Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE SHIELD OF HERACLES: COMBAT OF HERACLES AND CYCNUS, by HESIOD


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE SHIELD OF HERACLES: COMBAT OF HERACLES AND CYCNUS, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Then from the well-laced cars leapt down the twain to earth apace
Last Line: Even so he fell, and over him his wrought bronze armour rang.


THEN from the well-laced cars leapt down the twain to earth apace,
The son of King Enyalus, the son of mighty Zeus.
And even as in a mountain glen a fanged boar ill to face
Resolves to fight his hunters -- and his head he sideways slews
And whets his gleaming tushes, and his gnashing jaws drip froth;
His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his mane and nape
His hackles bristle: from his car so leapt the son of Zeus.
What time the loud cicada perched, black-winged, on a green spray,
Whose food and drink is dainty dew, begins his summer lay
For men, and through the livelong day and at the dawn renews
His utterance in the fiercest heat, when Sirius sears the skin,
When millets sown in summer grow a beard, and the crude grape
Which Dionysus gave, to be a joy and sorrow both,
Is turning colour: in that hour they fought: loud rose the din.

And as with crooked beaks and claws two vultures screaming shrill
Fight on a lofty rock about a chamois of the hill
Or fat wild deer disabled by some nimble archer's shot,
Who following up his quarry goes astray and finds it not --
And quick the vultures are to mark, and over the spoil array
Grim battle: even so they cried, and at each other sprang.

Then Cycnus smote the son of Zeus in eagerness to slay
With brazen spear hurled on his shield; but could not break the bronze.
God-given gift, it saved him, and strong Heracles at once,
Amphitryon's son, with his long spear dealt him a lusty stroke
Below the chin 'twixt shield and helm, where bare the gullet lay.
Full-force came down the hero's might on him: through both the thews
That deadly spear of ash-wood cut. He fell as falls an oak
Or soaring pine-tree stricken by the smoking bolt of Zeus.
Even so he fell, and over him his wrought bronze armour rang.





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