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Helen of Troy
Helen of Troy
Helen of Troy
Of
the
coming
of
Paris
to
the
house
of
Menelaus,
King
of
Lacedaemon,
and
of
the
tale
Paris
told
concerning
his
past
life.
I.
All
day
within
the
palace
of
the
King
In
Lacedaemon,
was
there
revelry,
Since
Menelaus
with
the
dawn
did
spring
Forth
from
his
carven
couch,
and,
climbing
high
The
tower
of
outlook,
gazed
along
the
dry
White
road
that
runs
to
Pylos
through
the
plain,
And
mark’d
thin
clouds
of
dust
against
the
sky,
And
gleaming
bronze,
and
robes
of
purple
stain.
II.
Then
cried
he
to
his
serving
men,
and
all
Obey’d
him,
and
their
labour
did
not
spare,
And
women
set
out
tables
through
the
hall,
Light
polish’d
tables,
with
the
linen
fair.
And
water
from
the
well
did
others
bear,
And
the
good
house-‐wife
busily
brought
forth
Meats
from
her
store,
and
stinted
not
the
rare
Wine
from
Ismarian
vineyards
of
the
North.
III.
The
men
drave
up
a
heifer
from
the
field
The
coming
of
Aphrodite,
and
how
she
told
Helen
that
she
must
depart
in
company
with
Paris,
but
promised
withal
that
Helen,
having
fallen
into
a
deep
sleep,
should
awake
forgetful
of
her
old
life,
and
ignorant
of
her
shame,
and
blameless
of
those
evil
deeds
that
the
Goddess
thrust
upon
her.
The
flight
of
Helen
and
Paris
from
Lacedaemon,
and
of
what
things
befell
them
in
their
voyaging,
and
how
they
came
to
Troy.
How
Helen
was
made
an
outcast
by
the
Trojan
women,
and
how
Œnone,
the
old
love
of
Paris,
sent
her
son
Corythus
to
The
war
round
Troy,
and
how
many
brave
men
fell,
and
chiefly
Sarpedon,
Patroclus,
Hector,
Memnon,
and
Achilles.
The
coming
of
the
Amazon,
and
the
wounding
of
Paris,
and
his
death,
and
concerning
the
good
end
that
Œnone
made.
I.
For
ten
long
years
the
Argive
leaguer
lay
Round
Priam’s
folk,
and
wrought
them
many
woes,
While,
as
a
lion
crouch’d
above
his
prey,
The
Trojans
yet
made
head
against
their
foes;
And
as
the
swift
sea-‐water
ebbs
and
flows
Between
the
Straits
of
Hellé
and
the
main,
Even
so
the
tide
of
battle
sank
and
rose,
And
fill’d
with
waifs
of
war
the
Ilian
plain.
The
sack
of
Troy,
and
of
how
Menelaus
would
have
let
stone
Helen,
but
Aphrodite
saved
her,
and
made
them
at
one
again,
and
how
they
came
home
to
Lacedaemon,
and
of
their
translation
to
Elysium.
I.
There
came
a
day,
when
Trojan
spies
beheld
How,
o’er
the
Argive
leaguer,
all
the
air
NOTE
[In
this
story
in
rhyme
of
the
fortunes
of
Helen,
the
theory
that
she
was
an
unwilling
victim
of
the
Gods
has
been
preferred.
Many
of
the
descriptions
of
manners
are
versified
from
the
Iliad
and
the
Odyssey.
The
description
of
THE END