THE

ELEVENTH BOOK

OF THE

L I A

D.

The third Battle, and the Acts of Agamemnon.

Agamemnon, having armed himself, leads the Grecians to battle: Hector prepares the Trojans to receive them; while Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva, give the fignals of war. Agamemnon bears all before him; and Hector is commanded by Jupiter (who fends Iris for that purpose) to decline the engagement, till the king fhall be wounded and retire from the field. He then makes a great flaughter of the enemy; Ulyffes and Diomed put a stop to him for a time; but the latter being wounded by Paris, is obliged to defert his companion, who is encompaffed by the Trojans, wounded, and in the utmost danger, till Menelaüs and Ajax rescue him. Hector comes against Ajax; but that hero alone oppofes, multitudes, and rallies the Greeks. In the mean time Machaon, in the other wing of the army, is pierc'd with an arrow by Paris, and carried from the fight in Neftor's chariot. Achilles (who overlooked the action from his ship) fent Patroclus to enquire which of the Greeks was wounded in that manner? Neftor entertains him in his tent with an account of the accidents of the day, and a long recital of fome former wars which he remembered, tending to put Patroclus upon perfuading Achilles to fight for his countrymen, or at least permit Him to do it, clad in Achilles's armour. Patroclus in his return meets Eurypylus also wounded, and affifts him in that diftrefs.

This book opens with the eight and twentieth day of the poem; and the fame day, with its various actions and adventures, is extended through the twelfth thirteenth, fourteenth, fifteenth, fixteenth, seventeenth, and part of the eighteenth books. The fcene lies in the field, near the monument of Ilus.

THE

I L

IA D.

BOOK XI. ...

THE faffron morn, with early blushes spread,

Now rofe refulgent from Tithonius' bed;

With new-born day to gladden mortal fight,
And gild the courts of heaven with sacred light:
When baleful Eris, fent by Jove's command,
The torch of difcord blazing in her hand,
Through the red fkies her bloody fign extends,
And, wrapt in tempefts, o'er the fleet defcends.
High on Ulyffes' bark, her horrid stand

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5.

She took, and thunder'd through the feas and land. 1o
Ev'n Ajax and Achilles heard the found,

Whofe flips, remote, the guarded navy bound.
Thence the black Fury through the Grecian throng
With horror founds the loud Orthian song:
The navy shakes, and at the dire alarms

Each bofom boils, each warriour starts to arms.

No more they figh, inglorious to return,
But breathe revenge, and for the combat burn.

The king of men his hardy hoft infpires
With loud command, with great example fires;
Himself first rofe, himself before the rest
His mighty limbs in radiant armour drėst.

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And

And firft he cas'd his manly legs around
In fhining greaves, with filver buckles bound:
The beaming cuirass next adorn'd his breast,
The fame which once king Cinyras poffeft:
(The fame of Greece and her affembled hoft
Had reach'd that monarch on the Cyprian coaft;
'Twas then, the friendship of the chief to gain,
This glorious gift he sent, nor sent in vain.)
Ten rows of azure fteel the work infold,
Twice ten of tin, and twelve of ductile gold ;
Three glittering dragons to the gorget rife,
Whofe imitated scales, against the skies
Reflected various light, and arching bow'd,
Like colour'd rainbows o'er a fhowery cloud
(Jove's wondrous bow, of three celeftial dyes,
Plac'd as a fign to man amid the skies.).
A radiant baldrick, o'er his fhoulder ty'd,
Suftain'd the fword that glitter'd at his fide:
Gold was the hilt, a filver fheath encas'd
The fhining blade, and golden hangers grac'd.
His buckler's mighty orb was next display'd,
That round the warriour caft a dreadful shade;
Ten zones of brass its ample brim surround,
And twice ten boffes the bright convex crown'd:
Tremendous Gorgon frown'd upon its field,
And circling terrors fill'd th' expreffive shield:
Within its concave hung a filver thong,

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On which a mimic ferpent creeps along ;

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His azure length in easy waves extends,

Till in three heads th' embroider'd monfter ends.

Laf