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420

With curs, thy care and ardour are the fame,
Nor need I to command, nor ought to blame.
Sage as thou art, and learn'd in human kind,
Forgive the transport of a martial mind.
Hatte to the fight, fecure of just amends;
The Cods that make, fhall keep the wo: thy friends.
He faid, and pafs'd where great Tydides lay,
His feeds and chariots wedg'd in firm array:
(The warlike Sthenelus attends his fide)
To whom with ftern reproach the monarch cry'd;
Oh fon of Tydeus! (he, whofe ftrength could tame
The bounding fteed, in arms a mighty name)
Can't theu, remete, the mingling hofts defcry,
With hands unactive, and a careless eve?
Not this thy fire the fierce encounter fear'd;
Still firft in front the matchlefs prince appear'd;
What glorious toils, what wonders they recite,
Who view'd him labouring through the ranks of
fight!

425

I faw him once, when, gathering martial power, 430

A peaceful gueft, he faw Mycena's tower;
Armies he afk'd, and armies had been given,
Not we deny'd, but Jove forbade from heaven;
While dreadful comets glaring from afar
Forewarn'd the horrours of the Theban war. 435
Next, fent by Greece from where Afopus flows,
A fearless envoy, ne approached the foes;
Thehes' hoftile walls, unguarded and alone,
Dauntless he enters, and demands the throne.
The tyrant feafting with his chiefs he found, 440
And dar'd to combat all thofe chiefs around;
Dar'd and fubdued, before their haughty lord;
For Pallas ftrung his arm, and edg'd his fword.
Stung with the fhame, within the winding way,
To bar his paffage fifty warriors lay;
Two heroes led the fecret fquadron on,
Mæon the fierce, and hardy Lycophon;
Thofe fifty flaughter'd in the gloomy vale,
He fpar'd but one to bear the dreadful tale.
Such Tydeus was, and fuch his martial fire.
Gods! how the fon degenerates from he fire!
No words the god-like Diomed return'd,
But heard respectful, and in fecret burn'd:
Not fo fierce Capaneus' undaunted fon,
Stern as his fire, the boafter thus begun :

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What needs, O Monarch, th's invidious praife, Ourfelves to leffen, while our fires you raife? Dare to be juft, Atrides! and confefs Cur valour equal, though our fury le ́s.

With fewer troops we ftorm'd the Theban wall,

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He fpoke, and ardent on the trembling ground Sprung from his car; his ringing arms refound.

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480

Dire was the clang, and dreadful from afar,
Of arm'd Tydides rufhing to the war
As when the winds, afcending by degrees,
First move the whitening furface of the feas,
The billows float in order to the shore,
The wave behind rolls on the wave before;
Till, with the growing storm, the deeps arife,
Foam o'er the rocks, and thunder to the fkies.
So to the fight the thick battalions throng,
Shields urg'd on fhields, and men drove men along.
Sedate and filent move the numerous bands;
No found, no whisper, but the chief's commands,
Those only heard; with awe the rest obey,
As if fome God had fnatch'd their voice away.
Not fo the Trojans; from their hoft afcends 490
A general fhout that all the region rends.
As when the fleecy flocks unnumber'd stand
In wealthy folds, and wait the milker's hand;
The hollow vales inceffant bleating fills,
The lambs reply from all the neighbouring hills:

495

Such clamours rofe from various nations round,
Mix'd was the murmur, and confus'd the found.
Each hoft now joins, and each a God inspires,
Thefe Mars incites, and thofe Minerva fires.
Pale flight around, and dreadful Terrour reign; 500
And Difcord raging bathes the purple plain;
Difcord! dire fifter of the flaughtering power,
Small at her birth, but rifing every hour:
While fcarce the fkies her horrid head can bound,
She stalks on earth, and shakes the world around;

505 The nations bleed, where'er her steps fhe turns, The groan ftill deepens, and the combat burns. Now fhield with fhield, with helmet helmet clos'd,

To armour armour, lance to lance oppos'd,
Hoft againft hoft with thadow y squadrons drew,510
The founding darts in iron tempests flew,
Victors and vanquish'd join promifcuous cries,
And thrilling shouts and dying groans arife;
With ftreaming blood the flippery fields are dy'd,
And flaughter'd heroes fwell the dreadful tide. 515
As to rents roll, increas'd by numerous rills,
With rage impetuous down their echoing hills;
Rufh to the vales, and, pour'd along the plain,
Roar through a thousand channels to the main;
The diftant shepherd trembling hears the found:

520

So mix both hofts, and fo their cries rebound.
The bold Antilochus the flaughter led,
The first who ftruck a valiant Trojan dead :
At great Echepolus the lance arrives;
Raz'd his high creft, and through his helmet drives;
Warm'd in the brain the brazen weapon lies,
And thades eternal fettle o'er his eyes.
So finks a tower, that long affaults had ftood
Of force and fire; its walls befmear'd with blood.
Him, the bold * leader of th' Abantian throng 530
Seiz'd to defpoil, and dragg'd the corpfe along :

* Elphenor.

