Have dogs dismember'd (on the naked plains)
Or yet unmangled rest his cold remains?"

"O favour'd of the skies!" (thus answer'd then
The power that mediates between gods and men)
"Nor dogs nor vultures have thy Hector rent,
But whole he lies, neglected in the tent:
This the twelfth evening since he rested there,
Untouch'd by worms, untainted by the air.
Still as Aurora's ruddy beam is spread,
Round his friend's tomb Achilles drags the dead:
Yet undisfigur'd, or in limb or face,

All fresh he lies, with every living grace,
Majestical in death! No stains are found

O'er all the corpse, and clos'd is every wound;
Though many a wound they gave. Some heavenly

care,

Some hand divine, preserves him ever fair:
Or all the host of Heaven, to whom he led
▲ life so grateful, still regard him dead.”
Thus spoke to Priam the celestial guide!
And joyful thus the royal sire reply'd :
"Blest is the man who pays the gods above
The constant tribute of respect and love;
Those who inhabit the Olympian bower
My son forgot not, in exalted power;
And Heaven, that every virtue bears in mind,
Ev'n to the ashes of the just, is kind,

But thou, oh generous youth! this goblet take,
A pledge of gratitude, for Hector's sake;
And, while the favouring gods our steps survey,
Safe to Pelides' tent conduct my way."

To whom the latent god: "Ö king, forbear
To tempt my youth, for apt is youth to err:
But can I, absent from my prince's sight,
Take gifts in secret, that must shun the light?
What from our master's interest thus we draw,
Is but a licens'd theft that 'scapes the law.
Respecting him, my soul adjures th' offence;
And, as the crime, I dread the consequence.
Thee, far as Argos, pleas'd I could convey;
Guard of thy life, and partner of the way:
On thee attend, thy safety to maintain,
O'er pathless forests, or the roaring main."

He said, then took the chariot at the bound,
And snatch'd the reins, and whirl'd the lash around!
Before th' inspiring god, that urg'd them on,
The coursers fly, with spirit not their own.
And now they reach'd the naval walls, and found
The guards repasting, while the bowls go round:
On these the virtue of his wand he tries,
And pours deep slumber on their watchful eyes;
Then heav'd the massy gates, remov'd the bars,
And o'er the trenches led the rolling cars.
Unseen, through all the hostile camp they went,
And now approach'd Pelides' lofty tent.
Of fir the roof was rais'd, and cover'd o'er
With reeds collected from the marshy shore ;
And, fenc'd with palisades, a hall of state,
(The work of soldiers) where the hero sate.
Large was the door, whose well-compacted strength
A solid pine-tree barr'd, of wonderous length;
Scarce three strong Greeks could lift its mighty
weight,

But great Achilles singly clos'd the gate.
This Hermes (such the power of gods!) set wide;
Then swift alighted the celestial guide,

And thus reveal'd-" Hear, prince! and understand
Thou ow'st thy guidance to no mortal hand:
Hermes I am, descended from above,
The king of arts, the messenger of Jove.

Farewell: to shun Achilles' sight I fly:
Uncommon are such favours of the sky,
Nor stand confest to frail mortality.
Now fearless enter, and prefer thy prayers;
Adjure him by his father's silver hairs,
His son, his mother! urge him to bestow
Whatever pity that stern heart can know.”

Thus having said, he vanish'd from his eyes, And in a moment shot into the skies:

The king, confirm'd from Heaven, alighted there,
And left his aged herald on the car.

With solemn pace through various rooms he went,
And found Achilles in his inner tent:
There sate the hero; Alcimus the brave,
And great Automedon, attendance gave:
These serv'd his person at the royal feast:
Around, at awful distance, stood the rest.

Unseen by these, the king his entry made:
And, prostrate now before Achilles laid,
Sudden (a venerable sight) appears;
Embrac'd his knees, and bath'd his hands in tears;
Those direful hands his kisses press'd, embrued
Ev'n with the best, the dearest of his blood!

As when a wretch (who, conscious of his crime, Pursued for murder, flies his native clime) Just gains some frontier, breathless, pale, amaz'd! All gaze, all wonder: thus Achilles gaz'd: 'Thus stood th' attendants stupid with surprise; All mute, yet seem'd to question with their eyes: Each look'd on other, none the silence broke, Till thus at last the kingly suppliant spoke:

"Ah think, thou favour'd of the powers divine!
Think of thy father's age, and pity mine!
In me, that father's reverend image trace,
Those silver hairs, that venerable face;
His trembling limbs, his helpless person, see!
In all my equal, but in misery!

