Note 267 — THE SHIELD OF HERCULES.
George Chapman translation
Hung The charioteers.]
This may be compared with the chariot-race at the funeral games of Patroclus, in the Iliad, xxiii. 362, to which, however, it is very inferior.
All raised the lash together; with the reins All smote their steeds, and urged them to the strife Vociferating: they with rapid pace Scouring the field soon left the fleet afar. Dark, like a stormy cloud, uprose the dust Beneath them, and their undulating manes Play’d in the breezes: now the level field With gliding course, the rugged now they pass’d With bounding wheels aloft: meantime erect The drivers stood: with palpitating heart Each sought the prize: each urged his steeds aloud; They, flying, fill’d with dust the darken’d air. Cowper.
This description apparently suggested to Virgil the chariot-race in the Georgics iii. 402, which Dryden has rendered with all the fire of the original.