So saying, she tumult raised in Helen’s mind.
Yet soon as by her symmetry of neck,
By her love-kindling breasts and luminous eyes470
She knew the Goddess, her she thus bespake.
Ah whence, deceitful deity! thy wish
Now to ensnare me? Wouldst thou lure me, say,
To some fair city of Mæonian name
Or Phrygian, more remote from Sparta still?475
Hast thou some human favorite also there?
Is it because Atrides hath prevailed
To vanquish Paris, and would bear me home
Unworthy as I am, that thou attempt’st
Again to cheat me? Go thyself—sit thou480
Beside him—for his sake renounce the skies;
Watch him, weep for him; till at length his wife
He deign to make thee, or perchance his slave.
I go not (now to go were shame indeed)
To dress his couch; nor will I be the jest485
Of all my sex in Ilium. Oh! my griefs
Are infinite, and more than I can bear.
To whom, the foam-sprung Goddess, thus incensed.
Ah wretch! provoke not me; lest in my wrath
Abandoning thee, I not hate thee less490
Than now I fondly love thee, and beget
Such detestation of thee in all hearts,
Grecian and Trojan, that thou die abhorr’d.
The Goddess ceased. Jove’s daughter, Helen, fear’d,
And, in her lucid veil close wrapt around,495
Silent retired, of all those Trojan dames
Unseen, and Venus led, herself, the way.
Soon then as Alexander’s fair abode
They reach’d, her maidens quick their tasks resumed,
And she to her own chamber lofty-roof’d500
Ascended, loveliest of her sex. A seat
For Helen, daughter of Jove Ægis-arm’d,
To Paris opposite, the Queen of smiles
Herself disposed; but with averted eyes
She sat before him, and him keen reproach’d.505
Thou hast escaped.—Ah would that thou hadst died
By that heroic arm, mine husband’s erst!
Thou once didst vaunt thee in address and strength
Superior. Go then—challenge yet again
The warlike Menelaüs forth in fight.510
But hold. The hero of the amber locks
Provoke no more so rashly, lest the point
Of his victorious spear soon stretch thee dead.
She ended, to whom Paris thus replied.
Ah Helen, wound me not with taunt severe!515
Me, Menelaüs, by Minerva’s aid,
Hath vanquish’d now, who may hereafter, him.
We also have our Gods. But let us love.
For never since the day when thee I bore
From pleasant Lacedæmon o’er the waves520
To Cranäe’s fair isle, and first enjoy’d
Thy beauty, loved I as I love thee now,
Or felt such sweetness of intense desire.
He spake, and sought his bed, whom follow’d soon
Jove’s daughter, reconciled to his embrace.525
But Menelaüs like a lion ranged
The multitude, inquiring far and near
For Paris lost. Yet neither Trojan him
Nor friend of Troy could show, whom, else, through love
None had conceal’d, for him as death itself530
All hated, but his going none had seen.
Amidst them all then spake the King of men.
Trojans, and Dardans, and allies of Troy!
The warlike Menelaüs hath prevailed,
As is most plain. Now therefore bring ye forth535
Helen with all her treasures, also bring
Such large amercement as is meet, a sum
To be remember’d in all future times.
So spake Atrides, and Achaia’s host
With loud applause confirm’d the monarch’s claim.540