, cian leaders on the plain below, to whom Helen Thy father's grief, and ruin of thy race; gives an account of the chief of them. The kings This deed recalls thee to the proffer'd fight, on either part take the solemn oath for the con- Or hast thou injured whom thou darest not right? ditions of the combat. The duel ensues, wherein Soon to thy cost the field would make thee know Paris being overcome, is snatched away in a cloud Thou keep'st the consort of a braver foe. by Venus, and transported to his apartment. She Thy graceful form instilling soft desire, then calls Helen from the walls, and brings the Thy curling tresses, and thy silver lyre, lovers together. Agamemnon, on the part of the Grecians, demands the restoration of Helen, and Beauty and youth; in vain to these you trust, the performance of the articles. When youth and beauty shall be laid in dust: Crush the dire author of his country's woe. Troy yet may wake, and one avenging blow

The three-and-twentieth day still continues throughout this book. The scene is sometimes in the fields before Troy, and sometimes in Troy itself.

75

80

1

BOOK III.

THUS by their leader's 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 mid-way 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
Darkness arises from the labour'd ground.
Thus from his flaggy wings when Notus sheds
A night of vapours round the mountain-heads,
Swift-gliding mists the dusky fields invade,

To thieves more grateful than the midnight shade;
While scarce the swains their feeding flocks survey,
Lost and confused amidst the thicken'd day:
So wrapt in gathering dust, the Grecian train,
A moving cloud, swept on, and hid the plain.
Now front to front the hostile armies stand,
Eager of fight, and only wait command;
When, to the van, before the sons of fame
Whom Troy sent forth, the beauteous Paris came,
In form a god! the panther's speckled hide
Flow'd o'er his armour with an easy pride,
His bended bow across his shoulders flung,
His sword beside him negligently hung;
Two pointed spears he shook with gallant grace,
And dared the bravest of the Grecian race.

As thus, with glorious air and proud disdain,
He boldly stalk'd, the foremost on the plain,
Him Menelaüs, loved of Mars, espies,
With heart elated, and with joyful eyes:
So joys a lion, if the branching deer,

Or mountain goat, his bulky prize, appear;
Eager he seizes and devours the slain,

Press'd by bold youths and baying dogs in vain.
Thus fond of vengeance, with a furious bound,
In clanging arms he leaps upon the ground
From his high chariot: him, approaching near,
The beauteous champion views with marks of fear;
Smit with a conscious sense, retires behind,
And shuns the fate he well deserved to find.
As when some shepherd, from the rustling trees,
Shot forth to view, a scaly serpent sees,
Trembling and pale, he starts with wild affright,
And all confused, precipitates his flight:
So from the king the shining warrior flies,
And plunged amid the thickest Trojans lies.

As godlike Hector sees the prince retreat,
He thus upbraids him with a generous heat:
Unhappy Paris: but to women brave!
So fairly form'd, and only to deceive!

His silence here, with blushes, Paris breaks:
"Tis just, my brother, what your anger speaks;
But who like thee can boast a soul sedate,
So firmly proof to all the shocks of fate!
Thy force like steel a temper'd hardness shews,
Still edged to wound, and still untired with blows,
Like steel, uplifted by some strenuous swain,
With falling woods to strew the wasted plain.
Thy gifts I praise; nor thou despise the charms
With which a lover golden Venus arms;
Soft moving speech, and pleasing outward show,
No wish can gain them, but the gods bestow.

85

90

95

5 Yet, wouldst thou have the proffer'd combat stand,
The Greeks and Trojans seat on either hand;
Then let a mid-way space our hosts divide,
And, on that stage of war, the cause be tried:
By Paris there the Spartan king be fought,

100

10 For beauteous Helen and the wealth she brought:
And who his rival can in arms subdue,
His be the fair, and his the treasure too.
Thus with a lasting league your toils may cease,
And Troy possess her fertile fields in peace;

105

15 Thus may the Greeks review their native shore, Much famed for generous steeds, for beauty more.

20

He said. The challenge Hector heard with joy,
Then with his spear restrain'd the youth of Troy,
Held by the midst, athwart, and near the foe
Advanced with steps majestically slow:
While round his dauntless head the Grecians pour
Their stones and arrows in a mingled shower.

110

115

25

Then thus the monarch great Atrides cried:
Forbear, ye warriors! lay the darts aside:
A parley Hector asks, a message bears;
We know him by the various plume he wears.
Awed by his high command the Greeks attend,
The tumult silence, and the fight suspend.
While from the centre Hector rolls his eyes
30 On either host, and thus to both applies:
Hear, all ye Trojan, all ye Grecian bands!
What Paris, author of the war, demands.
Your shining swords within the sheath restrain,
And pitch your lances in the yielding plain.
35 Here in the midst in either army's sight,

He dares the Spartan king to single fight;
And wills, that Helen and the ravish'd spoil,
That caused the contest, shall reward the toil.
Let these the brave triumphant victor grace,
40 And differing nations part in leagues of peace:
He spoke in still suspense on either side
Each army stood :-the Spartan chief replied:
Me too, ye warriors, hear, whose fatal right
A world engages in the toils of fight.
To me the labour of the field resign;
Me Paris injured; all the war be mine.
Fall he that must, beneath bis rival's arms;
And live the rest, secure of future harms.
Two lambs, devoted by our country's rite,
50 To Earth a sable, to the Sun a white,
Prepare, ye Trojans! while a third we bring
Select to Jove, the inviolable king.

Let reverend Priam in the truce engage,
And add the sanction of considerate age;
His sons are faithless, headlong in debate,
And youth itself an empty wavering state:
Cool age advances venerably wise,
Turns on all hands its deep-discerning eyes;
Sees what befell, and what may yet befall,
Concludes from both, and best provides for all.
The nations hear, with rising hopes possess'd,
And peaceful prospects dawn in every breast.
Within the lines they drew their steeds around,
And from their chariots issued on the ground:
Next all unbuckling the rich mail they wore,
Laid their bright arms along the sable shore.
On either side the meeting hosts are seen
With lances fix'd, and close the space between.
Two heralds now despatch'd to Troy, invite
The Phrygian monarch to the peaceful rite;
Talthybius hastens to the fleet, to bring
The lamb for Jove, the inviolable king.

Meantime, to beauteous Helen, from the skies
The various goddess of the rainbow flies,
(Like fair Laodicé in form and face,
The loveliest nymph of Priam's royal race).
Her in the palace, at her loom she found;
The golden web her own sad story crown'd.
The Trojan wars she weaved (herself the prize)
And the dire triumphs of her fatal eyes.
To whom the goddess of the painted bow:
Approach, and view the wondrous scene below!
Each hardy Greek, and valiant Trojan knight,
So dreadful late, and furious for the fight,
Now rest their spears, or lean upon their shields
Ceased is the war, and silent all the fields.
Paris alone and Sparta's king advance,
In single fight to toss the beamy lance;
Each met in arms, the fate of combat tries,
Thy love the motive, and thy charms the prize.
This said, the many-colour'd maid inspires
Her husband's love, and wakes her former fires:
Her country, parents, all that once were dear,
Rush to her thought, and force a tender tear.
O'er her fair face a snowy veil she threw,
And, softly sighing, from the loom withdrew:
Her handmaids Clymené and thra wait
Her silent footsteps to the Scæan gate.

145 | My brother once, before my days of shame;
And oh that still he bore a brother's name!
With wonder Priam view'd the godlike man,
Extoll'd the happy prince, and thus began:
O bless'd Atrides! born to prosperous fate,
150 Successful monarch of a mighty state!

How vast thy empire! of yon matchless train
What numbers lost, what numbers yet remain !
In Phrygia once were gallant armies known,
In ancient time, when Otreus fill'd the throne,
155 When godlike Mygdon led their troops of horse,
And I, to join them, raised the Trojan force:
Against the manlike Amazons we stood,
And Sangar's stream ran purple with their blood.
But far inferior those, in martial grace

160 And strength of numbers, to this Grecian race.

This said, once more he view'd the warrior train :
What's he, whose arms lie scatter'd on the plain;
Broad is his breast, his shoulders larger spread,
Though great Atrides overtops his head.
165 Nor yet appear his care and conduct small :
From rank to rank he moves, and orders all.
The stately ram thus measures o'er the ground,
And, master of the flock, surveys them round.
Then Helen thus: Whom your discerning eyes

