341 Safe in her sides the hecatomb they stow'd,
Then swiftly sailing, cut the liquid road.
The host to expiate, next the king prepares, 410
With pure lustrations, and with solemn prayers.
Wash'd by the briny wave, the pious train
Are cleansed, and cast the ablutions in the main.
Along the shore whole hecatombs were laid,
And bulls and goats to Phœbus' altars paid.
The sable fumes in curling spires arise,

350 And waft their grateful odours to the skies.
The army thus in sacred rites engaged,
Atrides still with deep resentment raged.
To wait his will two sacred heralds stood,
Talthybius and Eurybates the good.
Haste to the fierce Achilles' tent (he cries;)
Thence bear Briseïs as our royal prize :
Submit he must! or, if they will not part,
Ourself in arms shall tear her from his heart.

420

That adverse gods commit to stern debate
The best, the bravest of the Grecian state.
Young as ye are, this youthful heat restrain,
Nor think your Nestor's years and wisdom vain.
A godlike race of heroes once I knew,
Such as no more these aged eyes shall view!
Lives there a chief to match Pirithous' fame,
Dryas the bold, or Ceneus' deathless name;
Theseus, endued with more than mortal might,
Or Polyphemus, like the gods in fight?
With these of old to toils of battle bred,
In early youth my hardy days I led;
Fired with the thirst which virtuous envy breeds,
And smit with love of honourable deeds.
Strongest of men, they pierced the mountain boar,
Ranged the wild deserts red with monsters' gore,
And from their hills the shaggy Centaurs tore.
Yet these with soft persuasive arts I sway'd;
When Nestor spoke, they listen'd and obey'd.
If in my youth e'en these esteem'd me wise,
Do you, young warriors, hear my age advise.
Atrides, seize not on the beauteous slave;
That prize the Greeks by common suffrage gave:
Nor thou, Achilles, treat our prince with pride;
Let kings be just, and sovereign power preside.
Thee, the first honours of the war adorn,
Like gods in strength, and of a goddess born;
Him awful majesty exalts above
The powers of earth, and scepter'd sons of Jove.
Let both unite, with well-consenting mind,
So shall authority with strength be join'd.
Leave me, O king! to calm Achilles' rage;
Rule thou thyself, as more advanced in age.
Forbid it, gods! Achilles should be lost,
The pride of Greece, and bulwark of our host.

The unwilling heralds act their lord's commands;

360 Pensive they walk along the barren sands:
Arrived, the hero in his tent they find,
With gloomy aspect, on his arm reclined.
At awful distance long they silent stand,
Loath to advance, or speak their hard command;
Decent confusion! This the godlike man
Perceived, and thus with accent mild began:
With leave and honour enter our abodes,
Ye sacred ministers of men and gods!
I know your message; by constraint you came;

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440

370 Not you, but your imperious lord I blame.
Patroclus, haste, the fair Briseïs bring;
Conduct my captive to the haughty king.
But witness, heralds, and proclaim my vow,
Witness to gods above, and men below!
But first, and loudest, to your prince declare,
That lawless tyrant whose commands you bear,
Unmoved as death Achilles shall remain,
Though prostrate Greece should bleed at every vein:
The raging chief, in frantic passion lost,

This said, he ceased. The king of men replies:
Thy years are awful, and thy words are wise:
But that imperious, that unconquer'd soul,
No laws can limit, no respect controul.
Before his pride must his superiors fall,
His word the law, and he the lord of all ?
Him must our hosts, our chiefs, ourselves obey?
What king can bear a rival in his sway?
Grant that the gods his matchless force have given;
Has foul reproach a privilege from heaven?

Here on the monarch's speech Achilles broke
And furious thus, and interrupting, spoke:
Tyrant! I weli deserved thy galling chain,
To live thy slave, and still to serve in vain,
Should I submit to each unjust decree,
Command thy vassals, but command not me.
Seize on Briseïs, whom the Grecians doom'd
My prize of war, yet tamely see resumed:
And seize secure; no more Achilles draws
His conquering sword in any woman's cause;
The gods command me to forgive the past;
But let this first invasion be the last:

380 Blind to himself, and useless to his host,
Unskill'd to judge the future by the past,
In blood and slaughter shall repent at last.
Patroclus now the unwilling beauty brought; 450
She, in soft sorrows and in pensive thought,
Pass'd silent, as the heralds held her hand,
And oft look'd back, slow moving o'er the strand.
Not so his loss the fierce Achilles bore;
But sad retiring to the sounding shore,

O'er the wild margin of the deep he hung,

460

390 That kindred deep from whence his mother sprung;
There, bathed in tears of anger and disdain,
Thus loud lamented to the stormy main:
O parent goddess! since in early bloom
Thy son must fall, by too severe a doom;
Sure, to so short a race of glory born,
Great Jove in justice should this span adorn:
Honour and fame at least the Thunderer owed;

For know, thy blood, when next thou darest in- And ill he pays the promise of a god,

vade,

Shall stream in vengeance on my reeking blade.

