Mars hovers o'er them with his fable fhield,
And adds new horrours to the darken'd field:
Pleas'd with his charge, and ardent to fulfil,
In Troy's defence, Apollo's heavenly will:
Soon as from fight the blue-ey'd Maid retires, 625
Each Trojan bofom with new warmth he fires.
And now the God, from forth his facred fane,
Produc'd Eneas to the shouting train:
Alive, unharm'd, with al his peers around,
Erect he flood, and vigorous from his wound: 630
Enquiries none they made; the dreadful day
No pause of words admits, no dull delay;
Fierce difcord forms, Apollo loud exclaims,
Fame calls, Mars thunders, and the field's in
flames,

635

640

Stern Diomed with either Ajax stood, And great Ulyffes, bath'd in hoftile blood. Embodied clofe, the labouring Grecian train The fierceft fhock of charging hoits fuftain. Unmov'd and filent, the whole war they wait, Serenely dreadful, and as fix'd as fate. So when th' embattled clouds in dark array, Along the fkies their gloomy lines difplay; When now the north his boisterous rage has spent, And peaceful fleeps the liquid element: The low-hung vapours motionless and ftill, Reft on the fummits of the shaded hill; Till the mafs fc. tters as the winds arife, Difpers'd and broken through the ruffled skies. Nor was the general wanting to his train, From troop to troop he toils through all the plain, 650

645

655

Ye Greeks, be men! the charge of battle bear;
Your brave affociates and yourselves revere
Let glorious acts more glorious acts infpire,
And catch from breaft to breaft the noble fire!
On valour's fide the odds of combat lie,
The brave live gloriou, or lamented die;
The wretch who trembles in the field of famne,
Meets death, and, worfe than death, eternal fhame.
These words he feconds with his flying lance,
To meet whofe point was ftrong Deicoon's chance,

Rufh fearless to the plains, and uncontroul'd
Depopulate the ftalls, and waite the fold;
Till pierc'd at diftance from their native den, 685.
O'erpower'd they fall beneath the force of men.
Proftrate on earth their beauteous bodies lay,
Like mountain firs, as tall and straight as they.
Great Menelans views with pitying eyes,
Lifts his bright lance, and at the victor flies; 690
Mars urg'd him on; yet, ruthlefs in his hate,
The God but urg'd him to provoke his fate.
He thus advancing, Neftor's valiant fon
Shakes for his danger, and neglects his own;
Struck with the thought, fhould Helen's lord be
flain,

And all his country's glorious labours vain,
Already met the threatening heroes ftand;
The fpears already tremble in their hand:
In rush'd Antilochus, his aid to bring,
And fall or conquer by the Spartan king,
These feen, the Dardan backward turn'd his
course,

700

705

710

Brave as he was, and fhun'd enequal force,
The breathless bodies to the Greeks they drew,
Then mix in combat, and their toils renew.
Firft Pylæmenes, great in battle, bled,
Who fheath'd in brafs the Paphlagonians led.
Atrides mark'd him where fublime he stood;
Fix'd in his throat, the javelin drank his blood.
The faithful Mydon, as he turn'd from fight
His flying courfers, funk to endless night:
A broken rock by Neftor's fon was thrown;
His bended arm receiv'd the falling ftone.
From his numb'd hands the ivory-ftudded reins,
Dropt in the dust, are trail'd along the plains:
Meanwhile his temples feel a deadly wound: 715
He groans in death, and ponderous finks to ground;
Deep drove his helmet in the fands, and there
The head ftood fix'd, the quivering legs in air,
Till trampled flat beneath the courfer's feet: 720
The youthful victor mounts his empty feat,
And bears the prize in triumph to the fleet.

725

Great Hector faw, then raging at the view, Pours on the Greeks; the Trojan troops purfue; He fires his hoft with animating cries, And brings along the furies of the skies. Mars, ftern deftroyer! and Bellona dread, Flame in the front, and thunder at their head: This fwells the tumult and the rage of fight; That thakes a spear that cafts a dreadful light, Where Hector march'd, the God of battles fhin'd, 730

Now ftorm'd before him, and now rag'd behind.
Tydides paus'd amidst his full career;
Then firft the hero's manly breaft knew fear.
As when fome fimple fwain his cot forfakes,
And wide through fens an unknown journey
takes;

