Scamander, my native stream! Upon your sandy banks and flowery
mead in bygone days, happy maid, was I nurtured with fostering care.[i] You naiads of Troy, daughters of the god of
the river, Lord Xanthus, I oft-times left on your father’s sands the
combs that bind your hair, the bracelet that bind your wrists and slim ankles that
array you for the dance on Mt. Ida. [ii] I recall the elms, the willows and tamarisks,
the clover, the rushes and the galingale, all those plants that grew in
abundance by the lovely stream of the River.
[iii]
My father was King Priam of Troy. Priam ruled from a
magnificent palace, which was fronted by marble colonnades. In the main
building there were fifty apartments of polished stone, where his sons lived
with their wives. His daughters occupied the chambers in the building on the
other side of the courtyard, and there they lived with the sons-in-law of the
king. [iv]In
his youth my father journeyed to the land of Phrygia, rich in vines, and there he
saw in multitudes the Phrygian warriors, masters of glancing steeds, even the
people of Otreus and godlike Mygdon, that were then encamped along the banks of
Sangarius. Being their ally, he was numbered among them on the day when the
Amazons came, the peers of men.[v]
My mother was Hecuba, wife of Priam, mother of Hector, the invincible,
steadfast pillar of Troy[vi]. My mother Hecuba dreamed once that she had
borne a fire-brand.[vii]
My twin brother Helenus and I were left by our parents in the
shrine of the Thymbraean Apollo. There the Thymbrios River flows through the
plain and empties into the River Skamandros.[viii] The festival in honour of our birth was held in the sanctuary. We fell asleep in the
temple. Meantime our parents and their friends, flushed with wine, returned to
Troy, forgetting all about us twins whose birth had given occasion to the
festivity. Next morning, when they were sober, they returned to the temple and
found the sacred serpents purging with their tongues the organs of sense in
Helenus and I. Frightened by the cry which the women raised at the strange
sight, the serpents disappeared among the laurel boughs upon which we slept. From
that hour Helenus and I possessed the gift of prophecy.[ix]
In like manner Melampus is said to have
acquired the art of soothsaying through the action of serpents which licked his
ears. He…
“lived in the country,
and before his house there was an oak, in which there was a lair of snakes. His
servants killed the snakes, but Melampus gathered wood and burnt the reptiles,
and reared the young ones. And when the young were full grown, they stood beside
him at each of his shoulders as he slept, and they purged his ears with their
tongues. He started up in a great fright, but understood the voices of the
birds flying overhead, and from what he learned from them he foretold to men
what should come to pass. He acquired besides the art of taking the
auspices, and having fallen in with Apollo at the Alpheus he was ever after an
excellent soothsayer.[x]
In due time I would have my own interview with Apollo
alongside a lovely river.
My brother Helenus was a skillful observer of auguries, and
knew the counsel of the gods [xi]
but he was at the same time a warrior, and with Deiphobus he led the
third host of the Trojans against the camp of the Greeks. (Il. xii. 94.)
His original name was Scamandrius, and
that he received the name of Helenus from a Thracian soothsayer, who also
instructed him in the prophetic art.[xii] It was Helenus, who predicted that if that fire-brand
Prince Alexander brought home an Achaean wife, the Greeks would pursue, and
overpower Troy and slay our parents and brothers.[xiii] Naturally when I heard of my father’s
intentions in this regard my voice echoed my twin’s word. My words told what the Trojans were going to
suffer if he should sent a fleet into Greece.[xiv] “I see thee, hapless city, fired a second
time by Aeacide hands.”[xv]
With the war came my suitors; Othryoneus, Coroebus and
Thoraiox, Lord of Ptoon
Othryoneus of Cabesus, came upon the rumour of war. He asked to wed me, whom Homer called “the
comeliest of the daughters of Priam”. He
brought no gifts of wooing, but promised he would drive out of Troy’s lands the
sons of Achaeans. [xvi] Some believe that he whispered in my ear
about his homeland. He told me of the
sacred River Hebros, which flows, the most beautiful of rivers, past Ainos into
the turbid sea, surging through the land of Thrace. And of the many maidens like
me that visit the river to bathe their lovely thighs with tender hands; becoming
enchanted as we handle his marvelous cleansing waters. [xvii]
Othryoneus was slain by Idomeneus.
