675

680

His generous fenfe he not in vain imparts;
kfunk, and rooted in the Grecian hearts;
They join, they throng, they thicken at his call,
And flank the navy with a brazen wall;
Shields touching fhields, in order blaze above,
And ftop the Trojans, though impell'd by Jove.
The fiery Spartan first, with loud applause,
Warms the bold fon of Nestor in his caufe:
Is there (he faid) in arms a youth like you,
So ftrong to fight, so active to purfue?
Why ftand you diftant, nor attempt a deed?
Lift the bold lance, and make fome Trojan bleed.
685

He faid; and backward to the lines retir'd;
Forth rufh'd the youth, with martial fury fir'd,
Beyond the foremost ranks; his lance he threw,
And round the black battalions caft his view.
The troops of Troy recede with fudden fear, 690
While the fwift javelin hifs'd along in air.
Advancing Melanippus met the dart
With his bold breaft, and felt it in his heart:
Thundering he falls; his falling arms refound,
And his broad buckler rings against the ground.

695

700

705

The victor leaps upon his proftrate prize:
Thus on a roe the well-breath'd beagle flies,
And rends his fide, fresh-bleeding with the dart
The diftant hunter fent into his heart.
Obferving Hector to the rescue flew :
Bold as he was, Antilochus withdrew.
So when a favage, ranging o'er the plain,
Has torn the fhepherd's dog, or fhepherd fwain;
While, confcious of the deed, he glares around,
And hears the gathering multitude refound,
Timely he flies the yet-untafted food,
And gains the friendly fhelter of the wood.
So fears the youth; all Troy with fhouts purfue,
While ftones and darts in mingled tempefts flew;
But, enter'd in the Grecian ranks, he turns
His manly breast, and with new fary burns.
Now on the fleet the tides of Trojans drove,
Fierce to fulfil the stern decrees of Jove:
The Sire of Gods, confirming Thetis' prayer,
The Grecian ardour quench'd in deep defpair; 715
But lifts to glory Troy's prevailing bands,
Swells all their hearts, and ftrengthens all their
hands.

On Ida's top he waits with longing eyes,

To view the navy blazing to the skies;

710

Unhappy glories! for his fate was near,
Due to stern Pallas, and Pelides' spear:
Yet Jove deferr'd the death he was to pay,
And gave what Fate allow'd, the honours of a day!
Now, all on fire for fome his breast, his eyes 740.
Burn at each foe, and fingle every prize;
Still at the closest ranks, the thickelt fight,
He points his ardour, and exerts his might.
The Grecian phalanx moveless as a tower,
On all fides batter'd, yet refifts his power: 743
So fome tall rock o'erhangs the hoary main,
By winds affail'd, by billows beat in vain;
Unmov'd it hears, above, the tempeft blow,
And fees the watery mountains break below.
Girt in furrounding flames, he feems to fall, 750
Like fire from Jove, and bursts upon them all:
Burfts as a wave that from the clouds impends,
And fwell'd with tempefts on the fhip defcends;
White are the decks with foam; the winds aloud
Howl o'er the mafts, and fing thro' every shroud :

755

760

Pale, trembling, tir'd, the failors freeze with fears;
And instant death on every wave appears.
So pale the Greeks the eyes of Hector meet,
The chief fo thunders, and fo fhakes the fleet.
As when a lion rushing from his den,
Amidst the plain of fome wide-water'd fen
(Where numerous oxen, as at ease they feed,
At large expatiate o'er the ranker mead)
Leaps on the herds before the herdfman's eyes:
The trembling herdiman far to distance flies: 765
Some lordly bull (the reft difpers'd and fled)
He singles out; arrefts, and lays him dead.
Thus from the rage of Jove-like Hector flew
All Greece in heaps; but one he feiz'd, and flew :
Mycenian Periphes, a mighty name,
770

775

In wifdom great, in arms well known to fame;
The minifter of ftern Euryftheus' ire,
Against Alcides, Corpreus was his fire:
The fon redeem'd the honours of the race,
A fon a generous as the fire was base;
O'er all his country's youth confpicuous far
In every virtue, or of peace or war:
But doom'd to Hector's ftronger force to yield!
Against the margin of his ample shield
He ftruck his hafty foot: his heels up fprung; 782
Supine he fell; his brazen helmet rung.
On the fall'n chief th' invading Trojan preft,
And plung'd the pointed javelin in his breast.