If chance a fwelling brook his paffage stay,
And foam impervious cro's the wanderer's way,
Confus'd he ftops, a length of country past,
Eyes the rough waves, and, tir'd, returns at last.
Amaz'd no lefs the great Tvdides ftands:
740
He flay'd, and, turning, thus addrefs'd his bands:
No wonder, Greeks! that all to Hector yield,
Secure of favouring Gods, he takes the field:

His ftrokes they fecond, and avert our spears :
Behold where Mars in mortal arms appears! 745
Retire then, warriours, but fedate and flow;
Retire, but with your faces to the foe.
Truft not too much your unavailing might;
'Tis not with Troy, but with the Gods ye fight.
Now near the Greeks the black battalions
drew;

755

And first two leaders valiant Hector flew :
His force Anchialus and Mnefthes found,
In every art of glorious war renown'd;
In the fame car the chiefs to combat ride,
And fought united, and united died.
Struck at the fight, the mighty Ajax glows
With thirst of vengeance, and affaults the foes.
His maffy fpear with matchless fury fent,
Through Amphius' belt and heavy belly went :
Amphius Apæfus' happy foil poffefs'd,
With herds abounding, and with treasure bless'd;
But fate refiftlefs from his country led
The chief, to perish at his people's head.
Sbook with his fall, his brazen armour rung,
And fierce, to feize it, conquering Ajax fprung;

760

765

Around his head an iron tempest rain'd;
A wood of fpears his ample field fuftain'd;
Beneath one foot the yet-warm corpfe he preft,
And drew his javelin from the bleeding breast:
He could no more; the showering darts deny'd
770

To spoil his glittering arms and plumy pride.
Now foes on foes came pouring on the field,
With bristling lances, and compacted thields;
Till, in the fteely circle ftraiten'd round,
Forc'd he gives way, and fternly quits the ground.
While thus they ftrive, Tlepolemus the great,
Urg'd by the force of unrefifted fate,
Burns with defire Sarpedon's ftrength to prove ;
Alcides' offspring meets the fon of Jove.
Sheath'd in bright arms each adverfe chief came

on,

730

785

790

Jove's great defcendant, and his greater fon.
Prepar'd for combat ere the lance he tofs'd,
The daring Rhodian vents his haughty boast:
What brings this Lycian counsellor fo far,
To tremble at our arms, not mix in war?
Know thy vain felf; nor let their flattery move,
Who ftyle thee fon of cloud-compelling Jove.
How far unlike thofe chiefs of race divine,
How vaft the difference of their deeds and thine!
Jove got fuch heroes as my fire, whofe foul
No fear could daunt, nor earth nor hell controul.
Troy felt his arm, and yon proud ramparts stand
Rais'd on the ruins of his vengeful hand :
With fix fmall fhips, and but a flender train,
He left the town a wide-deserted plain. 795
But what art thou? who deedlefs look 'ft around,
While unreveng'd thy Lycians bite the ground:
Small aid to Troy thy feeble force can be ;
But, wert thou greater, thou must yield to me.
Pierc'd by my fpear, to endless darkness go! 800
I make this present to the fhades below,
The fon of Hercules, the Rhodian guide,
Thus haughty spoke. The Lycian king reply'd :

Thy fire, O prince! o'erturn'd the Trojan ftate,

Whofe perjur'd monarch well deferv'd his fate; 805

Thofe heavenly fteeds the h ro fought fo far,
Falfe he detain'd, the juft reward of war.
Nor fo content, the generous chief defy`d,
With bafe reproaches and unmanly pride.
But you, unworthy the high race you boast, 810
Shall raife my glory when thy own is loft:
Now meet thy fate, and, by Sarpedon flain,
Add one more ghoft to Pluto's gloomy reign.
He faid: both javelins at an inftant flew ;
Both ftruck, both wounded; but Sarpedon's
815

flew:

Full in the boaster's neck the weapon food.
Transfix'd his throat, and drank the vital blood;
The foul difdainful feeks the caves of night,
And his feal'd eyes for ever lofe the light.

Yet not in vain, Tlepolemus, was thrown 820
Thy angry lance; which, piercing to the bone
Sarpedon's thigh, had robb'd the chief of breath;
But Jove was prefent, and forbade the d ath.
Born from the conflict by the Lycian throng,
The wounded hero dragg'd the lance along. 825
(His friends, each bufied in his feveral part,
Through hafte, or danger, had not drawn the
dart.)

