Note 280 — ARRIAN ON COURSING.
William Dansey translation
Ὅμηρος ἐν τῇ ποιήσει. Arrian alludes to the contest for the prize of archery, at the games celebrated by Achilles on the occasion of the funeral of his friend Patroclus. I give Pope’s translation of the passage:
Iliad B. xxiii. vs. 1020.
To the tall top a milk-white dove they tie, The trembling mark at which their arrows fly. “Whose weapon strikes yon fluttering bird, shall bear These two-edged axes, terrible in war; The single he, whose shaft divides the cord.” He said: experienced Merion took the word; And skilful Teucer: in the helm they threw Their lots inscribed, and forth the latter flew. Swift from the string the sounding arrow flies; But flies unblest! No grateful sacrifice, No firstling lambs, unheedful! didst thou vow To Phœbus, patron of the shaft and bow. For this, thy well-aim’d arrow, turn’d aside, Err’d from the dove, yet cut the cord that tied: Adown the mainmast fell the parted string, And the free bird to heav’n displays her wing: Seas, shores, and skies with loud applause resound, And Merion eager meditates the wound: He takes the bow, directs the shaft above, And following with his eye the soaring dove, Implores the god to speed it through the skies, With vows of firstling lambs, and grateful sacrifice. The dove, in airy circles as she wheels Amid the clouds, the piercing arrow feels: Quite through and through the point its passage found, And at his feet fell bloody to the ground.