The leader spoke. From all his host around
Shouts of applause along the shores resound.
Each from the yoke the smoking steeds untied,
And fix’d their headstalls to his chariot-side.
Fat sheep and oxen from the town are led,
With generous wine, and all-sustaining bread,
Full hecatombs lay burning on the shore:
The winds to heaven the curling vapours bore.
Ungrateful offering to the immortal powers!
[157]
Whose wrath hung heavy o’er the Trojan towers:
Nor Priam nor his sons obtain’d their grace;
Proud Troy they hated, and her guilty race.
The troops exulting sat in order round,
And beaming fires illumined all the ground.
As when the moon, refulgent lamp of night,
[158]
O’er heaven’s pure azure spreads her sacred
light,
When not a breath disturbs the deep serene,
And not a cloud o’ercasts the solemn scene,
Around her throne the vivid planets roll,
And stars unnumber’d gild the glowing pole,
O’er the dark trees a yellower verdure shed,
And tip with silver every mountain’s head:
Then shine the vales, the rocks in prospect rise,
A flood of glory bursts from all the skies:
The conscious swains, rejoicing in the sight,
Eye the blue vault, and bless the useful light.
So many flames before proud Ilion blaze,
And lighten glimmering Xanthus with their rays.
The long reflections of the distant fires
Gleam on the walls, and tremble on the spires.
A thousand piles the dusky horrors gild,
And shoot a shady lustre o’er the field.
Full fifty guards each flaming pile attend,
Whose umber’d arms, by fits, thick flashes send,
Loud neigh the coursers o’er their heaps of
corn,
And ardent warriors wait the rising morn.
{Illustration: THE SHIELD OF ACHILLES.}
BOOK IX.
ARGUMENT.
THE EMBASSY TO ACHILLES.
Agamemnon, after the last day’s defeat, proposes
to the Greeks to quit the siege, and return to their
country. Diomed opposes this, and Nestor seconds
him, praising his wisdom and resolution. He orders
the guard to be strengthened, and a council summoned
to deliberate what measures are to be followed in
this emergency. Agamemnon pursues this advice,
and Nestor further prevails upon him to send ambassadors
to Achilles, in order to move him to a reconciliation.
Ulysses and Ajax are made choice of, who are accompanied
by old Phoenix. They make, each of them, very
moving and pressing speeches, but are rejected with
roughness by Achilles, who notwithstanding retains
Phoenix in his tent. The ambassadors return unsuccessfully
to the camp, and the troops betake themselves to sleep.
This book, and the next following, take up the space
of one night, which is the twenty-seventh from the
beginning of the poem. The scene lies on the
sea-shore, the station of the Grecian ships.
