The Iliad. Homer

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СКАЧАТЬ And left my husband, friends, and darling child,

       And all the lov'd companions of my youth:

       That I died not, with grief I pine away.

       But to thy question; I will tell thee true;

       Yon chief is Agamemnon, Atreus' son,

       Wide-reigning, mighty monarch, ruler good,

       And valiant warrior; in my husband's name,

       Lost as I am, I call'd him brother once."

      She spoke: th' old man admiring gaz'd, and cried,

       "Oh bless'd Atrides, child of happy fate,

       Favour'd of Heav'n! how many noble Greeks

       Obey thy rule! In vine-clad Phrygia once

       I saw the hosts of Phrygian warriors wheel

       Their rapid steeds; and with them, all the bands

       Of Otreus, and of Mygdon, godlike King,

       Who lay encamp'd beside Sangarius' stream:

       I too with them was number'd, in the day

       When met them in the field the Amazons,

       The woman-warriors; but their forces all

       Reach'd not the number of the keen-ey'd Greeks."

      Ulysses next the old man saw, and ask'd,

       "Tell me again, dear child, who this may be,

       In stature less than Atreus' royal son,

       But broader-shoulder'd, and of ampler chest.

       His arms are laid upon the fertile plain,

       But he himself is moving through the ranks,

       Inspecting, like a full-fleec'd ram, that moves

       Majestic through a flock of snow-white ewes."

      To whom Jove's offspring, Helen, thus replied:

       "The wise Ulysses that, Laertes' son:

       Though bred in rugged Ithaca, yet vers'd

       In ev'ry stratagem, and deep device."

       "O woman," then the sage Antenor said,

       "Of these thy words I can the truth avouch;

       For hither when on thine account to treat,

       Brave Menelaus and Ulysses came,

       I lodg'd them in my house, and lov'd them both,

       And studied well the form and mind of each.

       As they with Trojans mix'd in social guise,

       When both were standing, o'er his comrade high

       With broad-set shoulders Menelaus stood;

       Seated, Ulysses was the nobler form:

       Then, in the great Assembly, when to all

       Their public speech and argument they fram'd,

       In fluent language Menelaus spoke,

       In words though few, yet clear; though young in years,

       No wordy babbler, wasteful of his speech:

       But when the skill'd Ulysses rose to speak,

       With down-cast visage would he stand, his eyes

       Bent on the ground; the staff he bore, nor back

       He wav'd, nor forward, but like one untaught,

       He held it motionless; who only saw

       Would say that he was mad, or void of sense;

       But when his chest its deep-ton'd voice sent forth,

       With words that fell like flakes of wintry snow,

       No mortal with Ulysses could compare:

       Then little reck'd we of his outward show."

      At sight of Ajax next th' old man enquir'd;

       "Who is yon other warrior, brave and strong,

       Tow'ring o'er all with head and shoulders broad?"

      To whom, in answer, Helen, heav'nly fair:

       "Gigantic Ajax that, the prop of Greece;

       And by his side Idomeneus of Crete

       Stands godlike, circled round by Cretan chiefs.

       The warlike Menelaus welcom'd him

       Oft in our palace, when from Crete he came.

       Now all the other keen-ey'd Greeks I see,

       Whom once I knew, and now could call by name;

       But two I miss, two captains of the host,

       My own two brethren, and my mother's sons,

       Castor and Pollux; Castor, charioteer

       Unrivalled, Pollux, matchless pugilist.

       In Lacedaemon have they stay'd behind?

       Or can it be, in ocean-going ships

       That they have come indeed, but shun to join

       The fight of warriors, fearful of the shame,

       And deep disgrace that on my name attend?"

       Thus she; but they beneath the teeming earth

       In Lacedaemon lay, their native land.

      Meanwhile the heralds through the city bore

       The treaty off'rings to the Gods; the lambs,

       And genial wine, the produce of the soil,

       In goat-skin flasks: therewith a flagon bright,

       And cups of gold, Idaeus brought, and stood

       Beside the aged King, as thus he spoke:

       "Son of Laomedon, arise! the chiefs

       Of Trojan warriors and of brass-clad Greeks

       Call for thy presence on the battle-plain

       To swear a truce; where Paris in the midst

       And warlike Menelaus stand prepar'd

       With the long spear for Helen and the spoils

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