The Iliad by Homer (ereader for textbooks .txt) 📕

and Paris is worsted--Venus carries him
off to save him--Scene between him and Helen.

When the companies were thus arrayed, each under its own captain, the
Trojans advanced as a flight of wild fowl or cranes that scream
overhead when rain and winter drive them over the flowing waters of
Oceanus to bring death and destruction on the Pygmies, and they wrangle
in the air as they fly; but the Achaeans marched silently, in high
heart, and minded to stand by one another.

As when the south wind spreads a curtain of mist upon the mountain
tops, bad for shepherds but better than night for thieves, and a man
can see no further than he can throw a stone, even so rose the dust
from under their feet as they made all speed over the plain.

When they were close up with one another, Alexandrus came forward as
champion on the Trojan side. On his shoulders he bore the skin of a
panther, his bow, and his sword, and he brandished two spears shod with
bronze as a challenge to the bravest of the Achaeans to meet him in
single fight. Menelaus saw him thus stride out before the ranks, and
was glad as a hungry lion that lights on the carcase of some goat or
horned stag, and devours it there and then, though dogs and youths set
upon him. Even thus was Menelaus glad when his eyes caught sight of
Alexandrus, for he deemed that now he should be revenged. He sprang,
therefore, from his chariot, clad in his suit of armour.

Alexandrus quailed as he saw Menelaus come forward, and shrank in fear
of his life under cover of his men. As one who starts back affrighted,
trembling and pale, when he comes suddenly upon a serpent in some
mountain glade, even so did Alexandrus plunge into the throng of Trojan
warriors, terror-stricken at the sight of the son of Atreus.

Then Hector upbraided him. "Paris," said he, "evil-hearted Paris, fair
to see, but woman-mad, and false of tongue, would that you had never
been born, or that you had died unwed. Better so, than live to be
disgraced and looked askance at. Will not the Achaeans mock at us and
say that we have sent one to champion us who is fair to see but who has
neither wit nor courage? Did you not, such as you are, get your
following together and sail beyond the seas? Did you not from your a
far country carry off a lovely woman wedded among a people of
warriors--to bring sorrow upon your father, your city, and your whole
country, but joy to your enemies, and hang-dog shamefacedness to
yourself? And now can you not dare face Menelaus and learn what manner
of man he is whose wife you have stolen? Where indeed would be your
lyre and your love-tricks, your comely locks and your fair favour, when
you were lying in the dust before him? The Trojans are a weak-kneed
people, or ere this you would have had a shirt of stones for the wrongs
you have done them."

And Alexandrus answered, "Hector, your rebuke is just. You are hard as
the axe which a shipwright wields at his work, and cleaves the timber
to his liking. As the axe in his hand, so keen is the edge of your
scorn. Still, taunt me not with the gifts that golden Venus has given
me; they are precious; let not a man disdain them, for the gods give
them where they are minded, and none can have them for the asking. If
you would have me do battle with Menelaus, bid the Trojans and Achaeans
take their seats, while he and I fight in their midst for Helen and all
her wealth. Let him who shall be victorious and prove to be the better
man take the woman and all she has, to bear them to his home, but let
the rest swear to a solemn covenant of peace whereby you Trojans shall
stay here in Troy, while the others go home to Argos and the land of
the Achaeans."

When Hector heard this he was glad, and went about among the Trojan
ranks holding his spear by the middle to keep them back, and they all
sat down at his bidding: but the Achaeans still aimed at him with
stones and arrows, till Agamemnon shouted to them saying, "Hold,
Argives, shoot not, sons of the Achaeans; Hector desires to speak."

They ceased taking aim and were still, whereon Hector spoke. "Hear from
my mouth," said he, "Trojans and Achaeans, the saying of Alexandrus,
through whom this quarrel has come about. He bids the Trojans and
Achaeans lay their armour upon the ground, while he and Menelaus fight
in the midst of you for Helen and all her wealth. Let him who shall be
victorious and prove to be the better man take the woman and all she
has, to bear them to his own home, but let the rest swear to a solemn
covenant of peace."

Thus he spoke, and they all held their peace, till Menelaus of the loud
battle-cry addressed them. "And now," he said, "hear me too, for it is
I who am the most aggrieved. I deem that the parting of Achaeans and
Trojans is at hand, as well it may be, seeing how much have suffered
for my quarrel with Alexandrus and the wrong he did me. Let him who
shall die, die, and let the others fight no more. Bring, then, two
lambs, a white ram and a black ewe, for Earth and Sun, and we will
bring a third for Jove. Moreover, you shall bid Priam come, that he may
swear to the covenant himself; for his sons are high-handed and ill to
trust, and the oaths of Jove must not be transgressed or taken in vain.
Young men's minds are light as air, but when an old man comes he looks
before and after, deeming that which shall be fairest upon both sides."

The Trojans and Achaeans were glad when they heard this, for they
thought that they should now have rest. They backed their chariots
toward the ranks, got out of them, and put off their armour, laying it
down upon the ground; and the hosts were near to one another with a
little space between them. Hector sent two messengers to the city to
bring the lambs and to bid Priam come, while Agamemnon told Talthybius
to fetch the other lamb from the ships, and he did as Agamemnon had
said.

Meanwhile Iris went to Helen in the form of her sister-in-law, wife of
the son of Antenor, for Helicaon, son of Antenor, had married Laodice,
the fairest of Priam's daughters. She found her in her own room,
working at a great web of purple linen, on which she was embroidering
the battles between Trojans and Achaeans, that Mars had made them fight
for her sake. Iris then came close up to her and said, "Come hither,
child, and see the strange doings of the Trojans and Achaeans. Till now
they have been warring upon the plain, mad with lust of battle, but now
they have left off fighting, and are leaning upon their shields,
sitting still with their spears planted beside them. Alexandrus and
Menelaus are going to fight about yourself, and you are to be the wife
of him who is the victor."

Thus spoke the goddess, and Helen's heart yearned after her former
husband, her city, and her parents. She threw a white mantle over her
head, and hurried from her room, weeping as she went, not alone, but
attended by two of her handmaids, Aethrae, daughter of Pittheus, and
Clymene. And straightway they were at the Scaean gates.

The two sages, Ucalegon and Antenor, elders of the people, were seated
by the Scaean gates, with Priam, Panthous, Thymoetes, Lampus, Clytius,
and Hiketaon of the race of Mars. These were too old to fight, but they
were fluent orators, and sat on the tower like cicales that chirrup
delicately from the boughs of some high tree in a wood. When they saw
Helen coming towards the tower, they said softly to one another, "Small
wonder that Trojans and Achaeans should endure so much and so long, for
the sake of a woman so marvellously and divinely lovely. Still, fair
though she be, let them take her and go, or she will breed sorrow for
us and for our children after us."

But Priam bade her draw nigh. "My child," said he, "take your seat in
front of me that you may see your former husband, your kinsmen and your
friends. I lay no blame upon you, it is the gods, not you who are to
blame. It is they that have brought about this terrible war with the
Achaeans. Tell me, then, who is yonder huge hero so great and goodly? I
have seen men taller by a head, but none so comely and so royal. Surely
he must be a king."

"Sir," answered Helen, "father of my husband, dear and reverend in my
eyes, would that I had chosen death rather than to have come here with
your son, far from my bridal chamber, my friends, my darling daughter,
and all the companions of my girlhood. But it was not to be, and my lot
is one of tears and sorrow. As for your question, the hero of whom you
ask is Agamemnon, son of Atreus, a good king and a brave soldier,
brother-in-law as surely as that he lives, to my abhorred and miserable
self."

The old man marvelled at him and said, "Happy son of Atreus, child of
good fortune. I see that the Achaeans are subject to you in great
multitudes. When I was in Phrygia I saw much horsemen, the people of
Otreus and of Mygdon, who were camping upon the banks of the river
Sangarius; I was their ally, and with them when the Amazons, peers of
men, came up against them, but even they were not so many as the
Achaeans."

The old man next looked upon Ulysses; "Tell me," he said, "who is that
other, shorter by a head than Agamemnon, but broader across the chest
and shoulders? His armour is laid upon the ground, and he stalks in
front of the ranks as it were some great woolly ram ordering his ewes."

And Helen answered, "He is Ulysses, a man of great craft, son of
Laertes. He was born in rugged Ithaca, and excels in all manner of
stratagems and subtle cunning."

On this Antenor said, "Madam, you have spoken truly. Ulysses once came
here as envoy about yourself, and Menelaus with him. I received them in
my own house, and therefore know both of them by sight and
conversation. When they stood up in presence of the assembled Trojans,
Menelaus was the broader shouldered, but when both were seated Ulysses
had the more royal presence. After a time they delivered their message,
and the speech of Menelaus ran trippingly on the tongue; he did not say
much, for he was a man of few words, but he spoke very clearly and to
the point, though he was the younger man of the two; Ulysses, on the
other hand, when he rose to speak, was at first silent and kept his
eyes fixed upon the ground. There was no play nor graceful movement of
his sceptre; he kept it straight and stiff like a man unpractised in
oratory--one might have taken him for a mere churl or simpleton; but
when he raised his voice, and the words came driving from his deep
chest like winter snow before the wind, then there was none to touch
him, and no man thought further of what he looked