Page:The Iliad and Odyssey of Homer (IA iliadodysseyofho02home).pdf/195

187 With warriors fill'd, who lay'd all Ilium waste. These things rehearse regular, and myself Will, instant, publish in the ears of all Thy fame, reporting thee a bard to whom Apollo free imparts celestial song. He ended; then Apollo with full force Rush'd on Demodocus, and he began What time the Greeks, first firing their own camp Steer'd all their galleys from the shore of Troy. Already, in the horse conceal'd, his band Around Ulysses sat; for Ilium's sons Themselves had drawn it to the citadel. And there the mischief stood. Then, strife arose Among the Trojans compassing the horse, And threefold was the doubt; whether to cleave The hollow trunk asunder, or updrawn Aloft, to cast it headlong from the rocks, Or to permit the enormous image, kept Entire, to stand an off'ring to the Gods, Which was their destined course; for Fate had fix'd Their ruin sure, when once they had received Within their walls that engine huge, in which Sat all the bravest Greecians with the fate Of Ilium charged, and slaughter of her sons. He sang, how, from the horse effused, the Greeks Left their capacious ambush, and the town Made desolate. To others, in his song,