THE TAKING OF ILIOS 



Trojans ; for thou hast escaped the unkindly violence 

 of the Achaeans. Evermore thou shalt be our friend 

 nor shall sweet desire seize thee for thy fatherland 

 or for thy halls of many possessions. But come, 

 declare thou to me what marvel is this, the horse, a 

 portent of unappeasable terror. And declare thy 

 name and lineage and whence the ships brought 

 thee." 



Then the hero of many devices took heart and 

 said : " These things also will I declare ; thou biddest 

 me who am myself willing. Argos is my city and 

 the name given to me is Sinon, and my grey-haired 

 sire they call Aesimus ; and the famous horse was 

 invented for the Argives by Epeius. If you allow it 

 to abide here in its place, it is decreed that the spear 

 of the Achaeans shall capture Troy ; but if Athena 

 receive it a holy offering in her shrine, then they 

 shall flee away with their task unaccomplished. 

 But come, cast it about with entwining chains and 

 draw to the great acropolis the horse of golden reins, 

 and Athena, guardian of the city, be our guide, eager 

 to win the carven offering, even she ! ' ' 



So he spake, and the king bade him take and do 

 on a cloak and a tunic." And they bound the horse 

 with chains of oxhide and drew it with well-plaited 

 ropes over the plain, mounted on its swift wheels 

 and filled with chieftains ; and before it flutes and 

 lyres made shrill minstrels>' together. Wretched 

 generation of heedless mortals ! for w^hom a mist 

 which they cannot pierce enwTaps the future. By 

 reason of empty joy many men many times stmnble 

 unwittingly on destruction : even as at that time 

 ruinous doom for the Trojans rioted on its own way 



• C/. Hesiod, W. 536 f. 



603 



