Page:Homer - Iliad, translation Pope, 1909.djvu/76

74 When, to the van, before the sons of fame

Whom Troy sent forth, the beauteous Paris came:

In form a god! the panther's speckled hide

Flowed o'er his armour with an easy pride;

His bended bow across his shoulders flung,

His sword beside him negligently hung;

Two pointed spears he shook with gallant grace,

And dared the bravest of the Grecian race.

As thus, with glorious air and proud disdain,

He boldly stalked, the foremost on the plain,

Him Menelaüs, loved of Mars, espies,

With heart elated, and with joyful eyes:

So joys a lion, if the branching deer

Or mountain goat, his bulky prize, appear;

In vain the youths oppose, the mastiffs bay,

The lordly savage rends the panting prey.

Thus, fond of vengeance, with a furious bound,

In clanging arms he leaps upon the ground

From his high chariot: him, approaching near,

The beauteous champion views with marks of fear,

Smit with a conscious sense, retires behind

And shuns the fate he well deserved to find.

As when some shepherd, from the rustling trees

Shot forth to view, a scaly serpent sees;

Trembling and pale, he starts with wild affright,

And, all confused, precipitates his flight:

So from the king the shining warrior flies,

And plunged amid the thickest Trojans lies.

As godlike Hector sees the prince retreat,

He thus upbraids him with a generous heat:

"Unhappy Paris! but to women brave!

So fairly formed, and only to deceive!

Oh, hadst thou died when first thou saw'st the light,

Or died at least before thy nuptial rite!

A better fate, than vainly thus to boast,

And fly, the scandal of thy Trojan host.

Gods! how the scornful Greeks exult to see

Their fears of danger undeceived in thee!

Thy figure promised with a martial air,

But ill thy soul supplies a form so fair.

In former days, in all thy gallant pride,

When thy tall ships triumphant stemmed the tide,

When Greece beheld thy painted canvas flow,

And crowds stood wondering at the passing show;

Say, was it thus, with such a baffled mien,

You met the approaches of the Spartan queen,

Thus from her realm conveyed the beauteous prize,

And both her warlike lords outshined in Helen's eyes?

This deed, thy foes' delight, thy own disgrace,