Classic Poem

iii.141

Forthwith readily swathing her head in a sheeny fine linen,
Quick out stepped from her chamber, & dropped a big tear so doing:
Not unattended, for handmaids twain did her footing close follow.
Aithre, daughter of Pitthêus, she, Klymene, too, the ox-eyed.
Soon thereupon in their haste they approached the Dardanian gateways.
So now gathered round Priam & Panthoos, therewith Thymoites,
Lampos, Klytios tall, Hiketaon, a scion of Ares,
Oukalegon, therewith too Antenor, both very clear-headed,
Sat o'er the gates named Skaian assembled the chiefs of the people in council;
Resting from war, in the years' full measure, but speakers persuasive
Were they, like to cicadae, which up some tree of the woodland
Sit on a branch, where they chirp forth notes lily-sweet, lily-slender.
Such ranked there on the tower were the Council-heads of the Trojans.
So now when these had looked on Helen beneath them approaching,
Low the winged words breathed they & in hearing the one of the other.

" Blame can we not the Trojans nay, nor the bright-greaved Achaians,
" That for the sake of yon woman, long they have suffered such evils.
" Fearfully like in her aspect she to the Goddesses deathless!
" Still even so, she such as we see, let her back in the vessels,
" Rather than bring us ruin, to us & our dear children thereafter. "

So then they spake. And Priam meanwhile by her name called to Helen:
" Here in the front take seat, dear my child, since that thou hast come hither,
" Here look on thy first husband, thy kinsfolk, & all thy beloved ones
( " Guilty to me thou'rt not, " tis the Gods in good truth who have wronged me.
" They who have brought upon me this much-bewept war with Achaians),
" So can'st thou name me now the towering warrior yonder;
" Who may he be, this Achaian hero so grand & excelling:
" True, there are others about exceed him in tallness of stature,
" But until now these eyes have not looked upon any so handsome,
" Nor so impressive: a royal man is he truly to look on. "

Helen, then, peerless of women, to him in these words made her answer:
" Thou, dear sire of my lord, thou art reverend to me & awful:
" More should have pleased me bitter death, when that I followed hither
" Him thy son, forsaking my nuptial bed, & my brothers,
" Darling my dAughter, & them, those dear fellows in age, full of graces!
" But it was not so; and that it was not, I sicken with weeping.
" Let me now tell thee the things thou askest of me for instruction.
" Yon is Atreides, he the broad of rule lord Agamemnon,
" Good full sure as a ruler & strong as a warrior he, both:
" Brother by marriage of mine, me shameless, if such one was ever. "

So ran her words: & the old man marvelled to gaze on him, crying:
" Happy art thou, Son of Atreus, blest at thy birth, heaven guided.
" Many in truth are the numbers of those young Achaians, thy subjects.
" I too in the old time unto Phrygia, land of the vine, came,
" Where did I see the Phrygians plentiful, men of fleet coursers,
" People of Otrêus and the men too of eminent Mygdon,
" Who down lengths of the banks of Sangarios had their encampment:
" For, I being then an ally, they counted me one of their number,
" On that day when the man-like Amazons came to attack them:
" Yet not they were so many as many the glad-eyed Achaians. "

Secondly, there on, seeing Odysseus, the old man did question:
" Come now, dear child, & of this one tell me, & who may be this one;
" Shorter he by a head than Atreides, Agamemnon,
" But to behold in the measure of shoulders & chest fully bigger.
" He on the pregnant earth has laid down the weight of his armour,
" While, and like unto a ram, those warriors' rank-lengths he ranges;
" Striking my sight as a very ram of a thick growth of fleeces,
" Busy to form here, there, a great flock of sheep whitely shining. "

Then unto him did Helen, the daughter of Zeus, make her answer:
" That one next is the wary Odysseus, the son of Laertes,
" Reared on the hard-rock soil of Ithaca, though 'tis so barren,
" He at command holds every wile & the counsels of wisdom. "

Then responding to her did utter clear-headed Antenor:
" Lady, the word thou speakest, it is most truthfully spoken:
" Hither in past days once did journey the godlike Odysseus,
" Missioned to treat in thy case, & with Ares-beloved Menelaos:
" Them in my halls I welcomed as guests & I did entertain kindly,
" Whereby learned I the nature of each in his counsels of wisdom.
" Now when the two stood mixed in all the crowd of the Trojans,
" Standing upright, Menelaos was marked for the breadth of his shoulders,
" But, when the two took seats, then the far more majestic Odysseus.
" Natheless when in our presence they wove at the web of their speeches,
" True, Menelaos then had consecutive flow in haranguing,
" Brief, truly, but to the point, for he was a man most laconic,
" Not of the emptily voluble, though in his years he the younger.
" Yet when rose in his turn to address us the wary Odysseus,
" Still he stood, & down did he look, with his eyes fixed earthward,
" Swayed not the sceptre backward & forward, but had it stiff out so;
" You would have said he was dumb in a fury, perchance idiotic;
" But when indeed came forth his mighty voice [from] his bosom,
" On it the words which seemed to fall as the snows fall in winter
" Then with yonder Odysseus none could dispute among mortals:
" Then that form of Odysseus no way more excited amazement. "

Thirdly, further, observing Aias, the old man did question:
" Who may then be this Achaian hero so splendid & mighty,
" Who by a head & broad shoulders outdoes all the crowd of the Argives? "

Him then that long-robed Helen replied to, the peerless of women:
" This is the towering Aias, bulwark he of all Achaians:
" Idomeneus on the farther side, mid his Cretans, & god-like,
" Stands: & around him throng the principal chiefs of the Cretans.
" Often has Menelaos, Ares-beloved, entertained him
" In our house, whensoever from Crete to our land he made voyage.
" Now one & other are clear to me, all of the glad-eyed Achaians,
" Whom I could read right well, & tell off their names in succession.
" But I have failed to set eyes on that pair of chiefs in the army,
" Kastor, tamer of horses, & Polydeukes, the brave boxer,
" Brothers of mine, whom to me did the one sole mother give birth to.