BOOK THE NINETEENTH.
ARGUMENT.
Saffron-robed Morn was rising from the streams of ocean, that she might bear light to immortals and mortals;[1] but she (Thetis) came to the ships, bearing the gifts from the god. Her dear son she found lying upon Patroclus, bitterly lamenting, and his numerous companions were lamenting around him. But near to him stood the divine of goddesses, and hung upon his hand and spoke, and addressed him:
"My son, let us suffer him now to lie, grieved although we be, since first he has been laid low by the counsel of the gods: but do thou receive these distinguished arms from Vulcan, very beautiful, such as no man has ever worn upon his shoulders."
Having thus spoken, the goddess placed the armor before Achilles; and they, all curiously wrouhgt, clashed aloud. Then tremor seized all the Myrmidons, nor did any one dare to look directly at them, but they fled in fear. But when Achilles saw them, the more rage entered him; and his eyes shone terribly beneath his eyelids, like a flame; and he was delighted, holding in his hands the splendid gifts of the god. But after he had delighted his mind, beholding these artificial works, he immediately addressed to his mother winged words:
- ↑ "To re-salute the world with sacred light
Leucothea waked, and with fresh dews embalm'd
The earth."—Paradise Lost, xi. 132.
