, and the unworthy lover whose lot she is compelled to share. Against
them her helpless anger breaks out in flashes of eloquent scorn. Homer
was apparently acquainted with the myth of Helen's capture by Theseus, a
myth illustrated in the decorations of the coffer of Cypselus. But we
first see Helen, the cause of the war, when Menelaus and Paris are about
to fight their duel for her sake, in the tenth year of the Leaguer
(Iliad, iii. 121). Iris is sent to summon Helen to the walls. She finds
Helen in her chamber, weaving at a mighty loom, and embroidering on
tapestry the adventures of the siege--the battles of horse-taming Trojans
and bronze-clad Achaeans. The message of Iris renews in Helen's heart "a
sweet desire for her lord and her own city, and them that begat her;" so,
draped in silvery white, Helen goes with her three maidens to the walls.
There, above the gate, like some king in the Old Testament, Paris sits
among his counsellors, and they are all amazed at Helen's beauty; "no
marvel is it that Trojans and Achaeans suffer long and weary toils for
such a woman, so wondrous like to the immortal goddesses." Then Priam,
assuring Helen that he holds her blameless, bids her name to him her
kinsfolk and the other Achaean warriors. In her reply, Helen displays
that grace of penitence which is certainly not often found in ancient
literature:--"Would that evil death had been my choice, when I followed
thy son, and left my bridal bower and my kin, and my daughter dear, and
the maidens of like age with me." Agamemnon she calls, "the husband's
brother of me shameless; alas, that such an one should be." She names
many of the warriors, but misses her brothers Castor and Polydeuces, "own
brothers of mine, one mother bare us. Either they followed not from
pleasant Lacedaemon, or hither they followed in swift ships, but now they
have no heart to go down into the battle for dread of the shame and many
reproaches that are mine."

"So spake she, but already the life-giving earth did cover them, there in
Lacedaemon, in their own dear country."

Menelaus and Paris fought out their duel, the Trojan was discomfited, but
was rescued from death and carried to Helen's bower by Aphrodite. Then
the Goddess came in disguise to seek Helen on the wall, and force her
back into the arms of her defeated lover. Helen turned on the Goddess
with an abruptness and a force of sarcasm and invective which seem quite
foreign to her gentle natu