The Iliad Part 51

Jove view'd the combat with a stern survey, And eyes that flash'd intolerable day.

Fix'd on the field his sight, his breast debates The vengeance due, and meditates the fates: Whether to urge their prompt effect, and call The force of Hector to Patroclus' fall, This instant see his short-lived trophies won, And stretch him breathless on his slaughter'd son; Or yet, with many a soul's untimely flight, Augment the fame and horror of the fight.

To crown Achilles' valiant friend with praise At length he dooms; and, that his last of days Shall set in glory, bids him drive the foe; Nor unattended see the shades below.

Then Hector's mind he fills with dire dismay; He mounts his car, and calls his hosts away; Sunk with Troy's heavy fates, he sees decline The scales of Jove, and pants with awe divine.

Then, nor before, the hardy Lycians fled, And left their monarch with the common dead: Around, in heaps on heaps, a dreadful wall Of carnage rises, as the heroes fall.

(So Jove decreed!) At length the Greeks obtain The prize contested, and despoil the slain.

The radiant arms are by Patroclus borne; Patroclus' s.h.i.+ps the glorious spoils adorn.

Then thus to Phoebus, in the realms above, Spoke from his throne the cloud-compelling Jove: "Descend, my Phoebus! on the Phrygian plain, And from the fight convey Sarpedon slain; Then bathe his body in the crystal flood, With dust dishonour'd, and deform'd with blood; O'er all his limbs ambrosial odours shed, And with celestial robes adorn the dead.

Those rites discharged, his sacred corse bequeath To the soft arms of silent Sleep and Death.

They to his friends the immortal charge shall bear; His friends a tomb and pyramid shall rear: What honour mortals after death receive, Those unavailing honours we may give!"

[Ill.u.s.tration: SLEEP AND DEATH CONVEYING THE BODY OF SARPEDON TO LYCIA.]

SLEEP AND DEATH CONVEYING THE BODY OF SARPEDON TO LYCIA.

Apollo bows, and from mount Ida's height, Swift to the field precipitates his flight; Thence from the war the breathless hero bore, Veil'd in a cloud, to silver Simois' sh.o.r.e; There bathed his honourable wounds, and dress'd His manly members in the immortal vest; And with perfumes of sweet ambrosial dews Restores his freshness, and his form renews.

Then Sleep and Death, two twins of winged race, Of matchless swiftness, but of silent pace, Received Sarpedon, at the G.o.d's command, And in a moment reach'd the Lycian land; The corse amidst his weeping friends they laid, Where endless honours wait the sacred shade.

Meanwhile Patroclus pours along the plains, With foaming coursers, and with loosen'd reins.

Fierce on the Trojan and the Lycian crew, Ah blind to fate! thy headlong fury flew Against what fate and powerful Jove ordain, Vain was thy friend's command, thy courage vain.

For he, the G.o.d, whose counsels uncontroll'd Dismay the mighty, and confound the bold; The G.o.d who gives, resumes, and orders all, He urged thee on, and urged thee on to fall.

Who first, brave hero! by that arm was slain, Who last beneath thy vengeance press'd the plain; When heaven itself thy fatal fury led, And call'd to fill the number of the dead?

Adrestus first; Autonous then succeeds; Echeclus follows; next young Megas bleeds, Epistor, Melanippus, bite the ground; The slaughter, Elasus and Mulius crown'd: Then sunk Pylartes to eternal night; The rest, dispersing, trust their fates to flight.

Now Troy had stoop'd beneath his matchless power, But flaming Phoebus kept the sacred tower Thrice at the battlements Patroclus strook;(246) His blazing aegis thrice Apollo shook; He tried the fourth; when, bursting from the cloud, A more than mortal voice was heard aloud.

"Patroclus! cease; this heaven-defended wall Defies thy lance; not fated yet to fall; Thy friend, thy greater far, it shall withstand, Troy shall not stoop even to Achilles' hand."

So spoke the G.o.d who darts celestial fires; The Greek obeys him, and with awe retires.

While Hector, checking at the Scaean gates His panting coursers, in his breast debates, Or in the field his forces to employ, Or draw the troops within the walls of Troy.

Thus while he thought, beside him Phoebus stood, In Asius' shape, who reigned by Sangar's flood; (Thy brother, Hecuba! from Dymas sprung, A valiant warrior, haughty, bold, and young;) Thus he accosts him. "What a shameful sight!

G.o.d! is it Hector that forbears the fight?

Were thine my vigour this successful spear Should soon convince thee of so false a fear.

Turn thee, ah turn thee to the field of fame, And in Patroclus' blood efface thy shame.

Perhaps Apollo shall thy arms succeed, And heaven ordains him by thy lance to bleed."

So spoke the inspiring G.o.d; then took his flight, And plunged amidst the tumult of the fight.

He bids Cebrion drive the rapid car; The lash resounds, the coursers rush to war.

The G.o.d the Grecians' sinking souls depress'd, And pour'd swift spirits through each Trojan breast.

Patroclus lights, impatient for the fight; A spear his left, a stone employs his right: With all his nerves he drives it at the foe.

Pointed above, and rough and gross below: The falling ruin crush'd Cebrion's head, The lawless offspring of king Priam's bed; His front, brows, eyes, one undistinguish'd wound: The bursting b.a.l.l.s drop sightless to the ground.

The charioteer, while yet he held the rein, Struck from the car, falls headlong on the plain.

To the dark shades the soul unwilling glides, While the proud victor thus his fall derides.

"Good heaven! what active feats yon artist shows!

What skilful divers are our Phrygian foes!

