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William Cowper- Collected Poetical Works

Page 91

by William Cowper


  And managing with culinary skill

  The roast, withdrew it from the spits again. 520

  Thus, all their task accomplished, and the board

  Set forth, they feasted, and were all sufficed.

  When neither hunger more nor thirst remain’d

  Unsatisfied, Gerenian Nestor spake.

  Atrides! Agamemnon! King of men! 525

  No longer waste we time in useless words,

  Nor to a distant hour postpone the work

  To which heaven calls thee. Send thine heralds forth.

  Who shall convene the Achaians at the fleet,

  That we, the Chiefs assembled here, may range, 530

  Together, the imbattled multitude,

  And edge their spirits for immediate fight.

  He spake, nor Agamemnon not complied.

  At once he bade his clear-voiced heralds call

  The Greeks to battle. They the summons loud 535

  Gave forth, and at the sound the people throng’d.

  Then Agamemnon and the Kings of Greece

  Dispatchful drew them into order just,

  With whom Minerva azure-eyed advanced,

  The inestimable Ægis on her arm, 540

  Immortal, unobnoxious to decay

  047 A hundred braids, close twisted, all of gold,

  Each valued at a hundred beeves, around

  Dependent fringed it. She from side to side

  Her eyes cerulean rolled, infusing thirst 545

  Of battle endless into every breast.

  War won them now, war sweeter now to each

  Than gales to waft them over ocean home.

  As when devouring flames some forest seize

  On the high mountains, splendid from afar 550

  The blaze appears, so, moving on the plain,

  The steel-clad host innumerous flash’d to heaven.

  And as a multitude of fowls in flocks

  Assembled various, geese, or cranes, or swans

  Lithe-neck’d, long hovering o’er Caÿster’s banks 555

  On wanton plumes, successive on the mead

  Alight at last, and with a clang so loud

  That all the hollow vale of Asius rings;

  In number such from ships and tents effused,

  They cover’d the Scamandrian plain; the earth 560

  Rebellow’d to the feet of steeds and men.

  They overspread Scamander’s grassy vale,

  Myriads, as leaves, or as the flowers of spring.

  As in the hovel where the peasant milks

  His kine in spring-time, when his pails are fill’d, 565

  Thick clouds of humming insects on the wing

  Swarm all around him, so the Grecians swarm’d

  An unsumm’d multitude o’er all the plain,

  Bright arm’d, high crested, and athirst for war.

  As goat-herds separate their numerous flocks 570

  With ease, though fed promiscuous, with like ease

  Their leaders them on every side reduced

  048 To martial order glorious; among whom

  Stood Agamemnon “with an eye like Jove’s,

  To threaten or command,” like Mars in girth, 575

  And with the port of Neptune. As the bull

  Conspicuous among all the herd appears,

  For he surpasses all, such Jove ordain’d

  That day the son of Atreus, in the midst

  Of Heroes, eminent above them all. 580

  Tell me, (for ye are are heavenly, and beheld

  A scene, whereof the faint report alone

  Hath reached our ears, remote and ill-informed,)

  Tell me, ye Muses, under whom, beneath

  What Chiefs of royal or of humbler note 585

  Stood forth the embattled Greeks? The host at large;

  They were a multitude in number more

  Than with ten tongues, and with ten mouths, each mouth

  Made vocal with a trumpet’s throat of brass

  I might declare, unless the Olympian nine, 590

  Jove’s daughters, would the chronicle themselves

  Indite, of all assembled, under Troy.

  I will rehearse the Captains and their fleets.

