2. XVIII.]

THETIS VISITS HER SON.

She said, and left the caverns of the main.
All bathed in tears, the melancholy train
Attend her way. Wide-opening part the tides,
While the long pomp the silver wave divides,
Approaching now, they touch'd the Trojan land;
Then, two by two, ascended up the strand.
Th' immortal mother, standing close beside
Her mournful offspring, to his sighs replied;
Along the coast their mingled clamours ran,
And thus the silver-footed dame began:

'Why mourns my son? thy late-preferr'd request
The god has granted, and the Greeks distress'd:
Why mourns my son? thy anguish let me share,
'Reveal the cause, and trust a parent's care.'

He, deeply groaning, 'To this cureless grief 'Not e'en the Thunderer's favour brings relief. 'Patroclus-Ah! say, goddess, can I boast A pleasure now? Revenge itself is lost; 'Patroclus, lov'd of all my martial train, 'Beyond mankind, beyond myself, is slain! Lost are those arms the gods themselves bestow'd 'On Peleus; Hector bears the glorious load. Curs'd be that day, when all the

powers above

Thy charms submitted to a mortal love :
Oh hadst thou still, a sister of the main,

'Pursued the pleasures of the watery reign;
And happier Peleus, less ambitious, led

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"A mortal beauty to his equal bed!

Ere the sad fruit of thy unhappy womb

Had caused such sorrows past, and woes to come.

"For soon, alas! that wretched offspring slain,

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New woes, new sorrows, shall create again.

'Tis not in fate th' alternate now to give;

'Patroclus dead, Achilles hates to live.

Let me revenge it on proud Hector's heart, 'Let his last spirit smoke upon my dart; 'On these conditions will I breathe: till then, 'I blush to walk among the race of men.'

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A flood of tears, at this, the goddess shed:

'Ah then, I see thee dying, see thee dead!

'When Hector falls, thou diest.'-'Let Hector die,

He fell, and, falling, wish'd my aid in vain.

Since, unrevenged, a hundred ghosts demand
The fate of Hector from Achilles' hand;

Since here, for brutal courage far renown'd, 'I live an idle burden to the ground;

'(Others in council fam'd for nobler skill,

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'More useful to preserve than I to kill ;)

'Let me.
-But oh! ye gracious powers above!

'Wrath and revenge from men and gods remove : 'Far, far too dear to every mortal breast,

'Sweet to the soul, as honey to the taste;
Gathering like vapours of a noxious kind
'From fiery blood, and darkening all the mind.
'Me Agamemnon urged to deadly hate;
'Tis past-I quell it; I resign to fate.
'Yes-I will meet the murderer of my friend,
'Or (if the gods ordain it) meet my end.

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'The stroke of fate the bravest cannot shun :

The great Alcides, Jove's unequall'd son,

To Juno's hate at length resign'd his breath, And sunk the victim of all-conquering death. 'So shall Achilles fall! stretch'd pale and dead, No more the Grecian hope, or Trojan dread! Let me, this instant, rush into the fields, And reap what glory life's short harvest yields. 'Shall I not force some widow'd dame to tear, 'With frantic hands, her long dishevell❜d hair? 'Shall I not force her breast to heave with sighs, 'And the soft tears to trickle from her eyes? 'Yes, I shall give the fair those mournful charms— In vain you hold me-Hence! my arms, my arms! 'Soon shall the sanguine torrent spread so wide,

'That all shall know Achilles swells the tide.' 'My son,' (coerulean Thetis made reply,

To fate submitting with a secret sigh,)

The host to succour and thy friends to save,
Is worthy thee; the duty of the brave.
But canst thou, naked, issue to the plains.?
Thy radiant arms the Trojan foe detains.
Insulting Hector bears the spoils on high,
But vainly glories, for his fate is nigh.
'Yet, yet, awhile, thy generous ardour stay,
'Assured I meet thee at the dawn of day,

Charged with refulgent arms, (a glorious load,)
Vulcanian arms, the labour of a god.'

Then turning to the daughters of the main,
The goddess thus dismiss'd her azure train :

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Flaman, int

THETIS ORDERING THE NEREIDS TO DESCEND INTO THE SEA.

A Moses sculp

B. XVIII.]

6

SECRET MESSAGE OF JUNO.

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Ye sister Nereids! to your deeps descend; 'Haste, and our father's sacred seat attend;

I

go to find the architect divine,

'Where vast Olympus' starry summits shine:
'So tell our hoary sire.' This charge she gave:
The sea-green sisters plunge beneath the wave:
Thetis once more ascends the blest abodes,
And treads the brazen threshold of the gods.

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And now the Greeks, from furious Hector's force,
Urge to broad Hellespont their headlong course:
Nor yet their chiefs Patroclus' body bore
Safe through the tempest, to the tented shore.
The horse, the foot, with equal fury join'd,
Pour'd on the rear, and thunder'd close behind;
And like a flame through fields of ripen'd corn,
The rage of Hector o'er the ranks was borne.
Thrice the slain hero by the foot he drew:
Thrice to the skies the Trojan clamours flow
As oft th' Ajaces his assault sustain ;

But check’d, he turns; repuls'd, attacks again.
With fiercer shouts his lingering troops he fires,
Nor yields a step, nor from his post retires:
So watchful shepherds strive to force, in vain,
The hungry lion from a carcass slain.
E'en yet, Patroclus had he borne away,
And all the glories of th' extended day;
Had not high Juno, from the realms of air,
Secret despatch'd her trusty messenger,
The various goddess of the showery bow,
Shot in a whirlwind to the shore below;
To great Achilles at his ships she came,
And thus began the many-coloured dame:

Rise, son of Peleus! rise, divinely brave!
Assist the combat, and Patroclus save:
For him the slaughter to the fleet they spread,
And fall with mutual wounds around the dead.
To drag him back to Troy the foe contends;
Nor with his death the rage of Hector ends;

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'A prey to dogs he dooms the corse to lie,

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And marks the place to fix his head on high.

Rise, and prevent (if yet you think of fame)

Thy friend's disgrace; thy own eternal shame!'

Who sends thee, goddess! from th 'ethereal skies ?'

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Achilles thus: and Iris thus replies:

I come, Pelides, from the queen of Jove,

'Th' immortal empress of the realms above: