Helen of Troy.
Painting by Lord Leighton.
From her spinning Helen rose up and went to the walls to view the combat. As she came near the place where Priam sat, even the venerable chiefs were compelled to admire her wondrous beauty. "Fair as the immortal goddesses she is," said they; "yet much better would it be if she would return to her own country, and not remain here to bring ruin upon us and our children." But Priam called to her to sit by his side, and said to her:
"No crime of thine our present sufferings draws,
Not thou, but Heaven's disposing will, the cause
The gods these armies and this force employ,
The hostile gods conspire the fate of Troy."
Pope, Iliad, Book III.
Then King Priam asked Helen to name for him some of the Greek leaders whom he saw before him, not far from the city walls.
"Who is that tall and gallant hero," he asked, "who seems like unto a king? Never have I beheld a man so graceful, nor so venerable." "Revered and honored father," answered Helen, "would that death had taken me before I left my husband and home to come with your son hither, but the Fates did not will it so, therefore am I here. That hero whom you see is the wide-ruling Agamemnon, the son of Atreus, both a good king and a brave warrior, and once my brother-in-law."
"My brother once, before my days of shame,
And oh! that still he bore a brother's name!"
Pope, Iliad, Book III.
"O happy Agamemnon," exclaimed Priam, "fortunate in ruling over so mighty a host! But who is this other chief, less in height than Agamemnon, though broader in the shoulders? His arms lie on the ground, while he himself moves from rank to rank like a thick-fleeced ram which wanders through a great flock of sheep."
"The stately ram thus measures o'er the ground,
And, master of the flock, surveys them round."