The Roman Traitor (Vol. 1 of 2) - The UK Mirror Service

THE LOVERS 33
Here tutored by the wise Centaur, Chiron, in horsemanship and
archery, and all that makes a hero; here tearing off the virgin
mitre, to don the glittering casque proffered, with sword and
buckler, among effeminate wares, by the disguised Ulysses;
there wandering in the despondent gloom of injured pride along
the stormy sea, meet listener to his haughty sorrows, while in
the distance, turning her tearful eyes back to her lord, Briseis
went unwilling at the behest of the unwilling heralds. Again he
was presented, mourning with frantic grief over the corpse of his
beloved Patroclus—grief that called up his Nereid mother from
the blue depths of her native element; and, in the last, chasing
with unexampled speed the flying Hector, who, stunned and
destined by the Gods to ruin, dared not await his onset, while
Priam veiled his face upon the ramparts, and Hecuba already tore
her hair, presaging the destruction of Troy's invincible unshaken
column. 2
A small wood fire blazed cheerfully upon the hearth, round
which were clustered, in uncouth attitudes of old Etruscan sculpture,
the grim and grotesque figures of the household Gods. Two
lamps of bronze, each with four burners, placed on tall candelabra
exquisitely carved in the same metal, diffused a soft calm
radiance through the room, accompanied by an aromatic odor
from the perfumed vegetable oil which fed their light. Upon a
circular table of dark-grained citrean wood, inlaid with ivory and
silver, were several rolls of parchment and papyrus, the books of
the day, some of them splendidly emblazoned and illuminated; a
lyre of tortoiseshell, and near to it the slender plectrum by which
its cords were wakened to melody. Two or three little flasks of
agate and of onyx containing some choice perfumes, a Tuscan
vase full of fresh-gathered flowers, and several articles yet more
decidedly feminine, were scattered on the board; needles, and [39]
thread of various hues, and twine of gold and silver, and some
2 Τροιας αμακον αθιραβη κιονα.—PINDAR{FNS