The minister of stern Eurystheus' ire Against Alcides, Copreus was his sire: The son redeem'd the honours of the race, A son as generous as the sire was base; O'er all his country's youth conspicuous far In every virtue, or of peace or war: But doom'd to Hector's stronger force to yield! Against the margin of his ample shield He struck his hasty foot: his heels up-sprung; Supine he fell; his brazen helmet rung. On the fallen chief the invading Trojan press'd, And plunged the pointed javelin in his breast. His circling friends, who strove to guard too late The unhappy hero, fled, or shared his fate. Chased from the foremost line, the Grecian train Now man the next, receding toward the main: Wedged in one body at the tents they stand, Wall'd round with sterns, a gloomy, desperate band. Now manly shame forbids the inglorious flight; Now fear itself confines them to the fight: Man courage breathes in man; but Nestor most (The sage preserver of the Grecian host) Exhorts, adjures, to guard these utmost shores; And by their parents, by themselves implores. "Oh friends! be men: your generous breasts inflame With mutual honour, and with mutual shame! Think of your hopes, your fortunes; all the care Your wives, your infants, and your parents share: Think of each living father's reverend head; Think of each ancestor with glory dead; Absent, by me they speak, by me they sue, They ask their safety, and their fame, from you: The gods their fates on this one action lay, And all are lost, if you desert the day." He spoke, and round him breathed heroic fires; Minerva seconds what the sage inspires. The mist of darkness Jove around them threw She clear'd, restoring all the war to view; A sudden ray shot beaming o'er the plain, And show'd the shores, the navy, and the main: Hector they saw, and all who fly, or fight, The scene wide-opening to the blaze of light, First of the field great Ajax stri