When he, that shepherd false, 'neath Phrygian sail ;
Carried his hostess Helen o'er the seas,
In fitful slumber Nereus hush'd the gales,
That he might sing their future destinies.
A curse to your ancestral home you take
With her, whom Greece, with many a soldier bold,
Shall seek again, in concert sworn to break
Your nuptial ties and Priam's kingdom old.
Alas ! what sweat from man and horse must flow,
What devastation to the Trojan realm
You carry, even now doth Pallas show
Her wrath-preparing buckler, car, and helm.
In vain, secure in Aphrodite's care,
You comb your locks, and on the girlish lyre
Select the strains most pleasant to the fair ;
In vain, on couch reclining, you desire
To shun the darts that threaten, and the thrust
Of Cretan lance, the battle's wild turmoil,
And Ajax swift to follow-in the dust
Condemned, though late, your wanton curls to soil.
Ah ! see you not where (fatal to your race)
Laertes' son comes with the Pylean sage ;
Fearless alike, with Teucer joins the chase
Stenelà¤us, skill'd the fistic strife to wage,
Nor less expert the fiery steeds to quell ;
And Meriones, you must know. Behold
A warrior, than his sire more fierce and fell,
To find you rages,-Diomed the bold,
Whom, like the stag that, far across the vale,
The wolf being seen, no herbage can allure,
So fly you, panting sorely, dastard pale !-
Not thus you boasted to your paramour.
Achilles' anger for a space defers
The day of wrath to Troy and Trojan dame ;
Inevitable glide the allotted years,
And Dardan roofs must waste in Argive flame.