Page:Homer - Iliad, translation Pope, 1909.djvu/331

659—707 What Grecian now shall tremble at thy name?

Dost thou at length to Menelaiis yield,

A chief once thought no terror of the field?

Yet singly, now, the long-disputed prize

He bears victorious, while our army flies.

By the same arm illustrious Podes bled,

The friend of Hector, unrevenged, is dead!"

This heard, o'er Hector spreads a cloud of woe,

Rage lifts his lance, and drives him on the foe.

But now the Eternal shook his sable shield,

That shaded Ide, and all the subject field,

Beneath its ample verge. A rolling cloud

Involved the mount, the thunder roared aloud:

The affrighted hills from their foundations nod,

And blaze beneath the lightnings of the god:

At one regard of his all-seeing eye,

The vanquished triumph, and the victors fly.

Then trembled Greece: the flight Peneleus led;

For, as the brave Bœotian turned his head

To face the foe, Polydamas drew near,

And razed his shoulder with a shortened spear:

By Hector wounded, Leitus quits the plain,

Pierced through the wrist; and, raging with the pain,

Grasps his once formidable lance in vain.

As Hector followed, Idomen addressed

The flaming javelin to his manly breast;

The brittle point before his corselet yields;

Exulting Troy with clamour fills the fields:

High on his chariot as the Cretan stood,

The son of Priam whirled the missive wood:

But, erring from its aim, the impetuous spear

Struck to the dust the squire and charioteer

Of martial Merion: Coeranus his name,

Who left fair Lyctus for the fields of fame.

On foot bold Merion fought; and now, laid low,

Had graced the triumphs of his Trojan foe;

But the brave squire the ready coursers brought,

And with his life his master's safety bought.

Between his cheek and ear the weapon went,

The teeth it shattered, and the tongue it rent.

Prone from the seat he tumbles to the plain;

His dying hand forgets the falling rein:

This Merion reaches, bending from the car,

And urges to desert the hopeless war;

Idomeneus consents; the lash applies;

And the swift chariot to the navy flies.

Nor Ajax less the will of heaven descried,

And conquest shifting to the Trojan side,

Turned by the hand of Jove. Then thus begun,