He spoke, and ardent on the trembling ground Sprung from his car; his ringing arms refound. Dire was the clang, and dreadful from afar, Of arm'd Tydides rushing to the war. As when the winds, afcending by degrees, First move the whitening surface of the feas, The billows float in order to the shore, The wave behind rolls on the wave before; Till, with the growing ftorm, the deeps arise, Foam o'er the rocks, and thunder to the skies. So to the fight the thick battalions throng, Shields urg'd on shields, and men drove men along. Sedate and filent move the numerous bands; No found, no whisper, but the chief's commands, Those only heard; with awe the rest obey, As if fome God had fnatch'd their voice away. Not fo the Trojans; from their hoft afcends A general shout that all the region rends. As when the fleecy flocks unnumber'd stand In wealthy folds, and wait the milker's hand, The hollow vales inceffant bleating fills,
The lambs reply from all the neighbouring hills: 495
Such clamours rose from various nations round,
Mix'd was the murmur, and confus'd the found.
Each hoft now joins, and each a God inspires,
These Mars incites, and thofe Minerva fires.
Pale Flight around, and dreadful Terrour reign; 500
And Difcord raging bathes the purple plain;
Difcord! dire fifter of the slaughtering power,
Small at her birth, but rifing every hour,
While fcarce the skies her horrid head can bound,
She stalks on earth, and shakes the world around;
The nations bleed, where-e'er her steps fhe turns,
The groan ftill deepens, and the combat burns.
Now fhield with fhield, with helmet helmet clos'd,
To armour armour, lance to lance oppos'd,
Hoft against hoft with fhadowy fquadrons drew,
The founding darts in iron tempests flew,
Victors and vanquish'd join promifcuous cries,
And shrilling shouts and dying groans arise;
With ftreaming blood the slippery fields are dy'd,
And flaughter'd heroes fwell the dreadful tide.
As torrents roll, increas'd by numerous rills,
With rage impetuous down their echoing hills;
Rush to the vales, and, pour'd along the plain,
Roar through a thousand channels to the main;
The distant fhepherd trembling hears the found:
So mix both hofts, and fo their cries rebound.
The bold Antilochus the flaughter led, The first who ftruck a valiant Trojan dead : At great Echepolus the lance arrives,
Raz'd his high crest, and through his helmet drives ;
Warm'd in the brain the brazen weapon lies,
And fhades eternal fettle o'er his eyes.
So finks a tower, that long affaults had stood
of force and fire; its walls besmear'd with blood.
Him, the bold* leader of th' Abantian throng
Seiz'd to defpoil, and dragg'd the corpfe along:
But while he strove to tug th' inserted dart,
Agenor's javelin reach'd the hero's heart.
His flank, unguarded by his ample shield,
Admits the lance: he falls, and spurns the field; 535
The nerves, unbrac'd, support his limbs no more;
The foul comes floating in a tide of gore.
Trojans and Greeks now gather round the flain;
The war renews, the warriours bleed again;
As o'er their prey rapacious wolves engage,
Man dies on man, and all is blood and rage.
In blooming youth fair Simoïfius fell,
Sent by great Ajax to the fhades of hell:
Fair Simoïfius, whom his mother bore,
Amid the flocks on filver Simois' fhore:
The nymph defcending from the hills of Ide,
To feek her parents on his flowery side,
Brought forth the babe, their common care and joy,
And thence from Simois nam'd the lovely boy.
Short was his date! by dreadful Ajax flain
He falls, and renders all their cares in vain!
So falls a poplar, that in watery ground
Rais'd high the head, with stately branches crown'd, (Fell'd by fome artist with his shining steel,
To shape the circle of the bending wheel)
Cut down it lies, tall, smooth, and largely spread,
With all its beauteous honours on its head;
There, left a fubject to the wind and rain,
And scorch'd by funs, it withers on the plain.
Thus pierc'd by Ajax, Simoïfius lies
Stretch'd on the shore, and thus neglected dies.
At Ajax Antiphus his javelin threw ; The pointed lance with erring fury flew, And Leucus, lov'd by wife Ulyffes, flew. VOL. I.
He drops the corpfe of Simoïfius flain,
And finks a breathlefs carcafs on the plain.
This faw Ulyffes, and with grief enrag'd
Strode where the foremost of the foes engag'd;
Arm'd with his fpear, he meditates the wound,
In act to throw; but, cautious, look'd around.
Struck at his fight the Trojans backward drew,
And trembling heard the javelin as it flew.
A chief stood nigh, who from Abydos came,
Old Priam's fon, Democoon was his name;
The weapon enter'd close above his ear,
Cold through his temples glides the whizzing spear;
With piercing fhrieks the youth refigns his breath,
His eye-balls darken with the shades of death;
Ponderous he falls; his clanging arms refound;
And his broad buckler rings against the ground. 580
Seiz'd with affright the boldest foes appear;
Ev'n godlike Hector feems himself to fear;
Slow he gave way, the reft tumultuous fled;
The Greeks with shouts prefs on, and spoil the dead:
But Phoebus now from Ilion's towering height
Shines forth reveal'd, and animates the fight.
Trojans, be bold, and force with force oppofe;
Your foaming fteeds urge headlong on the foes!
Nor are their bodies rocks, nor ribb'd with steel;
Your weapons enter, and your strokes they feel.
Have ye forgot what feem'd your dread before?
The great, the fierce Achilles fights no more.
Apollo thus from Ilion's lofty towers
Array'd in terrors, rouz'd the Trojan powers:
While War's fierce Goddefs fires the Grecian foe, 595
And fhouts and thunders in the fields below.
Then great Diores fell, by doom divine,
In vain his valour, and illuftrious line.
A broken rock the force of Pirus threw
(Who from cold Ænus led the Thracian crew);
Full on his ankle dropt the ponderous stone,
Burft the strong nerves, and crash'd the folid bone.
Supine he tumbles on the crimson fands,
Before his helpless friends and native bands,
And fpreads for aid his unavailing hands.
The foe rush'd furious as he pants for breath,
And through his navel drove the pointed death:
His gufhing entrails fmok'd upon the ground,
And the warm life came ifluing from the wound.
His lance bold Thoas at the conqueror fent,
Deep in his breast above the pap it went.
Amid the lungs was fix'd the winged wood,
And quivering in his heaving bofom ftood:
Till from the dying chief, approaching near,
Th' Ætolian warriour tugg'd his weighty fpear:
'Then sudden wav'd his flaming faulchion round,
And gash'd his belly with a ghaftly wound,
The corpfe now breathlefs on the bloody plain,
To spoil his arms the victor ftrove in vain;
The Thracian bands against the victor preft;
A grove of lances glitter'd at his breast.
Stern Thoas, glaring with revengeful eyes,
In fullen fury flowly quits the prize.
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