THE

FIRST BOOK OF HOMER'S ILIAS.

THE ARGUMENT.

Chryses, priest of Apollo, brings presents to the Grecian princes, to ransom his daughter, Chryseis, who was prisoner in the fleet. Agamemnon, the general, whose captive and mistress the young lady was, refuses to deliver her, threatens the venerable old man, and dismisses him with contumely.-The priest craves vengeance of his god, who sends a plague among the Greeks, which occasions Achilles, their great champion, to summon a council of the chief officers: he encourages Calchas, the high priest and prophet, to tell the reason why the gods were so much incensed against them.Calchas is fearful of provoking Agamemnon, till Achilles engages to protect him: then, emboldened by the hero, he accuses the general as the cause of all, by detaining the fair captive, and refusing the presents offered for her ransom. By this proceeding, Agamemnon is obliged, against his will, to restore Chryseis, with gifts, that he might appease the wrath of Phoebus; but, at the same time, to revenge himself on Achilles, sends to seize his slave, Briseis. Achilles, thus affronted, complains to his mother, Thetis; and begs her to revenge his injury, not only on the general, but on all the army, by giving victory to the Trojans, till the ungrateful king became sensible of his injustice. At the same time he retires from the camp into his ships, and withdraws his aid from his countrymen. Thetis prefers her son's petition to Jupiter, who grants her suit. Juno suspects her errand, and quarrels with her husband, for his grant; till Vulcan reconciles his parents with a bowl of nectar, and sends them peaceably to bed.

THE wrath of Peleus' son, O Muse, resound;
Whose dire effects the Grecian army found,
And many a hero, king, and hardy knight,
Were sent, in early youth, to shades of night:
Their limbs a prey to dogs and vultures made:
So was the sovereign will of Jove obey'd;
From that ill-omen'd hour when strife begun,
Betwixt Atrides great, and Thetis' god-like son.

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What Power provoked, and for what cause, relate, Sow'd in their breasts the seeds of stern debate: 10 Jove's and Latona's son his wrath express'd, In vengeance of his violated priest,

Pope made a ridiculous blunder, misled by an old Latin translation of Diodorus Siculus, where Homer was called Medicus by an error of the press for Mendicus; whence Pope affirmed that Homer was a physician.

This is not the place to enter into a long dissertation on the admirable disposition and economy of the Iliad. We may however just observe one or two circumstances. It is an essential beauty in a well-constituted epic poem, that there should be an apparent necessity for every incident that arises. It was absolutely necessary that each of the Grecian chiefs should be brought forward, in order to heighten the effects of the absence and anger of Achilles. It was absolutely necessary for Vulcan to make a shield for Achilles, because the Trojans had seized and carried away bis armour. It was absolutely necessary that funeral games should be performed on the death of Patroclus; but not so Eneas should stop in Sicily, to which island to be driven by contrary winds, and there ersary of his father's death. Neither te a necessity for the beautiful expeEuryalus, as for that of Dolon and

neco

be ha

ARTON.

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Against the king of men; who, swoll'n with pride,
Refused his presents, and his prayers denied.
For this the god a swift contagion spread
Amid the camp, where heaps on heaps lay dead.
For venerable Chryses came to buy,
With gold and gifts of price, his daughter's liberty.
Suppliant before the Grecian chiefs he stood;
Awful, and arm'd with ensigns of his god:
Bare was his hoary head; one holy hand
Held forth his laurel crown, and one his sceptre
of command.

His suit was common; but above the rest,
To both the brother-princes thus address'd:

Ye sons of Atreus, and ye Grecian powers,
So may the gods who dwell in heavenly bowers
Succeed your siege, accord the vows you make,
And give you Troy's imperial town to take;
So, by their happy conduct, may you come
With conquest back to your sweet native home;
As you receive the ransom which I bring,
(Respecting Jove, and the far-shooting King,)
And break my daughter's bonds, at my desire;
And glad with her return her grieving sire.

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With shouts of loud acclaim the Greeks decree1
To take the gifts, to set the damsel free.
The king of men alone with fury burn'd;
And, haughty, these opprobrious words return'd:
Hence, holy dotard, and avoid my sight,
Ere evil intercept thy tardy flight:
Nor dare to tread this interdicted strand,
Lest not that idle sceptre in thy hand,

Nor thy god's crown, my vow'd revenge withstand
Hence on thy life: the captive maid is mine;
Whom not for price or prayers I will resign:
Mine she shall be, till creeping age and time
Her bloom have wither'd, and consumed her prime.
Till then my royal bed she shall attend;
And, having first adorn'd it, late ascend:
This, for the night; by day, the web and loom,
And homely household-task, shall be her doom,
Far from thy loved embrace, and her sweet native
home.

