Of Alus, and Alope, and who held Trechina, Phthia, and for women fair835 Distinguish’d, Hellas; known by various names Hellenes, Myrmidons, Achæans, them In fifty ships embark’d, Achilles ruled. But these were deaf to the hoarse-throated war, For there was none to draw their battle forth,840 And give them just array. Close in his ships Achilles, after loss of the bright-hair’d Brisëis, lay, resentful; her obtained Not without labor hard, and after sack Of Thebes and of Lyrnessus, where he slew845 Two mighty Chiefs, sons of Evenus both, Epistrophus and Mynes, her he mourn’d, And for her sake self-prison’d in his fleet And idle lay, though soon to rise again. From Phylace, and from the flowery fields850 Of Pyrrhasus, a land to Ceres given By consecration, and from Iton green, Mother of flocks; from Antron by the sea, And from the grassy meads of Pteleus, came A people, whom while yet he lived, the brave855 Protesilaüs led; but him the earth Now cover’d dark and drear. A wife he left, To rend in Phylace her bleeding cheeks, And an unfinish’d mansion. First he died Of all the Greeks; for as he leap’d to land860 Foremost by far, a Dardan struck him dead. Nor had his troops, though filled with deep regret, No leader; them Podarces led, a Chief Like Mars in battle, brother of the slain, But younger born, and from Iphiclus sprung865 Who sprang from Phylacus the rich in flocks. But him Protesilaüs, as in years, So also in desert of arms excell’d Heroic, whom his host, although they saw Podarces at their head, still justly mourn’d;870 For he was fierce in battle, and at Troy With forty sable-sided ships arrived. Eleven galleys, Pheræ on the lake, And Boebe, and Iölchus, and the vale Of Glaphyræ supplied with crews robust875 Under Eumelus; him Alcestis, praised For beauty above all her sisters fair, In Thessaly to King Admetus bore. Methone, and Olizon’s craggy coast, With Melibœa and Thaumasia sent880 Seven ships; their rowers were good archers all, And every vessel dipped into the wave Her fifty oars. Them Philoctetes, skill’d To draw with sinewy arm the stubborn bow, Commanded; but he suffering anguish keen885 Inflicted by a serpent’s venom’d tooth, Lay sick in Lemnos; him the Grecians there Had left sore-wounded, but were destined soon To call to dear remembrance whom they left. Meantime, though sorrowing for his sake, his troops890 Yet wanted not a chief; them Medon ruled, Whom Rhena to the far-famed conqueror bore Oïleus, fruit of their unsanction’d loves. From Tricca, from Ithome rough and rude With rocks and glens, and from Oechalia, town895 Of Eurytus Oechalian-born, came forth Their warlike youth by Podalirius led And by Machaon, healers both expert Of all disease, and thirty ships were theirs. The men of Ormenus, and from beside900 The fountain Hypereia, from the tops Of chalky Titan, and Asteria’s band; Them ruled Eurypylus, Evæmon’s son Illustrious, whom twice twenty ships obeyed. Orthe, Gyrtone, Oloösson white,905