Still at the closest ranks, the thickest fight,
He points his ardour and exerts his might.
The Grecian phalanx, moveless as a tower
On all sides batter'd, yet resists his power:
So some tall rock o'erhangs the hoary main,
By winds assail'd, by billows beat in vain:
Unmoved it hears, above, the tempest blow,
And sees the watery mountains break below.
Girt in surrounding flames he seems to fall,
Like fire from Jove he bursts upon them all:
Bursts as a wave that from a cloud impends,
And swell'd with tempests on the ship descends:
White are the decks with foam; the winds aloud
Howl o'er the masts, and sing through every shroud.
Pale, trembling, tired, the sailors freeze with fears:
And instant death on every wave appears:
So pale the Greeks the eyes of Hector meet,
The chief so thunders, and so shakes the fleet.
As when a lion, rushing from his den,
Amidst the plain of some wide-water'd fen,
(Where numerous oxen, as at ease they feed,
At large expatiate o'er the ranker mead,)
Leaps on the herds before the herdsman's eyes:
The trembling herdsman far to distance flies:
Some lordly bull (the rest dispersed and fled)
He singles out; arrests, and lays him dead:
Thus from the rage of Jove-like Hector flew
All Greece in heaps; but one he seized and slew:
Mycenian Periphes, a mighty name,
In wisdom great, in arms well known to fame;
The minister of stern Eurysthens' ire,
Against Alcides, Copreus was his sire:
The son redeem'd the honours of the race,
A son as generous as the sire was base;
O'er all his country's youth conspicuous far
In every virtue, or of peace or war:
But doom'd to Hector's stronger force to yield!
Against the margin of his ample shield
He struck his
Supine he fell;
asty foot: his heels up-sprung;
his brazen helmet rung.
ief th' invading Trojan press'd,
And plunged the pointed javelin in his breast.
His circling friends, who strove to guard too late
Th' unhappy hero, fled, or shared his fate.
Chased from the foremost line, the Grecian train
Now man the next, receding tow'rd the main:
Wedged in one body at the tents they stand,
Wall'd round with sterns, a gloomy, desperate band.
Now manly shame forbids th' inglorious flight;
Now fear itself confines them to the fight;
Man courage breathes in man; but Nestor most
(The sage preserver of the Grecian host)
Exhorts, adjures, to guard these utmost shores;
And by their parents, by themselves, implores.
"Oh, friends! be men: your generous breasts inflame
With equal honour, and with mutual shame!
Think of your hopes, your fortunes; all the care
Your wives, your infants, and your parents share:
Think of each living father's reverend head:
Think of each ancestor with glory dead:
Absent, by me they speak, by me they sue,
They ask their safety and their fame from you:
The gods their fates on this one action lay,
And all are lost, if you desert the day."
He spoke; and round him breathed heroic fire,
Minerva seconds what the sage inspires.
The mist of darkness Jove around them threw
She clear'd, restoring all the war to view;
A sudden ray shot beaming o'er the plain,
And show'd the shores, the navy, and the main:
Hector they saw, and all who fly, or fight,
The scene wide-opening to the blaze of light.
First of the field, great Ajax strikes their eyes,
His port majestic, and his ample size :
A ponderous mace, with studs of iron crown'd,
Full twenty cubits long, he swings around;
Nor fights like others, fix'd to certain stands,
But looks a moving tower above the bands:
High on he deck, with vast gigantic stride,
The godlike hero stalks from side to side.
So when a horseman from the watery mead
(Skill'd in the manage of the bounding steed)
Drives four fair coursers, practised to obey,
To some great city through the public way;
Safe in his art, as side by side they run,
He shifts his seat, and vaults from one to one;
And now to this, and now to that he flies:
Admiring numbers follow with their eyes.
From ship to ship thus Ajax swiftly flew,
No less the wonder of the warring crew,
As furious Hector thunder'd threats aloud,
And rush'd enraged before the Trojan crowd:
Then swift invades the ships, whose beaky prores
Lay rank'd contiguous on the bending shores:
So the strong eagle from his airy height,
Who marks the swans' or cranes' embodied flight,
Stoops down impetuous, while they light for food,
And, stooping, darkens with his wings the flood.
Jove leads him on with his almighty hand,
And breathes fierce spirits in his following band,
The warring nations meet, the battle roars,
Thick beats the combat on the sounding prores.
Thou wouldst have thought, so furious was their fire,
No force could tame them, and no toil could tire;
As if new vigour from new fights they won,
And the long battle was but then begun.
Greece, yet unconquer'd, kept alive the war,
Secure of death, confiding in despair;
Troy, in proud hopes, already view'd the main
Bright with the blaze, and red with heroes slain!
Like strength is felt from hope and from despair,
And each contends, as his were all the war.
'Twas thou, bold Hector! whose resistless hand. First seized a ship on that contested strand;
The same which dead Potesilaüs bore,
The first that touch'd th' unhappy Trojan shore:
For this in arms the warring nations stood,
And bathed their generous breasts with mutual blood.
No room to poise the lance or bend the bow,
But hand to hand, and man to man they grow:
Wounded they wound; and seek each other's hearts
With faulchions, axes, swords, and shorten'd darts.
The faulchions ring, shields rattle, axes sound,
Swords flash in air, or glitter on the ground:
With streaming blood the slippery shores are dyed,
And slaughter'd heroes swell the dreadful tide.
Still raging Hector with his ample hand
Grasps the high stern, and gives this loud command:
'Haste, bring the flames! the toil of ten long years 870 Is finish'd! and the day desired appears!
This happy day with acclamations greet,
Bright with destruction of yon hostile fleet.
The coward counsels of a timorous throng
Of reverend dotards, check'd our glory long:
Too long Jove lull'd us with lethargic charms,
But now in peals of thunder calls to arms:
In this great day he crowns our full desires,
Wakes all our force, and seconds all our fires."
He spoke the warriors, at his fierce command,
Pour a new deluge on the Grecian band.
Ev'n Ajax paused (so thick the javelins fly),
Stepp'd back, and doubted or to live or die.
Yet where the oars are placed, he stands to wait
What chief approaching dares attempt his fate:
Ev'n to the last his naval charge defends,
Now shakes his spear, now lifts, and now protends;
Ev'n yet the Greeks with piercing shouts inspires,
Amidst attacks, and deaths, and darts, and fires:
"Oh, friends! oh, heroes! names for ever dear,
Once sons of Mars, and thunderbolts of war!
Ah! yet be mindful of your old renown,
Your great forefathers' virtues and your own!
What aids expect you in this utmost strait?
What bulwarks rising between you and fate?
No aids, no bulwarks, your retreat attend;
No friends to help, no city to defend :
This spot is all you have, to lose or keep;
There stand the Trojans, and here rolls the deep.
'Tis hostile ground you tread; your native lands
Far, far from hence: your fates are in your hands."
Raging he spoke; nor farther wastes his breath,
But turns his javelin to the work of death.
Whate'er bold Trojan arm'd his daring hands,
Against the sable ships with flaming brands;
So well the chief his naval weapon sped,
The luckless warrior at his stern lay dead;
Full twelve, the boldest, in a moment fell,
Sent by great Ajax to the shades of hell.
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