Page:Homer - Iliad, translation Pope, 1909.djvu/300

298 As with swift step she formed the running maze:

To her high chamber, from Diana's quire,

The god pursued her, urged, and crowned his fire.

The son confessed his father's heavenly race,

And heired his mother's swiftness in the chase.

Strong Echecleiis, blessed in all those charms

That pleased a god, succeeded to her arms;

Not conscious of those loves, long hid from fame,

With gifts of price he sought and won the dame;

Her secret offspring to her sire she bare;

Her sire caressed him with a parent's care.

Pisander followed; matchless in his art

To wing the spear, or aim the distant dart;

No hand so sure of all the Emathian line,

Or if a surer, great Patroclus! thine.

The fourth by Phoenix' grave command was graced:

Laërces' valiant offspring led the last.

Soon as Achilles with superior care

Had called the chiefs, and ordered all the war,

This stern remembrance to his troops he gave:

"Ye far-famed Myrmidons, ye fierce and brave!

Think with what threats you dared the Trojan throng,

Think what reproach these ears endured so long:

'Stern son of Peleus,' thus ye used to say,

While restless, raging, in your ships you lay,

'Oh nursed with gall, unknowing how to yield!

Whose rage defrauds us of so famed a field,

If that dire fury must for ever burn,

What make we here? Return, ye chiefs, return!'

Such were your words. Now, warriors, grieve no more,

Lo there the Trojans! bathe your swords in gore!

This day shall give you all your soul demands;

Glut all your hearts, and weary all your hands!"

Thus while he roused the fire in every breast,

Close, and more close, the listening cohorts pressed;

Ranks wedged in ranks, of arms a steely ring

Still grows and spreads and thickens round the king.

As when a circling wall the builder forms,

Of strength defensive against winds and storms,

Compacted stones the thickening work compose,

And round him wide the rising structure grows:

So helm to helm, and crest to crest they throng,

Shield urged on shield, and man drove man along:

Thick undistinguished plumes, together joined,

Float in one sea, and wave before the wind.

Far o'er the rest, in glittering pomp appear,

There bold Automedon, Patroclus here;

Brothers in arms, with equal fury fired;

Two friends, two bodies with one soul inspired.