THE RAPE OF HELEN 



I tell thee who knowest so much ? for thou knowest 

 that Menelaus is of an unvaliant race. Not such as 

 thou are women born among the Argives ; for they 

 wax with meaner limbs and have the look of men 

 and are but bastard women." « 



So he spake. And the lady fixed her lovely eyes 

 upon the ground, and long time perplexed replied 

 not. But at last amazed she uttered her voice and 

 said : 



" Of a surety, O stranger, did Poseidon and Apollo 

 in days of old build the foundation of thy fatherland.'' 

 Fain would I have seen those cunning works of the 

 immortals and the shrill-blowing pasture of shepherd 

 Apollo, where by the god-built vestibules of the gates 

 Apollo often-times followed the kine of shuffling gait. 

 Come now, carry me from Sparta unto Troy. I will 

 follow, as C\i:hereia, queen of wedlock, bids. I do 

 not fear Menelaus, when Troy shall have known 

 me." 



So the fair-ankled lady plighted her troth. And 

 night, respite from labour after the journey of the 

 sun, lightened sleep and brought the beginning of 

 wandering morn ; and opened the two gates * of 

 dreams : one the gate of truth — it shone with the 

 sheen of horn — whence leap forth the unerring 

 messages of the gods ; the other the gate of deceit, 

 nurse of empty dreams. And he carried Helen 

 from the bowers of hospitable Menelaus to the 

 benches of his sea-faring ships ; and exulting exceed- 

 ingly in the promise of C^-thereia he hastened to 

 carry to Ilios his freight of war. 



And Hermione ' cast to the winds her veil and, 

 as morning rose, wailed with many tears. And often 



' Daughter of Menelaus and Helen. 



565 



