No More Learning

_ When that utterance reached the ears of the crowd,
their hearts stood still, and a cold shudder ran through their inmost
sense: for whom is doom purposed? who is claimed of Apollo? At this the
Ithacan with loud clamour drags Calchas the soothsayer forth amidst
them, and demands of him what is this the gods signify. And now many an
one [125-158]foretold me the villain's craft and cruelty, and silently
saw what was to come. Twice five days he is speechless in his tent, and
will not have any one denounced by his lips, or given up to death.
Scarcely at last, at the loud urgence of the Ithacan, he breaks into
speech as was planned, and appoints me for the altar. All consented; and
each one's particular fear was turned, ah me! to my single destruction.
And now the dreadful day was at hand; the rites were being ordered for
me, the salted corn, and the chaplets to wreathe my temples. I broke
away, I confess it, from death; I burst my bonds, and lurked all night
darkling in the sedge of the marshy pool, till they might set their
sails, if haply they should set them. Nor have I any hope more of seeing
my old home nor my sweet children and the father whom I desire. Of them
will they even haply claim vengeance for my flight, and wash away this
crime in their wretched death. By the heavenly powers I beseech thee,
the deities to whom truth is known, by all the faith yet unsullied that
is anywhere left among mortals; pity woes so great; pity an undeserving
sufferer. "

'At these his tears we grant him life, and accord our pity. Priam
himself at once commands his shackles and strait bonds to be undone, and
thus speaks with kindly words: "Whoso thou art, now and henceforth
dismiss and forget the Greeks: thou shalt be ours.
And unfold the truth
to this my question: wherefore have they reared this vast size of horse?
who is their counsellor? or what their aim? what propitiation, or what
engine of war is this? " He ended; the other, stored with the treacherous
craft of Pelasgia, lifts to heaven his freed hands. "You, everlasting
fires," he cries, "and your inviolable sanctity be my witness; you, O
altars and accursed swords I fled, and chaplets of the gods I wore as
victim! unblamed may I break the oath of Greek allegiance, unblamed hate
them and bring all to light that they [159-191]conceal; nor am I bound
by any laws of country. Do thou only keep by thy promise, O Troy, and
preserve faith with thy preserver, as my news shall be true, as my
recompense great.

'"All the hope of Greece, and the confidence in which the war began,
ever centred in Pallas' aid. But since the wicked son of Tydeus, and
Ulysses, forger of crime, made bold to tear the fated Palladium from her
sanctuary, and cut down the sentries on the towered height; since they
grasped the holy image, and dared with bloody hands to touch the maiden
chaplets of the goddess; since then the hope of Greece ebbed and slid
away backwards, their strength was broken, and the mind of the goddess
estranged. Whereof the Tritonian gave token by no uncertain signs.
Scarcely was the image set in the camp; flame shot sparkling from its
lifted eyes, and salt sweat started over its body; thrice, wonderful to
tell, it leapt from the ground with shield and spear quivering.
Immediately Calchas prophesies that the seas must be explored in flight,
nor may Troy towers be overthrown by Argive weapons, except they repeat
their auspices at Argos, and bring back that divine presence they have
borne away with them in the curved ships overseas. And now they have run
down the wind for their native Mycenae, to gather arms and gods to
attend them; they will remeasure ocean and be on you unawares. So
Calchas expounds the omens. This image at his warning they reared in
recompense for the Palladium and the injured deity, to expiate the
horror of sacrilege.