735
Prepared to strip his arms, but him a shower
Of glittering-weapons keen from Trojan hands
Assail’d, and numerous his broad shield received. 
He, on the body planting firm his heel,
Forth drew the polish’d spear, but his bright arms 740
Took not, by darts thick-flying sore annoy’d,
Nor fear’d he little lest his haughty foes,
Spear-arm’d and bold, should compass him around;
Him, therefore, valiant though he were and huge,
They push’d before them.  Staggering he retired. 745

    Thus toil’d both hosts in that laborious field. 

And now his ruthless destiny impell’d
Tlepolemus, Alcides’ son, a Chief
Dauntless and huge, against a godlike foe
Sarpedon.  They approaching face to face 750
Stood, son and grandson of high-thundering Jove,
And, haughty, thus Tlepolemus began. 

    Sarpedon, leader of the Lycian host,

Thou trembler! thee what cause could hither urge
A man unskill’d in arms?  They falsely speak 755
Who call thee son of AEgis-bearing Jove,
So far below their might thou fall’st who sprang
From Jove in days of old.  What says report
Of Hercules (for him I boast my sire)
All-daring hero with a lion’s heart? 760
With six ships only, and with followers few,
He for the horses of Laomedon
Lay’d Troy in dust, and widow’d all her streets. 
But thou art base, and thy diminish’d powers
Perish around thee; think not that thou earnest 765
For Ilium’s good, but rather, whatsoe’er
Thy force in fight, to find, subdued by me,
A sure dismission to the gates of hell. 

    To whom the leader of the Lycian band. 

Tlepolemus! he ransack’d sacred Troy, 770
As thou hast said, but for her monarch’s fault
Laomedon, who him with language harsh
Requited ill for benefits received,
Nor would the steeds surrender, seeking which
He voyaged from afar.  But thou shalt take 775
Thy bloody doom from this victorious arm,
And, vanquish’d by my spear, shalt yield thy fame
To me, thy soul to Pluto steed-renown’d. 

    So spake Sarpedon, and his ashen beam

Tlepolemus upraised.  Both hurl’d at once 780
Their quivering spears.  Sarpedon’s through the neck
Pass’d of Tlepolemus, and show’d beyond
Its ruthless point; thick darkness veil’d his eyes. 
Tlepolemus with his long lance the thigh
Pierced of Sarpedon; sheer into his bone 785
He pierced him, but Sarpedon’s father, Jove,
Him rescued even on the verge of fate. 

    His noble friends conducted from the field

The godlike Lycian, trailing as he went
The pendent spear, none thinking to extract 790
For his relief the weapon from his thigh,