Alone, unguarded, once he dared to go, And feast, incircled by the Theban foe; There braved, and vanquish"d, many a hardy knight; Such nerves I gave him, and such force in fight.
Thou too no less hast been my constant care; Thy hands I arm"d, and sent thee forth to war: But thee or fear deters, or sloth detains; No drop of all thy father warms thy veins."
The chief thus answered mild: "Immortal maid!
I own thy presence, and confess thy aid.
Not fear, thou know"st, withholds me from the plains, Nor sloth hath seized me, but thy word restrains: From warring G.o.ds thou bad"st me turn my spear, And Venus only found resistance here.
Hence, G.o.ddess! heedful of thy high commands, Loth I gave way, and warn"d our Argive bands: For Mars, the homicide, these eyes beheld, With slaughter red, and raging round the field."
Then thus Minerva:--"Brave Tydides, hear!
Not Mars himself, nor aught immortal, fear.
Full on the G.o.d impel thy foaming horse: Pallas commands, and Pallas lends thee force.
Rash, furious, blind, from these to those he flies, And every side of wavering combat tries; Large promise makes, and breaks the promise made: Now gives the Grecians, now the Trojans aid."(159)
She said, and to the steeds approaching near, Drew from his seat the martial charioteer.
The vigorous power the trembling car ascends, Fierce for revenge; and Diomed attends: The groaning axle bent beneath the load; So great a hero, and so great a G.o.d.
She s.n.a.t.c.h"d the reins, she lash"d with all her force, And full on Mars impelled the foaming horse: But first, to hide her heavenly visage, spread Black Orcus" helmet o"er her radiant head.
[Ill.u.s.tration: DIOMED CASTING HIS SPEAR AT MARS.]
DIOMED CASTING HIS SPEAR AT MARS.
Just then gigantic Periphas lay slain, The strongest warrior of the aetolian train; The G.o.d, who slew him, leaves his prostrate prize Stretch"d where he fell, and at Tydides flies.
Now rushing fierce, in equal arms appear The daring Greek, the dreadful G.o.d of war!
Full at the chief, above his courser"s head, From Mars"s arm the enormous weapon fled: Pallas opposed her hand, and caused to glance Far from the car the strong immortal lance.
Then threw the force of Tydeus" warlike son; The javelin hiss"d; the G.o.ddess urged it on: Where the broad cincture girt his armour round, It pierced the G.o.d: his groin received the wound.
From the rent skin the warrior tugs again The smoking steel. Mars bellows with the pain: Loud as the roar encountering armies yield, When shouting millions shake the thundering field.
Both armies start, and trembling gaze around; And earth and heaven re-bellow to the sound.
As vapours blown by Auster"s sultry breath, Pregnant with plagues, and shedding seeds of death, Beneath the rage of burning Sirius rise, Choke the parch"d earth, and blacken all the skies; In such a cloud the G.o.d from combat driven, High o"er the dusky whirlwind scales the heaven.
Wild with his pain, he sought the bright abodes, There sullen sat beneath the sire of G.o.ds, Show"d the celestial blood, and with a groan Thus pour"d his plaints before the immortal throne:
"Can Jove, supine, flagitious facts survey, And brook the furies of this daring day?
For mortal men celestial powers engage, And G.o.ds on G.o.ds exert eternal rage: From thee, O father! all these ills we bear, And thy fell daughter with the shield and spear; Thou gavest that fury to the realms of light, Pernicious, wild, regardless of the right.
All heaven beside reveres thy sovereign sway, Thy voice we hear, and thy behests obey: "Tis hers to offend, and even offending share Thy breast, thy counsels, thy distinguish"d care: So boundless she, and thou so partial grown, Well may we deem the wondrous birth thy own.
Now frantic Diomed, at her command, Against the immortals lifts his raging hand: The heavenly Venus first his fury found, Me next encountering, me he dared to wound; Vanquish"d I fled; even I, the G.o.d of fight, From mortal madness scarce was saved by flight.
Else hadst thou seen me sink on yonder plain, Heap"d round, and heaving under loads of slain!
Or pierced with Grecian darts, for ages lie, Condemn"d to pain, though fated not to die."
Him thus upbraiding, with a wrathful look The lord of thunders view"d, and stern bespoke: "To me, perfidious! this lamenting strain?
Of lawless force shall lawless Mars complain?
Of all the G.o.ds who tread the spangled skies, Thou most unjust, most odious in our eyes!
Inhuman discord is thy dire delight, The waste of slaughter, and the rage of fight.
No bounds, no law, thy fiery temper quells, And all thy mother in thy soul rebels.
In vain our threats, in vain our power we use; She gives the example, and her son pursues.
Yet long the inflicted pangs thou shall not mourn, Sprung since thou art from Jove, and heavenly-born.
Else, singed with lightning, hadst thou hence been thrown, Where chain"d on burning rocks the t.i.tans groan."
Thus he who shakes Olympus with his nod; Then gave to Paeon"s care the bleeding G.o.d.(160) With gentle hand the balm he pour"d around, And heal"d the immortal flesh, and closed the wound.