At this they ceased: the stern debate expired: 400
The chiefs in sullen majesty retired.
Achilles with Patroclus took his way,
Where near his tents his hollow vessels lay.
Meantime Atrides launch'd, with numerous oars
A well-rigg'd ship for Chrysa's sacred shores:
High on the deck was fair Chryseïs placed,
And sage Ulysses with the conduct graced:

If yon proud monarch thus thy son defies,
Obscures my glories, and resumes my prize.
Far in the deep recesses of the main,
Where aged Ocean holds his watery reign,
The goddess-mother heard. The waves divide: 470
And like a mist she rose above the tide;
Beheld him mourning on the naked shores,
And thus the sorrows of his soul explores.
Why grieves my son? Thy anguish let me share,
Reveal the cause, and trust a parent's care.

He, deeply sighing, said: To tell my woe,
Is but to mention what too well you know.
From Thebè, sacred to Apollo's name,
(Action's realm,) our conquering army came,
With treasure loaded and triumphant spoils,
Whose just division crown'd the soldier's toils;
But bright Chryseïs, heavenly prize! was led,
By vote selected, to the general's bed.
The priest of Phœbus sought by gifts to gain
His beauteous daughter from the victor's chain;
The fleet he reach'd, and lowly bending down,
Held forth the sceptre and the laurel crown,
Entreating all: but chief implored for grace,
The brother-kings of Atreus' royal race:

The generous Greeks their joint consent declare, 490 Now mix with mortals, nor disdain to grace

The priest to reverence, and release the fair.

Not so Atrides: he, with wonted pride,

The sire insulted, and his gifts denied.

The insulted sire (his god's peculiar care)

500

510

A prophet then, inspired by heaven, arose,
And points the crime, and thence derives the woes.
Myself the first the assembled chiefs incline
To avert the vengeance of the power divine;
Then rising in his wrath, the monarch storm'd;
Incensed he threaten'd, and his threats perform'd:
The fair Chryseïs to her sire was sent,
With offer'd gifts to make the god relent;
But now he seized Briseïs' heavenly charms,
And of my valour's prize defrauds my arms,
Defrauds the votes of all the Grecian train;
And service, faith, and justice, plead in vain.
But, goddess! thou thy suppliant son attend,
To high Olympus' shining court ascend,
Urge all the ties to former service owed,
And sue for vengeance to the thundering god.
Oft hast thou triumph'd in the glorious boast,
That thou stood'st forth of all the ethereal host,
When bold rebellion shook the realms above,
The undaunted guard of cloud-compelling Jove.
When the bright partner of his awful reign,
The warlike maid, and monarch of the main,
The traitor-gods, by mad ambition driven,
Durst threat with chains the Omnipotence of heaven,
Then call'd by thee, the monster Titan came
(Whom gods Briareus, men Ægeon name,)
Through wondering skies, enormous stalk'd along;
Not he that shakes the solid earth so strong:*
With giant-pride at Jove's high throne he stands,
And brandish'd round him all his hundred hands;
The affrighted gods confess'd their awful lord,
They dropp'd the fetters, trembled, and adored.
This, goddess, this to his remembrance call,
Embrace his knees, at his tribunal fall;
Conjure him far to drive the Grecian train,
To hurl them headlong to their fleet and main,
To heap the shores with copious death, and bring
The Greeks to know the curse of such a king:
Let Agamemnon lift his haughty head
O'er all his wide dominion of the dead,
And mourn in blood, that e'er he durst disgrace
The boldest warrior of the Grecian race.