Then, nor till then, the fcale of war fhall turn, 720 His circling friends, who ftrove to guard too late

The Trojans fly, and conquer'd ¡lien burn.
Thefe fates revolv'd in his almighty mind,
He raises Hector to the work defign'd,
Bids him with more than mortal fury glow,
And drives him, like a lightening, on the foe. 725
So Mars, when human crimes for vengeance call,
Shakes his huge javelin, and whole armies fall.
Not with more rage a conflagration rolls,
Wraps the vaft mountains, and involves the poles.
He foams with wrath; beneath his gloomy brow
730

Like fiery meteors his red eye-balls glow
The radiant helmet on his temples burns,
Waves when he nods, and lightens as he turns:
For Jove his fplendour round the chief had thrown,
And caft the blaze of both the hofts on one. 735

Th' unhappy hero, fled, or fhar'd his fate. ;,785

Chac'd from the foremost line the Grecian train Now man the next, receding tow'rd the main; Wedg'd in one body at the tents they ftand, Wall'd round with fterns, a gloomy desperate

band.

Now manly fhame forbids th' inglorious flight;

790

Now fear itself confines them to the fight:
Man courage breathes in nian; but Neftor molt
(The fage preferver of the Grecian hoft)
Exhorts, adjures, to guard these utmost fhores;
And by their parents, by themselves, implores 795
O friends! be men: your generous breasts in-
fame

With equal honour, and with mutual fhame i

Is finish'd! and the day defir'd appears!
This happy day with acclamations greet,
Bright with deftruction of yon hoftile fleet.
The coward counfels of a timorous throng
Of reverend dotards, check'd our glory long: 875
Too long Jove luil'd us with lethargic charms,
But now in peals of thunder calls to arms:
In this great day he crowns our full defires,
Wakes all our force, and feconds all our fires.
He spoke the warriors, at his fierce command,

Pour a new deluge on the Grecian band.
Ev'n Ajax paus'd (fo thick the javelins fly)
830 Stepp'd back, and doubted or to live, or die.

|

BOOK XVI.

THE ARGUMENT.

The fixth Battle: the Acts and Death of Patroclus.

Patroclus (in pursuance of the request of Neftor in the eleventh book) entreats Achilles to fuffer him to go to the afifiance of the Greeks with Achilles' troops and armour. He agrees to it; but at the fame time charges bim to content bimfelf with rescuing the feet, without farther pursuit of the enemy. The armour, borfes, foldiers, and officers of Achilles are defcribed. Achilles offers a libation for the fuccefs of his friend, after which Patroclus leads the Myrmidons to battle. The Trojans, at the fight of Patroclus in Achilles' armour, taking him for that bern, are caft into the utmost confternation: be beats them off from the velfels. Hector bimfelf flies. Sarpedon is killed, though Jupiter was averse to bis fate. Several other particulars of the battle are defcribed; in the beat of which, Patroclus, neglecting the orders of Achilles, pursues the foe to the walls of Troy; where Apollo repulfes and difarms him, Euphorbus wounds bim, and Hector kills him: which

I made him tyrant: gave him power to wrong
Ev'n me; felt it; and fhall feel it long.
The maid, my black-ey'd maid, he forc'd away,
Due to the toils of many a well-fought day;
Due to my conqueft of her father's reign;
Due to the votes of all the Grecian train,
From me he forc'd her; me, the bold and brave; 80
Difgrac'd, dishonour'd, like the meanest flave.
But bear we this-the wrongs I grieve are paft;
'Tis time our fury should relent at laft;
40 I fix'd its date; the day I wish'd appears,
Now Hector to my hips his battle bears,
The flames my eyes, the fhouts invade my ears,

What friend, what man, from thee thall hope Go, then, Patroclus! court fair honour's charms redress?