As when the fig"s press"d juice, infused in cream, To curds coagulates the liquid stream, Sudden the fluids fix the parts combined; Such, and so soon, the ethereal texture join"d.
Cleansed from the dust and gore, fair Hebe dress"d His mighty limbs in an immortal vest.
Glorious he sat, in majesty restored, Fast by the throne of heaven"s superior lord.
Juno and Pallas mount the bless"d abodes, Their task perform"d, and mix among the G.o.ds.
[Ill.u.s.tration: JUNO.]
JUNO.
BOOK VI.
ARGUMENT.
THE EPISODES OF GLAUCUS AND DIOMED, AND OF HECTOR AND ANDROMACHE.
The G.o.ds 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 solemn procession of the queen and the Trojan matrons to the temple of Minerva, to entreat her to remove Diomed from the fight. The battle relaxing during the absence of Hector, Glaucus and Diomed have an interview between the two armies; where, coming to the knowledge, of the friendship and hospitality pa.s.sed between their ancestors, they make exchange of their arms. Hector, having performed the orders of Helenus, prevails upon Paris to return to the battle, and, taking a tender leave of his wife Andromache, hastens again to the field.
The scene is first in the field of battle, between the rivers Simois and Scamander, and then changes to Troy.
Now heaven forsakes the fight: the immortals yield To human force and human skill the field: Dark showers of javelins fly from foes to foes; Now here, now there, the tide of combat flows; While Troy"s famed streams, that bound the deathful plain On either side, run purple to the main.
Great Ajax first to conquest led the way, Broke the thick ranks, and turn"d the doubtful day.
The Thracian Acamas his falchion found, And hew"d the enormous giant to the ground; His thundering arm a deadly stroke impress"d Where the black horse-hair nodded o"er his crest; Fix"d in his front the brazen weapon lies, And seals in endless shades his swimming eyes.
Next Teuthras" son distain"d the sands with blood, Axylus, hospitable, rich, and good: In fair Arisbe"s walls (his native place)(161) He held his seat! a friend to human race.
Fast by the road, his ever-open door Obliged the wealthy, and relieved the poor.
To stern Tydides now he falls a prey, No friend to guard him in the dreadful day!
Breathless the good man fell, and by his side His faithful servant, old Calesius died.
By great Euryalus was Dresus slain, And next he laid Opheltius on the plain.
Two twins were near, bold, beautiful, and young, From a fair naiad and Bucolion sprung: (Laomedon"s white flocks Bucolion fed, That monarch"s first-born by a foreign bed; In secret woods he won the naiad"s grace, And two fair infants crown"d his strong embrace:) Here dead they lay in all their youthful charms; The ruthless victor stripp"d their shining arms.
Astyalus by Polypoetes fell; Ulysses" spear Pidytes sent to h.e.l.l; By Teucer"s shaft brave Aretaon bled, And Nestor"s son laid stern Ablerus dead; Great Agamemnon, leader of the brave, The mortal wound of rich Elatus gave, Who held in Pedasus his proud abode,(162) And till"d the banks where silver Satnio flow"d.
Melanthius by Eurypylus was slain; And Phylacus from Leitus flies in vain.
Unbless"d Adrastus next at mercy lies Beneath the Spartan spear, a living prize.
Scared with the din and tumult of the fight, His headlong steeds, precipitate in flight, Rush"d on a tamarisk"s strong trunk, and broke The shatter"d chariot from the crooked yoke; Wide o"er the field, resistless as the wind, For Troy they fly, and leave their lord behind.
p.r.o.ne on his face he sinks beside the wheel: Atrides o"er him shakes his vengeful steel; The fallen chief in suppliant posture press"d The victor"s knees, and thus his prayer address"d:
"O spare my youth, and for the life I owe Large gifts of price my father shall bestow.
When fame shall tell, that, not in battle slain, Thy hollow ships his captive son detain: Rich heaps of bra.s.s shall in thy tent be told,(163) And steel well-temper"d, and persuasive gold."
He said: compa.s.sion touch"d the hero"s heart He stood, suspended with the lifted dart: As pity pleaded for his vanquish"d prize, Stern Agamemnon swift to vengeance flies, And, furious, thus: "Oh impotent of mind!(164) Shall these, shall these Atrides" mercy find?
Well hast thou known proud Troy"s perfidious land, And well her natives merit at thy hand!
Not one of all the race, nor s.e.x, nor age, Shall save a Trojan from our boundless rage: Ilion shall perish whole, and bury all; Her babes, her infants at the breast, shall fall;(165) A dreadful lesson of exampled fate, To warn the nations, and to curb the great!"
The monarch spoke; the words, with warmth address"d, To rigid justice steel"d his brother"s breast Fierce from his knees the hapless chief he thrust; The monarch"s javelin stretch"d him in the dust, Then pressing with his foot his panting heart, Forth from the slain he tugg"d the reeking dart.
Old Nestor saw, and roused the warrior"s rage; "Thus, heroes! thus the vigorous combat wage; No son of Mars descend, for servile gains, To touch the booty, while a foe remains.