No More Learning

He leaned his spear against one of the pillars of the hall, and then, after loosening his sword in the scabbard, stepped boldly forward, and threw the folding doors wide open. The moment she beheld his stately figure standing in the doorway, the beautiful woman rose from the loom, and ran to meet him with a glad smile throwing its sunshine over her face, and both her hand extended.
Quicksilver
CIRCE'S PALACE. 307
" Welcome, brave stranger! " cried she. " We were expect ing you. "
And the nymph with the sea-green hair made a courtesy down to the ground, and likewise bade him welcome ; so did her sister with the bodice of oaken bark, and she that sprinkled dewdrops from her fingers' ends, and the fourth one with some oddity which I cannot remember. And Circe, as the beautiful enchantress was called (who had deluded so many persons that she did not doubt of being able to delude Ulysses, not imagining how wise he was), again addressed him.
" Your companions," said she, " have already been received into my palace, and have enjoyed the hospitable treatment to which the propriety of their behavior so well entitles them. If such be your pleasure, you shall first take some refreshment, and then join them in the elegant apartment which they now occupy. See, I and my maidens have been weaving their figures into this piece of tapestry. "
She pointed to the web of beautifully woven cloth in the loom. Circe and the four nymphs must have been very dili gently at work since the arrival of the mariners ; for a great many yards of tapestry had now been wrought, in addition to what I before described. In this new part, Ulysses saw his two and twenty friends represented as sitting on cushioned and canopied thrones, greedily devouring dainties and quaffing deep draughts of wine. The work had not yet gone any further. Oh no, indeed. The enchantress was far too cunning to let Ulysses see the mischief which her magic arts had since brought upon the gormandizers.
" As for yourself, valiant sir," said Circe, " judging by the dignity of your aspect, I take you to be nothing less than a king. Deign to follow me, and you shall be treated as befits your rank. "
So Ulysses followed her into the oval saloon, where his two and twenty comrades had devoured the banquet, which ended so disastrously for themselves. But, all this while, he had held the snow-white flower in his hand, and had constantly smelt of it while Circe was speaking ; and as he crossed the threshold of the saloon, he took good care to inhale several long and deep snuffs of its fragrance. Instead of two and twenty thrones, which had before been ranged around the wall, there was now only a single throne, in the center of the apartment. But this was surely the most magnificent seat that ever a king or an
308 CIRCE'S PALACE.
emperor reposed himself upon, all made of chased gold, studded with precious stones, with a cushion that looked like a soft heap of living roses, and overhung by a canopy of sunlight which Circe knew how to weave into drapery. The enchantress took Ulysses by the hand, and made him sit down upon this dazzling throne. Then, clapping her hands, she summoned the chief butler.
"Bring hither," said she, "the goblet that is set apart for kings to drink out of. And fill it with the same delicious wine which my royal brother, King iEetes, praised so highly, when he last visited me with my fair daughter Medea. That good and amiable child ! Were she here now, it would delight her to see me offering this wine to my honored guest. "
But Ulysses, while the butler was gone for the wine, held the snow-white flower to his nose.
" Is it a wholesome wine? " he asked.
At this the four maidens tittered ; whereupon the enchant ress"looked round at them, with an aspect of severity.
It is the wholesomest juice that ever was squeezed out of the grape," said she ; " for, instead of disguising a man, as other liquor is apt to do, it brings him to his true self, and shows him as he ought to be. "
The chief butler liked nothing better than to see people turned into swine, or making any kind of a beast of them selves ; so he made haste to bring the royal goblet, filled with a liquid as bright as gold, and which kept sparkling upward, and throwing a sunny spray over the brim. But, delightfully as the wine looked, it was mingled with the most potent enchantments that Circe knew how to concoct. For every drop of the pure grape juice there were two drops of the pure mischief ; and the danger of the thing was, that the mischief made it taste all the better. The mere smell of the bubbles, which effervesced at the brim, was enough to turn a man's beard into pig's bristles, or make a lion's claws grow out of his fingers, or a fox's brush behind him.
"Drink, my noble guest," said Circe, smiling as she pre sented him with the goblet. " You will find in this draught a solace for all your troubles. "
King Ulysses took the goblet with his right hand, while with his left he held the snow-white flower to his nostrils, and drew in so long a breath that his lungs were quite filled with its pure and simple fragrance. Then, drinking off all the wine, he looked the enchantress calmly in the face.
CIRCE'S PALACE. 309
" Wretch," cried Circe, giving him a smart stroke with her wand, "how dare you keep your human shape a moment longer ? Take the form of the brute whom you most resemble. If a hog, go join your fellow-swine in the sty ; if a lion, a wolf, a tiger, go howl with the wild beasts on the lawn ; if a fox, go exercise your craft in stealing poultry. Thou hast quaffed off my wine, and canst be man no longer. "
But, such was the virtue of the snow-white flower, instead of wallowing down from his throne in swinish shape, or taking any other brutal form, Ulysses looked even more manly and kinglike than before. He gave the magic goblet a toss, and sent it clashing over the marble floor, to the farthest end of the saloon. Then, drawing his sword, he seized the enchantress by her beautiful ringlets, and made a gesture as if he meant to strike off her head at one blow.
