Dumb Dolon, he who was of doubtful mind
To Hector’s charge in foolishness resigned;
For Hector promised him Achilles’ steeds
For but one night of brave and daring deeds.
He snuck (he thought) across the Trojan plain
To breach the Argive camp upon the main,
And spy out all their counsels to report
What plans they laid, to what they would resort:
But the keen ears of Odysseus caught
The sound of footsteps as his way he sought;
Diomed was with him when he heard the sound
Of Dolon sneaking quick over the ground;
“Let him go ahead,” Odysseus advised,
That then from behind the spy could be surprised:
“If we cannot catch him, pin him by the shore;
Our spears shall see that he sees Troy no more.”
Dolon passed and they followed in his wake:
Toward the Achaean camp did Dolon make;
When he perceived the sound of their approach,
He thought them Trojans and ceased not to encroach.
But when at last his folly he perceived,
He was seized with fear and his soul was grieved:
He flew across the plain, seeking to evade
The men whose camp he’d laboured to invade.
To check him Diomed lifted his hand
And hurled his javelin and struck the sand;
He purposed thus to miss to halt the spy,
And lifted his voice to the foe to cry:
He urged the man to halt, lest he be slain
And Dolon did and fear gripped him as pain;
He shook with terror and could hardly stand,
And all at once by tears he was unmanned.
Forsaking all his honour, he proffered gold
From his father’s house if his life be sold.
And Odysseus, always being wise,
Proffered in return one of his cunning lies;
To give him hope, he urged him not to fear,
And asked him why he had at night come near
Their camp, and though the coward trembled still,
He found the will to speak, and his words did spill
Out all at once; he told the men his charge,
Which when they heard they marveled at folly large.
Odysseus could hardly keep straight face
That such a one as this, a coward base,
Had thought to be the master of the steeds
Of Achilles: how luxury folly breeds!
Odysseus then questioned Dolon to
Discover what of Troy’s defense he knew.
Dolon replied and told him all he could,
Where every camp was set, and where guards stood;
That Hector held a counsel made he known,
That the Thracians were encamped alone.
This told Dolon submitted to be a slave,
But Diomed observed him with visage grave.
“From captivity, we shall not set you free,
Nor risk that as slave you’d a traitor be.”
The spy began to speak a word in turn,
But Diomed his plea ‘fore he spoke did spurn;
Like a thunderbolt fell his fearsome sword,
His head fell from his neck and his blood poured
Forth in purple spurts and stained all the ground;
In the dirt his head, severed, rolled around.
This done they stripped his body for reward;
A bow and spear and a wolf’s hide they scored:
And Odysseus dedicated these
To Athena who he always sought to please.
For Boreas
When Boreas blows a blustery storm,
Then every man sits at his hearth to warm
Himself and hide from Winter’s icy blast;
Every woodland beast by its den holds fast;
The bird of prey soars over snow-capped trees;
If something dare to move, his prey he’ll seize;
At last he roosts upon a limb on high;
O’er all below he casts his watchful eye.
He blows and icy gusts his breath sends down;
He empties every street in every town,
And stops the rivers so they cease to flow
And blankets Earth under a mount of snow.
For Mars
Who of all the gods protects the sacred state,
By barbarian blood made satiate?
Who rises in a rage to overthrow
The foes and hurl them to the shades below?
Whose spear brings peace by bloody battles won?
Tis Mars, you’ll never find another one:
By Mars the foreign hordes that storm the gate
Receive bloody Death for their final fate;
By Mars domestic foes and merchant thieves,
Liars all, from atop the walls he heaves.
Should Bacchus meet him, he’ll soon find the vine
That Mars prefers sheds blood instead of wine.
But once the violent rage of war has passed,
He settles down and lives in peace at last:
The farm is then his every joy and care,
No labor there will great Mars deign to spare;
Then takes he Valor, and makes her his wife
And revels much in the pastoral life.
Zeus Slays Typhon
When Zeus the Titans had vanquished in war,
Then Earth upon the underworld did pour
Her love, and from this union bore a beast,
And a blasting curse did on all release.
This fell fiend was fashioned with the force of fire,
Where’er he dwelled was made a smoking pyre.
It had a hundred heads, each one a snake,
And eyes of fire and mouths from which each spake;
Their tongues were black; their voices did astound,
When from out their mouths their noises did resound
Through all the Earth. Sometimes they bellowed loud
Like bulls; other times they roared like lions proud:
Sometimes like gods immortal did they speak:
But just as oft they whined like puppies meek.
The mountains underneath this monster did
Ghastly echo all it said like servants bid.
And had the voices of the serpent sped,
With all his snaky parts through Earth and spread
His pestilential presence through every field,
Then would gods and men have been forced to yield:
In pits of sulfur serpents might have lain,
And all that’s good and beautiful been slain.
But Zeus spied quick the danger and arose
At once the monster Typhon to oppose:
Through all the Earth his thunder echoed fierce,
And through the fiend his lightning bolts did pierce.
When he arose did Earth and Ocean shake:
In dim Tartatus did old Kronos quake.
Each eye on Typhon’s heads sent out a flame,
Such as Hephaistos wields, that god who’s lame;
The flame of Typhon and the bolts of Zeus,
Upon the Earth and Sea great heat did loose.
The ocean waves did rage and shake their shores,
And Earth did burn, the forests, plains, and moors.
Tartarus shook and Hades quaked with fear,
When in the chthonic depths did appear
The might of Zeus. It terrified those who
With Kronos Zeus in battle did subdue.
Zeus hurled his bolts and burned each snaky head,
And earthquakes heaved wherever he did tread.
He seized a whip and lashed him like a slave,
Then threw him down deformed into his grave.
A fire leapt out from Typhon when the blow
Of Zeus his soul sent to the shades below;
The fire of Typhon struck a mountainside,
And down its side did melted iron slide;
Like Vulcan’s forge a smoke blackened the air,
But Zeus was untouched, unharmed by this affair.
Zeus hurled him to Tartarus in a rage,
And only then his great wrath did assuage.
From Typhon also come winds of fearsome rains,
And dreadful gusts that bring to sailors pains:
The gentle winds the gods send as a gift,
But the evil winds blow great ships adrift;
In violent bursts they scatter and they kill,
And glut the sea until it’s had its fill.
Helpless are the men who meet these winds at sea:
As one they fall to dread calamity.
And if by chance the sea these winds forsake,
And instead a path o’er the Earth do take,
They kick up dust and leave men’s fields a waste,
Ruining the crops that with care they placed.
If likewise from the mouths of men a blast
Of evil words should issue, let them be cast
From out the land, like Typhon was by Zeus,
Lest to better men they bring foul abuse;
For Typhon being thrown down was destroyed,
And gods, and men, and Earth were overjoyed;
In heaven too was joy and gladness spread
When at the hands of Zeus Typhon was dead.
The Defeat of the Titans
The Titan Kronos, crooked slave of age,
Aroused through all his cruelty Zeus’ rage.
Kronos ate his children soon as they were born,
And so left his wife dejected and forlorn:
For prophecy had said he’d be overthrown
By one of his seed that in Earth he’d sown.
But Rhea deceived, and fed him a stone:
And Earth reared Zeus in secret till he was grown.
The sons of Heaven had Ouranos bound
And doomed to live in chains beneath the ground,
In subterranean caves devoid of light,
He imprisoned them in a fit of spite:
But Zeus freed them. The slav’ry was undone.
Also fought with Zeus the great Titan Sun:
The best of all the Titans was Helios,
Who shining destroys whatever Darkness cloaks;
And Oceanos too sided with Zeus;
Since crooked Cronos’ bonds great Zeus did loose.
But Prometheus, who was a lying thief,
Allied with Zeus only to bring him grief:
When the war was over he sought to deceive,
So Zeus of his freedom did him relieve.
