Page:Homer - Iliad, translation Pope, 1909.djvu/71

889—937 Which Podalirius and Machaon guide.

To these his skill their parent-god imparts,

Divine professors of the healing arts.

The bold Ormenian and Asterian bands

In forty barks Eurypylus commands,

Where Titan hides his hoary head in snow,

And where Hyperia's silver fountains flow.

Thy troops, Argissa, Polypœtes leads,

And Eleon, sheltered by Olympus' shades,

Gyrtonè's warriors; and where Orthè lies,

And Oloösson's chalky cliffs arise.

Sprung from Pirithoüs of immortal race,

The fruit of fair Hippodamè's embrace,

That day, when, hurled from Pelion's cloudy head,

To distant dens the shaggy Centaurs fled,

With Polypœtes joined in equal sway,

Leonteus leads, and forty ships obey.

In twenty sail the bold Perrhæbians came

From Cyphus; Guneus was their leader's name.

With these the Enians joined, and those who freeze

Where cold Dodona lifts her holy trees;

Or where the pleasing Titaresius glides,

And into Peneus rolls his easy tides;

Yet o'er the silver surface pure they flow,

The sacred stream unmixed with streams below,

Sacred and awful! From the dark abodes

Styx pours them forth, the dreadful oath of gods!

Last under Prothous the Magnesians stood,

Prothous the swift, of old Tenthredon's blood;

Who dwell where Pelion, crowned with piny boughs,

Obscures the glade, and nods his shaggy brows:

Or where through flowery Tempè Peneus strayed,

The region stretched beneath his mighty shade:

In forty sable barks they stemmed the main;

Such were the chiefs, and such the Grecian train.

Say next, O Muse! of all Achaïa breeds,

Who bravest fought, or reined the noblest steeds?

Eumelus' mares were foremost in the chase,

As eagles fleet, and of Pheretian race;

Bred where Pieria's fruitful fountains flow,

And trained by him who bears the silver bow.

Fierce in the fight, their nostrils breathed a flame,

Their height, their colour, and their age, the same;

O'er fields of death they whirl the rapid car,

And break the ranks, and thunder through the war.

Ajax in arms the first renown acquired,

While stern Achilles in his wrath retired;

His was the strength that mortal might exceeds,

And his the unrivalled race of heavenly steeds: