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Each due atonement gladly I prepare;
And Heaven regard me as I justly swear!
Here then a while let Greece affembled ftay,
Nor great Achilles grudge this fhort delay:
Till from the fleet our presents be convey'd,
And, Jove attesting, the firm compact made. 190
A train of noble youths the charge shall bear ;
Thefe to felect, Ulyffes, be thy care :
In order rank'd let all our gifts appear,
And the fair train of captives close the rear :
Talthybius fhall the victim boar convey,
Sacred to Jove, and yon bright orb of day.
For this (the ftern acides replies)
Some lefs important feafon may fuffice,
When the ftern fury of the war is o'er,
And wrath extinguish'd burns my breast no more.
By Hector flain, their faces to the sky,
All grim with gaping wounds our heroes lie:
Thofe call to war! and, might my voice incite,
Now, now, this inftant should commence the
fight:

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Then, when the day's complete, let generous bowls,

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And copious banquets, glad your weary fouls.
Let not my palate know the taste of food,
Till my infatiate rage be cloy'd with blood:
Pale lies my friend with wounds disfigur'd o'er,
And his cold feet are pointed to the door.
Revenge is all my foul! no meaner care,
Intereft, or thought, has room to harbour there;
Deftruction be my feaft, and mortal wounds,
And fcenes of blood, and agonizing founds.
O first of Greeks (Ulyffes thus rejoin'd)
The best and braveft of the warrior-kind!
Thy praife it is in dreadful camps to fhine,
But old experience and calm wifdom, mine.
Then hear my counfel, and to reafon yield,
The braveft foon are fatiate of the field;
Though vaft the heaps that ftrow the crimion
plain,

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The bloody harvest brings but little gain:
The fcale of conqueft ever wavering lies,
Great Jove but turns it, and the victor dies!
The great, the bold, by thousands daily fall, 225
And endless were the grief, to weep for all.
Eternal forrows what avails to fhed?
Greece honours not with folemn fafts the dead: "
Enough, when death demands the brave, to pay
The tribute of a melancholy day.
230
One chief with patience to the grave refign'd,
Our care devolves on others left behind.
Let generous food fupplies of firength produce,
1.et rifing fpirits flow from fprightly juice,
Let their warm heads with fcenes of battle glow,
And pour new furies on the feebler foe.
Yet a fhort interval, and none shall dare
Expect a fecond fummons to the war;
Who waits for that, the dire effect thall find,
If trembling in the fhips he lags behind.
Embodied, to the battle let us bend,
And all at once on haughty Troy defcend.
And now the delegates Ulyffes fent,
To bear the prefents from the royal tent.
The fons of Neftor, Phyleus' valiant heir,
Thias and Merion, thunderbolts of war,
With Lycomedes of Creontian strain,
And Melanippus, form'd the chosen train.
Swift as the word was given, the youths obey'd;
Twice ten bright vafes in the mid they laid; 250

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A row of fix fair tripods then fucceeds:
And twice the number of high-bounding fteeds:
Seven captives next a lovely line compose;
The eighth Brifeïs, like the blooming rofe,
Clos'd the bright band: great Ithacus, before, 255
First of the train, the golden talents bore:
The reft in public view the chiefs difpofe,
A fplendid scene! then Agamemnon rose :
The boar Talthybius held: the Grecian lord
Drew the broad cutlafs, fheath'd befide his fword
The stubborn briftles from the victim's brow 261
He crops, and offering meditates his vow.
His hands uplifted to th' attesting skies,
On heaven's broad marble roof were fix'd his eyes;
The folemn words a deep attention drew,
And Greece around fat thrill'd with facred awe.
Witness, thou firft! thou greatest Power above!
All-good, all-wife, and all-furviving Jove!
And Mother-earth, and Heaven's revolving
light,

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And ye, fell Furies of the realms of night,
Who rule the dead, and horrid woes prepare
For perjur'd kings, and all who falfely fwear!
The black-cy'd maid inviolate removes,
Pure and unconscious of my manly loves.
If this be falfe, Heaven all its vengeance fhed,
And level'd thunder ftrike my guilty head! 276
With that, his weapon deep inflicts the wound;
The bleeding favage tumbles to the ground;
The facred herald rolls the victim flain
(A feast for fish) into the foaming main.

280

Then thus Achilies: Hear, ye Greeks! and know
Whate'er we feel, 'tis Jove inflicts the woe:
Not elfe Atrides could our rage inflame,
Nor from my arms, unwilling, force the dame.
'Twas Jove's high will alone, o'erruling all, 285
'That doom'd our ftrife, and doom'd the Greeks
to fall.

Go then, ye chiefs! indulge the genial rite!
Achilles waits you, and expects the fight.

he fpeedy council at his word adjourn' d:
To their black vellels all the Greeks return'd. 290
Achilles fought his tent. His train before
March'd onward, bending with the gifts they
boré.

Thofe in the tents the 'fquires industrious spread:
The foaming courfers to the stalls they led;"
To their new feats the female captives move: 295
Brifeïs, radiant as the Queen of Love,
Slow as fhe paft, beheld with fad furvey,
Where, gafh'd with crucl wounds, Patroclus lay.
Prone on the body fell the heavenly fair,
Beat her fad breaft, and tore her golden hair; 300
All beautiful in grief her humid eyes
Shining with tears the lifts, and thus fhe cries:
Ah, youth for ever dear, for ever kind,
Once tender friend of my distracted mind!
I left thee fresh in life, in beauty gay!
Now find thee cold, inanimated clay!
What woes my wretched race of life attend!
Sorrows on forrows, never doom'd to end!
The first lov'd confort of my virgin-bed
Before thefe eyes in fatal battle bled!
245 My three brave brothers in one mournful'day,
All trod the dark irremeable way:
Thy friendly hand uprear'd me from the plain,
And dry'd my forrows for a husband flain;
Achilles' care you promis'd I should prove, 315
The firft, the dearest partner of his love;

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Her fifter captives echoed groan for groan,
Nor mourn'd Patroclus fortunes, but their own:
The leaders prefs'd their chief on every fide;
Unmov'd, he heard them, and with fighs deny'd:
If yet Achilles have a friend, whose care
Is bent to please him, this request forbear:
Till yonder fun defcend, ah let me pay
To grief and anguish one abftemious day.

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He fpoke, and from the warriors turn'd his face:
Yet still the brother-kings of Atreus' race,
Neftor, Idomeneus, Ulyffes fage,

And Phoenix, ftrive to calm his grief and rage:
His rage they calm not, nor his grief control;
He groans, he raves, he forrows from his foul.
Thou too, Patroclus! (thus his heart he vents) 335
Once fpread th' inviting banquet in our tents;
Thy fweet fociety, thy winning care,
Once ftaid Achilles, rufhing to the war.
But now, alas! to death's cold arms refign'd,
What banquets but revenge can glad my mind? 340
What greater forrow could afflict my breast,
What more, if hoary Peleus were deceas'd?
Who now, perhaps, in Phthia dreads to hear
His fon's fad fate, and drops a tender tear.
What more, fhould Neoptolemus the brave
(My only offspring) fink into the grave?
If yet that offspring lives (I diftant far,
Of all neglectful, wage a hateful war).

I could not this, this cruel ftroke attend;

345

So helms fucceeding helms, so shields from shields
Catch the quick beams,and brighten all the fields;385
Broad-glittering breast-plates, spears with pointed

rays,

Mix in one stream, reflecting blaze on blaze;
Thick beats the centre as the courfers bound,
With fplendour flame the fkies, and laugh the
fields around.

Full in the midft, high-towering o'er the reft, 390
His limbs in arms divine Achilles dreft;
Arms, which the Father of the Fire beftow'd,
Forg'd on th' eternal anvils of the God.
Grief and revenge his furious heart infpire;
His glowing eye-balls roll with living fire;
He grinds his teeth; and, furious with delay,
O'erlooks th' embattled hoft, and hopes the bloody
day.

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Next, his high head the helmet grac'd; behind 410
The fweepy creft, hung floating in the wind:

Fate claim'dAchilles, but might fpare his friend. 350 Like the red ftar, that from his flaming hair

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I hop'd Patroclus might furvive, to rear
My tender orphan with a parent's care.
From Scyros ifle conduct him o'er the main,
And glad his eyes with his paternal reign,
The lofty palace, and the large domain;
For Peleus breathes no more the vital air,
Or drags a wretched life of age and care,
But till the news of my fad fate invades
His haftening foul, and finks him to the shades.
Sighing he faid. His grief the heroes join'd; 360
Each ftole a tear for what he left behind.
Their mingled grief the Sire of Heaven furvey'd;
And thus, with pity, to his blue-ey'd Maid:
Is then Achilies now no more thy care,
And doll thou thus defert the great in war;
Lo, where yon fails their canvas wings extend,
All comfortlefs he fits, and wails his friend:
Ere thirst and want his forces have oppreft,
Hate, and infufe ambrofia in his breast.
Helpoke and fudden, at the word of Jove, 370
Shot the defcending Goddess from above.
So fwift through æther the fhrill Harpy springs,
The wide air floating to her ample wings.
To great Achilles the her flight addreft,
And pour'd divine ambrofia in his breast,
With nectar fweet (refection of the Gods!)
Then, fwift afcending, fought the bright abodes.
Now iffued from the fhips, the warrior-train,
And, like a deluge, pour'd upon the plain.
As when the piercing blafts of Boreas blow, 380
And fcatter o'er the fields the driving snow;
From dufky clouds the fleecy winter flies,
Whofe dazzling lustre whitens all the fkics :

Shakes down difeafes, peftilence, and war;
So ftream'd the golden honours from his head,
Trembled the sparkling plumes, and the loose glo-

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Th' immortal courfers and the radiant car
(The filver traces fweeping at their fide);
Their fiery mouths refplendent bridles ty'd,
The ivory-ftudded reins, return'd behind,
Wav'd o'er their backs, and to the chariot join'd.
The charioteer then whirl'd the lash around,
And swift afcended at one active bound.
All bright in heavenly arms, above his fquire
375 Achilles mounts, and fets the field on fire;
Not brighter Phœbus, in th' etherial way,
Flames from his chariot, and restores the day
High o'er the host all terrible he ftands,
And thunders to his fteeds thefe dread commands:
Xanthus and Balius! of Podarges' ftrain
(Unless ye boaft that heavenly race in vain)
Be fwift, be mindful of the load ye bear,
And learn to make your maiter more your care,

449

(Confeft we faw him) tore his arms away.
No-could our swiftnefs o'er the winds prevail, 465
Or beat the pinions of the western gale,

All were in vain-the Fatos thy death demand,
Due to a mortal and immortal hand.

Through falling fquadrons bear my flaughtering | The bright far-fhooting God who gilds the day
Nor, as ye left Patroclus, leave your lord. [fword,
The generous Xanthus, as the words he faid, 451
Seem'd fenfible of woe, and dropp'd his head!
Trembling he ftood before the golden wain,
And bow'd to duft the honour's of his mane,
When,ftrange to tell! (fo Juno will'd) he broke 455
Eternal filence, and portentous spoke.
Achilles! yes! this day at least we bear
Thy rage in fafety through the files of war:
But come it will, the fatal time must come,
Nor our's the fault, but God decrees thy doom.
Not through our crime, or flownefs in the courfe,
Fell thy Patroclus, but by heavenly force;

460

Then ceas'd for ever, by the Furies ty'd,
His fateful voice. Th' intrepid chief reply'd, 470
With unabated rage-So let it be !

Portents and prodigies are loft on me,

I know my fate, to die, to see no more
My much-lov'd parents, and my native shore-
Enough-when Heaven ordains, I fink in night; 475
Now perish Troy ! he said, and rush'd to fight.

BOOK XX.

THE ARGUMENT.

The Battle of the Gods, and the Acts of Achilles.

Jupiter, upon Achilles's return to the battle, calls a council of the Gods, and permits them to affit either party. The terrors of the battle defcribed, when the Deities are engaged. Apollo encourages neas to meet Achilles. After a long converfation, these two beroes encounter: but Æneas is preferved by the affiftun of Neptune. Achilles falls upon the rest of the Trojans, and is upon the point of killing Heior, but Apollo conveys bim arvay in a cloud. Achilles purfues the Trojans with great flaughter.

The fame day continues. The feene is in the field before Troy.

HUS round Pelides breathing war and blood,.

TH

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Greece, fheath'd in arms, beside her veffels ftood:

While' near impending from a neighbouring height,

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Troy's black battalions wake the fhock of fight.
Then Jove to Themis gives command, to call
The Gods to council in the ftarry hall:
Swift o'er Olympus' hundred hills the flies,
And fummons all the fenate of the skies.
These shining on, in long proceffion come
To Jove's eternal adamantine dome.
Not one was abfent, not a rural Power,
That haunts the verdant gloom, or rofy bower;
Each fair-hair'd Dryad of the fhady wood,
Each azure Sifter of the filver flood;
All but old Ocean, hoary Sire! who keeps
His ancient feat beneath the facred deeps.
On marble thrones with lucid columns crown'd
(The work of Vulcan, fat the Powers around.
Ev'n he whole trident sways the watery reign,
Heard the loud fummons, and for fook the main, 20
Affum'd his throne amid the bright abodes,
And question'd thus the Sire of men and Gods:
What moves the God who heaven and earth
commands,

