Helen of Troy | Page 6

fairer far;?A milkwhite bull, the captive of my spear,
And all the wondering shepherds called him STAR:?And still he led his fellows to the war,?When the lean wolves against the herds came down,
Then would he charge, and drive their hosts afar?Beyond the pastures to the forests brown.
XXXII.
"Now so it chanced that on an autumn morn,
King Priam sought a goodly bull to slay?In memory of his child, no sooner born
Than midst the lonely mountains cast away,?To die ere scarce he had beheld the day;?And Priam's men came wandering afar
To that green pool where by the flocks I lay,?And straight they coveted the goodly STAR,
XXXIII.
"And drave him, no word spoken, to the town:
One man mine arrow lit on, and he fell;?His comrades held me off, and down and down,
Through golden windings of the autumn dell,?They spurr'd along the beast that loved me well,?Till red were his white sides; I following,
Wrath in my heart, their evil deeds to tell?In Ilios, at the footstool of the King.
XXXIV.
"But ere they came to the God-builded wall,
They spied a meadow by the water-side,?And there the men of Troy were gathered all
For joust and play; and Priam's sons defied?All other men in all Maeonia wide?To strive with them in boxing and in speed.
Victorious with the shepherds had I vied,?So boldly followed to that flowery mead.
XXXV.
"Maeonia, Phrygia, Troia there were met,
And there the King, child of Laomedon,?Rich prizes for the vanquishers had set,
Damsels, and robes, and cups that like the sun?Shone, but the white bull was the chiefest one;?And him the victor in the games should slay
To Zeus, the King of Gods, when all was done,?And so with sacrifice should crown the day.
XXXVI.
"Now it were over long, methinks, to tell
The contest of the heady charioteers,?Of them the goal that turn'd, and them that fell.
But I outran the young men of my years,?And with the bow did I out-do my peers,?And wrestling; and in boxing, over-bold,
I strove with Hector of the ashen spears,?Yea, till the deep-voiced Heralds bade us hold.
XXXVII.
"Then Priam hail'd me winner of the day;
Mine were the maid, the cup, and chiefest prize,?Mine own fair milkwhite bull was mine to slay;
But then the murmurs wax'd to angry cries,?And hard men set on me in deadly wise,?My brethren, though they knew it not; I turn'd,
And fled unto the place of sacrifice,?Where altars to the God of strangers burn'd.
XXXVIII.
"At mine own funeral feast, had I been slain,
But, fearing Zeus, they halted for a space,?And lo, Apollo's priestess with a train
Of holy maidens came into that place,?And far did she outshine the rest in grace,?But in her eyes such dread was frozen then
As glares eternal from the Gorgon's face?Wherewith Athene quells the ranks of men.
XXXIX.
"She was old Priam's daughter, long ago
Apollo loved her, and did not deny?His gifts,--the things that are to be to know,
The tongue of sooth-saying that cannot lie,?And knowledge gave he of all birds that fly?'Neath heaven; and yet his prayer did she disdain.
So he his gifts confounded utterly,?And sooth she saith, but evermore in vain.
XL.
"She, when her dark eyes fell on me, did stand
At gaze a while, with wan lips murmuring,?And then came nigh to me, and took my hand,
And led me to the footstool of the King,?And call'd me 'brother,' and drew forth the ring?That men had found upon me in the wild,
For still I bore it as a precious thing,?The token of a father to his child.
XLI.
"This sign Cassandra show'd to Priam: straight
The King wax'd pale, and ask'd what this might be??And she made answer, 'Sir, and King, thy fate
That comes to all men born hath come on thee;?This shepherd is thine own child verily:?How like to thine his shape, his brow, his hands!
Nay there is none but hath the eyes to see?That here the child long lost to Troia stands.'
XLII.
"Then the King bare me to his lofty hall,
And there we feasted in much love and mirth,?And Priam to the mountain sent for all
That knew me, and the manner of my birth:?And now among the great ones of the earth?In royal robe and state behold me set,
And one fell thing I fear not; even dearth,?Whate'er the Gods remember or forget.
XLIII.
"My new rich life had grown a common thing,
The pleasant years still passing one by one,?When deep in Ida was I wandering
The glare of well-built Ilios to shun,?In summer, ere the day was wholly done,?When I beheld a goodly prince,--the hair
To bloom upon his lip had scarce begun, -?The season when the flower of youth is fair.
XLIV.
"Then knew I Hermes by his golden wand
Wherewith he lulls the eyes of men to sleep;?But, nodding with his brows, he bade me stand,
And spake, 'To-night thou hast a tryst to keep,?With Goddesses within the forest deep;?And Paris, lovely things shalt thou behold,
More fair than they for which men war and weep,?Kingdoms, and fame, and victories, and gold.
XLV.
"'For, lo! to-night within