to Diomed; Fight not against the Gods, but give way to them, and refift only Venus. The fame Goddefs opens his eyes, and enlightens him fo far as to perceive when it is heaven that acts immediately against him, or when it is man only that oppofes him. The hero himself, as foon as he has performed her dictates in driving away Venus, cries out, not as to the Goddefs, but as to the Paffion, Thou baft 120 bufinefs with warriors, is it not enough that thou deceiv'ft weak women? Even the mother of Venus, while the comforts her daughter, bears teftimony to the moral, That man (fays fhe) is not longlived who contends with the Gods. And when Diomed, tranfported by his nature, proceeds but a ftep too far, Apollo difcovers himself in the most folemn manner, and declares this truth in his own voice, as it were by direct revelation: Mortal, forbear, confider! and know the vast difference there is between the Gods and thee. They are immortal and divine, but man a miserable reptile of the duft. THE The ARGUMENT. The Episodes of Glaucus and Diomed, and of Hector and Andromache. THE HE Gods having left the field, the Grecians prevail. Helenus, the chief augur of Troy, commands Hector to return to the city, in order to appoint a folemn procession of the Queen and the Trojan matrons to the temple of Minerva, to intreat her to remove Diomed from the fight. The battel relaxing during the abfence of Hector, Glaucus and Diomed have an interview between the two armies; where coming to the knowledge of the friendship and bofpitality paft between their ancestors, they make exchange of their arms. Hector having performed the orders of Helenus, prevail'd upon Paris to return to the battel, and taken a tender leave of his wife Andromache, haftens again to the field. The scene is firft in the field of battel, between the rivers Simois and Scamander, and then changes to Troy. THE |