Unhappy son! (fair Thetis thus replies,
While tears celestial trickle from her eyes)

In Chrysa's port now sage Ulysses rode;
Beneath the deck the destined victims stow'd;
The sails they furl'd, they lash'd the mast aside,
And dropp'd their anchors, and the pinnace tied.
Next on the shore their hecatomb they land,
Chryseïs last descending on the strand.
Her, thus returning from the furrow'd main,
Ulysses led to Phœbus' sacred fane;
Where at his solemn altar, as the maid
He gave to Chryses, thus the hero said:
Hail, reverend priest! To Phœbus' awful dome
A suppliant I from great Atrides come:
Unransom'd here receive the spotless fair;
Accept the hecatomb the Greeks prepare;
And may thy god who scatters darts around,
Atoned by sacrifice, desist to wound.

At this, the sire embraced the maid again,
So sadly lost, so lately sought in vain.
Then near the altar of the darting king,
Disposed in rank, their hecatomb they bring:

520 With water purify their hands, and take
The sacred offering of the salted cake;
While thus with arms devoutly raised in air,
And solemn voice, the priest directs his prayer:

God of the silver bow, thy ear incline,
Whose power encircles Cilla the divine;
Whose sacred eye thy Tenedos surveys,
And gilds fair Chrysa with distinguish'd rays!
If, fired to vengeance at thy priest's request,

Thy direful darts inflict the raging pest;
530 Once more attend! avert the wasteful woe,
And smile propitious, and unbend thy bow.
So Chryses pray'd. Apollo heard his prayer:
And now the Greeks their hecatomb prepare;
Between their horns the salted barley threw,
And with their heads to heaven the victims slew:
The limbs they sever from the enclosing hide;
The thighs, selected to the gods, divide:
On these, in double cauls involved with art,
The choicest morsels lay from every part.
540 The priest himself before his altar stands,
And burns the offering with his holy hands,
Pours the black wine, and sees the flames aspire,
The youths with instruments surround the fire.

570

580

590

600

The thighs thus sacrificed, and entrails dress'd, 610 But part in peace, secure thy prayer is sped:
The assistants part, transfix, and roast the rest:

Far on the beach they haul their bark to land, 630 Say, artful manager of heaven (she cries,)

Then thus the god: Oh restless fate of pride,
That strives to learn what heaven resolves to hide!

660 Vain is the search, presumptuous and abhorr'd,
Anxious to thee, and odious to thy lord.
Let this suffice, the immutable decree
No force can shake: what is, that ought to be.
Goddess, submit, nor dare our will withstand,
But dread the power of this avenging hand:
The united strength of all the gods above
In vain resist the omnipotence of Jove.

The Thunderer spoke, nor durst the queen reply:

A reverend horror silenced all the sky.

670 The feast disturb'd, with sorrow Vulcan saw
His mother menaced, and the gods in awe;
Peace at his heart, and pleasure his design,
Thus interposed the architect divine:
The wretched quarrels of the mortal state
Are far unworthy, gods! of your debate.
Let men their days in senseless strife employ;
We, in eternal peace, and constant joy.

Thou, goddess-mother, with our sire comply,
Nor break the sacred union of the sky;
Lest, roused to rage, he shake the blest abodes,
Launch the red lightning, and dethrone the gods.
If you submit, the Thunderer stands appeased; 750
The gracious power is willing to be pleased.

Thus Vulcan spoke; and rising with a bound,
The double bowl with sparkling nectar crown'd,
Which held to Juno in a cheerful way,
Goddess (he cried) be patient and obey:
Dear as you are, if Jove his arm extend,
I can but grieve, unable to defend.
What god so daring in your aid to move,
Or lift his hand against the force of Jove?
Once in your cause I felt his matchless might,

BOOK II.

Hurl'd headlong downward from the ethereal height; For now no more the gods with fate contend,

Toss'd all the day in rapid circles round;
Nor till the sun descended, touch'd the ground:
Breathless I fell, in giddy motion lost;
The Sinthians raised me on the Lemnian coast.

He said, and to her hands the goblet heaved,
Which, with a smile, the white-arm'd queen re-

760

Now pleasing sleep had seal'd each mortal eye,
Stretch'd in the tents the Grecian leaders lie,
The immortals slumber'd on their thrones above;
All, but the ever-wakeful eyes of Jove.
To honour Thetis' son he bends his care,
And plunge the Greeks in all the woes of war:
Then bids an empty phantom rise to sight,
And thus commands the vision of the night:
Fly hence, deluding dream! and light as air,
To Agamemnon's ample tent repair.
Bid him in arms draw forth the embattled train,
Lead all his Grecians to the dusty plain.
Declare, e'en now 'tis given him to destroy
The lofty towers of wide-extended Troy.