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He said the helpless priest replied no more, But sped his steps along the hoarse-resounding shore :

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Silent he fled; secure at length he stood,
Devoutly cursed his foes, and thus invoked his god:
O source of sacred light, attend my prayer,
God with the silver bow, and golden hair;
Whom Chrysa, Cilla, Tenedos obeys,
And whose broad eye their happy soil surveys;
If, Smintheus, I have pour'd before thy shrine
The blood of oxen, goats, and ruddy wine,
And larded thighs on loaded altars laid,
Hear, and my just revenge propitious aid !
Pierce the proud Greeks, and with thy shafts
attest

How much thy power is injured in thy priest.

He pray'd, and Phoebus, hearing, urged his flight, With fury kindled, from Olympus' height;

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The essay of rage; on faithful dogs the next;
And last, in human hearts his arrows fix'd.
The god nine days the Greeks at rovers kill'd,
Nine days the camp with funeral fires was fill'd;
The tenth, Achilles, by the Queen's command,
Who bears heaven's awful sceptre in her hand, 80
A council summon'd: for the goddess grieved
Her favour'd host should perish unrelieved.

The kings, assembled, soon their chief enclose;
Then from his seat the goddess-born arose,
And thus undaunted spoke: What now remains, 85
But that once more we tempt the watery plains,
And, wandering homeward, seek our safety hence,
In flight at least, if we can find defence?
Such woes at once encompass us about,
The plague within the camp, the sword without.90
Consult, O king, the prophets of the event:
And whence these ills, and what the god's intent,
Let them by dreams explore; for dreams from
Jove are sent.

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For this the avenging Power employs his darts,
And empties all his quiver in our hearts;
Thus will persist, relentless in his ire,
Till the fair slave be render'd to her sire;
And ransom-free restored to his abode,
With sacrifice to reconcile the god:
Then he, perhaps, atoned by prayer, may cease
His vengeance justly vow'd, and give the peace.
Thus having said, he sate: thus answer'd then,
Upstarting from his throne, the king of men,
His breast with fury fill'd, his eyes with fire;
Which, rolling round, he shot in sparkles on the
sire:

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Augur of ill, whose tongue was never found
Without a priestly curse, or boding sound;
For not one bless'd event foretold to me
Pass'd through that mouth, or pass'd unwillingly
And now thou dost with lies the throne invade,
By practice harden'd in thy slandering trade.
Obtending heaven, for whate'er ills befal;
And sputtering under specious names thy gall.
Now Phoebus is provoked, his rites and laws
Are in his priest profaned, and I the cause:
Since I detain a slave, my sovereign prize;
And sacred gold, your idol-god, despise.
I love her well: and well her merits claim
To stand preferr'd before my Grecian dame:
Not Clytemnestra's self in beauty's bloom
More charm'd, or better plied the various loom :
Mine is the maid; and brought in happy hour, 171
With every household-grace adorn'd, to bless my
nuptial bower.

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Yet shall she be restored; since public good
For private interest ought not to be withstood,
To save the effusion of my people's blood.
But right requires, if I resign my own,
I should not suffer for your sakes alone;
Alone excluded from the prize I gain'd,
And by your common suffrage have obtain'd.
The slave without a ransom shall be sent:
It rests for you to make the equivalent.
To this the fierce Thessalian prince replied:
O first in power, but passing all in pride,
Griping, and still tenacious of thy hold,
Would'st thou the Grecian chiefs, though largely

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Ver. 71. Black as a stormy] No epithet is added to night in the original, which is more emphatical; and so thought Milton. Dr. J. WARTON.

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But this we can: if Saturn's son bestows
The sack of Troy, which he by promise owes;
Then shall the conquering Greeks thy loss restore,
And with large interest make the advantage more.
To this Atrides answer'd: Though thy boast 196
Assumes the foremost name of all our host,
Pretend not, mighty man, that what is mine,
Controll'd by thee, I tamely should resign.
Shall I release the prize I gain'd by right,
In taken towns, and many a bloody fight,
While thou detain'st Briseis in thy bands,
By priestly glossing on the god's commands?
Resolve on this, (a short alternative)
Quit mine, or, in exchange, another give;
Else I, assure thy soul, by sovereign right
Will seize thy captive in thy own despite;
Or from stout Ajax, or Ulysses, bear
What other prize my fancy shall prefer.
Then softly murmur, or aloud complain,
Rage as you please, you shall resist in vain.
But more of this, in proper time and place;
To things of greater moment let us pass.
A ship to sail the sacred seas prepare;
Proud in her trim; and put on board the fair, 215
With sacrifice and gifts, and all the pomp of prayer.
The crew well chosen, the command shall be
In Ajax; or if other I decree,

