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to blaze. 400
She spake, and Vulcan at her word his fires
Shot dreadful forth; first, kindling on the field, He burn’d the bodies strew’d numerous around Slain by Achilles; arid grew the earth And the flood ceased. As when a sprightly breeze 405 Autumnal blowing from the North, at once Dries the new-water’d garden,[7] gladdening him Who tills the soil, so was the champain dried; The dead consumed, against the River, next, He turn’d the fierceness of his glittering fires. 410 Willows and tamarisks and elms he burn’d, Burn’d lotus, rushes, reeds; all plants and herbs That clothed profuse the margin of his flood. His eels and fishes, whether wont to dwell In gulfs beneath, or tumble in the stream, 415 All languish’d while the artist of the skies Breath’d on them; even Xanthus lost, himself, All force, and, suppliant, Vulcan thus address’d.
Oh Vulcan! none in heaven itself may cope
With thee. I yield to thy consuming fires. 420 Cease, cease. I reck not if Achilles drive Her citizens, this moment, forth from Troy, For what are war and war’s concerns to me?
So spake he scorch’d, and all his waters boil’d.
As some huge caldron hisses urged by force 425 Of circling fires and fill’d with melted lard, The unctuous fluid overbubbling[8] streams On all sides, while the dry wood flames beneath, So Xanthus bubbled and his pleasant flood Hiss’d in the fire, nor could he longer flow 430 But check’d his current, with hot steams annoy’d By Vulcan raised. His supplication, then, Importunate to Juno thus he turn’d.
Ah Juno! why assails thy son my streams,
Hostile to me alone? Of all who aid 435 The Trojans I am surely least to blame, Yet even I desist if thou command; And let thy son cease also; for I swear That never will I from the Trojans turn Their evil day, not even when the host 440 Of Greece shall set all Ilium in a blaze.
He said, and by his oath pacified, thus
The white-arm’d Deity to Vulcan spake.
Peace, glorious son! we may not in behalf
Of mortal man thus longer vex a God. 445
Then Vulcan his tremendous fires repress’d,
And down into his gulfy channel rush’d The refluent flood; for when the force was once Subdued of Xanthus, Juno interposed, Although incensed, herself to quell the strife. 450
But contest vehement the other Gods
Now waged, each breathing discord; loud they rush’d And fierce to battle, while the boundless earth Quaked under them, and, all around, the heavens Sang them together with a trumpet’s voice. 455 Jove listening, on the Olympian summit sat Well-pleased, and, in his heart laughing for joy, Beheld the Powers of heaven in battle join’d. Not long aloof they stood. Shield-piercer Mars,
She spake, and Vulcan at her word his fires
Shot dreadful forth; first, kindling on the field, He burn’d the bodies strew’d numerous around Slain by Achilles; arid grew the earth And the flood ceased. As when a sprightly breeze 405 Autumnal blowing from the North, at once Dries the new-water’d garden,[7] gladdening him Who tills the soil, so was the champain dried; The dead consumed, against the River, next, He turn’d the fierceness of his glittering fires. 410 Willows and tamarisks and elms he burn’d, Burn’d lotus, rushes, reeds; all plants and herbs That clothed profuse the margin of his flood. His eels and fishes, whether wont to dwell In gulfs beneath, or tumble in the stream, 415 All languish’d while the artist of the skies Breath’d on them; even Xanthus lost, himself, All force, and, suppliant, Vulcan thus address’d.
Oh Vulcan! none in heaven itself may cope
With thee. I yield to thy consuming fires. 420 Cease, cease. I reck not if Achilles drive Her citizens, this moment, forth from Troy, For what are war and war’s concerns to me?
So spake he scorch’d, and all his waters boil’d.
As some huge caldron hisses urged by force 425 Of circling fires and fill’d with melted lard, The unctuous fluid overbubbling[8] streams On all sides, while the dry wood flames beneath, So Xanthus bubbled and his pleasant flood Hiss’d in the fire, nor could he longer flow 430 But check’d his current, with hot steams annoy’d By Vulcan raised. His supplication, then, Importunate to Juno thus he turn’d.
Ah Juno! why assails thy son my streams,
Hostile to me alone? Of all who aid 435 The Trojans I am surely least to blame, Yet even I desist if thou command; And let thy son cease also; for I swear That never will I from the Trojans turn Their evil day, not even when the host 440 Of Greece shall set all Ilium in a blaze.
He said, and by his oath pacified, thus
The white-arm’d Deity to Vulcan spake.
Peace, glorious son! we may not in behalf
Of mortal man thus longer vex a God. 445
Then Vulcan his tremendous fires repress’d,
And down into his gulfy channel rush’d The refluent flood; for when the force was once Subdued of Xanthus, Juno interposed, Although incensed, herself to quell the strife. 450
But contest vehement the other Gods
Now waged, each breathing discord; loud they rush’d And fierce to battle, while the boundless earth Quaked under them, and, all around, the heavens Sang them together with a trumpet’s voice. 455 Jove listening, on the Olympian summit sat Well-pleased, and, in his heart laughing for joy, Beheld the Powers of heaven in battle join’d. Not long aloof they stood. Shield-piercer Mars,