Yet now, perhaps, some turn of human fate
Expels him helpless from his peaceful state;
Think, from some powerful foe thou see'st him fly,
And beg protection with a feeble cry.
Yet still one comfort in his soul may rise;
He bears his son still lives to glad his eyes;
And, hearing, still may hope a better day
May send him thee, to chase that foe away.
No comfort to my griefs, no hopes, remain:
The best, the bravest, of my sons are slain!
Yet what a race! ere Greece to Ilion came,
The pledge of many a lov'd and loving dame!
Nineteen one mother bore-Dead, all are dead!
How oft, alas! has wretched Priam bled!
Still one was left, their loss to recompense;
His father's hope, his country's last defence.
Him too thy rage has slain! beneath thy steel,
Unhappy, in his country's cause he fell!

"For him, through hostile camps I bend my

way,

For him, thus prostrate at thy feet I lay;
Large gifts proportion'd to thy wrath I bear;
O hear the wretched, and the gods revere !

"Think of thy father, and this face behold!
See him in me, as helpless and as old!
Though not so wretched: there he yields to me,
The first of men in sovereign misery!

Thus fore'd to kneel, thus groveling to embrace
The scourge and ruin of my realm and race:
Suppliant my children's murderer to implore,
And kiss those hands yet reeking with their gore!"
These words soft pity in the chief inspire,
Touch'd with the dear remembrance of his sire.

Then with his hand (as prostrate still he lay)
The old man's check he gently turn'd away.
Now each by turns indulg'd the gush of woe;
And now the mingled tides together flow;
This low on earth, that gently bending o'er,
A father one, and one a son, deplore:
But great Achilles different passions rend,
And now his sire he mourns, and now his friend.
'Th' infectious softness through the heroes ran;
One universal solemn shower began;
They bore as heroes, but they felt as man.
Satiate at length with unavailing woes,
From the high throne divine Achilles rose;
The reverend monarch by the hand he rais'd;
On his white beard and form majestic gaz'd,
Not unrelenting: then serene began
With words to soothe the miserable man:

:

"Alas! what weight of anguish hast thou known, Unhappy prince! thus guardless and alone To pass through foes, and thus undaunted face The man whose fury has destroy'd thy race! Heaven sure has arm'd thee with a heart of steel, A strength proportion'd to the woes you feel. Rise then let reason mitigate our care: To mourn, avails not: man is born to bear. Such is, alas! the gods' severe decree: They, only they, are blest, and only free. Two urns by Jove's high throne have ever stood, The source of evil one, and one of good; From thence the cup of mortal man he fills, Blessings to these, to those distributes ills; To most, he mingles both: the wretch decreed To taste the bad, unmix'd, is curst indeed; Pursued by wrongs, by meagre famine driven, He wanders, outcast both of Earth and Heaven. The happiest taste not happiness sincere ; But find the cordial draught is dash'd with care. Who more than Peleus shone in wealth and power! What stars concurring blest his natal hour! A realm, a goddess, to his wishes given; Grac'd by the gods with all the gifts of Heaven. One evil, yet, o'ertakes his latest day : No race succeeding to imperial sway; An only son; and he (alas!) ordain'd To fall untimely in a foreign land. See him, in Troy, the pious care decline Of his weak age, to live the curse of thine! Thou too, old man, hast happier days beheld; In riches once, in children once, excell'd; Extended Phrygia own'd thy ample reign, And all fair Lesbos' blissful seats contain, And all wide Hellespont's unmeasur'd main. But since the god his hand has pleas'd to turn, And fill thy measure from his bitter urn, What sees the Sun, but hapless heroes' falls? War and the blood of men surround thy walls! What must be, must be. Bear thy lot, nor shed These unavailing sorrows o'er the dead; Thou canst not call him from the Stygian shore, But thou, alas! may'st live, to suffer more!" To whom the king: "Oh, favour'd of the Skies! Here let me grow to earth! since Hector lies On the bare beach depriv'd of obsequies. Oh, give me Hector! to my eyes restore His corpse, and take the gifts: I ask no more. Thou, as thou may'st, these boundless stores

enjoy;

Safe may'st thou sail, and turn thy wrath from Troy; So shall thy pity and forbearance give

A weak old man to see the light and live!"

"Move me no more!" (Achilles thus replics, While kindling anger sparkled in his eyes); Nor seek by tears my steady soul to bend ; To yield thy Hector, I myself intend:

46

For know, from Jove my goddess-mother came
(Old Ocean's daughter, silver-footed dame);
Nor com'st thou but by Heaven: nor com'st alone,
Some god impels with courage not thy own:
No human hand the weighty gates unbarr'd,
Nor could the boldest of our youth have dar'd
To pass our out-works, or clude the guard.
Cease; lest, neglectful of high Jove's command,
I show thee, king! thou tread'st on hostile land;
Release my knees, thy suppliant arts give o'er,
And shake the purpose of my soul no more."

