Lines 454-595

And Aphrodite of many counsels, putting on the likeness of hoary age, came to Argive Helen with crafty intent and called her forth and spake to her with persuasive voice: "Dear lady, thy valiant husband Menelaus calls thee. He is hidden in the wooden horse, and round him lie ambushed the leaders of the Achaeans, wooers of war in thy cause. But come and heed no longer ancient Priam nor the other Trojans nor Deiphobus himself. For now I give thee to much enduring Menelaus.”

So spake the goddess and ran away again, But Helen, her heart beguiled by craft, left her fragrant chamber, and her husband Deiphobus followed her. And as she went, the Trojan women of trailing tunics gazed upon her. And when she came to the high-roofed temple of Athena, she stood and scanned the form of the well-manned horse. Three times she walked round it and provoked the Argives, naming all the fair-tressed wives of the Achaeans with her clear voice. And their hearts were torn within them with grief and they restrained their pent up tears in silence. Groaned Menelaus when he heard the daughter of Tyndareus: wept the son of Tydeus remembering Aegialeia: the name of Penelope stirred the heart of Odysseus: but only Anticlus, stung by the name of Laodameia, opened his lips and essayed answering speech. But Odysseus leapt upon him and fell about him with both his hands and restrained him while he strove to open his lips, and, seizing his mouth in escapeless fetters unbreakable, held him masterfully. And he writhed under the pressure of his hands, essaying to escape the giant bonds of murderous silence. And breath that gives men life forsook him; and the other Achaeans wept for him with secret tears and hid him away in the hollow flank of the horse, and cast a coverlet over his chilly limbs.

And now would the crafty woman have beguiled another of the Achaeans, had not fierce-eyed Pallas met her from the sky and threatened her and led her forth from her dear temple, appearing unto her alone, and sent her away with stern voice: “Wretch, how far shall thy sinfulness carry thee and thy passion for alien wedlock and the infatuation of Cypris? And thou hast never any pity for thy former husband nor any yearning for thy daughter Hermione, but helpest still the Trojans? Withdraw and go up into thy upper room in the house and with kindly fire welcome the ships of the Achaeans.”

So she spake and shattered the woman’s empty deceit. And Helen passed to her chamber, while they ceased from the dance, filled with weariness, and fell on sleep. The lyre rested, the weary flute lay beside the mixing-bowl, and many a cup fell from the drooping hand and flowed of itself. Peace, the companion of night, browsed about the city; and no baying of dogs was heard but perfect silence reigned, inviting slaughter-breathing battle. And now Zeus, dispenser of war, weighed the Balance of destruction for the Trojans, and hardly and at last rallied the Achaeans. Phoebus Apollo withdrew from Ilios to his rich shrine in Lycia, grieving over his mighty walls. And straightway beside the tomb of Achilles Sinon showed his message to the Argives with his shining brand. And all night long fair Helen herself also displayed from her chamber to her friends her golden torch. And even as when the moon, full with grey fire, gilds with her face the gleaming heaven: not when, sharpening her pointed horns, she first shines, rising in the shadowless dusk of the month, but when, orbing the rounded radiance of her eye, she draws to herself the reflected rays of the sun: even so did the lady of Therapne on that night in her radiance lift up her wine-hued arm, directing the friendly fire. And when they beheld the gleam of the beacon on high, the Argives speedily set back their ships on the path of return, and every mariner made haste, seeking to find an end of the long war. They were at once sailors and stout warriors and called each on the other to row. So the ships, swifter than the speedy winds, with obedient rush sailed unto Ilios by the help of Poseidon. And there the foot soldiers went in front, while the horsemen fell behind, in order that the horses might not rouse the people of Troy by their loud neighing.

And those others poured from the carven belly of the horse, armed princes, even as bees from an oak: which when they have laboured within the capacious hive, weaving the sweet honeycomb with cunning art, pour from their vaulted nest to the pasture and vex the passing wayfarers with their stings: even so the Danaans undid the bolts of their secret ambush and leapt upon the Trojans and, while they still slept, shrouded them in evil dreams of brazen death. The earth swam with blood, and a cry unceasing arose from the fleeing Trojans, and sacred Ilios was straitened with falling corpses, while those others with murderous tumult raged this way and that, like mad lions, bridging the streets with new-slain bodies. And the Trojan women heard from their roofs and some, still thirsting for beloved liberty, submitted their necks to their wretched husbands for slaughter: mothers over their dear children, like light swallows, made lament: and many a young bride wept for her young husband quivering in his death struggle and was fain to die herself, and willed not to follow in the chains of captivity, but roused to anger her unwilling slayer and won to share the death-bed that was owing to her spouse. And many who bare within them breathless children whose months were not yet fulfilled, shed untimely the travail of the womb and died a chilly death, themselves too, with their children.

And Enyo, revelling in the drunkenness of unmixed blood, danced all night throughout the city, like a hurricane, turbulent with the waves of surging war. And therewithal Strife lifted her head high as heaven and stirred up the Argives; since even bloody Ares, late but even so, came and brought to the Danaans the changeful victory in war and his help that is now for these and anon for those. And on the acropolis grey-eyed Athena uttered her voice and shook her aegis, the shield of Zeus; and the sky trembled as Hera bestirred her, and the heavy earth rang as it was shaken by the three-toothed spear of Poseidon. And Hades shuddered and looked forth from his seat under earth, afraid lest in the great anger of Zeus Hermes, conductor of souls, should bring down all the race of men.

And all things were confounded together and there was slaughter without discretion. For some in flight they slew standing by the Scaean gates: one leapt from this bed and, seeking his arms, fell upon a darkling spear; one hidden in his shadowy house invited as his guest one whom he deemed to be a friend: fool! no friendly man was he to meet but got hateful gifts of his hospitality; another over his roof, while yet he looked not, fell by the swift arrow. And some, their hearts weighed down with grievous wine, in terror at the din, hasting to come down, forgot the ladder and fell unwitting from the lofty roofs and luxed and brake the bones of their necks, and therewith spewed forth wine. And many gathered together in one place were slain as they fought and many, as they were pursued, fell from the towers into the house of Hades, leaping their latest leap. And a few through a narrow hollow, like thieves, escaped unnoticed from the storm of their perishing fatherland. Others within, in the surge of war and darkness, like to men gone rather than to men fleeing, fell one above the other. And the city could not contain the filth, desolate of men but over-full of dead.