With shouts the Theban bands the strife commence:
But martial trumps th' Athenian troops incense.
With downcast looks the sons of Cadmus stand,
And feebly grasp the weapons in their hand; 1072
Their arms yet unemploy'd, they yield their ground,
And show old scars, and many a streaming wound.
Nor in th' Athenian chieftains as before

1080

The thirst of vengeance glows; their threats are
And, unoppos'd, their courage dies away. [o'er,
Thus, when the yielding woods decline the fray,
The winds grow placid; and the waves subside,
If no firm shore repels the briny tide.
But as the son of Egens high display'd
The spear of Marathonian oak, whose shade
O'erhangs the foe, whilst dreadful to the sight,
Its steely point emits a beamy light,
His foes pale horrour urges from behind,
And wings them with the deetness of the wind:
As when from Hamus Mars impels his car,
And scatters havoc from the wheels of war,
Before him carnage, rout, disorder fly,
His harbingers, and all or kill or die.
But Theseus scorns to stain with vulgar gore
His sword. The flying herd he passes o'er,
To weaker hands such easy conquests yields,
And scours, in quest of nobler game, the fields.
Thus dogs and wolves invade the ready prey,
While the more gen'rous lion stalks away.
Yet Thamirus and bold Olenius too,
Presuming to contend in arms, he slew;
This, as he lifts a stone, in act to throw,
That, as he fits his arrow to his bow.

1090

1120

Then fell three sons of Alceus side by side,
Whilst in their strength united they confide,
Pierc'd by three spears: first, wounded in his breast,
Rash Phileus sought the shades of endless rest;
Next, the lance piercing thro' the shoulder-joint,
Iapix dies; last Helops bit the point.
Now Hæmon in his car he sought: his blade,
Wav'd round, in air a dazzling circle made:
But he retires.-The spear with whizzing sound
Two chiefs transfix'd with one continued wound,
And aim'd a third, but th' axle-tree withstood,
And lodg'd the dart, deep-buried in the wood, 111%
But Creon only through the ranks of fight
He seeks, aud challenges to prove his might:
The tyrant in the van, though far apart,
He soon espies, whilst using ev'ry art,
To dare th' attack he reincites his band,
And makes the last effort: him, by command
Of Theseus, his retiring troops resign
To his own valour, and the pow'rs divine.
The king recals them, but, when he desery'd
Himself alike abhorr'd by either side,
Bold with despair, his utmost rage collects,
And thus to Theseus his discourse directs:
"Think not, thou comest here a war to wage
With Amazons, or wreak thy female rage
On female foes.-Thon meet'st with manly arms,
Chiefs old in war, and nurs'd amidst alarms;
Beneath whose might Hippomedon was slain,
And Capaneus and Tydeus pre-s'd the plain. 1130
What phrenzy prompts thee thus to tempt thy fate?
1100 See, in whose cause thou kindlest the debate!"
He spoke, and at the foe a javelin flings,
Faint on the surface of the shield it rings.
But Theseus, smiling at the feeble blow,
Shakes his enormous lance, in act to throw,
But, ere he lets th' impatient weapon fly,
In thund'ring accents makes this stern reply:
"Ye Grecian shades, to whom Ægides sends
This sacrifice, prepare the vengeful fiends 1140
For his reception, and unbar the domes
Of Tartarus: he comes, the tyrant comes."
He said, with force disiniss'd, the quiv'ring dart
Pervades the skies, and lights, where near his heart
The slender chains, well wrought of ductile guld,
The cuirass, arm'd with many a plate, infold.
The blood spins upward from a thousand holes:
He sinks, and, doubting where to fix them, rolls
His eyes around.-The victor stands beside
To spoil his arms, and thus insulting cry'd: 1150

1070. But martial trumps] Euripides tells us, that Theseus before the battle declared to either army by an herald, that he had no other view in this expedition, but to have justice done to the Argives, by having them buried in a decent proper manner; and that Creon made no answer to this declaration. Barthius.

1087. As when from Hamus] Statius by this
comparison sets the valour of Theseus in a very
exalted light. He is no less formidable than
Mars himself. We look upon him as more than
human, and are not astonished so much at the
effects of his prowess. The first hint of compar-
ing heroes to the gods was Homer's, who in his
Iliad likens Idomeneus to this same deity.
Lib. 13. verse 298.

Οἷος δὲ βροτολοιγός Αρης πόλεμονδε μέτεισι,
Τῷ δὲ φόβον φίλον υἱὸς ἅμα κρατερὸς καὶ ἀταβὴς
Έσπιτο, ὃς ἐφόβησε ταλαφρονά περ πολεμικήν.
Virgil has enlarged on this simile, and thrown in
several beautiful images. Eneid, book 12. v. 331.
Qualis apud ge'idi cum flamina concitus Hebri
Sanguineus Mavors clypeo increpat,atque furentes
Bella movens immittit equos: illi æquore aperto
Ante Notos Zephyrumque volant: gemit ultima
pulsu

Thraca pedum: circumque atræ Formidinis ora,
Iræque, Insidiæque, dei comitatus, aguntur.

Silius Italicus has likewise imitated it in his Punic
War, book 1.

Quantus Bistoniis latè gradivus in oris

Belligero rapitur curru, teluunque coruscans
Titanum quo pulsa cohors, flagrantia bella
Cornipedum allata domat, et stridoribus axis.

1118. Him, by command] Our author seems to have taken this circumstance from Virgil's Eneid, lib. 12. verse 758.

Ille simul fugiens, Rutulos simul increpat omnes,
Nomine quemque vocans; notumque efflagitat
Encas mortem contra præsensque minatur (ensem.
Exitium, si quisquam adeat; terretque tremente

Excisuram urbem minitans.

1125. Think not] Numanus in the ninth book of the Eneid insults the Trojans in almost the

same strain.

Quis deus Italiam, quæ vos dementia adegit?
Non hic Atridæ, nec fandi fictor Ulysses.

Creon however, in the heat of his passion, trans-
gresses the bounds of truth, and very ungrate
fully forgets his deliverer, in attributing the death
of Capaneus to a mortal hand.

7

THE

WORKS

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HESIO D.

TRANSLATED BY COOKE.