Page:Homer - Iliad, translation Pope, 1909.djvu/77

74—122 Thy father's grief, and ruin of thy race;

This deed recalls thee to the proffered fight;

Or hast thou injured whom thou darest not right?

Soon to thy cost the field would make thee know

Thou keepest the consort of a braver foe.

Thy graceful form instilling soft desire,

Thy curling tresses, and thy silver lyre,

Beauty and youth, in vain to these you trust,

When youth and beauty shall be laid in dust:

Troy yet may wake, and one avenging blow

Crush the dire author of his country's woe."

His silence here, with blushes, Paris breaks:

"'Tis just, my brother, what your anger speaks:

But who like thee can boast a soul sedate,

So firmly proof to all the shocks of fate?

Thy force, like steel, a tempered hardness shews,

Still edged to wound, and still untired with blows,

Like steel, uplifted by some strenuous swain,

With falling woods to strew the wasted plain.

Thy gifts I praise; nor thou despise the charms

With which a lover golden Venus arms;

Soft moving speech, and pleasing outward show,

No wish can gain them, but the gods bestow.

Yet, wouldst thou have the proffered combat stand,

The Greeks and Trojans seat on either hand;

Then let a mid-way space our hosts divide,

And on that stage of war the cause be tried:

By Paris there the Spartan king be fought,

For beauteous Helen and the wealth she brought;

And who his rival can in arms subdue,

His be the fair, and his the treasure too.

Thus with a lasting league your toils may cease,

And Troy possess her fertile fields in peace;

Thus may the Greeks review their native shore, Much famed for generous steeds, for beauty more." He said. The challenge Hector heard with joy, Then with his spear restrained the youth of Troy, Held by the midst, athwart; and near the foe Advanced with steps majestically slow; While round his dauntless head the Grecians pour Their stones and arrows in a mingled shower. Then thus the monarch, great Atrides, cried: "Forbear, ye warriors! lay the darts aside: A parley Hector asks, a message bears; We know him by the various plume he wears." Awed by his high command the Greeks attend, The tumult silence, and the fight suspend. While from the centre Hector rolls his eyes On either host, and thus to both applies: