authorities prefer to translate "to avenge our labours and sorrows
for Helen's sake"--"to avenge all that we have endured in the attempt
to win back Helen." Thus the evidence of this passage is ambiguous.
The fairer way to seek for Homer's real view of Helen is to examine
all the passages in which she occurs. The result will be something
like this:- Homer sees in Helen a being of the rarest personal charm
and grace of character; a woman who imputes to herself guilt much
greater than the real measure of her offence. She is ever gentle
except with the Goddess who betrayed her, and the unworthy lover
whose lot she is compelled to share. Against them her helpless anger
breaks out in flashes of eloquent scorn. Homer was apparently
acquainted with the myth of Helen's capture by Theseus, a myth
illustrated in the decorations of the coffer of Cypselus. But we
first see Helen, the cause of the war, when Menelaus and Paris are
about to fight their duel for her sake, in the tenth year of the
Leaguer (Iliad, iii. 121). Iris is sent to summon Helen to the
walls. She finds Helen in her chamber, weaving at a mighty loom, and
embroidering on tapestry the adventures of the siege--the battles of
horse-taming Trojans and bronze-clad Achaeans. The message of Iris
renews in Helen's heart "a sweet desire for her lord and her own
city, and them that begat her;" so, draped in silvery white, Helen
goes with her three maidens to the walls. There, above the gate,
like some king in the Old Testament, Paris sits among his
counsellors, and they are all amazed at Helen's beauty; "no marvel is
it that Trojans and Achaeans suffer long and weary toils for such a
woman, so wondrous like to the immortal goddesses." Then Priam,
assuring Helen that he holds her blameless, bids her name to him her
kinsfolk and the other Achaean warriors. In her reply, Helen
displays that grace of penitence which is certainly not often found
in ancient literature:- "Would that evil death had been my choice,