您可以在百度里搜索“National Epics 艾草文学(www.321553.xyz)”查找最新章节！

　　SELECTIONS FROM THE ILIAD.

　　HELEN AT THE SCAEAN GATES.

　　Paris, moved by the reproaches of Hector, proposed that the nine years' indecisive war be settled by single combat between himself and Menelaus, the victor to take Helen and the treasure. Greeks and Trojans agreed to this proposition, and the tidings of the approaching combat were borne to Helen by Iris.

　　In the heart of Helen woke

　　Dear recollections of her former spouse

　　And of her home and kindred. Instantly

　　She left her chamber, robed and veiled in white,

　　And shedding tender tears; yet not alone,

　　For with her went two maidens,—Aethra, child

　　Of Pitheus, and the large-eyed Clymene.

　　Straight to the Scaean gates they walked, by which

　　Panthoüs, Priam, and Thymoetes sat,

　　Lampus and Clytius, Hicetaon sprung

　　From Mars, Antenor and Ucalegon,

　　Two sages,—elders of the people all.

　　Beside the gates they sat, unapt, through age,

　　For tasks of war, but men of fluent speech,

　　Like the cicadas that within the wood

　　Sit on the trees and utter delicate sounds.

　　Such were the nobles of the Trojan race

　　Who sat upon the tower. But when they marked

　　The approach of Helen, to each other thus

　　With winged words, but in low tones, they said:—

　　"Small blame is theirs, if both the Trojan knights

　　And brazen-mailed Achaians have endured

　　So long so many evils for the sake

　　Of that one woman. She is wholly like

　　In feature to the deathless goddesses.

　　So be it: let her, peerless as she is,

　　Return on board the fleet, nor stay to bring

　　Disaster upon us and all our race."

　　So spake the elders. Priam meantime called

　　To Helen: "Come, dear daughter, sit by me.

　　Thou canst behold thy former husband hence,

　　Thy kindred and thy friends. I blame thee not;

　　The blame is with the immortals who have sent

　　These pestilent Greeks against me. Sit and name

　　For me this mighty man, the Grecian chief,

　　Gallant and tall. True, there are taller men;

　　But of such noble form and dignity

　　I never saw: in truth, a kingly man."

　　And Helen, fairest among women, thus

　　Answered: "Dear second father, whom at once

　　I fear and honor, would that cruel death

　　Had overtaken me before I left,

　　To wander with thy son, my marriage bed,

　　And my dear daughter, and the company

　　Of friends I loved. But that was not to be;

　　And now I pine and weep. Yet will I tell

　　What thou dost ask. The hero whom thou seest

　　Is the wide-ruling Agamemnon, son

　　Of Atreus, and is both a gracious king

　　And a most dreaded warrior. He was once

　　Brother-in-law to me, if I may speak—

　　Lost as I am to shame—of such a tie."

　　She said, the aged man admired, and then

　　He spake again: "O son of Atreus, born

　　Under a happy fate, and fortunate

　　Among the sons of men! A mighty host

　　Of Grecian youths obey thy rule. I went

　　To Phrygia once,—that land of vines,—and there

　　Saw many Phrygians, heroes on fleet steeds,

　　The troops of Otreus, and of Mygdon, shaped

　　Like one of the immortals. They encamped

　　By the Sangarius. I was an ally;

　　My troops were ranked with theirs upon the day

　　When came the unsexed Amazons to war.

　　Yet even there I saw not such a host

　　As this of black-eyed Greeks who muster here."

　　Then Priam saw Ulysses, and inquired:—

　　"Dear daughter, tell me also who is that,

　　Less tall than Agamemnon, yet more broad

　　In chest and shoulders. On the teeming earth

　　His armor lies, but he, from place to place,

　　Walks round among the ranks of soldiery,

　　As when the thick-fleeced father of the flocks

　　Moves through the multitude of his white sheep."

　　And Jove-descended Helen answered thus:—

　　"That is Ulysses, man of many arts,

　　Son of Laertes, reared in Ithaca,

　　That rugged isle, and skilled in every form

　　Of shrewd device and action wisely planned."

　　Then spake the sage Antenor: "Thou hast said

　　The truth, O lady. This Ulysses once

　　Came on an embassy, concerning thee,

　　To Troy with Menelaus, great in war;

　　And I received them as my guests, and they

　　Were lodged within my palace, and I learned

　　The temper and the qualities of both.

　　When both were standing 'mid the men of Troy,

　　I marked that Menelaus's broad chest

　　Made him the more conspicuous, but when both

　　Were seated, greater was the dignity

　　Seen in Ulysses. When they both addressed

　　The council, Menelaus briefly spake

　　In pleasing tones, though with few words,—as one

　　Not given to loose and wandering speech,—although

　　The younger. When the wise Ulysses rose,

　　He stood with eyes cast down, and fixed on earth,

　　And neither swayed his sceptre to the right

　　Nor to the left, but held it motionless,

　　Like one unused to public speech. He seemed

　　An idiot out of humor. But when forth

　　He sent from his full lungs his mighty voice,

　　And words came like a fall of winter snow,

　　No mortal then would dare to strive with him

　　For mastery in speech. We less admired

　　The aspect of Ulysses than his words."

　　Beholding Ajax then, the aged king

　　Asked yet again: "Who is that other chief

　　Of the Achaians, tall, and large of limb,—

　　Taller and broader-chested than the rest?"

　　Helen, the beautiful and richly-robed,

　　Answered: "Thou seest the might Ajax there,

　　The bulwark of the Greeks. On the other side,

　　Among his Cretans, stands Idomeneus,

　　Of godlike aspect, near to whom are grouped

　　The leaders of the Cretans. Oftentimes

　　The warlike Menelaus welcomed him

　　Within our palace, when he came from Crete.

　　I could point out and name the other chiefs

　　Of the dark-eyed Achaians. Two alone,

　　Princes among their people, are not seen,—

　　Castor the fearless horseman, and the skilled

　　In boxing, Pollux,—twins; one mother bore

　　Both them and me. Came they not with the rest

　　From pleasant Lacedaemon to the war?

　　Or, having crossed the deep in their goodships,

　　Shun they to fight among the valiant ones

　　Of Greece, because of my reproach and shame?"

　　She spake; but they already lay in earth

　　In Lacedaemon, their dear native land.

　　Bryants Translation, Book III. National Epics