We push'd the foe, and forc'd to fhameful fight;
Part fell; and part efcap'd by favour of the night.
This tale, by Neftor told, did much displease
Tlepolemus, the feed of Hercules:

For, often he had heard his father say,
That he himself was prefent at the fray;
And more than shar'd the glories of the day.
Old Chronicle, he said, among the rest,
You might have nam'd Alcides at the least :
Is he not worth your praife? The Pylian prince
Sigh'd ere he spoke; then made this proud defence.
My former woes, in long oblivion drown'd,

I would have loft; but you renew the wound:
Better to pass him o'er, than to relate

The cause I have your mighty fire to hate.

His fame has fill'd the world, and reach'd the sky;
(Which, oh, I wish, with truth, I could deny)!
We praise not Hector; though his name, we know,
Is great in arms; 'tis hard to praise a foe.

He, your great father, level'd to the ground
Meffenia's towers: nor better fortune found
Elis, and Pylas; that a neighbouring state,
And this my own: both guiltless of their fate.

To pass the reft, twelve, wanting one, he slew ;
My brethren, who their birth from Neleus drew.
All youths of early promise, had they liv'd;
By him they perish'd: I alone furviv'd.
The reft were eafy conqueft: but the fate
Of Periclymenos is wondrous to relate.

}

To

To him our common grandfire of the main

Had given to change his form, and, chang'd, refsume again.

Vary'd at pleasure, every shape he try'd;
And in all beafts Alcides ftill defy'd:

Vanquish'd on earth, at length he foar'd above;
Chang'd to the bird, that bears the bolt of Jove
The new-diffembled eagle, now endued
With peak and pounces, Hercules purfued,
And cuff'd his manly cheeks, and tore his face;
Then, fafe retir'd, and tour'd in empty space.
Alcides bore not long his flying foe
But, bending his inevitable bow,

Reach'd him in air, fufpended as he stood;
And in his pinion fix'd the feather'd wood.
Light was the wound; but in the finew hung
The point; and his difabled wing unftrung.
He wheel'd in air, and ftretch'd his vans in vain ;
His vans no longer could his flight sustain :
For while one gather'd wind, one unfupply'd
Hung drooping down; nor pois'd his other fide.
He fell the shaft, that flightly was impress'd,
Now from his heavy fall with weight increas'd,
Drove through his neck, aflant; he fpurns the ground,
And the foul iffues through the weazon's wound.

Now, brave commander of the Rhodian feas,
What praise is due from me to Hercules ?

Silence is all the vengeance I decree

For

my flain brothers

but 'tis peace with thee.

Thus with a flowing tongue old Neftor spoke : Then, to full bowls each other they provoke: At length, with weariness and wine opprefs'd, They rife from table, and withdraw to reft.

}

The fire of Cygnus, monarch of the main,
Mean time, laments his fon, in battle flain :
And vows the victor's death, nor vows in vain.
For nine long years the fmother'd pain he bore
(Achilles was not ripe for fate before):
Then when he saw the promis'd hour was near,
He thus bespoke the God that guides the year.
Immortal offspring of my brother Jove;
My brighteft nephew, and whom best I love,
Whofe hands were join'd with mine, to raise the wall

Of tottering Troy, now nodding to her fall;
Doft thou not mourn our power employ'd in vain,
And the defenders of our city flain ?

To pass the reft, could noble Hector lie
Unpity'd, dragg'd around his native Troy?
And yet the murderer lives: himself by far
A greater plague, than all the wasteful war :
He lives; the proud Pelides lives, to boast
Our town deftroy'd, our common labour loft!
O, could I meet him! But I wish too late;
To prove my trident, is not in his fate.
But let him try (for that's allow'd) thy dart,
And pierce his only penetrable part.

Apollo bows to the fuperior throne;
And to his uncle's anger adds his own.

Then in a cloud involv'd, he takes his flight,
Where Greeks and Trojans mix'd in mortal fight;
And found out Paris, lurking where he stood,
And ftain'd his arrows with plebeian blood:
Phoebus to him alone the God confefs'd,

Then to the recreant knight he thus address'd:
Doft thou not blush, to spend thy shafts in vain
On a degenerate and ignoble train?

If fame, or better vengeance, be thy care,

There aim and, with one arrow, end the war.

:

He faid; and fhew'd from far the blazing shield And fword, which but Achilles none could wield; And how he mov'd a God, and mow'd the standing

field.

The Deity himself directs aright

Th' invemon'd fhaft; and wings the fatal flight.
Thus fell the foremost of the Grecian name;
And he, the bafe adulterer, boafts the fame.
A fpectacle to glad the Trojan train;
And please old Priam, after Hector flain.
If by a female hand he had foreseen
He was to die, his wifh had rather been

The lance and double ax of the fair warrior queen.
And now, the terror of the Trojan field,
The Grecian honour, ornament, and shield,
High on a pile, th' unconquer'd chief is plac'd :
The God, that arm'd him first, confum'd at last.
Of all the mighty man, the small remains

A little urn, and scarcely fill'd, contains.

}

Yet

great in Homer, ftill Achilles lives; And, equal to himself, himself furvives.

His buckler owns its former lord; and brings
New cause of strife betwixt contending kings;
Who worthieft, after him, his sword to wield,
Or wear his armour, or fuftain his shield.
Ev'n Diomede fat mute, with down-caft eyes;
Confcious of wanted worth to win the prize :
Nor Menelaus prefum'd these arms to claim,
Nor he the king of men, a greater name.
Two rivals only rofe: Laertes' fon,
And the vaft bulk of Ajax Telamon,

The king, who cherish'd each with equal love,
And from himself all envy would remove,

Left both to be determined by the laws;
And to the Grecian chiefs transferr'd the cause.