Page:The Odyssey of Homer, with the Hymns, Epigrams, and Battle of the Frogs and Mice (Buckley 1853).djvu/384

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348
THE BATTLE OF THE FROGS AND MICE.
279—294.

bolt, the weapon of Jove, and it flew down from the hand of the king. Having hurled it, he terrified all[1] both frogs and mice. But not even thus did the army of the mice rest, but still the more desired to lay waste the race of warrior frogs; unless the son of Saturn had compassionated the frogs, [looking down] from Olympus, who indeed then forthwith sent allies to the frogs. And they came anvil-backed,[2] curve-clawed, sidelong in gait, squinting, their mouths armed with pincers, shell-clad, bony, wide-backed, shining on the shoulders, crook-kneed, with outstretched hands, having sight in their breasts, eight-footed, two-headed, not to be handled, and they are called Crabs, who indeed with their mouths clipped off the tails, and feet, and hands of the mice, and their spears were bent. These too the timid mice dreaded, nor awaited them; but they turned to flight, and the sun now set, and the end of the war was brought to pass in one day.

  1. Cf. Hor. Od. i. 2, 2, "et rubente Fulmine sacras juculatus arces, terruit urbem; terruit gentes."
  2. Compare Cowper's spirited version: