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149

BOOK VI

The sack of Troy, and how Menelaus would have let stone Helen, but Aphrodite saved her, and made them at one again, and how they came home to Lacedæmon, and of their translation to Elysium.

151

THE SACK OF TROY. THE RETURN OF HELEN

I

There came a day, when Trojan spies beheld
How, o'er the Argive leaguer, all the air
Was pure of smoke, no battle-din there swell'd,
Nor any clarion-call was sounding there!
Yea, of the serried ships the strand was bare,
And sea and shore were still, as long ago
When Ilios knew not Helen, and the fair
Sweet face that makes immortal all her woe.
152

II

So for a space the watchers on the wall
Were silent, wond'ring what these things might mean.
But, at the last, sent messengers to call
Priam, and all the elders, and the lean
Remnant of goodly chiefs, that once had been
The shield and stay of Ilios, and her joy,
Nor yet despair'd, but trusted gods unseen,
And cast their spears, and shed their blood for Troy.

III

They came; the more part gray, grown early old,
In war and plague; but with them was the young
Corœbus, that but late had left the fold
And flocks of sheep Mæonian hills among,
And valiantly his lot with Priam flung,
For love of a lost cause and a fair face—
The eyes the god of Pytho once had sung,
That now look'd darkly to the slaughter-place.
153

IV

Now while the elders kept their long debate,
Corœbus stole unheeded to his band,
And led a handful by a postern gate
Across the plain, across the barren land
Where once the happy vines were wont to stand;
And 'mid the clusters once did maidens sing—
But now the plain was waste on every hand,
Though here and there a flower would breathe of spring.

V

So swift across the trampled battle-field
Unchallenged still, but wary, did they pass,
By many a broken spear or shatter'd shield
That in fate's hour appointed faithless was:
Only the heron cried from the morass
By Xanthus' side, and ravens, and the gray
Wolves left their feasting in the tangled grass,
Grudging; and loiter'd, nor fled far away.
154

VI

There lurk'd no spears in the high river-banks,
No ambush by the cairns of men outworn;
But empty stood the huts, in dismal ranks,
Where men through all these many years had borne
Fierce summer, and the biting winter's scorn;
And here a sword was left, and there a bow;
But ruinous seem'd all things and forlorn,
As in some camp forsaken long ago.

VII

Gorged wolves crept round the altars, and did eat
The flesh of victims that the priests had slain;
And wild dogs fought above the sacred meat
Late offer'd to the deathless gods in vain,
By men that, for reward of all their pain,
Must haul the ropes, and weary at the oar,
Or, drowning, clutch at foam amid the main,
Nor win their haven on the Argive shore.
155

VIII

Not long the young men marvell'd at the sight,
But grasping, one a sword, and one the spear,
Aias, or Tydeus' son, had borne in fight,
They sped, and fill'd the town with merry cheer;
For folk were quick the happy news to hear,
And pour'd through all the gates into the plain,
Rejoicing as they wander'd far and near,
O'er the long Argive toils endured in vain.

IX

Ah, sweet it was, without the city walls,
To hear the doves coo, and the finches sing;
Ah, sweet, to twine their true-loves coronals
Of woven wind-flowers, and each fragrant thing
That blossoms in the footsteps of the spring;
And sweet to lie, forgetful of their grief,
Where violets hide by waters wandering,
And the wild fig-tree putteth forth his leaf!
156

X

Now while they wander'd as they would, they found
A wondrous thing: a marvel of man's skill,
That stood within a vale of hollow ground,
And bulk'd scarce smaller than the bitter hill—
The common barrow that the dead men fill
Who died in the long leaguer—not of earth,
Was this new portent, but of tree, and still
The Trojans stood, and marvell'd 'mid their mirth.

XI

Ay, much they wonder'd what this thing might be;
Shaped like a horse it was; and many a stain
There show'd upon the mighty beams of tree.
For some with fire were blacken'd, some with rain
Were dank and dark amid white planks of plane,
New cut among the trees that now were few
On wasted Ida; but men gazed in vain,
Nor truth thereof for all their searching knew.
157

XII

At length they deem'd it was a sacred thing,
Vow'd to Poseidon, monarch of the deep;
And that herewith the Argives pray'd the king
Of wind and wave to lull the seas to sleep;
So this, they cried, within the sacred keep
Of Troy must rest, memorial of the war;
And sturdily they haled it up the steep,
And dragg'd the monster to their walls afar.

XIII

All day they wrought: and children crown'd with flowers
Laid light hands on the ropes; old men would ply
Their feeble force; so through the merry hours
They toil'd, midst laughter and sweet minstrelsy,
And late they drew the great horse to the high
Crest of the hill, and wide the tall gates swang;
But thrice, for all their force, it stood thereby
Unmoved, and thrice like smitten armour rang.
158

XIV

Natheless they wrought their will; then altar fires
The Trojans built, and did the gods implore
To grant fulfilment of all glad desires.
But from the cups the wine they might not pour,
The flesh upon the spits did writhe and roar,
The smoke grew red as blood, and many a limb
Of victims leap'd upon the temple floor,
Trembling; and groans amid the chapels dim

XV

Rang low, and from the fair gods' images
And from their eyes, dropp'd sweat and many a tear;
The walls with blood were dripping, and on these
That sacrificed, came horror and great fear;
The holy laurels to Apollo dear
Beside his temple faded suddenly,
And wild wolves from the mountains drew anear,
And ravens through the temples seem'd to fly.
159

XVI

Yet still the men of Troy were glad at heart,
And o'er strange meat they revell'd, like folk fey,
Though each would shudder if he glanced apart,
For round their knees the mists were gather'd gray,
Like shrouds on men that hell-ward take their way;
But merrily withal they feasted thus,
And laugh'd with crooked lips, and oft would say
Some evil-sounding word and ominous.

XVII

And Hecuba among her children spake,
‘Let each man choose the meat he liketh best,
For bread no more together shall we break.
Nay, soon from all my labour must I rest.
But eat ye well, and drink the red wine, lest
Ye blame my house-wifery among men dead.’
And all they took her saying for a jest,
And sweetly did they laugh at that she said.
160

XVIII

Then, like a raven on the wind of night,
The wild Cassandra flitted far and near,
Still crying, ‘Gather—gather for the fight,
And brace the helmet on, and grasp the spear,
For lo, the legions of the night are here!’
So shriek'd the dreadful prophetess divine.
But all men mock'd, and were of merry cheer;
Safe as the gods they deem'd them, o'er their wine.

XIX

For now with minstrelsy the air was sweet,
The soft spring air, and thick with incense smoke;
And bands of happy dancers down the street
Flew from the flower-crown'd doors, and wheel'd, and broke;
And loving words the youths and maidens spoke,
For Aphrodite did their hearts beguile,
As when beneath gray cavern or green oak
The shepherd men and maidens meet and smile.
161

XX

How many a strength hath fallen since thy fall,
Ah, Troy! yet still must men remember thee,
Though none doth weep o'er Corinth's funeral,
Nor Carthage left forsaken by the sea,
Orchomenos, nor Thebes, nor Nineveh!
All these have been and are not, but the fate
Of Troy, that never was, how wondrously
It moves our hearts in these swift years and late!

XXI

A castle built in cloud-land; or at most
A crumbling clay-fort on a windy hill,
Where needy men might flee a robber host,
This, this was Troy! and yet she holds us still;
And I that rhyme, right sore against my will
And lingering long before the words of woe,
This ending of my task must I fulfil
And tell the tale of Ilios' overthrow.
162

XXII

No guard men set, for truly to them all
Did love and slumber seem exceeding good;
There was no watch by open gate nor wall,
No sentinel by Pallas' image stood;
But silence grew, as in an autumn wood
When tempests die, and the vex'd boughs have ease,
And wind and sunlight fade, and soft the mood
Of sacred twilight falls upon the trees.

