185

Each due atonement gladly I prepare;
And Heaven regard me as I justly swear!
Here then a while let Greece affembled stay,
Nor great Achilles grudge this fhort delay:
Till from the fleet our prefents be convey'd,
And, Jove attesting, the firm compact made. 190
A train of noble youths the charge shall bear ;
Thefe to felect, Ulyffes, be thy care :
In order rank'd let all our gifts appear,
And the fair train of captives close the rear :
Talthybius fhall the victim boar convey,
Sacred to Jove, and yon bright orb of day.
For this (the ftern acides replies)
Some lefs important season may fuffice,
When the stern fury of the war is o'er,
And wrath extinguifh'd burns my breast no more.
By Hector flain, their faces to the sky,
All grim with gaping wounds our heroes lie:
Thofe call to war! and, might my voice incite,
Now, now,
this inftant fhould commence the

195

201

fight: Then, when the day's complete, let generous bowls,

205

210

And copious banquets, glad your weary fouls.
Let not my palate know the taste of food,
Till my infatiate rage be cloy'd with blood :
Pale lies my friend with wounds disfigur'd o'er,
And his cold feet are pointed to the door.
Revenge is all my foul! no meaner care,
Intereft, or thought, has room to harbour there;
Deftruction be my feast, and mortal wounds,
And scenes of blood, and agonizing founds.
O firft of Greeks (Ulyffes thus rejoin'd)
The beft and braveft of the warrior-kind!
Thy praise it is in dreadful camps to shine,
But old experience and calm wifdom, mine.
Then hear my counfel, and to reafon yield,
The braveft foon are fatiate of the field;'
Though vaft the heaps that ftrow the crimion
plain,

215

220

225

The bloody harvest brings but little gain:
The fcale of conqueft ever wavering lies,
Great Jove but turns it, and the victor dies!
The great, the bold, by thousands daily fall,
And endless were the grief, to weep for all.
Ecernal forrows what avails to fhed?
Greece honours not with folemn fafts the dead:
Enough, when death demands the brave, to pay
'The tribute of a melancholy day.

230

236

A row of fix fair tripods then fucceeds:
And twice the number of high-bounding feeds:
Seven captives next a lovely line compofe;
The eighth Brifeis, like the blooming rofe,
Clos'd the bright band: great Ithacus, before, 255
First of the train, the golden talents bore:
The reft in public view the chiefs difpofe,
A fplendid fcene 1 the Agamemnon rofe:
The boar Talthybius held: the Grecian lord
Drew the broad cutlafs, fheath'd befide his sword
The ftubborn bristles from the victim's brow 261
He crops, and offering meditates his vow.
His hands uplifted to th' attefting fkies,
On heaven's broad marble roof were fix'd his eyes;
The folemn words a deep attention drew, 265
And Greece around fat thrill'd with sacred awe.
Witness, thou firft! thou greatest Power above!
All-good, all-wife, and all-furviving Jove!
And Mother-carth, and Heaven's revolving
light,

270

And ye, fell Furies of the realms of night,
Who rule the dead, and horrid woes prepare
For perjur'd kings, and all who falfely fwear!
The black-ey'd maid inviolate removes,
Pure and unconscious of my manly loves.
If this be falfe, Heaven all its vengeance fhed,
And level'd thunder ftrike my guilty head! 276
With that, his weapon deep inflicts the wound;
The bleeding favage tumbles to the ground;
The facred herald rolls the victim flain
(A feast for fifh) into the foaming main.

280

Thenthus Achilles: Hear, ye Greeks! and know
Whate'er we feel, 'tis Jove inflicts the woe:
Not elle Atrides could our rage inflame,

Nor from my arms, unwilling, force the dame.
'Twas Jove's high will alone, o'erruling all, 285
That doom'd our frife, and doom'd the Greeks
to fall..

Go then, ye chiefs! indulge the genial rite!
Achilles waits you, and expects the fight.

he fpeedy council at his word adjourn' d:
To their black veffels all the Greeks return'd. 290
Achilles fought his tent. His train before
March'd onward, bending with the gifts they
bore.

