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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
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, 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
From Mars, Antenor and Ucalegon,
Two sages, elders of the people all.

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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 :-

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"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! 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 mighty 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 Lacedæmon to the war?

Or, having crossed the deep in their good ships,
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 Lacedæmon, their dear native land.

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
Eëtion, who among the woody slopes
Of Placos, in the Hypoplacian town
Of Thebe, ruled Cilicia and her sons,

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-
Upon her bosom, Hector's only son,

-

Beautiful as a star, whom Hector called

Scamandrius, but all else Astyanax,

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since Hector stood the sole
Defence of Troy. The father on his child
Looked with a silent smile. Andromache
Pressed to his side meanwhile, and, all in tears,

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
To take thy life. A happier lot were mine,
If I must lose thee, to go down to earth,
For I shall have no hope when thou art gone,
Nothing but sorrow.
Father have I none,

And no dear mother.

Great Achilles slew

My father when he sacked the populous town
Of the Cilicians, Thebe with high gates.
'T was there he smote Eëtion, yet forbore
To make his arms a spoil; he dared not that,
But burned the dead with his bright armor on,
And raised a mound above him. Mountain-nymphs,
Daughters of ægis-bearing Jupiter,

Came to the spot and planted it with elms.
Seven brothers had I in my father's house,
And all went down to Hades in one day.
Achilles the swift-footed slew them all
Among their slow-paced bullocks and white sheep.
My mother, princess on the woody slopes
Of Placos, with his spoils he bore away,
And only for large ransom gave her back.
But her Diana, archer-queen, struck down
Within her father's palace. Hector, thou
Art father and dear mother now to me,
And brother and my youthful spouse besides.
In pity keep within the fortress here,
Nor make thy child an orphan nor thy wife
A widow. Post thine army near the place
Of the wild fig-tree, where the city-walls
Are low and may be scaled. Thrice in war
The boldest of the foe have tried the spot,
The Ajaces and the famed Idomeneus,
The two chiefs born to Atreus, and the brave
Tydides, whether counselled by some seer
Or prompted to the attempt by their own minds."

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.

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