Whom Crysa, Cilla, Tenedos obeys,
And whose broad eye their happy soil surveys;
It Smintheus, I have pour'd before thy shrine
The blood of oxen, goats, and ruddy wine,
And larded thighs on loaded altars laid,
Hear, and my just revenge propitious aid.
Pierce the proud Greeks, and with thy shafts attest
How much thy power is injur'd in thy priest."
He pray'd, and Phoebus, hearing, urg'd his
With fury kindled, from Olympus' height; [flight,
His quiver o'er his ample shoulders threw ;
His bow twang'd, and his arrows rattled as they
Black as a stormy night, he rang'd around [flew.
The tents, and compass'd the devoted ground.
Then with full force his deadly bow he bent,
And feather'd fates among the mules and sump-
ters sent:

Th' essay of rage, on faithful dogs the next;
And last, in human hearts his arrows fix'd.
The god nine days the Greeks at rovers kill'd,
Nine days the camp with funeral fires was fill'd;
The tenth, Achilles, by the queen's command,
Who bears Heaven's awful sceptre in her hand,
A council summon'd; for the goddess griev'd
Her favour'd host should perish unreliev'd.

The kings assembled, soon their chief enclose;
Then from his seat the goddess-born arose,
And thus undaunted spoke: "What now remains,
But that once more we tempt the watery plains,
And, wandering homeward, seek our safety hence,
In flight at least, if we can find defence?
Such woes at once encompass us about,
The plague within the camp, the sword without.
Consult, O king, the prophets of th' event :
And whence these ills, and what the gods intent,
Let them by dreams explore; for dreams from
Jove are sent,'

What want of offer'd victims, what offence
In fact committed could the Sun incense,
To deal his deadly shafts? What may remove
His settled hate, and reconcile his love?
That he may look propitious on our toils;
And hungry graves no more be glutted with our
spoils."

Thus to the king of men the hero spoke,
Then Calchas the desir'd occasion took :
Calchas the sacred seer, who had in view
Things present and the past; and things to come
foreknew:

Supreme of augurs, who, by Phoebus taught,
The Grecian powers to Troy's destruction brought.
Skill'd in the secret causes of their woes,
The reverend priest in graceful act arose :
And thus bespoke Pelides: "Care of Jove,
Favour'd of all th' immortal powers above;'
Wouldst thou the seeds deep-sown of mischief
And why provok'd Apolto bends his bow? [know,
Plight first thy faith, inviolably true,

Secure me then from his foreseen intent,
That what his wrath may doom, thy valour may
prevent."

To this the stern Achilles made reply:
"Be bold; and on my plighted faith rely,
To speak what Phoebus has inspir'd thy soul
For common good; and speak without control.
His godhead I invoke, by him I swear,
That while my nostrils draw this vital air,
None shall presume to violate those bands;
Or touch thy person with unhallow'd hands:
Ev'n not the king of men that all commands."

At this, resuming heart, the prophet said:
"Nor hecatomb unslain, nor vows unpaid,
On Greeks, accurs'd, this dire contagion bring,
Or call for vengeance from the bowyer king;
But he the tyrant, whom none dares resist,
Affronts the godhead in his injur'd priest:
He keeps the damsel captive in his chain,
And presents are refus'd, and prayers preferr'd
in vain.

For this th' avenging power employs his darts,
And empties all his quiver in our hearts;
Thus will persist, relentless in his ire,
Till the fair slave be render'd to her sire:
And ransom-free restor'd to his abode,
With sacrifice to reconcile the god :
Then he, perhaps, aton'd by prayer, may cease
His vengeance justly vow'd, and give the peace."

Thus having said, he sate: thus answer'd then,
Upstarting from his throne, the king of men,
His breast with fury fill'd, his eyes with fire;
Which, rolling round, he shot in sparkles on the sire:
"Augur of ill, whose tongue was never found
Without a priestly curse, or boding sound;
For not one bless'd event foretold to me
Pass'd through that mouth, or pass'd unwillingly.
And now thou dost with lies the throne invade,
By practice harden'd in thy slandering trade.
Obtending Heaven, for whate'er ills befal;
And sputtering under specious names thy gall.
Now Phoebus is provok'd, his rites and laws
Are in his priest profan'd, and I the cause:
Since I detain a slave, my sovereign prize;
And sacred gold, your idol-god, despise.

