Alexander Pope: Selected Poetry and Prose

So many flames before proud Ilion blaze,
And lighten glimmering Xanthus with their rays.
The long reflections of the distant fires
Gleam on the walls, and tremble on the spires.
A thousand piles the dusky horrors gild,
And shoot a shady lustre o’er the field. 20
Full fifty guards each flaming pile attend,
Whose umbered arms, by fits, thick flashes send,
Loud neigh the coursers o’er their heaps of corn,
And ardent warriors wait the rising morn.

from the twelfth and sixteenth books of the Iliad

The episode of Sarpedon

from The Argument

Sarpedon, the son of Jupiter, commanded the Lycians who
came to the aid of Troy. In the first battle when Diomedes had
put the Trojans to flight, he encouraged Hector to rally and
signalized himself by the death of Tlepolemus. Afterwards
when the Greeks had raised a fortification to cover their fleet,
which the Trojans endeavoured to overthrow, this prince was
the occasion of effecting it. He incites Glaucus to second him
in this action by an admirable speech.

Thus godlike Hector and his troops contend
To force the ramparts, and the gates to rend:
Nor Troy could conquer, nor the Greeks would yield,
Till great Sarpedon towered amid the field:
For mighty Jove inspired with martial flame
His matchless son, and urged him on to fame.
In arms he shines, conspicuous from afar,
And bears aloft his ample shield in air;
Within whose orb the thick bull-hides were rolled,
Ponderous with brass, and bound with ductile gold: 10
And while two pointed javelins arm his hands,
Majestic moves along, and leads his Lycian bands.
So pressed with hunger, from the mountain’s brow

[270–8]