" Wicked Circe," cried he, in a terrible voice, " this sword shall put an end to thy enchantments. Thou shalt die, vile wretch, and do no more mischief in the world, by tempting human beings into the vices which make beasts of them. "
The tone and countenance of Ulysses were so awful, and his sword gleamed so brightly, and seemed to have so intolera bly keen an edge, that Circe was almost killed by the mere fright, without waiting for a blow. The chief butler scrambled out of the saloon, picking up the golden goblet as he went ; and the enchantress and the four maidens fell on their knees, wringing their hands, and screaming for mercy.
" Spare me ! " cried Circe, — " spare me, royal and wise Ulysses. For now I know that thou art he of whom Quick silver forewarned me, the most prudent of mortals, against whom no enchantments can prevail. Thou only couldst have conquered Circe. Spare me, wisest of men. I will show thee true hospitality, and even give myself to be thy slave, and this magnificent palace to be henceforth thy home. "
The four nymphs, meanwhile, were making a most piteous ado ; and especially the ocean nymph, with the sea-green hair, wept a great deal of salt water, and the fountain nymph, besides scattering dewdrops from her fingers' ends, nearly melted away into tears. But Ulysses would not be pacified until Circe had taken a solemn oath to change back his com panions, and as many others as he should direct, from their present forms of beast or bird into their former shapes of men.
310 CIRCE'S PALACE.
" On these conditions," said he, " I consent to spare your life. Otherwise you must die upon the spot. "
With a drawn sword hanging over her, the enchantress would readily have consented to do as much good as she had hitherto done mischief, however little she might like such employment. She therefore led Ulysses out of the back entrance of the palace, and showed him the swine in their sty. There were about fifty of these unclean beasts in the whole herd; and though the greater part were hogs by birth and education, there was wonderfully little difference to be seen betwixt them and their new brethren who had so recently worn the human shape. To speak critically, indeed, the latter rather carried the thing to excess, and seemed to make it a point to wallow in the miriest part of the sty, and otherwise to outdo the original swine in their own natural vocation. When men once turn to brutes, the trifle of man's wit that remains in them adds tenfold to their brutality.
The comrades of Ulysses, however, had not quite lost the remembrance of having formerly stood erect. When he approached the sty, two and twenty enormous swine separated themselves from the herd, and scampered towards him, with such a chorus of horrible squealing as made him clap both hands to his ears. And yet they did not seem to know what they wanted, nor whether they were merely hungry, or misera ble from some other cause. It was curious, in the midst of their distress, to observe them thrusting their noses into the mire, in quest of something to eat. The nymph with the bodice of oaken bark (she was the hamadryad of an oak) threw a handful of acorns among them ; and the two and twenty hogs scrambled and fought for the prize, as if they had tasted not so much as a noggin of sour milk for a twelvemonth.
" These must certainly be my comrades," said Ulysses. " I recognize their dispositions. They are hardly worth the trouble of changing them into the human form again. Nevertheless, we will have it done, lest their bad example should corrupt the other hogs. Let them take their original shapes, therefore, Dame Circe, if your skill is equal to the task. It will require greater magic, I trow, than it did to make swine of them. "
So Circe waved her wand again, and repeated a few magic words, at the sound of which the two and twenty hogs pricked up their pendulous ears. It was a wonder to behold how their snouts grew shorter and shorter, and their mouths (which they
CIRCE'S PALACE. 311
seemed to be sorry for, because they could not gobble so expedi tiously) smaller and smaller, and how one and another began to stand upon his hind legs, and scratch his nose with his fore trotters. At first the spectators hardly knew whether to call them hogs or men, but by and by came to the conclusion that they rather resembled the latter. Finally, there stood the twenty-two comrades of Ulysses, looking pretty much the same as when they left the vessel.
You must not imagine, however, that the swinish quality had entirely gone out of them. When once it fastens itself into a person's character, it is very difficult getting rid of it. This was proved by the hamadryad, who, being exceedingly fond of mischief, threw another handful of acorns before the twenty- two newly restored people ; whereupon down they wallowed, in a moment, and gobbled them up in a very shameful way. Then, recollecting themselves, they scrambled to their feet, and looked more than commonly foolish.
" Thanks, noble Ulysses ! " they cried. " From brute beasts you have restored us to the condition of men again. "
" Do not put yourselves to the trouble of thanking me," said the wise king. "I fear I have done but little for you. "
To say the truth, there was a suspicious kind of a grunt in their voices, and for a long time afterwards they spoke gruffly, and were apt to set up a squeal.
"It must depend on your own future behavior," added Ulysses, "whether you do not find your way back to the sty. " At this moment, the note of a bird sounded from the branch
of a"neighboring tree. " Peep, peep, pe—wee —ep!
It was the purple bird, who, all this while, had been sitting over their heads, watching what was going forward, and hoping that Ulysses would remember how he had done his utmost to keep him and his followers out of harm's way. Ulysses ordered Circe instantly to make a king of this good little fowl, and leave him exactly as she found him. Hardly were the words spoken, and before the bird had time to utter another " Pe — weep," King Picus leaped down from the bough of the tree, as majestic a sovereign as any in the world, dressed in a long purple robe and gorgeous yellow stockings, with a splendidly wrought collar about his neck, and a golden crown upon his head. He and King Ulysses exchanged with one another the courtesies which belong to their elevated rank. But from that
312 THE LONGING OF CIRCE.
time forth, King Picus was no longer proud of his crown and his trappings of royalty, nor of the fact of his being a king ; he felt himself merely the upper servant of his people, and that it must be his lifelong labor to make them better and happier.