The Greeks with flain Tlepolemus retir'd ;
Whofe fall Ulyffes view'd, with fury fir'd;
Doubtful if Jove's great fon he should pursue, 830
Or pour his vengeance on the Lycian crew.
But Heaven and Fate the first design withstand,
Nor this great death muft grace Ulyffes' hand.
Minerva drives him on the Lycian train;
Alaftor, Cromius, Helius, ftrow'd the plain, 835
Alcander, Prytanis, Noëmon fell:
And numbers more his fword had fent to hell,
But Hector faw; and, furious at the fight,
Rufh'd terrible amidst the ranks of fight.
With joy Sarpedon view'd the with'd relief, 840
And, faint, lamenting, thus implor'd the chief:
Oh fuffer not the foe to bear away
My helpless corpfe, an unaffisted prey;
If I, unbleft, muft fee my fon no more,
My much-lov'd confort, and my native fhore,
845

Yet let me die in Ilion's facred wall;
Troy, in whose cause I fell, shall mourn my fall.
He faid, nor Hector to the chief replies,
But shakes his plume, and fierce to combat flies;
Swift as a whirlwind, drives the fcattering foes;

And dyes the ground with purple as he goes.

850

A fringe of ferpents hifling guards the gold:
Here all the terrours of grim War appear,
Here rages Force, here tremble Flight and Fear,
915
Here ftorm'd Contention, and here Fury frown'd,
And the dire orb portentous Gorgon crown'd.
The maffy golden helm the next affumes,
That dreadful nods, with four o'erihading plumes;
So vaft, the broad circumference contains
A hundred armies on a hundred plains.
The Goddess thus th' imperial car afcends;
Shook by her arm the mighty javelin bends,
Ponderous and huge; that, when her fury burns,
Proud tyrants humbles, and whole hofts o'erturns.

920

925

Swift at the fcourge th' ethereal courfers fly, While the fmooth chariot cuts the liquid fky. Heaven's gates fpontaneous open to the powers; Heaven's golden gates, kept by the winged hours; Commiffion'd in alternate watch they ftand, 930 The fun's bright portals and the fkies command, Involve in clouds th' eternal gates of day, Or the dark barrier roll with ease away. The founding hinges ring; on either fide The gloomy volumes, pierc'd with light, divide. 935 The chariot mounts, where deep in ambient skies Confus'd, Olympus' hundred heads arife: Where far apart the Thunderer fills his throne; O'er all the Gods fuperiour and alone. There with her fnowy hand the Queen restrains 940

The fiery fteeds, and thus to Jove complains:

O Sire! can no refentment touch thy foul? Can Mars rebel, and does no thunder roll? What lawless rage on yon forbidden plain, What rafh deftruction! and what heroes flain!

950

And drive from fight th' impetuous homicide?
To whom affenting, thus the Thunderer said:
Go! and the great Minerva be thy aid.
To tame the monster-god Minerva knows,
And oft afflicts his brutal breaft with woes. 955
He faid; Saturnia, ardent to obey,
Lafh'd her white steeds along th' aerial way.
Swift down the steep' of heaven the chariot rolls,
Between th' expanded earth and starry poles.
Far as a shepherd, from fome point on high, 960
O'er the wide main extends his boundless eye;
Through fuch a space of air, with thundering
found,

At every leap th' immortal courfers bound: Troy now they reach'd, and touch'd thofe banks divine

*965

Where filver Simoïs and Scamander join.
There Juno ftopp'd, (and her fair feeds unloos'd)
Of air condens'd a vapour circumfus'd:
For thefe, impregnate with celeftial dew,
On Simois' brink ambrofial herbage grew.

Thence to relieve the fainting Argive throng,

970

Smooth as the failing doves, they glide along.
The best and braveft of the Grecian band
(A warlike circle) round Tydides stand:
Such was their look as lions bath'd in blood,
Or foaming boars, the terrour of the wood. 975
Heaven's emprefs mingles with their mortal
crowd,

And fhouts, in Stentor's founding voice, aloud:
Stentor the strong, endued with brazen lungs,
Whofe throat furpafs'd the force of fifty tongues.
Inglorious Argives! to your race a fhame, 980
And only men in figure and in name!
Once from the walls your timorous foes engag'd,
While fierce in war divine Achilles rag'd;
Now iffuing fearless they poffefs the plain,
Now win che fhores, and scarce the feas remain.
985

