to story-telling about
Ulysses at Troy, changing from sad reminiscences of the dead to
stirring deeds of living men, we may suppose that this has something to
do with her Nepenthe, which changes the mind from inward to outward,
from emotion to action. The magic charm seems to work potently when she
begins to talk. Through her, the artist as well as the ideal, we make
the transition into the Heroic Tale of the olden time, of which she
gives a specimen.

2. Very naturally the Trojan scene is next taken, that greatest deed of
the Greek race, being that which really made it a new race, separating
it from the Orient and giving it a new destiny. Helen now tells to the
company myths, particularly the labors of Ulysses. She narrates how he
came to Troy in the disguise of a beggar; none knew him, "but I alone
recognized him," as she had just recognized Telemachus. Thus she
celebrates the cunning and bravery of Ulysses; but she also introduces
a fragment of her own history: "I longed to return home, and I lamented
the infatuation which Venus sent upon me." She wished to be restored to
her husband who was "in no respect lacking in mind or shape." We must
not forget that the husband was before her listening; she does not
forget her skill. Also Telemachus was present and hears her confession
of guilt and her repentance--important stages in her total life, which
he is to know, and to take unto himself.

Menelaus has also his myth of Ulysses at Troy, which he now proceeds to
tell. It brings before us the Wooden Horse, really the thought of
Ulysses, though wrought by Epeios, by which the hostile city was at
last captured. Here the Odyssey supplies a connecting link between
itself and the Iliad, as the latter poem closes before the time of the
Wooden Horse. Ulysses is now seen to be the Hero again, he is the man
who suppresses emotion, especially domestic emotion in himself and
others for the great end of the war. It suggests also the difficulty of
Ulysses; he had so long suppressed his domestic instincts, and done
without the life of the family, that he will have great trouble in
overcoming the alienation--whereof the Odyssey is the record. In this
story of Menelaus, Helen has her part too; she came to the Wooden
Horse, "imitating in voice the wives of all the Greek leaders," who
were deeply moved, yet restrained themselves except one, Anticlus,
"over whose mouth Ulysses clapped his powerful hands, and saved the
Greeks." Truly a str