THE faffron morn, with early blushes spread,
Now rose refulgent from Tithonius' bed; With new-born day to gladden mortal fight, And gild the courts of heaven with facred light: When baleful Eris, fent by Jove's command, The torch of discord blazing in her hand, Through the red skies her bloody fign extends, And, wrapt in tempefts, o'er the fleet defcends. High on Ulyffes' bark, her horrid stand
She took, and thunder'd through the feas and land. 10
Ev'n Ajax and Achilles heard the found,
Whose ships, remote, the guarded navy bound.
Thence the black Fury through the Grecian throng
With horror founds the loud Orthian fong:
The navy shakes, and at the dire alarms
Each bofom boils, each warriour starts to arms.
No more they figh, inglorious to return,
But breathe revenge, and for the combat burn.
The king of men his hardy host inspires
With loud command, with great example fires
Himself first rofe, himself before the rest
His mighty limbs in radiant armour drest.
And firft he cas'd his manly legs around
In thining greaves, with filver buckles bound:
The beaming cuirafs next adorn'd his breast,
The fame which once king Cinyras poffeft:
(The fame of Greece and her affembled hoft
Had reach'd that monarch on the Cyprian coaft;
'Twas then, the friendship of the chief to gain,
This glorious gift he fent, nor fent in vain.)
Ten rows of azure fteel the work infold,
Twice ten of tin, and twelve of ductile gold;
Three glittering dragons to the gorget rise,
Whofe imitated scales, against the skies
Reflected various light, and arching bow'd,
Like colour'd rainbows o'er a fhowery cloud
(Jove's wondrous bow, of three celestial dyes,
Plac'd as a fign to man amid the skies.)
A radiant baldrick, o'er his shoulder ty'd,
Suftain'd the sword that glitter'd at his fide :
Gold was the hilt, a filver fheath encas'd
The fhining blade, and golden hangers grac'd.
His buckler's mighty orb was next difplay'd,
That round the warriour caft a dreadful fhade;
Ten zones of brass its ample brim surround,
And twice ten boffes the bright convex crown'd:
Tremendous Gorgon frown'd upon its field,
And circling terrors fill'd th' expressive shield:
Within its concave hung a filver thong,
On which a mimic ferpent creeps along;
His azure length in easy waves extends,
Till in three heads th' embroider'd monster ends.
Laft, o'er his brows his fourfold helm he plac'd,
With nodding horfe-hair formidably grac'd;
And in his hands two steely javelins wields,
That blaze to heaven, and lighten all the fields.
That inftant Juno and the martial Maid
In happy thunders promis'd Greece their aid;
High o'er the chief they clash'd their arms in air,
And, leaning from the clouds, expect the war.
Clofe to the limits of the trench and mound,
The fiery courfers to their chariots bound
The fquires, reftrain'd: the foot, with those who wield
The lighter arms, rush forward to the field.
To fecond thefe, in close array combin'd,
The squadrons spread their fable wings behind.
Now fhouts and tumults wake the tardy fun,
As with the light the warriour's toils begun.
Ev'n Jove, whofe thunder spoke his wrath, distill'd
Red drops of blood o'er all the fatal field ;
The woes of men unwilling to furvey,
And all the flaughters that must stain the day.
Near Ilus' tomb, in order rang'd around,
The Trojan lines poffefs'd the rifing ground:
There wife Polydamas and Hector stood;
Æneas, honour'd as a guardian God;
Bold Polybus, Agenor the divine,
The brother warriours of Antenor's line;
With youthful Acamas, whofe beauteous face
And fair proportion match'd th' etherial race;
Great Hector, cover'd with his fpacious shield,
Plies all the troops, and orders all the field.
As the red ftar now shows his fanguine fires
Through the dark clouds, and now in night retires;
Thus through the ranks appear'd the god-like man, 85
Plung'd in the rear, or blazing in the van;
While ftreamy sparkles, restlefs as he flies,
Flash from his arms as lightning from the skies.
As fweating reapers in fome wealthy field,
Rang'd in two bands, their crooked weapons wield, 90
Bear down the furrows, till their labours meet;
Thick falls the heapy harvest at their feet :
So Greece and Troy the field of war divide,
And falling ranks are ftrow'd on every fide.
None ftoop'd a thought to bafe inglorious flight; 95
But horfe to horfe, and man to man, they fight.
Not rabid wolves more fierce conteft their prey;
Each wounds, each bleeds, but none refign the day.
Difcord with joy the fcene of death descries,
And drinks large flaughter at her fanguine eyes :
Discord alone, of all th' immortal train,
Swells the red horrours of this direful plain :
The Gods in peace their golden manfions fill,
Rang'd in bright order on th' Olympian hill;
But general murmurs told their griefs above,
And each accus'd the partial will of Jove.
Meanwhile apart, superior, and alone,
Th' eternal monarch on his awful throne,
Wrapt in the blaze of boundless glory fate;
And, fix'd, fulfill'd the juft decrees of fate.
On earth he turn'd his all-confidering eyes,
And mark'd the spot where Ilion's towers arise;
The fea with ships, the fields with armies spread,
The victor's rage, the dying and the dead.
Thus while the morning-beams increafing bright 115 O'er heaven's pure azure spread the growing light, Commutual death the fate of war confounds, Each adverse battle gor'd with equal wounds. But now (what time in some sequester'd vale The weary woodman spreads his sparing meal, When his tir'd arms refuse the ax to rear, And claim a refpite from the sylvan war; But not till half the proftrate forefts lay Stretch'd in long ruin, and expos'd to day)
Then, nor till then, the Greeks' impulfive might 15
Pierc'd the black phalanx, and let in the light.
Great Agamemnon then the slaughter led,
And flew Bienor at his people's head:
Whofe fquire Oïleus, with a fudden spring,
Leap'd from the chariot to reyenge his king;
But in his front he felt the fatal wound,
Which pierc'd his brain, and stretch'd him on the ground. Atrides fpoil'd, and left them on the plain :
Vain was their youth, their glittering armour vain :
Now foil'd with dust, and naked to the sky,
Their fnowy limbs and beauteous bodies lie.
Two fons of Priam next to battle move,
The product one of marriage, one of love!
In the fame car the brother warriours ride,
This took the charge to combat, that to guide :.
Far other task, than when they wont to keep,
On Ida's tops, their father's fleecy fheep!
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