But while he ftrove to tug th' inferted dart,
Agenor's javelin reach'd the hero's heart.
His flank unguarded by his ample fhield,
Admits the lance: he falls, and spurns the field;

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535
The nerves, unbrac'd, fupport his limbs no more;
The foul comes floating in a tide of gore.
Trojans and Greeks now gather round the flain;
The war renews, the warriours bleed again;
As o'er their prey rapacious wolves engage,
Man dies on man, and all is blood and rage.
In blooming youth fair Simoifius fell,
Sent by great Ajax to the fhades of hell:
Fair Simoïfius, whom his mother bore,
Amid the flocks on filver Simois' fhore;
The nymph defcending from the hills of Ide,
To feek her parents on his flowery fide,
Brought forth the babe, their common care and
joy,

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And thence from Simois nam'd the lovely boy.
Short was his date! by dreadful Ajax flain 550
He falls, and renders all their cares in vain!
So falls a poplar, that in watery ground
Rais'd high the head, with stately branches crown'd,
(Fell'd by fome artift with his fhining fteel,
To shape the circle of the bending wheel)
Cut down it lies, tall, fmooth, and largely fpread,
With all its beauteous honours on its head;
There, left a fubject to the wind and rain,
And fcorch'd by funs, it withers on the plain.
Thus pierc'd by Ajax, Simoïfius lies
Stretch'd on the fhore, and thus neglected dies.
At Ajax Antiphus his javelin threw ;
The pointed lance with erring fury flew,
And Leucus, lov'd by wife Ulyffes, flew.
He drops the corpfe of Sinoïfius flain,
And finks a breathless carcafe on the plain.
This faw Ulyffes, and with grief enrag'd
Strode where the foremost of the foes engag'd;
Arm'd with his fpear, he meditates the wound,
In act to throw; but, cautious, look'd around. 570
Struck at his fight the Trojans backward drew,
And trembling heard the javelin as it flew.
A chief stood nigh, who from Abydos came,
Old Priam's fon, Democoon was his name ;
The weapon enter'd close above his ear,
Cold through his temples glides the whizzing spear;
With piercing fhricks the youth refigns his breath,
His eye-balls darken with the fhades of death;
Ponderous he falls; his clanging arms refound;
And his broad buckler rings against the ground.

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Seiz'd with affright the boldeft foes appear;
Ev'n god-like Hector feems himself to fear;
Slow he gave way, the reft tumultuous fled;
The Greeks with fhouts prefs on, and spoil the
dead:

But Phoebus now from Ilion's towering height 585
Shines forth reveal'd, and animates the fight.
Trojans, be bold, and force with force oppofe ;
Your foaming steeds urge headlong on the foes!
Nor are their bodies rocks, nor ribb'd with fteel;
Your weapons enter, and yo .r ftrokes they feel.
590

Have ye forgot what feem'd your dread before?
The great, the fierce Achilles fights no more.
Apollo thus from Ilion's lofty towers
Array'd in terrors, rouz'd the Trojan powers:
While War's fierce Goddess fires the Grecian foe,
595

And fhouts and thunders in the fields below.
Then great Diores fell, by doom divine,
In vain his valour, and illuftrious line.
A broken rock the force of Pirus threw
who from cold Ænus led the Thracian crew);
600

Full on his ankle dropt the ponderous ftone,
Burft the strong nerves, and crafh'd the folid bone.
Supine he tumbles on the crimson faads,
Before his helplefs friends and native bands,
And spreads for aid his unavailing hands. 605.
The foe rush'd furious as he pants for breath,
And through his navel drove the pointed death:
His gufhing entrails fmok'd upon the ground,
And the warm life came iffuing from the wound.

