"In mighty deeds the boy Achilles played,
Still homed in Chiron's fostering shade:
The steel-tipped spear he threw,
Swift as the wind the roaring lion slew!
He tamed the tusky savage of the wild,
Then laid each grim expiring brute
Down at the mighty Master's feet, and smiled.
So wrought the six years' child!—Diana mute
Beheld with wondering joy,
And great Athene gazed upon the wondrous boy."—(S.)
From Pindar's frequent enumerations of the same hero's later exploits we may select the following:[1]—
"Soon the voice of Bards with loud acclaiming
Told how by young Achilles slain,
Amid the vines on Mysia's plain,
The blood of vanquished Telephus was streaming.
He won Atrides' ravished bride,
He bridged wide Ocean for their safe return,
He dashed to earth the Trojan pride,
Which fain had curbed the prowess stern,
The spear which thundering from afar
Marshalled the mighty wave of dreadful war.
Fell Hector in the unequal fight,
Fell the great Memnon's swarthy might;
To many a chief of noble fame
He oped the gloomy gate of Proserpine."—(S.)
In the Fifth Isthmian, Heracles is described as visiting Telamon, and praying that a noble son may be born to his friend. Pointing to the memorial of his own supreme achievement, the hide of the Nemean lion which hung on his shoulders, he asks that the spirit of that mighty monster may revive in the child of
- ↑ Isthm. vii. 47.
