The Iliad of Homer


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And all that rests of my unravish'd prey.  
One only valued gift your tyrant gave,  
And that resumed--the fair Lyrnessian slave.  
Then tell him: loud, that all the Greeks may hear,  
And learn to scorn the wretch they basely fear;  
(
For arm'd in impudence, mankind he braves,  
And meditates new cheats on all his slaves;  
Though shameless as he is, to face these eyes  
Is what he dares not: if he dares he dies;)  
Tell him, all terms, all commerce I decline,  
Nor share his council, nor his battle join;  
For once deceiv'd, was his; but twice were mine,  
No--let the stupid prince, whom Jove deprives  
Of sense and justice, run where frenzy drives;  
His gifts are hateful: kings of such a kind  
Stand but as slaves before a noble mind,  
Not though he proffer'd all himself possess'd,  
And all his rapine could from others wrest:  
Not all the golden tides of wealth that crown  
The many-peopled Orchomenian town;(209)  
Not all proud Thebes' unrivall'd walls contain,  
The world's great empress on the Egyptian plain  
(That spreads her conquests o'er a thousand states,  
And pours her heroes through a hundred gates,  
Two hundred horsemen and two hundred cars  
From each wide portal issuing to the wars);(210)  
359  


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357 358 359 360 361

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