The Athenaid

Among the Greeks their first nocturnal watch Was near its period. From Laconia's wing Return'd, th' Athenian leader thus bespake Sicinus: Worthy of my trust, give ear. Within six hours the army will decamp To chuse a friendlier station; so the chiefs In gen'ral council, as Gargaphia choak'd Withholds her wonted succour, have resolv'd. At Juno's fane, yet undespoil'd, though near Plataea's ruins, ev'ry band is charg'd To reassemble. . . . Suddenly appears A centinel, who speaks: A stranger, near The trenches waits, thee; us in peaceful words Saluting, he importunate requires Thy instant presence. Aristides hastes; To whom the stranger: Bulwark of this camp, Hear, credit, weigh, the tidings which I bear. Mardonius, press'd by fear of threat'ning want, At night's fourth watch the fatal stream will pass, Inflexibly determin'd, though forbid By each diviner, to assail your host With all his numbers. I against surprise Am come to warn you; thee alone I trust, My name revealing. I, O man divine! I, who thus hazard both my realm, and life, Am Alexander, Macedonian friend Of Athens. Kindly on a future day Remember me. He said, and spurr'd his steed Back through the op'ning of Cithaeron's hill.

By Aristides instantly detach'd, Sicinus calls each leader to attend Pausanias. Attica's great captain joins The council full. His tidings he relates, Concluding thus with exhortation sage:

We destitute of water had resolv'd To change our station. Now without a pause We must anticipate th' appointed hour For this retreat, nor ling'ring tempt the force Of squadrons swift to intercept our march. All move your standards. Let Mardonius bring A host discourag'd by their augur's voice; Who are forbid to pass the fatal stream, But are compell'd by famine and despair To inauspicious battle. We to heav'n Obedient, heav'n's assistance shall obtain. A situation, safeguard to our flanks Against superior and surrounding horse, In sight of burnt Plataea, of her fanes Defac'd, and violated gods, I know; There will assure you conquest. All assent.

At once the diff'rent Grecians, who compose The center, lift their ensigns. O'er the plain First swiftly tow'rds Plataean Juno's dome Speeds Adimantus. In array more slow The rest advance. Cleander guards the rear; Brave youth, whom chance malicious will bereave Of half the laurels to his temples due.

Th' Athenians arm delib'rate; in whose train Illustrious Medon ranks a faithful troop, His hundred Locrians. Haliartus there, There Timon's few, but gen'rous Delphians stand, By Aristides all enjoin'd to watch Laconia's host. That sternly-tutor'd race, To passion cold, he knew in action slow, In consultation torpid. Anxious long He waits, and fears the eyelids of the morn, Too soon unclosing, may too much reveal.

Sicinus, hast'ning to Laconia's camp, Finds all confus'd, subordination lost In altercation, wond'rous in that breed Of discipline and manners, nor less strange, Than if the laws of nature in the sky Dissolv'd, should turn the moon and planets loose From their accustom'd orbits, to obey The sun no longer. When his first command Pausanias issu'd for the march, nor thought Of disobedience to disturb his pride; One leader, Amompharetus, whose band Of Pitanè rever'd him, as the first Among the brave, refusal stern oppos'd, Protesting firm, he never would retreat Before Barbarians. Aemnestus swift, Callicrates and others, long approv'd In arms, entreat the Spartan to submit, Nor disconcert the salutary plan Of gen'ral council. Sullen he replies:

Not of that council, I will ne'er disgrace The Spartan name. But all the Greeks withdrawn Expect our junction at Saturnia's dome, Callicrates and Aemnestus plead. Would'st thou expose thy countrymen to face Unaided yonder multitude of Medes, Untry'd by us in combat? Yes, rejoins The pertinacious man, ere yield to flight.

His troop applauded. Now contention harsh Resounded high, exhausting precious hours, The Spartan march retarding; when arriv'd Sicinus witness to the wild debate. At length Pausanias knit his haughty brow At Amompharetus, and spake: Weak man, Thou art insane. The chastisement thy due, Our time allows not. Instant march, or stay Behind and perish. In his two-fold grasp The restive Spartan lifting from the ground A pond'rous stone, before the gen'ral's feet Plac'd it, and thus: Against dishonest flight From strangers vile, I rest my suffrage there, Nor will forsake it. To Sicinus turn'd Pausanias: Tell th' Athenians what thou see'st. I by Cithaeron's side to Juno's fane Am hast'ning; charge their phalanx to proceed.

