Page:Homer - Iliad, translation Pope, 1909.djvu/117

Who, sheathed in brass, the Paphlagonians led.
Atrides marked him where sublime he stood;
Fixed in his throat, the javelin drank his blood.
The faithful Mydon, as he turned from fight
His flying coursers, sunk to endless night:
A broken rock by Nestor's son was thrown;
His bended arm received the falling stone;
From his numbed hand the ivory-studded reins
Dropped in the dust, are trailed along the plains:
Meanwhile his temples feel a deadly wound;
He groans in death, and ponderous sinks to ground:
Deep drove his helmet in the sands, and there
The head stood fixed, the quivering legs in air,
Till trampled flat beneath the coursers' feet:
The youthful victor mounts his empty seat,
And bears the prize in triumph to the fleet.
Great Hector saw, and, raging at the view,
Pours on the Greeks; the Trojan troops pursue;
He fires his host with animating cries,
And brings along the fury of the skies.
Mars, stern destroyer! and Bellona dread,
Flame in the front, and thunder at their head:
This swells the tumult and the rage of fight;
That shakes a spear that casts a dreadful light;
Where Hector marched, the god of battles shined,
Now stormed before him, and now raged behind.
Tydides paused amidst his full career;
Then first the hero's manly breast knew fear.
As when some simple swain his cot forsakes,
And wide thro' fens an unknown journey takes;
If chance a swelling brook his passage stay,
And foam impervious cross the wanderer's way,
Confused he stops, a length of country past,
Eyes the rough waves, and, tired, returns at last:
Amazed no less the great Tydides stands;
He stayed, and, turning, thus addressed his bands:
"No wonder, Greeks, that all to Hector yield,
Secure of favouring gods, he takes the field;
His strokes they second, and avert our spears:
Behold where Mars in mortal arms appears!
Retire, then, warriors, but sedate and slow;
Retire, but with your faces to the foe.
Trust not too much your unavailing might;
'Tis not with Troy, but with the gods, ye fight."
Now near the Greeks the black battalions drew;
And first, two leaders valiant Hector slew:
His force Anchialus and Mnesthes found,
In every art of glorious war renowned:
In the same car the chiefs to combat ride,