Page:Homer - Iliad, translation Pope, 1909.djvu/45

449–497 In blood and slaughter shall repent at last."

Patroclus now the unwilling beauty brought;

She, in soft sorrows, and in pensive thought,

Passed silent, as the heralds held her hand,

And oft looked back, slow-moving o'er the strand.

Not so his loss the fierce Achilles bore,

But sad retiring to the sounding shore,

O'er the wild margin of the deep he hung,

That kindred deep from whence his mother sprung;

There, bathed in tears of anger and disdain,

Thus loud lamented to the stormy main:

"O parent goddess! since in early bloom

Thy son must fall, by too severe a doom;

Sure, to so short a race of glory born,

Great Jove in justice should this span adorn;

Honour and fame at least the Thunderer owed;

And ill he pays the promise of a god,

If yon proud monarch thus thy son defies,

Obscures my glories, and resumes my prize."

Far in the deep recesses of the main,

Where aged Ocean holds his watery reign,

The goddess-mother heard. The waves divide;

And like a mist she rose above the tide;

Beheld him mourning on the naked shores,

And thus the sorrows of his soul explores:

"Why grieves my son? thy anguish let me share,

Reveal the cause, and trust a parent's care."

He, deeply sighing, said: "To tell my woe

Is but to mention what too well you know.

From Thebè, sacred to Apollo's name,

Eëtion's realm, our conquering army came,

With treasure loaded and triumphant spoils,

Whose just division crowned the soldier's toils;

But bright Chryseïs, heavenly prize! was led

By vote selected to the general's bed.

The priest of Phœbus sought by gifts to gain

His beauteous daughter from the victor's chain;

The fleet he reached, and, lowly bending down,

Held forth the sceptre and the laurel crown,

Entreating all; but chief implored for grace

The brother-kings of Atreus' royal race:

The generous Greeks their joint consent declare,

The priest to reverence, and release the fair.

Not so Atrides: he, with wonted pride,

The sire insulted, and his gifts denied:

The insulted sire, his god's peculiar care,

To Phœbus prayed, and Phœbus heard the prayer:

A dreadful plague ensues; the avenging darts

Incessant fly, and pierce the Grecian hearts.