In care of human race; ev'n Jove's own eye
Sees with regret unhappy mortals die.
Far on Olympus' top in fecret ftate
Ourself will fit, and fee the hand of Fate
Work out our will. Celestial Powers! defcend, 35
And, as your minds direct, your fuccour lond
To either host. Troy foon muft lie o'erthrown,
If uncontrol'd Achilles fights alone :

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rage:

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On adverfe parts the warring gods engage. [45
Heaven's awful Queen; and he whofe azure round
15 Girds the vaft globe; the Maid in arms renown'd;
Hermes, of profitable arts the fire;
And Vulcan, the black fovereign of the fire!
Thefe to the fleet repair with inftant fight;
The veffels tremble as the Gods alight.
In aid of Troy, Latona, Phoebus, came,
Mars fiery-helni'd, the laughter loving Dame,
Xanthus, whofe ftreams in golden currents flow,
And the chafle Huntress of the filver bow.
Ere yet the Gods their various aid employ,
Each Argive bofom fwell'd with manly joy,
While great Achilles (terror of the plain) -
Long loft to battle, fhone in arms again.
Dreadful he flood in front of all his hoft;
Pale Troy beheld, and feem'd already loft; 60
Her braveft heroes pant with inward fear,
And trembling fee another God of War.

25

And grafps the thunder in his awful hands,
Thus to convene the whole æthereal ftate?
Is Greece and Troy the fubject in debate?
Already met, the lowering hoft: appear,
And death ftands ardent on the edge of war.
'Tis true (the Cloud-compelling Power replies)
This day, we call the council of the ikics

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But when the Powers defcending fwell'd the fight,

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Then tumult rofe; fierce rage and pale affright
Varied each face; then Difcord founds alarms, 65]
Earth echoes, and the nations rush to arms.
Now through the trembling thores Minerva calls,
And now the thunders from the Grecian walls.
Mars, hovering o'er his Troy, his terrors fhrouds
In gloomy tempefts, and a night of clouds:
Now through each Trojan heart he fury pours
With voice divine, from Thon's topmoft towers;
Now thours to Simois from her beauteous hill;
The mountain hook, the rapid ftreams food fill.
Above, the Sire of Gods his thunder rolls,
And peals on peals redoubkd rend the poles.
Beneath, ftern Neptune fhakes the folid ground;
The forefts wave, the mountains nod around;
Through all their fummits tremble Ida s woods,
And from their fources boil her hundred floods. 80
Troy's turrets totter on the rocking plain;
And the rofs'd navics Beat the heaving main.
Deep in the difmal regions of the dead,
Th'infernal monarch rear'd his hoary head, [85
Leap'd from his throne, felt Neptune's arm fhould
His dark dominious open to the day,
And pour in light on Pluto's drear abodes,
Abhorr'd by men, and dreadful ev'n to Gods.
Such war th immortals wage: fuch horrors
rend
(tend. 90
The world's vaft concave, when the Gods con-
Firt filver-fhafted Phoebus took the plain
Again blae Neptune, monarch of the main:
The God of Arnis his giant bulk difplay'd,
Oppos'd to Pallas, War's triumphant Maid,
Against Latona march'd the Son of May;
The quiver'd Dian, fifter of the Day
Her golden arrows founding at her fide)
Saturnia, Majefty of Heaven, defy'd.
With fiery Vulcan laft in battle itands
The facted flood that rolls on golden fands;
Xanthus his name with thofe of heavenly birth,
But call'd Scamander by the fons of earth.

[lay

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While thus the Gods in various league engage, Achilles glow'd with more than mortal rage: Hector he fought; in fearch of Hector turn'd 105 eyes around, for Hector only burn'd; And burst like lightning through the rafiks, and vow'd

His

To glut the God of Battles with his blood.
Encas was the first who dar'd to ftay;

| Apollo wedg`d him in the warrior's way;
Etfwell d his bofom with undaunted might,
Half-fore'd, and half-perfuaded, to the fight.
Like young Lycaon, of the royal line,

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voice and alpect, feen'd the Power divine; ad bade the chief reflect, how late with fcorn 115 diftant threats he brav'd the Goddels-born, Then thus the hero of Anchiles' firain; To meet Pelides, you perfuade in vain: Already have I me, nor void of fear Oblerv'd the fury of his flying spear; From Ida's woods he chas'd us to the field, Cut force he featter'd, and our herds he kill'd; Irneus, Pedafus, in afhes lay,

(Jove affifling) I furviv'd the day; tehd 1 funk, oppreft in fatal fight Ev ferte Achilies and Minerva's might.

