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gore: Neptunian Cygnus troops of Greeks had slain;

Achilles in his car had scour'd the plain, And clear'd the Trojan ranks: where'er he fought,

Cygnus, or Hector, thro' the fields he sought. Cygnus he found; on him his force essay'd, For Hector was to the tenth year delay'd. His white-man'd steeds, that bow'd beneath the yoke,

He cheer'd to courage, with a gentle stroke; Then urg'd his fiery chariot on the foe, And rising shook his lance, in act to throw. But first he cried: "O youth, be proud to bear

Thy death, ennobled by Pelides' spear." The lance pursued the voice without delay; Nor did the whizzing weapon miss the way, But pierc'd his cuirass, with such fury sent, And sign'd his bosom with a purple dint. At this the seed of Neptune: "Goddessborn,

For ornament, not use, these arms are worn; This helm and heavy buckler I can spare, As only decorations of the war:

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So Mars is arm'd for glory, not for need. 'Tis somewhat more from Neptune to proceed,

Than from a daughter of the sea to spring: Thy sire is mortal; mine is ocean's king.

Achilles wrench'd it out, and sent again
The hostile gift: the hostile gift was vain.
He tried a third, a tough well-chosen spear;
Th' inviolable body stood sincere,
Tho' Cygnus then did no defense provide,
But scornful offer'd his unshielded side.

Not otherwise th' impatient hero far'd, Than as a bull, incompass'd with a guard, Amid the circus roars, provok'd from far By sight of scarlet and a sanguine war: They quit their ground, his bended horns elude,

In vain pursuing and in vain pursued.

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Before to farther fight he would advance, He stood considering and survey'd his lance; Doubts if he wielded not a wooden spear Without a point: he look'd, the point was there.

"This is my hand, and this my lance,' he said,

"By which so many thousand foes are dead.

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O whither is their usual virtue filed!
I had it once; and the Lyrnessian wall
And Tenedos confess'd it in their fall.
Thy streams, Caïcus, roll'd a crimson flood;
And Thebes ran red with her own natives'
blood.

Twice Telephus employ'd this piercing steel,
To wound him first, and afterward to heal.
The vigor of this arm was never vain;
And that my wonted prowess I retain,
Witness these heaps of slaughter on the
plain."

He said, and, doubtful of his former deeds,
To some new trial of his force proceeds.
He chose Mencetes from among the rest;
At him he launch'd his spear, and pierc'd his
breast:

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On the hard earth the Lycian knock'd his head,

And lay supine; and forth the spirit fled.

Then thus the hero: "Neither can I blame The hand, or javelin; both are still the same. The same I will employ against this foe; And wish but with the same success to

throw."

A truce succeeds the labors of this day, And arms suspended with a long delay. While Trojan walls are kept with watch and ward,

The Greeks before their trenches mount the guard.

The feast approach'd; when to the blue-` ey'd maid

His vows for Cygnus slain the victor paid, And a white heifer on her altar laid. 210 The reeking entrails on the fire they threw, And to the gods the grateful odor flew: Heav'n had its part in sacrifice; the rest Was broil'd and roasted for the future feast. The chief invited guests were set around; And, hunger first assuag'd, the bowls were crown'd,

Which in deep draughts their cares and labors drown'd.

The mellow harp did not their ears employ,

And mute was all the warlike symphony. Discourse, the food of souls, was their de

light,

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Neleides then: "Tho' tardy age and time Have shrunk my sinews and decay'd my prime;

Tho' much I have forgotten of my store,
Yet, not exhausted, I remember more.
Of all that arms achiev'd, or peace design'd,
That action still is fresher in my mind
Than aught beside. If reverend age can
give

To faith a sanction, in my third I live. 259 "'T was in my second cent'ry I survey'd Young Cænis, then a fair Thessalian maid: Canis the bright was born to high command;

A princess, and a native of thy land, Divine Achilles: every tongue proclaim'd Her beauty, and her eyes all hearts inflam'd. Peleus, thy sire, perhaps had sought her bed,

Among the rest; but he had either led

Thy mother then, or was by promise tied; But she to him, and all alike, her love denied.