Sicinus back to Aristides flies. His ready phalanx from the lines he draws, Wing'd with his horse and bowmen; yet his course Suspends at Sparta's camp. There sullen, fix'd Like some old oak's deep-rooted, knotted trunk, Which hath endur'd the tempest-breathing months Of thrice a hundred winters, yet remains Unshaken, there amidst his silent troop Sat Amompharetus. To him the sage:

Unwise, though brave, transgressing all the laws Of discipline, though Spartan born and train'd; Arise, o'ertake thy gen'ral and rejoin. Thy country's mercy by some rare exploit Win to forgive thy capital default, Excess of courage. Where Pausanias, arm'd With pow'r unlimited in war, where all The Spartan captains in persuasion fail'd, Requir'd not less than Jove himself, or Jove In Aristides to prevail. Uprose The warrior, late inflexible; yet slow, In strictest regularity of march, Led his well-order'd files. Correcting thus The erring Spartan, Aristides swept Across the plain to fill the gen'ral host.

Not yet the twilight, harbinger of morn, Had overcome the stars. The Persian scouts, Who rang'd abroad, observing that no sound Was heard, no watch-word through the Grecian lines, Adventur'd nigh, and found an empty space. Swift they appris'd Mardonius, who had form'd His whole array. Encircled by his chiefs Greek and Barbarian, first he gave command, That ev'ry hand provide a blazing torch To magnify his terrors, and with light Facilitate pursuit; then gladsome thus Address'd his friends of Thessaly and Thebes:

Now Larissaean Thorax, and the rest Of Aleuadian race; now Theban lords, Judge of the Spartans justly. Vaunted high For unexampled prowess, them you saw First change their place, imposing on the sons Of Athens twice the formidable task To face my chosen Persians; next they gave To my defiance no reply, and last Are fled before me. Can your augurs shew A better omen, than a foe dismay'd? But, kind allies, to you my friendly care Shall now be prov'd. These thunderbolts of war, As you esteem them, will Mardonius chuse For his opponents. Level your attack Entire against th' Athenians. None I dread; Yet by the sun less terrible to me Is that Pausanias, head of Sparta's race, Than Aristides. Him Masistius lov'd; If you o'erthrow, preserve him; in the name Of your own gods I charge you. Mithra, shine On me no longer, if in grateful warmth Confessing ev'ry benefit receiv'd, I do not clasp that guardian of my friend! Now, Persians, mount your bold Nisaean steeds, Alert your targets grasp, your lances poise; The word is Cyrus. Royal spirit! look On me, deriv'd from thy illustrious blood, Yet not in me illustrious, if this day My hand, or courage faint. Look down on these, Sons of thy matchless veterans. The fire, Which at thy breath o'erspread the vanquish'd East, Light in their offs'pring; that the loud report Of their achievements on Asopian banks, Far as the floods of Ganges may proclaim The western world a vassal to thy throne.

He said, and spurr'd his courser. Through the ford He dashes, follow'd by th' impetuous speed Of tall equestrian bands in armour scal'd With gold, on trappings of embroider'd gloss Superbly seated. Persians next and Medes Advance, an infantry select, whose mail Bright-gilt, or silver'd o'er, augments the light Of sparkling brands, innumerably wav'd By nations, plunging through the turbid flood In tumult rude, emblazing, as they pass, The skies, the waters, and with direst howl Distracting both. Like savage wolves they rush, As with ferocious fangs to rend the Greeks, To gnaw their flesh, and satiate in their blood The greedy thirst of massacre. In chief Here Mindarus commands, by Midias join'd And Tiridates, powerless all to curb, Much more to marshal such Barbarian throngs, Which, like a tumbling tide on level strands, When new the moon impels it, soon o'erwhelm'd Th' Asopian mead; or like the mightier surge, When ireful Neptune strikes the ocean's bed Profound. Upheav'd, the bottom lifts and rolls A ridge of liquid mountains o'er th' abodes Of some offending nation; while the heav'ns With coruscation red his brother Jove Inflames, and rocks with thunder's roar the poles.

Th' auxiliar Greeks compact and silent march In strength five myriads. In arrangement just The foot by Leontiades, the wings Of horse by Thorax and Emathia's king Were led. Now, long before th' unwieldy mass Of his disorder'd multitude advanc'd, Mardonius, rushing through the vacant lines Of Lacedaemon, tow'rds Cithaeron bent His swift career. Faint rays began to streak The third clear morning of that fruitful month, The last in summer's train. Immortal day! Which all the Muses consecrate to fame.