His lance bold Thoas at the conqeror fent, 610
Deep in his breaft above the pap it went.
Amid the lungs was fix'd the winged wood,
And quivering in his heaving bofom stood:
Till from the dying chief, approaching near,
Th' Ætolian warriour tugg'd his weighty fpear:
615

Then fudden wav'd his flaming faulchion round,
And gafh'd his belly with a ghaftly wound,
The corpfe now breathlefs on the bloody plain,
To fpoil his arms the victor ftrove in vain;
The Thracian bands against the victor preft; 620
A grove of lances glitter'd at his breast.
Stern Thoas, glering with revengeful eyes,
In fullen fury flowly quits the prize.
Thus fell two heroes; one the pride of Thrace,
And one the leader of th' Epeian race:
Death's fable fhade at once o'ercaft their eyes,
In duft the vanquifh'd, and the victor lies.
With copious flaughter all the fields are red,
And heap'd with growing mountains of the dead.

625

Had fome brave chief this martial fcene beheld,
By Pallas guarded through the dreadful field;
Might darts be bid to turn their points away,
And fwords around him innocently play;
The war's whole art with wonder had he feen,
And counted heroes where he counted men. 635
to fought each hoft with thirst of glory fir'd,
And crowds on crowds triumphantly expir'd.

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DIOMED, affifted by Pallas, performs wonders in this day's battle. Pandarus wounds him with an arrow, but the Goddefs cures him, enables him to discern Gods from mortals, and prohibits him from contending with any of the former, excepting Venus. Eneas joins Pandarus to oppofe him: Pandarus is killed, and Eneas in great danger, but for the affiftance of Venus; who, as she is removing her fon from the fight, is wounded in the hand by Diomed. Apollo feconds her in bis refcue, and at length carries off Eneas to Troy, where he is healed in the temple of Pergamus. Mars rallies the Trojans, and affifts Hector to make a ftand. In the mean time Eneas is restored to the field, and they overthrow feveral of the Greeks; among the reft Tlepolemus is flain by Sarpedon. Juno and Minerva defcend to refift Mars; the latter incites Diomed to go against that God; he wounds him, and fends him groaning to heaven.

The first battle continues through this book. The scene is the fame as in the former.

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Above the Greeks his deathlefs fame to raise,
And crown her hero with diftinguish'd praife.
High on his helm celestial lightnings play,
His beamy shield emits a living ray ;
Th' unweary'd blaze inceffant streams fupplies,
Like the red ftar that fires th' autumnal skies,
When fresh he rears his radiant orb to fight,
And, bath'd in Ocean, fhoots a keener light.
Such glories Pallas on the chief beftow'd,
Such, from his arms, the fierce effulgence flow'd:
Onward the drives him, furious to engage,
Where the fight burns, and where the thickeit rage.
The fons of Dares firft the combat fought,
A wealthy pricft, but rich without a fault;
In Vulcan's fane the father's days were led,
The fons to toils of glorious battle bred;
Thefe fingled from their troops the fight maintain,
Thefe from their fteeds, Tydides on the plain. 20
Fierce for renown the brother chiefs draw near,
And first bold Phegeus cafts his founding fpear,
Which o'er the warriour's thoulder took its courfe,
And spent in empty air its erring force.

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Left the rich chariot, and his brother dead.
And, had not Vulcan lent celestial aid,
He too had fank to death's eternal shade;
But in a fmoky cloud the God of fire
Preferv'd the fon, in pity to the fire.
The feeds and chariot, to the navy led,
Encreas'd the fpoils of gallant Diomed.
Struck with amaze and fhame, the Trojan crew,
Or flain, or fled, the fons of Dares view;
When by the blood-ftain'd hand Minerva prest
The God of battles, and this fpeech addrest :

35

Stern power of war! by whom the mighty fall,
Who bathe in blood, and shake the lofty wall! 40
Let the brave chiefs their glorious toils divide;
And whofe the conqueft mighty Jove decide:
While we from interdicted fields retire,
Nor tempt the wrath of heaven's avenging Sire.
Her words allay'd th' impetuous warriour's
heat,
43

The God of arms and Martial Maid retreat

Remov'd from fight, on Xanthus' flowery bounds They fat, and liftened to the dying founds.

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55

Meantime the Greeks the Trojan race pursue, And fome bold chieftain every leader flew : First Odius falls, and bites the bloody fand, His death ennobled by Atrides' hand; As he to flight his wheeling car addreft, The fpeedy javelin drove from back to breast. In duft the mighty Halizonian lay, His arms refound, the fpirit wings its way. Thy fate was next, O Phæftus! doom'd to feel The great Idomeneus' portended steel; Whom Borus fent (his fon, and only joy) From fruitful Tarne to the fields of Troy. The Cretán javelin reach'd him from afar, And pierc'd his fhoulder as he mounts his car; Back from the car he tumbles to the ground, And everlasting shades his eyes furround.

