The Feast of Victory

Priam's castle-walls had sunk,Troy in dust and ashes lay,And each Greek, with triumph drunk,Richly laden with his prey,Sat upon his ship's high prow,On the Hellespontic strand,Starting on his journey now,Bound for Greece, his own fair land.Raise the glad exulting shout!Toward the land that gave them birthTurn they now the ships about,As they seek their native earth.

And in rows, all mournfully,Sat the Trojan women there,--Beat their breasts in agony,Pallid, with dishevelled hair.In the feast of joy so gladMingled they the song of woe,Weeping o'er their fortunes sad,In their country's overthrow."Land beloved, oh, fare thee well!By our foreign masters led,Far from home we're doomed to dwell,--Ah, how happy are the dead!"

Soon the blood by Calchas spiltOn the altar heavenward smokes;Pallas, by whom towns are builtAnd destroyed, the priest invokes;Neptune, too, who all the earthWith his billowy girdle laves,--Zeus, who gives to terror birth,Who the dreaded Aegis waves.Now the weary fight is done,Ne'er again to be renewed;Time's wide circuit now is run,And the mighty town subdued!

Atreus' son, the army's head,Told the people's numbers o'er,Whom he, as their captain, ledTo Scamander's vale of yore.Sorrow's black and heavy cloudsPassed across the monarch's brow:Of those vast and valiant crowds,Oh, how few were left him now!Joyful songs let each one raise,Who will see his home again,In whose veins the life-blood plays,For, alas! not all remain!

"All who homeward wend their way,Will not there find peace of mind;On their household altars, theyMurder foul perchance may find.Many fall by false friend's stroke,Who in fight immortal proved:"--So Ulysses warning spoke,By Athene's spirit moved.Happy he, whose faithful spouseGuards his home with honor true!Woman ofttimes breaks her vows,Ever loves she what is new.

And Atrides glories thereIn the prize he won in fight,And around her body fairTwines his arms with fond delight.Evil works must punished be.Vengeance follows after crime,For Kronion's just decreeRules the heavenly courts sublime.Evil must in evil end;Zeus will on the impious bandWoe for broken guest-rights send,Weighing with impartial hand.

"It may well the glad befit,"Cried Olleus' valiant son,"To extol the Gods who sitOn Olympus' lofty throne!Fortune all her gifts supplies,Blindly, and no justice knows,For Patroclus buried lies,And Thersites homeward goes!Since she blindly throws awayEach lot in her wheel contained,Let him shout with joy to-dayWho the prize of life has gained."

"Ay, the wars the best devour!Brother, we will think of thee,In the fight a very tower,When we join in revelry!When the Grecian ships were fired,By thine arm was safety brought;Yet the man by craft inspiredWon the spoils thy valor sought.Peace be to thine ashes blest!Thou wert vanquished not in fight:Anger 'tis destroys the best,--Ajax fell by Ajax' might!"

Neoptolemus poured then,To his sire renowned the wine--"'Mongst the lots of earthly men,Mighty father, prize I thine!Of the goods that life supplies,Greatest far of all is fame;Though to dust the body flies,Yet still lives a noble name.Valiant one, thy glory's rayWill immortal be in song;For, though life may pass away,To all time the dead belong!"

"Since the voice of minstrelsySpeaks not of the vanquished man,I will Hector's witness be,"--Tydeus' noble son began:"Fighting bravely in defenceOf his household-gods he fell.Great the victor's glory thence,He in purpose did excel!Battling for his altars dear,Sank that rock, no more to rise;E'en the foemen will revereOne whose honored name ne'er dies."

Nestor, joyous reveller old,Who three generations saw,Now the leaf-crowned cup of goldGave to weeping Hecuba."Drain the goblet's draught so cool,And forget each painful smart!Bacchus' gifts are wonderful,--Balsam for a broken heart.Drain the goblet's draught so cool,And forget each painful smart!Bacchus' gifts are wonderful,--Balsam for a broken heart.

"E'en to Niobe, whom HeavenLoved in wrath to persecute,Respite from her pangs was given,Tasting of the corn's ripe fruit.Whilst the thirsty lip we laveIn the foaming, living spring,Buried deep in Lethe's waveLies all grief, all sorrowing!Whilst the thirsty lip we laveIn the foaming, living spring,Swallowed up in Lethe's waveIs all grief, all sorrowing!"

And the Prophetess inspiredBy her God, upstarted now,--Toward the smoke of homesteads fired,Looking from the lofty prow."Smoke is each thing here below;Every worldly greatness dies,As the vapory columns go,--None are fixed but Deities!Cares behind the horseman sit--Round about the vessel play;Lest the morrow hinder it,Let us, therefore, live to-day."