Since fair Briseïs from his arms was torn,
The noblest spoil from sacked Lyrnessus borne,
Then, when the chief the Theban walls o'erthrew,
And the bold sons of great Evenus slew.
There mourned Achilles, plunged in depth of care,
But soon to rise in slaughter, blood, and war.
To these the youth of Phylacè succeed,
Itona, famous for her fleecy breed,
And grassy Pteleon decked with cheerful greens,
The bowers of Ceres, and the sylvan scenes,
Sweet Pyrrhasus, with blooming flowerets crowned,
And Antron's watery dens, and caverned ground.
These owned as chief Protesilas the brave,
Who now lay silent in the gloomy grave:
The first who boldly touched the Trojan shore,
And dyed a Phrygian lance with Grecian gore;
There lies, far distant from his native plain;
Unfinished his proud palaces remain,
And his sad consort beats her breast in vain.
His troops in forty ships Podarces led,
Iphiclus' son, and brother to the dead;
Nor he unworthy to command the host;
Yet still they mourned their ancient leader lost.
The men who Glaphyra's fair soil partake,
Where hills encircle Bœbe's lowly lake,
Where Pheræ hears the neighbouring waters fall,
Or proud Ïolcus lifts her airy wall,
In ten black ships embarked for Ilion's shore,
With bold Eumelus, whom Alcestè[1] bore:
All Pelias' race Alcestè far outshined,
The grace and glory of the beauteous kind.
The troops Methonè, or Thaumacia yields,
Olizon's rocks, or Melibœa's fields,
With Philoctetes sailed, whose matchless art
From the tough bow directs the feathered dart.
Seven were his ships: each vessel fifty row,
Skilled in his science of the dart and bow.
But he lay raging on the Lemnian ground;
A poisonous Hydra gave the burning wound;
There groaned the chief in agonising pain,
Whom Greece at length shall wish, nor wish in vain.
His forces Medon led from Lemnos' shore,
Oïleus' son, whom beauteous Rhena bore.
The Œchalian race, in those high towers contained,
Where once Eurytus in proud triumph reigned,
Or where her humbler turrets Tricca rears,
Or where Ithomè, rough with rocks, appears;
In thirty sail the sparkling waves divide,
- ↑ Alcestè (Alcestis) died for her husband Admetus.