As for the lions, tigers, and wolves (though Circe would have restored them to their former shapes at his slightest word), Ulysses thought it advisable that they should remain as they now were, and thus give warning of their cruel dispositions, instead of going about under the guise of men, and pretending to human sympathies, while their hearts had the bloodthirstiness of wild beasts. So he let them howl as much as they liked, but never troubled his head about them.
THE LONGING OF CIRCE. 1
By CAMERON MANN.
The rapid years drag by, and bring not here The man for whom I wait ;
All things pall on me : in my heart grows fear Lest I may miss my fate.
I weary of the heavy wealth and ease, Which all my isle enfold;
The fountain's sleepy plash, the summer breeze That bears not heat nor cold.
With dull, unvaried mien, my maid and I Plod through our daily tasks ;
Gather strange herbs, weave purple tapestry, Distill in magic flasks.
Most weary am I of these men who yield So quickly to my spell, —
The beastly rout now wandering afield, With grunt and snarl and yell.
Ah, when, in place of tigers and of swine, Shall he confront me whom
My song cannot enslave, nor that bright wine Where rank enchantments fume ?
xBy permission of Houghton, Mifflin & Co.
THE PRATER OF THE SWINE TO CIRCE. 813
Then with what utter gladness will I cast My sorceries away,
And kneel to him, my lord revealed at last, And serve him night and day !
THE PRAYER OF THE SWINE TO CIRCE. By AUSTIN DOBSON.
[Henbt Austin Dobson: English poet and biographer; born at Plymouth, England, January 18, 1840. He was educated as a civil engineer, but since 1856 has held a position in the Board of Trade, devoting his leisure hours to literary work. He domesticated the old French stanza form in English verse, and has done much to revive an interest in English art and literature of the eighteenth century. "Vignettes in Rhyme," "At the Sign of the Lyre," and "Proverbs in Porcelain" constitute his chief poetical works. In prose he"has written biographies of Bewick, Walpole, Hogarth, Steele, and Goldsmith ; Eighteenth- Century Vignettes," etc. ]
Huddling they came, with shag sides caked of mire, — With hoofs fresh sullied from the troughs o'erturned, — With wrinkling snouts, — yet eyes in which desire
Of some strange thing unutterably burned,
Unquenchable ; and still where'er She turned
They rose about her, striving each o'er each,
With restless, fierce impdrtuning that yearned
Through those brute masks some piteous tale to teach,
Yet lacked the words thereto, denied the power of speech.
For these — Eurylochus alone escaping —
In truth, that small exploring band had been, Whom wise Odysseus, dim precaution shaping, Ever at heart, of peril unforeseen,
Had sent inland ; — whom then the islet Queen,— The fair disastrous daughter of the Sun, —
Had turned to likeness of the beast unclean,
With evil wand transforming one by one,
To shapes of loathly swine, imbruted and undone.
But " the men's minds remained," and these forever Made hungry suppliance through the fire-red eyes ; Still searching aye, with impotent endeavor,
To find, if yet, in any look, there lies
A saving hope, or if they might surprise
314 THE PRAYER OF THE SWINE TO CIRCE.
In that cold face soft pity's spark concealed, Which she, still scorning, evermore denies ; Nor was there in her any ruth revealed
To whom with such mute speech and dumb words they appealed.
What hope is ours — what hope! To find no mercy After much war, and many travails done? —
Ah, kinder far than thy fell philters, Circe,
The ravening Cyclops and the Lozstrigon I
And O, thrice cursed be Laertes' son,
By whom, at last, we watch the days decline With no fair ending of the quest begun, Condemned in sties to weary and to pine
And with men's hearts to beat through this foul front of swine !
For us not now, —for us, alas ! no more The old green glamour of the glancing sea;
For us not now the laughter of the oar, —
The strong-ribbed keel wherein our comrades be ;
Not now, at even, any more shall we,
By low-browed banks and reedy river places,
Watch the beast hurry and the wild fowl flee; Or steering shoreward, in the upland spaces,
Have sight of curling smoke and fair-skinned foreign faces.
Alas for us I — for whom the columned houses We left aforetime, cheerless must abide;
Cheerless the hearth where now no guest carouses, No minstrel raises song at eventide;
And O, more cheerless than aught else beside, The wistful hearts with heavy longing full; — The wife that watched us on the waning tide, — The sire whose eyes with weariness are dull, —
The mother whose slow tears fall on the carded wool.
—
Wellpleased on mast and acorn shales to feed, Stirred by all instincts of the bestial breed;
But O Unmerciful ! O Pitiless I
Leave us not thus with sick men's hearts to bleed! — To waste long days in yearning, dumb distress
And memory of things gone, and utter hopelessness !
Jf swine we be, — if we indeed be swine, Daughter of Persi, make us swine indeed,
WelUpleased on litter straw to lie supine, —
THE PRAYER OF THE SWINE TO CIRCE.
Leave us at least, if not the things we were,
At least consentient to the thing we be ;
Not hapless doomed to loathe the forms we bear, And senseful roll in senseless savagery;
For surely cursed above all cursed are we,
And surely this the bitterest of ill; —
To feel the old aspirings fair and free, Become blind motions of a powerless will
Through swinelike frames dispersed to swinelike issues still.