10

At Juno's suit the heavenly factions end.
Destruction hangs o'er yon devoted wall,
And nodding Ilion waits the impending fall.
Swift as the word the vain illusion fled,
Descends, and hovers o'er Atrides' head;
Clothed in the figure of the Pylian sage,
Renown'd for wisdom, and revered for age;
Around his temples spreads his golden wing,
And thus the flattering dream deceives the king:
Canst thou, with all a monarch's cares oppress'd,
Oh Atreus' son! canst thou indulge thy rest?
Ill fits a chief who mighty nations guides,
Directs in council, and in war presides,
To whom its safety a whole people owes,
To waste long nights in indolent repose.
Monarch, awake! 'tis Jove's command I bear,
Thou, and thy glory, claim his heavenly care.
In just array draw forth the embattled train,
Lead all thy Grecians to the dusty plain;
E'en now, O king! 'tis given thee to destroy
The lofty towers of wide-extended Troy.
For now no more the gods with fate contend,
At Juno's suit the heavenly factions end.
Destruction hangs o'er yon devoted wall,
And nodding Ilion waits th' impending fall.
Awake, but waking, this advice approve,
And trust the vision that descends from Jove.

20

30

40

The phantom said; then vanish'd from his sight, Resolves to air, and mixes with the night.

BOOK II.

ARGUMENT.

The Trial of the Army, and Catalogue of the Forces. Jupiter in pursuance of the request of Thetis, sends a deceitful vision to Agamemnon, persuading him to lead the army to battle; in order to make the Greeks

A thousand schemes the monarch's mind employ;

Eager he rises, and in fancy hears
The voice celestial murmuring in his ears.
First on his limbs a slender vest he drew,
Around him next the regal mantle threw,

sensible of their want of Achilles. The general who Elate in thought, he sacks untaken Troy: is deluded with the hopes of taking Troy without his Vain as he was, and to the future blind; assistance, but fears the army was discouraged by his Nor saw what Jove and secret fate design'd; absence and the late plague, as well as by the length What mighty toils to either host remain, of time, contrives to make trial of their disposition by What scenes of grief, and numbers of the slain! a stratagem. He first communicates his design to the princes in council, that he would propose a return to the soldiers, and that they should put a stop to them if the proposal was embraced. Then he assembles the whole host, and upon moving for a return to Greece, they unanimously agree to it, and run to prepare the The embroider'd sandals on his feet were tied: ships. They are detained by the management of Ulys- The starry faulchion glitter'd at his side; ses, who chastises the insolence of Thersites. The And last his arm the massy sceptre loads, assembly is recalled, several speeches made on the oc- Unstain'd, immortal, and the gift of gods. casion, and at length the advice of Nestor followed. Now rosy morn ascends the court of Jove, which was to make a general muster of the troops, Lifts up her light, and opens day above. and to divide them into their several nations, before The king despatch'd his heralds with commands poet to enumerate all the forces of the Greeks and To range the camp and summon all the bands:

they proceeded to battle. This gives occasion to the

Trojans, in a large catalogue.

The time employed in this book consists not entirely of one day. The scene lies in the Grecian camp, and upon the sea-shore; toward the end, it removes to Troy.

The gathering hosts the monarch's word obey;
While to the fleet Atrides bends his way.
In his black ship the Pylian prince he found;
There calls a senate of the peers around:

50

60

The assembly placed, the king of men express'd
The counsels labouring in his artful breast.

Friends and confederates! with attentive ear
Receive my words, and credit what you hear.
Late as I slumber'd in the shades of night,
A dream divine appear'd before my sight,
Whose visionary form like Nestor came,
The same in habit, and in mien the same.
The heavenly phantoni hover'd o'er my head,
And, dost thou sleep, oh Atreus' son? (he said ;)
Ill fits a chief who mighty nations guides,
Directs in council, and in war presides,
To whom its safety a whole people owes,
To waste long nights in indolent repose.
Monarch, awake! 'tis Jove's command I bear,
Thou and thy glory claim his heavenly care.
In just array draw forth the embattled train,
And lead the Grecians to the dusty plain;
E'en now, O king! 'tis given thee to destroy
The lofty towers of wide-extended Troy.
For now no more the gods with fate contend,
At Juno's suit the heavenly factions end.
Destruction hangs o'er yon devoted wall,
And nodding Ilion waits the impending fall.
This hear observant, and the gods obey!
The vision spoke, and pass'd in air away.
Now, valiant chiefs! since heaven itself alarms,
Unite, and rouse the sons of Greece to arms.
But first with caution try what yet they dare,
Worn with nine years of unsuccessful war
To move the troops to measure back the main,
Be mine; and yours the province to detain.