The sire obey'd him, trembling and o'er-aw’d.
Achilles, like a lion, rush'd abroad;
Automedon and Alcimus attend

(Whom most he honour'd since he lost his friend);
These to unyoke the mules and horses went,
And led the hoary herald to the tent;
Next heap'd on high the numerous presents bear
(Great Hector's ransom) from the polish'd car,
Two splendid mantles, and a carpet spread,
They leave, to cover and inwrap the dead.
Then call the handmaids, with assistant toil
To wash the body and anoint with oil,
Apart from Priam; left th' unhappy sire,
Provok'd to passion, once more rouse to ire
The stern Pelides; and nor sacred age,

Nor Jove's command, should check the rising rage. :
This done, the garments o'er the corpse they spread;
Achilles lifts it to the funeral bed:

Then, while the body on the car they laid,
He groans, and calls on lov'd Patroclus' shade:

"If, in that gloom which never light must know, The deeds of mortals touch the ghosts below: O friend! forgive me, that I thus fulfil (Restoring Hector) Heaven's unquestion'd will. The gifts the father gave, be ever thine, To grace thy manes, and adorn thy shrine.".

He said, and, entering, took his seat of state,
Where full before him reverend Priam sate:
To whom, compos'd, the godlike chief begun
'Lo! to thy prayer restor'd, thy breathless son;
Extended on the funeral couch he lies;
And, soon as morning paints the eastern skies,
The sight is granted to thy longing eyes.
But now the peaceful hours of sacred night
Demand refection, and to rest invite:
Nor thou, O father! thus consum'd with woe,
The common cares that nourish life forego.
Not thus did Niobe, of form divine,

A parent once, whose sorrows equall'd thine;
Six youthful sons, as many blooming maids,
In one sad day beheld the Stygian shades;
These by Apollo's silver bow were slain,
Those, Cynthia's arrows stretch'd upon the plain:
So was her pride chastis'd by wrath divine,
Who match'd her own with bright Latona's line;
But two the goddess, twelve the queen enjoy'd:
Those boasted twelve th' avenging two destroy'd.
Steep'd in their blood, and in the dust outspread,
Nine days, neglected, lay expos'd the dead;
None by to weep them, to inhume them none
(For Jove had turn'd the nation all to stone):
The gods themselves at length, relenting, gave
Th' unhappy race the honours of a grave.
Herself a rock (for such was Heaven's high will)
Through deserts wild now pours a weeping rill;

Where round the bed whence Achelous springs,
The watery fairies dance in mazy rings,
There high on Sipylus's shaggy brow

She stands, her own sad monument of woe;
The rock for ever lasts, the tears for ever flow.

Such griefs, O king! have other parents known; Remember theirs, and mitigate thy own.

The care of Heaven thy Hector has appear'd,
Nor shall he lie unwept and uninterr'd;
Soon may thy aged cheeks in tears be drown'd,
And all the eyes of Ilion stream around."

He said; and, rising, chose the victim ewe
With silver fleece, which his attendants slew.
The limbs they sever from the reeking hide,
With skill prepare them, and in parts divide:
Each on the coals the separate morsels lays,
And, hasty, snatches from the rising blaze.
With bread the glittering canisters they load,
Which round the board Automedon bestow'd:
The chief himself to each his portion plac'd,
And each indulging shar'd in sweet repast.
When now the rage of hunger was represt,
The wondering hero eyes his royal guest:
No less the royal guest the hero eyes,
His godlike aspect and majestic size;
Here youthful grace and noble fire engage;
And there, the mild benevolence of age.
Thus gazing long, the silence neither broke,
(A solemn scene!) at length the father spoke:
"Permit me now, belov'd of Jove! to steep
My careful temples in the dew of sleep:
For, since the day that number'd with the dead
My hapless son, the dust has been my bed;
Soft sleep, a stranger to my weeping eyes;
My only food, my sorrows and my sighs!
Till now, encourag'd by the grace you give,
I share thy banquet, and consent to live."