But make us men again, for that thou mayst I Yea, make us men, Enchantress, and restore These groveling shapes, degraded and debased, To fair embodiments of men once more; — Tea, by all men that ever woman bore; — Yea, e'en by him hereafter born in pain,
Shall draw sustainment from thy bosom's core, O'er whom thy face yet kindly shall remain,
And find its like therein, — make thou us men again !
Make thou us men again, — if men but groping That dark Hereafter which th' Olympians keep, Make thou us men again, — if men but hoping Behind death's doors security of sleep; — — For yet to laugh is somewhat, and to weep ;
To feel delight of living, and to plow — The salt-blown acres of the shoreless deep; Better, — yea better far all these than bow
Foul faces to foul earth, and yearn — as we do now I
So they in speech unsyllabled. But She,
The fair-tressed Goddess, born to be their bane, Uplifting straight her wand of ivory,
Compelled them groaning to the sties again ; Where they in hopeless bitterness were fain To rend the oaken woodwork as before, — And tear the troughs in impotence of pain,
Not knowing, they, that even at the door
Divine Odysseus stood, — as Hermes told of yore.
316 A FANTASIA ON THE ODYSSEY.
A FANTASIA ON THE ODYSSEY. By LtJDVIG HOLBERG.
[Ludvig Holbero, the Scandinavian Moliere, and also historian, philoso pher, essayist, critic, and letter-writer, was born at Bergen, Norway, December 3, 1684 ; but was educated in Copenhagen ; left Norway permanently at twenty- one, and is purely Danish in work and influence, — the creator of modern Dan ish literature. He was the youngest of twelve children, and early orphaned. He journeyed much abroad for twenty years, spending 1705-1707 at Oxford, and was the means of fertilizing Scandinavian thought and letters with foreign ideas and art. He became a professor in the Copenhagen University in 1718, and never left its service, teaching at first metaphysics, which he hated, and afterwards other branches. His first works were historical ; next he wrote on international law, then a satirical mock epic, "Peder Paars" ; then he began writing comedies for the Copenhagen theater, producing twenty-eight in five years, immortalizing himself, and creating a great national Danish stage. The burning of Copenhagen in 1728, and the accession of a strait-laced king in 1730, put an end to the theater, and it was nearly twenty years before Holberg began again, producing six more plays. The best known of them outside is "Erasmus Montanus" (see a later volume); "The Lucky Shipwreck" is the author's self-defense for his satire ; he dealt with all sides of life and character. He wrote also a notable History of Denmark ; hero and heroine stories in Plutarch's manner ; " Niels Klim's Subterranean Journey " (of the Gulliver sort) ; " Moral Thoughts," and several volumes of "Letters. " He was ennobled in 1747, and died January 28, 1754. ]
Twenty Years After the Siege op Troy.
[Ulysses near the close of his wanderings has met Dido and been detained by her.
Ulysses — Chilian, I am afraid
Chilian — Afraid of what, my lord ?
Ulysses —Afraid that Dido is in love with me.
Chilian — Are you sure ?
Ulysses — Luckless me ! Chilian, if it is so, we are booked
to stay here.
Chilian — My lord, don't be offended, but how old were you
when you left home ?
Ulysses — In the prime of life ; not more than forty.
Chilian — All right. Forty years for a starter, ten for the
siege makes fifty, and twenty on this voyage home is seventy. The royal Dido must love fossils immensely, if she neglects the crowd of youths she could pick from, and falls in love with a hoary old man.
Ulysses — Stop, Chilian, I don't wish to hear such argu
A FANTASIA ON THE ODYSSEY.
317
ments ; you must have gone wrong in your calculations. What you see with your own eyes you must not doubt. If you see snow in summer, you ought not to say, "This can't be snow, for it is summer ; " it is enough to see the snow yourself.
Chilian — I see, your lordship :
what happens to us in this journey.
to reason out a way to get clear of this scrape.
I will try
Ulysses — How can we escape this imminent catastro phe?
Chilian — No way, my lord, except by quietly putting out to sea.
Ulysses — You are right, Chilian. I will go at once and discuss the matter with my faithful companions. Stay here till
I return.
Chilian [to himself] — I wish I had a pinch of snuff, so as
I must not use reason on
I won't, then ;
[Exit.
to shake myself up ; for my head is going crazy. I know quite well that when my master returns he will say it is ten years since he spoke to me last. We shall be several thousand years old before we get home to our own country again ; for we don't keep up with time — it runs away from us even when we stand still. I have a piece of cheese with me that I brought from Ithaca thirty years ago, and it is fresh yet. And the earth runs away from us as much as time ; often enough we are in the eastern part of the world when I light my pipe, and in the western before I have smoked it out.
Ulysses returns.
Ulysses — Great Zeus I can such things be ? Chilian — What's the matter now, my lord ?
Ulysses — Chilian, I couldn't have believed such a thing pos sible if I had not seen it with my own eyes.
Chilian — What is it, your honor ?
Ulysses — Dido, Dido, what harm have I done you that you practice your sorceries on my faithful companions ?
Chilian — Are they bewitched ?
Ulysses — Chilian, listen to a wonderful story, such as never has happened before since Deucalion's flood. During the four weeks since I talked with you last
Chilian — Only four weeks? I supposed it must be at least four years.