XXIII

Then the stars cross'd the zenith, and there came
On Troy that hour when slumber is most deep,
But any man that watch'd had seen a flame
Spring from the tall crest of the Trojan keep;
While from the belly of the horse did leap
Men arm'd, and to the gates went stealthily,
While up the rocky way to Ilios creep
The Argives, new return'd across the sea.
163

XXIV

Now when the silence broke, and in that hour
When first the dawn of war was blazing red,
There came a light in Helen's fragrant bower,
As on that evil night before she fled
From Lacedæmon and her marriage bed;
And Helen in great fear lay still and cold,
For Aphrodite stood above her head,
And spake in that sweet voice she knew of old:

XXV

‘Beloved one that dost not love me, wake!
Helen, the night is over, the dawn is near;
And safely shalt thou fare with me, and take
Thy way through fire and blood, and have no fear:
A little hour—and ended is the drear
Tale of thy sorrow and thy wandering.
Nay, long hast thou to live in happy cheer,
By fair Eurotas, with thy lord, the king.’
164

XXVI

Then Helen rose, and in a cloud of gold,
Unseen amid the vapour of the fire,
Did Aphrodite veil her, fold on fold;
And through the darkness, thronged with faces dire,
And o'er men's bodies fallen in a mire
Of new spilt blood and wine, the twain did go
Where lust and hate were mingled in desire,
And dreams and death were blended in one woe.

XXVII

Fire and the foe were masters now: the sky
Flared like the dawn of that last day of all,
When men for pity to the sea shall cry,
And vainly on the mountain tops shall call
To fall and end the horror in their fall;
And through the vapour dreadful things saw they,
The maidens leaping from the city wall,
The sleeping children murder'd where they lay.
165

XXVIII

Yea, cries like those that make the hills of hell
Ring and re-echo, sounded through the night,
The screams of burning horses, and the yell
Of young men leaping naked into fight,
And shrill the women shriek'd, as in their flight
Shriek the wild cranes, when overhead they spy
Between the dusky cloud-land and the bright
Blue air, an eagle stooping from the sky.

XXIX

And now the red glare of the burning shone
On deeds so dire the pure gods might not bear,
Save Ares only, long to look thereon,
But with a cloud they darken'd all the air.
And, even then, within the temple fair
Of chaste Athene, did Cassandra cower,
And cried aloud an unavailing prayer;
For Aias was the master in that hour.
166

XXX

Man's lust won what a god's love might not win;
And heroes trembled, and the temple floor
Shook, when one cry went up into the din,
And shamed the night to silence; then the roar
Of war and fire wax'd great as heretofore,
Till each roof fell, and every palace gate
Was shatter'd, and the king's blood shed; nor more
Remain'd to do, for Troy was desolate.

XXXI

Then dawn drew near, and changed to clouds of rose
The dreadful smoke that clung to Ida's head;
But Ilios was ashes, and the foes
Had left the embers and the plunder'd dead;
And down the steep they drove the prey, and sped
Back to the swift ships, with a captive train—
While Menelaus, slow, with drooping head,
Follow'd, like one lamenting, through the plain.
167

XXXII

Where death might seem the surest, by the gate
Of Priam, where the spears raged, and the tall
Towers on the foe were falling, sought he fate
To look on Helen once, and then to fall;
Nor see with living eyes the end of all,
What time the host their vengeance should fulfil,
And cast her from the cliff below the wall,
Or burn her body on the windy hill.

XXXIII

But Helen found he never, where the flame
Sprang to the roofs, and Helen ne'er he found
Where flock'd the wretched women in their shame
The helpess altars of the gods around.
Nor lurk'd she in deep chambers underground,
Where the priests trembled o'er their hidden gold,
Nor where the armèd feet of foes resound
In shrines to silence consecrate of old.
168

XXXIV

So wounded to his hut and wearily
Came Menelaus; and he bow'd his head
Beneath the lintel neither fair nor high;
And, lo! Queen Helen lay upon his bed,
Flush'd like a child in sleep, and rosy-red,
And at his footstep did she wake and smile,
And spake: ‘My lord, how hath thy hunting sped,
Methinks that I have slept a weary while!’

