Who from the Lapiths’ warlike race descend;
This Polypœtes, great Perithous’ heir,
And that Leonteus, like the God of War.
As two tall oaks, before the wall they rise; 145
Their roots in earth, their heads amidst the skies:
Whose spreading arms, with leafy honours crown’d,
Forbid the tempest, and protect the ground;
High on the hills appears their stately form,
And their deep roots for ever brave the storm. 150
So graceful these, and so the shock they stand
Of raging Asius, and his furious band.
Orestes, Acamas, in front appear,
And Œnomaus and Thoön close the rear.
In vain their clamours shake the ambient fields, 155
In vain around them beat their hollow shields;
The fearless brothers on the Grecians call,
To guard their navies, and defend their wall.
Ev’n when they saw Troy’s sable troops impend,
And Greece tumultuous from her towers descend, 160
Forth from the portals rush’d th’ intrepid pair,
Opposed their breasts, and stood themselves the war.
So two wild boars spring furious from their den,
Rous’d with the cries of dogs, and voice of men;
On every side the crackling trees they tear, 165
And root the shrubs, and lay the forest bare;
They gnash their tusks, with fire their eye-balls roll,
Till some wide wound lets out their mighty soul.
Around their heads the whistling jav’lins sung;
With sounding strokes their brazen targets rung: 170
Fierce was the fight, while yet the Grecian powers
Maintain’d the walls, and mann’d the lofty towers:
To save their fleet, the last efforts they try,
And stones and darts in mingled tempests fly.
As when sharp Boreas blows abroad, and brings 175
The dreary winter on his frozen wings;
Beneath the low-hung clouds the sheets of snow
Descend, and whiten all the fields below:
So fast the darts on either army pour,
So down the rampires rolls the rocky shower; 180
Heavy, and thick, resound the batter’d shields,
And the deaf echo rattles round the fields.
With shame repuls’d, with grief and fury driv’n,
The frantic Asius thus accuses Heav’n:
‘In powers immortal who shall now believe? 185
Can those too flatter, and can Jove deceive?
What man can doubt but Troy’s victorious power
Should humble Greece, and this her fatal hour?
But like when wasps from hollow crannies drive,
To guard the entrance of their common hive, 190
Dark’ning the rock, while, with unwearied wings,
They strike th’ assailants, and infix their stings;
A race determin’d, that to death contend:
So fierce, these Greeks their last retreat defend.
Gods! shall two warriors only guard their gates, 195
Repel an army, and defraud the fates?’
These empty accents mingled with the wind,
Nor mov’d great Jove’s unalterable mind;
To godlike Hector and his matchless might
Was owed the glory of the destin’d fight. 200
Like deeds of arms thro’ all the forts were tried,
And all the gates sustain’d an equal tide;
Thro’ the long walls the stony showers were heard,
The blaze of flames, the flash of arms, appear’d.
The spirit of a God my breast inspire, 205
To raise each act to life, and sing with fire!
While Greece unconquer’d kept alive the war,
Secure of death, confiding in despair;
And all her guardian Gods, in deep dismay,
With unassisting arms deplor’d the day. 210
Ev’n yet the dauntless Lapithæ maintain
The dreadful pass, and round them heap the slain.
First Damasus, by Polypœtes’ steel
Pierc’d thro’ his helmet’s brazen vizor, fell;
The weapon drank the mingled brains and gore; 215
The warrior sinks, tremendous now no more!
Next Ormenus and Pylon yield their breath:
Nor less Leonteus strews the field with death;
First thro’ the belt Hippomachus he gor’d,
Then sudden waved his unresisted sword; 220
Antiphates, as thro’ the ranks he broke,
The falchion struck, and Fate pursued the stroke;
Iämenus, Orestes, Menon, bled;
And round him rose a monument of dead.
Meantime, the bravest of the Trojan crew 225
Bold Hector and Polydamas pursue;
Fierce with impatience on the works to fall,
And wrap in rolling flames the fleet and wall.
These on the farther bank now stood and gazed,
By Heav’n alarm’d, by prodigies amazed: 230
A signal omen stopp’d the passing host,
Their martial fury in their wonder lost.
Jove’s bird on sounding pinions beat the skies,
A bleeding serpent of enormous size
His talons truss’d; alive, and curling round, 235
He stung the bird, whose throat receiv’d the wound:
Mad with the smart, he drops the fatal prey,
In airy circles wings his painful way,
Floats on the winds, and rends the Heav’ns with cries;
Amidst the host the fallen serpent lies: 240
They, pale with terror, mark its spires unroll’d
And Jove’s portent with beating hearts behold.
Then first Polydamas the silence broke,
Long weigh’d the signal, and to Hector spoke:
‘How oft, my brother, thy reproach I bear, 245
For words well meant, and sentiments sincere?
True to those counsels which I judge the best,
I tell the faithful dictates of my breast.