VOL. VI.

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To whom the Son of Jove: That God implors,
And be what great Achilles was before. 135
From heavenly Venus thou deriv'ft thy ftrain,
And he, but frem a Sifter of the Main:
An aged Sea-god father of his line,
But Jove himself the facred fource of thine.
Then lift thy weapon for a noble blow,
Nor fear the vaunting of a mortal foe.
This faid, and fpirit breath'd into his breast,
Through the thick troops th' embolden'd hero
prefl:
[vey'à,

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His venturous act the white arm'd Queen fur-
And thus, affembling all the Powers, the faid: 145
Behold an action, Gods! that claim your care;
Lo great Æneas rushing to the war;
Against Pelides he directs his course,
Phoebus impels, and Phoebus gives him force.
Reftrain his bold career; at least, t' attend
Our favour'd hero, let fome Power defcend,
To guard his life, and add to his renown,
We, the great armament of heaven, came down,
Hereafter let him fall, as Fates defign,
That fpun fo fhort his life's illuftrious line:
But, let fome adverfe God now cross his way,
Give him to know what Powers affift this day:
For how fhall mortal stand the dire alarms,
When heaven's refulgent hoft appear in arms?

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Thus the; and thus the God whofe force can make

The folid globe's eternal bafis fake:

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| Against the might of man, fo feeble known,
Why fhould celeftial Powers exert their own?
Snffice, from yonder mount to view the fcene,
And leave to war the fates of mortal men.
But if th' Armipotent, or God of light.
Obftruct Achiles, or commence the fight,
Thence on the Gods of Troy we fwift defcend:
Full foon, I doubt not, fhall the conflict end;
And there in ruin and confufion hurl'd,
Yield to our conquering arms the lower world.
Thus having faid, the Tyrant of the sea,
Cerulean Neptune, rofe, and led the way.
Advanc'd upon the field there ftood a mound [175
Of earth congefted, wall'd, and trench'd around;
in elder times to guard Alcides made

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The work of Trojans, with Minerva's aid) What-time a vengeful moufter of the main wwept the wide fhore, and drove him to the plain.

Here Neptune and the Godsof Greece repair,180
With clouds encompafs'd, and a veil of air:
The adverfe powers, around Apollo laid,

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120 Crown the fair hills that filver Simois fhade.
In circle clofe each heavenly party fate :
Intent to form the future fcheme of Fate;
But mix not yet in fight, though Jove on high
Gives the loud fignal, and the heavens reply.
Mean while the rufhing armies hide the ground;
The trampled centre yields a hollow found":

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Steeds cas'd in mail, and chiefs in armour bright, 190
The gleamy champain glows with brazen light.
Amid both hofts (a dreadful space) appear
There, great Achilles : bold Eneas, here.
With towering ftrides Æneas, first advanc'd,
The nodding plumage on his helmet danc'd; 195
Spread o'er his breaft the fencing fhield he bore,
And, as he mov'd, his javelin flam'd before.
Not fo Pelides: furious to engage,
He ruth'd impetuous. Such the lion's rage,
Who, viewing firft his foes with fcornful eyes,
Though all in arms the peopled city rife,
Stalks careless on, with unregarding pride:
Till at the length, by fome brave youth defy'd,
To his bold fpear the favage turns alone:
He murmurs fury with an hollow groan;
He grins, he foams, he rolls his eyes around;
Lash'd by his tail, his heaving fides refound;
He calls up all his rage; he grinds his teeth,
Refolv'd on vengeance, or refolv'd on death.
So, fierce Achilles on neas flies;
So ftands Æneas, and his force defics.
Ere yet the ftern encounter join'd, begun
The feed of Thetis thus to Venus' fon;
Why comes Æneas through the ranks fo far?
Seeks he to meet Achilles' arm in war,
In hope the realms of Priam to enjoy,
And prove his merits to the throne of Troy?
Grant that beneath thy lance Achilles dies,
The martial monarch may refuse the prize:
Sons he has many: thofe thy pride may quell; 220
And 'tis his fault to love thofe fons too well.
Or, in reward of thy victorious hand,
Has Troy propos'd fome spacious track of land?
An ample foret, or a fair domain,
Of hill for vines, and arable for grain?
Ev'n this, perhaps, will hardly prove thy lot,
But can Achilles be fo foon forgot?
Once (as I think) you faw this brandish'd spear,
And then the great Æneas feem'd to fear.
With hearty hafte from Ida's mount he fled,
Nor, till he reach'd Lyrneffus, turn'd his head.
Her lofty walls not long our progress staid;
Thofe, Pallas, Jove, and we, in ruins laid:
In Grecian chains her captive race were caft,
'Tis true, the great Eneas fled too fast.
Defrauded of my conqueft once before,
What then I loft, the Gods this day reftore.
Go; while thou may'st, avoid the threatening
fate;

