The Fall of Troy

Name: The Fall of Troy
Author: Quintus, Smyrnaeus, active 4th century

Quintus, Smyrnaeus, active 4th century

Epic poetry, Greek -- Translations into English; Trojan War -- Poetry; Troy (Extinct city) -- Poetry

Then his great father's mother clasped him round
  With clinging arms: she kissed his shoulders broad,
  His head, his breast, his bearded lips she kissed,
  And Acamas kissed withal, the while she shed
  Glad tears on these who could not choose but weep.
  As when one tarries long mid alien men,
  And folk report him dead, but suddenly
  He cometh home: his children see his face,
  And break into glad weeping; yea, and he,
  His arms around them, and their little heads
  Upon his shoulders, sobs: echoes the home
  With happy mourning's music-beating wings;
  So wept they with sweet sighs and sorrowless moans.

  Then, too, affliction-burdened Priam's child,
  Laodice, say they, stretched her hands to heaven,
  Praying the mighty Gods that earth might gape
  To swallow her, ere she defiled her hand
  With thralls' work; and a God gave ear, and rent
  Deep earth beneath her: so by Heaven's decree
  Did earth's abysmal chasm receive the maid
  In Troy's last hour.  Electra's self withal,
  The Star-queen lovely-robed, shrouded her form
  In mist and cloud, and left the Pleiad-band,
  Her sisters, as the olden legend tells.
  Still riseth up in sight of toil-worn men
  Their bright troop in the skies; but she alone
  Hides viewless ever, since the hallowed town
  Of her son Dardanus in ruin fell,
  When Zeus most high from heaven could help her not,
  Because to Fate the might of Zeus must bow;
  And by the Immortals' purpose all these things
  Had come to pass, or by Fate's ordinance.

  Still on Troy's folk the Argives wreaked their wrath,
  And battle's issues Strife Incarnate held.



BOOK XIV.

How the conquerors sailed from Troy unto judgment of tempest and
shipwreck.


  Then rose from Ocean Dawn the golden-throned
  Up to the heavens; night into Chaos sank.
  And now the Argives spoiled fair-fenced Troy,
  And took her boundless treasures for a prey.
  Like river-torrents seemed they, that sweep down,
  By rain, floods swelled, in thunder from the hills,
  And seaward hurl tall trees and whatsoe'er
  Grows on the mountains, mingled with the wreck
  Of shattered cliff and crag; so the long lines
  Of Danaans who had wasted Troy with fire
  Seemed, streaming with her plunder to the ships.
  Troy's daughters therewithal in scattered bands
  They haled down seaward--virgins yet unwed,
  And new-made brides, and matrons silver-haired,
  And mothers from whose bosoms foes had torn
  Babes for the last time closing lips on breasts.

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

Opening the text

The Fall of TroyQuintus, Smyrnaeus, active 4th century

General

The Fall of Troy

Quintus, Smyrnaeus, active 4th century

Epic poetry, Greek -- Translations into English; Trojan War -- Poetry; Troy (Extinct city) -- Poetry

Then his great father's mother clasped him round
  With clinging arms: she kissed his shoulders broad,
  His head, his breast, his bearded lips she kissed,
  And Acamas kissed withal, the while she shed
  Glad tears on these who could not choose but weep.
  As when one tarries long mid alien men,
  And folk report him dead, but suddenly
  He cometh home: his children see his face,
  And break into glad weeping; yea, and he,
  His arms around them, and their little heads
  Upon his shoulders, sobs: echoes the home
  With happy mourning's music-beating wings;
  So wept they with sweet sighs and sorrowless moans.

  Then, too, affliction-burdened Priam's child,
  Laodice, say they, stretched her hands to heaven,
  Praying the mighty Gods that earth might gape
  To swallow her, ere she defiled her hand
  With thralls' work; and a God gave ear, and rent
  Deep earth beneath her: so by Heaven's decree
  Did earth's abysmal chasm receive the maid
  In Troy's last hour.  Electra's self withal,
  The Star-queen lovely-robed, shrouded her form
  In mist and cloud, and left the Pleiad-band,
  Her sisters, as the olden legend tells.
  Still riseth up in sight of toil-worn men
  Their bright troop in the skies; but she alone
  Hides viewless ever, since the hallowed town
  Of her son Dardanus in ruin fell,
  When Zeus most high from heaven could help her not,
  Because to Fate the might of Zeus must bow;
  And by the Immortals' purpose all these things
  Had come to pass, or by Fate's ordinance.

  Still on Troy's folk the Argives wreaked their wrath,
  And battle's issues Strife Incarnate held.



BOOK XIV.

How the conquerors sailed from Troy unto judgment of tempest and
shipwreck.


  Then rose from Ocean Dawn the golden-throned
  Up to the heavens; night into Chaos sank.
  And now the Argives spoiled fair-fenced Troy,
  And took her boundless treasures for a prey.
  Like river-torrents seemed they, that sweep down,
  By rain, floods swelled, in thunder from the hills,
  And seaward hurl tall trees and whatsoe'er
  Grows on the mountains, mingled with the wreck
  Of shattered cliff and crag; so the long lines
  Of Danaans who had wasted Troy with fire
  Seemed, streaming with her plunder to the ships.
  Troy's daughters therewithal in scattered bands
  They haled down seaward--virgins yet unwed,
  And new-made brides, and matrons silver-haired,
  And mothers from whose bosoms foes had torn
  Babes for the last time closing lips on breasts.

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

The Fall of Troy

The Fall of Troy

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