The Cypria: Reconstructing the Lost Prequel to Homer's Iliad

by D M Smith

  And now she bethought her of the golden apples of the Hesperides. Thence Eris took the fruit that should be the harbinger of war, even the apple, and devised the scheme of signal woes. Whirling her arm she hurled into the banquet the primal seed of turmoil and disturbed the choir of goddesses. Hera, glorying to be the spouse and to share the bed of Zeus, rose up amazed, and would fain have seized it. And Aphrodite, as being more excellent than all, desired to have the apple, for that it is the treasure of the Loves.[13] But Hera would not give it up and Athena would not yield. And Zeus, seeing the quarrel of the goddesses, and calling his son Hermes, who sat below his throne, addressed him thus: “If haply, my son, thou hast heard of a son of Priam, one Paris, the splendid youth, who tends his herds on the hills of Troy, give to him the apple; and bid him judge the goddesses’ meeting brows and orbèd eyes. And let her that is preferred have the famous fruit to carry away as the prize of the fairer and ornament of the Loves.”

  So the father, the son of Cronus, commanded Hermes. And he hearkened to the bidding of his father and led the goddesses upon the way and failed not to heed. And every goddess sought to make her beauty more desirable and fair. Aphrodite of crafty counsels unfolded her snood and undid the fragrant clasp of her hair and wreathed with gold her locks, with gold her flowing tresses. And she saw her children the Loves and called to them.

  “The contest is at hand, dear children! Embrace your mother that nursed you. Today it is beauty of face that judges me. I fear to whom this herdsman will award the apple. Hera they call the holy nurse of the Graces, and they say that she wields sovereignty and holds the sceptre. And Athena they ever call the queen of battles. I only, Aphrodite, am an unwarlike goddess. I have no queenship of the gods, wield no warlike spear, nor draw the bow. But wherefore am I sore afraid, when for spear I have, as it were, a swift lance, the honeyed girdle of the Loves! I have my girdle, I ply my goad,[14] I raise my bow: even that girdle, whence women catch the sting of my desire, and travail often-times, but not unto death.”

  So spake Aphrodite of the rosy fingers and followed. And the wandering Loves heard the dear bidding of their mother and hasted after their nurse.[15]

  Now they had just passed over the summit of the hill of Ida, where under a rock-crowned cliff’s height young Paris herded his father’s flocks. On either side the streams of the mountain torrent he tended his herds, numbering apart the herd of thronging bulls, apart measuring the droves of feeding flocks. And behind him hung floating the hide of a mountain goat, that reached right to his thighs. But his herdsman’s crook, driver of kine, was laid aside; for so, walking mincingly in his accustomed ways, he pursued the shrill minstrelsy of his pipe’s rustic reeds. Often as he sang in his shepherd’s shieling he would forget his bulls and heed no more his sheep. Hence with his pipe, in the fair haunts of shepherds, he was making dear music to Pan and Hermes. The dogs bayed not, and the bull did not bellow. Only windy Echo with her untutored cry, answered his voice from Ida’s hills; and the bulls upon the green grass, when they had eaten their fill, lay down and rested on their heavy flanks.

  So as he made shrill music under the high-roofed canopy of trees, he beheld from afar the messenger Hermes. And in fear he leapt up and sought to shun the eye of the gods. He leaned against an oak his choir of musical reeds and checked his lay that had not yet laboured much. And to him in his fear wondrous Hermes spake thus: “Fling away thy milking-pail and leave thy fair flocks and come hither and give decision as judge of the goddesses of heaven. Come hither and decide which is the more excellent beauty of face, and to the fairer give this apple’s lovely fruit.”

  So he cried. And Paris bent a gentle eye and quietly essayed to judge the beauty of each. He looked at the light of their grey eyes, he looked on the neck arrayed with gold, he marked the bravery of each; the shape of the heel behind, yea and the soles of their feet. But, before he gave judgement, Athena took him, smiling, by the hand and spake to Paris thus: “Come hither, son of Priam! Leave the spouse of Zeus and heed not Aphrodite, queen of the bridal bower, but praise thou Athena who aids the prowess of men. They say that thou art a king and keepest the city of Troy. Come hither, and I will make thee the saviour of their city to men hard pressed: lest ever Enyo[16] of grievous wrath weigh heavily upon thee. Hearken to me and I will teach thee war and prowess.”

