Page:Homer - Iliad, translation Pope, 1909.djvu/424

422 And, grappling close, they tumble side by side.

Defiled with honourable dust, they roll,

Still breathing strife, and unsubdued of soul:

Again they rage, again to combat rise;

When great Achilles thus divides the prize:

"Your noble vigour, O my friends, restrain;

Nor weary out your generous strength in vain.

Ye both have won: let others who excel

Now prove that prowess you have proved so well."

The hero's words the willing chiefs obey,

From their tired bodies wipe the dust away,

And, clothed anew, the following games survey.

And now succeed the gifts ordained to grace

The youths contending in the rapid race:

A silver urn that full six measures held,

By none in weight or workmanship excelled:

Sidonian artists taught the frame to shine,

Elaborate with artifice divine;

Whence Tyrian sailors did the prize transport,

And gave to Thoas at the Lemnian port:

From him descended, good Eunseus heired

The glorious gift; and, for Lycaon spared,

To brave Patroclus gave the rich reward.

Now, the same hero's funeral rites to grace,

It stands the prize of swiftness in the race.

A well-fed ox was for the second placed;

And half a talent must content the last.

Achilles rising then bespoke the train:

"Who hope the palm of swiftness to obtain,

Stand forth, and bear these prizes from the plain."

The hero said, and, starting from his place,

Oïlean Ajax rises to the race;

Ulysses next; and he whose speed surpassed

His youthful equals, Nestor's son the last.

Ranged in a line the ready racers stand;

Pelides points the barrier with his hand:

All start at once; Oileus led the race;

The next Ulysses, measuring pace with pace:

Behind him, diligently close, he sped,

As closely following as the running thread

The spindle follows, and displays the charms

Of the fair spinster's breast, and moving arms:

Graceful in motion thus, his foe he plies,

And treads each footstep ere the dust can rise:

His glowing breath upon his shoulders plays;

The admiring Greeks loud acclamations raise:

To him they give their wishes, hearts, and eyes,

And send their souls before him as he flies.

Now three times turned in prospect of the goal,