1

urged on his steeds: and they by reason of his shouting were bearing hurriedly along the swift chariot, raising-a-dust through the plain; for the gleaming-eyed goddess Minerva had inspired them with spirit, by having brandished the ægis; and the earth was groaning around.

They then were advancing together, like unto fire2 or a storm, Cycnus, tamer-of-steeds, and Mars, insatiate in the battle-cry. Whose steeds indeed then on facing one another, neighed shrilly:3 and Echo rang brokenly around. The mighty Hercules addressed him (Cycnus) first.

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"O soft-hearted Cycnus, why now direct ye your swift steeds against us two, men who are experienced in toil and trouble: nay, drive your well-polished chariot outside, and yield to go outside of the path. Now look you I pass to Trachis, to the court of King Ceyx;5 for in power and reverence he hath pre-eminence at Trachis-and you yourself also know it right well, for you are spouse of his dark-eyed daughter Themistonoe. O craven, not assuredly will Mars ward off from you the end of death, that is, if we two shall meet in fight. Already, methinks, even elsewhere, he has made some trial of my lance, when in behalf of sandy Pylos he stood opposed to me, madly desirous for the fight. Thrice indeed stricken by my spear, he supported himself on the earth, his shield having been pierced, the fourth time, pressing with all my might, I smote his thigh, and broke-through his huge

1 koviovtes medíolo. This phrase is used, in Od. viii. 122, of men running, but in Il. xiii. 820, xxiii. 372, of horses, as always in the Iliad.

2 Somewhat similar is Virgil's Emicat et ventis et fulminis ocior igne. Æn. v. 319..

3 ὀξεῖα χρέμισαν. Guietus reads ὀξέα τ ̓ ἐχρέμισαν, to avoid the difficulty of a neuter adj. in the acc. plural ending in ea from vç. Goettling quotes Arat. Dios. 336, Oýλɛla μñλa, and suggests that ožɛï', in Ìl. xi. 272, is not feminine but neuter for ỏeĩa, and used adverbially.

4 εἶκε παρὲξ ἰέναι. Goettling compares Hom. Od. ii. 5, βῆ δ ̓ ἔμεν. See more examples in Matt. Gr. Gr. § 532, c.

Ceyx, king of Trachys. Vid. Smith's Dict. Gr. and R. Biog. i. 676.

• ovтauέvov. The aor. mid. used for the aor. pass. So кráμevos in ver. 402. See more in Matt. Gr. Gr. § 496, 8. In the next line the reading, σapкòg, which some MSS. have, is defended by Her

mann.

shield. Then truly had he become dishonoured among immortals, if he had left under my hands his gory trophies."

2

Thus spake he. Nor, I ween, was Cycnus, skilled in the spear, minded to restrain his chariot-drawing steeds, in obedience to the other. Then truly quickly leapt from their wellcompacted chariots to the earth both the son of mighty Jove and the son of King Mars. But the charioteers drove near their steeds with-flowing-manes: and beneath them, as they rushed on, the broad earth was resounding with feet. Even as when rocks from the lofty top of a high mountain leapwith-a-bound, and fall one upon another: and many oaks of lofty foliage, many pines, and poplars with wide-stretchingroots, are crashed3 by them, as they roll down quickly, till they have reached the plain; thus fell they one upon another, loudly shouting. Then all the city of the Myrmidons, and renowned Iolchus, and Arne, and Helice, and grassy Anthea, echoed loudly with the voice of both. They met together with a wondrous battle-cry; and loudly thundered Jove the counsellor, and down from heaven, I ween, he hurled drops of blood,5 making that a signal of war to his greatly-daring

son.

There is no need to suppose any apodosis to have slipt out here, since mov, as Goettling shows from Matt. Gr. Gr. § 508, c., is equivalent to ἔι ἔλιπε.

2 μπλny, from iμπeλάw, used in Hom. Il. ii. 526, with a genitive. 3 Are crashed.] ρήγνυνται seems to be for ρηγνύωνται, as the other verbs are in the subjunctive.

Goettling quotes Müller, Ægin., to show that Hellas Phthiotis is meant by the city of the Myrmidons." Hellas and Phthiotis seem to have been equally names for that part of Thessaly where the Myrmidons dwelt. The Schol. says Pharsalus was meant. It can hardly be that Arne in Boeotia, and Helice and Anthia in the Peloponnese, are meant by the names which follow, especially if, as Goettling suggests, we compare ver. 473, which indicates that the towns named were near the city of Ceyx, Trachys. Perhaps they mark cities round the scene of the combat, as Strabo may be inferred to suppose, from his quoting this passage in regard to an Helice in Thessaly, mentioned by Strabo, lib. viii. c. 7, p. 221, (Tauchn.) Otherwise it is a marvel which Hesiod must have wished his hearers to believe, if they could.

5 Compare Il. xvi. 458. Such portents were not uncommon in the annals of Rome. Cic. De Divin. ii. 27, Sanguinem pluisse senatui nunciatum est. Livy, iv. 19, In areâ Vulcani sanguinem pluit.

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Like as in the glades of a mountain a boar with-juttingtusks and fierce to look upon, in his spirit ponders upon fighting with hunting men, ay and twisting himself side-ways whets his white tusk, but foam drops about his jaws as he gnashes! his teeth, and his eyes are like shining fire;2 and he bristles with mane erect on his crest and about his neck; like such a beast the son of Jove leapt from his horse-chariot. But when the dusky-winged songster cicala,3 perching on a verdant bough, begins to sing of summer for man, the cicala whose meat and drink is the life-giving dew, and both all-day-long, and in-themorning pours he forth his voice in the fiercest heat,5 when Sirius parches the skin, [then truly the beards spring around the millet, which men sow in summer, when unripe grapes begin to colour, gifts which Bacchus has given to men as matter of joy and grief,] at that season they began to fight, and a great tumult uprose. [And as two lions, for a slain buck, in wrath have rushed one on the other, and fierce roaring and gnashing of teeth at the same time arises between them:] but they, like vultures with curved-talons and hooked-beaks, screaming loudly, fight on a lofty rock for a mountain-roving goat, or a wild stag, a fat one, which a youth has stricken and slain with a shaft from his bow-string, but himself has wandered else

1 μαστιχόωντι, from μαστάξ, or μαστίχη, (which is from μαστὰξ, the mouth). Ovid describes the boar, Fast. ii. 231, 232.

Sicut aper longè silvis Laurentibus actus
Fulmineo celeres dissipat ore canes.

* Compare Hom. Od. xix. 446, ὁ δ ̓ ἄντιος ἐκ ξυλόχοιο φρίξας εὖ λοφιὴν, πῦρ δ ̓ ὀφθαλμοῖσι δεδορκώς. Cf. also Virg. Æn. vi. 300, Stant lumina flamma; xii. 102, Oculis micat acribus ignis.

3 τέττιξ. Cf. Op. et D. 580; Virg. Ecl. v. 77, Dum thymo pascentur apes, dum rore cicada. Il. iii. 151, where good orators are called τεττίγεσσιν ἐοικότες, &c. For the Holic ἠχέτα, see Matt. Gr. Gr. § 68, 8, and the translation of Theocritus, (Bohn's series,) 47, note 9. In the next line, Goettling compares Anacreon's Ode to the Cicala, θέρεος γλυκὺς προφήτης.—δενδρέων επ ̓ ἄκρων ὀλίγην δρόσον πεπωκὼς Βασιλεὺς ὅπως ἀείδεις

4 Oñλvs ¿épon, for Onλeia. See Hom. Od. v. 467; Theocr. xx. 4, (notes to translation,) àdéa xaírav; and Matt. Gr. Gr. § 119, b. 4. 5 dog is akin to the Sanscrit svid," according to L. and S. Lexicon. Zɛípios älε. Compare Op. et D. 587. Tyμos dǹ: Hermann regards 398-400 as a further description of the season the poet would indicate in 393-397, inserted by a later poet. So he considers 402-404 to be the work of a later hand, trying to add to the simile 405-411 another of like import.

where, being ignorant of the spot; whilst they quickly spy it, and hastily engage in a sharp fight about it; so these heroes rushed, shouting, one on another.

Hereupon of a truth Cycnus, eager to slay the son of almighty Jove, drove his brazen lance against his buckler, but broke not through the metal; for the gifts of a god protected' him. But Amphitryon's son, strong Hercules, struck violently with his long spear the neck exposed quickly underneath the chin between the helm and shield: and the murderous ashen-beam cleft away the two nerves; 2 for the vast strength of the hero had fallen on him. Then fell he, as when some oak has fallen,3 or some impassable rock, stricken with the smoking lightning of Jove. So he fell, and around him his curiously-wrought brazen armour rattled. Him then Jove's enduring-hearted son let alone, and he himself watching the approach of Mars, a pest-to-mortals, and looking fiercely with his eyes, like a lion, having chanced on a beast, which very eagerly tears the skin with strong claws, and with all speed deprives it of sweet life, while with fury, I wot, his dark heart is filled and glaring fearfully with his eyes, and lashing sides and shoulders with his tail, he tears the earth with

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1 puro, the syncop. form of aorist from púoμa. The penult is long in Il. xxiii. 19, though short in Theog. 301. Cf. Butm. Lex. p. 306, 307, and Liddell and Scott's Lex. in voc.

2

ἄμφω-τένοντε. Compare Hom. Il. iv. 521 ; ν. 307, θλάσσε δὲ οἱ κοτύλην, πρὸς δ ̓ ἄμφω ῥῆξε τένοντε.

Horace, in his Odes, H. x. 9, Sæpius ventis agitatur ingens Pinus -feriuntque summos culmina montes; III. iii. 6, Nec fulminantis magna Jovis manus; xvi. 11, Et perrumpere amat saxa potentius Ictu fulmineo.

owμar. Either the living body, or carcase of a beast. Cf. Hom. Il. iii. 23, and xviii. 161, 162. The Scholiast, on the first of these passages, explains σῶμα = μέγα ζώον, "for 'tis said lions will not touch a dead body." Robinson. Two lines below, Ovμòv is, as Grævius observes, i. q. Yuxýv.

δε

5 yλavkιówv. II. xx. 172. From these two passages the signification of yλavкwπiç, in reference_to Pallas, is clearly made out to be "glancing-eyed." Goettling. Homer's words are, ovрy de πλεvρás τε καὶ ἰσχία ἀμφοτέρωθεν μαστίεται — γλαυκιόων δ' ἰθὺς φέρεται μένει. Heyne quotes, on that passage, Plin. N. H. viii. 18, Leonum animi index cauda, sicut et equorum aures :-in principio terra verberatur, incremento terga seu quodam incitamento verberantur. Compare also Virg. Æn. xii. 4-9; Lucan, i. 205-210, Mox ubi se sævæ stimulavit verbere caudæ.

his feet, nor does any one dare, having seen him face to face, approach or contend with him: such, I ween, stood the son of Amphitryon, insatiate in the battle-cry, in array against Mars, gathering courage in his soul, promptly: but he drew near him grieving in heart, then rushed both, one on the other, with shouting. Yea, as when from a tall jutting-rock a crag has tumbled, and rolls with far boundings, it comes then on impetuously, but a tall hill has stood-in-its-way;1 where, in truth, it dashes against it, there the hill detains it: with just as great a shouting the one, namely, chariot-pressing 2 destructive Mars, rushed on with an outcry, but the other quick received him. But Minerva, child of ægis-bearing Jove, stood in the way of Mars with the dark ægis, and scowling at him terribly, addressed to him winged words.

"Hold, Mars, thy strong spirit, and unconquered hands. For it is not lawful for thee to slay and strip Jove's boldhearted son, Hercules, of his famous armour. Nay come, cease from the battle, and oppose not me."

So spake she yet did she not prevail upon the high-hearted spirit of Mars: but with a great shout, brandishing weapons like unto flame, he quickly rushed on mighty Hercules, in eagerness to slay him :3 and, in truth, from wrath on account of his dead son, hurled his brazen spear violently against the broad shield. Then glancing-eyed Minerva, stretching herself from the chariot, turned off the force of his spear. Keen grief seized Mars: and having drawn his sharp hanger, he sprang upon stout-hearted Hercules, but the son of Amphitryon, insatiate in terrible war, violently wounded him in his onslaught, when he had exposed his thigh under the curiously wrought shield, and smote strongly through his flesh, having made a thrust with his spear: so he prostrated him to the

1 I have translated according to Goettling's explanation of this passage, who considers r to be equivalent to y, x, and translates "ubi (7) cum monte illo colliditur rupes, ibi eam mons sistit."

2 Boiάoμaros. Goettling observes that Heinrich properly explains this of the weight of divine bodies, quoting Hom. Il. v. 838, 839, μέγα δ' ἔβραχε φήγινος ἄξων βριθοσύνη, where Heyne observes, "Gravat currum, ex opinione vulgari, de deorum specie." Compare with this act of Pallas, Il. v. 835-863; Virg. Æn. xii. 468-480, of luturna.

3 κακτάμεναι. i. q. κατακτάμεναι. Guyetus.