318 A FANTASIA ON THE ODYSSEY.
Ulysses — During those four weeks I have been making plans with my faithful companions to leave here on the quiet. We were all ready to embark when Dido got wind of it and to block it turned all my companions, by magic, into swine.
Chilian — Why, my good master, that is impossible ! [aside] for they were that before.
into one too.
Here they come now :
Ulysses' Companions enter, crawling on all fours and grunting.
Chilian — Ha, ha, ha, ha! ha, ha, ha, ha! Oh, the devil take me if I ever saw such a thing in my life before !
The Swine — Ouf, ouf, ouf, ouf, ouf !
Chilian — Say, you chaps, what devil is riding you ?
The Swine — We are swine, good master. Ouf, ouf, ouf,
Ulysses — Chilian, it is only too true. I thought my eyes must have deceived me, and spoke to them. But their voices were transformed along with their bodies, and they only grunted at me in reply. Then I fled in fear of being turned
more than you ever were.
The Swine — Ouf, ouf, ouf, ouf, ouf !
Chilian [going down on all fours and grunting like the
rest] — Ouf, ouf, ouf ! Look here, you chaps, are you sure you
Eat this garbage here.
The Swine —We are not hungry, good master. Ouf, ouf,
ouf, ouf !
— Chilian [lashing them with a birch rod] — Go ahead, I say
eat it up, or I'll cut your pigskin backs into strips. Go on, go on — if you are hogs it is just the right kind of feed for you.
[Beats them with the rod. They get up and are men once more.
The Companions — D you, we'll make you pay for this thrashing, Mr. Wegner [the actor who played Chilian] . What
are hogs ? — The Swine
Ouf, ouf, ouf !
Chilian — All right, if you are hogs you must eat hog feed.
do you mean by spoiling the story in this way ?
[Run off.
I dare not stay.
[Exit, weeping.
ouf,ouf! —
Chilian May the devil fly away with me if you are
—
any
A FANTASIA ON THE ODYSSEY. 319
Chilian [to the audience] — I didn't spoil the story — I only turned them into two-legged swine, as they were before. But here comes my master again.
Ulysses — Oh, Chilian, have they gone ?
Chilian — Yes, all gone, your honor — on two legs, as they did before.
Ulysses — What, then they are no longer swine ?
Chilian — Oh, I don't say that; not by any means; but my magical skill has enabled me to make them go on two legs
again. — Ulysses
O mighty son of . /Esculapius ! You should have temples and altars erected in your honor ! What god or goddess taught you such divine arts ?
Chilian — I went and lay down in a field and wept bitterly over the calamity that had befallen our men. During this I fell asleep, and Persephone (I believe that's her name), the goddess of medicine, came to me in a vision and said : " Chilian, thy tears and thy prayers have reached me. Rise and cut a wand from the first birch tree at thy left. It is a sacred tree, as yet untouched by man. The instant you touch your compatriots with it, they will rise and walk on two legs as before. " It was just as she said. I won't say whether they are still hogs or not; but I know they look just as they used, and walk on two legs, and talk — in fact, they gave me bad tongue because I struck them too hard with the holy birch. —
Ulysses
Chilian, you have saved me ! Let me embrace
you! Chilian — Your servant. I should be pleased if my lord would turn hog, too, so I could have the pleasure of trans forming him.
Ulysses — Chilian, there is no time to spare. The ship is
all ready ; let us go and get the men together, so we may escape quickly and silently. There comes Dido ! run !
ODYSSEUS IN HADES.
ODYSSEUS IN HADES.
(From the " Odyssey " ; translated by Philip S. Worsley. )
Soon as Persephone the female host
Dispersed, came pacing from the shadowy train,
Silent in sorrow, Agamemnon's ghost,
With souls all round him by JSgisthus slain. Soon having quaffed the blood he knew me plain,
Wailed, and with feeble arms, shorn of their force, Yearned to embrace me. Then I, touched with pain,
Wept when I marked him, and with kind remorse Of pity the cold shade addressed in winged discourse :
" O glorious Agamemnon, king of men, What destiny too cruel dashed thy joy,
And hurled thee realmless to this darksome den ? Did then Poseidon his fierce gales employ Unenviable, and all thy ships destroy ?
Or thee from earth did rude barbarians sweep,
While thou wast plundering, on thy road from Troy,
Beeves, and their beauteous flocks of fruitful sheep, " Or for their wives and walls red battle wast waging deep ?
Thus I inquired. He answering spake in turn : " Zeus-born Laertiades, Odysseus brave,
Neither through storms unenviable did stern Poseidon whelm me in the rolling wave,
Nor rude barbarian hands my death blow gave ;
But dark JSgisthus working doom and death,
Leagued with my cursed wife, hurled me to the grave,
While feasting in his house, without one breath Of warning, as some churl a stalled ox murdereth.
" So by the worst of dooms I died, and all
My friends like white-toothed swine around me bled,
Which in a wealthy noble's banquet hall
Die for some revel, or when their lord is wed. Thou of a truth hast witnessed thousands dead,
Whether in secret slain or the strong flood Of onset, yet were this compassioned
More than all else, couldst thou have seen where stood
Full tables, foaming bowls, while the floor smoked with blood
ODYSSEUS IN HADES.
