Page:Homer - Iliad, translation Pope, 1909.djvu/445

The sight is granted to thy longing eyes.
But now the peaceful hours of sacred night
Demand refection, and to rest invite:
Nor thou, O father! thus consumed with woe,
The common cares that nourish life forgo.
Not thus did Niobe, of form divine,
A parent once, whose sorrows equalled thine:
Six youthful sons, as many blooming maids,
In one sad day beheld the Stygian shades;
Those by Apollo's silver bow were slain,
These, Cynthia's arrows stretched upon the plain.
So was her pride chastised by wrath divine,
Who matched -her own with bright Latona's line;
But two the goddess, twelve the queen enjoyed;
Those boasted twelve the avenging two destroyed.
Steeped in their blood, and in the dust outspread,
Nine days, neglected, lay exposed the dead;
None by to weep them, to inhume them none;
For Jove had turned the nation all to stone;
The gods themselves, at length, relenting, gave
The unhappy race the honours of a grave.
Herself a rock, for such was heaven's high will,
Through deserts wild now pours a weeping rill;
Where round the bed whence Acheloiis springs,
The watery fairies dance in mazy rings:
There high on Sipylus's shady brow
She stands, her own sad monument of woe;
The rock for ever lasts, the tears for ever flow.
Such griefs, O king! have other parents known:
Remember theirs, and mitigate thy own.
The care of heaven thy Hector has appeared;
Nor shall he lie unwept, and uninterred;
Soon may thy aged cheeks in tears be drowned,
And all the eyes of Ilion stream around."
⁠He said, and, rising, chose the victim ewe
With silver fleece, which his attendants slew.
The limbs they sever from the reeking hide,
With skill prepare them, and in parts divide:
Each on the coals the separate morsels lays,
And hasty snatches from the rising blaze.
With bread the glittering canisters they load,
Which round the board Automedon bestowed:
The chief himself to each his portion placed,
And each indulging shared in sweet repast.
When now the rage of hunger was repressed,
The wondering hero eyes his royal guest;
No less the royal guest the hero eyes,
His godlike aspect, and majestic size;

Here youthful grace and noble fire engage,