of her child, deprived of such a husband and father.

The succeeding days are spent in gloom and sorrow, each side bewailing
the loss of a favorite warrior. King Priam finally recovers the body of
Hector from Achilles, and brings it back to Hector's palace, where the
women gather about the corpse--and among them white-armed Andromache
leads the lamentation, while in her hands she holds the head of Hector,
slayer of men. Hecuba, too, grieves for Hector, of all her children the
dearest to her heart; and, lastly, Helen joins in the sore lament,
sorrowing for the loss of the dearest of her brethren in Troy, who had
never spoken despiteful word to her, but had always been kind and
considerate. Here the long story reaches its natural conclusion. The
Iliad opens with a scene of wrath occasioned by man's passion for woman,
and closes with a scene of mourning--women grieving for the loss of a
slain husband and son and friend--knightly Hector.

Before we bid farewell to the martial tableaux presented to us in the
Iliad, and direct our attention to the domestic scenes of the Odyssey,
let us take a final glance at the heroines who have appeared in the
first Homeric epos.

Worthy of note is the atmosphere of beauty and delicacy and charm with
which the poet has enveloped Helen of Troy. She has committed a grievous
fault, but there is in the recital nothing which offends the moral
sense. This is because the poet has portrayed her with none of the
seductions of vice, but with all the allurements of penitence. She has
sinned, but it has been because of the mysterious and irresistible bond
which united her to the goddess of love; her moral nature has not been
perverted, and she is filled with shame and remorse because of the
reproach that has been cast upon her name. By a long and bitter
expiation, she has atoned for her fault; and memories of the days long
past abide with her in all their sweetness and purity. One can but
contrast the difference of attitude with which she addresses Priam and
Hector on the one hand, and Aphrodite and Paris on the other. For the
former she has the utmost consideration and respect, and in their
presence she feels most keenly how compromised is her position; for the
latter, the causes of her fall, she has nothing but the scorn and
contempt of a cultivated and high-spirited queen. In portraying the
regret of Helen for her first husband, and her contempt toward her
second; in representing Menelaus and the