At home, that thus you come oppressing me?
Or am I mocked, because Saturnian Jove
Has smitten me, and taken my best boy?
But ye shall feel, yourselves; for ye will be
Much easier for the Greeks to rage among
Now he is gone; but I, before I see

That time, and Troy laid waste and trampled on,
Shall have gone down into the darksome house."

So saying, with his stick he drove them off,
And they went out, the old man urged them so.
And he called out in anger to his sons,
To Helenus, and Paris, god-like Agathon,
And Pammon, and Antiphonus, and Polites,
Loud in the tumult, and Deiphobus,
Hippothous, and the admirable Dius;-
These nine he gave his orders to, in anger :-

"Be quicker, do, and help me, evil children,
Down-looking set! Would ye had all been killed,
Instead of Hector, at the ships. Oh me!
Curs'd creature that I am! I had brave sons,
Here in wide Troy, and now I cannot say
That one is left me,-Mestor, like a god,
And Troilus, my fine-hearted charioteer,
And Hector, who, for mortal, was a god,
For he seemed born, not of a mortal man,
But of a god; yet Mars has swept them all;
And none but these convicted knaves are left me,
Liars and dancers, excellent time-beaters,
Notorious pilferers of lambs and goats!
Why don't ye get the chariot ready, and set
The things upon it here, that we may go?"

He said; and the young men took his rebuke
With awe, and brought the rolling chariot forth.

• Ως άρα φωνήσας απέβη προς μακρον Ολυμπον
• Ερμείας Πριαμος δ' εξίππων αλτο χαμάζε.
ILIAD, lib. 24, v. 468.

So saying, Mercury vanished up to heaven.
And Priam then alighted from the chariot,
Leaving Idous with it, who remained

Holding the mules and horses; and the old man
Went straight in-doors, where the beloved of Jove,
Achilles sat, and found him there within.
The household sat apart; and two alone,
The hero Automedon, and Alcimus,

A branch of Mars, stood by him. They had been
At meals, and had not yet removed the board.
Great Priam came, without their seeing him,
And kneeling down, he grasped Achilles' knees,
And kissed those terrible hands, man-slaughtering,
Which had deprived him of so many sons.
And as a man, who is pressed heavily
For having slain another, flies away
To foreign lands, and comes into the house
Of some great man, and is beheld with wonder;
So did Achilles wonder, to see Priam;

And the rest wondered, looking at each other.
But Priam, praying to him, spoke these words:-

"God-like Achilles, think of thine own father, Who is, as I am, at the weary door

Of age and though the neighbouring chiefs may vex him,

And he has none to keep his evils off,

Yet, when he hears that thou art still alive,
He gladdens inwardly; and daily hopes
To see his dear son coming back from Troy.
But I, forbidden creature! I had once
Brave sons in Troy, and now I cannot say
That one is left me. Fifty children had Ï,
When the Greeks came; nineteen were of one
womb;

The rest my women bore me in my house.

The knees of many of these fierce Mars has loosened;

And he who had no peer, Troy's prop and theirs,
Him hast thou killed now, fighting for his country,
Hector; and for his sake am I come here
To ransom him, bringing a countless ransom.
But thou, Achilles, fear the gods, and think
Of thine own father, and have mercy on me;
For I am much more wretched, and have borne
What never mortal bore, I think, on earth,
To lift unto my mouth the hand of him
Who slew my boys."

He spoke; and there arose
Sharp longing in Achilles for his father;
And taking Priam by the hand, he gently
Put him away; for both shed tears to think
Of other times; the one, most bitter ones
For Hector, and with wilful wretchedness
Lay right before Achilles; and the other,
For his own father now, and now his friend;
And the whole house might hear them as they
moaned.

But when divine Achilles had refreshed

His soul with tears, and sharp desire had left
His heart and limbs, he got up from his throne,
And raised the old man by the hand, and took
Pity on his grey head and his grey chin.

MERCURY GOING TO THE CAVE OF CALYPSO.

FROM THE SAME.

• Ως εφατ' ουδ' απίθησε διακτορος Αργειφόντης
Αντικέ επειθ' ύπο ποσσιν εδησατο καλα πεδιλα,
Αμβροσια, χρυσεια

ODYSS. lib. 5, v. 43.

HE said; and straight the herald Argicide
Beneath his feet the feathery sandals tied,
Immortal, golden, that his flight could bear
O'er seas and lands, like waftage of the air;
His rod, too, that can close the eyes of men
In balmy sleep, and open them again,
He took, and holding it in hand, went flying;
Till from Pieria's top the sea descrying,
Down to it sheer he dropp'd, and scoured away
Like the wild gull, that fishing o'er the bay
Flaps on, with pinions dipping in the brine;
So went on the far sea the shape divine.

And now arriving at the isle, he springs
Oblique, and landing with subsided wings,
Walks to the cavern 'twixt the tall green rocks,
Where dwelt the Goddess with the lovely locks.
He paus'd; and there came on him, as he stood,
A smell of citron and of cedar wood,

That threw a perfume all about the isle;
And she within sat spinning all the while,

And sang a lovely song, that made him hark and smile.

A sylvan nook it was, grown round with trees,

Poplars and elms, and odorous cypresses,
In which all birds of ample wing, the owl

And hawk, had nests, and broad-tongued waterfowl.

The cave in front was spread with a green vine, Whose dark round bunches almost burst with

wine;

And from four springs, running a sprightly race, Four fountains, clear and crisp, refresh'd the place;

While all about, a meadowy ground was seen,
Of violets mingling with the parsley green:
So that a stranger, though a god were he,
Might well admire it, and stand there to see;
And so admiring, there stood Mercury.

THE SYRACUSAN GOSSIPS;

OR,

THE FEAST OF ADONIS.5 50

FROM THEOCRITUS.

GORGO, EUNOE, PRAXINOE, LITTLE BOY, OLD WOMAN, AND TWO MEN.

SCENE. At Alexandria, in Egypt.

TIME.-During the reign of Ptolemy Philadelphus, between two and three hundred years before the Christian Era.

Gor. Praxinoe within ?

Eun.

Why Gorgo, dear,

How late you are! Yes, she's within.