What word hath pass’d thy lips, Jove most severe!
How? wouldst thou render fruitless all my pains?30
The sweat that I have pour’d? my steeds themselves
Have fainted while I gather’d Greece in arms
For punishment of Priam and his sons.
Do it. But small thy praise shall be in heaven.
Then her the Thunderer answer’d sore displeased.35
Ah shameless! how have Priam and his sons
So much transgress’d against thee, that thou burn’st
With ceaseless rage to ruin populous Troy?
Go, make thine entrance at her lofty gates,
Priam and all his house, and all his host40
Alive devour; then, haply, thou wilt rest;
Do even as thou wilt, that this dispute
Live not between us a consuming fire
For ever. But attend; mark well the word.
When I shall also doom in future time45
Some city to destruction, dear to thee,
Oppose me not, but give my fury way
As I give way to thine, not pleased myself,
Yet not unsatisfied, so thou be pleased.
For of all cities of the sons of men,50
And which the sun and stars from heaven behold,
Me sacred Troy most pleases, Priam me
Most, and the people of the warrior King.
Nor without cause. They feed mine altar well;
Libation there, and steam of savory scent55
Fail not, the tribute which by lot is ours.
Him answer’d, then, the Goddess ample-eyed,[3]
Majestic Juno: Three fair cities me,
Of all the earth, most interest and engage,
Mycenæ for magnificence renown’d,60
Argos, and Sparta. Them, when next thy wrath
Shall be inflamed against them, lay thou waste;
I will not interpose on their behalf;
Thou shalt not hear me murmur; what avail
Complaint or force against thy matchless arm?65
Yet were it most unmeet that even I
Should toil in vain; I also boast a birth
Celestial; Saturn deeply wise, thy Sire,
Is also mine; our origin is one.
Thee I acknowledge Sovereign, yet account70
Myself entitled by a twofold claim
To veneration both from Gods and men,
The daughter of Jove’s sire, and spouse of Jove.
Concession mutual therefore both thyself
Befits and me, whom when the Gods perceive75
Disposed to peace, they also shall accord.
Come then.—To yon dread field dispatch in haste
Minerva, with command that she incite
The Trojans first to violate their oath
By some fresh insult on the exulting Greeks.80
So Juno; nor the sire of all refused,
But in wing’d accents thus to Pallas spake.
Begone; swift fly to yonder field; incite
The Trojans first to violate their oath
By some fresh insult on the exulting Greeks.85
The Goddess heard, and what she wish’d, enjoin’d,
Down-darted swift from the Olympian heights,
In form a meteor, such as from his hand
Not seldom Jove dismisses, beaming bright
And breaking into stars, an omen sent90
To mariners, or to some numerous host.
Such Pallas seem’d, and swift descending, dropp’d
Full in the midst between them. They with awe
That sign portentous and with wonder view’d,
Achaians both and Trojans, and his next95
The soldier thus bespake. Now either war
And dire hostility again shall flame,
Or Jove now gives us peace. Both are from Jove.
So spake the soldiery; but she the form
Taking of brave Laodocus, the son100
Of old Antenor, throughout all the ranks
Sought godlike Pandarus.[4] Ere long she found
The valiant son illustrious of Lycaon,
Standing encompass’d by his dauntless troops,
Broad-shielded warriors, from Æsepus’ stream105
His followers; to his side the Goddess came,
And in wing’d accents ardent him bespake.
Brave offspring of Lycaon, is there hope
That thou wilt hear my counsel? darest thou slip
A shaft at Menelaus? much renown110
Thou shalt and thanks from all the Trojans win,
But most of all, from Paris, prince of Troy.
From him illustrious gifts thou shalt receive
Doubtless, when Menelaus he shall see
The martial son of Atreus by a shaft115
Subdued of thine, placed on his funeral pile.
Come. Shoot at Menelaus, glorious Chief!
But vow to Lycian Phœbus bow-renown’d
A hecatomb, all firstlings of the flock,
To fair Zeleia’s[5] walls once safe restored.120
So Pallas spake, to whom infatuate he
Listening, uncased at once his polished bow.[6]
That bow, the laden brows of a wild goat
Salacious had supplied; him on a day
Forth-issuing from his cave, in ambush placed125
He wounded with an arrow to his breast
Dispatch’d, and on the rock supine he fell.
Each horn had from his head tall growth attain’d,
Full sixteen palms; them shaven smooth the smith
Had aptly join’d, and tipt their points with gold.130
That bow he strung, then, stooping, planted firm
The nether horn, his comrades bold the while
Screening him close with shields, lest ere the prince
Were stricken, Menelaus brave in arms,
The Greeks with fierce assault should interpose.135
He raised his quiver’s lid; he chose a dart
Unflown, full-fledged, and barb’d with pangs of death.
He lodged in haste the arrow on the string,
And vow’d to Lycian Phœbus bow-renown’d
A hecatomb, all firstlings of the flock,140
To fair Zeleia’s walls once safe restored.
Compressing next nerve and notch’d arrow-head
He drew back both together, to his pap
Drew home the nerve, the barb home to his bow,
And when the horn was curved to a wide arch,145
He twang’d it. Whizz’d the bowstring, and the reed
Leap’d off, impatient for the distant throng.
Thee, Menelaus, then the blessed Gods
Forgat not; Pallas huntress of the spoil,
Thy guardian then, baffled the cruel dart.150
Far as a mother wafts the fly aside[7]
That haunts her slumbering babe, so far she drove
Its course aslant, directing it herself
Against the golden clasps that join’d his belt;
For there the doubled hauberk interposed.155
The bitter arrow plunged into his belt.
It pierced his broider’d belt, stood fixt within
His twisted hauberk, nor the interior quilt,
Though penetrable least to arrow-points
And his best guard, withheld it, but it pass’d160
That also, and the Hero’s skin inscribed.
Quick flowed a sable current from the wound.