And grant, to crown his prosperous fate,
Oblivion of the sorrows past! [1] 90
Her solace too Remembrance yields, 90
Recording in what numerous fields
His hand the noble chaplet gain'd;
While by the favouring powers of heaven
To him were brighter honours given
Than Grecian victor e'er obtain'd: 95
He still, though with enfeebled might,
Like Philoctetes, waged the fight.
Howe'er oppress'd, the brave contend
To sooth him with the name of friend. 100
'Tis said that erst the godlike band 100
Urged with inquiring haste their way
To Lemnos' solitary strand,
Where Pæan's tortured offspring lay;
Without whose bow the fated wall
Of Priam's city ne'er could fall. 105
Though sickness all his powers opposed,
Yet he the Grecian labours closed.
Thus from the deity may Hiero gain
All future joy and respite from his pain.
Then aid me, muse, the lay to raise, 110
Sung to Deinomenes' glad ear—
The pious youth a fathers praise
From conquering steeds will joy to hear. 115
Come, let us find a friendly hymn, to sing
The majesty of Ætna's future king: 115
- ↑ An allusion is here made to Hiero's recovery from a very dangerous illness under which he had been labouring. The transition to the story of Philoctetes, and comparison of that hero with the Sicilian monarch, is highly poetical and just. The scholiast informs us that a covert allusion is here made to Anaxilaus, king of Rhegium; or, as others understand it, to Theron, king of Agrigentum.