With that, Achilles bade prepare the bed,
With purple soft, and shaggy carpets spread;
Furth, by the flaming lights, they bend their

way,

And place the couches, and the coverings lay.
Then he: "Now, father, sleep, but sleep not here;
Consult thy safety, and forgive my fear;
Lest any Argive (at this hour awake,
To ask our counsel, or our orders take)
Approaching sudden to our open'd tent,
Perchance behold thee, and our grace prevent.
Should such report thy honour'd person here,
The king of men the ransom might defer;
But say,
with speed, if aught of thy desire
Remains unask'd; what time the rites require
To inter thy Hector? For, so long we stay
Our slaughtering arm, and bid the hosts obey."
"If then thy will permit," the monarch said,
To finish all due honours to the dead,
This, of thy grace, accord: to thee are known
The fears of Ilion clos'd within her town;
And at what distance from our walls aspire
The hills of Ide, and forests for the fire.
Nine days to vent our sorrows I request,
The tenth shall see the funeral and the fast;
The next, to raise his monument be given;
The twelfth we war, if war be doom'd by Heaven!"
"This thy request," reply'd the chief, " enjoy;
Till then, our arms suspend the fall of Troy."
Then gave his hand at parting, to prevent
The old man's fears, and turn'd within the tent;
Where fair Briseis, bright in blooming charms,
Expects her hero with desiring arms.

But in the porch, the king and herald rest;
Sad dreams of care yet wandering in their breast.
Now gods and men the gifts of sleep partake;
Industrious Herines only was awake,
The king's return revolving in his mind,
To pass the ramparts, and the watch to blind.
The power descending hover'd o'er his head :
"And sleep'st thou, father!" (thus the vision said)
"Now dost thou sleep, when Hector is restor'd?
Nor fear the Grecian foes, or Grecian lord?
Thy presence here should stern Atrides see,
Thy still-surviving sons may sue for thee,
May offer all thy treasures yet contain,
To spare thy age; and offer all in vain."

Wak'd with the word, the trembling sire arose, And rais'd his friend: the god before him goes; He joins the mules, directs them with his hand, And moves in silence through the hostile land. When now to Xanthus' yellow stream they drove (Xanthus, immortal progeny of Jove)

The winged deity forsook their view
And in a moment to Olympus flew.
Now shed Aurora round her saffron ray,

Sprung thro' the gate of light, and gave the day:
Charg'd with their mournful load, to Ilion go
The sage and king, majestically slow.
Cassandra first beholds, from Ilion's spire,
The sad procession of her hoary sire;
Then, as the pensive pomp advanc'd more near,
(Her breathless brother stretch'd upon the bier)
A shower of tears o'erflows her beauteous eyes,
Alarming thus all Ilion with her cries: [employ,

66

Turn here your steps, and here your eyes Ye wretched daughters, and ye sons, of Troy! If e'er ye rush'd in crowds, with vast delight, To hail your hero glorious from the fight; Now meet him dead, and let your sorrows flow! Your common triumph, and your common woe.' In thronging crowds they issue to the plains; Nor man, nor woman, in the walls remains : In every face the self-same grief is shown; And Troy sends forth one universal groan. At Scœan's gates they meet the mourning wain, Hang on the wheels, and grovel round the slain. The wife and mother, frantic with despair, Kiss his pale cheek, and rend their scatter'd hair: Thus wildly wailing at the gates they lay; And there had sigh'd and sorrow'd out the day: But godlike Priam from the chariot rose;

Forbear," he cry'd, "this violence of woes!
First to the palace let the car proceed,
Then pour your boundless sorrows o'er the dead."
The waves of people at his word divide,
Slow rolls the chariot through the following tide;
Ev'n to the palace the sad pomp they wait;
They weep, and place him on the bed of state.
A melancholy choir attend around,

With plaintive sighs, and music's solemn sound:
Alternately they sing, alternate flow
Th' obedient tears, melodious in their woe.
While deeper sorrows groan from each full heart,
And nature speaks at every pause of art.

..

First to the corpse the weeping consort flew; Around his neck her milk-white arms she threw, And, "Oh, my Hector! oh, my lord!" she cries, Snatch'd in thy bloom from these desiring eyes! Thou to the dismal realus for ever gone! And I abandon'd, desolate, alone! An only son, once comfort of our pains, Sad product now of hapless love, remains!

Never to manly age that son shall rise,
Or with increasing graces glad my eyes;
For Ilion now (her great defender slain)
Shall sink a smoking ruin on the plain.
Who now protects her wives with guardian care?
Who saves her infants from the rage of war?
Now hostile fleets must waft those infants o'er
(Those wives must wait them) to a foreign shore!
Thou too, my son! to barbarous climes shalt go,
The sad companions of thy mother's woe:
Driven hence a slave before the victor's sword;
Condemn'd to toil for some inhuman lord:
Or else some Greek, whose father prest the plain,
Or son, or brother, by great Hector slain;
In Hector's blood his vengeance shall enjoy,
And hurl thee headlong from the towers of Troy.
For thy stern father never spar'd a foe:
Thence all these tears, and all this scene of woe!
Thence many evils his sad parents bore,
Ilis parents many, but his consort more.
Why gav'st thou not to me thy dying hand?
And why receiv'd not I thy lást command?
Some word thou would'st have spoke, which, sadly
My soul might keep, or utter with a tear; [dear,
Which never, never could be lost in air,
Fix'd in my heart, and oft repeated there!"
Thus to her weeping maids she makes her moan:
Her weeping handmaids echo groan for groan.