Thofe in the tents the 'fquires industrious spread:
The foaming courfers to the ftalls they led;
To their new feats the female captives move: 295
Brifeïs, radiant as the Queen of Love,
Slow as the past, beheld with fad furvey,
Where, gafh'd with cruel wounds, Patroclus lay.
Prone on the body fell the heavenly fair,
Beat her fad breaft, and tore her golden hair; 300
All beautiful in grief her humid eyes
Shining with tears the lifts, and thus fhe cries:
Ah, youth for ever dear, for ever kind,
Once tender friend of my diftracted mind!
Heft thee fresh in life, in beauty gay!
Now find thee cold, inanimated clay!
What woes my wretched race of life attend!
Sorrows on forrows, never doom'd to end!
The first lov'd confort of my virgin-bed
Before these eyes in fatal battle bled!
245 My three brave brothers in one mournful day,
All trod the dark irremeable way:
Thy friendly hand uprear'd me from the plain,
And dry'd my forrows for a husband flain;
Achilles' care you promis'd I fhould prove,
The first, the deareft partner of his love;

240

One chief with patience to the grave refign'd,
Our care devolves on others left behind.
Let generous food supplies of strength produce,
Let rifing fpirits flow from fprightly juice,
Let their warm heads with fcenes of battle glow,
And pour new furies on the feebler foe.
Yet a fhort interval, and none fhall dare
Expect a fecond fummons to the war ;
Who waits for that, the dire effect shall find,
If trembling in the fhips he lags behind.
Embodied, to the battle let us bend,
And all at once on haughty Troy defcend.
And now the delegates Ulyffes fent,
To bear the prefents from the royal tent.
The fons of Neftor, Phyleus' valiant heir,
Thias and Merion, thunderbolts of war,
With Lycomedes of Creontian strain,
And Melanippus, form'd the chofen train.
Swift as the word was given, the youths obey'd;
vice ten bright vafes in the mid they laid; 250

305

310

315

That rites divine should ratify the band,
And make me emprefs in his native land,
Accept these grateful tears! for thee they flow,
For thee, that ever felt another's woe!

320

325

Her fifter captives echoed groan for groan,
Nor mourn'd Patroclus fortunes, but their own;
The leaders prefs'd their chief on every fide;
Unmoy'd, he heard them, and with fighs deny'd:
If yet Achilles have a friend, whofe care
Is bent to please him, this request forbear:
Till yonder fun defcend, ah let me pay
To grief and anguish one abstemious day.
He fpoke, and from the warriors turn'd his face:
Yet ftill the brother-kings of Atreus' race,
Neftor, Idomeneus, Ulyffes fage,

330

So helms fucceeding helms, fo shields from shields
Catch the quick beams,and brighten all the fields; 385
Broad-glittering breaft-plates, fpears with pointed

rays,

Mix in one stream, reflecting blaze on blazé;
Thick beats the centre as the courfers bound,
With fplendour flame the skies, and laugh the
fields around.

Full in the midft, high-towering o'er the reft, 390
His limbs in arms divine Achilles dreft;
Arms, which the Father of the Fire bestow'd,
Forg'd on th' eternal anvils of the God.
Grief and revenge his furious heart infpire;
His glowing eye-balls roll with living fire;
He grinds his teeth; and, furious with delay,
O'erlooks th' embattled hoft, and hopes the bloody
day.

395

400

The filver cuifhes firft his thighs infold:
Then o'er his breaft was brac'd the hollow gold:
The brazen fword a various baldrick ty'd,
That, ftarr'd with gems, hung glittering at his fide;
And, like the moon, the broad refulgent fhield
Blaz'd with long rays, and gleam'd athwart the
field.

So to night-wandering failors, pale with fears,
Wide o'er the watery wafte, a light appears, 405
Which, on the far-feen mountain blazing high,
Streams from fome lonely watch-tower to the fky;
345 With mournful eyes they gaze, and gaze again;
Loud howls the ftorm, and drives them o'er the

