THE TAKING OF ILIOS 



dispenser of war, weighed the Balance "> of destruc- 

 tion for the Trojans, jind hardly and at last rallied 

 the Achaeans. Phoebus Apollo withdrew from 

 llios to his rich shrine in Lycia, grieving over his 

 mighty walls. And straightway beside the tomb of 

 Achilles Sinon * showed his message to the Argives 

 with his shining brand. And all night long fair 

 Helen herself also displayed from her chamber to her 

 friends her golden torch. And even as when the 

 moon, full with grey fire, gilds with her face the 

 gleaming heaven : not when, sharpening her pointed 

 horns, she first shines, rising in the shadowless <= dusk 

 of the month, but when, orbing the rounded radiance 

 of her eye, she draws to herself the reflected rays of 

 the sun : even so did the lady of Theraj)ne on that 

 night in her radiance lift up her wine-hued arm, 

 directing the friendly fire. And when they beheld 

 the gleam of the beacon on high, the Argives 

 speedily set back their ships on the path of return, 

 and every mariner made haste, seeking to find an 

 end of the long war. They were at once sailors 

 and stout warriors and called each on the other to 

 row. So the ships, swifter than the speedy winds, 

 with obedient rush sailed unto llios by the help of 



persis (Procl. p. 244, Myth. Gr. 1. Wagner) says Sinon gave 

 the signal irpSrepov elaeXrjXvdibi TrpoffTroirp-ds, i.e. app>arently 

 inside the city. In Vergil, A. vi. 517 ff. the signal is given 

 by Helen. No signal is given by Sinon, but ib. 256 a signal 

 is sent by the Greeks to Sinon who then opens the door of 

 the horse. In Quint. Srayrn. xiii. 23 if. Sinon gives the 

 signal and ib. 30 flp. he also opens the door of the horse. 



• Aratus says (736) that the moon first casts a shadow 

 when she " is going to the fourth day." Fest. Avien. Progn. 

 v. ff. 



namque facem quarti sibimet profitebitur ignis, 

 corpora cum priino perfundens luinine nostra 

 in subiecta soli tenuem porrexerit umbram. 



619 