  Bœotia’s sturdy sons Peneleus led,

  And Leïtus, whose partners in command 595

  049 Arcesilaus and Prothoenor came,

  And Clonius. Them the dwellers on the rocks

  Of Aulis followed, with the hardy clans

  Of Hyrie, Schoenos, Scholos, and the hills

  Of Eteon; Thespia, Græa, and the plains 600

  Of Mycalessus them, and Harma served,

  Eleon, Erythræ, Peteon; Hyle them,

  Hesius and Ocalea, and the strength

  Of Medeon; Copæ also in their train

  Marched, with Eutresis and the mighty men 605

  Of Thisbe famed for doves; nor pass unnamed

  Whom Coronæa, and the grassy land

  Of Haliartus added to the war,

  Nor whom Platæa, nor whom Glissa bred,

  And Hypothebæ, and thy sacred groves 610

  To Neptune, dark Onchestus. Arne claims

  A record next for her illustrious sons,

  Vine-bearing Arne. Thou wast also there

  Mideia, and thou Nissa; nor be thine

  Though last, Anthedon, a forgotten name. 615

  These in Bœotia’s fair and gallant fleet

  Of fifty ships, each bearing o’er the waves

  Thrice forty warriors, had arrived at Troy.

  In thirty ships deep-laden with the brave,

  Aspledon and Orchomenos had sent 620

  050 Their chosen youth; them ruled a noble pair,

  Sons of Astyoche; she, lovely nymph,

  Received by stealth, on Actor’s stately roof,

  The embraces of a God, and bore to Mars

  Twins like himself, Ascalaphus the bold, 625

  And bold Iälmenus, expert in arms.

  Beneath Epistrophus and Schedius, took

  Their destined station on Bœotia’s left,

  The brave Phocensians; they in forty ships

  From Cyparissus came, and from the rocks 630

  Of Python, and from Crissa the divine;

  From Anemoria, Daulis, Panopeus,

  And from Hyampolis, and from the banks

  Of the Cephissus, sacred stream, and from

  Lilæa, seated at its fountain-head. 635

  Next from beyond Eubœa’s happy isle

  In forty ships conveyed, stood forth well armed

  The Locrians; dwellers in Augeia some

  The pleasant, some of Opoëis possessed,

  Some of Calliarus; these Scarpha sent, 640

  And Cynus those; from Bessa came the rest,

  From Tarpha, Thronius, and from the brink

  Of loud Boagrius; Ajax them, the swift,

  Son of Oïleus led, not such as he

  From Telamon, big-boned and lofty built, 645

  But small of limb, and of an humbler crest;

  Yet he, competitor had none throughout

  The Grecians of what land soe’er, for skill

  In ushering to its mark the rapid lance.

  Elphenor brought (Calchodon’s mighty son) 650

  The Eubœans to the field. In forty ships

  From Histrïæa for her vintage famed,

  From Chalcis, from Iretria, from the gates

  Of maritime Cerinthus, from the heights

  Of Dios rock-built citadel sublime, 655

  And from Caristus and from Styra came

  His warlike multitudes, all named alike

  Abantes, on whose shoulders fell behind

  051 Their locks profuse, and they were eager all

  To split the hauberk with the pointed spear. 660

  Nor Athens had withheld her generous sons,

  The people of Erectheus. Him of old

  The teeming glebe produced, a wondrous birth!

  And Pallas
rear’d him: her own unctuous fane

  She made his habitation, where with bulls 665

  The youth of Athens, and with slaughter’d lambs

  Her annual worship celebrate. Then led

  Menestheus, whom, (sage Nestor’s self except,

  Thrice school’d in all events of human life,)

  None rivall’d ever in the just array 670

  Of horse and man to battle. Fifty ships

  Black-prowed, had borne them to the distant war.

  Ajax from Salamis twelve vessels brought,

  And where the Athenian band in phalanx stood

  Marshall’d compact, there station’d he his powers. 675

  The men of Argos and Tyrintha next,

  And of Hermione, that stands retired

  With Asine, within her spacious bay;

  Of Epidaurus, crown’d with purple vines,

  And of Trœzena, with the Achaian youth 680

  Of sea-begirt Ægina, and with thine,

  Maseta, and the dwellers on thy coast,

  Wave-worn Eïonæ; these all obeyed

  The dauntless Hero Diomede, whom served

  Sthenelus, son of Capaneus, a Chief 685

  Of deathless fame, his second in command,

  And godlike man, Euryalus, the son

  Of King Mecisteus, Talaüs’ son, his third.