And Phoenix, ftrive to calm his grief and rage:
His rage they calm not, nor his grief control;
He groans, he raves, he forrows from his foul.
Thou too, Patroclus! (thus his heart he vents) 335
Once fpread th' inviting banquet in our tents;
Thy fweet fociety, thy winning care,
Once ftaid Achilles, rufhing to the war.
But now, alas! to death's cold arms refign'd,
What banquets but revenge can glad my mind? 340
What greater forrow could afflict my breaft,
What more, if hoary Peleus were deceas'd?
Who now, perhaps, in Phthia dreads to hear
His fon's fad fate, and drops a tender tear.
What more, should Neoptolemus the brave
(My only offspring) fink into the grave?
If yet that offspring lives (I diftant far,
Of all neglectful, wage a hateful war).
I could not this, this cruel ftroke attend;
Fate claim'dAchilles, but might spare his friend.350
I hop'd Patroclus might furvive, to rear
My tender orphan with a parent's care.
From Scyros ille conduct him o'er the main,
And glad his eyes with his paternal reign,
The lofty palace, and the large domain;
For Peleus breathes ao more the vital air,
Or drags a wretched life of age and care,
But till the news of my fad fate invades
His haftening foul, and finks him to the shades.
Sighing he faid. His grief the heroes join'd; 360
Each fole a tear for what he left behind.
Their mingled grief the Sire of Heaven farvey'd;
And thus, with pity, to his blue-ey'd Maid:
Is then Achilles now no more thy care,
And dost thou thus defert the great in war
Lo, where yon fails their canvas wings extend,
All comfortless he fits, and wails his friend :
Ere thirst and want his forces have oppreft,
Hatte, and infufe ambrofia in his breast.

355

365

From Pelion's cloudy top an afh entire

Old Chiron fell'd, and fhap'd it for his fire;
A fpear which stern Achilles only wields,
The death of heroes, and the dread of fields. 425
Automedon and Alcimus prepare

Th' immortal courfers and the radiant car
(The filver traces fweeping at their fide);
Their fiery mouths refplendent bridles ty'd,

He spoke and fudden, at the word of Jove, 370 The ivory-ftudded reins, return'd behind, Shot the defcending Goddefs from above.

435

430

375

Wav'd o'er their backs, and to the chariot join'd.
The charioteer then whirl'd the lafh around,
And swift afcended at one active bound.
All bright in heavenly arms, above his squire
Achilles mounts, and fets the field on fire;
Not brighter Phoebus, in th' etherial way,
Flames from his chariot, and restores the day
High o'er the host all terrible he itands,
And thunders to his fteeds these dread commands:
Xanthus and Balius! of Podarges' train
(Unless ye boat that heavenly race in v.in)
Be fwitt, be mindful of the load ye bear,
And learn to make your maller more your care,

449

So fwift through æther the fhrill Harpy fprings,
The wide air floating to her ample wings.
To great Achilles fhe her flight addreft,
And pour'd divine ambrofia in his breast,
With nectar fweet (refection of the Gods!)
Then, fwift afcending, fought the bright abodes.
Now iffued from the fhips, the warrior-train,
And, like a deluge, pour'd upon the plain.
As when the piercing blafts of Boreas blow,
And fcatter o'er the fields the driving fnow;
From dusky clouds the fleecy winter flies,
Whofe dazzling lure whitens all the fils :

320

Through falling fquadrons bear my flaughtering | The bright far-fhooting God who gilds the day

Nor, as ye left Patroclus, leave your lord. [fword,
The generous Xanthus, as the words he faid, 451
Seem'd fenfible of woe, and dropp'd his head!
Trembling he stood before the golden wain,
And bow'd to duft the honour's of his mane,
When,ftrange to tell! (fo Juno will'd) he broke 455
Eternal filence, and portentous spoke.
Achilles! yes! this day at least we bear
Thy rage in fafety through the files of war:
But come it will, the fatal time must come,
Nor our's the fault, but God decrees thy doom. 460
Not through our crime, or flownefs in the
Fell thy Patroclus, but by heavenly force;

(Confeft we faw him) tore his arms away.
No-could our fwiftnefs o'er the winds prevail, 465
Or beat the pinions of the western gale,

All were in vain-the Fates thy death demand,
Due to a mortal and immortal hand.

Then ceas'd for ever, by the Furies ty'd,
His fateful voice. Th' intrepid chief reply'd, 470-
With unabated rage-So let it be !
Portents and prodigies are loft on me.

I know my fate, to die, to fee no more
My much-lov'd parents, and my native shore-
courfe,Enough-when Heaven ordains, I fink in night; 475
Now perish Troy he said, and rush'd to fight.

BOOK XX.

THE ARGUMENT.

The Battle of the Gods, and the Acts of Achilles.

Jupiter, upon Achilles's return to the battle, calls a council of the Gods, and permits them to affift either party.
The terrors of the battle defcribed, then the Deities are engaged. Abollo encourages Aneas to meet
Achilles. After a long converfation, these trup beroes encounter : but Æneas is preferved by the affiftance
of Neptune. Achilles falls upon the rest of the Trojans, and is upon the point of killing Hector, but
Apollo conveys him away in a cloud. Achilles purfues the Trojans with great flaughter.
The fame day continues. The feene is in the field before Troy.