O thou! exalted o'er the laurell'd train, High as the sweet Calliopè is thron'd Above her sisters on the tuneful mount, O father, hear! Great Homer, let one ray From thy celestial light an humble son Of thine illuminate; lest freedom mourn Her chosen race dishonour'd in these strains. Thou too, my eldest brother, who enjoy'st The paradise thy genius hath portray'd, Propitious smile. Lend vigour to a Muse, Who in her love of freedom equals thine, But to sustain her labours from thy store Must borrow language, sentiment and verse.

Cithaeron's ridge, from where Asopus rose, Stretch'd to Plataea, with a southern fence Confining one broad level, which the floods From their Hesperian head in eastward flow Meandring parted. O'er the mountain's foot His course Pausanias destin'd, where the soil Abrupt and stony might the dread career Of Persia's cavalry impede. His ranks, Accompany'd by Tegea's faithful breed, Had measur'd now ten furlongs of their march Half o'er the plain to reach the friendly ground; Then halted near an Eleusinian dome Of Ceres; thence they mov'd, but timely first Were join'd by Amompharetus. At length The chosen track was gain'd. Pausanias cast His eyes below first northward, and survey'd Between the river and his empty camp A blaze involving all the plain. The yell Of mouths Barbarian, of unnumber'd feet Th' impetuous tread, which crush'd the groaning turf, The neigh of horses, and their echoing hoofs, Th' insulting clash of shields and sabres, shook The theatre of mountains; hollow-voic'd, Their cavities rebellow'd, and enlarg'd The hideous sound. His eyes the orient dawn Attracted next. Saturnia's roof he view'd, But distant still, around whose sacred walls The first-departed Grecians stood in arms Beneath wide-floating banners, wish'd more nigh. There was the Genius of Plataea seen By fancy's ken, a hov'ring mourner seen, O'er his renown'd, but desolated seat, One mass of ruins mountainous. He mark'd Th' Athenians traversing the meads below In full battalia. Resolute, sedate, Without one shield in disarray, they mov'd To join the gen'ral host. Beyond the stream In prospect rose the battlements of Thebes; Whose sons perfidious, but in battle firm, With phalanges of other hostile Greeks Spread on the bank, and menace to surmount The shallow current for some dire attempt. To Aemnestus, marching by his side, Pausanias turns; the army he commands To halt; while, mast'ring all unmanly fear, His haughty phlegm serenely thus fulfils A leader's function: Spartan, we in vain Precipitate our junction with allies At Juno's distant fane; the hour is past; The Pitanēan mutineer the cause. Seest thou yon Persian squadrons? They precede The whole Barbarian multitude. The storm Is gath'ring nigh; we sep'rate must abide The heavy weight of this unequal shock, Unless th' Athenians, still in sight, impart A present aid. A herald swift he sends To Aristides, with this weighty charge: "All Greece is now in danger, and the blood "Of Hercules in me. Athenian help "Is wanted here, their missile-weapon'd force." Last he address'd Tisamenus: Provide The sacrifice for battle—Warriors, form.

Slain is the victim; but th' inspecting seer Reveals no sign propitious. Now full nigh The foremost Persian horse discharge around Their javelins, darts, and arrows. Sparta's chief In calm respect of inauspicious heav'n Directs each soldier at his foot to rest The passive shield, submissive to endure Th' assault, and watch a signal from the gods. A second time unfavorable prove The victim's entrails. Unremitted show'rs Of pointed arms distribute wounds and death.

Oh! discipline of Sparta! Patient stands The wounded soldier, sees a comrade fall, Yet waits permission from his chief to shield His own, or brother's head. Among the rest Callicrates is pierc'd; a mortal stroke His throat receives. Him celebrate, O muse! Him in historic rolls deliver'd down To admiration of remotest climes Through latest ages. These expiring words Beyond Olympian chaplets him exalt, Beyond his palms in battle: Not to die For Greece, but dying, ere my sword is drawn, Without one action worthy of my name, I grieve. He said, and fainting on the breast Of Aemnestus, breath'd in spouting blood His last, departing thy attendant meet, Leonidas, in regions of the bless'd.

A second victim bleeds; the gath'ring foes To multitude are grown; the show'rs of death Increase; then melted into flowing grief Pausanian pride. He, tow'rds the fane remote Of Juno lifting his afflicted eyes, Thus suppliant spake: O Goddess! let my hopes Be not defeated, whether to obtain A victory so glorious, or expire Without dishonour to Herculean blood.