Prometheus stole all he ever had,
Even the fire that he thought would make men glad:
This from Hephaistos, the lame servant of Zeus,
Did he take for his own mischievous use.
From different mountains did the forces come,
All the gods with Zeus, with Kronos other some.
Th’ Olympians they had anger in their hearts,
From which they drew the strength to hurl their darts.
Love, the poison, the weakening disease,
Not a moment the heart of Zeus did seize.
For ten full years the war raged between the two,
No side found victory o’er the other crew.
At last to Heaven’s sons great Zeus gave a speech,
“Great sons of Heaven naught is beyond your reach.
Long has been the war, the fight for victory;
Now the day has come to bring calamity
On crooked Kronos, the Titan king. The time
Has come for him to pay for his wicked crime.”
Kottos, Gyes, and Briareus, all
Sons whom Heaven had in anger held in thrall,
These Zeus had freed and thus to them he spoke,
And in their spirits great battle rage awoke.
All that stood with Zeus against the Titan horde,
They clashed with Kronos who before was their lord.
Against the Titans they hurled giant rocks,
And it thundered when great Zeus shook his locks.
The sea roared all around and great heaven groaned,
When the Titans by mighty blows were stoned.
Then Zeus came down from heaven in his wrath,
And his thunderbolts before him blazed a path.
His lightning lit the earth, laying Titans waste;
Before him Terror scattered all in haste.
The forests burned and all the seas were boiled,
And the earthborn Titans to a one were spoiled.
Such a dreadful din of noise filled the air:
But Zeus would not relent nor a one would spare.
Quaking shook the Earth; duststorms swirled about:
Earthborn Titans were put to utter rout.
Even to Chaos, the first of all the gods,
Reached the awful heat of Zeus’ lightning rods.
And wicked Kronos was overthrown at last,
By the strength of Zeus and his awful blast.
And Heaven’s sons they hurled three hundred stones,
And the Titans were wounded to their bones.
In everlasting darkness underground
Were they cast and there by great Zeus were bound.
In Tartarus forever are they chained,
Forever cloaked in Night: so Zeus has deigned.
Before the place Poseidon built a gate,
To keep in prison the Titan king of Hate:
This fate did crooked Kronos justly earn;
This all the wise in all ages do discern.
Kottos, Gyes, and Briareus, they
Whom Zeus had freed before the gates do stay;
As guards these sons of Heaven stand for Zeus,
That never again the Titans be set loose.
For Apollo
As in the east at dawn the golden sphere
In all of its radiance does appear
And sheds its light and warmth on all the Earth,
And each day brings to all great life and worth,
So you the soul and spirit of the Sun
In your course, Apollo, all overrun.
Your chariot like your hair is golden,
All to your beauty are fore’er beholden.
Forever young and fair of form and face,
You slew the python and possessed its place;
You left it disfigured in the cave to rot,
Darkness forever did you make its lot:
While you to heaven did again ascend,
To Justice always in all ways defend.
For Rumor
Zeus! Zeus, of all good to man the giver,
Who sends great Rumor news to deliver;
Be it true or false, be it good or ill,
In whispers hushed or lamentations shrill,
In joyful cries or breathless exclamation,
The news even of kings in every nation
You spread through every street and backward way
The deeds of all in manifest display.
With your voices you fashion myth from deeds;
When false the truth against you n’er succeeds.
When true the false can only fight in vain,
From you no secret hidden can remain.
The golden offspring of Hope on airy wings,
A mouth for every feather and each one sings;
To learn all you have as many eyes and ears,
To catch from man his whispered hopes and fears.
So fly you swiftly, so swiftly through the earth,
A faster being was never brought to birth.
Your eyes never succumb to darkening Sleep;
Fame or ignominy as you will you heap.
The Works of Theodosius I
What age, what wisdom, what great tradition
Was brought to ruin and sad condition!
When the tyrant king in his zeal for what
Was base and ugly did in destruction glut,
He banished games and every show of might,
And the priests applauded and called it right.
His mobs the books of the Serapeum burned,
Against the learned of old the tide was turned.