  But Diomede controll’d them all, and him

  Twice forty sable ships their leader own’d. 690

  Came Agamemnon with a hundred ships,

  Exulting in his powers; more numerous they,

  052 And more illustrious far than other Chief

  Could boast, whoever. Clad in burnish’d brass,

  And conscious of pre-eminence, he stood. 695

  He drew his host from cities far renown’d,

  Mycenæ, and Corinthus, seat of wealth,

  Orneia, and Cleonæ bulwark’d strong,

  And lovely Aræthyria; Sicyon, where

  His seat of royal power held at the first 700

  Adrastus: Hyperesia, and the heights

  Of Gonoëssa; Ægium, with the towns

  That sprinkle all that far-extended coast,

  Pellene also and wide Helice

  With all their shores, were number’d in his train. 705

  From hollow Lacedæmon’s glen profound,

  From Phare, Sparta, and from Messa, still

  Resounding with the ring-dove’s amorous moan,

  From Brysia, from Augeia, from the rocks

  Of Laas, from Amycla, Otilus, 710

  And from the towers of Helos, at whose foot

  The surf of Ocean falls, came sixty barks

  With Menelaus. From the monarch’s host

  The royal brother ranged his own apart,

  and panted for revenge of Helen’s wrongs, 715

  And of her sighs and tears. From rank to rank,

  Conscious of dauntless might he pass’d, and sent

  Into all hearts the fervor of his own.

  Gerenian Nestor in thrice thirty ships

  Had brought his warriors; they from Pylus came, 720

  From blithe Arene, and from Thryos, built

  Fast by the fords of Alpheus, and from steep

  And stately Æpy. Their confederate powers

  Sent Amphigenia, Cyparissa veiled

  With broad redundance of funereal shades, 725

  Pteleos and Helos, and of deathless fame

  Dorion. In Dorion erst the Muses met

  Threïcian Thamyris, on his return

  053 From Eurytus, Oechalian Chief, and hush’d

  His song for ever; for he dared to vaunt 730

  That he would pass in song even themselves

  The Muses, daughters of Jove Ægis-arm’d.

  They therefore, by his boast incensed, the bard

  Struck blind, and from his memory dash’d severe

  All traces of his once celestial strains. 735

  Arcadia’s sons, the dwellers at the foot

  Of mount Cyllene, where Æpytus sleeps

  Intomb’d; a generation bold in fight,

  And warriors hand to hand; the valiant men

  Of Pheneus, of Orchomenos by flocks 740

  Grazed numberless, of Ripe, Stratia, bleak

  Enispe; Mantinea city fair,

  Stymphelus and Parrhasia, and the youth

  Of Tegea; royal Agapenor these,

  Ancæus’ offspring, had in sixty ships 745

  To Troy conducted; numerous was the crew,

  And skilled in arms, which every vessel brought,

  And Agamemnon had with barks himself

  Supplied them, for, of inland realms possessed,

  They little heeded maritime employs. 750

  The dwellers in Buprasium, on the shores

  Of pleasant Elis, and in all the land

  Myrsinus and the Hyrminian plain between,

  The rock Olenian, and the Alysian fount;

  These all obey’d four Chiefs, and galleys ten 755

  Each Chief commanded, with Epeans filled.

  Amphimachus and Thalpius govern’d these,

  This, son of Cteatus, the other, sprung

  From Eurytus, and both of Actor’s house.

  Diores, son of Amarynceus, those 760

  Led on, and, for his godlike form renown’d,

  Polyxenus was Chieftain o’er the rest,

  Son of Agasthenes, Augeias’ son.

  Dulichium, and her sister sacred isles

  054 The Echinades, whose opposite aspect 765

  Looks toward Elis o’er the curling waves,

  Sent forth their powers with Meges at their head,

  Brave son of Phyleus, warrior dear to Jove.

  Phyleus in wrath, his father’s house renounced,

  And to Dulichium wandering, there abode. 770

  Twice twenty ships had follow’d Meges forth.

  Ulysses led the Cephallenians bold.