60

Then dy'd Scamandrius, expert in the chace, 65 In woods and wilds to wound the favage race: Diana taught him all her fylvan arts,

70

To bend the bow, and aim unerring darts:
But vainly here Diana's arts he tries,
The fatal lance arrefts him as he flies;
From Menelaus arm the weapon fent,
Through his broad back and heaving bosom went :
Down finks the warriour with a thundering found,
His brazen armour rings against the ground.
Next artful Phereclus untimely fell;
Bold Merion fent him to the realms of hell.
Thy father's skill, O Phereclus, was thine,
The graceful fabrick and the fair design;
For, lov'd by Pallas, Pallas did impart

75

To him the hipwright's and the builder's art. 80
Beneath his hand the fleet of Paris rofe,
The fatal cause of all his country's woes;

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Thus toil'd the chiefs, in different parts engag'd,
In every quarter fierce Tydides rag'd,
Amid the Greek, amid the Trojan train,
Rapt through the ranks, he thunders o'er the
plain;

Now here, now there, he darts from place to place,
Pours on the rear, or lightens in their face. 115
Thus from high hills the torrents swift and strong
Deluge whole fields, and sweep the trees along,
Through ruin'd moles the rufhing wave refounds,
O'erwhelms the bridge, and burfts the lofty bounds.
The yellow harvests of the ripen'd year,
And flatted vineyards, one fad waste appear!
While Jove defcends in fluicy fheets of rain,
And all the labours of mankind are vain.

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So rag'd Tydides, boundless in his ire, Drove armies back, and made all Troy retire. 125 With grief the leader of the Lycian band Saw the wide wafte of his deftructive hand : His bended bow against the chief he drew; Swift to the mark the thirsty arrow flew, Whofe forky point the hollow breast-plate tore,

130 Deep in his fhoulder pierc'd, and drank his gore: The rushing ftream his brazen armour dy'd, While the proud archer thus exulting cry'd:

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Hither, ye Trojans, hither drive your steeds!
Lo! by our hand the bravest Grecian bleeds. 135
Not long the dreadful dart he can fuftain;
Or Phoebus urg'd me to these fields in vain.
So fpoke he, boastful; but the winged dart
Stopt fhort of life, and mock'd the shooter's art.
The wounded chief, behind his car retir'd,
The helping hand of Sthenelus requir'd;
Swift from his feat he leap'd upon the ground,
And tugg'd the weapon from the gufhing wound;
When thus the king his guardian power addreft,
The purple current wandering o'er his veft: 145
O progeny of Jove! unconquer'd maid!
If e'er my god-like Sire deferv'd thy aid,
If e'er felt thee in the fighting field,
Now, Goddess, now thy facred fuccour yield.
Oh give my lance to reach the Trojan knight, 150
Whofe arrow wounds the chief thou guard'st in
fight;

And lay the boafter groveling on the shore,
That vaunts these eyes fhall view the light no more.
Thus pray'd Tydides, and Minerva heard ;
His nerves confirm'd, his languid fpirits chear'd,
155
He feels each limb with wonted vigour light;
His beating bofom claims the promis'd fight.
Be bold (fhe cry'd), in every combat shine,
War be thy province, thy protection mine;
Rufh to the fight, and every foe controul;
Wake each paternal virtue in thy foul:
Strength fwells thy boiling breast, infus'd by me,
And all thy god-like father breathes in thee!
Yet more, from mortal mifts I purge thy eyes,
And fet to view the warring Deities.
Thefe fee thou fhun, through all th' embattled
plain,

Nor rafhly strive where human force is vain.

Pandarus.

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If Venus mingle in the martial band,

Her fhalt thou wound: fo Pallas gives command.
With that, the blue-ey'd virgin wing'd her flight;
The hero rush'd impetuous to the fight;
With tenfold ardour now invades the plain,
Wild with delay, and more enrag'd by pain.
As on the fleecy flocks, when hunger calls,
Amidst the field a brindled lion falls;
If chance fome thepherd with a diftant dart
The favage wound, he rouzes at the fmart,
He foams, he roars; the fhepherd dares not stay,
But trembling leaves the fcattering flocks a prey;
Heaps fall on heaps; he bathes with blood the
ground,

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Then leaps victorious o'er the lofty mound.
Not with lefs fury ftern Tydides flew ;
And wo brave leaders at an inftant flew:
Aftynous breathlefs fell, and by his fide
His people's pattor, good Hypenor, dy'd;
Aftynous' breaft the deadly lance receives,
Hypenor's fhoulder his broad faulchion cleaves.
Thofe flain he left; and fprung with noble rage
Abas and Polyidus to engage;
Sons of Eurydamas, who, wife and old,
Could fates forefee, and mystic dreams unfold;
The youths return'd not from the doubtful plain,
And the fad father try'd his arts in vain ;
No myftic dream could make their fates appear,
Though now determin'd by Tvdides' fpear."