95

Lead forth my martial Myrmidons to fight,
Go, fave the fleets, and conquer in my right.
See the thin reliques of their baffled band,
At the laft age of yon deferted land!
Behold all Ilion on their fhips descends;
How the cloud blackens, how the ftorm impends!
It was not thus, when, at my fight amaz'd,
Troy faw and trembled, as this helmet blaz'd:
Had not the injurious king our friendship loft,
Yon ample trench had bury'd half her hoft.
No camps, no bulwarks, now the Trojans fear;
Thofe are not dreadful, no Achilles there:
No longer flames the lance of Tydides' fon;
No more your general calls his heroes on;
Hector alone I hear; his dreadful breath
Commands your flaughter, or proclaims your death
Yet now, Patroclus, iffue to the plain :
Now fave the fhips, the rifing fires restrain,
And give the Greeks to vifit Greece again.
But heed my words, and mark a friend's com-
mand,

100

160

Warn'd,heretreats. Then fwift from all fides pour150
9c The hifling brands; thick streams the fiery fhower;
O'er the high ftern the curling volumes rise,
And sheets of rolling smoke involve the skies.
Divine Achilles view'd the rifing flames,
And fmote his thigh, and thus aloud exclaims: 15S
Arm, arm, Patroclus! Lo, the blaze afpires!
The glowing ocean reddens with the fires.
Arm, ere our vessels catch the spreading flame;
Arm, ere the Grecians be no more a name;
I hate to bring the troops--the hero faid;
The friend with ardour, and with joy obey'd.
He cas'd his limbs in brafs; and firft around
His manly legs with filver buckles bound
The clafping greaves; then to his breast applies
The flamy cuirafs, of a thousand dyes; 165
Emblaz'd with studs of gold his faulchion fhone
In the rich belt, as in a starry zone:
Achilles' fhield his ample shoulders spread,
Achilles' helmet nodded o'er his head;
Adorn'd in all his terrible array;
He flash'd around intolerable day.
Alone, untouch'd, Pelides' javelin ftands;
Not to be pois'd but by Pelides' hands;
From Pelion's fhady brow the plant entire
Old Chiron rent, and fhap'd it for his fire; 195
Whofe fon's great arm alone the weapon wields,
The death of heroes, and the dread of fields.

1052

}

Who trufts his fame and honours in thy hand,
And from thy deeds expects, th' Achaian hoft 110
Shall render back the beauteous maid he lost.
Rage uncontrol'd through all the hoftile crew,
But touch not Hector, Hector is my due.
Though Jove in thunder fhould command the war;
Be jufl, confult my glory, and forbear: 115
The fleet once fav'd, defit from farther chase,
Nor lead to lion's walls the Grecian race;
Some adverfe God thy rafhnefs may deftroy;
Some God, like Phœbus, ever kind to Troy,
Let Greece,redeem'd from this deftru&tive strait, 120
Do her own work; and leave the reft to Fate.
Oh! would to all th' immortal Powers above,
Apollo, Pallas, and almighty Jove,
That not one Trojan might be left alive,
And not a Greek of all the race furvive;
Might only we the vast deftruction fhun,
And only we deftroy th' accurfed town!

179

Then brave Automedon (an honour'd name,
The fecond to his lord in love and fame,
In peace his friend, and partner of the war) 180
The winged courfers harness'd to the car;

Xanthus and Balius, of immortal breed,
Sprung from the wind, and like the wind in fpeed;
Whom the wing'd Harpy, fwift Podarge, bore,
By Zephyr pregnant on the breezy fhore:
Swift Pedafus was added to their fide

185

125 (Once great Aëtion's, now Achilles' pride)
Who, like in ftrength, in fwiftness, and in grace,
A mortal courfer, match'd th' immortal race.