I love her well:, and well her merits claim,
To stand preferr'd before my Grecian dame:
Not Clytemnestra's self in beauty's bloom
More charm'd, or better ply'd the various loom:
Mine is the maid; and brought in happy hour,
With every household-grace adorn'd, to bless my
nuptial bower.

Yet shall she be restor❜d; since public good
For private interest ought not to be withstood,
To save th' effusion of my people's blood.
But right requires, if I resign my own,
I should not suffer for your sakes alone;
Alone excluded from the prize I gain'd,
And by your common suffrage have obtain❜d.
The slave without a ransom shall be sent:
It rests for you to make th' equivalent."

To save me from those ills, that may ensue.
For I shall tell ungrateful truths to those
Whose boundless powers of life and death dispose.
And sovereigns, ever jealous of their state,
Forgive not those whom once they mark for hate;
Ev'n though th' offence they seemingly digest,
Revenge, like embers rak'd, within their breast,
Bursts forth in flames; whose unresisted power
Will seize th' unwary wretch, and soon devour.
Such, and no less is he, on whom depends
The sum of things; and whom my tongue of Whate'er by force of arms the soldier got,

To this the fierce Thessalian prince reply'd:
"O first in power, but passing all in pride,
Griping, and still tenacious of thy hold,
Wouldst thou the Grecian chiefs, though largely-
soul'd,

force offends.

Should give the prizes they had gain'd before,
And with their loss thy sacrilege restore?

Is each his own, by dividend of lot:

Which to resume, were both unjust and base;
Not to be borne but by a servile race.
But this we can: if Saturn's son bestows
The sack of Troy, which be by promise owes ;
Then shall the conquering Greeks thy loss restore,
And with large interest make th' advantage more."
To this Atrides answer'd: "Though thy boast
Assumes the foremost name of all our host,
Pretend not, mighty man, that what is mine,
Control'd by thee, I tamely should resign.
Shall I release the prize I gain'd by right,
In taken towns, and many a bloody fight,
While thou detain'st Briseis in thy bands,
By priestly glossing on the god's commands?
Resolve on this, (a short alternative)
Quit mine, or, in exchange, another give;
Else 1, assure thy soul, by sovereign right
Will seize thy captive in thy own despight.
Or from stout Ajax, or Ulysses, bear
What other prize my fancy shail prefer:
Then softly murmur, or aloud complain,
Rage as you please, you shall resist in vain.
But more of this, in proper time and place;
To things of greater moment let us pass.
A ship to sail the sacred seas prepare;
Proud in her trim: and put on board the fair,
With sacrifice and gifts, and all the pomp of prayer.
The crew well chosen, the command shall be
la Ajax; or if other I decree,

In Creta's king, or Ithacus, or if I please in thee:
Most fit thyself to see perform'd th' intent
For which my prisoner from my sight is sent;
(Thanks to thy pious care) that Phoebus may

relent."

At this Achilles roll'd his furious eyes,
Fix'd on the king askant; and thus replies:
"O, impudent, regardful of thy own,
Whose thoughts are center'd on thyself alone,
Advanc'd to sovereign sway, for better ends
Than thus like abject slaves to treat thy friends.
What Greek is he, that, urg'd by thy command,
Against the Trojan troops will lift his hand?
Not I: nor such enforc'd respect I owe;
Nor Pergamus 1 bate, nor Priam is my foe.
What wrong from Troy remote could I sustain,
To leave my fruitful soil and happy reign,
And plough the surges of the stormy main?
Thee, frontless man, we follow'd from afar;
Thy instruments of death, and tools of war.
Thine is the triumph: ours the toil alone:

We bear thee on our backs, and mount thee on
the throne.