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Young Xanthus next, and Thoon felt his rage;
The joy and hope of Phænops' feeble ge;
Vaft was his wealth, and thefe the only heirs
Of all his labours, and a life of cares.
Cold death o'ertakes them in their blooming years,

And leaves the father unavailing tears:
To ftrangers now defcends his wealthy flore,
The race forgotten, and the name no more.

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Two fons of Priam in one chariot ride Glittering in arms, and combat fide by fide. 205 As when the lordly lion feeks his food Where grazing heifers range the lonely wood, He leaps amidit them with a furious bound, Bends their strong necks, and tears them to the ground:

215

So from their feats the brother chiefs are torn, 210
Their freeds and chariot to the navy borne.
With deep concern divine Æneas view'd
The foe prevailing, and his friends pursued,
Through the thick ftorm of finging spears he flies,
Exploring Pandarus with careful eyes,
At length he found Lycaon's mighty fon;
To whom the chief of Venus' race begun:
Where, Pandarus, are all thy honours now,
Thy winged arrows and unerring bow,
Thy matchlefs fkill, thy yet unrivall'd fame,
And boafted glory of the Lycian name?
Oh pierce that mortal: if we mortal call
That wondrous force by which whole armies fall;
Or God incens'd, who quits the diflant ikies
To punith Troy for flighted facrifice;
(Which, oh, avert from our unhappy state!
For what fo dreadful as celeftial fate)
Whoe'er he be, propitiate Jove with prayer;
If man destroy; if God, intreat to fpare.

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To him the Lycian: Whom your eyes behold,

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If right I judge, is Diomed the bold!
Such courfers whirl him o'er the dufty field,
So towers his helmet, and fo flames his fhield.
If 'tis a God, he wears that chief's disguise;
Or if that chicf, fome guardian of the skies
Involv'd in clouds, protects him in the fray,
And turns unfeen the fruftrate dart away.
I wing'd an arrow, which not idly fell,
The ftroke had fix'd him to the gates of hell:
And, but fome God, fome angry God withstands,
240

His fate was due to these unerring hands.
Skill'd in the bow, on foot I fought the war,
Nor join'd fwift horfes to the rapid car.
Ten polish'd chariots I poffefs'd at home,

And ftill they grace Lycaon's princely dome: 245
There veil'd in fpacious coverlets they stand;
And twice ten courfers wait their lord's command.
The good old warriour bid me trust to these,
When firft for Troy I fail'd the facred feas;
In helds aloft the whirling car to guide,
And through the ranks of death triumphant ride:
But vain with youth, and yet to thrift inclin'd,
I heard his councils with unheedful mind,
And thought the fteeds (your large fupplies un-
known)

Might fail of forage in the ftraiten'd town:
So took my bow and pointed darts in hand,
And left the chariots in my native land.

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Too late, O friend! my rafhnefs I deplore; Thefe fhafts, once fatal, carry death no more. Tydeus' and Atreus' fons their points have found,

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And undiffembled gore purfued the wound.
In vain they bled: this unavailing bow
Serves, not to flaughter, but provoke the foe.
In evil hour thefe bended horns I ftrung,
2nd feiz'd the quiver where it idly hung.
Curs'd be the fate that fent me to the field
Without a warriour's arms, the fpear and fhield;
If e'er with life I quit the Trojan plain,
If e'er I fee my fpoufe and fire again,
This bow, unfaithful to my glorious aims,
Broke by my hand, shall feed the blazing flames.
To whom the leader of the Dardan race:

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Be calm, nor Phoebus' honour'd gift difgrace.
The diftant dart be prais'd, though here we need
The rushing chariot, and the bounding fteed. 275
Against yon hero let us bend our course,
And hand to hand, encounter force with force.
Now mount my feat, and from the chariot's height
Obferve my father's fteeds, renown'd in fight,
Practis'd alike to turn, to stop, to chace,
To dare the fhock, or urge the rapid race:
Secure with thefe, through fighting fields we go ;
Or fafe to Troy, if Jove affift the foe.
Hafte, feize the whip, and fnatch the guiding
rein;

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