Page:Homer - Iliad, translation Pope, 1909.djvu/119

803—851 Thus haughty spoke. The Lycian king replied:

"Thy sire, O prince! o'erturned the Trojan state,

Whose perjured monarch well deserved his fate;

Those heavenly steeds the hero sought so far,

False he detained, the just reward of war:

Nor so content, the generous chief defied,

With base reproaches and unmanly pride.

But you, unworthy the high race you boast,

Shall raise my glory when thy own is lost;

Now meet thy fate, and, by Sarpedon slain,

Add one more ghost to Pluto's gloomy reign."

He said: both javelins at an instant flew:

Both struck, both wounded, but Sarpedon's slew:

Full in the boaster's neck the weapon stood,

Transfixed his throat, and drank the vital blood;

The soul disdainful seeks the caves of night,

And his sealed eyes for ever lose the light.

Yet not in vain, Tlepolemus, was thrown

Thy angry lance; which, piercing to the bone

Sarpedon's thigh, had robbed the chief of breath,

But Jove was present, and forbade the death.

Borne from the conflict by his Lycian throng,

The wounded hero dragged the lance along:

His friends, each busied in his several part,

Through haste, or danger, had not drawn the dart.

The Greeks with slain Tlepolemus retired;

Whose fall Ulysses viewed, with fury fired;

Doubtful if Jove's great son he should pursue,

Or pour his vengeance on the Lycian crew:

But heaven and fate the first design withstand,

Nor this great death must grace Ulysses' hand.

Minerva drives him on the Lycian train;

Alastor, Cromius, Halius, strewed the plain,

Alcander, Prytanis, Noëmon fell;

And numbers more his sword had sent to hell,

But Hector saw; and, furious at the sight,

Rushed terrible amidst the ranks of fight.

With joy Sarpedon viewed the wished relief,

And faint, lamenting, thus implored the chief:

"Oh, suffer not the foe to bear away

My helpless corpse, an unassisted prey!

If I, unblessed, must see my son no more,

My much-loved consort, and my native shore,

Yet let me die in Ilion's sacred wall;

Troy, in whose cause I fell, shall mourn my fall."

He said, nor Hector to the chief replies,

But shakes his plume, and fierce to combat flies,

Swift as a whirlwind drives the scattering foes,

And dyes the ground with purple as he goes.