Or, pierc'd with Grecian darts, for ages lie, Condemn'd to pain, tho' 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 Gods 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 bound, no law, thy fiery temper quells, And all thy mother in thy soul rebels. 1101 In vain our threats, in vain our power, we

Sudden the fluids fix, the parts combin'd;
Such and so soon th' ethereal texture join'd.
Cleans'd from the dust and gore, fair Hebe
dress'd

His mighty limbs in an immortal vest.
Glorious he sat, in majesty restor❜d,
Fast by the throne of Heav'n's superior
Lord.

Juno and Pallas mount the blest abodes,
Their task perform'd, and mix among the
Gods.

BOOK VI

1121

THE EPISODES OF GLAUCUS AND DIOMED, AND OF HECTOR AND ANDROMACHE

THE ARGUMENT

The Gods 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 past between their ancestors, they make exchange of their arms. Hector, having performed the orders of Helenus, prevailed upon Paris to return to the battle, and taken a tender leave of his wife Andromache, hastens again to the field.

The scene is first in the field of battle, between the river Simoïs and Scamander, and then changes to Troy.

Now Heav'n forsakes the fight; th' immortals yield

To human force and human skill the field: Dark showers of jav'lins fly from foes to

Wide o'er the field, resistless as the wind, For Troy they fly, and leave their lord behind.

Prone 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:

'Oh spare my youth, and for the life I

Owe

Large gifts of price my father shall be

stow:

When Fame shall tell, that not in battle slain

Thy hollow ships his captive son detain, 60 Rich heaps of brass shall in thy tent be told,

And steel well-temper'd, and persuasive gold.'

He said: compassion 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! Shall these, shall these, Atrides' mercy find?

Well hast thou known proud Troy's perfidious land,

And well her natives merit at thy hand! 70 Not one of all the race, nor sex, nor age, Shall save a Trojan from our boundless

Deprived of sight, by their avenging doom, Cheerless he breathed, and wander'd in the gloom:

Then sunk unpitied to the dire abodes,
A wretch accurs'd, and hated by the
Gods!

I brave not Heav'n; but if the fruits of earth

Sustain thy life, and human be thy birth, Bold as thou art, too prodigal of breath, Approach, and enter the dark gates of death.'

'What, or from whence I am, or who my sire

(Replied the Chief), 'can Tydeus' son inquire ?

180

Like leaves on trees the race of man is found,

Now green in youth, now with'ring on the

ground:

Another race the foll'wing spring supplies, They fall successive, and successive rise;