The Fall of Troy | Page 9

waxed strong, and filled
With lust of fight she cried to her fellows all,

With desperate-daring words, to spur them on
To woeful war, by
recklessness made strong.
"Friends, let a heart of valour in our breasts

Awake! Let us be like our lords, who fight
With foes for fatherland,
for babes, for us,
And never pause for breath in that stern strife!
Let
us too throne war's spirit in our hearts!
Let us too face the fight which
favoureth none!
For we, we women, be not creatures cast
In diverse
mould from men: to us is given
Such energy of life as stirs in them.

Eyes have we like to theirs, and limbs: throughout
Fashioned we are
alike: one common light
We look on, and one common air we breathe:

With like food are we nourished -- nay, wherein
Have we been
dowered of God more niggardly
Than men? Then let us shrink not
from the fray
See ye not yonder a woman far excelling
Men in the
grapple of fight? Yet is her blood
Nowise akin to ours, nor fighteth
she
For her own city. For an alien king
She warreth of her own
heart's prompting, fears
The face of no man; for her soul is thrilled

With valour and with spirit invincible.
But we -- to right, to left, lie
woes on woes
About our feet: this mourns beloved sons,
And that a

husband who for hearth and home
Hath died; some wail for fathers
now no more;
Some grieve for brethren and for kinsmen lost.
Not
one but hath some share in sorrow's cup.
Behind all this a fearful
shadow looms,
The day of bondage! Therefore flinch not ye
From
war, O sorrow-laden! Better far
To die in battle now, than afterwards

Hence to be haled into captivity
To alien folk, we and our little
ones,
In the stern grip of fate leaving behind
A burning city, and
our husbands' graves."
So cried she, and with passion for stern war
Thrilled all those women;
and with eager speed
They hasted to go forth without the wall

Mail-clad, afire to battle for their town
And people: all their spirit
was aflame.
As when within a hive, when winter-tide
Is over and
gone, loud hum the swarming bees
What time they make them ready
forth to fare
To bright flower-pastures, and no more endure
To
linger therewithin, but each to other
Crieth the challenge-cry to sally
forth;
Even so bestirred themselves the women of Troy,
And
kindled each her sister to the fray.
The weaving-wool, the distaff far
they flung,
And to grim weapons stretched their eager hands.
And now without the city these had died
In that wild battle, as their
husbands died
And the strong Amazons died, had not one voice
Of
wisdom cried to stay their maddened feet,
When with dissuading
words Theano spake:
"Wherefore, ah wherefore for the toil and strain

Of battle's fearful tumult do ye yearn,
Infatuate ones? Never your
limbs have toiled
In conflict yet. In utter ignoranee
Panting for
labour unendurable,
Ye rush on all-unthinking; for your strength

Can never be as that of Danaan men,
Men trained in daily battle.
Amazons
Have joyed in ruthless fight, in charging steeds,
From the
beginning: all the toil of men
Do they endure; and therefore evermore

The spirit of the War-god thrills them through.
'They fall not short
of men in anything:
Their labour-hardened frames make great their
hearts
For all achievement: never faint their knees
Nor tremble.

Rumour speaks their queen to be
A daughter of the mighty Lord of
War.
Therefore no woman may compare with her
In prowess -- if
she be a woman, not
A God come down in answer to our prayers.

Yea, of one blood be all the race of men,
Yet unto diverse labours
still they turn;
And that for each is evermore the best
Whereto he
bringeth skill of use and wont.
Therefore do ye from tumult of the
fray
Hold you aloof, and in your women's bowers
Before the loom
still pace ye to and fro;
And war shall be the business of our lords.

Lo, of fair issue is there hope: we see
The Achaeans falling fast: we
see the might
Of our men waxing ever: fear is none
Of evil issue
now: the pitiless foe
Beleaguer not the town: no desperate need

There is that women should go forth to war."
So cried she, and they hearkened to the words
Of her who had
garnered wisdom from the years;
So from afar they watched the fight.
But still
Penthesileia brake the ranks, and still
Before her quailed
the Achaeans: still they found
Nor screen nor hiding-place from
imminent death.
As bleating goats are by the blood-stained jaws
Of
a grim panther torn, so slain were they.
In each man's heart all lust of
battle died,
And fear alone lived. This way, that way fled
The
panic-stricken: some to earth had flung
The armour from their
shoulders; some in dust
Grovelled in terror 'neath their shields: the
steeds
Fled through the rout unreined of charioteers.
In rapture of
triumph charged the Amazons,
With groan and scream of agony died
the Greeks.
Withered their manhood was in that sore strait;
Brief
was the span of all whom that fierce maid
Mid the grim jaws of battle
overtook.
As when with mighty roaring bursteth down
A storm
upon the forest-trees, and some

Uprendeth by the roots, and on