Apollo’s temple at Delphi with violence
Did they destroy, and the Pythia silence.
By edict the emperor the temples closed,
And the Vestal Virgins from their place deposed.
For all these acts of persecution he
Was made a saint by the “Holy See”.
The Death of Locrian Ajax
That king of men, that mighty man of old
Locrian Ajax, in might and courage bold,
His spear he hurled and slew who’er he met
When on the plains of Troy the war was set
His feet were swift, and far outstripped them all,
Save Achilles who dragged Hector round the wall.
Now, once the walls were breached by the wooden horse,
Whose womb spilled forth at night the Achaean force,
Then through the streets of Troy fast the fires spread:
They drove before them a crushing weight of dread.
Cassandra, who had prophesied the fall,
In the temple did on Athena call.
And Ajax into the temple went and saw
Cassandra whom he took without heed to law.
Forth from the altar he dragged her by the hair,
From servitude he’d not Priam’s daughter spare:
To her cries he paid not the slightest heed,
Cast among the captives she would not be freed.
And here we see how Fortune, blind to all,
Raises up the one, and makes the other fall.
Cassandra who was born daughter of a king,
To the rank of slave did blind Fortune bring.
There’s no one so high the gods can’t bring them low,
Even to the just great Zeus measures woe.
For this Athena was filled with awesome rage,
No supplication could her wrath assuage;
Thus when Ajax did after Troy set sail,
She dashed all his ships in a fearsome gale.
But Poseidon, the god of earth and sea,
Set him safe upon a rock in his mercy.
But Ajax gripped by madness did arise
And all the gods in fury did despise:
He boasted that he did by his prowess save
Himself and thus he sent himself to the grave.
For Poseidon, the ruler of the main,
Would not countenance such pride and disdain.
Indignant did he hurl his trident and struck,
The rock and Ajax from safety did pluck.
It split top to bottom and the sea did flood
The place where Ajax in his pride had stood.
The waves submerged him and to some ocean beast
His life became a prey and a bloody feast.
The Revolt of Kronos
The sons of Heaven were hated from the first,
He hid them each in Earth and they were cursed;
Until their mother, Earth, who loved them so
Urged them to rise and Heaven overthrow.
They were hid in darkness soon as they were born,
They could not see the light, and were left forlorn.
But Earth, she groaned within her and was strained,
Heaven’s wickedness she loathed and disdained.
Of adamant she made a sickle great,
To bring down Heaven she fashioned it with hate.
She loved her sons and bid them to repay,
Their father’s crimes to bring them to light of day.
“Your father is a heedless fool,” she said,
“From him every sort of wickedness was bred.”
She spoke, but fear sprang up in everyone
Till crooked Kronos, Earth’s great Titan son,
Replied to her, emboldened in his heart.
He gave his word and swore vengeance for his part.
“I care not, Mother, for my ineffable
Father, Heaven, whose acts are terrible.
I will set myself and perform the deed,
And then we all from him shall at last be freed.”
Earth was filled with joy and a plan devised,
That Heaven would by Kronos be surprised.
She gave her son the sickle she had made,
And hid him once with this he was arrayed.
Then with the night did Heaven come and lay
Around the Earth and by her side did stay.
He longed for love, but hate was in her heart;
Deceived great Heaven did she for her part.
Her hidden son came forth and made his stand,
The saw-toothed sickle held in his right hand,
And with his left he reached and seized his sire,
The blade sent pain through Heaven like a fire.
He cut the stones from Heaven, who, castrated,
Was overthrown by one whom he’d created.
The stones did Kronos cast behind his back,
And revelled in the fruits of his attack.
And now as king of all did Kronos reign,
While Heaven’s blood in giant drops did rain.
This rain the Earth received, and so was born
All that raged and frenzied in its baleful scorn.
The Furies first and Giants, who with spears
And armour in their greatness filled with fears
All those lesser souls that lived upon the Earth;
These the Giants harrowed in great mirth.
Songs of the Gods 