170 Have singled out, is Ithacus the wise:
A barren island boasts his glorious birth:
His fame for wisdom fills the spacious earth.
Antenor took the word, and thus began:
Myself, O king! have seen that wondrous man:
175 When trusting Jove and hospitable laws,

To Troy he came, to plead the Grecian cause
(Great Menelaüs urged the same request ;)
My house was honour'd with each royal guest:
I knew their persons, and admired their parts,
180 Both brave in arms, and both approved in arts
Erect, the Spartan most engaged our view:
Ulysses seated greater reverence drew.
When Atreus' son harangued the listening train,
Just was his sense, and his expression plain,
185 His words succinct, yet full, without a fault;
He spoke no more than just the thing he ought.
But when Ulysses rose, in thought profound,
His modest eyes he fix'd upon the ground,
As one unskill'd or dumb, he seem'd to stand,

There sat the seniors of the Trojan race
(Old Priam's chiefs, and most in Priam's grace):
The king the first; Thymotes at his side;
Lampus and Clytius, long in counsel tried;
Panthus and Hicetäon, once the strong;
And next, the wisest of the reverend throng,
Antenor grave, and sage Ucalegon,
Lean'd on the walls, and bask'd before the sun.
Chiefs, who no more in bloody fight engage,
But wise through time, and narrative with age,
In summer-days like grasshoppers rejoice,
A bloodless race, that send a feeble voice,
These, when the Spartan queen approach'd the tower,
In secret own'd resistless beauty's power:
They cried, No wonder, such celestial charms
For nine long years have set the world in arms;
What winning graces! what majestic mien !
She moves a goddess, and she looks a queen!
Yet hence, oh Heaven! convey that fatal face,
And from destruction save the Trojan race.

The good old Priam welcomed her; and cried,
Approach, my child, and grace thy father's side.
See on the plain thy Grecian spouse appears,
The friends and kindred of thy former years.
No crime of thine our present sufferings draws,
Not thou, but Heaven's disposing will, the cause;
The gods these armies and this force employ,
The hostile gods conspire the fate of Troy.
But lift thy eyes, and say, What Greek is he
(Far as from hence these aged orbs can see)
Around whose brow such martial graces shine,
So tall, so awful, and almost divine?
Though some of larger stature tread the green,
None match his grandeur and exalted mien:
He seems a monarch, and his country's pride.
Thus ceased the king, and thus the fair replied:
Before thy presence, father, I appear,
With conscious shame and reverential fear.
Ah! had I died, ere to these walls I fled,
False to my country, and my nuptial bed;
My brothers, friends, and daughter left behind,
False to them all, to Paris only kind!
For this I mourn, till grief or dire disease
Shall waste the form whose crime it was to please.
The king of kings, Atrides, you survey,
Great in the war, and great in arts of sway;

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190 Nor raised his head, nor stretch'd his scepter'd hand :
But, when he speaks, what elocution flows
Soft as the fleeces of descending snows,
The copious accents fall, with easy art;
Melting they fall, and sink into the heart!

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195 Wondering we hear, and, fix'd in deep surprise,
Our ears refute the censure of our eyes.

200 And lofty stature, far exceed the rest?

Ajax the great (the beauteous queen replied)
Himself a host: the Grecian strength and pride.
See! bold Idomeneus superior towers
Amidst yon circle of his Cretan powers,
Great as a god! I saw him once before,
With Menelaüs, on the Spartan shore.
The rest I know and could in order name:

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All valiant chiefs, and men of mighty fame.
Yet two are wanting of the numerous train,
210 Whom long my eyes have sought, but sought in vain :
Castor and Pollux, first in martial force,
One bold on foot, and one renown'd for horse.
My brothers these; the same our native shore,
One house contain'd us, as one mother bore.
215 Perhaps the chiefs, from warlike toils at ease,
For distant Troy refused to sail the seas:
Perhaps their swords some nobler quarrel draws,
Ashamed to combat in their sister's cause.
So spoke the fair, nor knew her brothers' doom,

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