Page:Homer - Iliad, translation Pope, 1909.djvu/86

84 Then thus, incensed, the Paphian queen replies:

"Obey the power from whom thy glories rise:

Should Venus leave thee, every charm must fly,

Fade from thy cheek, and languish in thy eye.

Cease to provoke me, lest I make thee more

The world's aversion, than their love before;

Now the bright prize for which mankind engage,

Then, the sad victim of the public rage."

At this, the fairest of her sex obeyed,

And veiled her blushes in a silken shade;

Unseen, and silent, from the train she moves,

Led by the goddess of the smiles and loves.

Arrived, and entered at the palace gate,

The maids officious round their mistress wait:

Then all, dispersing, various tasks attend;

The queen and goddess to the prince ascend.

Full in her Paris' sight, the queen of love

Had placed the beauteous progeny of Jove;

Where, as he viewed her charms, she turned away

Her glowing eyes, and thus began to say:

"Is this the chief, who, lost to sense of shame,

Late fled the field, and yet survives his fame?

Oh, hadst thou died beneath the righteous sword

Of that brave man whom once I called my lord!

The boaster Paris oft desired the day

With Sparta's king to meet in single fray:

Go now, once more thy rival's rage excite,

Provoke Atrides, and renew the fight:

Yet Helen bids thee stay, lest thou unskilled

Shouldst fall an easy conquest on the field."

The prince replies: "Ah, cease, divinely fair,

Nor add reproaches to the wounds I bear;

This day the foe prevailed by Pallas' power;

We yet may vanquish in a happier hour:

There want not gods to favour us above;

But let the business of our life be love:

These softer moments let delights employ,

And kind embraces snatch the hasty joy.

Not thus I loved thee, when from Sparta's shore

My forced, my willing, heavenly prize I bore,

When first entranced in Cranaë's isle I lay,

Mixed with thy soul, and all dissolved away."

Thus having spoke, the enamoured Phrygian boy

Rushed to the bed, impatient for the joy.

Him Helen followed slow with bashful charms,

And clasped the blooming hero in her arms.

While these to love's delicious rapture yield,

The stern Atrides rages round the field:

So some fell lion whom the woods obey,