Whose squadrons, led from black AEsepus' flood,130With flaming shields in martial circle stood.
To him the goddess: "Phrygian! canst thou hear
A well-timed counsel with a willing ear?
What praise were thine, couldst thou direct thy dart, Amidst his triumph, to the Spartan's heart?
What gifts from Troy, from Paris wouldst thou gain,
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Thy country's foe, the Grecian glory slain? Then seize the occasion, dare the mighty deed, Aim at his breast, and may that aim succeed! But first, to speed the shaft, address thy vow
To Lycian Phoebus with the silver bow,
And swear the firstlings of thy flock to pay,
On Zelia's altars, to the god of day."131
He heard, and madly at the motion pleased, [pg 071]
His polish'd bow with hasty rashness seized.
'Twas form'd of horn, and smooth'd with artful toil:
A mountain goat resign'd the shining spoil.
Who pierced long since beneath his arrows bled; The stately quarry on the cliffs lay dead,
And sixteen palms his brow's large honours spread: The workmen join'd, and shaped the bended horns, And beaten gold each taper point adorns.
This, by the Greeks unseen, the warrior bends, Screen'd by the shields of his surrounding friends: There meditates the mark; and couching low,
Fits the sharp arrow to the well-strung bow. One from a hundred feather'd deaths he chose, Fated to wound, and cause of future woes; Then offers vows with hecatombs to crown Apollo's altars in his native town.
Now with full force the yielding horn he bends, Drawn to an arch, and joins the doubling ends; Close to his breast he strains the nerve below, Till the barb'd points approach the circling bow; The impatient weapon whizzes on the wing;
Sounds the tough horn, and twangs the quivering string.
But thee, Atrides! in that dangerous hour
The gods forget not, nor thy guardian power, Pallas assists, and (weakened in its force) Diverts the weapon from its destined course: So from her babe, when slumber seals his eye, The watchful mother wafts the envenom'd fly. Just where his belt with golden buckles join'd, Where linen folds the double corslet lined,
She turn'd the shaft, which, hissing from above, Pass'd the broad belt, and through the corslet drove; The folds it pierced, the plaited linen tore,
And razed the skin, and drew the purple gore. As when some stately trappings are decreed To grace a monarch on his bounding steed,
A nymph in Caria or Maeonia bred, Stains the pure ivory with a lively red; With equal lustre various colours vie,
The shining whiteness, and the Tyrian dye:
So great Atrides! show'd thy sacred blood,
As down thy snowy thigh distill'd the streaming flood.
With horror seized, the king of men descried The shaft infix'd, and saw the gushing tide: Nor less the Spartan fear'd, before he found The shining barb appear above the wound,
Then, with a sigh, that heaved his manly breast, The royal brother thus his grief express'd,
And grasp'd his hand; while all the Greeks around
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With answering sighs return'd the plaintive sound. [pg 072]
"Oh, dear as life! did I for this agree The solemn truce, a fatal truce to thee! Wert thou exposed to all the hostile train,
To fight for Greece, and conquer, to be slain!
The race of Trojans in thy ruin join,
And faith is scorn'd by all the perjured line.
Not thus our vows, confirm'd with wine and gore, Those hands we plighted, and those oaths we swore, Shall all be vain: when Heaven's revenge is slow,
Jove but prepares to strike the fiercer blow. The day shall come, that great avenging day, When Troy's proud glories in the dust shall lay, When Priam's powers and Priam's self shall fall, And one prodigious ruin swallow all.
I see the god, already, from the pole
Bare his red arm, and bid the thunder roll; I see the Eternal all his fury shed,
And shake his aegis o'er their guilty head. Such mighty woes on perjured princes wait; But thou, alas! deserv'st a happier fate.
Still must I mourn the period of thy days,
And only mourn, without my share of praise? Deprived of thee, the heartless Greeks no more Shall dream of conquests on the hostile shore; Troy seized of Helen, and our glory lost,
Thy bones shall moulder on a foreign coast; While some proud Trojan thus insulting cries, (And spurns the dust where Menelaus lies,)
'Such are the trophies Greece from Ilion brings, And such the conquest of her king of kings!
Lo his proud vessels scatter'd o'er the main, And unrevenged, his mighty brother slain.' Oh! ere that dire disgrace shall blast my fame,
O'erwhelm me, earth! and hide a monarch's shame."
He said: a leader's and a brother's fears
Possess his soul, which thus the Spartan cheers: "Let not thy words the warmth of Greece abate; The feeble dart is guiltless of my fate:
Stiff with the rich embroider'd work around,
My varied belt repell'd the flying wound."
To whom the king: "My brother and my friend, Thus, always thus, may Heaven thy life defend! Now seek some skilful hand, whose powerful art May stanch the effusion, and extract the dart. Herald, be swift, and bid Machaon bring
His speedy succour to the Spartan king;
Pierced with a winged shaft (the deed of Troy), The Grecian's sorrow, and the Dardan's joy." With hasty zeal the swift Talthybius flies;
Through the thick files he darts his searching eyes,
[pg 073]
And finds Machaon, where sublime he stands132
In arms incircled with his native bands. Then thus: "Machaon, to the king repair,
His wounded brother claims thy timely care; Pierced by some Lycian or Dardanian bow,
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A grief to us, a triumph to the foe."
The heavy tidings grieved the godlike man Swift to his succour through the ranks he ran. The dauntless king yet standing firm he found, And all the chiefs in deep concern around. Where to the steely point the reed was join'd, The shaft he drew, but left the head behind.