XXXV

For Aphrodite made the past unknown
To Helen, as of old, when in the dew
Of that fair dawn the net was round her thrown:
Nay, now no memory of Troy brake through
The mist that veil'd from her sweet eyes and blue
The dreadful days and deeds all over-past,
And gladly did she greet her lord anew,
And gladly would her arms have round him cast.
169

XXXVI

Then leap'd she up in terror, for he stood
Before her, like a lion of the wild,
His rusted armour all bestain'd with blood,
His mighty hands with blood of men defiled,
And strange was all she saw: the spears, the piled
Raw skins of slaughter'd beasts with many a stain;
And low he spake, and bitterly he smiled,
‘The hunt is ended, and the spoil is ta'en.’

XXXVII

No more he spake; for certainly he deem'd
That Aphrodite brought her to that place,
And that of her loved archer Helen dream'd—
Of Paris; at that thought the mood of grace
Died in him, and he hated her fair face,
And bound her hard, not slacking for her tears;
Then silently departed for a space,
To seek the ruthless counsel of his peers.
170

XXXVIII

Now all the kings were feasting in much joy,
Seated or couch'd upon the carpets fair
That late had strown the palace floors of Troy;
And lovely Trojan ladies served them there,
And meat from off the spits young princes bare;
But Menelaus burst among them all,
Strange 'mid their revelry, and did not spare,
But bade the kings a sudden council call.

XXXIX

To mar their feast the kings had little will,
Yet did they as he bade, in grudging wise;
And heralds call'd the host unto the hill
Heap'd of sharp stones, where ancient Ilus lies.
And forth the people flock'd, as throng'd as flies
That buzz about the milking-pails in spring,
When life awakens under April skies,
And birds from dawning into twilight sing.
171

XL

Then Helen through the camp was driven and thrust,
Till even the Trojan women cried in glee,
‘Ah, where is she in whom was set thy trust,
The queen of love and laughter, where is she?
Behold the last gift that she giveth thee,
Thou of the many loves! to die alone,
And round thy flesh for robes of price to be
The cold close-clinging raiment of sharp stone.’

XLI

Ah, slowly through that trodden field and bare
They pass'd, where scarce the daffodil might spring;
For war had wasted all, but in the air
High overhead the mounting lark did sing;
Then all the army gather'd in a ring
Round Helen, round their torment, trapp'd at last,
And many took up mighty stones to fling
From shards and flints on Ilus' barrow cast.
172

XLII

Then Menelaus to the people spoke,
And swift his wing'd words came as whirling snow,
‘Oh ye that overlong have borne the yoke,
Behold the very fountain of your woe!
For her ye left your dear homes long ago,
On Argive valley or Bœotian plain;
But now the black ships rot from stern to prow,
Who knows if ye shall see your own again?

XLIII

‘Ay, and if home ye win, ye yet may find,
Ye that the winds waft, and the waters bear
To Argos! ye are quite gone out of mind;
Your fathers, dear and old, dishonour'd there;
Your children deem you dead, and will not share
Their lands with you; on mainland or on isle,
Strange men are wooing now the women fair,
And love doth lightly woman's heart beguile.
173

XLIV

‘These sorrows hath this woman wrought alone:
So fall upon her straightway that she die,
And clothe her beauty in a cloak of stone!’
He spake, and truly deem'd to hear her cry
And see the sharp flints straight and deadly fly;
But each man stood and mused on Helen's face,
And her undream'd-of beauty, brought so nigh
On that bleak plain, within that ruin'd place.

XLV

And as in far off days that were to be,
The sense of their own sin did men constrain,
That they must leave the sinful woman free
Who, by their law, had verily been slain,
So Helen's beauty made their anger vain,
And one by one his gather'd flints let fall;
And like men shamed they stole across the plain,
Back to the swift ships and their festival.
174

XLVI

But Menelaus look'd on her and said,
‘Hath no man then condemn'd thee—is there none
To shed thy blood for all that thou hast shed,
To wreak on thee the wrongs that thou hast done?
Nay, as mine own soul liveth, there is one
That will not set thy barren beauty free,
But slay thee to Poseidon and the sun
Before a ship Achaian takes the sea!’

