(Iliad iii. 161.)
Priam, the King, to the tower where he sat called the beautiful Helen:
“Hither, my daughter, approach and sit by me here on this tower,
Whence thou mayest see the spouse of thy youth, thy friends
and thy kindred.
Thou knowest I never blamed thee; I blame the gods of Olympus,
Who excited this war of sorrows and tears without number.
Come, Helen, sit by my side, and tell me the name of yon hero,
Mighty and stately in mien. Though others around him are taller,
One of such beauty as his and of so majestic a bearing
I have never beheld. If he is not a king he is kingly.”
Then Helen, fairest of women, answered the King: “O my father,
Father of Paris, by me thou art loved and revered and respected!
Would that an evil death had been my lot when I followed
Hither thy son, Alexander, leaving my husband behind me,
Kinsmen, too, and sweet daughter, and friends that I knew
since my childhood!
’Twas not allowed me to die—so I pine away slowly with weeping.
But thou awaitest reply: thou seest the great Agamemnon,
Wide-ruling king, as thou saidst, and a warrior valiant and skilful;
Once he was a brother to me—oh, shame!—in the days that
have vanished!”
Then, as a hero a hero, the old man admired Agamemnon:
“Happy art thou, Atrides, in birth, and in name, and in fortune;
Many are under thy sway—the flower of the sons of Achæa.
Once into vine-bearing Phrygia I entered, and saw many Phrygians
Riding swift steeds, the forces of Otreus and Mygdon, the godlike,
Who, with me for an ally, encamped by the banks of the Sangar,
Waiting the march of their foes, the Amazons, warrior-women:
But few in number were they to those quick-eyed sons of Achæa.”
Next, perceiving Ulysses, the old man said, “My dear Helen,
Tell me who this is also—in stature less than Atrides,
Less by a head, it may be, but broader in chest and in shoulders.
Rest on the ground his arms; but he through the ranks of the army
Ranges about like a ram; to a thick-fleeced ram I compare him,
Wandering hither and thither through snow-white sheep in the pasture?”
Him then answered Helen—Helen of Jove descended:
“That is Ulysses, my father, the wily son of Laertes,
Nourished in Ithaca’s isle—Ithaca rocky and barren;
Skilled to contrive and complete wise plans and politic counsels.”
Her then the sage Antenor addressed, when she spake of Ulysses:
“Lady, in truth thou hast uttered these words; for once, I remember,
Hither the noble Ulysses came with the brave Menelaus,
(Thou wast the cause of his coming) and I was their host in my palace,
And of both the heroes I learned the genius and wisdom.
When they met in the Council, with Trojan heroes assembled,
Standing, Ulysses was less by a head than the brave Menelaus—
Sitting, more honour was due to the thoughtful brow of Ulysses.
And when they wove, for the general ear, their thoughts into language,
Menelaus harangued very freely and briefly, and clearly,
Never missing his words, nor misapplying their meaning,
Though, as to years, not yet was he reckoned among the elders.
But when Ulysses arose, with his head full of wariest measures,
Standing, he fixed his eyes on the ground, and kept looking downwards,
Moving his sceptre nor backwards nor forwards, but holding it firmly,
Looking like one not wise; and those who beheld him might fancy
That he was deeply enraged, and thus bereft of his reason.
But when, as I have seen, he sent his great voice from his bosom,
Words that came thick and fast, like the flakes of the snow in the winter,
Then he that listened would say, no man might compete with Ulysse;
Then we forgot how he looked as the words of Ulysses enchained us.”
Thirdly, on seeing Ajax, the old King of Helen demanded:
“Who, so stately and tall, is this other chief of the Grecians,
Rising as high o’er the rest as the height of his head and
broad shoulders?”
And thus the comely-robed Helen, the fairest of women, responded:
“He thou beholdest is Ajax, gigantic—to Grecians a bulwark!
And over there, like a god, Idomeneus stands ’mong the Cretans,
While around him the chiefs of the Cretan army are gathered.
Many a time has the brave Menelaus bidden him welcome,
When to our Spartan home he came from the land of the Cretans.
But while I see all around, the rest of the dark-eyed Achæeans,
Whom I well know, and whose names I could tell, two captains I see not—
Castor, tamer of steeds, and Pollux, skilful in boxing—
Both own brothers of mine: we three were nursed by one mother.
Either they have not come with the forces from far Lacedæmon,
Or having come, it may be, to this place, in sea-traversing vessels,
Do not desire, after all to enter the battle of heroes,
Fearing the shame and reproach the crime of their sister would
cause them.”
So she spake; but them the life-giving earth was embracing
In the dear land of their fathers over the sea, Lacedæmon!