Page:Homer - Iliad, translation Pope, 1909.djvu/356

354 Then hear my counsel, and to reason yield;

The bravest soon are satiate of the field;

Though vast the heaps that strew the crimson plain,

The bloody harvest brings but little gain:

The scale of conquest ever wavering lies,

Great Jove but turns it, and the victor dies!

The great, the bold, by thousands daily fall,

And endless were the grief to weep for all.

Eternal sorrows what avails to shed?

Greece honours not with solemn fasts the dead:

Enough, when death demands the brave, to pay

The tribute of a melancholy day;

One chief with patience to the grave resigned,

Our care devolves on others left behind.

Let generous food supplies of strength produce,

Let rising spirit flow from sprightly juice,

Let their warm heads with scenes of battle glow,

And pour new furies on the feebler foe.

Yet a short interval, and none shall dare

Expect a second summons to the war;

Who waits for that, the dire effect shall find,

If trembling hi the ship he lags behind.

Embodied, to the battle let us bend,

And all at once on haughty Troy descend."

And now the delegates Ulysses sent,

To bear the presents from the royal tent.

The sons of Nestor, Phyleus' valiant heir,

Thoas and Merion, thunderbolts of war,

With Lycomedes of Creontian strain,

And Melanippus, formed the chosen train.

Swift as the word was given, the youths obeyed;

Twice ten bright vases in the midst they laid;

A row of six fair tripods then succeeds;

And twice the number of high-bounding steeds;

Seven captives next a lovely line compose;

The eighth Briseis, like the blooming rose,

Closed the bright band: great Ithacus before,

First of the train, the golden talents bore:

The rest in public view the chiefs dispose,

A splendid scene! Then Agamemnon rose:

The boar Talthybius held: the Grecian lord

Drew the broad cutlass sheathed beside his sword;

The stubborn bristles from the victim's brow

He crops, and, offering, meditates his vow.

His hands uplifted to the attesting skies,

On heaven's broad marble roof were fixed his eyes;

The solemn words a deep attention draw,

And Greece around sat thrilled with sacred awe:

"Witness, thou first! thou greatest power above;