Amidst the pray'r Tegēan Chileus, free From stern controul of Lacedaemon's laws, No longer waits inactive; but his band Leads forth, and firmly checks th' insulting foe. The sacrifice is prosp'rous, and the word For gen'ral onset by Pausanias giv'n. Then, as a lion, from his native range Confin'd a captive long, if once his chain He breaks, with mane erect and eyes of fire Asserts his freedom, rushing in his strength Resistless forth; so Sparta's phalanx turns A face tremendous on recoiling swarms Of squadron'd Persians, who to Ceres' fane Are driv'n. But there Mardonius, like the god Of thunders ranging o'er th' ethereal vault Thick clouds on clouds impregnated with storms, His chosen troops embattles. Bows and darts Rejecting, gallantly to combat close They urge undaunted efforts, and to death Their ground maintain, in courage, or in might Not to the Greeks inferior, but in arms, In discipline and conduct. Parties small, Or single warriors, here with vigour wield The battle-ax and sabre; others rush Among the spears, to wrench away, or break By strength of hands, the weapons of their foes.

But fiercest was the contest, where sublime The son of Gobryas from a snow-white steed Shot terror. There selected warriors charg'd, A thousand vet'rans, by their fathers train'd, Who shar'd renown with Cyrus. On the right, Close to his gen'ral's side, Briareus grasp'd A studded mace, Pangaeus on the left, Nam'd from a Thracian hill. The bristly front Of Sparta's phalanx, with intrepid looks Mardonius fac'd, and thunder'd out these words:

Come, twice-defy'd Pausanias, if thou hear'st; Thy Spartan prowess on Mardonius try.

Pausanias heard; but shunn'd retorting words, In saturnine disdain laconic thus His men addressing: Yours the soldier's part, The gen'rals mine; advance not, but receive These loose Barbarians on your steady points.

Not one of Persia's breed, though early train'd, So strong a javelin as Mardonius lanc'd, Or in its aim so true. Three brothers grac'd The foremost line of Sparta, natives all Of sweet Amyclae, all in age and arms Mature, their splendid lineage from the stock Of Tyndarus deriving. Them on earth Three javelins, whirl'd successive, laid supine, An effort of Mardonius. Three in rank Behind partake the same resistless doom, Three bold companions in the hardy chace Of boars on green Taÿgetus. Supply'd With weapons new, the phalanx still to gore He perseveres unweary'd, not unlike Some irritated porcupine, of size Portentous, darting his envenom'd quills Through each assailant. In Laconia's front So many warriors and their weapons fall'n, Leave in her triple tire of pointed steel A void for swift impression of her foes. In rush Briareus and Pangaeus huge, Whose maces send fresh numbers to the shades. The op'ning widens. On his vaulting steed Mardonius follows, like ensanguin'd Mars By his auxiliars grim, dismay and rage, Preceded. Rivalling the lightning's beams, The hero's sabre bright and rapid wheels Aloft in air. A comet thus inflames The cheek of night; pale mortals view in dread Th' unwonted lustre, transient tho' it be, Among the lights of heav'n. Pausanias rous'd, Advancing, at Briareus points his lance. Meantime six Spartans of the younger class Assail Mardonius. One his bridle grasp'd; The Persian sabre at the shoulder close Lopp'd off th' audacious arm. Another stoop'd To seize the chieftain's foot, and drag him down; Pois'd on his stirrup, he in sunder smote The Spartan's waist. Another yet approach'd, Who at a blow was cloven to the chin. Two more the gen'rous horse, uprearing, dash'd Maim'd and disabled to the ground; the last His teeth disfigur'd, and his weight oppress'd. As some tall-masted ship, on ev'ry side Assail'd by pinnaces and skiffs whose strength Is number, drives her well-directed prow Through all their feeble clusters; while her chief Elate contemplates from her lofty deck The hostile keels upturn'd, and floating dead, Where'er she steers victorious: so the steed Nisaean tramples on Laconian slain, Triumphant so Mardonius from his seat Looks down. But fate amidst his triumph shews Briareus yielding to a forceful blow Of stern Pausanias, and Pangaeus pierc'd By Amompharetus. Their giant bulks, Thrown prostrate, crash three long-protended rows Of Spartan spears. Wide-branching thus huge oaks, By age decay'd, or twisted from the roots By rending whirlwinds, in their pond'rous fall Lay desolate the under shrubs, and trees Of young, unstable growth. More awful still, Another object strikes the satrap's eye; With nodding plumes, and formidable stride, Lo! Aemnestus. Asia's gen'ral feels Emotions now, which trouble, not degrade His gen'rous spirit. Not, as Priam's son On sight of dire Achilles, thoughts of flight Possess Mardonius, but to wait the foe, And if to die, with honour die, if live Enjoy a life of fame. His giant guard Around him close; one levels at the casque Of Aemnestus; but the weighty mace Slides o'er the Spartan's slanting shield, and spends Its rage in dust. The stooping giant leaves His flank unguarded, and admits a stroke, Which penetrates the entrails. Down he sinks, Another tow'r of Asia's battle strewn In hideous ruin. Soon a second bleeds, A third, a fourth. The fifth in posture stands To crush the victor with a blow well-aim'd; Him Menalippus at the brawny pit Of his uplifted arm transpiercing deep Disables. Aemnestus struggles long To grapple with his victim, and invokes Leonidas aloud. The active son Of Gobryas plants throughout the Spartan shield A wood of Javelins. His Nisaean horse, Careering, vaulting, with his fangs and hoofs Protects his lord. The guards, who still furviv'd, With faithful zeal their whole united strength Exert unwearied for a lib'ral chief. Some paces backward Aemnestus forc'd, Impels his heel against a loos'ning stone, Broad, craggy, scarce inferior to the weight Discharg'd by Hector on the massy bars Of Agamemnon's camp. The Spartan quick From his left arm removes the heavy shield, With javelins thick transfix'd. From earth he lifts The casual weapon, and with caution marks The fatal time and distance. O'er the heads Of thy surrounding guard the fragment hurl'd Descends, Mardonius, on thy manly chest, And lays thee o'er thy courser's back supine Without sensation. O, illustrious man, Whose dazzling virtues through thy frailties beam'd! Magnanimous, heroic, gen'rous, pure In friendship, warm in gratitude! This doom At once dissolves all interval of pain To mind, or body. Not a moment more Hast thou, ingenuous satrap, to repine, Or grieve. Go, hero, thy Masistius greet, Where no ambition agitates the breast, No gloomy veil of superstition blinds, No friend can die, no battle can be lost!

