Page:Homer - Iliad, translation Pope, 1909.djvu/265

165—213 But heaven forsakes not thee: o'er yonder sands

Soon shalt thou view the scattered Trojan bands

Fly diverse, while proud kings and chiefs renowned,

Driven heaps on heaps, with clouds involved around

Of rolling dust, their winged wheels employ

To hide their ignominious heads in Troy."

He spoke, then rushed among the warrior crew:

And sent his voice before him as he flew,

Loud, as the shout encountering armies yield,

When twice ten thousand shake the labouring field:

Such was the voice, and such the thundering sound

Of him whose trident rends the solid ground.

Each Argive bosom beats to meet the fight,

And grizly war appears a pleasing sight.

Meantime Saturnia from Olympus' brow,

High-throned in gold, beheld the fields below;

With joy the glorious conflict she surveyed,

Where her great brother gave the Grecians aid.

But placed aloft, on Ida's shady height

She sees her Jove, and trembles at the sight.

Jove to deceive, what methods shall she try,

What arts, to blind his all-beholding eye?

At length she trusts her power; resolved to prove

The old, yet still successful, cheat of love;

Against his wisdom to oppose her charms,

And lull the lord of thunders in her arms.

Swift to her bright apartment she repairs,

Sacred to dress, and beauty's pleasing cares;

With skill divine had Vulcan formed the bower,

Safe from access of each intruding Power.

Touched with her secret key, the doors unfold

Self-closed, behind her shut the valves of gold.

Here first she bathes; and round her body pours

Soft oils of fragrance, and ambrosial showers:

The winds, perfumed, the balmy gale convey

Through heaven, through earth, and all the aërial way;

Spirit divine! whose exhalation greets

The sense of gods with more than mortal sweets.

Thus while she breathed of heaven, with decent pride

Her artful hands the radiant tresses tied;

Part on her head in shining ringlets rolled,

Part o'er her shoulders waved like melted gold.

Around her next a heavenly mantle flowed,

That rich with Pallas' laboured colours glowed;

Large clasps of gold the foldings gathered round,

A golden zone her swelling bosom bound.

Far-beaming pendants tremble in her ear,

Each gem illumined with a triple star.

Then o'er her head she cast a veil more white