To speak his thoughts, is every freeman’s right,
In peace and war, in council and in fight; 250
And all I move, deferring to thy sway,
But tends to raise that power which I obey.
Then hear my words, nor may my words be vain;
Seek not, this day, the Grecian ships to gain;
For sure to warn us Jove his omen sent, 255
And thus my mind explains its clear event.
The victor eagle, whose sinister flight
Retards our host, and fills our hearts with fright,
Dismiss’d his conquest in the middle skies,
Allow’d to seize, but not possess, the prize; 260
Thus, tho’ we gird with fires the Grecian fleet,
Tho’ these proud bulwarks tumble at our feet,
Toils unforeseen, and fiercer, are decreed;
More woes shall follow, and more heroes bleed.
So bodes my soul, and bids me thus advise; 265
For thus a skilful seer would read the skies.’
To him then Hector with disdain return’d:
(Fierce as he spoke, his eyes with fury burn’d):
‘Are these the faithful counsels of thy tongue?
Thy will is partial, not thy reason wrong: 270
Or if the purpose of thy heart thou vent,
Sure Heav’n resumes the little sense it lent.
What coward counsels would thy madness move,
Against the word, the will reveal’d of Jove?
The leading sign, th’ irrevocable nod, 275
And happy thunders of the fav’ring God,
These shall I slight? and guide my wav’ring mind
By wand’ring birds, that flit with ev’ry wind?
Ye vagrants of the sky! your wings extend,
Or where the suns arise, or where descend; 280
To right, to left, unheeded take your way,
While I the dictates of high Heav’n obey.
Without a sign, his sword the brave man draws,
And asks no omen but his country’s cause.
But why shouldst thou suspect the war’s success? 285
None fears it more, as none promotes it less:
Tho’ all our Chiefs amid yon ships expire,
Trust thy own cowardice t’ escape their fire.
Troy and her sons may find a gen’ral grave,
But thou canst live, for thou canst be a slave. 290
Yet should the fears that wary mind suggests
Spread their cold poison thro’ our soldiers’ breasts,
My jav’lin can revenge so base a part,
And free the soul that quivers in thy heart.’
Furious he spoke, and, rushing to the wall, 295
Calls on his host; his host obey the call;
With ardour follow where their leader flies:
Redoubling clamours thunder in the skies.
Jove breathes a whirlwind from the hills of Ide,
And drifts of dust the clouded navy hide: 300
He fills the Greeks with terror and dismay,
And gives great Hector the predestin’d day.
Strong in themselves, but stronger in his aid,
Close to the works their rigid siege they laid.
In vain the mounds and massy beams defend, 305
While these they undermine, and those they rend;
Upheave the piles that prop the solid wall;
And heaps on heaps the smoky ruins fall.
Greece on her ramparts stands the fierce alarms;
The crowded bulwarks blaze with waving arms, 310
Shield touching shield, a long refulgent row;
Whence hissing darts, incessant, rain below.
The bold Ajaces fly from tower to tower,
And rouse, with flame divine, the Grecian power.
The gen’rous impulse every Greek obeys; 315
Threats urge the fearful; and the valiant, praise.
‘Fellows in arms! whose deeds are known to Fame,
And you whose ardour hopes an equal name!
Since not alike endued with force or art,
Behold a day when each may act his part! 320
A day to fire the brave, and warm the cold,
To gain new glories, or augment the old.
Urge those who stand, and those who faint, excite,
Drown Hector’s vaunts in loud exhorts of fight;
Conquest, not safety, fill the thoughts of all; 325
Seek not your fleet, but sally from the wall;
So Jove once more may drive their routed train,
And Troy lie trembling in her walls again.’
Their ardour kindles all the Grecian powers;
And now the stones descend in heavier showers. 330
As when high Jove his sharp artillery forms,
And opes his cloudy magazine of storms;
In winter’s bleak uncomfortable reign,
A snowy inundation hides the plain;
He stills the winds, and bids the skies to sleep; 335
Then pours the silent tempest, thick and deep:
And first the mountain tops are cover’d o’er,
Then the green fields, and then the sandy shore;
Bent with the weight the nodding woods are seen,
And one bright waste hides all the works of men: 340
The circling seas alone absorbing all,
Drink the dissolving fleeces as they fall.
So from each side increas’d the stony rain,
And the white ruin rises o’er the plain.
Thus godlike Hector and his troops contend 345
To force the ramparts, and the gates to rend;
Nor Troy could conquer, nor the Greeks would yield,
Till great Sarpedon tower’d amid the field;
For mighty Jove inspired with martial flame
His matchless son, and urged him on to fame. 350
In arms he shines, conspicuous from afar,
And bears aloft his ample shield in air;
Within whose orb the thick bull-hides were roll’d,
Pond’rous with brass, and bound with ductile gold:
And while two pointed jav’lins arm his hands, 355
Majestic moves along, and leads his Lycian bands.
