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And now Athena, unwearying though she be, would have shrunk from her latest labour and all her sweat had been in vain, had not the seer^a turned from the bride-stealing lust of Deiphobus, and come from Ilios as guest of the Danaans, and, as doing a favour to Menelaus in his travail, prophesied the late-fulfilled ruin of his own fatherland. And at the prophesying of jealous Helenus they straightway prepared an end of their long toil. From Scyros, too, leaving that city of fair maidens, came the son^b of Achilles and august Deidameia; who, albeit he mantled not yet on his goodly temples the down of manhood, showed the prowess of his sire, young warrior though he was. Came, too, Athena to the Danaans with her holy image^c; the prey of war but a helper to her friends.

Now, too, by the counsel of the goddess her servant Epeius^d wrought the image that was the foe of Troy, even the giant horse. And wood was cut and came down to the plain from Ida, even Ida whence formerly Phereclus built the ships for Alexander^a that were the beginning of woe. Fitted to broadest sides he made its hollow belly, in size as a curved ship which the carpenter turns true to the

NOTES

^a Helenus, son of Priam and Hecuba, had the gift of prophecy. After the death of Paris he and Deiphobus, his brother, were rivals for the hand of Helen. Deiphobus being preferred, Helenus retired to Ida, where he was by the advice of Calchas seized and brought to the Greek camp. He advised the Greeks to build the wooden horse and to carry off the Palladium.

^b Neoptolemus, son of Achilles, by Deidamia, daughter of Lycomedes, king of Scyros. His original name was Pyrrhus, and he was called Neoptolemus because he went to war when young, or because his father did so (Paus. x. 26. 4). Helenus prophesied that Troy would not be taken without Neoptolemus and the arrows of Heracles — then in the possession of Philoctetes. So Neoptolemus was brought from Scyros by Odysseus alone, or with Phoenix (Soph. Ph. 343, cf. Philostr. Imag. ii.), or with Diomedes (Quint. Smyrn. vii. 169 ff).

^c The Palladium, the ancient image of Athena, said to have been given by Zeus to Dardanus, on the possession of which the safety of Troy depended. It was stolen by Odysseus and Diomedes.

^d Epeius, son of Panopeus, built the Wooden Horse by means of which Troy was taken. Od. viii. 493, xi. 523, Verg. A. ii. 264.

^e Paris.

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