Page:Homer - Iliad, translation Pope, 1909.djvu/111

414—462 New to the field, and still a foe to fame.

Thro' breaking ranks his furious course he bends,

And at the goddess his broad lance extends;

Through her bright veil the daring weapon drove,

The ambrosial veil, which all the Graces wove:

Her snowy hand the razing steel profaned,

And the transparent skin with crimson stained.

From the clear vein a stream immortal flowed,

Such stream as issues from a wounded god;

Pure emanation! uncorrupted flood;

Unlike our gross, diseased, terrestrial blood:

For not the bread of man their life sustains,

Nor wine's inflaming juice supplies their veins.

With tender shrieks the goddess filled the place,

And dropped her offspring from her weak embrace.

Him Phœbus took: he casts a cloud around

The fainting chief, and wards the mortal wound.

Then with a voice that shook the vaulted skies,

The king insults the goddess as she flies:

"Ill with Jove's daughter bloody fights agree,

The field of combat is no scene for thee:

Go, let thy own soft sex employ thy care,

Go, lull the coward, or delude the fair.

Taught by this stroke, renounce the war's alarms,

And learn to tremble at the name of arms."

Tydides thus. The goddess, seized with dread,

Confused, distracted, from the conflict fled.

To aid her, swift the winged Iris flew,

Wrapt in a mist above the warring crew.

The queen of love with faded charms she found,

Pale was her cheek, and livid looked the wound.

To Mars, who sat remote, they bent their way;

Far on the left, with clouds involved he lay;

Beside him stood his lance, distained with gore,

And, reined with gold, his foaming steeds before:

Low at his knee, she begged, with streaming eyes,

Her brother's car, to mount the distant skies,

And showed the wound by fierce Tydides given,

A mortal man, who dares encounter heaven.

Stern Mars attentive hears the queen complain,

And to her hand commits the golden rein:

She mounts the seat, oppressed with silent woe,

Driven by the goddess of the painted bow.

The lash resounds, the rapid chariot flies,

And in a moment scales the lofty skies.

There stopped the car, and there the coursers stood,

Fed by fair Iris with ambrosial food.

Before her mother, Love's bright queen appears,

O'erwhelmed with anguish and dissolved in tears;