Troy's black battalions wake the fhock of fight.
Then Jove to Themis gives command, to call
The Gods to council in the ftarry hall:
Swift o'er Olympus' hundred hills the flies,
And fummons all the fenate of the skies.
Thefe fhining on, in long proceflion come
To Jove's eternal adamantine dome.
Not one was abfent, not a rural Power,
That haunts the verdant gloom, or rofy bower;
Each fair-hair'd Dryad of the fhady wood,
Each azure Sifter of the filver flood;
All but old Ocean, hoary Sire! who keeps
His ancient feat beneath the facred deeps.
On marble thrones with lucid columns crown'd
(The work of Vulcan fat the Powers around.
Ev'n he whole trident fways the watery reign,
Heard the loud fummons, and forfook the main, 20
Affum'd his throne amid the bright abodes,
And queftion'd thus the Sire of men and Gods:
What moves the God who heaven and earth
commands,

rage:

50

On adverfe parts the warring gods engage. [45
Heaven's awful Queen; and he whofe azure round
15 Girds the vaft globe; the Maid in arms renown'd;
Hermes, of profitable arts the fire;
And Vulcan, the black fovereign of the fire!
Thefe to the fleet repair with inftant flight;
The veffels tremble as the Gods alight,
In aid of Troy, Latona, Phœbus, came,
Mars fiery-helm'd, the laughter loving Dame,
Xanthus, whofe ftreams in golden currents flow,
And the chafte Huntress of the filver bow.
Ere yet the Gods their various aid employ,
Each Argive bofom fwell'd with manly joy,
While great Achilles, (terror of the plain)'
Long loft to battle, fhone in arms again.
Dreadful he flood in front of all his hoft;
Pale Troy beheld, and feem'd already loft; 60
1er braveft heroes pant with inward fear,
And trembling fte another God of War.

25

And graips the thunder in his awful hands,
Thus to convene the whole æthereal ftate?
Is Greece and Troy the fubject in debate?
Already met, the lowering hofts appear,
And death ftands ardent on the edge of war.
'Tis true (the Cloud-compelling Power replies)
This day, we call the council of the fkies 30
Neptune.

#

55

But when the Powers defcending fwell'd the fight,

70

75

Then tumult rofe; fierce rage and pale affright
Varied each face; then Discord founds alarms, 65
Earth echoes, and the nations rufh to arms.
Now through the trembling fhores Minerva calls,
And now the thunders from the Grecian walls.
Mars, hovering o'er his Troy, his terrors fhrouds
In gloomy tempefts, and a night of clouds:
Now through each Trojan heart he fury pours
With voice divine, from Ilion's topmost towers;
Now fhouts to Simoïs from her beauteous hill;
The mountain fhook, the rapid ftreams flood flill.
Above, the Sire of Gods his thunder rolls,
And peals on peals redoubled rend the poles.
Beneath, ftern Neptune fhakes the folid ground;
The forefts wave, the mountains nod around;
Through all their fummits tremble Ida's woods,
And from their fources boil her hundred floods, 80
Troy's turrets totter on the rocking plain;
And the tofs'd navies beat the heaving main.
Deep in the difmal regions of the dead,
Th' infernal monarch rear'd his hoary head, [85
Leap'd from his throne, left Neptune's arm fhould
His dark dominions open to the day,
And pour in light on Pluto's drear abodes,
Abhorr'd by men, and dreadful ev'n to Gods.
Such war th' immortals wage: fuch horrors
rend
[tend. 90
The world's vaft concave, when the Gods con-
First filver-shafted Phoebus took the plain
Against blue Neptune, monarch of the main:
The God of Arms his giant bulk difplay'd,
Oppos'd to Pallas, War's triumphant Maid.
Againft Latona march'd the Son of May;
The quiver'd Dian, fifter of the Day
Her golden arrows founding at her fide)
Saturnia, Majefty of Heaven, defy'd.
With fiery Vulcan laft in battle ftands
The facred flood that rolls on golden fands;
Xanthus his name with thofe of heavenly birth,
But call'd Scamander by the fons of earth.

