Page:Homer - Iliad, translation Pope, 1909.djvu/320

318 Now, entered in the Spartan ranks, he turned

His manly breast, and with new fury burned:

O'er all the black battalions sent his view,

And through the cloud the godlike Ajax knew;

Where labouring on the left the warrior stood,

All grim in arms, and covered o'er with blood;

There breathing courage, where the god of day

Had sunk each heart with terror and dismay.

To him the king: "Oh Ajax, oh my friend!

Haste, and Patroclus' loved remains defend:

The body to Achilles to restore,

Demands our care; alas! we can no more!

For naked now, despoiled of arms, he lies;

And Hector glories in the dazzling prize."

He said, and touched his heart. The raging pair

Pierce the thick battle, and provoke the war.

Already had stern Hector seized his head,

And doomed to Trojan dogs the unhappy dead;

But soon as, Ajax reared his tower-like shield,

Sprung to his car, and measured back the field.

His train to Troy the radiant armour bear,

To stand a trophy of his fame in war.

Meanwhile great Ajax, his broad shield displayed,

Guards the dead hero with the dreadful shade;

And now before, and now behind he stood:

Thus, in the centre of some gloomy wood,

With many a step the lioness surrounds

Her tawny young, beset by men and hounds;

Elate her heart, and rousing all her powers,

Dark o'er the fiery balls each hanging eyebrow lowers.

Fast by his side the generous Spartan glows

With great revenge, and feeds his inward woes.

But Glaucus, leader of the Lycian aids,

On Hector frowning, thus his flight upbraids:

"Where now in Hector shall we Hector find?

A manly form, without a manly mind!

Is this, O chief! a hero's boasted fame?

How vain, without the merit, is the name!

Since battle is renounced, thy thoughts employ

What other methods may preserve thy Troy:

'Tis time to try if Ilion's state can stand

By thee alone, nor ask a foreign hand;

Mean, empty boast I but shall the Lycians stake

Their lives for you, those Lycians you forsake?

What from thy thankless arms can we expect?

Thy friend Sarpedon proves thy base neglect:

Say, shall our slaughtered bodies guard your walls,

While unrevenged the great Sarpedon falls?

E'en where he died for Troy, you left him there,