THE TAKING OF ILIOS 



with heedlessness, and few warders watched the 

 gates ; for now the light of day was sinking and 

 fateful night wrapped steep Ilios for destruction. 

 And Aphrodite of many counsels, putting on the 

 likeness of hoary age, came to Argive Helen with 

 crafty intent and called her forth and spake to her 

 with persuasive voice : 



"Dear lady, thy valiant husband Menelaus calls 

 thee. He is hidden in the wooden horse, and round 

 him lie ambushed the leaders of the Achaeans, wooers 

 of war in thy cause. But come and heed no longer 

 ancient Priam nor the other Trojans nor Deiphobus 

 himself. For now I give thee to much enduring 

 Menelaus." 



So spake the goddess and ran away again. But 

 Helen, her heart beguiled by the craft, left her 

 fragrant chamber, and her husband Deiphobus 

 followed her. And as she went, the Trojan women 

 of trailing tunics gazed upon her. And when 

 she came to the high-roofed temple of Athena, she 

 stood and scanned the form of the well -manned 

 horse. Three times she walked round it and pro- 

 voked the Argives, naming all the fair-tressed wives 

 of the Achaeans with her clear voice. And their 

 hearts were torn within them with grief and they 

 restrained their pent up tears in silence. Groaned 

 Menelaus when he heard the daughter of Tyndareus : 

 wept the son of Tydeus remembering x\egialeia : the 

 name of Penelope stirred the heart of Odysseus : but 

 only Anticlus, stung by the name of Laodameia,* 



Hades. And when she beheld him and thought he had 

 returned from Troy she rejoiced ; but when he was carried 

 back to Hades she killed herself " Apollod. epU. iii. 30), it 

 seems possible that the meaning here is *' the goad that 

 pricked Laodameia," i.e. desire for the absent spouse. 



615 



