Page:Aeneid (Conington 1866).djvu/177

Delivered Dares, sore distressed,
And thus with soothing words addressed:
'Alas! what frenzy of the mind
Has made you, hapless friend, so blind?
Perceive you not the powers have changed,
And left the side where once they ranged?
Give way to Heaven.' Such speech he made,
And as he spoke, the combat stayed.
But Dares by a friendly throng
All helplessly is dragged along;
Trailing his knees his weight beneath,
Swaying his head from side to side,
While clotted gore and loosened teeth
Pour from his mouth in mingled tide.
They bear him to the ships away:
Then at a call receive
The helm and sword: the bull and bay
They with Entellus leave.
With triumph kindling in his eyes
And glorying in the bull, his prize,
The victor to the concourse cries:
'Learn, goddess-born, and Ilium's host,
What strength my youthful arm could boast,
And what the death, from whose dark door
Your rescued Dares you restore.'
He spoke, and stood before the bull,
Swung back his arm, and planted full
Between its horns the gauntlet's blow.
The brain came through the shattered skull:
Prone, quivering, dead, the beast lies low
While words like these the veteran said
In consecration of the dead:
'This better substitute I pay,
Eryx, to thee, for Dares' life,
And here renounce, as conqueror may,
The gauntlets and the strife.'