5. I.]

THE CONTENTION OF ACHILLES AND AGAMEMNON.

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Then let revenge no longer bear the sway,
Command thy passions, and the gods obey.'
To her Pelides: With regardful ear,
'Tis just, O goddess! I thy dictates hear.
Hard as it is, my vengeance I suppress :

Those who revere the gods, the gods will bless.'
He said, observant of the blue-ey'd maid;
Then in the sheath return'd the shining blade.
The goddess swift to high Olympus flies,
And joins the sacred senate of the skies.

Nor yet the rage his boiling breast forsook,
Which thus redoubling on Atrides broke:
'O monster! mix'd of insolence and fear,
Thou dog in forehead, but in heart a deer!

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When wert thou known in ambush'd fights to dare,

'Or nobly face the horrid front of war?

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'Tis ours, the chance of fighting fields to try,

'Thine to look on, and bid the valiant die.

So much 'tis safer through the camp to go,

'And rob a subject, than despoil a foe.
Scourge of thy people, violent and base!
'Sent in Jove's anger on a slavish race,
'Who, lost to sense of generous freedom past,

Are tam'd to wrongs, or this had been thy last.
Now by this sacred sceptre hear me swear,
'Which never more shall leaves or blossoms bear,
Which, sever'd from the trunk (as I from thee)
'On the bare mountains left its parent tree;

'This sceptre, form'd by temper❜d steel to prove An ensign of the delegates of Jove,

From whom the pow'r of laws and justice springs : '(Tremendous oath! inviolate to kings :)

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By this I swear, when bleeding Greece again

'Shall call Achilles, she shall call in vain.

When, flush'd with slaughter, Hector comes to spread
The purpled shore with mountains of the dead,

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"Then shalt thou mourn th' affront thy madness gave, Forced to deplore, when impotent to save:

? Then rage in bitterness of soul, to know
This act has made the bravest Greek thy foe.'

He spoke; and furious hurl'd against the ground
His sceptre starr'd with golden studs around;
Then sternly silent sat. With like disdain,
The raging king return'd his frowns again.

To calm their passion with the words of age,
Slow from his seat arose the Pylian sage,

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Experienc'd Nestor, in persuasion skill'd;
Words sweet as honey from his lips distill'd:
Two generations 15 now had pass'd away,
Wise by his rules, and happy by his sway;
Two ages o'er his native realm he reign'd,
And now th' example of the third remain'd.
All view'd with awe the venerable man;
Who thus, with mild benevolence, began:

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What shame, what woe is this to Greece! what joy

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'To Troy's proud monarch, and the friends of Troy! That adverse gods commit to stern debate

'The best, the bravest of the Grecian state.

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Young as you are, this youthful heat restrain,

'Nor think your Nestor's years and wisdom vain. 'A godlike race of heroes once I knew,

'Such as no more these aged eyes shall view! Lives there a chief to match Pirithous'16 fame,

Dryas the bold, or Ceneus' deathless name; Theseus, endued with more than mortal might, 'Or Polyphemus, like the gods in fight?

'With these of old to toils of battle bred,

In early youth my hardy days I led;

'Fir'd with the thirst which virtuous envy breeds, 'And smit with love of honourable deeds.

Strongest of men, they pierced the mountain boar, 'Ranged the wild deserts red with monsters' gore, And from their hills the shaggy Centaurs tore. Yet these with soft persuasive arts I sway'd; 'When Nestor spoke, they listen'd and obey'd. If in my youth, e'en these esteem'd me wise, 'Do you, young warriors, hear my age advice. Atrides, seize not on the beauteous slave;

That prize the Greeks by common suffrage gave: 'Nor thou, Achilles, treat our prince with pride; Let kings be just, and sov'reign pow'r preside. Thee, the first honours of the war adorn, 'Like gods in strength, and of a goddess born;

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15 A generation, in the common computation, is thirty years; he was, therefore, about ninety years of age.

16 Pirithous was a native of Athens, who lived among the Centaurs. and, when he married Hippodamia, invited them to his wedding feast. As they misconducted themselves, a quarrel ensued between them and the Lapithæ, who killed many of them, and drove the rest to Malea, a promontory of Peloponnesus. Cæneus was king of the Lapithæ, among whom Polyphemus was a leader, and, perhaps, Dryas; unless the Dryas named among the hunters of the Calydonian boar be meant.