For thee we fall in fight; for thee redress
Thy baffled brother; not the wrongs of Greece.
And now thou threaten'st with unjust decree,
To punish thy affronting Heaven, on me.
To seize the prize which I so dearly bought;
By common suffrage given, confirm'd by lot.
Mean match to thine: for stiil above the rest
Thy book'd rapacious bands usurp the best.
Though mine are first in fight, to force the prey;
And last sustain the labours of the day.
Nor grudge I thee the much the Grecians give;
Nor murmuring take the little I receive.
Yet ev'n this little, thou, who wouldst engross
The whole, insatiate, envy'st as thy loss.
Know, then, for Phthia fix'd is my return:
Better at home my ill-paid pains to mourn,
Than

scorn."

The king, whose brows with shining gold were
bound,
[compass'd round,
Who saw his throne with scepter'd slaves en- ·
Thus answer'd stern: "Go, at thy pleasure, go:
We need not such a friend, nor fear we such a foe.
There will not want to follow me in fight:
Jove will assist, and Jove assert my right.
But thou of all the kings (his care below)
Art least at my command, and most my foe.
Debates, dissensions, uproars, are thy joy;
Provok'd without offence, and practis'd to destroy.
Strength is of brutes, and not thy boast alone;
At least 'tis lent from Heaven; and not thy own.
Fly then, ill-manner'd, to thy native land,
And there thy ant-born myrmidons command.
But mark this menace; since I must resign
My black-ey'd maid, to please the powers divine:
(A well-rigg'd vessel in the port attends,

Mann'd at my charge, commanded by my friends,)
The ship shall waft her to her wish'd abode, [god.
Full fraught with holy bribes to the far-shooting
This thus dispatch'd, I owe myself the care,
My fame and injur'd honour to repair:
From thy own tent, proud man, in thy despight,
This hand shall ravish thy pretended right.
Briseis shall be mine, and thou shalt see,
What odds of awful power I bave on thee:
That others at thy cost may learn the difference

of degree."

At this th' impatient hero sourly smil'd:
His heart impetuous in his bosom boild.
And, justled by two tides of equal sway,
Stood, for a while, suspended in his way.
Betwixt his reason, and his rage untam'd;
One whisper'd soft, and one aloud reclaim'd:
That only counsel'd to the safer side;
This to the sword, his ready hand apply'd.
Unpunish'd to support th' affront was hard:
Nor easy was th' attempt to force the guard.
But soon the thirst of vengeance fir'd his blood:
Half shone his falchion, and half sheath'd it
stood.

In that nice moment, Pallas, from above,
Commission'd by th' imperial wife of Jove,
Descended swift (the white-arm'd queen was loath
The fight should follow; for she favour'd both):
Just as in act he stood, in clouds enshrin'd,
Her hand she fasten'd on his hair behind:
Then backward by his yellow curls she drew;
To him, and him alone, confess'd in view.
Tam'd by superior force, he turn'd his eyes
Aghast at first, and stupid with surprise:
But by her sparkling eyes, and ardent look,
The virgin-warrior known, he thus bespoke:

"Com'st thou, Celestial, to behold my wrongs?
To view the vengeance which to crimes belongs?"
Thus he. The blue-ey'd goddess thus rejoin'd:
"I come to calm thy turbulence of mind,
If Reason will resume her sovereign sway,
Equal she loves you both, and I protect:
And, sent by Juno, her coramands obey.
Then give thy guardian gods their due respect;
And cease contention; be thy words severe,
Sharp as he merits: but the sword forbear.
An hour unhop'd already wings her way,
When he his dire affront shall dearly pay:
When the proud king shall sue, with treble gain,
To quit thy loss, and conquer thy disdain.

public But thou, secure of my unfailing word,

Compose thy swelling soul, and sheath the sword."

The youth thus answer'd mild: "Auspicious
maid,

Heaven's will be mine, and your commands obey'd.
The gods are just, and when, subduing sense,
We serve their powers, provide the recompense."
He said; with surly faith believ'd her word,
And in the sheath, reluctant, plung'd the sword.
Her message done, she mounts the bless'd abodes,
And mix'd among the senate of the gods.

