Achilles (Mythological character) -- Poetry; Classical literature; Epic poetry, Greek -- Translations into English; Trojan War -- Poetry
Jupiter, awaking, sees the Trojans repulsed from the trenches, Hector
in a swoon, and Neptune at the head of the Greeks: he is highly
incensed at the artifice of Juno, who appeases him by her submissions;
she is then sent to Iris and Apollo. Juno, repairing to the assembly of
the gods, attempts, with extraordinary address, to incense them against
Jupiter; in particular she touches Mars with a violent resentment; he
is ready to take arms, but is prevented by Minerva. Iris and Apollo
obey the orders of Jupiter; Iris commands Neptune to leave the battle,
to which, after much reluctance and passion, he consents. Apollo
reinspires Hector with vigour, brings him back to the battle, marches
before him with his ægis, and turns the fortune of the fight. He
breaks down great part of the Grecian wall: the Trojans rush in, and
attempt to fire the first line of the fleet, but are, as yet, repelled
by the greater Ajax with a prodigious slaughter.
Now in swift flight they pass the trench profound,
And many a chief lay gasping on the ground:
Then stopp’d and panted, where the chariots lie
Fear on their cheek, and horror in their eye.
Meanwhile, awaken’d from his dream of love,
On Ida’s summit sat imperial Jove:
Round the wide fields he cast a careful view,
There saw the Trojans fly, the Greeks pursue;
These proud in arms, those scatter’d o’er the plain
And, ’midst the war, the monarch of the main.
Not far, great Hector on the dust he spies,
(His sad associates round with weeping eyes,)
Ejecting blood, and panting yet for breath,
His senses wandering to the verge of death.
The god beheld him with a pitying look,
And thus, incensed, to fraudful Juno spoke:
“O thou, still adverse to the eternal will,
For ever studious in promoting ill!
Thy arts have made the godlike Hector yield,
And driven his conquering squadrons from the field.
Canst thou, unhappy in thy wiles, withstand
Our power immense, and brave the almighty hand?
Hast thou forgot, when, bound and fix’d on high,
From the vast concave of the spangled sky,
I hung thee trembling in a golden chain,
And all the raging gods opposed in vain?
Headlong I hurl’d them from the Olympian hall,
Stunn’d in the whirl, and breathless with the fall.
For godlike Hercules these deeds were done,
Nor seem’d the vengeance worthy such a son:
When, by thy wiles induced, fierce Boreas toss’d
The shipwreck’d hero on the Coan coast,
Him through a thousand forms of death I bore,
And sent to Argos, and his native shore.
Hear this, remember, and our fury dread,
Nor pull the unwilling vengeance on thy head;
Lest arts and blandishments successless prove,
Thy soft deceits, and well-dissembled love.”
The Thunderer spoke: imperial Juno mourn’d,
And, trembling, these submissive words return’d:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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