"The warlike hopes of Greece were stayed, E'en from the first, on Pallas' aid: But since Tydides,* impious man, And foul Ulysses, born to plan, Dragged with red hands, the sentry slain, Her fateful image* from your fane, Her chaste locks touched, and stained with gore The virgin coronal she wore, Thenceforth the tide of fortune changed, And Greece grew weak, her queen* estranged Nor dubious were the sig'ns of ill That showed the goddess' altered will. The image scarce in camp was set, Out burst big drops of saltest sweat O'er all her limbs: her eyes upraised With minatory lightnings blazed; And thrice untouched from earth she sprang With quivering spear and buckler's clang. 'Back o'er the ocean!' Calchas cries: 'We shall not make Troy's town our prize, Unless at Argos' sacred seat Our former omens we repeat, And bring once more the grace we brought When first these shores our navy sought.' So now for Greece they cross the wave, Fresh blessings on their arms to crave, Thence to return, so Calchas rules, Unlocked for, ere your wonder cools. Premonished first, this frame they planned In your Palladium's stead to stand, An image for an image given To pacify offended Heaven. But Calchas bade them rear it high With timbers mounting to the sky, That none might drag within the gate This new Palladium of your state. For, said he, if your hands profaned The gift for Pallas' self ordained, Dire havoc--grant, ye powers, that first That fate be his!--on Troy should burst: But if, in glad procession haled By those your hands, your walls it scaled, Then Asia should our homes invade, And unborn captives mourn the raid." *[Footnote: Tydides was Diomedes, son of Tydeus. The termination _-ides_ means _son of_; thus _Pelides_ is Achilles, son of Peleus.] *[Footnote: There was in a temple of Troy an image of Minerva, or Pallas, called the _palladium_, which was supposed to have fallen from the sky. The Greeks learned of a prophecy which declared that Troy could never be taken while the palladium remained within its walls, and Ulysses and Diomedes were entrusted with the task of stealing it. In disguise they entered the city one night, procured the sacred image and bore it off to the Grecian camp.] *[Footnote: Minerva, supposedly angered at the desecration of her statue.] Such tale of pity, aptly feigned, Our credence for the perjurer gained, And tears, wrung out from fraudful eyes, Made us, e'en us, a villain's prize, 'Gainst whom not valiant Diomede, Nor Peleus' Larissaean* seed, Nor ten years' fighting could prevail, Nor navies of a thousand sail. *[Footnote: Achilles. Larissa was a town in Thessaly, of which Peleus, the father of Achilles, was king.] [Illustration: LAOCOÖN _Statuary Group in The Vatican, Rome_]