Page:Homer - Iliad, translation Pope, 1909.djvu/317

BOOK XVII

THE ARGUMENT

THE SEVENTH BATTLE, FOR THE BODY OF PATROGLUS. THE ACTS OF MENELAUS

Menelaus, upon the death of Patroclus, defends his body from the enemy: Euphorbus, who attempts it, is slain. Hector advancing, Menelaus retires; but soon returns with Ajax, and drives him off. This Glaucus objects to Hector as a flight, who thereupon puts on the armour he had won from Patroclus, and renews the battle. The Greeks give way, till Ajax rallies them: Æneas sustains the Trojans. Æneas and Hector attempt the chariot of Achilles, which is borne off by Automedon. The horses of Achilles deplore the loss of Patroclus: Jupiter covers his body with a thick darkness: the noble prayer of Ajax on that occasion. Menelaus sends Antilochus to Achilles, with the news of Patroclus's death: then returns to the fight, where, though attacked with the utmost fury, he and Meriones, assisted by the Ajaxes, bear off the body to the ships.

The time is the evening of the eight-and-twentieth day. The scene lies in the fields before Troy.

⁠On the cold earth divine Patroclus spread,
Lies pierced with wounds among the vulgar dead.
Great Menelaus, touched with generous woe,
Springs to the front, and guards him from the foe:
Thus, round her new-fallen young the heifer moves,
Fruit of her throes, and first-born of her loves;
And anxious, helpless as he lies, and bare,
Turns and re-turns her, with a mother's care.
Opposed to each that near the carcass came,
His broad shield glimmers, and his lances flame.
⁠The son of Panthus, skilled the dart to send,
Eyes the dead hero, and insults the friend:
⁠"This hand, Atrides, laid Patroclus low;
Warrior, desist, nor tempt an equal blow.
To me the spoils my prowess won, resign;
Depart with life, and leave the glory mine."
⁠The Trojan thus: the Spartan monarch burned
With generous anguish, and in scorn returned:
⁠"Laugh'st thou not, Jove! from thy superior throne,
When mortals boast of prowess not their own?
Not thus the lion glories in his might,

Nor panther braves his spotted foe in fight,

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