BOOK VII. (continued 1)
Project Gutenberg EPUB3 edition
Homer, Southey, Robert, and Cowper, William
Trojans, Dardanians, and allies of Troy! I shall declare my sentence; hear ye me. Now let the legions, as at other times, Take due refreshment; let the watch be set, And keep ye vigilant guard. At early dawn440 We will dispatch Idæus to the fleet, Who shall inform the Atridæ of this last Resolve of Paris, author of the war. Discreet Idæus also shall propose A respite (if the Atridæ so incline)445 From war’s dread clamor, while we burn the dead. Then will we clash again, till heaven at length Shall part us, and the doubtful strife decide.
He ceased, whose voice the assembly pleased, obey’d. Then, troop by troop, the army took repast,450 And at the dawn Idæus sought the fleet. He found the Danaï, servants of Mars, Beside the stern of Agamemnon’s ship Consulting; and amid the assembled Chiefs Arrived, with utterance clear them thus address’d.455
Ye sons of Atreus, and ye Chiefs, the flower Of all Achaia! Priam and the Chiefs Of Ilium, bade me to your ear impart (If chance such embassy might please your ear) The mind of Paris, author of the war.460 The treasures which on board his ships he brought From Argos home (oh, had he perish’d first!) He yields them with addition from his own. Not so the consort of the glorious prince Brave Menelaus; her (although in Troy465 All counsel otherwise) he still detains. Thus too I have in charge. Are ye inclined That the dread sounding clamors of the field Be caused to cease till we shall burn the dead? Then will we clash again, till heaven at length470 Shall part us, and the doubtful strife decide.
So spake Idæus, and all silent sat; Till at the last brave Diomede replied.
No. We will none of Paris’ treasures now, Nor even Helen’s self. A child may see475 Destruction winging swift her course to Troy.
He said. The admiring Greeks with loud applause All praised the speech of warlike Diomede, And answer thus the King of men return’d.
Idæus! thou hast witness’d the resolve480 Of the Achaian Chiefs, whose choice is mine. But for the slain, I shall not envy them A funeral pile; the spirit fled, delay Suits not. Last rites can not too soon be paid. Burn them. And let high-thundering Jove attest485 Himself mine oath, that war shall cease the while.
So saying, he to all the Gods upraised His sceptre, and Idæus homeward sped To sacred Ilium. The Dardanians there And Trojans, all assembled, his return490 Expected anxious. He amid them told Distinct his errand, when, at once dissolved, The whole assembly rose, these to collect The scatter’d bodies, those to gather wood; While on the other side, the Greeks arose495 As sudden, and all issuing from the fleet Sought fuel, some, and some, the scatter’d dead.
Now from the gently-swelling flood profound The sun arising, with his earliest rays In his ascent to heaven smote on the fields.500 When Greeks and Trojans met. Scarce could the slain Be clear distinguish’d, but they cleansed from each His clotted gore with water, and warm tears Distilling copious, heaved them to the wains. But wailing none was heard, for such command505 Had Priam issued; therefore heaping high The bodies, silent and with sorrowing hearts They burn’d them, and to sacred Troy return’d. The Grecians also, on the funeral pile The bodies heaping sad, burn’d them with fire510 Together, and return’d into the fleet. Then, ere the peep of dawn, and while the veil Of night, though thinner, still o’erhung the earth, Achaians, chosen from the rest, the pile Encompass’d. With a tomb (one tomb for all)515 They crown’d the spot adust, and to the tomb (For safety of their fleet and of themselves) Strong fortress added of high wall and tower, With solid gates affording egress thence Commodious to the mounted charioteer;520 Deep foss and broad they also dug without, And planted it with piles. So toil’d the Greeks.
The Gods, that mighty labor, from beside The Thunderer’s throne with admiration view’d, When Neptune, shaker of the shores, began.525
Eternal father! is there on the face Of all the boundless earth one mortal man Who will, in times to come, consult with heaven? See’st thou yon height of wall, and yon deep trench With which the Grecians have their fleet inclosed,530 And, careless of our blessing, hecatomb Or invocation have presented none? Far as the day-spring shoots herself abroad, So far the glory of this work shall spread, While Phœbus and myself, who, toiling hard,535 Built walls for king Laomedon, shall see Forgotten all the labor of our hands.
To whom, indignant, thus high-thundering Jove. Oh thou, who shakest the solid earth at will, What hast thou spoken? An inferior power,540 A god of less sufficiency than thou, Might be allowed some fear from such a cause. Fear not. Where’er the morning shoots her beams, Thy glory shall be known; and when the Greeks Shall seek their country through the waves again,545 Then break this bulwark down, submerge it whole, And spreading deep with sand the spacious shore As at the first, leave not a trace behind.
Such conference held the Gods; and now the sun Went down, and, that great work perform’d, the Greeks550 From tent to tent slaughter’d the fatted ox And ate their evening cheer. Meantime arrived Large fleet with Lemnian wine; Euneus, son Of Jason and Hypsipile, that fleet From Lemnos freighted, and had stow’d on board555 A thousand measures from the rest apart For the Atridæ; but the host at large By traffic were supplied; some barter’d brass, Others bright steel; some purchased wine with hides, These with their cattle, with their captives those,560 And the whole host prepared a glad regale. All night the Grecians feasted, and the host Of Ilium, and all night deep-planning Jove Portended dire calamities to both, Thundering tremendous!—Pale was every cheek;565 Each pour’d his goblet on the ground, nor dared The hardiest drink, till he had first perform’d Libation meet to the Saturnian King Omnipotent; then, all retiring, sought Their couches, and partook the gift of sleep.570