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240 They when the whole assembly strove,

Like them their crooked chariot drove;

Contending with the Grecian train

Whose costly steeds the palm should gain.

While they in contest never shown,

Are pass'd with silence and unknown.

Obscure their fate, too, who contend

Ere they attain the wish'd-for end,

And this their glorious toils bestow.

Oft the superior in the fray

Has seen his guerdon snatched away

By fraud of some inferior foe.

Ye know that Ajax' deadly might

By his own sword at dead of night

Cut off untimely, reprehension bore

To Hellas' sons, who sought the Trojan shore.

But Homer's songs with honour grace

Him among men of warlike race;

Those strains divine his valour raise,

Heralds of after ages' praise:

For this immortal sound proceeds

When bards proclaim triumphant deeds;

While through the fruitful earth and main

This beam its deathless splendour shall maintain.

Propitious be the muses' care!

As we the torch of song illume,

And to Telesia's offspring bear,

Melissus brave, the chaplet fair,

Worthy upon the victor's brow to bloom.