He spoke, and sat; when Nestor rising said
(Nestor, whom Pylos' sandy realms obey'd :)
Princes of Greece, your faithful ears incline,
Nor doubt the vision of the powers divine;
Sent by great Jove to him who rules the host,-
Forbid it heaven! this warning should be lost!
Then let us haste, obey the god's alarms,
And join to rouse the sons of Greece to arms.
Thus spoke the sage. The kings without delay
Dissolve the council, and their chief obey:

The sceptred rulers lead the following host,

And now the mark of Agamemnon's reign
Subjects all Argos and controuls the main.

On this bright sceptre now the king reclined,
70 And artful thus pronounced the speech design'd:
Ye sons of Mars! partake your leader's care,
Heroes of Greece, and brothers of the war!
Of partial Jove with justice I complain,
And heavenly oracles believed in vain.
A safe return was promised to our toils,
Renown'd, triumphant, and enrich'd with spoils;
Now shameful flight alone can save the host,
Our blood, our treasure, and our glory lost.
So Jove decrees, resistless lord of all!

80 At whose command whole empires rise or fall:
He shakes the feeble props of human trust.
And towns and armies humbles to the dust.
What shame to Greece a fruitless war to wage,
Oh lasting shame in every future age!
Once great in arms, the common scorn we grow,
Repulsed and baffled by a feeble foe.
So small their number, that if wars were ceased,
And Greece triumphant held a general feast,
All rank'd by tens; whole decads when they dine

90 Must want a Trojan slave to pour the wine.
But other forces have our hopes o'erthrown,
And Troy prevails by armies not her own..
Now nine long years of mighty Jove are run,
Since first the labours of this war begun.
Our cordage torn, decay'd our vessels lie,
And scarce insure the wretched power to fly.
Haste then, for ever leave the Trojan wall!
Our weeping wives, our tender children call:

Love, duty, safety, summon us away,
100' Tis nature's voice, and nature we obey.
Our shatter'd barks may yet transport us o'er,
Safe and inglorious, to our native shore.
Fly, Grecians, fly, your sails and oars employ
And dream no more of heaven-defended Troy.

140

150

160

170

His deep design unknown, the hosts approve
Atrides' speech. The mighty numbers move.
So roll the billows to the Icarian shore,
From east and south where winds begin to roar,
Burst their dark mansions in the clouds and sweep

Pour'd forth by thousands, darkens all the coast. 110 The whitening surface of the ruffled deep.

As from some rocky cliff the shepherd sees

Clustering in heaps on heaps the driving bees,
Rolling, and blackening, swarms succeeding swarms,
With deeper murmurs and more hoarse alarms;
Dusky they spread, a close embodied crowd,
And o'er the vale descends the living cloud.
So, from the tents and ships, a lengthening train
Spreads all the beach, and wide o'ershades the plain:
Along the region runs a deafening sound:
Beneath their footsteps groans the trembling ground:
Fame flies before, the messenger of Jove,
And shining soars, and claps her wings above.
Nine sacred heralds now, proclaiming loud
The monarch's will, suspend the listening crowd.
Soon as the throngs in order ranged appear,

121

190

And fainter murmurs died upon the ear,

The king of kings his awful figure raised;
High in his hand the golden sceptre blazed:

The golden sceptre, of celestial frame,

The gathering murmur spreads, their trampling feet
Beat the loose sands, and thicken to the fleet.
With long-resounding cries they urge the train
To fit the ships, and launch into the main.
They toil, they sweat, thick clouds of dust arise,
The doubling clamours echo to the skies.
E'en then the Greeks had left the hostile plain,
And fate decreed the fall of Troy in vain;
But Jove's imperial queen their flight survey'd,
And sighing thus bespoke the blue-eyed maid:
Shall then the Grecians fly? O dire disgrace!
And leave unpunish'd this perfidious race?
Shall Troy, shall Priam, and the adulterous spouse,
In peace enjoy the fruits of broken vows?
And bravest chiefs, in Helen's quarrel slain,

By Vulcan form'd, from Jove to Hermes came: 130 Lie unrevenged on yon detested plain?