"It was her fortune once to take her way

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Or whether wine or beauty fir'd his blood, Or both at once, beheld with lustful eyes 310 The bride; at once resolv'd to make his prize.

Down went the board; and, fast'ning on her hair,

He seiz'd with sudden force the frighted fair.

'T was Eurytus began: his bestial kind His crime pursued; and each as pleas'd his mind,

Or her whom chance presented, took: the feast

An image of a taken town express'd.

"The cave resounds with female shrieks;

we rise, Mad with revenge, to make a swift reprise;

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An ample goblet stood, of antic mold,
And rough with figures of the rising gold;
The hero snatch'd it up, and toss'd in air,
Full at the front of the foul ravisher.

He falls; and falling vomits forth a flood Of wine, and foam, and brains, and mingled blood.

Half roaring, and half neighing thro' the hall,

'Arms, arms,' the double-form'd with fury call,

To wreak their brother's death: a medley flight

Of bowls and jars, at first, supply the fight, Once instruments of feasts, but now of fate;

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Wine animates their rage and arms their hate.

"Bold Amycus from the robb'd vestry brings

The chalices of heav'n, and holy things Of precious weight: a sconce, that hung on high,

With tapers fill'd, to light the sacristy, Torn from the cord, with his unhallow'd

hand

He threw amid the Lapithæan band.
On Celadon the ruin fell, and left
His face of feature and of form bereft;
So, when some brawny sacrificer knocks, 350
Before an altar led, an offer'd ox,

His eyeballs rooted out are thrown to ground:

His nose dismantled in his mouth is found, His jaws, cheeks, front, one undistinguish'd wound.

"This, Belates, th' avenger, could not brook;

"Exadius cried: Unpunish'd shall not go This fact, if arms are found against the foe.' He look'd about, where on a pine were spread

The votive horns of a stag's branching head: At Grineus these he throws; so just they fly

That the sharp antlers stuck in either eye. Breathless and blind he fell; with blood besmear'd,

His eyeballs beaten out hung dangling on

his beard.

Nor Rhotus then retain'd his joy, but` said:

'So by their fellows may our foes be sped;' Then with redoubled strokes he plies his head:

The burning lever not deludes his pains, 400 But drives the batter'd skull within the brains.

"Thus flush'd, the conqueror, with force
renew'd,

Evagrus, Dryas, Corythus, pursued:
First Corythus, with downy cheeks, he slew;
Whose fall when fierce Evagrus had in
view,

He cried: What palm is from a beardless prey?'

Rhœtus prevents what more he had to say; And drove within his mouth the fiery death, Which enter'd hissing in, and chok'd his

breath.

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At Dryas next he flew, but weary chance No longer would the same success advance; For, while he whirl'd in fiery circles round The brand, a sharpen'd stake strong Dryas found,

And in the shoulder's joint inflicts the wound.

The weapon stuck: which roaring out with pain

He drew; nor longer durst the fight maintain,

But turn'd his back, for fear; and fled amain.

With him fled Orneus, with like dread possess'd;

Thaumas, and Medon, wounded in the breast;

And Mermeros, in the late race renown'd, 420 Now limping ran, and tardy with his wound.

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That Lycidas, Areos, Imbreus fell;
All one by one, and fighting face to face.
Crenæus fled, to fall with more disgrace:
For, fearful, while he look'd behind, he
bore,

Betwixt his nose and front, the blow before.

Amid the noise and tumult of the fray, Snoring, and drunk with wine, Aphidas lay. Ev'n then the bowl within his hand he kept, And on a bear's rough hide securely slept. Him Phorbas with his flying dart transfix'd.

'Take thy next draught with Stygian waters mix'd,

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