Your great forefathers' glories, and your own.
Heard ye the voice of Jove? Success and fame
Await on Troy, on Greece eternal shame.
In vain they skulk behind their boasted wall,
Weak bulwarks, destined by this arm to fall.
High o'er their slighted trench our steeds shall bound,
And pass victorious o'er the levelled mound.
Soon as before yon hollow ships we stand,
Fight each with flames, and toss the blazing brand;
Till, their proud navy wrapt in smoke and fires,
All Greece, encompassed, in one blaze expires."
Furious he said: then, bending o'er the yoke,
Encouraged his proud steeds, while thus he spoke:
"Now Xanthus, Æthon, Lampus, urge the chase,
And thou, Podargus! prove thy generous race:
Be fleet, be fearless, this important day,
And all your master's well-spent care repay.
For this, high fed in plenteous stalls ye stand,
Served with pure wheat, and by a princess' hand;
For this, my spouse, of great Eëtion's line,
So oft has steeped the strengthening grain in wine.
Now swift pursue, now thunder uncontrolled;
Give me to seize rich Nestor's shield of gold;
From Tydeus' shoulders strip the costly load,
Vulcanian arms, the labour of a god:
These if we gain, then victory, ye powers!
This night, this glorious night, the fleet is ours."
That heard, deep anguish stung Saturnia's soul;
She shook her throne that shook the starry pole:
And thus to Neptune: "Thou, whose force can make
The steadfast earth from her foundations shake,
Seest thou the Greeks by fates unjust oppressed,
Nor swells thy heart in that immortal breast?
Yet Ægae, Helicé,[1] thy power obey,
And gifts unceasing on thine altars lay.
Would all the deities of Greece combine,
In vain the gloomy Thunderer might repine;
Sole should he sit, with scarce a god to friend,
And see his Trojans to the shades descend:
Such be the scene from his Idæan bower;
Ungrateful prospect to the sullen power!"
Neptune with wrath rejects the rash design:
What rage, what madness, furious queen! is thine?
I war not with the highest. All above
Submit and tremble at the hand of Jove.
Now godlike Hector, to whose matchless might
- ↑ Helicé and Ægæ were two cities in Achaia; in both of them were much-frequented temples of Neptune (Poseidon).