" There did I hear Cassandra's piercing shriek, Daughter of Priam, as she fell down slain
By crafty Clytaemnestra, fierce to wreak
Her murderous bale. I, falling, in wild pain Clutched the wet steel with dying hands in vain.
That shameless cursed woman where I lay
Tare out my life, and scorned with fell disdain
Eyelids of one then passing on his way
Toward Hades to seal down, and press the lips' cold clay ;
" Since naught exists more horrible and bold Than evil in the breast of womankind,
When she to her own lust herself hath sold ; Even as this fell monster in her mind Against the husband of her youth designed
Black murder. I, the while, poor dreamer, thought Good words from children and from slaves to find ;
But she, by the foul sin she planned and wrought,
On the mere name of woman eternal shame hath brought. "
Grieving he ceased, and I made answer then :
"Too oft, by Heaven, dread suffering and disgrace
Far-seeing Zeus, the King of gods and men,
Hurls in his anger on the Atrean race
From the beginning, and through all their days
Hath, for the plots of women, piled a cloud Of ruin o'er their house ! In a far place
For Helena died many a hero proud —
Next against thee dark murder Clytaemnestra vowed. "
" Never for this, hereafter in thy life,"
He answered, " make parade of tenderness,
Nor the whole matter even to thy wife
Show forth, but part reveal and part suppress ; Albeit I ween she is no murderess,
Icarius' daughter, sage Penelope —
One rather whom the gods with forethought bless,
Apt for good counsels, wise exceedingly,
And not from hands like hers shall ruin alight on thee.
" Her a new bride we left, when at my hest Soldiers of Argos crossed the rolling sea.
Her only child an infant at the breast,
Helpless and void of power, who now, maybe, Sits with the noble chieftains. Happy he ! VOL. II. — 21
322
ODYSSEUS IN HADES.
Whom on the dear hearth his returning sire Shall gaze on, when the old calamity
Is ended, while with equal fond desire
Both, twined in mutual arms, their mutual respire !
"She did the sight of mine own son deny,
So quick she slew me. But remember thou
On mine own coast to land in privacy ;
No more are women to be trusted now.
But of my child whate'er thou knowest, avow 1
Whether in famed Orchomenus he bide,
Or sandy Pylos — some true word allow —
Or if with Menelatls, in Sparta wide —
Since on the earth not yet hath brave Orestes died. "
Iknow not His life or death. We talk but idle air. "
I answered : " Why this question ?
So we in converse rooted to the spot
Stood weeping ; and Achilleus' shade came near, Antilochus, Patrocleus, Aias fair
Beyond all Danaans after Peleus' son ;
And, while I looked, that spirit knew me there,
Swift-foot Aiacides, and spake anon,
Mixing with winged words full many a bitter moan :
" Zeus-born Ladrtiades, Odysseus brave,
Where in thy desperate councils wilt thou cease ?
How durst thou seek these kingdoms of the grave, Wherein the dead, mere phantoms, reasonless, Inhabit ? " Whom I answering there address :
" O Lord Achilleus, name invincible, First of Achaians, I Tiresias
Came to consult, if he some word might tell Whereby this long return I might accomplish welL
"Not yet Achaia's realm have I come nigh, Nor on my native earth one footprint set;
Still am I held in sore adversity.
But than thyself, Achilleus, no man yet Was happier, nor shall one hereafter get
Such glory as the gods on thee bestow, Who like a deity didst reap our debt —
Of praise above, and now art lord below
Wherefore, though dead, take heart, nor vex thyself with woe. "
ODYSSEUS IN HADES.
" Scoff not at death," he answered, " noble chief ! Rather would I in the sun's warmth divine
Serve a poor churl who drags his days in grief, Than the whole lordship of the dead were mine. But came my brave son to your wars, to shine
First in the front of arms ? This also tell : If to the blameless Peleus men assign Due reference in the land, or if he dwell
Spurned in his weak old age, and not regarded welL
" Since to his help I can no longer wield Under the sun that valor famed of yore,
Such as men knew me in the Trojan field, Smiter of heroes, bulwark of the war. Could I but once unto my father's door,
*******
Such as I was, return a little space,
Soon would I make those caitiffs to abhor
My hands inviolable, who now disgrace
Rights nobler than their own, and scorn his kingly place. "
Thus the dim shades pressed forward, one by one, Still in my ears rehearsing sad lament ;
But never Aias, child of Telamon,
Came near me, but with gloomy brows and bent Stood far aloof, in sternness eminent,
Eating his heart for that old victory Against him given by clear arbitrament,
Concerning brave Achilleus' arm, which she, Thetis, his reverend mother, set for rivalry.
O that Athene and the sons of Troy
Had never by the ships their rede unrolled,
Sentence divulging that cut off from joy
That brave one ; since for this the earth doth hold Aias, the fairest in corporeal mold,
And first in exploit after Peleus' son !
Then I in words the darkling shadow cold
Bespake : ' O Aias, child of Telamon,
Wilt thou not even here thine anger leave forgone,
" Nor ever those pernicious arms forget,
By gods put forth to work the Argives woe ? For else hadst thou, our tower, been living yet.
Now equal tears among the Achaians flow For thee and lost Achilleus. Well I know
ODYSSEUS IN HADES.
None other was the cause, but Zeus in hate Willed to afflict the Danaan swordsmen so,
And forced upon thy life this evil fate. " O hear me, noble chief, and thy proud soul abate !
