With old Admetus’ tender son, Eumelus, whom he bred Of Alcest, Pelius’ fairest child of all his female seed. The soldiers that before the siege Methone’s vales did hold, Thaumacie, flow’ry Melibœ, and Olison the cold, Duke Philoctetes governéd, in darts of finest sleight; Sev’n vessels in his charge convey’d their honourable freight, By fifty rowers in a bark, most expert in the bow; But he in sacred Lemnos lay, brought miserably low By torment of an ulcer grown with Hydra’s poison’d blood, Whose sting was such, Greece left him there in most impatient mood; Yet thought they on him at his ship and choos’d, to lead his men, Medon, Oïleus’ bastard son, brought forth to him by Rhen. From Tricce, bleak Ithomen’s clifts, and hapless Oechaly, (Eurytus’ city, rul’d by him in wilful tyranny,) In charge of Æsculapius’ sons, physician highly prais’d, Machaon, Podalirius, were thirty vessels rais’d. Who near Hyperia’s fountain dwelt, and in Ormenius, The snowy tops of Titanus, and in Asterius, Evemon’s son, Eurypylus, did lead into the field; Whose towns did forty black-sail’d ships to that encounter yield. Who Gyrton, and Argissa, held, Orthen, and Elon’s seat, And chalky Oloössone, were led by Polypœte, The issue of Pirithous, the son of Jupiter. Him the Athenian Theseus’ friend Hippodamy did bear, When he the bristled savages did give Ramnusia, And drove them out of Pelius, as far as Æthica. He came not single, but with him Leonteus, Coron’s son, An arm of Mars, and Coron’s life Cenëus’ seed begun. Twice-twenty ships attended these. Gunëus next did bring From Cyphus twenty sail and two; the Enians following; And fierce Peræbi, that about Dodon’s frozen mould Did plant their houses; and the men that did the meadows hold, Which Titaresius decks with flow’rs and his sweet current leads Into the bright Peneïus, that hath the silver heads, Yet with his admirable stream doth not his waves commix, But glides aloft on it like oil; for ’tis the flood of Styx, By which th’ immortal Gods do swear. Teuthredon’s honour’d birth, Prothous, led the Magnets forth, who near the shady earth Of Pelius, and Peneïon, dwelt; forty revengeful sail Did follow him. These were the dukes and princes of avail That came from Greece. But now the man, that overshin’d them all, Sing, Muse; and their most famous steeds to my recital call, That both th’ Atrides followéd. Fair Pheretiades The bravest mares did bring by much; Eumelius manag’d these, Swift of their feet as birds of wing, both of one hair did shine, Both of an age, both of a height, as measur’d by a line, Whom silver-bow’d Apollo bred in the Pierian mead, Both slick and dainty, yet were both in war of wondrous dread. Great Ajax Telamon for strength pass’d all the peers of war, While vex’d Achilles was away; but he surpass’d him far. The horse that bore that faultless man were likewise past compare; Yet lay he at the crook’d-stern’d ships, and fury was his fare,