The Iliad of Homer

Next these a buckler, spear, and helm, he brings;
Cast on the plain, the brazen burden rings:
Arms which of late divine Sarpedon wore,
And great Patroclus in short triumph bore.

"Stand forth the bravest of our host! (he cries)
Whoever dares deserve so rich a prize,
Now grace the lists before our army's sight,
And sheathed in steel, provoke his foe to fight.

Who first the jointed armour shall explore,
And stain his rival's mail with issuing gore,
The sword Asteropaeus possess'd of old,
(A Thracian blade, distinct with studs of gold,)

Shall pay the stroke, and grace the striker's side:
These arms in common let the chiefs divide:
For each brave champion, when the combat ends,
A sumptuous banquet at our tents attends."

Fierce at the word uprose great Tydeus' son,
And the huge bulk of Ajax Telamon.
Clad in refulgent steel, on either hand,
The dreadful chiefs amid the circle stand;

Louring they meet, tremendous to the sight;
Each Argive bosom beats with fierce delight.
Opposed in arms not long they idly stood,
But thrice they closed, and thrice the charge renew'd.

A furious pass the spear of Ajax made
Through the broad shield, but at the corslet stay'd.
Not thus the foe: his javelin aim'd above
The buckler's margin, at the neck he drove.

But Greece, now trembling for her hero's life,
Bade share the honours, and surcease the strife.
Yet still the victor's due Tydides gains,
With him the sword and studded belt remains.

Then hurl'd the hero, thundering on the ground,
A mass of iron (an enormous round),
Whose weight and size the circling Greeks admire,
Rude from the furnace, and but shaped by fire.

This mighty quoit Aetion wont to rear,
And from his whirling arm dismiss in air;
The giant by Achilles slain, he stow'd
Among his spoils this memorable load.

For this, he bids those nervous artists vie,
That teach the disk to sound along the sky.
"Let him, whose might can hurl this bowl, arise;
Who farthest hurls it, take it as his prize;

If he be one enrich'd with large domain
Of downs for flocks, and arable for grain,
Small stock of iron needs that man provide;
His hinds and swains whole years shall be supplied

From hence; nor ask the neighbouring city's aid
For ploughshares, wheels, and all the rural trade."
Stern Polypoetes stepp'd before the throng,
And great Leonteus, more than mortal strong;

Whose force with rival forces to oppose,
Uprose great Ajax; up Epeus rose.
Each stood in order: first Epeus threw;
High o'er the wondering crowds the whirling circle flew.

Leonteus next a little space surpass'd;
And third, the strength of godlike Ajax cast.
O'er both their marks it flew; till fiercely flung
From Polypoetes' arm the discus sung:

Far as a swain his whirling sheephook throws,
That distant falls among the grazing cows,
So past them all the rapid circle flies:
His friends, while loud applauses shake the skies,
With force conjoin'd heave off the weighty prize.

Those, who in skilful archery contend,
He next invites the twanging bow to bend;
And twice ten axes casts amidst the round,
Ten double–edged, and ten that singly wound

The mast, which late a first–rate galley bore,
The hero fixes in the sandy shore;
To the tall top a milk–white dove they tie,
The trembling mark at which their arrows fly.

"Whose weapon strikes yon fluttering bird, shall bear
These two–edged axes, terrible in war;
The single, he whose shaft divides the cord."
He said: experienced Merion took the word;

And skilful Teucer: in the helm they threw
Their lots inscribed, and forth the latter flew.
Swift from the string the sounding arrow flies;
But flies unbless'd! No grateful sacrifice,

No firstling lambs, unheedful! didst thou vow
To Phoebus, patron of the shaft and bow.
For this, thy well–aim'd arrow turn'd aside,
Err'd from the dove, yet cut the cord that tied:

Adown the mainmast fell the parted string,
And the free bird to heaven displays her wing:
Sea, shores, and skies, with loud applause resound,
And Merion eager meditates the wound:

He takes the bow, directs the shaft above,
And following with his eye the soaring dove,
Implores the god to speed it through the skies,
With vows of firstling lambs, and grateful sacrific

The dove, in airy circles as she wheels,
Amid the clouds the piercing arrow feels;
Quite through and through the point its passage found,
And at his feet fell bloody to the ground.

The wounded bird, ere yet she breathed her last,
With flagging wings alighted on the mast,
A moment hung, and spread her pinions there,
Then sudden dropp'd, and left her life in air.

From the pleased crowd new peals of thunder rise,
And to the ships brave Merion bears the prize.
To close the funeral games, Achilles last
A massy spear amid the circle placed,

And ample charger of unsullied frame,
With flowers high–wrought, not blacken'd yet by flame.
For these he bids the heroes prove their art,
Whose dexterous skill directs the flying dart.

Here too great Merion hopes the noble prize;
Nor here disdain'd the king of men to rise.
With joy Pelides saw the honour paid,
Rose to the monarch, and respectful said:

"Thee first in virtue, as in power supreme,
O king of nations! all thy Greeks proclaim;
In every martial game thy worth attest,
And know thee both their greatest and their best.

Take then the prize, but let brave Merion bear
This beamy javelin in thy brother's war."
Pleased from the hero's lips his praise to hear,
The king to Merion gives the brazen spear:

But, set apart for sacred use, commands
The glittering charger to Talthybius' hands.