Fair Leda's twins (in time to stars decreed)
One fought on foot, one curb'd the fiery steed:
Then issued forth fam'd Jason after these,
Who man'd the foremost ship that sail'd the seas:
Then Theseus join'd with bold Pirithous came;
A single concord in a double name;
The Thestian sons, Idas who swiftly ran,
And Ceneus, once a woman, now a man:
Lynceus, with eagle's eyes, and lion's heart;
Leucippus, with his never-erring dart :
Acastus, Phileus, Phoenix, Telamon,
Echion, Lelex, and Eurytion,
Achilles' father, and great Phocus' son;
Dryas the fierce, and Hippasus the strong:
With twice old Iolas, and Nestor then but young.
Laërtes active, and Ancæus bold;
Mopsus the sage, who future things foretold;
And t'other seer, yet by his wife' unsold.
A thousand others of immortal fame;
Among the rest fair Atalanta came,
Grace of the woods; a diamond buckle bound Her vest behind, that else had flow'd upon the ground,
And show'd her buskin'd legs; her head was bare,
But for her native ornament of hair;
Which in a simple knot was tied above,
Sweet negligence! unheeded bait of love!
Her sounding quiver, on her shoulder tied,
One hand a dart, and one a bow supplied,
Such was her face, as in a nymph display'd
A fair fierce boy, or in a boy betray'd
The blushing beauties of a modest maid.
The Caledonian chief at once the dame
Beheld, at once his heart receiv'd the flame,
With heavens averse. O happy youth,' he cried,
'For whom thy fates reserve so fair a bride!'
He sigh'd, and had no leisure more to say;
His honour call'd his eyes another way,
And forc'd him to pursue the now-neglected prey.
There stood a forest on a mountain's brow,
Which overlook'd the shaded plains below:
No sounding axe presun'd those trees to bite;
Coeval with the world, a venerable sight!
The heroes there arriv'd; some spread around
The toil, some search the footsteps on the ground;
Some from the chains the faithful dogs unbound.
Of action eager, and intent in thought,
The chiefs their honourable danger sought.
A valley stood below; the common drain
Of waters from above, and falling rain :
The bottom was a moist and marshy ground,
Whose edges were with bending osiers crown'd:
The knotty bulrush next in order stood,
And all within of reeds a trembling wood.
From hence the boar was rous'd, and sprung
amain,
Like lightning sudden, on the warrior-train, Beats down the trees before him, shakes the ground;
The forest echoes to the crackling sound;
Shout the fierce youth, and clamours ring around.
All stood with their protended spears prepar'd,
With broad steel heads the brandish'dweapons glar'd.
The beast, impetuous, with his tusks aside
Deals glancing wounds; the fearful dogs divide:
All spend their mouths aloof, but none abide.
Echion threw the first, but miss'd his mark,
And stuck his boar-spear on a maple's bark :
Then Jason; and his javelin seem'd to take,
But fail'd with over-force, and whiz'd above his back.
Mopsus was next; but, ere he threw, address'd
To Phoebus thus: O patron, help thy priest!
If I adore, and ever have ador'd
Thy power divine, thy present aid afford;
That I may reach the beast.'-The god allow'd
His prayer; and, smiling, gave him what he cou'd:
He reach'd the savage, but no blood he drew;
Dian unarm'd the javelin as it flew.
This chaf'd the boar, his nostrils' flames expire,
And his red eye-balls roll with living fire.
Whirl'd from a sling, or from an engine thrown,
Amid the foes, so flies a mighty stone,
As flew the beast. The left wing put to flight,
The chiefs o'er-borne, he rushes on the right,
Empalamos and Pelagon he laid
In dust, and next to death, but for their fellows' aid.
Onesimus far'd worst; prepar'd to fly,
The fatal fang drove deep within his thigh,
And cut the nerves: the nerves no more sustain The bulk; the bulk unprop'd, falls headlong on the plain.
Nestor had fail'd the fall of Troy to see,
But, leaning on his lance, he vaulted on a tree;
Then gathering up his feet, look'd down with fear,
And thought his monstrous foe was still too near.
Against a stump his tusk the monster grinds,
And in the sharpen'd edge new vigour finds;
Then, trusting to his arms, young Othrys found,
And ranch'd his hips with one continued wound.
Now Leda's twins, the future stars, appear; White were their habits, white their horses were; Conspicuous both, and both in act to throw Their trembling lances brandish'd at the foe: Nor had they miss'd; but he to thickets fled, Conceal'd from aiming spears, not pervious to the But Telamon rush'd in, and hap'd to meet [steed. A rising root, that held his fasten'd feet;
So down he fell, whom, sprawling on the ground, His brother from the wooden gyves unbound.
Meantime the virgin-huntress was not slow
To' expel the shaft from her contracted bow :
Beneath his ear the fasten'd arrow stood,
And from the wound appear'd the trickling blood.
She blush'd for joy: but Meleagros rais'd
His voice with loud applause, and the fair archer
He was the first to see, and first to show [prais'd.
His friends the mark of the successful blow.
Nor shall thy valour want the praises due,'
He said: a virtuous envy seiz'd the crew.
They shout; the shouting animates their hearts,
And all at once employ their thronging darts:
But out of order thrown, in air they join,
And multitude makes frustrate the design.
With both his hands the proud Ancæus takes,
And flourishes, his double-biting axe:
Then, forward to his fate, he took a stride
Before the rest, and to his fellows cried,
'Give place, and mark the difference, if you can,
Between a woman-warrior, and a man.
The boar is doom'd; nor though Diana lend
Her aid, Diana can her beast defend.'
Thus boasted he; then stretch'd, on tiptoe stood,
Secure to make his empty promise good,
But the more wary beast prevents the blow,
And upward rips the groin of his audacious foe.
Ancæus falls; his bowels from the wound
Rush out, and clotted blood distains the ground.
Pirithous, no small portion of the war,
Press'd on, and shook his lance: to whom from far
Thus Theseus cried: 'O stay, my better part,
My more than mistress; of my heart, the heart.
The strong may fight aloof; Ancæus tried
His force too near, and by presuming died :'
He said, and while he spake his javelin threw ;
Hissing in air the' unerring weapon flew ;
But on au arm of oak, that stood betwixt
The marksman and the mark, his lance he fix'd.
Once more bold Jason threw,but fail'd to wound
The boar, and slew an undeserving hound,
And through the dog the dart was nail'd to ground.
Two spears from Meleager's hand were sent,
With equal force, but various in the' event:
The first was fix'd in earth; the second stood
On the boar's bristled back, and deeply drank his
blood.
Now while the tortur'd savage turns around,
And flings about his foam, impatient of the wound,
The wound's great author close at hand provokes
His rage, and plies him with redoubled strokes ;
Wheels as he wheels; and with his pointed dart
Explores the nearest passage to his heart.
Quick, and more quick, he spins his giddy gyres,
Then falls, and in much foam his soul expires.
This act with shouts, heaven-high, the friendly band
Applaud; and strain in theirs the victor's hand.
Then all approach the slain with vast surprise,
Admire on what a breadth of earth he lies;
|