'
Therewith
all the Dardanians murmured assent, and bade
yield him the promised prize.
yield him the promised prize.
Virgil - Aeneid
Diores supports him, who succeeded to
the palm, so he loudly cries, and bore off the last prize in vain, if
the highest honours be restored to Salius. Then lord Aeneas speaks: 'For
you, O boys, your rewards remain assured, and none alters the prizes'
order: let me be allowed to pity a friend's innocent mischance. ' So
speaking, he gives to Salius a vast Gaetulian lion-skin, with shaggy
masses of hair and claws of gold. 'If this,' cries Nisus, 'is the reward
of defeat, and thy pity is stirred for the fallen, what fit recompense
wilt thou give to Nisus? to my excellence the first crown was due, had
not I, like Salius, met Fortune's hostility. ' And with the words he
displayed his face and limbs foul with the wet dung. His lord laughed
kindly on him, and bade a shield be brought forth, the workmanship of
Didymaon, torn by him from the hallowed gates of Neptune's Grecian
temple; with this special prize he rewards his excellence.
Thereafter, when the races are finished and the gifts fulfilled: 'Now,'
he cries, 'come, whoso hath in him valour and ready heart, and lift up
his arms with gauntleted hands. ' So speaks he, and sets forth a double
prize of battle; for the conqueror a bullock gilt and garlanded; a sword
and beautiful helmet to console the conquered. Straightway without pause
Dares issues to view in his vast strength, rising amid loud murmurs of
the people; he who alone was wont to meet Paris in combat; he who, at
the mound where princely Hector lies, struck down as he came the vast
bulk upborne by conquering Butes, of Amycus' Bebrycian line, and
stretched him in [374-410]death on the yellow sand. Such was Dares; at
once he raises his head high for battle, displays his broad shoulders,
and stretches and swings his arms right and left, lashing the air with
blows. For him another is required; but none out of all the train durst
approach or put the gloves on his hands. So he takes his stand exultant
before Aeneas' feet, deeming he excelled all in victories; and thereon
without more delay grasps the bull's horn with his left hand, and speaks
thus: 'Goddess-born, if no man dare trust himself to battle, to what
conclusion shall I stand? how long is it seemly to keep me? bid me carry
off thy gifts.
' Therewith all the Dardanians murmured assent, and bade
yield him the promised prize. At this aged Acestes spoke sharply to
Entellus, as he sate next him on the green cushion of grass: 'Entellus,
bravest of heroes once of old in vain, wilt thou thus idly let a gift so
great be borne away uncontested? Where now prithee is divine Eryx, thy
master of fruitless fame? where thy renown over all Sicily, and those
spoils hanging in thine house? ' Thereat he: 'Desire of glory is not
gone, nor ambition checked by fear; but torpid age dulls my chilly
blood, and my strength of limb is numb and outworn. If I had what once
was mine, if I had now that prime of years, yonder braggart's boast and
confidence, it had taken no prize of goodly bullock to allure me; nor
heed I these gifts. ' So he spoke, and on that flung down a pair of
gloves of giant weight, with whose hard hide bound about his wrists
valiant Eryx was wont to come to battle. They stood amazed; so stiff and
grim lay the vast sevenfold oxhide sewed in with lead and iron. Dares
most of all shrinks far back in horror, and the noble son of Anchises
turns round this way and that their vast weight and voluminous folds.
Then the old man spoke thus in deep accents: 'How, had they seen the
gloves [411-444]that were Hercules' own armour, and the fatal fight on
this very beach? These arms thy brother Eryx once wore; thou seest them
yet stained with blood and spattered brains. In them he stood to face
great Alcides; to them was I used while fuller blood supplied me
strength, and envious old age had not yet strewn her snows on either
temple. But if Dares of Troy will have none of these our arms, and good
Aeneas is resolved on it, and my patron Acestes approves, let us make
the battle even. See, I give up the gauntlets of Eryx; dismiss thy
fears; and do thou put off thy Trojan gloves. ' So spoke he, and throwing
back the fold of his raiment from his shoulders, he bares the massive
joints and limbs, the great bones and muscles, and stands up huge in the
middle of the ground. Then Anchises' lordly seed brought out equal
gloves and bound the hands of both in matched arms.
the palm, so he loudly cries, and bore off the last prize in vain, if
the highest honours be restored to Salius. Then lord Aeneas speaks: 'For
you, O boys, your rewards remain assured, and none alters the prizes'
order: let me be allowed to pity a friend's innocent mischance. ' So
speaking, he gives to Salius a vast Gaetulian lion-skin, with shaggy
masses of hair and claws of gold. 'If this,' cries Nisus, 'is the reward
of defeat, and thy pity is stirred for the fallen, what fit recompense
wilt thou give to Nisus? to my excellence the first crown was due, had
not I, like Salius, met Fortune's hostility. ' And with the words he
displayed his face and limbs foul with the wet dung. His lord laughed
kindly on him, and bade a shield be brought forth, the workmanship of
Didymaon, torn by him from the hallowed gates of Neptune's Grecian
temple; with this special prize he rewards his excellence.
Thereafter, when the races are finished and the gifts fulfilled: 'Now,'
he cries, 'come, whoso hath in him valour and ready heart, and lift up
his arms with gauntleted hands. ' So speaks he, and sets forth a double
prize of battle; for the conqueror a bullock gilt and garlanded; a sword
and beautiful helmet to console the conquered. Straightway without pause
Dares issues to view in his vast strength, rising amid loud murmurs of
the people; he who alone was wont to meet Paris in combat; he who, at
the mound where princely Hector lies, struck down as he came the vast
bulk upborne by conquering Butes, of Amycus' Bebrycian line, and
stretched him in [374-410]death on the yellow sand. Such was Dares; at
once he raises his head high for battle, displays his broad shoulders,
and stretches and swings his arms right and left, lashing the air with
blows. For him another is required; but none out of all the train durst
approach or put the gloves on his hands. So he takes his stand exultant
before Aeneas' feet, deeming he excelled all in victories; and thereon
without more delay grasps the bull's horn with his left hand, and speaks
thus: 'Goddess-born, if no man dare trust himself to battle, to what
conclusion shall I stand? how long is it seemly to keep me? bid me carry
off thy gifts.
' Therewith all the Dardanians murmured assent, and bade
yield him the promised prize. At this aged Acestes spoke sharply to
Entellus, as he sate next him on the green cushion of grass: 'Entellus,
bravest of heroes once of old in vain, wilt thou thus idly let a gift so
great be borne away uncontested? Where now prithee is divine Eryx, thy
master of fruitless fame? where thy renown over all Sicily, and those
spoils hanging in thine house? ' Thereat he: 'Desire of glory is not
gone, nor ambition checked by fear; but torpid age dulls my chilly
blood, and my strength of limb is numb and outworn. If I had what once
was mine, if I had now that prime of years, yonder braggart's boast and
confidence, it had taken no prize of goodly bullock to allure me; nor
heed I these gifts. ' So he spoke, and on that flung down a pair of
gloves of giant weight, with whose hard hide bound about his wrists
valiant Eryx was wont to come to battle. They stood amazed; so stiff and
grim lay the vast sevenfold oxhide sewed in with lead and iron. Dares
most of all shrinks far back in horror, and the noble son of Anchises
turns round this way and that their vast weight and voluminous folds.
Then the old man spoke thus in deep accents: 'How, had they seen the
gloves [411-444]that were Hercules' own armour, and the fatal fight on
this very beach? These arms thy brother Eryx once wore; thou seest them
yet stained with blood and spattered brains. In them he stood to face
great Alcides; to them was I used while fuller blood supplied me
strength, and envious old age had not yet strewn her snows on either
temple. But if Dares of Troy will have none of these our arms, and good
Aeneas is resolved on it, and my patron Acestes approves, let us make
the battle even. See, I give up the gauntlets of Eryx; dismiss thy
fears; and do thou put off thy Trojan gloves. ' So spoke he, and throwing
back the fold of his raiment from his shoulders, he bares the massive
joints and limbs, the great bones and muscles, and stands up huge in the
middle of the ground. Then Anchises' lordly seed brought out equal
gloves and bound the hands of both in matched arms.
