Page:Aeneid (Conington 1866).djvu/174

Had I but youth, no need had been
Of gifts to lure me to the green:
No, though the bull were twice as fair,
'Tis not the prize should make me dare.'
Then on the ground in open view
Two gloves of giant weight he threw
Which Eryx once in combat plied
And braced him with the tough bull-hide.
In speechless wonder all behold:
Seven mighty hides with fold on fold
Enwrap the fist: and iron sewed
And knobs of lead augment the load.
E'en Dares starts in sheer dismay,
And shuns the desperate essay;
The gauntlets' weight Æneas tries,
And handles their enormous size.
Then fetching speech from out his breast
The veteran thus the train addressed:
'What if the gauntlets you had seen
Alcides wore that day,
Had stood on this ensanguined green
And watched the fatal fray?
These gloves your brother Eryx wore,
Still stained, you see, with brains and gore.
With those 'gainst Hercules he stood:
With these I fought, while youthful blood
Supplied me strength, nor age had shed
Its envious winter on my head.
But if the arms Sicilians wield
Deter the Trojan from the field,
If so Æneas' thoughts incline,
And so my chief approves,
Let both be equal, side and side:
I spare you Eryx' grim bull-hide:
Dismiss that terror, and resign
In turn your Trojan gloves.'