XLVII

Therewith he drew his sharp sword from his thigh
As one intent to slay her: but behold,
A sudden marvel shone across the sky!
A flood of rosy fire, a cloud of gold,
And Aphrodite came from forth the fold
Of wondrous mist, and sudden at her feet
Lotus and crocus on the trampled wold
Brake, and the slender hyacinth was sweet.
175

XLVIII

Then fell the point that never bloodless fell
When spear bit harness in the battle din;
For Aphrodite spake, and like a spell
Wrought her sweet voice persuasive, till within
His heart there lived no memory of sin,
No thirst for vengeance more, but all grew plain,
And wrath was molten in desire to win
The golden heart of Helen once again.

XLIX

Then Aphrodite vanish'd as the day
Passes, and leaves the darkling earth behind;
And overhead the April sky was gray,
But Helen's arms about her lord were twined,
And his round her as clingingly and kind,
As when sweet vines and ivy in the spring
Join their glad leaves, nor tempests may unbind
The woven boughs, so lovingly they cling.
176

L

Noon long was over-past, but sacred night
Beheld them not upon the Ilian shore;
Nay, for about the waning of the light
Their swift ships wander'd on the waters hoar,
Nor stay'd they the Olympians to adore,
So eagerly they left that cursed land,
But many a toil, and tempests great and sore,
Befell them ere they won the Argive strand.

LI

To Cyprus and Phœnicia wandering
They came, and many a ship, and many a man
They lost, and perish'd many a precious thing
While bare before the stormy north they ran;
And further far than when their quest began
From Argos did they seem—a weary while—
Becalm'd in sultry seas Egyptian,
A long day's voyage from the mouths of Nile.
177

LII

But there the gods had pity on them, and there
The ancient Proteus taught them how to flee
From that so distant deep—the fowls of air
Scarce in one year can measure out that sea;
Yet first within Ægyptus must they be,
And hecatombs must offer—quickly then
The gods abated of their jealousy,
Wherewith they scourge the negligence of men.

LIII

And strong and fair the south wind blew, and flect
Their voyaging, so merrily they fled
To win that haven where the waters sweet
Of clear Eurotas with the brine are wed;
And swift their chariots and their horses sped
To pleasant Lacedæmon, lying low
Gray in the shade of sunset; but the head
Of tall Taygetus like fire did glow.
178

LIV

And what but this is sweet: at last to win
The fields of home, that change not while we change;
To hear the birds their ancient song begin;
To wander by the well-loved streams that range
Where not one pool, one moss-clad stone is strange;
Nor seem we older than long years ago,
Though now beneath the gray roof of the grange
The children dwell of them we used to know?

LV

Came there no trouble in the later days
To mar the life of Helen, when the old
Crowns and dominions perish'd, and the blaze
Lit by returning Heraclidæ roll'd
Through every vale and every happy fold
Of all the Argive land? Nay, peacefully
Did Menelaus and the Queen behold
The counted years of mortal life go by.
179

LVI

‘Death ends all tales’, but this he endeth not;
They grew not gray within the valley fair
Of hollow Lacedæmon, but were brought
To Rhadamanthus of the golden hair,
Beyond the wide world's end; ah, never there
Comes storm nor snow; all grief is left behind,
And men immortal, in enchanted air,
Breathe the cool current of the western wind.

LVII

But Helen was a saint in heathendom,
A kinder Aphrodite; without fear
Maidens and lovers to her shrine would come
In fair Therapnæ, by the waters clear
Of swift Eurotas; gently did she hear
All prayers of love, and not unheeded came
The broken supplication, and the tear
Of man or maiden overweigh'd with shame.
180

O'er Helen's shrine the grass is growing green,
In desolate Therapnæ; none the less
Her sweet face now unworshipp'd and unseen
Abides the symbol of all loveliness,
Of Beauty ever stainless in the stress
Of warring lusts and fears; and still divine,
Still ready with immortal peace to bless
Them that with pure hearts worship at her shrine.
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