Page:Homer - Iliad, translation Pope, 1909.djvu/148

146 The blunted point against the buckler bends.

But Ajax, watchful as his foe drew near,

Drove through the Trojan targe the knotty spear;

It reached his neck, with matchless strength impelled;

Spouts the black gore, and dims the shining shield.

Yet ceased not Hector thus; but, stooping down,

In his strong hand upheaved a flinty stone,

Black, craggy, vast: to this his force he bends;

Full on the brazen boss the stone descends;

The hollow brass resounded with the shock.

Then Ajax seized the fragment of a rock,

Applied each nerve, and, swinging round on high,

With force tempestuous let the ruin fly:

The huge stone thundering through his buckler broke;

His slackened knees received the numbing stroke;

Great Hector falls extended on the field,

His bulk supporting on the shattered shield:

Nor wanted heavenly aid: Apollo's might

Confirmed his sinews, and restored to fight.

And now both heroes their broad faulchions drew;

In flaming circles round their heads they flew;

But then by heralds' voice the word was given,

The sacred ministers of earth and heaven:

Divine Talthybius whom the Greeks employ,

And sage Idæus on the part of Troy,

Between the swords their peaceful sceptres reared;

And first Idæus' awful voice was heard:

"Forbear, my sons! your farther force to prove,

Both dear to men, and both beloved of Jove.

To either host your matchless worth is known,

Each sounds your praise, and war is all your own.

But now the night extends her awful shade:

The goddess parts you: be the night obeyed."

To whom great Ajax his high soul expressed:

"O sage! to Hector be these words addressed.

Let him, who first provoked our chiefs to fight,

Let him demand the sanction of the night;

If first he ask it, I content obey,

And cease the strife when Hector shews the way.

"O first of Greeks!" his noble foe rejoined,

"Whom heaven adorns, superior to thy kind,

With strength of body, and with worth of mind,

Now martial law commands us to forbear;

Hereafter we shall meet in glorious war;

Some future day shall lengthen out the strife,

And let the gods decide of death or life:

Since then the night extends her gloomy shade,

And heaven enjoins it, be the night obeyed.

Return, brave Ajax, to thy Grecian friends,