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In Creta's king, or Ithacus, or, if I please, in thee:
Most fit thyself to see perform'd the intent
For which my prisoner from my sight is sent;
(Thanks to thy pious care) that Phoebus may relent.
At this, Achilles roll'd his furious eyes,
Fix'd on the king askant; and thus replies:
O impudent, regardful of thy own,
Whose thoughts are centred on thyself alone,
Advanced to sovereign sway for better ends
Than thus like abject slaves to treat thy friends.
What Greek is he, that, urged by thy command,
Against the Trojan troops will lift his hand?
Not I: nor such enforced respect I owe:
Nor Pergamus I hate, nor Priam is my foe.
What wrong, from Troy remote, could I sustain,
To leave my fruitful soil, and happy reign,
And plough the surges of the stormy main?
Thee, frontless man, we follow'd from afar;
Thy instruments of death, and tools of war.
Thine is the triumph; ours the toil alone:
We bear thee on our backs, and mount thee on
the throne.

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For thee we fall in fight; for thee redress
Thy baffled brother; not the wrongs of Greece.
And now thou threaten'st, with unjust decree,
To punish thy affronting heaven, on me;
To seize the prize which I so dearly bought,
By common suffrage given, confirm'd by lot.
Mean match to thine: for still above the rest,
Thy hook'd rapacious hands usurp the best;
Though mine are first in fight, to force the prey,
And last sustain the labours of the day.
Nor grudge I thee the much the Grecians give; 25
Nor murmuring take the little I receive.
Yet ev'n this little, thou, who would'st engross
The whole, insatiate, enviest as thy loss.
Know, then, for Phthia fix'd is my return:
Better at home my ill-paid pains to mourn,
Than from an equal here sustain the public scorn.
The king, whose brows with shining gold were
bound,

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Who saw his throne with sceptred slaves encompass'd round,

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Thus answer'd stern: Go, at thy pleasure, go:
We need not such a friend, nor fear we such a foe.
There will not want to follow me in fight:
Jove will assist, and Jove assert my right.
But thou of all the kings (his care below)
Art least at my command, and most my foe.
Debates, dissensions, uproars are thy joy;
Provoked without offence, and practised to destroy.
Strength is of brutes, and not thy boast alone;
At least 'tis lent from heaven; and not thy own.
Fly then, ill-manner'd, to thy native land,
And there thy ant-born Myrmidons command. 20
But mark this menace; since I must resign
My black-eyed maid, to please the Powers divine;
(A well-rigg'd vessel in the port attends,
Mann'd at my charge, commanded by my friends,)
The ship shall waft her to her wish'd abode,
Full fraught with holy bribes to the far-shooting

god.

275

This thus dispatch'd, I owe myself the care
My fame and injured honour to repair:
From thy own tent, proud man, in thy despite,
This hand shall ravish thy pretended right.
Briseis shall be mine, and thou shalt see
What odds of awful power I have on thee:
That others at thy cost may learn the difference
of degree.

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At this the impatient hero sourly smiled: His heart impetuous in his bosom boil'd, And justled by two tides of equal sway, Stood, for a while, suspended in his way. Betwixt his reason and his rage untamed: One whisper'd soft, and one aloud reclaim'd: That only counsell'd to the safer side; This to the sword his ready hand applied. Unpunish'd to support the affront was hard: Nor easy was the attempt to force the guard. But soon the thirst of vengeance fired his blood: Half shone his falchion, and half sheathed it stood. In that nice moment, Pallas, from above, Commission'd by the imperial wife of Jove, Descended swift: (the white-arm'd Queen was loth The fight should follow; for she favour'd both :) Just as in act he stood, in clouds enshrined, Her hand she fasten'd on his hair behind; Then backward by his yellow curls she drew; To him, and him alone confess'd in view. Tamed by superior force, he turn'd his eyes Aghast at first, and stupid with surprise: But by her sparkling eyes, and ardent look, The virgin-warrior known, he thus bespoke: Com'st thou, Celestial, to behold my wrongs! To view the vengeance which to crimes belongs Thus he. The blue-eyed goddess thus rejoin'd: I come to calm thy turbulence of mind, If reason will resume her sovereign sway, And, sent by Juno, her commands obey. Equal she loves you both, and I protect: Then give thy guardian gods their due respect;5 And cease contention; be thy words severe, Sharp as he merits: but the sword forbear. An hour unhoped already wings her way, When he his dire affront shall dearly pay: When the proud king shall sue, with treble gain, To quit thy loss, and conquer thy disdain. But thou, secure of my unfailing word, Compose thy swelling soul, and sheathe the sword. The youth thus answer'd mild: Auspicious Maid,

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Heaven's will be mine, and your commands obey'd

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The gods are just, and when, subduing sense, We serve their powers, provide the recompense. He said; with surly faith believed her word, And in the sheath, reluctant, plunged the sword. Her message done, she mounts the bless'd abodes. And mix'd among the senate of the gods.