Coroebus, the son of Mygdon came to marry me, and was
killed, when Diomedes amid the war-storm met my spearman Coroebus, “and 'neath
the left ribs pierced him with the lance …Ah fool! The bride he won not,
Priam's child Cassandra, yea, his loveliest, for whose sake to Priam's burg but
yesterday he came, [xviii]
Apollo I spurned from my maiden bed, the Lord of Ptoön, Ruler of the Seasons,
Leader of the Muses, “as one who had taken eternal maidenhood for my portion to
uttermost old age, in imitation of her who abhors marriage, even Pallas Athena ”
[xix]
Or maybe I choose like Marpessa, because
she feared that Apollo might desert her in her old age, instead she chose Idas (a mortal) for her
husband[xx] Or maybe I chose like Achilles; If I stay here at Troy to await my destiny, then
I will attain glory imperishable. Whereas if I go off to some new home, with
the Lord of Delphi then it is my glory
genuine as it is, that will be destroyed for me, but my life will then last a
long time, and the final moment of death will not be swift in catching up with
me.[xxi] Regardless, I had promised consent to Apollo
but broke my word ... and ever after I could persuade no one of the truth of my
utterances. [xxii]
Here my brother wisely insured his destiny parted from mine
and he went on to attain his best possible fate; husband to the daughter of
Eetion and King of Molossus. [xxiii]
That fateful night arrived;
“So feasted they through Troy, and in their midst loud pealed the
flutes and pipes: on every hand were song and dance, laughter and cries
confused of banqueters beside the meats and wine. They, lifting in their hands
the beakers brimmed, recklessly drank, till heavy of brain they grew, till
rolled their fluctuant eyes. Now and again some mouth would babble the
drunkard's broken words. The household gear, the very roof and walls seemed as
they rocked: all things they looked on seemed whirled in wild dance. About
their eyes a veil of mist dropped” [xxiv]
But one heart was steadfast, and one soul clear-eyed, mine! And I paced as mid the hills a furious lioness
with savage heart and abided my time. [xxv] That night the Horse birthed and the gates
burst open. The city was set afire and flooded with blood. I suppose you think it not odd, that I still
a virgin should take sanctuary in the temple of the virgin-goddess Athena. Did I know that Athena did not love us?
(Iliad 6.310) Did I know that the Locrian Ajax, would
find me there clinging to the wooden image of Athena? That he would drag me form there knocking the
goddess’ image to the ground in the process?[xxvi] Did I know that consequently the majority
of the Danaans would die when gods sent a storm and contrary winds against
them? That my enemies and the enemies of
my people upon returning home after the destruction of my home and the division
of our wealth would wreck on the Cepharean Rocks thanks to the anger of the
gods?
I am the loveliest of Priam’s daughters so naturally when
the loot was portioned out I received as my prize, finally, a husband the greatest of the Achaean kings;
Agamemnon.
For those who don’t know the story, men die. So do women, but my husband shall be called
Zeus-Agamemnon in Sparta, obtaining highest honours from the descendants of
Gorgophone.[xxvii] Nor shall my name be unsung and unhonored
among men, nor fade hereafter in the darkness of oblivion for I shall long be
called an immortal goddess.[xxviii]
And it will be said of me and mine that;
“Zeus the son of Kronos made a noble and righteous god-like generation
of heroes who are called demi-gods throughout the boundless earth. Grim war and
dread battle destroyed a part of them, some in the land of Kadmos at
seven-gated Thebe when they fought for the flocks of Oidipous, and some, when
it had brought them in ships over the great sea gulf to Troy for rich-haired
Helen's sake: there death's end enshrouded a part of them . But to the others
father Zeus the son of Kronos gave a living and an abode apart from men, and
made them to dwell at the ends of earth. They live untouched by sorrow in the
Islands of the Blessed along the shore of deep swirling Okeanos, happy heroes
for whom the grain-giving earth bears honey-sweet fruit flourishing thrice a
year.”[xxix]
[i] “Agamemnon”
Aeschylus
[ii]
THE RAPE OF HELEN by Colluthus TRANSLATED BY A. W. MAIR
[iv] (Iliad
6.240)
[ix] Pausanias
10.27.1] XXVII
[xvii]
Alcaeus, Fragment 45a (trans.
Campbell, Vol. Greek Lyric I) (C7th to 6th B.C
http://www.theoi.com/Potamos/PotamosHebros.html
[xviii]
QUINTUS SMYRNAEUS 13 Quintus Smyrnaeus. The Fall of Troy. Translated by Way. A.
S. Loeb Classical Library Volume 19. 190] London: William Heinemann, 1913
http://www.theoi.com/Text/QuintusSmyrnaeus1.html
[xix] Callimachus,
Hymns and Epigrams. (352-353):Lycophron. Aratus. Translated by Mair, A. W.
& G. R. Loeb Classical Library Volume 129. London: William Heinemann,
1921. Book 1 http://www.theoi.com/Text/LycophronAlexandra.html
[xx] Apollodorus.
The Library. Translated by Sir James George Frazer. Loeb Classical Library
Volumes 121 & 122. [1.7.9] Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London,
William Heinemann Ltd. 1921 http://www.theoi.com/Text/Apollodorus1.html
[xxi]
Iliad 9.413
[xxiii]
Pausanias [1.11.2]
[xxiv]
Quintus Smyrnaeus 13.1 The Fall of Troy. Translated by Way. A. S. Loeb
Classical Library Volume 19. London: William Heinemann, 1913 http://www.theoi.com/Text/QuintusSmyrnaeus1.html
[xxv] Quintus
Smyrnaeus. 12.565 & [12.625]] The
Fall of Troy. Translated by Way. A. S. Loeb Classical Library Volume 19.
London: William Heinemann, 1913 http://www.theoi.com/Text/QuintusSmyrnaeus1.html
[xxvi]
[Apollodours EPITOME OF THE LIBRARY, TRANS. BY J. G. FRAZERE.5.22]
[xxvii]
http://shortstories-bill.blogspot.com/2013/01/wfbt-divine-descendants-of-gorgophone.html
So bisexual Apollo required only Cassandra but not Helenus to make sex in exchange for the prophetic gift. I find it unjust.
ReplyDeleteMaya,
ReplyDeleteCassandra was the loveliest of Priam's daughters, so I can understand Apollo's attraction and disappointment. No one ever said Helenus was the most handsome of his sons, so ...