The Fall of Troy [102]
these were but babes, Their nurses hid them far from peril of fight; And Aethra they remembered -- all she endured Through wars, as mother-in-law at first, and thrall Thereafter of Helen. Dumb for joy were they, Till spake Demophoon to that wistful one: "Even now the Gods fulfil thine heart's desire: We whom thou seest are the sons of him, Thy noble son: thee shall our loving hands Bear to the ships: with joy to Hellas' soil Thee will we bring, where once thou wast a queen."
Then his great father's mother clasped him round With clinging arms: she kissed his shoulders broad, His head, his breast, his bearded lips she kissed, And Acamas kissed withal, the while she shed Glad tears on these who could not choose but weep. As when one tarries long mid alien men, And folk report him dead, but suddenly He cometh home: his children see his face, And break into glad weeping; yea, and he, His arms around them, and their little heads Upon his shoulders, sobs: echoes the home With happy mourning's music-beating wings; So wept they with sweet sighs and sorrowless moans.
Then, too, affliction-burdened Priam's child, Laodice, say they, stretched her hands to heaven, Praying the mighty Gods that earth might gape To swallow her, ere she defiled her hand With thralls' work; and a God gave ear, and rent Deep earth beneath her: so by Heaven's decree Did earth's abysmal chasm receive the maid In Troy's last hour. Electra's self withal, The Star-queen lovely-robed, shrouded her form In mist and cloud, and left the Pleiad-band, Her sisters, as the olden legend tells. Still riseth up in sight of toil-worn men Their bright troop in the skies; but she alone Hides viewless ever, since the hallowed town Of her son Dardanus in ruin fell, When Zeus most high from heaven could help her not, Because to Fate the might of Zeus must bow; And by the Immortals' purpose all these things Had come to pass, or by Fate's ordinance.
Still on Troy's folk the Argives wreaked their wrath, And battle's issues Strife Incarnate held.
BOOK XIV.
How the conquerors sailed from Troy unto judgment of tempest and shipwreck.
Then rose from Ocean Dawn the golden-throned Up to the heavens; night into Chaos sank. And now the Argives spoiled fair-fenced Troy, And took her boundless treasures for a prey. Like river-torrents seemed they, that sweep down, By rain, floods swelled, in thunder from the hills, And seaward hurl tall trees and whatsoe'er Grows on the mountains, mingled with the wreck Of shattered cliff and crag; so the long lines Of Danaans who had wasted Troy with fire Seemed, streaming with her plunder to the ships. Troy's daughters therewithal in scattered bands They haled down seaward -- virgins yet unwed, And new-made brides, and matrons silver-haired, And mothers from whose bosoms foes had torn Babes for the last time closing lips on breasts.
Amidst of these Menelaus led his wife Forth of the burning city, having wrought A mighty triumph -- joy and shame were his. Cassandra heavenly-fair was haled the prize Of Agamemnon: to Achilles' son Andromache had fallen: Hecuba Odysseus dragged unto his ship. The tears Poured from her eyes as water from a spring; Trembled her limbs, fear-frenzied was her heart; Rent were her hoary tresses and besprent With ashes of the hearth, cast by her hands When she saw Priam slain and Troy aflame. And aye she deeply groaned for thraldom's day That trapped her vainly loth. Each hero led A wailing Trojan woman to his ship. Here, there, uprose from these the wild lament, The woeful-mingling cries of mother and babe. As when with white-tusked swine the herdmen drive Their younglings from the hill-pens to the plain As winter closeth in, and evermore Each answereth each with mingled plaintive cries; So moaned Troy's daughters by their foes enslaved, Handmaid and queen made one in thraldom's lot.
But Helen raised no lamentation: shame Sat on her dark-blue eyes, and cast its flush Over her lovely cheeks. Her heart beat hard With sore misgiving, lest, as to the ships She passed, the Achaeans might mishandle her.
Then his great father's mother clasped him round With clinging arms: she kissed his shoulders broad, His head, his breast, his bearded lips she kissed, And Acamas kissed withal, the while she shed Glad tears on these who could not choose but weep. As when one tarries long mid alien men, And folk report him dead, but suddenly He cometh home: his children see his face, And break into glad weeping; yea, and he, His arms around them, and their little heads Upon his shoulders, sobs: echoes the home With happy mourning's music-beating wings; So wept they with sweet sighs and sorrowless moans.
Then, too, affliction-burdened Priam's child, Laodice, say they, stretched her hands to heaven, Praying the mighty Gods that earth might gape To swallow her, ere she defiled her hand With thralls' work; and a God gave ear, and rent Deep earth beneath her: so by Heaven's decree Did earth's abysmal chasm receive the maid In Troy's last hour. Electra's self withal, The Star-queen lovely-robed, shrouded her form In mist and cloud, and left the Pleiad-band, Her sisters, as the olden legend tells. Still riseth up in sight of toil-worn men Their bright troop in the skies; but she alone Hides viewless ever, since the hallowed town Of her son Dardanus in ruin fell, When Zeus most high from heaven could help her not, Because to Fate the might of Zeus must bow; And by the Immortals' purpose all these things Had come to pass, or by Fate's ordinance.
Still on Troy's folk the Argives wreaked their wrath, And battle's issues Strife Incarnate held.
BOOK XIV.
How the conquerors sailed from Troy unto judgment of tempest and shipwreck.
Then rose from Ocean Dawn the golden-throned Up to the heavens; night into Chaos sank. And now the Argives spoiled fair-fenced Troy, And took her boundless treasures for a prey. Like river-torrents seemed they, that sweep down, By rain, floods swelled, in thunder from the hills, And seaward hurl tall trees and whatsoe'er Grows on the mountains, mingled with the wreck Of shattered cliff and crag; so the long lines Of Danaans who had wasted Troy with fire Seemed, streaming with her plunder to the ships. Troy's daughters therewithal in scattered bands They haled down seaward -- virgins yet unwed, And new-made brides, and matrons silver-haired, And mothers from whose bosoms foes had torn Babes for the last time closing lips on breasts.
Amidst of these Menelaus led his wife Forth of the burning city, having wrought A mighty triumph -- joy and shame were his. Cassandra heavenly-fair was haled the prize Of Agamemnon: to Achilles' son Andromache had fallen: Hecuba Odysseus dragged unto his ship. The tears Poured from her eyes as water from a spring; Trembled her limbs, fear-frenzied was her heart; Rent were her hoary tresses and besprent With ashes of the hearth, cast by her hands When she saw Priam slain and Troy aflame. And aye she deeply groaned for thraldom's day That trapped her vainly loth. Each hero led A wailing Trojan woman to his ship. Here, there, uprose from these the wild lament, The woeful-mingling cries of mother and babe. As when with white-tusked swine the herdmen drive Their younglings from the hill-pens to the plain As winter closeth in, and evermore Each answereth each with mingled plaintive cries; So moaned Troy's daughters by their foes enslaved, Handmaid and queen made one in thraldom's lot.
But Helen raised no lamentation: shame Sat on her dark-blue eyes, and cast its flush Over her lovely cheeks. Her heart beat hard With sore misgiving, lest, as to the ships She passed, the Achaeans might mishandle her.