Page:Homer - Iliad, translation Pope, 1909.djvu/46

44 A prophet then, inspired by heaven, arose,

And points the crime, and thence derives the woes:

Myself the first the assembled chiefs incline

To avert the vengeance of the Power divine;

Then, rising in his wrath, the monarch stormed;

Incensed he threatened, and his threats performed.

The fair Chryseïs to her sire was sent,

With offered gifts to make the god relent;

But now he seized Briseïs' heavenly charms,

And of my valour's prize defrauds my arms,

Defrauds the votes of all the Grecian train;

And service, faith, and justice, plead in vain.

But, goddess! thou thy suppliant son attend,

To high Olympus' shining court ascend,

Urge all the ties to former service owed,

And sue for vengeance to the thundering god.

Oft hast thou triumphed in the glorious boast

That thou stood'st forth, of all the ethereal host,

When bold rebellion shook the realms above,

The undaunted guard of cloud-compelling Jove.

When the bright partner of his awful reign,

The warlike Maid, and monarch of the main,

The traitor-gods, by mad ambition driven,

Durst threat with chains the omnipotence of Heaven.

Then called by thee, the monster Titan came,

Whom gods Briareus, men Ægeon name;

Through wondering skies enormous stalked along;

Not he that shakes the solid earth so strong:

With giant-pride at Jove's high throne he stands,

And brandished round him all his hundred hands.

The affrighted gods confessed their awful lord,

They dropped the fetters, trembled and adored.

This, goddess, this to his remembrance call,

Embrace his knees, at his tribunal fall;

Conjure him far to drive the Grecian train,

To hurl them headlong to their fleet and main,

To heap the shores with copious death, and bring

The Greeks to know the curse of such a king:

Let Agamemnon lift his haughty head

O'er all his wide dominion of the dead,

And mourn in blood, that e'er he durst disgrace

The boldest warrior of the Grecian race."

"Unhappy son!" fair Thetis thus replies,

While tears celestial trickle from her eyes,

"Why have I borne thee with a mother's throes,

To fates averse, and nursed for future woes?

So short a space the light of heaven to view!

So short a space! and filled with sorrow too!

O might a parent's careful wish prevail,