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At her departure his disdain return'd: The fire she fann'd, with greater fury burn'd; Rumbling within, till thus it found a vent: Dastard, and drunkard, mean and insolent: Tongue-valiant hero, vaunter of thy might, In threats the foremost, but the lag in fight; When didst thou thrust amid the mingled prease, Content to bide the war aloof in peace? Arms are the trade of each plebeian soul; "Tis death to fight; but kingly to control. Lord-like at ease, with arbitrary power, To peel the chiefs, the people to devour: These, traitor, are thy talents; safer far Than to contend in fields, and toils of war. Nor could'st thou thus have dared the common hate,

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Then shalt thou mourn thy pride; and late confess
My wrong repented, when 'tis past redress.
He said: and with disdain, in open view,
Against the ground his golden sceptre threw ;
Then sate with boiling rage Atrides burn'd,
And foam betwixt his gnashing grinders churn'd.
But from his seat the Pylian prince arose,
With reasoning mild, their madness to compose:
Words, sweet as honey, from his mouth distill'd;
Two centuries already he fulfill'd,
And now began the third; unbroken yet:
Once famed for courage; still in council great.
What worse, he said, can Argos undergo,
What can more gratify the Phrygian foe,
Than these distemper'd heats, if both the lights 370
Of Greece their private interest disunites?
Believe a friend, with thrice your years increased,
And let these youthful passions be repress'd:
I flourish'd long before your birth; and then
Lived equal with a race of braver men
Than these dim eyes shall e'er behold again.
Ceneus and Dryas, and, excelling them,
Great Theseus, and the force of greater Polypheme.
With these I went, a brother of the war,
Their dangers to divide; their fame to share.
Nor idle stood with unassisting hands,
When salvage beasts, and men's more salvage bands,
Their virtuous toil subdued: yet those I sway'd,
With powerful speech: I spoke, and they obey'd.
If such as those my counsels could reclaim,
Think not, young warriors, your diminish'd name
Shall lose of lustre, by subjecting rage
To the cool dictates of experienced age.
Thou, king of men, stretch not thy sovereign sway
Beyond the bounds free subjects can obey:
But let Pelides in his prize rejoice,
Achieved in arms, allow'd by public voice.

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Nor thou, brave champion, with his power contend, Before whose throne ev'n kings their lower'd sceptres bend.

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The head of action he, and thou the hand; Matchless thy force, but mightier his command: Thou first, O king, release the rights of sway; Power, self-restrain'd, the people best obey. Sanctions of law from thee derive their source; Command thyself, whom no commands can force. The son of Thetis, rampire of our host,

Is worth our care to keep; nor shall my prayers be lost.

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Thus Nestor said, and ceased: Atrides broke
His silence next; but ponder'd ere he spoke :
Wise are thy words, and glad I would obey,
But this proud man affects imperial sway.
Controlling kings, and trampling on our state,
His will is law; and what he wills is fate.
The gods have given him strength: but whence
the style

Of lawless power assumed, or licence to revile?
Achilles cut him short; and thus replied:
My worth, allow'd in words, is in effect denied.
For who but a poltroon, possess'd with fear,
Such haughty insolence can tamely bear?
Command thy slaves: my freeborn soul disdains
A tyrant's curb; and restive breaks the reins. 416
Take this along; that no dispute shall rise
(Though mine the woman) for my ravish'd prize:
But, she excepted, as unworthy strife,
Dare not, I charge thee dare not, on thy life, 420
Touch aught of mine beside, by lot my due,
But stand aloof, and think profane to view:
This fauchion, else, not hitherto withstood,
These hostile fields shall fatten with thy blood.
He said; and rose the first: the council broke;
And all their grave consults dissolved in smoke.
The royal youth retired, on vengeance bent,
Patroclus follow'd silent to his tent.

Meantime, the king with gifts a vessel stores;
Supplies the banks with twenty chosen oars : 430
And next, to reconcile the shooter god,
Within her hollow sides the sacrifice he stow'd:
Chryseis last was set on board; whose hand
Ulysses took, intrusted with command:
They plough the liquid seas, and leave the lessen-
ing land.

Atrides then, his outward zeal to boast, Bade purify the sin-polluted host.

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With perfect hecatombs the god they graced;
Whose offer'd entrails in the main were cast.
Black bulls, and bearded goats on altars lie;
And clouds of savoury stench involve the sky.
These pomps the royal hypocrite design'd
For show; but harbour'd vengeance in his mind:
Till holy malice, longing for a vent,

At length discover'd his conceal'd intent.
Talthybius, and Eurybates the just,
Heralds of arms, and ministers of trust,

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He call'd, and thus bespoke: Haste hence your

Their sovereign seated on his chair they find;
His pensive cheek upon his hand reclined,
And anxious thoughts revolving in his mind.
With gloomy looks he saw them entering in
Without salute: nor durst they first begin,
Fearful of rash offence and death foreseen.
He soon, the cause divining, clear'd his brow;
And thus did liberty of speech allow:

Interpreters of gods and men, be bold:
Awful your character, and uncontroll'd:
Howe'er unpleasing be the news you bring,
I blame not you, but your imperious king.
You come, I know, my captive to demand;
Patroclus, give her to the heralds' hand.
But you authentic witnesses I bring,
Before the gods, and your ungrateful king,
Of this my manifest: that never more

This hand shall combat on the crooked shore:

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With shouts of loud acclaim the Greeks agree
To take the gifts, to set the prisoner free.
Not so the tyrant, who with scorn the priest
Received, and with opprobrious words dismiss'd.
The good old man, forlorn of human aid,
For vengeance to his heavenly patron pray'd:
The godhead gave a favourable ear,
And granted all to him he held so dear;
In an ill hour his piercing shafts he sped;
And heaps on heaps of slaughter'd Greeks hy
dead,

While round the camp he ranged: at length arose
A seer, who well divined; and durst disclose
The source of all our ills: I took the word;
And urged the sacred slave to be restored,
The god appeased: the swelling monarch storm'd:
And then the vengeance vow'd, he since per
form'd.

The Greeks, 'tis true, their ruin to prevent,
Have to the royal priest his daughter sent;
But from their haughty king his heralds came,
And seized, by his command, my captive dame,
By common suffrage given; but, thou, be won,
If in thy power, to avenge thy injured son:
Ascend the skies; and supplicating move
Thy just complaint to cloud-compelling Jove.
If thou by either word or deed hast wrought
A kind remembrance in his grateful thought,
Urge him by that: for often hast thou said
Thy power was once not useless in his aid,
When he, who high above the highest reigns,
Surprised by traitor gods, was bound in chains,
When Juno, Pallas, with ambition fired,
And his blue brother of the seas conspired,
Thou freed'st the sovereign from unworthy bands,
Thou brought'st Briareus with his hundred hands,
(So call'd in heaven, but mortai men below
By his terrestrial name Ægæon know:
Twice stronger than his sire, who sate above
Assessor to the throne of thundering Jove.)
The gods, dismay'd at his approach, withdrew,
Nor durst their unaccomplish'd crime pursue.
That action to his grateful mind recall:
Embrace his knees, and at his footstool fall:
That now, if ever, he will aid our foes;

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Let Troy's triumphant troops the camp inclose:
Ours, beaten to the shore, the siege forsake;
And what their king deserves, with him partake;
That the proud tyrant, at his proper cost,
May learn the value of the man he lost.

To whom the Mother-goddess thus replied, Sigh'd ere she spoke, and while she spoke she cried:

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Ah wretched me! by fates averse decreed
To bring thee forth with pain, with care to breed!
Did envious heaven not otherwise ordain,
Safe in thy hollow ships thou should'st remain ;
Nor ever tempt the fatal field again.

With proffer'd gifts of price, his daughter's liberty. Suppliant before the Grecian chiefs he stood,

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Awful, and arm'd with ensigns of his god:

Bare was his hoary head; one holy hand

But now thy planet sheds his poisonous rays,
And short and full of sorrow are thy days.
For what remains, to heaven I will ascend,
And at the Thunderer's throne thy suit commend.

Indulge thy grief in tears, and vent thy spite.
For yesterday the court of heaven with Jove
Removed: 'tis dead vacation now above.
Twelve days the gods their solemn revels keep.
And quaff with blameless Ethiops in the deep. st
Return'd from thence, to heaven my flight I take
Knock at the brazen gates, and Providence awake