  So cried Athena of many counsels, and white-armed Hera thus took up the tale: “If thou wilt elect me and bestow on me the fruit of the fairer, I will make thee lord of all mine Asia. Scorn thou the works of battle. What has a king to do with war? A prince gives command both to the valiant and to the unwarlike. Not always are the squires of Athena foremost. Swift is the doom and death of the servants of Enyo!”

  Such lordship did Hera, who hath the foremost throne, offer to bestow. But Aphrodite lifted up her deep-bosomed robe and bared her breast to the air and had no shame. And lifting with her hands the honeyed girdle of the Loves she bared all her bosom and heeded not her breasts. And smilingly she thus spake to the herdsman: “Accept me and forget wars: take my beauty and leave the sceptre and the land of Asia. I know not the works of battle. What has Aphrodite to do with shields? By beauty much more do women excel. In place of manly prowess I will give thee a lovely bride, and, instead of kingship, enter thou the bed of Helen. Lacedaemon, after Troy, shall see thee a bridegroom.”

  Not yet had she ceased speaking and he gave her the splendid apple, beauty’s offering, the great treasure of Aphrogeneia, a plant of war, of war an evil seed. And she, holding the apple in her hand, uttered her voice and spake in mockery of Hera and manly Athena: “Yield to me, accustomed as ye be to war, yield me the victory. Beauty have I loved and beauty follows me. They say that thou, mother of Ares, didst with travail bear the holy choir of the fair-tressed Graces. But today they have all denied thee and not one hast thou found to help thee. Queen but not of shields and nurse but not of fire, Ares hath not aided thee, though Ares rages with the spear: the flames of Hephaestus have not aided thee, though he brings to birth the breath of fire. And how vain is thy vaunting, Athena, whom marriage sowed not nor mother bare, but cleaving of iron and root of iron made thee spring without bed of birth from the head of thy sire! And how, covering thy body in brazen robes, thou dost flee from love and pursuest the works of Ares, untaught of harmony and knowing not of concord. Knowest thou not that such as thou are the more unvaliant—exulting in glorious wars, with limbs at feuds, neither men nor women?”

  Thus spake Aphrodite and mocked Athena. So she got the prize of beauty that should work the ruin of a city, repelling Hera and indignant Athena.

  —Colluthus, The Rape of Helen

  II.

  Then Paris builds his ships at Aphrodite’s suggestion, and Helenus foretells the future to him, and Aphrodite orders Aeneas to sail with him, while Cassandra prophesies as to what will happen afterwards. Paris next lands in Lacedaemon and is entertained by Castor and Pollux, and afterwards by Menelaus in Sparta, where in the course of a feast he gives gifts to Helen.

  After this, Menelaus sets sail for Crete, ordering Helen to furnish the guests with all they require until they depart. Meanwhile, Aphrodite brings Helen and Paris together, and they, after their union, put very great treasures on board and sail away by night. Hera stirs up a storm against them[17] and they are carried to Sidon, where Paris takes the city. From there he sailed to Troy and celebrated his marriage with Helen.

  In the meantime Castor and Pollux, while stealing the cattle of Idas and Lynceus, were caught in the act, and Castor was killed by Idas, and Lynceus and Idas by Pollux. Zeus gave them immortality every other day.

  —Proclus, Chrestomathy

  Helen

  Zeus in the form of a swan consorted with Leda, and on the same night Tyndareus cohabited with her; and she bore Pollux and Helen to Zeus, and Castor and Clytemnestra to Tyndareus.[18] But some say that Helen was a daughter of Nemesis and Zeus; for that she, flying from the arms of Zeus, changed herself into a goose, but Zeus in his turn took the likenes
s of a swan and so enjoyed her; and as the fruit of their loves she laid an egg,[19] and a certain shepherd found it in the groves and brought and gave it to Leda; and she put it in a chest and kept it; and when Helen was hatched in due time, Leda brought her up as her own daughter. And when she grew into a lovely woman, Theseus carried her off and brought her to Aphidnae. But when Theseus was in Hades, Pollux and Castor marched against Aphidnae, took the city, got possession of Helen, and led Aethra, the mother of Theseus, away captive.[20]