990

995

Her fpeech new fury to their hearts convey'd ; While near Tydides flood th' Athenian maid; The king befide his panting steeds the found, O'erfpent with toil, repofing on the ground: To cool his glowing wound he fat apart (The wound inflicted by the Lycian dart); Large drops of fwea from all his limbs defcend; Beneath his ponderous fhield his finews bend, Whofe ample belt, that o'er his fhoulders lay, He eas'd, and wath'd the clotted gore away. The Goddef's leaning o'er the bending yoke, Befide his courfers, thus her filence broke: Degenerate prince! and not of Tydeus' kind, Whofe little body lodg'd a mighty mind; Foremost he prefs'd in glorious toils to fhare, 1000 And scarce refrain'd when I forbade the war. Alone, unguarded, once he dar'd to go And feaft, encircled by the Theban foe; There brav'd, and vanquifh'd, many a hardy knight;

Such nerves I gave him, and fuch force in fight. 1005

Thou too no lefs haft been my conftant care;
Thy hands I arm'd, and fent thee forth to war:
But thee or fear deters, or floth detains ;
No drop of all thy father warms thy veins.

The chief thus anfwer'd mild: Immortal maid! I own thy prefence, and confefs thy aid.

Not fear, thou know'ft, withholds me from the plains,

Nor floth hath feiz'd me, but thy word restrains: From warring Gods thou bad'ft me turn my fpear,

1015

And Venus only found refiftance here.
Hence, Goddefs! heedful of thy high commands,
Loth I gave way, and warn'd our Argive bands:
For Mars, the homicide, thefe eyes beheld,
With flaughter red, and raging round the field.
Then thus Minerva. Brave Tydides, hear!

1020

Large promife makes, and breaks the promise made;

Now gives the Grecians, now the Trojans aid.
She faid, and to the feeds approaching near,
Drew from his feat the martial charioteer,
The vigorous power the trembling car afcends,
1030

་

Fierce for revenge, and Diomed attends.
The groaning axle bent beneath the load;
So great a Hero, and fo great a God.
She fnatch'd the reins, fhe lafh'd with all her
force,

And full on Mars impell'd the foaming horfe: 1035
But first to hide her heavenly visage spread
Black Orcus' helmet o'er her radiant head.

Just then gigantic Periphas lay flain,
The ftrongest warrior of th' Ætolian train;
The God, who flew him, leaves his proftrate
prize

Stretch'd where he fell, and at Tydides flies.
Now, rufhing fierce, in equal arms appear,
The daring Greek; the dreadful God of war!
Full at the chief, above his courfer's head,
From Mars's arm th' enormous weapon fled : 1045
Pallas oppos'd her hand, and caus'd to glance,
Far from the car, the strong immortal lance.
Then threw the force of Tydeus' warlike fon;
The javelin hifs'd; the Goddess urg'd it on:
Where the broad cincture girt his armour round,

1050 It pierc'd the God: his groin receiv'd the wound. From the rent fkin the warriour tugs again The fmoaking fteel. Mars bellows with the pain: Loud as the roar encountering armies yield, When shouting millions fhake the thundering field.

Both armies start, and trembling gaze around;
And earth and heaven rebellow to the found.
As vapours blown by Aufter's fultry breath,
Pregnant with plagues, and fhedding feeds of
death,

1060

Beneath the rage of burning Sirius rife,
Choke the parch'd earth, and blacken all the

fkies;

In fuch a cloud the God from combat driven,
High o'er the dufty whirlwind fcales the heaven.
Wild with his pain, he fought the bright abodes,
There fullen fate beneath the Sire of Gods,
Show'd the celeftial blood, and with a groan
Thus pour'd his plaints before th' immortal

throne :

1065

1070

Can Jove, fupine, flagitious facts furvey, And brook the furies of this daring day? For mortal men celeftial powers engage, And Gods on Gods exert eternal rage. From thee, O father! all these ills we bear, And thy fell daughter with the fhield and fpear: Thou gav'ft that fury to the realms of light, Pernicious, wild, regardless of the right. All heaven befide reveres thy fovereign fway, Thy voice we hear, and thy behests obey: 'Tis hers t' offend, and ev'n offending share Thy breaft, thy counfels, thy diftinguifh'd care : So boundless the, and thou fo partial grown, 1080 Well may we deem the wonderous birth thy own.