He nothing answered but severely stern Toward Erebus involved in darkness dim
And to the other shades his feet did turn,
Where none the less this sullen ghost and grim Even yet should have addressed me, or I him,
*******
But that within my breast more strong desire Impelled me, passing from the pool's dark brim
Into the deeper regions to retire,
And view the other souls, and of their state inquire.
There also Tantalus in anguish stood,
Plunged in the stream of a translucent lake ;
And to his chin welled ever the cold flood.
But when he rushed, in fierce desire to break His torment, not one drop could he partake.
For as the old man stooping seems to meet That water with his fiery lips, and slake The frenzy of wild thirst, around his feet,
Leaving the dark earth dry, the shuddering waves retreat.
Also the thick-leaved arches overhead Fruit of all savor in profusion flung,
And in his clasp rich clusters seemed to shed.
There citrons waved, with shining fruitage hung, Pears and pomegranates, olive ever young,
And the sweet-mellowing fig ; but whensoe'er The old man, fain to cool his burning tongue,
Clutched with his fingers at the branches fair,
Came a strong wind and whirled them skyward through the air.
And I saw Sisyphus in travail strong
Shove with both hands a mighty sphere of stone.
With feet and sinewy wrists he laboring long
Just pushed the vast globe up, with many a groan ; But when he thought the huge mass to have thrown
Clean o'er the summit, the enormous weight
Back to the nether plain rolled tumbling down. He, straining, the great toil resumed, while sweat
Bathed each laborious limb, and the brows smoked with heat.
ODYSSEUS IN HADES.
And after him the strength of Heracles
I gazed on, a mere shadowy counterfeit
(He, the true form, among the gods of ease,
Wed to fair-ankled Hebe, still doth sit,
Feasting). While round him the dead phantoms flit,
Like of bewildered birds a clang there came.
He, dark as Night, with bent bow, seems to fit
Shaft to the naked nerve, and eyes his game, Dreadfully crouching down, as one in act to aim
Also a wondrous sword belt, all of gold, Gleamed like a fire athwart his ample breast,
Whereon were shapes of creatures manifold, Boar, bear, and lion sparkling-eyed, expressed, With many a bloody deed and warlike gest.
Whoso by art that wondrous zone achieved, Let him forever from art's labors rest !
Soon as the shade my nearing form perceived,
He knew me, and thus spake in winged words, sore-grieved :
"Zeus-born Lae"rtiades, Odysseus wise,
Is thy life sad like mine beneath the sun ?
I was the child of Zeus, but miseries
Bore without number, the bondslave of one
Far meaner, who much task work, hardly done,
Laid on me, and to these realms of the dead
Sent me to fetch the dog (for task seemed none
Heavier than this), whom yet to the air I led From Hades, save by Hermes and Athene sped. "
This spoken, he within the portals went
Of Hades, but I lingering stood my ground
To watch if any other his dark steps bent Thither — some hero of the names renowned Who died in the old time. Then had I found
Whomso I wished, Pirithous, Theseus dread, Children of gods ; but with portentous sound
Ev'n then the thousand thousands of the dead
Flocked thickening, and pale fear possessed me, and I fled.
326 THE WOMEN OF HOMER.
THE WOMEN OF HOMER. By JOHN ADDINGTON SYMONDS.
[John Addington Stmonds, English man of letters,"was born October 5, 1840; graduated at Balliol College, Oxford. He wrote Introduction to the Study of Dante" (1872), "Studies of the Greek"Poets" (1873-1876), "The Renaissance in Italy" (six volumes, 1875-1886), Shakespeare's Predecessors in the English Drama" (1884), "Life of Michelangelo" (1892), several vol umes of poetry, translated Benvenuto Cellini's autobiography, etc. He died April 18, 1893, at Borne. ]
Helen of Troy is one of those ideal creatures of the fancy over which time, space, and circumstance, and moral probabil ity exert no sway. It would be impossible to conceive of her except as inviolably beautiful and young, in spite of all her wanderings and all she suffered at the hands of Aphrodite and of men. She moves through Greek heroic legend as the de sired of all men and the possessed of many. Theseus bore her away while yet a girl from Sparta. Her brethren, Castor and Polydeukes, recovered her from Athens by force, and gave to her jEthra, the mother of Theseus, for bondwoman. Then all the youths of Hellas wooed her in the young world's prime. She was at last assigned in wedlock to Menelaus, by whom she conceived her only earthly child, Hermione. Paris, by aid of Aphrodite, won her love and fled with her to Egypt and to Troy. In Troy she abode more than twenty years, and was the mate of Deiphobus after the death of Paris. When the strife raised for her sake was ended, Menelaus restored her with honor to his home in Lacedaemon. There she received
Telemachus and saw her daughter mated to Neoptolemus. But even after death she rested not from the service of love. The great Achilles, who in life had loved her by hearsay, but had never seen her, clasped her among the shades upon the island Leuke, and begat Euphorion. Through all these adven tures Helen maintains an ideal freshness, a mysterious virginity of soul. She is not touched by the passion she inspires, or by the wreck of empires ruined in her cause. Fate deflours her not, nor do years impair the magic of her charm. Like beauty, she belongs alike to all and none. She is not judged as wives or mothers are, though she is both ; to her belong soul-wound ing blossoms of inexorable love, as well as pain-healing poppy
The Abduction of Helen
From the painting by Rudolph von Deutsch
THE WOMEN OF HOMER. 327
heads of oblivion ; all eyes are blinded by the adorable, incom parable grace which Aphrodite sheds around her form.