Such conference held the chiefs; while on the ftrand

Great Jove with conqueft crown'd the

band.

Trojan

130

Ajax no more the founding ftorm fuftain'd,
So thick the darts an iron tempest rain'd:
On his tir'd arm the weighty buckler hung;
His hollow helm with falling javelins rung;
Ilis breath, in quick, fhort pantings, comes and
goes;

And painful fweat from all his members flows. 135
Spent and o'erpower'd, he barely breathes at
moft;

Yet fcarce an army firs him from his poft:
Dangers on dangers all around him grow,
And toil to toil, and woe fucceeds to woe.

Say, Mufes, thron'd above the starry frame, 140
How rat the navy blaz'd with Trojan flame?
Stern Hedor wav'd his fword: and ftanding

near

Where furious Ajax ply'd his afhen spear,
Full on the lance a stroke to justly sped,
That the broad faulchion lopp'd its brazen head: 145
His pointless fpear the warrior fhakes in vain ;
The brazen head falls founding on the plain.
Great Ajax faw, and own'd the hand divine,
Confelling Jove, and trembling at the sign;

Achilles fpeeds from tent to tent, and warms 199,
His hardy Myrmidons to blood and arms.
All breathing death, around their chief they stand,
A grim terrific formidable band:

Grim as ferocious wolves, that feek the fprings
When fcalding thirft their burning bowelswrings;195
When fome tall flag, fresh-flaughter'd in the wood,
Has drench'd their wide infatiate throats with
blood,

To the black fount they rufa, a hideous throng,
With paunch diftended, and with lolling tongue,
Fire fills their eye, their black jaws belch the gore, 200
And, gorg'd with flaughter, ftill they thirst for

220

Endorus next; whom Polymele the gay,
Fam'd in the graceful dance, produc'd to day.
Her, fly Cyllenius lov'd, on her would gaze,
As with fwift ftep fhe form'd the running maze:
To her high chamber, from Diana's quire,
The God purfued her, urg'd, and crown'd his fire.
The fon confefs'd his father's heavenly race,
And heir'd his mother's fwiftnefs in the chafe.
Strong Echecleus, bleft in all thofe charms
That pleas'd a God, fucceeded to her arms;
Not confcious of thofe loves, long hid from fame,
With gifts of price he fought and won the dame;
Her fecret offspring to her fire fhe bare;
Her fire carefs him with a parent's care.
Pifander follow'd; matchlefs in his art
To wing the fpear, or aim the diftant dart;
No hand fo fure of all th' Emathian line,
Or if a furer, great Patroclus! thine.

225

230

This ting'd with fulphur, facred first to flame,
He purg'd; and wafh'd it in the running ftream.
Then cleans'd his hands; and, fixing for a space 280
His eyes on heaven, his fect upon the place
Of facrifice, the purple draught he pour'd
Forth in the midft; and thus the God implor'd:
O thou Supreme! high-thron'd all height above!
Oh great Pelalgic, Dodonæan Jove!
285
Who 'midst farrounding frofts, and vapours chill,
Prefid'ft on bleak Dodona's vocal hill
(Whole groves, the Selli, race auftere! surround,
Their feet unwash'd, their flumbers on the ground;
Who hear, from ruftling rocks, thy dark de-
290
And catch the fates, low-whifper'd in the breeze;)
Hear, as of old! Thou gav't, at Thetis' prayer,
Glory to me, and to the Greeks defpair.

crees;

Lo, to the dangers of the fighting field

The best, the dearest of my friends, I yield; 295
Though ftill determin'd, to my fhips confin'd;

The fourth by Phoenix' grave command was Patroclus gone, 1 ftay but half behind.