  Now the kings of Greece repaired to Sparta to win the hand of Helen. The wooers were these: Odysseus son of Laertes, Diomedes son of Tydeus, Antilochus son of Nestor, Agapenor son of Ancaeus, Sthenelus son of Capaneus, Amphimachus son of Cteatus, Thalpius son of Eurytus, Meges son of Phyleus, Amphilochus son of Amphiaraus, Menestheus son of Peteos, Schedius and Epistrophus, sons of Iphitus, Polyxenus son of Agasthenes, Peneleos son of Hippalcimus; Leitus son of Alector, Ajax son of Oileus; Ascalaphus and Ialmenus, sons of Ares; Elephenor son of Chalcodon, Eumelus son of Admetus, Polypoetes son of Pirithous, Leonteus son of Coronus, Podalirius and Machaon, sons of Asclepius, Philoctetes son of Poeas, Eurypylus son of Evaemon, Protesilaus son of Iphiclus; Menelaus son of Atreus, Ajax and Teucer, sons of Telamon, Patroclus son of Menoetius.[21]

  Seeing the multitude of them, Tyndareus feared that the preference of one might set the others quarrelling; but Odysseus promised that, if he would help him to win the hand of Penelope, he would suggest a way by which there would be no quarrel. And when Tyndareus promised to help him, Odysseus told him to exact an oath from all the suitors that they would defend the favoured bridegroom against any wrong that might be done him in respect of his marriage. On hearing that, Tyndareus put the suitors on their oath, and while he chose Menelaus to be the bridegroom of Helen, he solicited Icarius to bestow Penelope on Odysseus.[22]

  —Apollodorus, Bibliotheca, III

  The Rape of Helen

  And unhappy Paris, yearning with love and pursuing one whom he had not seen, gathered men that were skilled of handicraft, and led them to a shady wood. There the oaks from Ida of many tree trunks were cut and felled by the excellent skill of Phereclus, source of woe; who at that time, doing pleasure to his frenzied king, fashioned with the wood-cutting bronze ships for Paris. On the same day he willed and on the same made the ships: ships which Athena neither planned nor wrought.

  And now he had just left the hills of Ida for the deep, and, after with many a sacrifice upon the shore he had besought the favour of Aphrodite that attended him to aid his marriage, he was sailing the Hellespont over the broad back of the sea, when to him there appeared a token of his laborious toils. The dark sea leapt aloft and girdled the heaven with a chain of dusky coils and straightway poured forth rain from the murky air, and the sea was turmoiled as the oarsmen rowed.

  Then when he had passed Dardania and the land of Troy and, coasting along, left behind the mouth of the Ismarian lake, speedily, after the mountains of Thracian Pangaeon, he saw rising into view the tomb of Phyllis that loved her husband and the nine-circled course of her wandering path, where thou didst range and cry, Phyllis, waiting the safe return of thy husband Demophon, when he should come back from the land of Athena.[23]

  Then across the rich land of the Haemonians there suddenly arose upon his eyes the flowery Achaean land, Phthia, feeder of men, and Mycenae of wide streets. Then past the marshes where Erymanthus rises he marked Sparta of fair women, the dear city of the son of Atreus, lying on the banks of the Eurotas. And hard by, established under a hill’s shady wood, he gazed upon her neighbour, lovely Therapne. Thence they had not far to sail, nor was the noise of the oars rowing in the calm sea heard for long, when they cast the hawsers of the ship upon the shores of a fair gulf and made them fast, even they whose business was the works of the sea.

  And he washed him in the snowy river and went his way, stepping with careful steps, lest his lovely feet should be defiled of the dust; lest, if he hastened more quickly, the winds should blow heavily on his helmet and stir up the locks of his hair.

  And now he scanned the high-built houses of the hospitable inhabitants and the neighbouring temples hard by, and surveyed the splendour of the city; here gazing on the golden image of native Athena herself, and there passing the dear treasure of Carneian Apollo, even the shrine of Hyacinthus of Amyclae, whom once while he played as a boy with Apollo the people of Amyclae marked and marvelled whether he too had not been conceived and borne by Leto to Zeus. But Apollo knew not that he was keeping the youth for envious Zephyrus. And the earth, doing a pleasure to the weeping king, brought forth a flower to console Apollo, even that flower which bears the name of the splendid youth.[24]

  And at last by the halls of the son of Atreus, builded near, he stood, glorying in his marvellous graces. Not so fair was the lovely son whom Thyone bare to Zeus: forgive me, Dionysus! Even if thou art of the seed of Zeus, he, too, was fair as his face was beautiful. And Helen unbarred the bolts of her hospitable bower and suddenly went to the court of the house, and, looking in front of the goodly doors, soon as she saw, so soon she called him and led him within the house, and bade him sit on a new-wrought chair of silver.[25]