At her departure his disdain return'd;
The fire she fann'd, with greater fury burn'd;
Rumbling within, till thus it found a vent:
"Dastard, and drunkard, mean and insolent:
Tongue-valiant hero, vaunter of thy might,
In threats the foremost, but the lag in fight;
When didst thou thrust amid the mingled prease,
Content to bid the war aloof in peace?
Arms are the trade of each plebeian soul;
'Tis death to fight; but kingly to control.
Lord-like at ease, with arbitrary power,
To peel the chiefs, the people to devour.
These, traitor, are thy talents; safer far
Than to contend in fields, and toils of war.
Nor couldst thou thus have dar'd the common hate,
Were not their souls as abject as their state.
But, by this sceptre, solemnly I swear,
(Which never more green leaf or growing branch
shall bear,

Torn from the tree, and given by Jove to those
Who laws dispense, and mighty wrongs oppose)
That when the Grecians want my wonted aid,
No gift shall bribe it, and no prayer persuade.
When Hector comes, the homicide, to wield
His conquering arms, with corps to strow the field,
Then shalt thou mourn thy pride; and late confess
My wrong repented, when 'tis past redress."
He said: and with disdain, in open view,
Against the ground his golden sceptre threw ;
Then sate with boiling rage Atrides burn'd,
And foam betwixt his gnashing grinders churn'd.
But from his seat the Pylian prince arose,
With reasoning mild, their madness to compose:
Words, sweet as honey, from his mouth distill'd;
Two centuries already he fulfill'd;

And now began the third; unbroken yet:
Once fam'd for courage; still in council great.
"What worse," he said, "can Argos undergo,
What can more gratify the Phrygian foe,
Than these distemper'd heats? If both the lights
Of Greece their private interest disunites!
Believe a friend, with thrice your years increas'd,
And let these youthful passions be repress'd:
1 flourish'd long before your birth; and then
Liv'd equal with a race of braver men
Than these dim eyes shall e'er behold again.
Céneus and Dryas, and, excelling them,
Great Theseus, and the force of greater Polypheme.
With these I went, a brother of the war,
Their dangers to divide, their fame to share.
Nor idle stood with unassisting hands,

When salvage beasts, and men's more salvage
bands,

| But let Pelides in his prize rejoice,
Achiev'd in arms, allow'd by public voice.
Nor thou, brave champion, with his power contend,
Before whose throne, ev'n kings their lower'd
sceptres bend.

Their virtuous toil subdu'd: yet those I sway'd,
With powerful speech: 1 spoke, and they obey'd.
If such as those my counsels could reclaim,
Think not, young warriors, your diminish'd name
Shall lose of lustre, by subjecting rage
To the cool dictates of experienc'd age.
Thou, king of men, stretch not thy sovereign sway
Beyond the bounds free subjects can obey :-

The head of action he, and thou the hand,
Matchless thy force; but mightier his command.
Thou first, O king, release the rights of sway;
Power, self-restrain'd, the people best obey.
Sanctions of law from thee derive their source;
Command thyself, whom no commands can force.
The son of Thetis, rampire of our host,

Is worth our care to keep; nor shall my prayers be
lost."

Thus Nestor said, and ceas'd: Atrides broke
His silence next; but ponder'd ere he spoke.
"Wise are thy words, and glad I would obey,
But this proud man affects imperial sway.
Controling kings, and trampling on our state,
His will is law; and what he wills is fate. [style
The gods have given him strength: but whence the
Of lawless power assum'd, or licence to revile?"
Achilles cut him short; and thus reply'd:
"My worth, allow'd in words, is in effect deny'd.
For who but a poltron, possess'd with fear,
Such haughty insolence can tamely bear?
Command thy slaves: my freeborn soul disdains
A tyrant's curb; and restiff breaks the reins.
Take this along; that no dispute shall rise
(Though mine the woman) for my ravish'd prize:
But she excepted, as unworthy strife,
Dare not, I charge thee dare not, on thy life,
Touch aught of mine beside, by lot my due,
But stand aloof, and think profane to view:
This falchion, else, not hitherto withstood,
These hostile fields shall fatten with thy blood."

He said; and rose the first: the council broke;
And all their grave consults dissolv'd in smoke.
The royal youth retir'd, on vengeance bent,
Patroclus follow'd silent to his tent.

Meantime, the king with gifts a vessel stores;
Supplies the banks with twenty chosen oars:
And next, to reconcile the shooter god,
Within her hollow sides the sacrifice he stow'd:
Chryseis last was set on board; whose hand
Ulysses took, intrusted with command:
They plow the liquid seas, and leave the lessen-
ing land.

Atrides then, his outward zeal to boast,
Bade purify the sin-polluted host.
With perfect hecatombs the god they grac'd;
Whose offer'd entrails in the main were cast.
Black bulls and bearded goats on altars lie;
And clouds of savory stench involve the sky.
These pomps the royal hypocrite design'd
For show; but harbour'd vengeance in his mind:
Till holy Malice, longing for a vent,
At length discover'd his conceal'd intent.
Talthybius, and Eurybates the just,
Heralds of arms, and ministers of trust,
He call'd, and thus bespoke: "Haste hence your
And from the goddess-born demand his prey.
If yielded, bring the captive: if deny'd,
The king (so tell him) shall chastise his pride:
And with arm'd multitudes in person come,
To vindicate his power, and justify his doom."
This hard command unwilling they obey,
And o'er the barren shore pursue their way,
Where quarter'd in their camp the fierce Thessa
lians lay.

[way:

grace my small remains of breath with fame,
Why loads he this imbitter'd life with shame?
Suffering his king of men to force my slave,
Whom, well deserv'd in war, the Grecians gave."
Set by old Ocean's side the goddess heard;
Then from the sacred deep her head she rear'd:
Rose like a morning-mist; and thus begun
To sooth the sorrows of her plaintive son:
"Why cries my Care, and why conceals his smart?
Let thy afflicted parent share her part."

Then, sighing from the bottom of his breast,
To the sea-goddess thus the goddess-born ad-
dress'd:

"Thou know'st my pain, which telling but recals:
By force of arms we raz'd the Theban walls;
The ransack'd city, taken by our toils,
We left, and hither brought the golden spoils;
Equal we shar'd them; but before the rest,
The proud Prerogative had seiz'd the best.
Chryseis was the greedy tyrant's prize,
Chryseis rosy-cheek'd, with charming eyes.
Her sire, Apollo's priest, arriv'd to buy,
With proffer'd gifts of price, his daughter's liberty.
Suppliant before the Grecian chiefs he stood,
Awful, and arm'd with ensigns of his god:
Bare was his hoary head, one holy hand
Helf forth his laurel-crown, and one, his sceptre

| Meantime the goddess-born in secret pin'd;
Nor visited the camp, nor in the council join'd,
But, keeping close, his gnawing heart be fed
With hopes of vengeance on the tyrant's head:
And wish'd for bloody wars and mortal wounds,
And of the Greeks oppress'd in fight to hear the
dying sounds.
[race,

These morsels stay'd their stomachs; then the rest
They cut in legs and fillets for the feast;
Which drawn and serv'd, their hunger they appease
With savory meat, and set their minds at ease.
Now when the rage of eating was repell'd,
The boys with generous wine the goblets fill'd.
The first libations to the gods they pour:
And then with songs indulge the genial hour.
Holy debauch! Till day to night they bring,
With hymns and pæans to the bowyer king.
At sun-set to their ship they make return,
And snore secure on decks, till rosy morn.
The skies with dawning day were purpled o'er;
Awak'd, with labouring oars they leave the shore:
The power appeas'd, with winds suffic'd the sail,
The bellying canvass strutted with the gale;
The waves indignant roar with surly pride,
And press against the sides, and, beaten off, divide.
They cut the foamy way, with force impell'd
Superior, till the Trojan port they held:
Then hauling on the strand their galley moor,
And pitch their tents along the crooked shore.