Fools ftay to feel it, and are wife too late.

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Dardania's walls he rais'd; for Ilion thes
(The city fince of many-languag'd men)
Was not. The natives were content to till
The fha dy foot of Ida's fountful hill.
From Dardanus, great Erichthonius fprings, 26,
The richeft, once, of Alia's wealthy kings;
Three thousand mares his fpacious paftures bred,
Three thousand foals befide their mothers fed.
Boreas, enamour'd of the fprightly train,
Conceal'd his godhead in a flowing mane,
With voice diffembled to his loves he neigh'd,
And cours'd the dappled beauties o'er the mead:
Hence fprung twelve others of unrival'd kind,
Swift as their mother mares, and father wind.
Thefe, lightly fkimming when they swept the
plain,"

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Nor ply'd the grafs, nor bent the tender grain,
And when along the level feas they flew,
Scarce on the furface curl'd the briny dew;
Such Erichthonius was; from him there came
The facred Tros, of whom the Trojan name. 275
Three fons renow 'd adorn'd his nuptial bed,
Ilus, Affaracus, and Ganymed:

280

The matchlefs Ganymed, divinely fair,
Whom Heaven, enamour'd, fnatch'd to upper air
To bear the cup of Jove (atherial gueft,
The grace and glory of the ambrofial feast).
The two remaining fons the line divide:
First rofe Laomedon from Ilus' fide;
From him Tithonus, now in cares grown old,
And Priam (bleft with Hector, brave and bold): 285
Clytius and Lampus, ever-honour'd pair;
And Hicetaon, thunderbolt of war.
From great Affaracus fprung Capys, he
Begat Anchifes, and Anchifes me.

Such is our race: 'tis Fortune gives us birth, 290
But Jove alone endues the foul with worth:
He, fource of power and might! with boundless
All human courage gives, or takes away. [fway,
Long in the field of words we may conteud,
Reproach is infinite, aud knows no end, 293
Arm'd or with truth or falfehood, right or wrong
(So voluble a weapon is the tongue)
Wounded, we wound; and neither fide can fail,
For every man has equal strength to rail:
Women alone, when in the streets they jar, 300
Perhaps excel us in this wordy war;

Like us they stand, encompass'd with the crowd,
And vent their anger impotent and loud.
Ceafe then-Our business in the field of fight
Is not to question, but to prove, our might. 305

To this Anchifes' fon: Such words employ 240 To all thofe infults thou hast offer'd here,

To one that fears thee, fome unwarlike boy;
Such we difdain; the best may be defy'd
With mean reproaches, and unmanly pride;
Unworthy the high race from which we came,
Proclaim'd fo loudly by the voice of fame;
Each from illuftrious fathers draws his line;
Each Goddels born; half human, half divine,
Thetis', this day, or Venus' offspring, dies;
And tears fhall trickle from celestial eyes:
For when two heroes, thus deriv'd, contend,
'Tis not in words the glorious ftrife can end.
If yet thou farther feek to learn my birth
(A tale refounded through the spacious earth)
Hear how the glorious origin we prove
krom ancient Dardanus, th: firft-from Jove:

245

250

Receive this anfwer: 'tis my flying spear.

He fpoke With all his force the javelin flung, Fix'd deep, and loudly in the buckler rung. Far on his out-ftretch'd arm Pelides held (To meet the thundering lance) his dreadful fhield

310

That trembled as it ftuck; nor void of fear
Saw, ere it fell, th' immeaturable spear.
His fears were vain; impenetrable charms
Secur'd the temper of th'atherial armas 315, [held,
Through two ftrong plates the point its paffage
But ftoop'd, and refted, by the third repell'd.
Five plates of various metal, various mold,
Compos'd the fhield; of brafs each outward fold,
255 Of tin each inward, and the middle gold: 320.

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