The mournful mother next sustains her part:
"Oh thou, the best, the dearest to my heart!
Of all my race thou most by Heaven approv'd,
And by th' immortals ev'n in death belov'd!
While all my other sons in barbarous bands
Achilles bound, and sold to foreign lands,
This felt no chains, but went, a glorious ghost,
Free and a hero, to the Stygian coast.
Sentenc'd, 'tis true, by his inhuman doom,
Thy noble corpse was dragg'd around the tomb
(The tomb of him thy warlike arm had slain);
Ungenerous insult, impotent and vain!

Yet glow'st thou fresh with every living grace;
No mark of pain, or violence of face;
Rosy and fair, as Phœbus' silver bow
Dismiss'd thee gently to the shades below!"'

Thus spoke the dame, and melted into tears. Sad Helen next, in pomp of grief, appears : Fast from the shining sluices of her eyes Fall the round crystal drops, while thus she cries: "Ah, dearest friend! in whom the gods had join'd

The mildest manners with the bravest mind;
Now twice ten years (unhappy years!) are o'er
Since Paris brought me to the Trojan shore;
(O had I perish'd ere that form divine
Seduc'd this soft, this easy heart of mine!)
Yet was it ne'er my fate, from thee to find
A deed ungentle, or a word unkind:
When others curst the authoress of their woe,
Thy pity check'd my sorrows in their flow:
If some proud brother ey'd me with disdain,
Or scornful sister with her sweeping train;
Thy gentle accents soften'd all my pain.
For thee I mourn; and mourn myself in thee,
The wretched source of all this misery!
The fate I caus'd, for ever I bemoan;
Sad Helen has no friend, now thou art gone!
Thro' Troy's wide streets abandon'd shall I roam
In Troy deserted, as abhorr'd at home!"

So spoke the fair, with sorrow-streaming eye: Distressful beauty melts each stander-by,

On all around th' infectious sorrow grows ;
But Priam check'd the torrent as it rose :-
"Perform, ye Trojans! what the rites require,
And fell the forests for a funeral pyre;
Twelve days, nor foes nor secret ambush dread;
Achilles grants these honours to the dead."

He spoke; and, at his word, the Trojan train
Their mules and oxen harness to the wain,
Pour thro' the gates, and, fell'd from Ida's crown,
Roll back the gather'd forests to the town.
These toils continue nine succeeding days,
And high in air a sylvan structure raise;
But when the tenth fair morn began to shine,
Forth to the pile was borne the man divine,
And plac'd aloft: while all, with streaming eyes,
Beheld the flames and rolling smokes arise.
Soon as Aurora, daughter of the dawn,
With rosy lustre streak'd the dewy lawn,
Again the mournful crowds surround the pyre,
And quench with wine the yet-remaining fire.
The snowy bones his friends and brothers place
(With tears collected) in a golden vase;
The golden vase in purple palls they roll'd,
Of softest texture, and inwrought with gold.
Last o'er the urn the sacred earth they spread,
And rais'd the tomb, memorial of the dead
(Strong guards and spies, till all the rites were done,
Watch'd from the rising to the setting Sun).
All Troy then moves to Priam's court again,
A solemn, silent, melancholy train:
Assembled there, from pious toil they rest,
And sadly shar'd the last sepulchral feast.
Such honours Ilion to her hero paid,

And peaceful slept the mighty Hector's shade.

HOMER'S ODYSSEY.

IN TWENTY-FOUR BOOKS.

A GENERAL VIEW OF THE

EPIC POEM,

AND OF

THE ILIAD AND ODYSSEY.

EXTRACTED FROM BOSSU.

SECT. I.

OF THE NATURE OF EPIC POETRY.

THE fables of poets were originally employed in representing the divine nature, according to the notion then conceived of it. This sublime subject occasioned the first poets to be called divines, and poetry the language of the gods. They divided the divine attributes into so many persons; because the infirmity of a human mind cannot sufficiently conceive, or explain, so much power and action in a simplicity so great and indivisible as that of God. And, perhaps, they were also jealous of the advantages they reaped from such excellent and exalted learning, and of which they thought the vulgar part of mankind was not worthy.