Page:Homer - Iliad, translation Pope, 1909.djvu/117

706—754 Who, sheathed in brass, the Paphlagonians led.

Atrides marked him where sublime he stood;

Fixed in his throat, the javelin drank his blood.

The faithful Mydon, as he turned from fight

His flying coursers, sunk to endless night:

A broken rock by Nestor's son was thrown;

His bended arm received the falling stone;

From his numbed hand the ivory-studded reins

Dropped in the dust, are trailed along the plains:

Meanwhile his temples feel a deadly wound;

He groans in death, and ponderous sinks to ground:

Deep drove his helmet in the sands, and there

The head stood fixed, the quivering legs in air,

Till trampled flat beneath the coursers' feet:

The youthful victor mounts his empty seat,

And bears the prize in triumph to the fleet.

Great Hector saw, and, raging at the view,

Pours on the Greeks; the Trojan troops pursue;

He fires his host with animating cries,

And brings along the fury of the skies.

Mars, stern destroyer! and Bellona dread,

Flame in the front, and thunder at their head:

This swells the tumult and the rage of fight;

That shakes a spear that casts a dreadful light;

Where Hector marched, the god of battles shined,

Now stormed before him, and now raged behind.

Tydides paused amidst his full career;

Then first the hero's manly breast knew fear.

As when some simple swain his cot forsakes,

And wide thro' fens an unknown journey takes; If chance a swelling brook his passage stay, And foam impervious cross the wanderer's way, Confused he stops, a length of country past, Eyes the rough waves, and, tired, returns at last: Amazed no less the great Tydides stands; He stayed, and, turning, thus addressed his bands: "No wonder, Greeks, that all to Hector yield, Secure of favouring gods, he takes the field; His strokes they second, and avert our spears: Behold where Mars in mortal arms appears!

Retire, then, warriors, but sedate and slow;

Retire, but with your faces to the foe.

Trust not too much your unavailing might;

'Tis not with Troy, but with the gods, ye fight."

Now near the Greeks the black battalions drew;

And first, two leaders valiant Hector slew:

His force Anchialus and Mnesthes found,

In every art of glorious war renowned:

In the same car the chiefs to combat ride,