Part 42 (1/2)
The towering Ajax, with an ample stride, Advanced the first, and thus the chief defied:
”Hector! come on; thy e Jove we fear: The skill of war to us not idly given, Lo! Greece is humbled, not by Troy, but Heaven
Vain are the hopes that haughty mind imparts, To force our fleet: the Greeks have hands and hearts
Long ere in flames our lofty navy fall, Your boasted city, and your God-built wall, Shall sink beneath us, s unmeasured ruin round
The ti the plain, Even thou shalt call on Jove, and call in vain; Even thou shalt wish, to aid thy desperate course, The wings of falcons for thy flying horse; Shalt run, forgetful of a warrior's fame, While clouds of friendly dust conceal thy sha wings a dexter eagle flew
To Jove's glad oress through the skies: Far-echoing clamours bound from side to side; They ceased; and thus the chief of Troy replied:
”Fro strain?
Enormous boaster! doom'd to vaunt in vain
So may the Gods on Hector life bestow, (Not that short life which e born, The blue-eyed ilds the morn,) As this decisive day shall end the faos be no more a name
And thou, imperious! if thy madness wait The lance of Hector, thou shalt iant-corse, extended on the shore, Shall largely feast the foith fat and gore”
He said; and like a lion stalk'd along: With shouts incessant earth and ocean rung, Sent fro thunders fill'd the echoing plain; A shout that tore heaven's concave, and, above, Shook the fix'd splendours of the throne of Jove
[Illustration: GREEK EARRINGS]
GREEK EARRINGS
BOOK XIV
ARGUMENT(231)
JUNO DECEIVES JUPITER BY THE GIRDLE OF VENUS
Nestor, sitting at the table with Machaon, is alaramemnon; on his way he meets that prince with Dioer
Agaht, which Ulysses withstands; to which Dioo forth and encourage the ar the partiality of Jupiter to the Trojans, forn to over-reach him: she sets off her charms with the utmost care, and (the irdle of Venus She then applies herself to the God of sleep, and, with some difficulty, persuades hioes to ht, is ravished with her beauty, sinks in her ee of his sluround with a prodigious stone by Ajax, and carried off from the battle: several actions succeed, till the Trojans, nalizes hienial feast, nor flowing bowl, Could charm the cares of Nestor's watchful soul; His startled ears the increasing cries attend; Then thus, impatient, to his wounded friend:
”What new alarhty day?
Hark! how the shouts divide, and how they meet, And now come full, and thicken to the fleet!
Here with the cordial draught dispel thy care, Let Heca bath prepare, Refresh thy wound, and cleanse the clotted gore; While I the adventures of the day explore”
He said: and, seizing Thrasy,) hasten'd to the field; (That day the son his father's buckler bore;) Then snatch'd a lance, and issued from the door
Soon as the prospect open'd to his view, His wounded eyes the scene of sorro; Dire disarray! the tuht
As when old ocean's silent surface sleeps, The waves just heaving on the purple deeps: While yet the expected tehs down the cloud, and blackens in the sky, The ust, and bids thee, Fluctuates in doubtful thought the Pylian sage, To join the host, or to the general haste; Debating long, he fixes on the last: Yet, as he s dreadful with the clang of ar falchions flash, the javelins fly; Blows echo blows, and all or kill or die
Him, in hisfro of men, Ulysses the divine, And who to Tydeus owes his noble line(232) (Their shi+ps at distance fro strand: Whose bay, the fleet unable to contain At length; beside the in of the main, Rank above rank, the crowded shi+ps they hest on the shore) Supported on the spears, they took their way, Unfit to fight, but anxious for the day
Nestor's approach alareneral of the host address'd:
”O grace and glory of the Achaian name; What drives thee, Nestor, from the field of fame?
Shall then proud Hector see his boast fulfill'd, Our fleets in ashes, and our heroes kill'd?
Such was his threat, ah! now too soon ood, On many a Grecian bosoe Against your king, nor will one chief engage?
And have I lived to see with mournful eyes In every Greek a new Achilles rise?”
Gerenian Nestor then: ”So fate has will'd; And all-confir time has fate fulfill'd