And with that wail our hearts were turned, and somewhat backward hung
The press of men: we bade him say from whence his blood was sprung,
And what he did, and if indeed a captive we might trust;
So thus he spake when now all fear from off his heart was thrust:
'Whatso betide, to thee, O King, the matter's verity
Will I lay bare unto the end, nor Argive blood deny:
This firstly; for if Fate indeed shaped Sinon for all bale
To make him liar and empty fool her worst may not avail.80
Perchance a rumour of men's talk about your ears hath gone,
Telling of Palamedes' fame and glory that he won,
The son of Belus: traitors' word undid him innocent;
By unjust doom for banning war the way of death he went,
Slain by Pelasgian men, that now his quenchèd light deplore.
Fellow to him, and nigh akin, I went unto the war,
Sent by my needy father forth, e'en from my earliest years;
Now while he reigned in health, a king fair blooming mid his peers
In council of the kings, I too had share of name and worth.
But after he had gone his way from land of upper earth,90
Thrust down by sly Ulysses' hate, (I tell all men's belief),
Then beaten down I dragged my life through shadowy ways of grief,
And heavily I took the death of him my sackless friend,
Nor held my peace, O fool! but vowed revenge if time should send
A happy tide; if I should come to Argos any more,
A victor then: so with my words I drew down hatred sore.
This was the first fleck of my ill; Ulysses ever now
Would threaten with some new-found guilt, and mid the folk would sow
Dark sayings, and knowing what was toward, sought weapons new at need;
Nor wearied till with Calchas now to help him to the deed.—100
—But why upturn these ugly things, or spin out time for nought?
For if ye deem all Greekish men in one same mould are wrought:
It is enough. Come make an end; Ulysses' hope fulfil!
With great price would the Atridæ buy such working of their will.'
Then verily to know the thing and reach it deep we burned,
So little in Pelasgian guile and evil were we learned.
He takes the tale up; fluttering-voiced from lying heart he speaks:
'The longing to be gone from Troy fell oft upon the Greeks,
And oft they fain had turned their backs on war without an end,
(I would they had), and oft as they were e'en at point to wend110
A tempest would forbid the sea, or southern gale would scare,
And chiefly when with maple-beams this horse that standeth here
They fashioned, mighty din of storm did all the heavens fulfil.
So held aback, Eurypylus we sent to learn the will
Of Phœbus: from the shrine he brought such heavy words as these:
With blood and with a virgin's death did ye the winds appease
When first ye came, O Danaan folk, unto the Ilian shore;
With blood and with an Argive soul the Gods shall ye adore
For your return.
'Now when that word men's ears had gone about
Their hearts stood still, and tremors cold took all their bones for doubt
What man the Fates had doomed thereto, what man Apollo would.121
Amidst us then the Ithacan drags in with clamour rude
Calchas the seer, and wearieth him the Gods' will to declare.
Of that craftsmaster's cruel guile had many bade beware
In words, and many silently foresaw the coming death.
Twice five days Calchas holdeth peace and, hidden, gainsayeth
To speak the word that any man to very death should cast,
Till hardly, by Ulysses' noise sore driven, at the last
He brake out with the speech agreed, and on me laid the doom;
All cried assent, and what each man feared on himself might come,130
'Gainst one poor wretch's end of days with ready hands they bear.
Now came the evil day; for me the rites do men prepare,
The salted cakes, the holy strings to do my brows about.
I needs must say I brake my bonds, from Death's house gat me out,
And night-long lay amid the sedge by muddy marish side
Till they spread sail, if they perchance should win their sailing tide.
Nor have I hope to see again my fatherland of old;
My longed-for father and sweet sons I never shall behold;
On whom the guilt of me who fled mayhappen men will lay,
And with their death for my default the hapless ones shall pay.140
But by the might of very God, all sooth that knoweth well,
By all the unstained faith that yet mid mortal men doth dwell,
If aught be left, I pray you now to pity such distress!
Pity a heart by troubles tried beyond its worthiness!'
His weeping won his life of us, and pity thereunto,
And Priam was the first who bade his irons to undo,
And hand-bonds, and in friendly words unto the man he speaks:
'Whoso thou art, henceforward now forget thy missing Greeks;
Thou shalt be ours: but learn me now, who fain the sooth would wot,
Wherefore they built this world of horse, what craftsman him begot,150
And what to do? What gift for Gods; what gin of war is he?'
