prizes of such value to be carried off thus uncontested? where is now that god of ours, Eryx, whom you in vain gave out to be your master? where is your fame so celebrated through all Trinacria? where are the spoils that used to hang from your roof? He to this replies: It is not that my thirst of praise is gone, or that my sense of honour is by fear extinguished: but my frozen blood languishes through enfeebling age, and the strength worn out in my body is benumbed. Did I but now enjoy that youth which once I had, and wherein that varlet triumphs with vain confidence, then would I have taken the field; not indeed induced by the tempting prize of this fair bullock, for I regard not rewards. Thus having spoken, he then throws into the middle two gauntlets of huge weight; wherewith fierce Eryx was wont to arm for the fight, and brace his arms with the stubborn hide. Amazement seized their minds, to see seven huge folds of vast oxen stiffening with lead and iron sewed within. Above all Dares himself stands aghast, and utterly declines the combat; and the magnanimous son of Anchises this way and that way poises the weight and complicated folds of the gauntlets. Then the aged champion thus addressed himself to the hero: What if any of you had seen the gauntlet and arms of Hercules himself, and the bloody combat on this very shore? These arms your brother Eryx formerly wore. You see them yet stained with blood and spattered brains. With these he stood against Alcides; with these I was wont to combat, while better blood supplied me with strength, nor envious age as yet had scattered grey hairs over my temples. But if Trojan Dares decline these our arms, and if the pious Æneas be so determined, and Acestes, who prompts me to the fight, likewise approve, let us be equally matched: to oblige you I lay aside the weapons of Eryx: dismiss your fears, and do you put off your Trojan gauntlets. This said, he flung from his shoulders his double vest, and bared his large sinewy limbs, his big bones and arms, and stood forth in his huge dimensions in the middle of the field. Then the princely son of Anchises brought forth equal Et paribus palmas amborum innexuit armis. 425 430 435 440 44.5 Ipse gravis, graviterque ad terram pondere vasto Concidit; ut quondam cava concidit aut Erymantho, Aut Ida in magnâ, radicibus eruta pinus. Consurgunt studiis Teucri et Trinacria pubes: 450 It clamor cœlo; primusque accurrit Acestes, 4.55 48. Auctor. Acestes is so called because it was by his persuasion that Entellus engaged in the combat. gauntlets, and bound both their hands with equal arms. Forthwith each on his tip-toes stood erect, and undaunted raised his arms aloft in air. Far from the blow they backward withdrew their towering heads: now hand to hand they join in close encounter, and provoke the fight; the one having the advantage in agility of foot, and relying on his youth; the other surpassing in limbs and bulk; but his feeble knees sink under his trembling body; the thick pantings of age and decayed lungs shake his vast frame. The heroes deal many blows to one another with erring aim, and many on the hollow sides redouble; from their breasts the thumps resound aloud; and round their ears and temples thick strokes at random fly; their jaws crackle under the heavy blows. Entellus stands stiff and unmoved in the same firm posture, only with his body and watchful eyes evades the strokes. The other, as one who besieges a lofty city with batteries, or under arms besets a fort on a hill, explores now these, now those approaches, and artfully traverses the whole ground, and pursues his attack with various assaults, still baffled. Entellus, rising to a stroke, extended his right arm, and lifted it on high: the other nimbly foresaw the blow descending from above, and with agility of body shifting, slipped from under it. Entellus spent his strength on the wind; and, both by the force of his own natural weight, and the violence of the motion, falls to the ground of himself with his vast ponderous bulk; as sometimes, on Erymanthus or spacious Ida, a hollow pine torn from the roots tumbles down at once. The Trojan -and Sicilian youth rise together with different affections: their acclamations pierce the skies; and Acestes first advances in haste, and in pity raises from the ground his friend of equal age. But the hero, not disabled or daunted by his fall, returns to the combat more fierce, and indignation rouses his spirit: then shame and conscious worth set all the powers of his soul on fire: and now inflamed he drives Dares headlong over the whole plain, redoubling blows on blows, sometimes with the right-hand, sometimes with the left. No stop; Nec mora, nec requies. Quam multâ grandine nimbi Sternitur, exanimisque tremens procumbit humi bos. Hanc tibi, Eryx, meliorem animam pro morte Daretis Protinus Æneas celeri certare sagittâ Invitat qui forte velint, et premia ponit; 460 465 470 475 480 485 490 467. Deo probably refers to that god by whom Entellus was aided. no stay as thick showers of hail come rattling down on the house-tops, so with thick repeated blows the hero thumps Dares with each hand, and tosses him hither and thither. Then father Æneas suffered not their fury longer to exert itself, nor Entellus to rage with such fierce animosity; but put a period to the combat, and rescued Dares quite overpowered, soothing him with soft address, and bespeaks him in these terms: Unhappy! what strong infatuation possessed your mind? Are you not sensible of his having foreign assistance, and that the gods have changed sides? Yield to the deity. He said, and by his word decided the combat. As for Dares, his trusty companions conduct him to the ships, dragging his feeble limbs, and tossing his head to either side, disgorging from his throat clotted gore, and teeth mingled with his blood; and, at Æneas' call, they take the helmet and sword, but leave the palm and bull to Entellus. At this the conqueror, in soul elated, and proud of his prize, says, Goddess-born, and ye Trojans, hence know both what strength I have had in my youthful limbs, and from what imminent death you have saved Dares. He said, and stood against the front of the opposite bull that was set for the prize of the combat, and, rearing himself up, with his right-hand drawn back, levelled the cruel gauntlets directly between the horns, and, battering the skull, drove through the bones. Down drops the ox, and, in the pangs of death, falls sprawling to the ground. Then over him he utters these words: This life, more acceptable, O Eryx, I give thee in exchange for Dares' death: here victorious I resign the gauntlets with my art. Æneas forthwith invites such as may be willing to try their skill in shooting the swift arrow, and sets the prizes in their view; and with his mighty hand raises a mast taken from Serestus' ship, and from the high mast hangs a fluttering dove by a rope thrust through the mast, at which they may aim their shafts. The competitors assemble; and a brazen helmet received the shuffled lots. The lot of Hippocoön, the son of Hyrtacus, comes |