Page:Homer - Iliad, translation Pope, 1909.djvu/104

102 Down sinks the warrior with a thundering sound,

His brazen armour rings against the ground.

Next artful Phereclus untimely fell;

Bold Merion sent him to the realms of hell.

Thy father's skill, O Phereclus, was thine,

The graceful fabric and the fair design;

For, loved by Pallas, Pallas did impart

To him the shipwright's and the builder's art,

Beneath his hand the fleet of Paris rose,

The fatal cause of all his country's woes;

But he, the mystic will of heaven unknown,

Nor saw his country's peril, nor his own.

The hapless artist, while confused he fled,

The spear of Merion mingled with the dead.

Through his right hip, with forceful fury cast,

Between the bladder and the bone it past;

Prone on his knees he falls with fruitless cries,

And death in lasting slumber seals his eyes.

From Meges' force the swift Pedæus fled,

Antenor's offspring from a foreign bed,

Whose generous spouse, Theano, heavenly fair,

Nursed the young stranger with a mother's care.

How vain those cares! when Meges in the rear

Full in his nape infixed the fatal spear;

Swift through his crackling jaws the weapon glides,

And the cold tongue and grinning teeth divides.

Then died Hypsenor, generous and divine,

Sprung from the brave Dolopion's mighty line,

Who near adored Scamander made abode,

Priest of the stream, and honoured as a god.

On him, amidst the flying numbers found,

Eurypylus inflicts a deadly wound;

On his broad shoulder fell the forceful brand,

Thence glancing downwards, lopped his holy hand,

Which stained with sacred blood the blushing sand,

Down sunk the priest: the purple hand of death

Closed his dim eye, and fate suppressed his breath.

Thus toiled the chiefs, in different parts engaged,

In every quarter fierce Tydides raged,

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.

Thus from high hills the torrents swift and strong

Deluge whole fields, and sweep the trees along;

Through ruined moles the rushing wave resounds,

O'erwhelms the bridge, and bursts the lofty bounds;

The yellow harvests of the ripened year,

And flatted vineyards, one sad waste appear,