"I saw Petræus' arms employ'd around A well-grown oak, to root it from the ground: This way and that he wrench'd the fibrous bands; The trunk was like a sapling in his hands, And still obey'd the bent: while thus he stood, Pirithous' dart drove on, and nail'd him to the wood: Lycus and Chromis fell, by him oppress'd : Helops and Dictys added to the rest
A nobler palm: Helops through either ear,
Transfix'd, received the penetrating spear:
This Dictys saw, and, seized with sudden fright,
Leap'd headlong from the hill of steepy height,
And crush'd an ash beneath, that could not bear his
weight:
The shatter'd tree receives his fall, and strikes
Within his full-blown paunch the sharpen'd spikes.
Strong Aphareus had heaved a mighty stone,
The fragment of a rock, and would have thrown;
But Theseus, with a club of harden'd oak,
The cubit-bone of the bold centaur broke,
And left him maim'd; nor seconded the stroke.
Then leap'd on tall Bianor's back; (who bore
No mortal burden but his own before ;)
Press'd with his knees his sides: the double man,
His speed with spurs increased, unwilling ran.
One hand the hero fasten'd on his locks;
His other plied him with repeated strokes ;
The club rang round his ears and batter'd brows:
He falls, and, lashing up his heels, his rider throws.
"The same Herculean arms Nedymnus wound,
And lay by him Lycotas on the ground;
And Hippasus, whose beard his breast invades;
And Ripheus, hunter of the woodland shades;
And Tereus, used with mountain bears to strive,
And from their dens to draw the indignant beasts
alive.
"Demoleon could not bear this hateful sight, Or the long fortune of the Athenian knight,
But pull'd with all his force, to disengage
From earth a pine, the product of an age:
The root stuck fast: the broken trunk he sent
At Theseus: Theseus frustrates his intent,
And leaps aside; by Pallas warn'd the blow
To shun: (for so he said, and we believed it so.)
Yet not in vain the enormous weight was cast, 485
Which Crantor's body sunder'd at the waist;
Thy father's 'squire, Achilles, and his care,
Whom, conquer'd in the Pelopeian war,
Their king, his present ruin to prevent,
A pledge of peace implored, to Peleus sent.
Thy sire, with grieving eyes, beheld his fate, And cried, 'Not long, loved Crantor, shalt thou wait Thy vow'd revenge. At once he said, and threw His ashen spear, which quiver'd as it flew ; With all his force and all his soul applied, The sharp point enter'd in the centaur's side: Both hands to wrench it out the monster join'd, And wrench'd it out, but left the steel behind; Stuck in his lungs it stood: enraged he rears His hoofs, and down to ground thy father bears. 500 Thus trampled under foot, his shield defends His head; his other hand the lance portends: Ev'n while he lay extended on the dust, He sped the centaur with one single thrust:
Two more his lance before transfix'd from far; 505
And two his sword had slain in closer war.
To these was added Dorylas, who spread
A bull's two goring horns round his head :
With these he push'd in blood already died,
Him fearless I approach'd, and thus defied:
'Now, monster, now by proof it shall appear
Whether thy horns are sharper, or my spear.'
At this, I threw for want of other ward,
He lifted up his hand, his front to guard:
His hand it pass'd, and fix'd it to his brow:
Loud shouts of ours attend the lucky blow.
Him Peleus finish'd, with a second wound,
Which through the navel pierced he reel'd around,
And dragg'd his dangling bowels on the ground;
Trod what he dragg'd, and what he trod, he crush'd,
And to his mother earth with empty belly rush'd.
STORY OF CYLLARUS AND HYLONOME. '.. THE centaur Cyllarus is mortally wounded in the conflict with the Lapithæ ; and his mistress Hylonome expires in his arms.
"NOR could thy form, oh Cyllarus, foreslow 522 Thy fate (if form to monsters men allow :) Just bloom'd thy beard; thy beard of golden hue : Thy locks in golden waves about thy shoulders flew : Sprightly thy look! Thy shapes in every part 526 So clean, as might instruct the sculptor's art, As far as man extended: where began The beast, the beast was equal to the man : Add but a horse's head and neck, and he, Oh Castor, was a courser worthy thee: So was his back proportion'd for the seat;
So rose his brawny chest; so swiftly moved his feet:
Coal black his colour, but like jet it shone;
His legs and flowing tail were white alone:
Beloved by many maidens of his kind;
But fair Hylonome possess'd his mind;
Hylonome, for features, and for face,
Excelling all the nymphs of double race:
Nor less her blandishments than beauty move; 540
At once both living, and confessing love.
For him she dress'd; for him, with female care,
She comb'd, and set in curl her auburn hair:
Of roses, violets, and lilies mix'd,
And sprigs of flowing rosemary betwixt,
She form'd the chaplet that adorn'd her front:
In waters of the Pegasæan fount,
And in the streams that from the fountain play,
She wash'd her face, and bathed her twice a day.
The scarf of furs, that hung below her side,
Was ermine, or the panther's spotted pride :
Spoils of no common beast. With equal flame
They loved their sylvan pleasures were the same.
"Uncertain from what hand, a flying dart
At Cyllarus was sent, which pierced his heart. 555
The javelin drawn from out the mortal wound,
He faints with stagg'ring steps, and seeks the ground:
The fair within her arms received his fall,
And strove his wandering spirits to recall ;
And while her hand the streaming blood opposed, 560
Join'd face to face, his lips with hers she closed.
Stifled with kisses, a sweet death he dies:
She fills the fields with undistinguish'd cries;
At last her words were in her clamour drown'd;"
For my stunn'd ears received no vocal sound.
In madness of her grief, she seized the dart
New drawn, and reeking from her lover's heart;
To her bare bosom the sharp point applied,
And wounded fell; and falling by his side,
Embraced him in her arms; and thus embracing died.
"Ev'n still methinks I see Phæocomes;
Strange was his habit, and as odd his dress;
Six lions' hides, with thongs together fast,
His upper part defended to his waist:
And where man ended, the continued vest,
Spread on his back, the houss and trappings of a
A stump too heavy for a team to draw,
(It seems a fable, though the fact I saw,)
He threw at Pholon; the descending blow
Divides the scull, and cleaves his head in two.
The brains, from nose, and mouth, and either ear,
Came issuing out, as through a colander
The curdled milk, or from the press the whey,
Driven down by weights above, is drain'd away. 584
“But him, while stooping down to spoil the slain,
Pierced through the paunch, I tumbled on the plain.
Then Chthonius and Teleboas I slew:
A fork the former arin'd; a dart his fellow threw.
The javelin wounded me; (behold the scar:
Then was my time to seek the Trojan war;
Then I was Hector's match in open field;
But he was then unborn, at least a child:
Now I am nothing.) I forbear to tell
By Periphantas how Pyretus fell;
The centaur by the knight: nor will I stay
On Amphyx, or what deaths he dealt that day:
What honour, with a pointless lance, he won,
Stuck in the front of a four-footed man:
What fame young Macareus obtain'd in fight;
Or dwell on Nessus, now return'd from flight: 600
How Prophet Mopsus not alone divined,
Whose valour equall'd his foreseeing mind.
CENEUS TRANSFORMED TO AN EAGLE.
THE nymph Canis, whose name is changed to Cæneus, pursues the centaurs with great slaughter, who at length crush the hero with huge forests of trees-The gods, however, in compassion, change him into an eagle.
“ALREADY Cæneus, with his conquering hand, Had slaughter'd five, the boldest of their band, Pyrachmus, Helymus, Antimachus, Bromus the brave, and stronger Stiphelus. Their names I number'd, and remember well, No trace remaining, by what wounds they fell. "Latreus, the bulkiest of the double race, Whom the spoil'd arms of slain Halesus grace; 610 In years retaining still his youthful might, Though his black hairs were interspersed with white, Between the embattled ranks began to prance, Proud of his helm, and Macedonian lance, And rode the ring around, that either host
Might hear him, while he made this empty boast:
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