This fall, to Greece decisive as to heav'n Enceladus o'erthrown, when, thunder-pierc'd, He under Aetna's torrid mass was chain'd, Discomfits Asia's hopes. In fresh array Meantime the phalanx, by Pausanias form'd, Proceeds entire. Facility of skill Directs their weapons; pace by pace they move True to the cadence of accustom'd notes From gentle flutes, which trill the Doric lays Of Alcman and Terpander. Slow they gain The ground, which Persia quits, till Chileus bold With his Tegaeans gores the hostile flanks; Confusion then, and gen'ral rout prevail.

The fugitives proclaim Mardonius slain; The whole Barbarian multitude disperse In blind dismay; cool Mindarus in vain Attempts to check their flight; all seek the camp; And now the Spartan flutes, combin'd with shouts Of loud Tegaeans stimulate his speed Across the ford. His trenches he regains, And there to Midias, Tiridates brave, And chosen satraps, gath'ring at his call, Thus spake: The flow'r of Asia in the dust Reclines his glories. Feel your loss like me, Not overcome by sorrow, or surprise At changes natural to man, the sport Of his own passions, and uncertain chance. Vicissitudes of fortune I have prov'd, One day been foil'd, a conqueror the next. In arduous actions though experienc'd minds Have much to fear, not less of hope remains To animate the brave. Amid this storm The throne of Cyrus, your exalted sires, Your own nobility, recall; deserve The rank, you hold; occasion now presents For such a trial. To uphold my king, My country's name, and piously revenge My kindred blood new-spilt, my sword, my arm, My life, I destine. Multitude is left, Surpassing twenty myriads; ev'n despair Befriends us; famine threat'ning, and the dread Of merciless resentment in our foes, May force these rally'd numbers to obtain From their own swords relief. Behold your camp, Strong-fenc'd and bulwark'd by Masistian care, A present refuge. See th' auxiliar Greeks Entire, advancing on th' inferior bands Of Athens. Still may Xerxes o'er the West Extend his empire, and regret no part Of this disaster, but Mardonius slain. Assume your posts, for stern defence provide.