With godlike Polynices. "T was the time
When warrior-bands were gathered to besiege
The sacred walls of Thebes, and earnestly
They prayed that from Mycena they might lead
Renowned auxiliars to the war, and we

Would willingly have given the aid they asked, -
For we approved the prayer,—but Jove, with signs
Of angry omen, changed our purposes.

The chiefs departed, journeying on to where

Asopus flows through reeds and grass, and thence
The Achaians sent an embassy to Thebes

By Tydeus. There he met the many sons

Of Cadmus at the banquets in the hall

Of valiant Eteocles. Though alone

Among so many, and a stranger-guest,

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The hero feared them not, but challenged them

To vie with him in games; and easily

He won the victory, such aid was given

By Pallas. Then the sons of Cadmus, skilled

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In horsemanship, were wroth, and privily

Sent fifty armèd youths to lie in wait

For his return. Two leaders had the band,

Maion, the son of Hæmon, like a god

In form, and Lycophontes, brave in war,

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Son of Autophonos. A bloody death

Did Tydeus give the youths. He slew them all
Save Maion, whom he suffered to return,
Obedient to an omen from the gods.
Such was Etolian Tydeus; but his son,
A better speaker, is less brave in war."

He spake; and valiant Diomed, who heard
The king's reproof with reverence, answered not.
Then spake the son of honored Capaneus:-

“Atrides, speak not falsely, when thou know'st
The truth so well. Assuredly we claim
To be far braver than our fathers were.
We took seven-gated Thebes with fewer troops
Than theirs, when, trusting in the omens sent
From heaven, and in the aid of Jupiter,

We led our men beneath the city walls

Sacred to Mars. Our fathers perished there

Through their own folly. Therefore never seek
To place them in the same degree with us.'

But the brave Diomed regarded him

With a stern look, and said: "Nay, Sthenelus!

Of Agamemnon I will not complain, —

The shepherd of the people; it is his

To exhort the well-armed Greeks to gallant deeds.

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Great glory will attend him if the Greeks
Shall overcome the Trojans, and shall take
The sacred Ilium; but his grief will be
Bitter if we shall fail and be destroyed.
Hence think we only of the furious charge!"

He spake, and from his chariot leaped to earth

All armed; the mail upon the monarch's breast
Rang terribly as he marched swiftly on.

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The boldest might have heard that sound with fear.
As when the ocean-billows, wave on wave,

Are pushed along to the resounding shore

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Before the western wind, and first the surge

Uplifts itself, and then against the land

Dashes and roars, and round the headland peaks
Tosses on high and spouts its foam afar,
So moved the serried phalanxes of Greece

To battle, file succeeding file, each chief
Giving command to his own troops; the rest

Marched noiselessly: you might have thought no voice
Was in the breasts of all that mighty throng,

So silently they all obeyed their chiefs,
Their showy armor glittering as they moved

In firm array. But, as the numerous flock

Of some rich man, while the white milk is drawn

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Within his sheepfold, hear the plaintive call
Of their own lambs, and bleat incessantly,-
Such clamors from the mighty Trojan host
Arose; nor was the war-cry one, nor one
The voice, but words of mingled languages,
For they were called from many different climes.
These Mars encouraged to the fight; but those
The blue-eyed Pallas. Terror too was there,
And Fright, and Strife that rages unappeased,
Sister and comrade of man-slaying Mars, -
Who rises small at first, but grows, and lifts
Her head to heaven and walks upon the earth.
She, striding through the crowd and heightening
The mutual rancor, flung into the midst
Contention, source of bale to all alike.

And now, when met the armies in the field,
The ox-hide shields encountered, and the spears,
And might of warriors mailed in brass; then clashed
The bossy bucklers, and the battle-din

Was loud; then rose the mingled shouts and groans
Of those who slew and those who fell; the earth
Ran with their blood. As when the winter streams
Rush down the mountain-sides, and fill, below,
With their swift waters, poured from gushing springs,

Some hollow vale, the shepherd on the heights

Hears the far roar,—such was the mingled din

That rose from the great armies when they met.

Then first Antilochus, advancing, struck

The Trojan champion Echepolus down,

Son of Thalysius, fighting in the van.

He fell

He smote him on the helmet's cone, where streamed
The horse-hair plume; the brazen javelin stood
Fixed in his forehead, piercing through the bone,
And darkness gathered o'er his eyes.
As falls a tower before some stubborn siege.
Then Elephenor, son of Chalcodon,
Prince of the brave Abrantes, by the foot

Seized the slain chieftain, dragging him beyond
The reach of darts, to strip him of his arms;
Yet dropped him soon, for brave Agenor saw,
And, as he stooped to drag the body, hurled
His brazen spear and pierced the uncovered side
Seen underneath the shield. At once his limbs
Relaxed their hold, and straight the spirit fled.

Then by the hand of Ajax Telamon
Fell Simoïsius, in the bloom of youth,
Anthemion's son. His mother once came down
From Ida, with her parents, to their flocks

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