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I tell thee who knowest so much? for thou knowest that Menelaus is of an unvaliant race. Not such as thou are women born among the Argives; for they wax with meaner limbs and have the look of men and are but bastard women.ä^a

So he spake. And the lady fixed her lovely eyes upon the ground, and long time perplexed replied not. But at last amazed she uttered her voice and said:

ãOf a surety, O stranger, did Poseidon and Apollo in days of old build the foundation of thy fatherland? Fain would I have seen those cunning works of the immortals and the shrill-blowing pasture of shepherd Apollo, where by the god-built vestibules of the gates Apollo often-times followed the kine of shuffling gait. Come now, carry me from Sparta unto Troy. I will follow, as Cythereia, queen of wedlock, bids. I do not fear Menelaus, when Troy shall have known me.ä

So the fair-ankled lady plighted her troth. And night, respite from labour after the journey of the sun, lightened sleep and brought the beginning of wandering morn; and opened the two gates^b of dreams: one the gate of truth — it shone with the sheen of horn — whence leap forth the unerring messages of the gods; the other the gate of deceit, nurse of empty dreams. And he carried Helen from the bowers of hospitable Menelaus to the benches of his sea-faring ships; and exulting exceedingly in the promise of Cythereia he hastened to carry to Ilios his freight of war.

And Hermione^c cast to the winds her veil and, as morning rose, wailed with many tears. And often

NOTES

^a Cf. 187 ff.

^b Gates of Horn and of Ivory (Hom. Od. xix. 562 ff.).

^c Daughter of Menelaus and Helen.

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