Mark with what ease they sink into the sand!

Pity that all their practice is by land!"

Then rus.h.i.+ng sudden on his prostrate prize, To spoil the carcase fierce Patroclus flies: Swift as a lion, terrible and bold, That sweeps the field, depopulates the fold; Pierced through the dauntless heart, then tumbles slain, And from his fatal courage finds his bane.

At once bold Hector leaping from his car, Defends the body, and provokes the war.

Thus for some slaughter'd hind, with equal rage, Two lordly rulers of the wood engage; Stung with fierce hunger, each the prey invades, And echoing roars rebellow through the shades.

Stern Hector fastens on the warrior's head, And by the foot Patroclus drags the dead: While all around, confusion, rage, and fright, Mix the contending hosts in mortal fight.

So pent by hills, the wild winds roar aloud In the deep bosom of some gloomy wood; Leaves, arms, and trees, aloft in air are blown, The broad oaks crackle, and the Sylvans groan; This way and that, the rattling thicket bends, And the whole forest in one crash descends.

Not with less noise, with less tumultuous rage, In dreadful shock the mingled hosts engage.

Darts shower'd on darts, now round the carcase ring; Now flights of arrows bounding from the string: Stones follow stones; some clatter on the fields, Some hard, and heavy, shake the sounding s.h.i.+elds.

But where the rising whirlwind clouds the plains, Sunk in soft dust the mighty chief remains, And, stretch'd in death, forgets the guiding reins!

Now flaming from the zenith, Sol had driven His fervid orb through half the vault of heaven; While on each host with equal tempests fell The showering darts, and numbers sank to h.e.l.l.

But when his evening wheels o'erhung the main, Glad conquest rested on the Grecian train.

Then from amidst the tumult and alarms, They draw the conquer'd corse and radiant arms.

Then rash Patroclus with new fury glows, And breathing slaughter, pours amid the foes.

Thrice on the press like Mars himself he flew, And thrice three heroes at each onset slew.

There ends thy glory! there the Fates untwine The last, black remnant of so bright a line: Apollo dreadful stops thy middle way; Death calls, and heaven allows no longer day!

For lo! the G.o.d in dusky clouds enshrined, Approaching dealt a staggering blow behind.

The weighty shock his neck and shoulders feel; His eyes flash sparkles, his stunn'd senses reel In giddy darkness; far to distance flung, His bounding helmet on the champaign rung.

Achilles' plume is stain'd with dust and gore; That plume which never stoop'd to earth before; Long used, untouch'd, in fighting fields to s.h.i.+ne, And shade the temples of the mad divine.

Jove dooms it now on Hector's helm to nod; Not long--for fate pursues him, and the G.o.d.

His spear in s.h.i.+vers falls; his ample s.h.i.+eld Drops from his arm: his baldric strows the field: The corslet his astonish'd breast forsakes: Loose is each joint; each nerve with horror shakes; Stupid he stares, and all-a.s.sistless stands: Such is the force of more than mortal hands!

A Dardan youth there was, well known to fame, From Panthus sprung, Euphorbus was his name; Famed for the manage of the foaming horse, Skill'd in the dart, and matchless in the course: Full twenty knights he tumbled from the car, While yet he learn'd his rudiments of war.

His venturous spear first drew the hero's gore; He struck, he wounded, but he durst no more.

Nor, though disarm'd, Patroclus' fury stood: But swift withdrew the long-protended wood.

And turn'd him short, and herded in the crowd.

Thus, by an arm divine, and mortal spear, Wounded, at once, Patroclus yields to fear, Retires for succour to his social train, And flies the fate, which heaven decreed, in vain.

Stern Hector, as the bleeding chief he views, Breaks through the ranks, and his retreat pursues: The lance arrests him with a mortal wound; He falls, earth thunders, and his arms resound.

With him all Greece was sunk; that moment all Her yet-surviving heroes seem'd to fall.

So, scorch'd with heat, along the desert score, The roaming lion meets a bristly boar, Fast by the spring; they both dispute the flood, With flaming eyes, and jaws besmear'd with blood; At length the sovereign savage wins the strife; And the torn boar resigns his thirst and life.

Patroclus thus, so many chiefs o'erthrown, So many lives effused, expires his own.

As dying now at Hector's feet he lies, He sternly views him, and triumphant cries:

"Lie there, Patroclus! and with thee, the joy Thy pride once promised, of subverting Troy; The fancied scenes of Ilion wrapt in flames, And thy soft pleasures served with captive dames.

Unthinking man! I fought those towers to free, And guard that beauteous race from lords like thee: But thou a prey to vultures shalt be made; Thy own Achilles cannot lend thee aid; Though much at parting that great chief might say, And much enjoin thee, this important day.

'Return not, my brave friend (perhaps he said), Without the b.l.o.o.d.y arms of Hector dead.'

He spoke, Patroclus march'd, and thus he sped."

Supine, and wildly gazing on the skies, With faint, expiring breath, the chief replies:

"Vain boaster! cease, and know the powers divine!

Jove's and Apollo's is this deed, not thine; To heaven is owed whate'er your own you call, And heaven itself disarm'd me ere my fall.

Had twenty mortals, each thy match in might, Opposed me fairly, they had sunk in fight: By fate and Phoebus was I first o'erthrown, Euphorbus next; the third mean part thy own.

But thou, imperious! hear my latest breath; The G.o.ds inspire it, and it sounds thy death: Insulting man, thou shalt be soon as I; Black fate o'erhangs thee, and thy hour draws nigh; Even now on life's last verge I see thee stand, I see thee fall, and by Achilles' hand."