  And she could not satisfy her eyes with gazing, now deeming that she looked on the golden youth that attends on Aphrodite, and late she recognized that it was not Eros—she saw no quiver of arrows. And often in the beauty of his face and eyes she looked to see the king of the vine, but no blooming fruit of the vine did she behold spread upon the meeting of his gracious brows. And after long time, amazed, she uttered her voice and said:

  “Stranger, whence art thou? Declare thy fair lineage even unto us. In beauty thou art like unto a glorious king, but thy family I know not among the Argives. I know all the family of blameless Deucalion. Not in sandy Pylos, the land of Neleus, hast thou thy dwelling: Antilochus I know, but thy face I have not seen. Not in gracious Phthia, nurse of chieftains; I know the whole renowned race of the sons of Aeacus, the beauty of Peleus, the fair fame of Telamon, the gentleness of Patroclus and the prowess of Achilles.”

  So, yearning for Paris, spake the lady of sweet voice. And he opened honeyed speech and answered her: “If haply thou hast heard of a town in the bounds of Phrygia—even Ilium, whereof Poseidon built the towers and Apollo—if thou hast haply heard of a very wealthy king in Troy, sprung from the fruitful race of Cronus: thence am I a prince and pursue all the works of my race. I, lady, am the dear son of Priam rich in gold, of the lineage of Dardanus am I, and Dardanus was the son of Zeus. And the gods from Olympus, companioning with men, oft-times became his servants, albeit they were immortal: of whom Poseidon with Apollo built the shining walls of our fatherland. And I, oh Queen, am the judge of goddesses. For, deciding a suit for the aggrieved daughters of heaven, I praised the beauty of Aphrodite and her lovely form. And she vowed that she would give me a worthy recompense of my labour; even a glorious and a lovely bride, whom they call Helen, sister of Aphrodite, and it is for her sake that I have endured to cross such seas. Come, let us join wedlock, since Aphrodite bids. Despise me not, put not my love to shame. I will not say—why should I tell thee who knowest so much? For thou knowest that Menelaus is of an unvaliant race. Not such as thou are women born among the Argives, for they wax with meaner limbs and have the look of men and are but bastard women.”

  So he spake. And the lady fixed her lovely eyes upon the ground, and long-time perplexed replied not. But at last amazed she uttered her voice and said: “Of a surety, oh stranger, did Poseidon and Apollo in days of old build the foundation of thy fatherland? Fain would I have seen those cunning works of the immortals and the shrill-blowing pasture of shepherd Apollo, where by the god-built vestibules of the gates Apollo often-times followed the kine of shuffling gait. Come now, carry me from Sparta unto Troy. I will follow, as Aphrodite, queen of wedlock, bids. I do not fear Menelaus, when Troy shall have known me.”

  So the fair-ankled lady plighted her troth. And night, respite from labour after the journey of t
he sun, lightened sleep and brought the beginning of wandering morn, and opened the two gates of dreams: one the gate of truth—it shone with the sheen of horn—whence leap forth the unerring messages of the gods; the other the gate of deceit, nurse of empty dreams. And he carried Helen from the bowers of hospitable Menelaus to the benches of his sea-faring ships, and exulting exceedingly in the promise of Aphrodite he hastened to carry to Ilium his freight of war.

  And Hermione cast to the winds her veil and, as morning rose, wailed with many tears. And often taking her handmaidens outside her chamber, with shrillest cries she uttered her voice and said: “Girls, whither hath my mother gone and left me in grievous sorrow, she that yester-even with me took the keys of the chamber and entered one bed with me and fell asleep?”

  So spake she weeping and the girls wailed with her. And the women gathered by the vestibule on either side and sought to stay Hermione in her lamentation: “Sorrowing child, stay thy lamentation; thy mother has gone, yet shall she come back again. While still thou weepest, thou shalt see her. Seest not? Thine eyes are blinded with tears and thy blooming cheeks are marred with much weeping. Haply she hath gone to a meeting of women in assembly and, wandering from the straight path, stands distressed; or she hath gone to the meadow and sits on the dewy plain of the Hours; or she hath gone to wash her body in the river of her fathers and lingered by the streams of Eurotas.”

  Then spake the sorrowful maiden weeping: “She knows the hill, she hath skill of the rivers’ flow, she knows the paths to the roses, to the meadow. What say ye to me, women? The stars sleep and she rests among the rocks; the stars rise, and she comes not home. My mother, where art thou? In what hills dost thou dwell? Have wild beasts slain thee in thy wandering? But even the wild beasts tremble before the offspring of high Zeus.