Sage as thou art, and learn'd in human kind,
Forgive the transport of a martial mind.
Hafte to the fight, fecure of juft amends;
The Gods that make, shall keep the worthy, friends..
He said, and pafs'd where great Tydides lay,
His fteeds and chariots wedg'd in firm array:
(The warlike Sthenelus attends his fide)
To whom with stern reproach the monarch cry'd; Oh son of Tydeus! (he, whofe ftrength could tame The bounding steed, in arms a mighty name) Canft thou, remote, the mingling hosts descry,
With hands unactive, and a careless eye?
Not thus thy fire the fierce encounter fear'd;
Still first in front the matchless prince appear'd;
What glorious toils, what wonders they recite,
Who view'd him labouring through the ranks of fight!
I faw him once, when, gathering martial power, 430
A peaceful gueft, he fought Mycena's towers;
Armies he afk'd, and armies had been given,
Not we deny'd, but Jove forbade from heaven;
While dreadful comets glaring from afar
Forewarn'd the horrours of the Theban war.
Next, fent by Greece from where Afopus flows,
A fearless envoy, he approach'd the foes;
Thebe's hoftile walls, unguarded and alone.
Dauntless he enters, and demands the throne.
The tyrant feasting with his chiefs he found,
And dar'd to combat all thofe chiefs around;
Dar'd and fubdued, before their haughty lord;
For Pallas ftrung his arm, and edg'd his fword.
Stung with the fhame, within the winding way,
To bar his paffage fifty warriours lay;
Two heroes led the fecret fquadron on,
Mæon the fierce, and hardy Lycophon ;
Those fifty flaughter'd in the gloomy vale,
He spar'd but one to bear the dreadful tale.
Such Tydeus was, and fuch his martial fire.
Gods! how the fon degenerates from the fire!
No words the godlike Diomed return'd,
But heard refpectful, and in fecret burn'd:
Not fo fierce Capaneus' undaunted son,
Stern as his fire, the boafter thus begun :
What needs, O Monarch, this invidious praise,
Ourselves to leffen, while our fires you raise ?
Dare to be just, Atrides! and confess
Our valour equal, though our fury lefs,
With fewer troops we storm'd the Theban wall, 460 And happier faw the fevenfold city fall.
In impious acts the guilty fathers dy'd ;
The fons fubdued, for Heaven was on their fide.
Far more than heirs of all our parents fame,
Our glories darken their diminish'd name.
To him Tydides thus: My friend, forbear,
Supprefs thy paffion, and the king revere :
His high concern may well excuse this rage,
Whose cause we follow, and whose war we wage;
His the first praise, were Ilion's towers o'erthrown,
And, if we fail, the chief difgrace his own.
Let him the Greeks to hardy toils excite,
'Tis ours to labour in the glorious fight.
He spoke, and ardent on the trembling ground
Sprung from his car; his ringing arms refound.
Dire was the clang, and dreadful from afar,
Of arm'd Tydides rufhing to the war.
As when the winds, ascending by degrees,
First move the whitening furface of the feas,
The billows float in order to the shore,
The wave behind rolls on the wave before;
Till, with the growing storm, the deeps arise,
Foam o'er the rocks, and thunder to the skies.
So to the fight the thick battalions throng,
Shields urg'd on shields, and men drove men along.
Sedate and filent move the numerous bands;
No found, no whisper, but the chief's commands,
Thofe only heard; with awe the reft obey,
As if fome God had snatch'd their voice away.
Not fo the Trojans; from their host ascends
A general fhout that all the region rends.
As when the fleecy flocks unnumber'd stand
In wealthy folds, and wait the milker's hand,
The hollow vales inceffant bleating fills,
The lambs reply from all the neighbouring hills: 495
Such clamours rofe from various nations round,
Mix'd was the murmur, and confus'd the found.
Each hoft now joins, and each a God inspires,
These Mars incites, and thofe Minerva fires.
Pale Flight around, and dreadful Terrour reign; 500
And Difcord raging bathes the purple plain ;
Difcord! dire fifter of the flaughtering power,
Small at her birth, but rifing every hour,
While fearce the fkies her horrid head can bound,
She stalks on earth, and shakes the world around;
The nations bleed, where-e'er her steps fhe turns,
The
ftill deepens, and the combat burns.
groan Now fhield with fhield, with helmet helmet clos'd, To armour armour, lance to lance oppos'd, Hoff against hoft with fhadowy fquadrons drew, The founding darts in iron tempests flew, Victors and vanquish'd join promifcuous cries, And thrilling fhouts and dying groans arise ; With ftreaming blood the flippery fields are dy'd,
And flaughter'd heroes fwell the dreadful tide.
As torrents roll, increas'd by numerous rills,
With rage impetuous down their echoing hills;
Rush to the vales, and, pour'd along the plain,
Roar through a thousand channels to the main;
The diftant fhepherd trembling hears the found:
So mix both hofts, and fo their cries rebound.
The bold Antilochus the flaughter led,
The first who struck a valiant Trojan dead :
At great Echepolus the lance arrives,
Raz'd his high creft, and through his helmet drives ;
Warm'd in the brain the brazen weapon lies,
And fhades eternal fettle o'er his eyes.
So finks a tower, that long affaults had ftood
Of force and fire; its walls befmear'd with blood.
Him, the bold * leader of th' Abantian throng
Seiz'd to defpoil, and dragg'd the corpfe along:
But while he ftrove to tug th' inserted dart,
Agenor's javelin reach'd the hero's heart.
His flank, unguarded by his ample shield,
Admits the lance: he falls, and fpurns the field; 535 The nerves, unbrac'd, fupport his limbs no more; The foul comes floating in a tide of gore. Trojans and Greeks now gather round the flain; The war renews, the warriours bleed again; As o'er their prey rapacious wolves engage, Man dies on man, and all is blood and rage. In blooming youth fair Simoïfius fell, Sent by great Ajax to the fhades of hell: Fair Simoïfius, whom his mother bore, Amid the flocks on filver Simois' fhore: The nymph defcending from the hills of Ide, To feek her parents on his flowery fide, Brought forth the babe, their common care and joy, And thence from Simois nam'd the lovely boy. Short was his date! by dreadful Ajax flain He falls, and renders all their cares in vain! So falls a poplar, that in watery ground
Rais'd high the head, with stately branches crown'd, (Fell'd by some artist with his shining steel,
To shape the circle of the bending wheel)
Cut down it lies, tall, fmooth, and largely fpread,
With all its beauteous honours on its head;
There, left a subject to the wind and rain,
And scorch'd by funs, it withers on the plain.
Thus pierc'd by Ajax, Simoïfius lies
Stretch'd on the fhore, and thus neglected dies.
At Ajax Antiphus his javelin threw ;
The pointed lance with erring fury flew,
And Leucus, lov'd by wife Ulyffes, flew.
|