So press’d with hunger, from the mountain’s brow,
Descends a lion on the flocks below:
So stalks the lordly savage o’er the plain,
In sullen majesty, and stern disdain: 360
In vain loud mastiffs bay him from afar,
And shepherds gall him with an iron war;
Regardless, furious, he pursues his way;
He foams, he roars, he rends the panting prey.
Resolv’d alike, divine Sarpedon glows 365
With gen’rous rage that drives him on the foes.
He views the towers, and meditates their fall;
To sure destruction dooms th’ aspiring wall:
Then, casting on his friend an ardent look,
Fired with the thirst of glory, thus he spoke: 370
‘Why boast we, Glaucus! our extended reign,
Where Xanthus’ streams enrich the Lycian plain,
Our numerous herds that range the fruitful field,
And hills where vines their purple harvest yield,
Our foaming bowls with purer nectar crown’d, 375
Our feasts enhane’d with music’s sprightly sound?
Why on those shores are we with joy survey’d,
Admired as heroes, and as Gods obey’d
Unless great acts superior merit prove,
And vindicate the bounteous Powers above? 380
‘T is ours, the dignity they give to grace;
The first in valour, as the first in place:
That when, with wond’ring eyes, our martial bands
Behold our deeds transcending our commands,
Such, they may cry, deserve the sov’reign state, 385
Whom those that envy dare not imitate!
Could all our care elude the gloomy grave,
Which claims no less the fearful than the brave,
For lust of fame I should not vainly dare
In fighting fields, nor urge thy soul to war. 390
But since, alas! ignoble age must come,
Disease, and death’s inexorable doom;
The life which others pay, let us bestow,
And give to Fame what we to Nature owe;
Brave tho’ we fall, and honour’d if we live, 395
Or let us glory gain, or glory give!’
He said: his words the list’ning Chief inspire
With equal warmth, and rouse the warrior’s fire;
The troops pursue their leaders with delight,
Rush to the foe, and claim the promis’d fight. 400
Menestheus from on high the storm beheld,
Threat’ning the fort, and black’ning in the field;
Around the walls he gazed, to view from far
What aid appear’d t’ avert th’ approaching war,
And saw where Teucer with th’ Ajaces stood, 405
Of fight insatiate, prodigal of blood.
In vain he calls; the din of helms and shields
Rings to the skies, and echoes thro’ the fields;
The brazen hinges fly, the walls resound,
Heav’n trembles, roar the mountains, thunders all the ground. 410
Then thus to Thoös:—’Hence with speed’ (he said),
‘And urge the bold Ajaces to our aid;
Their strength united best may help to bear
The bloody labours of the doubtful war:
Hither the Lycian princes bend their course, 415
The best an
d bravest of the hostile force.
But if too fiercely there the foes contend,
Let Telamon, at least, our towers defend,
And Teucer haste with his unerring bow,
To share the danger, and repel the foe.’ 420
Swift as the word, the herald speeds along
The lofty ramparts, thro’ the martial throng;
And finds the heroes, bathed in sweat and gore,
Opposed in combat on the dusty shore.
‘Ye valiant leaders of our warlike bands! 425
Your aid,’ (said Thoös), ‘Peleus’ son demands.
Your strength, united, best may help to bear
The bloody labours of the doubtful war:
Thither the Lycian princes bend their course,
The best and bravest of the hostile force. 430
But if too fiercely here the foes contend,
At least let Telamon these towers defend,
And Teucer haste with his unerring bow,
To share the danger, and repel the foe.’
Straight to the fort great Ajax turn’d his care, 435
And thus bespoke his brothers of the war:
‘Now, valiant Lycomede! exert your might,
And, brave Oïleus, prove your force in fight:
To you I trust the fortune of the field,
Till by this arm the foe shall be repell’d: 440
That done, expect me to complete the day—’
Then, with his sev’n-fold shield, he strode away.
With equal steps bold Teucer press’d the shore,
Whose fatal bow the strong Pandion bore.
High on the walls appear’d the Lycian powers, 445
Like some black tempest gath’ring round the towers;
The Greeks, oppress’d, their utmost force unite,
Prepared to labour in th’ unequal fight;
The war renews, mix’d shouts and groans arise;
Tumultuous clamour mounts, and thickens in the skies. 450
Fierce Ajax first th’ advancing host invades,
And sends the brave Epicles to the shades,
Sarpedon’s friend; across the warrior’s way,
Rent from the walls a rocky fragment lay;
In modern ages not the strongest swain 455
Could heave th’ unwieldy burthen from the plain.
He pois’d, and swung it round; then toss’d on high;
It flew with force, and labour’d up the sky:
Full on the Lycian’s helmet thund’ring down,
The pond’rous ruin crush’d his batter’d crown. 460
As skilful divers from some airy steep
Headlong descend, and shoot into the deep,
So falls Epicles; then in groans expires,
And murm’ring to the shades the soul retires.
While to the ramparts daring Glaucus drew, 465
From Teucer’s hand a winged arrow flew;
Alexander Pope - Delphi Poets Series Page 91