Part 37 (1/2)
And you, confederate chiefs fron lands!
What entrance here can cumbrous chariots find, The stakes beneath, the Grecian walls behind?
No pass through those, without a thousand wounds, No space for cohty Jove has shown, On certain dangers we too rashly run: If 'tis will our haughty foes to tame, Oh may this instant end the Grecian naos, let their heroes fall, And one great day destroy and bury all!
But should they turn, and here oppress our train, What hopes, what ed in the trench, by our own troops confused, In one proe crush'd and bruised, All Troy must perish, if their arms prevail, Nor shall a Trojan live to tell the tale
Hear then, ye warriors! and obey with speed; Back fro, wedged in firm array, Proceed on foot, and Hector lead the way
So Greece shall stoop before our conquering power, And this (if Jove consent) her fatal hour”
[Illustration: POLYDAMAS ADVISING HECTOR]
POLYDAMAS ADVISING HECTOR
This counsel pleased: the Godlike Hector sprung Swift fro
The chief's example follow'd by his train, Each quits his car, and issues on the plain, By orders strict the charioteers enjoin'd Compel the coursers to their ranks behind
The forces part in five distinguish'd bands, And all obey their several chiefs' commands
The best and bravest in the first conspire, Pant for the fight, and threat the fleet with fire: Great Hector glorious in the van of these, Polydaraceful Paris shi+nes, And bold Alcathous, and Agenor joins
The sons of Priam with the third appear, Deiphobus, and Helenas the seer; In arhty Asius stood, Who drew from Hyrtacus his noble blood, And whom Arisba's yellow coursers bore, The coursers fed on Selle's winding shore
Antenor's sons the fourth battalion guide, And great aeneas, born on fountful Ide
Divine Sarpedon the last band obey'd, Whom Glaucus and Asteropaeus aid
Next him, the bravest, at their army's head, But he more brave than all the hosts he led
Noith coions speed their headlong way: Already in their hopes they fire the fleet, And see the Grecians gasping at their feet
While every Trojan thus, and every aid, The advice of wise Polyda in his car, His vaunted coursers urged to meet the war
Unhappy hero! and advised in vain; Those wheels returning ne'er shall mark the plain; No more those coursers with triuates of Troy!
Black death attends behind the Grecian wall, And great Idomeneus shall boast thy fall!
Fierce to the left he drives, where froain; Swift through the wall their horse and chariots pass'd, The gates half-open'd to receive the last
Thither, exulting in his force, he flies: His following host with cla in the main, Such their proud hopes; but all their hopes were vain!
To guard the gates, two hty chiefs attend, Who froreat Perithous' heir, And that Leonteus, like the God of war
As two tall oaks, before the wall they rise; Their roots in earth, their heads a arms with leafy honours crown'd, Forbid the teh on the hills appears their stately forraceful these, and so the shock they stand Of raging Asius, and his furious band
Orestes, Acamas, in front appear, And OEnomaus and Thoon close the rear: In vain their clamours shake the ambient fields, In vain around them beat their hollow shi+elds; The fearless brothers on the Grecians call, To guard their navies, and defend the wall
Even when they saw Troy's sable troops impend, And Greece tumultuous from her towers descend, Forth from the portals rush'd the intrepid pair, Opposed their breasts, and stood the furious fros and voice oftrees they tear, And root the shrubs, and lay the forest bare; They gnash their tusks, with fire their eye-balls roll, Till sohty soul
Around their heads the whistling javelins sung, With sounding strokes their brazen targets rung; Fierce was the fight, while yet the Grecian powers Maintain'd the walls, and mann'd the lofty towers: To save their fleet their last efforts they try, And stones and darts in led tes The dreary winter on his frozen wings; Beneath the low-hung clouds the sheets of snow Descend, and whiten all the fields below: So fast the darts on either army pour, So down the rampires rolls the rocky shower: Heavy, and thick, resound the batter'd shi+elds, And the deaf echo rattles round the fields
With sharief and fury driven, The frantic Asius thus accuses Heaven: ”In powers immortal who shall now believe?
Can those too flatter, and can Jove deceive?
What man could doubt but Troy's victorious power Should humble Greece, and this her fatal hour?
But like asps frouard the entrance of their cos They strike the assailants, and infix their stings; A race determined, that to death contend: So fierce these Greeks their last retreats defend
Gods! shall tarriors only guard their gates, Repel an arled with the wind, Nor reat Jove's unalterable ht Was owed the glory of the destined fight
Like deeds of arates sustain'd an equal tide; Through the long walls the stony shoere heard, The blaze of flames, the flash of arms appear'd
The spirit of a Godwith fire!
While Greece unconquer'd kept alive the war, Secure of death, confiding in despair; And all her guardian Gods, in deep dis arms deplored the day