No More Learning

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. Yet Calchas bade them raise it to this vast size
with oaken crossbeams, and build it up to heaven, that it may not find
entry at the gates nor be drawn within the city, nor protect your people
beneath the consecration of old. For if hand of yours should violate
Minerva's offering, then utter destruction (the gods turn rather on
himself his augury! ) should be upon Priam's empire and [192-226]the
Phrygian people. But if under your hands it climbed into your city, Asia
should advance in mighty war to the walls of Pelops, and a like fate
awaited our children's children. "

'So by Sinon's wiles and craft and perjury the thing gained belief; and
we were ensnared by treachery and forced tears, we whom neither the son
of Tydeus nor Achilles of Larissa, whom not ten years nor a thousand
ships brought down.

'Here another sight, greater, alas! and far more terrible meets us, and
alarms our thoughtless senses. Laocoon, allotted priest of Neptune, was
slaying a great bull at the accustomed altars.