B. I.]

.

ACHILLES WITHDRAWS FROM THE CONTEST.

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Him, awful majesty exalts above

The pow'rs of earth, and sceptred sons of Jove.
Let both unite with well-consenting mind,

So shall authority with strength be join'd.
'Leave me, O king! to calm Achilles' rage;
'Rule thou thyself, as more advanced in age.
'Forbid it gods! Achilles should be lost,
"The pride of Greece, and bulwark of our host.'
This said, he ceas'd: the king of men replies;
'Thy years are awful, and thy words are wise.
'But that imperious, that unconquer'd soul,

'No laws can limit, no respect control:
'Before his pride must his superiors fall,
His word the law, and he the lord of all?

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'Him must our hosts, our chiefs, ourself obey? 'What king can bear a rival in his sway?

Grant that the gods his matchless force have giv'n;

Here on the monarch's speech Achilles broke,

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And furious, thus, and interrupting, spoke :
'Tyrant, I well deserv'd thy galling chain,
To live thy slave, and still to serve in vain,
Should I submit to each unjust decree :
Command thy vassals, but command not me.
Seize on Briseïs, whom the Grecians doom'd
'My prize of war, yet tamely see resum'd;

'And seize secure; no more Achilles draws

'His conqu'ring sword in any woman's cause.

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The gods command me to forgive the past;
But let this first invasion be the last :

'For know, thy blood, when next thou dar'st invade,

'Shall stream in vengeance on my reeking blade.'

At this they ceas'd; the stern debate expir'd:

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The chiefs in sullen majesty retir'd.
Achilles with Patroclus took his way,

Where near his tents his hollow vessels lay.

Mean time Atrides launch'd with numerous oars

A well-rigg'd ship for Chrysa's sacred shores :

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High on the deck was fair Chryseïs plac'd,
And sage Ulysses with the conduct grac'd:
Safe in her sides the hecatomb they stow'd,
Then, swiftly sailing, cut the liquid road.

The host to expiate, next the king prepares,
With pure lustrations and with solemn pray'rs.
Wash'd by the briny wave, the pious train

Are cleans'd; and cast th' ablutions in the main.

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Along the shores whole hecatombs were laid,
And bulls and goats to Phoebus' altars paid.
The sable fumes in curling spires arise,
And waft their grateful odours to the skies.
The army thus in sacred rites engaged,
Atrides still with deep resentment raged.
To wait his will two sacred heralds stood,
Talthybius and Eurybates the good.
'Haste to the fierce Achilles' tent,' (he cries,)
'Thence bear Briseïs as our royal prize :

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'Submit he must; or, if they will not part,

'Ourself in arms shall tear her from his heart.'

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Th' unwilling heralds act their lord's commands;

Pensive they walk along the barren sands:

Arriv'd, the hero in his tent they find,

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;

With gloomy aspect, on his arm reclin'd.
At awful distance long they silent stand,
Loth to advance, or speak their hard command
Decent confusion! This the godlike man
Perceiv'd, and thus with accent mild began:
'With leave and honour enter our abodes,

'Ye sacred ministers of men and gods!

I know your message; by constraint you came; Not you, but your imperious lord, I blame. 'Patroclus, haste, the fair Briseïs bring; 'Conduct my captive to the haughty king. 'But witness, heralds, and proclaim my vow, Witness to gods above, and men below!

bear;

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'But first, and loudest, to your prince declare,
"That lawless tyrant whose commands you
'Unmov'd as death Achilles shall remain,

Though prostrate Greece should bleed at every vein :

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'The raging chief in frantic passion lost,
'Blind to himself, and useless to his host,

'Unskill'd to judge the future by the past,

In blood and slaughter shall repent at last.'
Patroclus now th' unwilling beauty brought;
She, in soft sorrows, and in pensive thought,
Pass'd silent, as the heralds held her hand,
And oft look'd back, slow-moving o'er the strand.
Not so his loss the fierce Achilles bore;

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But sad retiring to the sounding shore,

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O'er the wild margin of the deep he hung,

That kindred deep from whence his mother sprung;
There, bath'd in tears of anger and disdain,

Thus loud lamented to the stormy main: