The Iliad of Homer


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Through Mulius' head then drove the impetuous spear:  
The warrior falls, transfix'd from ear to ear.  
Thy life, Echeclus! next the sword bereaves,  
Deep though the front the ponderous falchion cleaves;  
Warm'd in the brain the smoking weapon lies,  
The purple death comes floating o'er his eyes.  
Then brave Deucalion died: the dart was flung  
Where the knit nerves the pliant elbow strung;  
He dropp'd his arm, an unassisting weight,  
And stood all impotent, expecting fate:  
Full on his neck the falling falchion sped,  
From his broad shoulders hew'd his crested head:  
Forth from the bone the spinal marrow flies,  
And, sunk in dust, the corpse extended lies.  
Rhigmas, whose race from fruitful Thracia came,  
(
The son of Pierus, an illustrious name,)  
Succeeds to fate: the spear his belly rends;  
Prone from his car the thundering chief descends.  
The squire, who saw expiring on the ground  
His prostrate master, rein'd the steeds around;  
His back, scarce turn'd, the Pelian javelin gored,  
And stretch'd the servant o'er his dying lord.  
As when a flame the winding valley fills,  
And runs on crackling shrubs between the hills;  
Then o'er the stubble up the mountain flies,  
Fires the high woods, and blazes to the skies,  
737  


Page
735 736 737 738 739

Quick Jump
1 245 490 735 980