Methinks the noise of trampling steeds I hear, 630. 635 Scarce had he spoke, when lo! the chiefs appear, Say thou, whofe praifes all our hoft proclaim, 640 Thou living glory of the Grecian name! Say, whence these courfers? by what chance bestow'd?: And daily mingle in the martial field ; ̧ Bleft as ye are, and favourites of the skies; The care of him who bids the thunder roar, 645 650: And her, whofe fury bathes the world with gore,, The gifts of Heaven are of à nobler kind. * Minerva. 655 Of Of Thracian lineage are the fteeds ye view, He now lies headless on the sandy shore. Then o'er the trench the bounding courfers flew ; High on the painted ftern Ulyffes laid, -A trophy deftin'd to the blue-ey'd Maid. 660 665 670 Now from nocturnal sweat, and ianguine ftain, 675 They cleanse their bodies in the neighbouring main : In due repaft indulge the genial hour, They fit, rejoicing in her aid divine, And the crown'd goblet foams with floods of wine. 680 THE The third Battle, and the Acts of Agamemnon. Agamemnon, having armed himself, leads the Grecians to battle: Hector prepares the Trojans to receive them; while Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva, give the fignals of war. Agamemnon bears all before him; and Hector is commanded by Jupiter (who fends Iris for that purpose) to decline the engagement, till the king shall be wounded and retire from the field. He then makes a great flaughter of the enemy; Ulyffes and Diomed put a stop to him for a time; but the latter being wounded by Paris, is obliged to defert his companion, who is encompaffed by the Trojans, wounded, and in the utmost danger, till Menelaüs and Ajax rescue him. Hector comes against Ajax; but that hero alone oppofes multitudes, and rallies the Greeks. In the mean time Machaon, in the other wing of the army, is pierc'd with an arrow by Paris, and carried from the fight in Neftor's chariot. Achilles (who overlooked the action from his fhip) fent Patroclus to enquire which of the Greeks was wounded in that manner? Neftor entertains him in his tent with an account of the accidents of the day, and a long recital of fome former wars which he remembered, tending to put Patroclus upon perfuading Achilles to fight for his countrymen, or at least permit Him to do it, clad in Achilles's armour. Patroclus in his return meets Eurypylus also wounded, and affifts him in that distress. This book opens with the eight and twentieth day of the poem; and the fame day, with its various actions and adventures, is extended through the twelfth thirteenth, fourteenth, fifteenth, fixteenth, feventeenth, and part of the eighteenth books. The fcene lies in the field, near the monument of Ilus. |