Thence the black fury through the Grecian throng
With horror sounds the loud Orthian song:
The navy shakes, and at the dire alarms
Each bosom boils, each warrior starts to arms.
No more they sigh inglorious to return,
But breathe revenge, and for the combat burn.
The king of men his hardy host inspires
With loud command, with great example fires:
Himself first rose, himself before the rest
His mighty limbs in radiant armour dressed;
And first he cased his manly legs around
In shining greaves, with silver buckles bound:
The beaming cuirass next adorned his breast,
The same which once King Cinyras possessed:
The fame of Greece and her assembled host
Had reached that monarch on the Cyprian coast;
'Twas then, the friendship of the chief to gain,
This glorious gift he sent, nor sent in vain:
Ten rows of azure steel the work infold,
Twice ten of tin, and twelve of ductile gold;
Three glittering dragons to the gorget rise,
Whose imitated scales against the skies
Reflected various light, and arching bowed,
Like coloured rainbows o'er a showery cloud;
Jove's wondrous bow, of three celestial dyes,
Placed as a sign to man amid the skies.
A radiant baldrick, o'er his shoulder tied,
Sustained the sword that glittered at his side:
Gold was the hilt, a silver sheath encased
The shining blade, and golden hangers graced.
His buckler's mighty orb was next displayed,
That round the warrior cast a dreadful shade;
Ten zones of brass[1] its ample brim surround,
And twice ten bosses the bright convex crowned;
Tremendous Gorgon frowned upon its field,
And circling terrors fill the expressive shield:
Within its concave hung a silver thong,
On which a mimic serpent creeps along,
His azure length in easy waves extends,
Till in three heads the embroidered monster ends.
Last o'er his brows his fourfold helm he placed,
With nodding horse-hair formidably graced;
And in his hands two steely javelins wields,
- ↑ The description is somewhat complicated and not easy to realise. The passage, however, is important as being one of the descriptions of elaborate artistic work which may reasonably be supposed to connect the composition of the poems with the Mycenæan age. The shield of Achilles is, of course, the most conspicuous of these passages.