He spake. The other, wise in guile and Greekish treachery,
Both palms of his from bonds new-freed raised toward the stars above,
And, 'O eternal fires!' he cried, 'O might that none may move,
Bear witness now! ye altar-stones, ye wicked swords I fled,
Ye holy fillets of the Gods bound round my fore-doomed head,
That I all hallowed Greekish rites may break and do aright,
That I may hate the men and bring all hidden things to light
If aught lie hid; nor am I held by laws my country gave!
But thou, O Troy, abide by troth, and well thy saviour save,160
If truth I bear thee, if great things for great I pay thee o'er!
'All hope the Danaans had, all trust for speeding on the war
On Pallas' aid was ever set: yet came a day no less
When godless Diomed and he, well-spring of wickedness,
Ulysses, brake the holy place that they by stealth might gain
The fate-fulfilled Palladium, when, all the burg-guards slain,
They caught the holy image up, and durst their bloody hands
Lay on the awful Goddess there and touch her holy bands:
The flood-tide of the Danaan hope ebbed from that very day;
Might failed them, and the Goddess-maid turned all her heart away:170
Token whereof Tritonia gave by portent none might doubt:
Scarce was the image set in camp when suddenly flashed out
Fierce fire from staring eyes of her, and salt sweat oozed and fell
O'er all her limbs, and she from earth, O wonderful to tell!
Leapt thrice, still holding in her hand the quivering spear and shield:
Then Calchas bade us turn to flight across the wavy field,
Singing how ruin of Pergamos the Argive steel shall lack,
Till Argos give the signs again, and we the God bring back
In hollow of the curved keel across the tumbling main.
And this is why they sought their home, Mycenæ's land, again,180
And there they dight them arms and God, and presently unwares
Will be on you across the sea—Calchas such doom declares.
So warned hereby for Godhead's hurt, in stolen Palladium's stead,
Atonement for their heavy guilt, this horse they fashionèd.
But him indeed did Calchas bid to pile so mountain-high
With such a might of mingled beams, and lead up to the sky,
Lest it within the gates should come, or mid the walls, and lest
Beneath their ancient Pallas-faith the people safe should rest.
For if upon Minerva's gift ye lay a godless hand,
Then mighty ruin (and would to God before his face might stand190
That ruin instead) on Priam's might, and Phrygian folk shall fall.
But if your hands shall lead it up within the city wall,
Then Asia, free and willing it, to Pelops' house shall come
With mighty war; and that same fate our sons shall follow home.'
Caught by such snares and crafty guile of Sinon the forsworn,
By lies and lies, and tears forced forth there were we overborne;
We, whom Tydides might not tame, nor Larissæan king
Achilles; nor the thousand ships, and ten years' wearying.
But now another, greater hap, a very birth of fear,
Was thrust before us wretched ones, our sightless hearts to stir.200
Laocoon, chosen out by lot for mighty Neptune's priest,
Would sacrifice a mighty bull at altars of the feast;
When lo, away from Tenedos, o'er quiet of the main
(I tremble in the tale) we see huge coils of serpents twain
Breasting the sea, and side by side swift making for the shore;
Whose fronts amid the flood were strained, and high their crests upbore
Blood-red above the waves, the rest swept o'er the sea behind,
And all the unmeasured backs of them coil upon coil they wind,
While sends the sea great sound of foam. And now the meads they gained,
The burning eyes with flecks of blood and streaks of fire are stained,
Their mouths with hisses all fulfilled are licked by flickering tongue.211
Bloodless we flee the sight, but they fare steadfastly along
Unto Laocoon; and first each serpent round doth reach
One little body of his sons, and knitting each to each,
And winding round and round about, the unhappy body gnaws:
And then himself, as sword in hand anigh for help he draws,
They seize and bind about in coils most huge, and presently
Are folded twice about his midst, twice round his neck they tie
Their scaly backs, and hang above with head and toppling mane,
While he both striveth with his hands to rend their folds atwain,220
His fillets covered o'er with blood and venom black and fell,
And starward sendeth forth withal a cry most horrible,
The roaring of a wounded bull who flees the altar-horn
And shaketh from his crest away the axe unhandy borne.