Page:Homer - Iliad, translation Pope, 1909.djvu/205

13—55 Thence the black fury through the Grecian throng

With horror sounds the loud Orthian song:

The navy shakes, and at the dire alarms

Each bosom boils, each warrior starts to arms.

No more they sigh inglorious to return,

But breathe revenge, and for the combat burn.

The king of men his hardy host inspires

With loud command, with great example fires:

Himself first rose, himself before the rest

His mighty limbs in radiant armour dressed;

And first he cased his manly legs around

In shining greaves, with silver buckles bound:

The beaming cuirass next adorned his breast,

The same which once King Cinyras possessed:

The fame of Greece and her assembled host

Had reached that monarch on the Cyprian coast;

'Twas then, the friendship of the chief to gain,

This glorious gift he sent, nor sent in vain:

Ten rows of azure steel the work infold,

Twice ten of tin, and twelve of ductile gold;

Three glittering dragons to the gorget rise,

Whose imitated scales against the skies

Reflected various light, and arching bowed,

Like coloured rainbows o'er a showery cloud;

Jove's wondrous bow, of three celestial dyes,

Placed as a sign to man amid the skies.

A radiant baldrick, o'er his shoulder tied,

Sustained the sword that glittered at his side:

Gold was the hilt, a silver sheath encased

The shining blade, and golden hangers graced.

His buckler's mighty orb was next displayed,

That round the warrior cast a dreadful shade;

Ten zones of brass its ample brim surround,

And twice ten bosses the bright convex crowned;

Tremendous Gorgon frowned upon its field,

And circling terrors fill the expressive shield:

Within its concave hung a silver thong,

On which a mimic serpent creeps along,

His azure length in easy waves extends,

Till in three heads the embroidered monster ends.

Last o'er his brows his fourfold helm he placed,

With nodding horse-hair formidably graced;

And in his hands two steely javelins wields,