himself at the table and banquet with him. He also granted a twelve days' truce for the celebration of the funeral rites of Hector, and then invited Priam to pass the night in his tent. Warned by Mercury, Priam rose early in the morning, and, unseen by the Greeks, conveyed Hector's body back to Troy. When the polished car of Priam entered the city of Troy, great were the lamentations and wailings over the body of Hector. Hecuba and Andromache vied with each other in the bitterness of their grief, and Helen lamented because the only friend she had in Troy had departed, and no one who remained would be kind to her. During the twelve days granted as a truce, wood was brought from Ida, and the funeral rites of Hector were celebrated as befitted the son of a great king. SELECTIONS FROM THE ILIAD. HELEN AT THE SCEAN 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 She left her chamber, robed and veiled in white, And shedding tender tears; yet not alone, For with her went two maidens, Æthra, child Of Pitheus, and the large-eyed Clymene. Straight to the Scæan gates they walked, by which Panthoüs, Priam, and Thymœtes sat, Lampus and Clytius, Hicetaon sprung 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 "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 So be it let her, peerless as she is, So spake the elders. Priam meantime called I never saw: in truth, a kingly man." And Helen, fairest among women, thus Answered: "Dear second father, whom at once To wander with thy son, my marriage bed, 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 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! 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 As this of black-eyed Greeks who muster here." Then Priam saw Ulysses, and inquired: - 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 And I received them as my guests, and they When both were standing 'mid the men of Troy, Made him the more conspicuous, but when both Seen in Ulysses. When they both addressed In pleasing tones, though with few words, -as one He stood with eyes cast down, and fixed on earth, Nor to the left, but held it motionless, Like one unused to public speech. He seemed He sent from his full lungs his mighty voice, The warlike Menelaus welcomed him Within our palace, when he came from Crete. Or, having crossed the deep in their good ships, Of Greece, because of my reproach and shame?" Bryant's Translation, Book III. THE PARTING OF HECTOR AND ANDROMACHE. THE single combat between Paris and Menelaus broke up in a general battle unfavorable to the Trojans, and Hector returned to Troy to order the Trojan matrons to sacrifice to Pallas. He then sought his dwelling to greet his wife and child, but learned from one of the maids that Andromache, on hearing that the Greeks were victorious, had hastened to the city walls with the child and its nurse. Hector left in haste The mansion, and retraced his way between The rows of stately dwellings, traversing The mighty city. When at length he reached The Scæan gates, that issue on the field, His spouse, the nobly-dowered Andromache, Came forth to meet him, - daughter of the prince And gave his child to Hector great in arms. She came attended by a maid, who bore A tender child - a babe too young to speak- - Beautiful as a star, whom Hector called Scamandrius, but all else Astyanax, since Hector stood the sole Clung to his hand, and, thus beginning, said : "Too brave! thy valor yet will cause thy death. Thou hast no pity on thy tender child Nor me, unhappy one, who soon must be Thy widow. All the Greeks will rush on thee And no dear mother. Great Achilles slew My father when he sacked the populous town Came to the spot and planted it with elms. Then answered Hector, great in war: "All this I bear in mind, dear wife; but I should stand Ashamed before the men and long-robed dames Of Troy, were I to keep aloof and shun The conflict, coward-like. Not thus my heart Prompts me, for greatly have I learned to dare And strike among the foremost sons of Troy, Upholding my great father's fame and mine; Yet well in my undoubting mind I know The day shall come in which our sacred Troy, And Priam, and the people over whom Spear-bearing Priam rules, shall perish all. |