Book 2
yielded their suffering bodies to the flame.
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I stood there sole surviving; when, behold,
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to Vesta's altar clinging in dumb fear,
hiding and crouching in the hallowed shade,
Tyndarus' daughter!— 't was the burning town
lighted full well my roving steps and eyes.
In fear was she both of some Trojan's rage
for Troy o'erthrown, and of some Greek revenge,
or her wronged husband's Iong indignant ire.
So hid she at that shrine her hateful brow,
being of Greece and Troy, full well she knew,
the common curse. Then in my bosom rose
a blaze of wrath; methought I should avenge
my dying country, and with horrid deed
pay crime for crime. “Shall she return unscathed
to Sparta, to Mycenae's golden pride,
and have a royal triumph? Shall her eyes
her sire and sons, her hearth and husband see,
while Phrygian captives follow in her train?
is Priam murdered? Have the flames swept o'er
my native Troy? and cloth our Dardan strand
sweat o'er and o'er with sanguinary dew?
O, not thus unavenged! For though there be
no glory if I smite a woman's crime,
nor conqueror's fame for such a victory won,
yet if I blot this monster out, and wring
full punishment from guilt, the time to come
will praise me, and sweet pleasure it will be
to glut my soul with vengeance and appease
the ashes of my kindred.”So I raved,
and to such frenzied purpose gave my soul.
Then with clear vision (never had I seen
her presence so unclouded) I beheld,
in golden beams that pierced the midnight gloom,
my gracious mother, visibly divine,
and with that mien of majesty she wears
when seen in heaven; she stayed me with her hand,
and from her lips of rose this counsel gave:
“O son, what sorrow stirs thy boundless rage?
what madness this? Or whither vanisheth
