Whate'er of active force, or acting fire,
Whatever this heart can prompt, or hand obey;
All, all Achilles, Greeks, is yours to-day.
Through yon wide host this arm shall scatter fear,
And thin the squadrons with my single spear"
He said: nor less elate with martial joy,
The godlike Hector warmed the troops of Troy:
"Trojans, to war I think Hector leads you on;
Nor dread the vaunts of Peleus' haughty son.
Deeds must decide our fate. E'en those with words
Insult the brave, who tremble at their swords;
The weakest atheist-wretch all heaven defies,
But shrinks and shudders when the thunder flies.
Nor from yon boaster shall your chief retire,
Not though his heart were steel, his hands were fire;
That fire, that steel, your Hector should withstand,
And brave that vengeful heart, that dreadful hand."
Thus, breathing rage through all, the hero said;
A wood of lances rises round his head,
Clamours on clamours tempest all the air;
They join, they throng, they thicken to the war.
But Phœbus warns him from high heaven to shun
The single fight with Thetis' godlike son:
More safe to combat in the mingled band,
Nor tempt too near the terrors of his hand.
He hears, obedient to the god of light,
And, plunged within the ranks, awaits the fight.
Then fierce Achilles, shouting to the skies,
On Troy's whole force with boundless fury flies.
First falls Iphytion, at his army's head;
Brave was the chief, and brave the host he led;
From great Otrynteus he derived his blood,
His mother was a Nais of the flood;
Beneath the shades of Tmolus, crowned with snow,
From Hydè's walls he ruled the lands below.
Fierce as he springs, the sword his head divides;
The parted visage falls on equal sides:
With loud resounding arms he strikes the plain;
While thus Achilles glories o'er the slain:
"Lie there, Otryntides! the Trojan earth
Receives thee dead, though Gygæ[1] boast thy birth;
Those beauteous fields where Hyllus' waves are rolled,
And plenteous Hermus swells with tides of gold,
Are thine no more." The insulting hero said,
And left him sleeping in eternal shade.
The rolling wheels of Greece the body tore,
And dashed their axles with no vulgar gore.
- ↑ The original has, " But thy birthplace is the Gygaean lake." Hyllus was a tributary of the Hermus.