[lay

95

100

While thus the Gods in various league engage,
Achilles glow'd with more than mortal rage:
Hector he fought; in fearch of Hector turn'd 105
eyes around, for Hector only burn'd;
And burft like lightning through the ranks, and

His

vow'd

110

To glut the God of Battles with his blood.
Eneas was the first who dar'd to stay;
Apollo wedg'd him in the warrior's way;
But fwell d his befom with undaunted might,
Half-forc'd, and half-perfuaded, to the fight.
Like young Lycaon, of the royal line,
In voice and afpect, feem'd the Power divine;
And bade the chief reflect, how late with fcorn 115
In diftant threats he brav'd the God iefs-born,
Then thus the hero of Anchifes' strain;
To meet Pelides, you perfuade in vain:
Already have I met, nor void of fear
Obferv'd the fury of his flying fpear;
From Ida's woods he chas'd us to the field,
Our force he fcatter'd, and our herds he kill'd;
Lyrneffus, Pedafus, in ashes lay,
But (Jove affifting) 1 furviv'd the day;
Elfe had I funk, oppreft in fatal fight
By fierce Achilles and Minerva's might.

VOL. VI.

150

This faid, and fpirit breath'd into his breast,
Through the thick troops th' embolden'd hero
preft:
[vey'd,
His venturous act the white-arm'd Queen fur-
And thus, affembling all the Powers, the faid: 145
Behold an action, Gods! that claim your care;
Lo great Æneas rufhing to the war;
Against Pelides he directs his course,
Phœbus impels, and Phoebus gives him force.
Restrain his bold career; at least, t'attend
Our favour'd hero, let fome Power defcend,
To guard his life, and add to his renown,
We, the great armament of heaven, came down.
Hereafter let him fall, as Fates defigu,
That fpun fo fhort his life's illuftrious line:
But, let fome adverfe God now crofs his way,
Give him to know what Powers affift this day:
For how fhall mortal ftand the dire alarms,
When heaven's refulgent hoft appear in arms?

155

Thus fhe; and thus the God whofe force can make

160

165

170

The folid globe's eternal bafis shake:
Against the might of man, fo feeble known,
Why should celeftial Powers exert their own?
Snffice, from yonder mount to view the fcene,
And leave to war the fates of mortal men.
But if th' Armipotent, or God of light.
Obftruct Achilles, or commence the fight,
Thence on the Gods of Troy we iwift defcend:
Full foon, I doubt not, fhall the conflict end;
And thefe in ruin and confufion hurl'd,
Yield to our conquering arm, the lower world,
Thus having faid, the Tyrant of the sea,
Cerulean Neptune, rofe, and led the way.
Advanc'd upon the field there ftood a mound [175
Of earth congefted, wall'd, and trench'd around;
In elder times to guard Alcides made
(The work of Trojans, with Minerva's aid)
What-time a vengeful monster of the main
Swept the wide fhore, and drove him to the plain.

Here Neptune and the Godsof Greece repair,180
With clouds encompafs'd, and a veil of air:
The adverfe powers, around Apollo laid,
120 Crown the fair hills that filver Simois fhade.
In circle clofe each heavenly party fate;
Intent to form the future fcheme of Fate;
But mix not yet in fight, though Jove on high
Gives the loud fignal, and the heavens reply.
Mean while the rufhing armies hide the ground;
The trampled centre yields a hollow found:

125

U

185

Steeds cas'd in mail, and chiefs in armour bright, 190 | Dardania's walls he rais'd; for Ilion then

(The city fince of many-languag'd men)
Was not. The natives were content to till
The fha dy foot of Ida's fountful hill.
From Dardanus, great Erichthonius fprings, 26
The richest, once, of Afia's wealthy kings;
Three thousand mares his fpacious paitures bred,
Three thoufand foals befide their mothers fed.
Boreas, enamour'd of the sprightly train,
Conceal'd his godhead in a flowing mane,
With voice dilembled to his loves he neigh'd,
And cours'd the dappled beauties o'er the mead:
Hence fprung twelve others of unrival'd kind,
Swift as their mother mares, and father wind.
Thefe, lightly kimming when they swept the
plain,
270
Nor ply'd the grafs, nor bent the tender grain,
And when along the level feas they flew,
Scarce on the furface curl'd the briny dew;
Such Erichthonius was; from him there came
The facred Tros, of whom the Trojan name. 275
Three fons renown'd adorn'd his nuptial bed,
Ilus, Affaracus, and Ganymed:

The matchlefs Ganymed, divinely fair,