Page:Homer - Iliad, translation Pope, 1909.djvu/251

603—651 And met the Trojan with a lowering look.

Antilochus, Deïpyrus, were near,

The youthful offspring of the god of war;

Merion, and Aphareus, in field renowned:

To these the warrior sent his voice around:

"Fellows in arms! your timely aid unite:

Lo, great Æneas rushes to the fight:

Sprung from a god, and more than mortal bold:

He fresh in youth and I in arms grown old.

Else should this hand, this hour, decide the strife,

The great dispute, of glory, or of life."

He spoke, and all as with one soul obeyed,

Their lifted bucklers cast a dreadful shade

Around the chief. Æneas too demands

The assisting forces of his native bands:

Paris, Deïphobus, Agenor join,

Co-aids and captains of the Trojan line;

In order follow all the embodied train;

Lake Ida's flocks proceeding o'er the plain:

Before his fleecy care, erect and bold,

Stalks the proud ram, the father of the fold:

With joy the swain surveys them, as he leads

To the cool fountains through the well-known meads:

So joys Æneas, as his native band

Moves on in rank, and stretches o'er the land.

Round dead Alcathoüs now the battle rose;

On every side the steely circle grows;

Now battered breast-plates and hacked helmets ring,

And o'er their heads unheeded javelins sing.

Above the rest, two towering chiefs appear,

There great Idomeneus, Æneas here.

Like gods of war, dispensing fate, they stood,

And burned to drench the ground with mutual blood.

The Trojan weapon whizzed along in air:

The Cretan saw, and shunned the brazen spear:

Sent from an arm so strong, the missive wood

Stuck deep in earth, and quivered where it stood.

But Œnomas received the Cretan's stroke;

The forceful spear his hollow corselet broke;

It ripped his belly with a ghastly wound,

And rolled the smoking entrails to the ground;

Stretched on the plain, he sobs away his breath,

And furious grasps the bloody dust in death.

The victor from his breast the weapon tears;

His spoils he could not, for the shower of spears;

Though now unfit an active war to wage,

Heavy with cumbrous arms, stiff with cold age,

His listless limbs unable for the course,

In standing fight he yet maintains his force: