BOOK VII.

HE illustrious Hector spake, and rapidly

THE

Passed through the gate, and with him issued forth

His brother Alexander,

eager, both,

For war and combat. As when God bestows,

To glad the long-expecting mariners,

A favorable wind while wearily

They beat the ocean with their polished oars,

Their arms all nerveless with their length of toil,—
Such to the expecting Trojans was the sight

Of the two chiefs. First Alexander slew
Menesthius, who in Arnè had his home,

A son of Areïthous the king.

Large-eyed Philomedusa brought him forth

To the mace-bearer Areïthoüs.

And Hector smote Eïoneus, the spear

Piercing his neck beneath the brazen casque,

And straightway he dropped lifeless. Glaucus then

Son of Hippolochus, and chief

among

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The Lycians in that fiery onset slew
Iphinoüs, son of Dexius, with his spear.
It pierced the warrior's shoulder as he sprang
To mount his rapid car, and from the place
He fell to earth, his limbs relaxed in death.
Now when Minerva of the azure eyes
Beheld them in the furious combat thus
Wasting the Grecian host, she left the peaks
Of high Olympus, and came down in haste
To sacred Ilium. Straight Apollo flew
To meet her, for he marked from Pergamus

Her coming, and he greatly longed to give
The victory to the Trojans. As they met
Beside the beechen tree, the son of Jove,
The king Apollo, spake to Pallas thus:-

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"Why hast thou, daughter of imperial Jove,

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Thus left Olympus in thine eager haste?
Seek'st thou to turn in favor of the Greeks

War's wavering chances?- for I know too well
Thou hast no pity when the men of Troy

Are perishing. But, if thou wilt give car
To me, I shall propose a better way.

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Cause we the conflict for this day to cease,
And be it afterward renewed until

An end be made of Troy, since it hath pleased
You, goddesses, to lay the city waste."

And blue-eyed Pallas answered: “Be it so,
O mighty Archer. With a like intent
I left Olympus for this battle-field

Of Greeks and Trojans. But by what device
Think'st thou to bring the combat to a pause?”

Then spake the king Apollo, son of Jove,
In turn to Pallas: "Let us seek to rouse
The fiery spirit of the Trojan knight
Hector, that he may challenge in the field
Some Greek to meet him, singly and alone,

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In mortal combat. Then the well-armed Greeks,
Stung by the bold defiance, will send forth

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A champion against Priam's noble son."

He spake. The blue-eyed goddess gave assent;

And straightway Helenus, beloved son

Of Priam, in his secret mind perceived

The purpose of the gods consulting thus,

And came and stood by Hector's side and said:

"O Hector, son of Priam, and like Jove
In council, wilt thou hearken to my words
Who am thy brother? Cause the Trojans all
And all the Greeks to sit, while thou shalt stand

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Proclaiming challenge to the bravest man
Among the Achaians to contend with thee
In mortal combat. It is not thy fate
To fall and perish yet, for thus have said
The ever-living gods, whose voice I heard."

He spake; and Hector, hearing him, rejoiced,
And went between the hosts. He bore his spear,
Holding it in the middle, and pressed back
The ranks of Trojans, and they all sat down.
And Agamemnon caused the well-armed Greeks
To sit down also. Meantime Pallas sat,
With Phoebus of the silver bow, in shape

Like vultures, on the boughs of the tall beech,—
The tree of Father Jupiter who bears

The agis,and they looked with great delight
Upon the array of warriors in thick rows,
Horrid with shields and helms and bristling spears.
As when the west wind, rising fresh, breathes o'er

The deep, and darkens all its face with waves,
So seemed the Greeks and Trojans as they sat

In ranks upon the field, while Hector stood

Between the armies and bespake them thus:—
"Ye Trojans, and ye well-armed Greeks, give ear
To what my spirit bids me speak. The son

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Of Saturn, throned on high, hath not vouchsafed
To ratify the treaty we have made,

But meditates new miseries for us both,

Till ye possess the towery city of Troy,

Or, vanquished, yield yourselves beside the barks
That brought you o'er the sea.
The bravest sons of Greece.

With you are found

If one of these

him stand forth

Is moved to encounter me, let
And fight with noble Hector. I propose,
And call on Jove to witness, that if he
Shall slay me with the long blade of his spear,
My arms are his to spoil and to bestow
Among the hollow ships; but he must send
My body home, that there the sons of Troy
And Trojan dames
But if I take his life, and Phoebus crown

may

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burn it on the pyre.

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My combat with that glory, I will strip

His armor off and carry it away

To hallowed Ilium, there to hang it high
Within the temple of the archer-god

Apollo; but his body I will send

Back to the well-oared ships, that on the beach

The long-haired Greeks may hold his funeral rites,
And rear his tomb by the wide Hellespont.

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