THE TAKING OF ILIOS 



Dionysus raging on the hills strike the Thracian 

 woman " amid the thickets : who, smitten by the 

 god, strains a wild eye and shakes her naked head 

 dark-garlanded with ivy. So Cassandra, starting 

 from her winged wits, raged god-maddened ; and, 

 beating ever and again hair and breast, she cried 

 with frenzied voice : 



" O wretched men ! why rage ye possessed, drag- 

 ging this unfriendly horse, hasting to your last night 

 and the end of war and the sleep that knows no 

 waking ? This warlike rout comes from the foemen. 

 Surely now the travail of the dreams of poor Hecabe ** 

 bears fruit. The long deferred year comes to an 

 end with the resolving of the war. Such a company 

 of chieftains comes, whom the mighty horse shall 

 bring forth in the darkest night, flashing in their 

 armour for battle ; now shall warriors most perfect 

 leap to earth and rush to the fray. For not women 

 shall deliver the labouring steed in its travail and 

 attend the birth of men, but she that wrought it 

 shall herself be its Lady of Deliverance ; Athena, 

 sacker of cities, midwife of a dolorous birth, shall 

 herself undo the pregnant belly and utter her cry. 

 Lo ! now there is rolled within the towers a purple 

 sea of blood outpoured, a wave of death ; about the 

 hands of women, sharing the common doom, the 

 bonds of bridal are twined : beneath the wooden 

 planks lurks hidden fire. Alas ! for my woes, alas ! 

 for thee, city of my fathers, soon shalt thou be 

 fine dust : gone is the handiwork of the immortals, 

 gone utterly the foundations of Laomedon. And 



she had borne a firebrand. The seers interpreted this to 

 mean that her child would be fatal to Troy and advised 

 that it should be put to death (Hvginus, Fab. 91 and 249; 

 ApoUod. iii. 12, 5; Eur. Troad. 9->?; Verg. Aen. vii. SiO, etc.). 



2r 609 