Whether Helen was the slave or the beloved of Aphrodite, or whether, as Herodotus hinted, she was herself a kind of Aphrodite, we are hardly told. At one time she appears the willing servant of the goddess ; at another she groans beneath her bondage. But always and on all occasions she owes every thing to the Cyprian queen. Her very body gear preserved the powerful charm with which she was invested at her birth. When the Phocians robbed the Delphian treasure house, the wife of one of their captains took and wore Helen's necklace, whereupon she doted on a young Epirot soldier and eloped with him.
She is always god-begotten and divinely fair. Was it possible that anything so exquisite should have endured rough ravishment and borne the travail of the siege of Troy ? This doubt possessed the later poets of the legendary age. They spun a myth according to which Helen reached the shore of Egypt on the ship of Paris ; but Paris had to leave her there in cedar-scented chambers by the stream of Nile, when he went forth to plow the foam, uncomforted save by her phantom. And for a phantom the Greeks strove with the Trojans on the windy plains of Ilium. For a phantom's sake brave Hector died, and the leonine swiftness of Achilles was tamed, and Zeus bewailed Sarpedon, and Priam's towers were leveled with the
Helen, meanwhile, — the beautiful, the inviolable, — sat all day long among the palm groves, twining lotus flowers for her hair, and learning how to weave rare Eastern patterns in the loom.
ground.
This legend hides a delicate satire upon human strife. For what do men disquiet themselves in warfare to the death, and tossing on sea waves ? Even for a phantom — for the shadow of their desire, the which remains secluded in some unapproach able, far, sacred land. A wide application may thus be given to Augustine's passionate outcry: "Why is it yours to go here and there over hard and toilsome ways ? Rest is not where you seek it. Seek what you seek ; but there is naught where you seek. You seek a life of bliss in the land of death : it is not there. " Those who spake ill of Helen suffered. Stesicho- rus had ventured to lay upon her shoulders all the guilt and suffering of Hellas and of Troy. Whereupon he was smitten with blindness, nor could he recover his sight till he had
328 THE WOMEN OF HOMER.
written the palinode which begins, " Not true is that tale ; nor didst thou journey in benched ships, or come to towers of Troy. " Even Homer, as Plato hints, knew not that blindness had fallen on him for like reason. To assail Helen with re proach was not less dangerous than to touch the Ark of the Covenant, for with the Greeks beauty was a holy thing. How perfectly beautiful she was we know from the legend of the cups modeled upon her breasts suspended in the shrine of Aphrodite. When Troy was taken, and the hungry soldiers of Odysseus roamed through the burning palaces of Priam and his sons, their swords fell beneath the vision of her loveliness. She had wrought all the ruin, yet Menelaus could not touch her, when she sailed forth, swanlike, fluttering white raiment, with the imperturbable sweet smile of a goddess on her lips. Between the Helen of the Iliad, reverenced by the elders in the Scaean gate, and the Helen of the Odyssey, queenlike among her Spartan maidens, there has passed no agony of fear. The shame which she has truly felt has been tempered to a silent sorrow, and she has poured her grief forth beside Andromache over the corpse of Hector.
She first appears when Iris summons her to watch the duel of Paris and Menelaus. Husband and lover are to fight be neath the walls of Troy. Priam accosts her tenderly ; not hers the blame that the gods scourge him in his old age with war. Then he bids her sit beside him and name the Greek heroes as they march beneath. She obeys, and points out Agamemnon, Odysseus, and Ajax, describing each, as she knew them of old. But for her twin brothers she looks in vain ; and the thought of them touches her with the sorrow of her isolation and her shame.
In the same book, after Paris has been withdrawn, not with out dishonor, from the duel by Aphrodite, Helen is summoned by her liege mistress to his bed. Helen was standing on the walls, and the goddess, disguised as an old spinning woman, took her by the skirt, bidding her hie back to her lover, whom she would find in his bedchamber, not as one arrayed for war, but as a fair youth resting haply from the dance. Homer gives no hint that Aphrodite is here the personified wish of Helen's own heart going forth to Paris. On the contrary, the Cyprian queen appears in the interests of the Phrygian youth, whom she would fain see comforted. Under her disguise Helen recognized Aphrodite, the terrible queen, whose bond
THE WOMEN OF HOMER. 829
woman she was forced to be. For a moment she struggled against her fate. " Art thou come again," she cried, " to bear me to some son of earth beloved of thee, that I may serve his pleasure to my own shame ? Nay, rather, put off divinity and be thyself his odalisque. " But go she must. Aphrodite is a hard taskmistress, and the mysterious bond of beauty which chains Helen to her cannot be broken.
It is in the chamber of Paris that Hector finds her. She has vainly striven to send Paris forth to battle ; and the sense of her own degradation, condemned to love a man love-worthy only for the beauty of his limbs, overcomes her when she sees the noble Hector clothed in panoply for war. Her passionate outbreak of self-pity and self-reproach is, perhaps, the strong est indication given in the Iliad of a moral estimate of Helen's crime. The most consummate art is shown by the poet in thus quickening the conscience of Helen by contact with the nobil ity of Hector.