  From Ithaca, and from the lofty woods

  Of Neritus they came, and from the rocks

  Of rude Ægilipa. Crocylia these, 775

  And these Zacynthus own’d; nor yet a few

  From Samos, from Epirus join’d their aid,

  And from the opposite Ionian shore.

  Them, wise as Jove himself, Ulysses led

  In twelve fair ships, with crimson prows adorn’d. 780

  From forty ships, Thoas, Andræmon’s son,

  Had landed his Ætolians; for extinct

  Was Meleager, and extinct the house

  Of Oeneus all, nor Oeneus self survived;

  To Thoas therefore had Ætolia fallen; 785

  Him Olenos, Pylene, Chalcis served,

  With Pleuro, and the rock-bound Calydon.

  Idomeneus, spear-practised warrior, led

  The numerous Cretans. In twice forty ships

  He brought his powers to Troy. The warlike bands 790

  Of Cnossus, of Gortyna wall’d around,

  Of Lyctus, of Lycastus chalky-white,

  Of Phæstus, of Miletus, with the youth

  Of Rhytius him obey’d; nor these were all,

  But others from her hundred cities Crete 795

  Sent forth, all whom Idomeneus the brave

  Commanded, with Meriones in arms

  Dread as the God of battles blood-imbrued.

  Nine ships Tlepolemus, Herculean-born,

  For courage famed and for superior size, 800

  Fill’d with his haughty Rhodians. They, in tribes

  Divided, dwelt distinct. Jelyssus these,

  055 Those Lindus, and the rest the shining soil

  Of white Camirus occupied. Him bore

  To Hercules, (what time he led the nymph 805

  From Ephyre, and from Sellea’s banks,

  After full many a city laid in dust.)

  Astyocheia. In his father’s house

  Magnificent, Tlepolemus spear-famed

  Had scarce up-grown to manhood’s lusty prime 810


  When he his father’s hoary uncle slew

  Lycimnius, branch of Mars. Then built he ships,

  And, pushing forth to sea, fled from the threats

  Of the whole house of Hercules. Huge toil

  And many woes he suffer’d, till at length 815

  At Rhodes arriving, in three separate bands

  He spread himself abroad, Much was he loved

  Of all-commanding Jove, who bless’d him there,

  And shower’d abundant riches on them all.

  Nireus of Syma, with three vessels came; 820

  Nireus, Aglæa’s offspring, whom she bore

  To Charopus the King; Nireus in form,

  (The faultless son of Peleus sole except,)

  Loveliest of all the Grecians call’d to Troy.

  But he was heartless and his men were few. 825

  Nisyrus, Casus, Crapathus, and Cos

  Where reign’d Eurypylus, with all the isles

  Calydnæ named, under two valiant Chiefs

  Their troops disposed; Phidippus one, and one,

  His brother Antiphus, begotten both 830

  By Thessalus, whom Hercules begat.

  In thirty ships they sought the shores of Troy.

  The warriors of Pelasgian Argos next,

  Of Alus, and Alope, and who held

  Trechina, Phthia, and for women fair 835

  Distinguish’d, Hellas; known by various names

  Hellenes, Myrmidons, Achæans, them

  In fifty ships embark’d, Achilles ruled.

  056 But these were deaf to the hoarse-throated war,

  For there was none to draw their battle forth, 840

  And give them just array. Close in his ships

  Achilles, after loss of the bright-hair’d

  Brisëis, lay, resentful; her obtained

  Not without labor hard, and after sack

  Of Thebes and of Lyrnessus, where he slew 845

  Two mighty Chiefs, sons of Evenus both,

  Epistrophus and Mynes, her he mourn’d,

  And for her sake self-prison’d in his fleet

  And idle lay, though soon to rise again.

  From Phylace, and from the flowery fields 850

  Of Pyrrhasus, a land to Ceres given

  By consecration, and from Iton green,

  Mother of flocks; from Antron by the sea,

  And from the grassy meads of Pteleus, came

  A people, whom while yet he lived, the brave 855

  Protesilaüs led; but him the earth

  Now cover’d dark and drear. A wife he left,

 

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