Had call'd the chiefs, and order'd all the war,
This ftern remembrance to his troops he gave:
Ye far-fam'd Myrmidons, ye fierce and brave!
Think with what threats you dar'd the Trojan
throng,
240

Think what reproach these ears endur'd so long,
"Stern fon of Peleus! (thus ye us`d to say,

While, restless, raging, in your ships you lay)
'Oh, nurs'd with gall, unknowing how to yield; |
"Whose rage defrauds us of £o fam'd a field; 245
"If that dire fury must for ever burn,
"What make we here? Return, ye chiefs, re-
turn!"
[no more,
Such were your words--Now, warriors, grieve
Lo there the Trojans! bathe your fwords in gore!
This day fhall give you all your foul demands; 250
Glut all your hearts! and weary all your hands!
Thus while he rous'd the fire in every breast,
Clofe, and more clofe, the liftening cohorts preft;
Ranks wedg'd in ranks; of arms a steely ring
Still grows, and fpreads, and thickens round the
king.
255

As when a circling wall the builder forms,
Of ftrength defenfive against wind and storms,
Compacted ftones the thickening work compofe,
And round him wide the rifing ftructure grows:
So helm to helm, and creft to creft they throng, 260
Shield urg'd on shield, and man drove man along;
Thick, undiftinguish'd plumes, together join'd,
Float in one fea, and wave before the wind

Far o'er the reft, in glittering pomp appear,
There bold Automedon, Patroclus here;
Brothers in arms, with equal fury fir'd;

300

Oh! be his guard thy providential care,
Confirm his heart, and ftring his arm to war:
Prefs'd by his fingle force, let Hector fce
His fame in arms not owing all to me
But when the fleets are fav'd from foes and fire,
Let him with conqueft and renown retire;
Preferve his arms, preferve his focial train,
And fafe return him to thefe eyes again,

305

Great Jove confents to half the chief's requeft,
But heaven's eternal doom denies the reft;
To free the fleet, was granted to his prayer;
His fafe return, the winds difpere'd in air,
Back to his tent the stern Achilles flies,
And waits the combat with impatient eyes.

310

Mean while the troops beneath Patroclus' care
Invade the Trojans, and commence the war.
As wafps, provok'd by children in their play,
Pour from their mansions by the broad high way,
In fwarms the guiltlefs traveller engage,
316
Whet all their ftings, and call forth all their rage:
All rife in arms, and with a general cry
Affert their waxen domes, and buzzing progeny.
Thus from the tents the fervent legion fwarms, 320
So loud their clamour, and fo keen their arms;
Their rifing rage Patroclus' breath infpires,
Who thus inflames them with heroic fires:

Oh warriors, partners of Achilles' praise!
Be mindful of your deeds in ancient days: 325
Your godlike mafter let your acts proclaim,
And add new glories to his mighty name.
Think, your Achilles fees you fight: be brave,
And humble the proud monarch whom you fave.
Joyful they heard, and, kindling as he spoke,330
Flew to the fleet, involv'd in fire and fmoke.
From fhore to fhore the doubling fhouts refound,
The hollow fhips return a deeper found.
The war flood ftill, and all around them gaz'd,
When great Achilles' fhining armour blaz'd,
Troy faw, and thought the dread Achilles nigh;

There lay on heaps his various garments roll'd, 270 At once they fee, they tremble, and they fly.

335

265

Two friends, two bodies with one foul infpir'd.
But, mindful of the Gods, Achilles went

To the rich coffer in his fhady tent :

And coftly furs, and carpets ftiff with gold
(The prefents of the filver-footed dame).
From thence he took a bowl, of antique frame,
Which never man had ftain'd with ruddy wine,
Nor rais'd in offerings to the Powers divine,

grew.

275

Close to the stern of that fam'd fhip, which bore 340
Unbleft Protefilaus to Ilion's fhore,

But Peleus' fon; and Peleus' fon to none

The great Pæonian, bold Pyræchmes, sto›d
(Who led his bands from Axius' winding flood)

R

Had rais'd in offerings, but to Jove alone.
VOL. VI.

Then first thy fpear, divine Patroclus! flew, Where the war rag'd, and where, the tumult