Page:Homer - Iliad, translation Pope, 1909.djvu/126



Now heaven forsakes the fight; the immortals yield

To human force and human skill the field:

Dark showers of javelins fly from foes to foes;

Now here, now there, the tide of combat flows;

While Troy's famed streams, that bound the deathful plain,

On either side run purple to the main.

Great Ajax first to conquest led the way,

Broke the thick ranks, and turned the doubtful day.

The Thracian Acamas his faulchion found,

And hewed the enormous giant to the ground;

His thundering arm a deadly stroke impressed

Where the black horse-hair nodded o'er his crest:

Fixed in his front the brazen weapon lies,

And seals in endless shades his swimming eyes.

Next Teuthras' son distained the sands with blood,

Axylus, hospitable, rich, and good:

In fair Arisba's walls, his native place,

He held his seat; a friend to human race.

Fast by the road, his ever-open door

Obliged the wealthy, and relieved the poor.

To stern Tydides now he falls a prey,

No friend to guard him in the dreadful day;

Breathless the good man fell, and by his side