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THE HEROIC AGE THE TROJAN WAR. 59It is more difficult for us, with our feelings,jugal affection.to understand the seduced and returning Helen ;and yet ifwe compare Helen, the beloved of Paris in the Iliad/ withHelen, the spouse of Menelaus in the Odyssey, 2 we find truthin the character which couldand much internal harmonyerr, but not become wholly untrue to nobleness of feeling.It is a woman, who, having become in youth the victim ofsensuality, (and never without emotions of regret,) returnedafterwards to reason ;before she was compelled to do so byage.Even after her return from Troy, she was still exceedingly beautiful 3j (and who can think of counting her years ?)And yet even then the two sexes stood to each other in thesame relation, which continued in later times. The wife ishousewife, and nothing more. Even the sublime Andromache, after that parting,which will draw tears as long asthere are eyes which can weep and hearts which can feel, issent back to the apartmentsof the women, to superintendthe labours of the maid-servants. 4 Still we observe in herconjugallove of an elevated character. In other instanceslove has reference, both with mortals and with immortals, tosensual enjoyment although in the noble and uncorrupted;virgin characters, as in the amiable Nausicaa, it was unitedwith that bashfulness, which accompanies maiden youth.But we meet with no trace of those elevated feelings,thatromantic love, as it isvery improperly termed, which resultsfrom a higher regardfor the female sex. That love andthat regardare traits peculiar to the Germanic nations, aresult of the spiritof gallantrywhich was a leading featurein the character of chivalry, but which we vainly look for inGreece. Yet here the Greek stands between the East andthe West. Although he was never wont to revere womanas a being of a higher order, he did not, like the Asiatic,imprison her by troopsin a haram.The progresswhich had been made in social life, is visiblein nothing, exceptthe relative situation of the sexes, moredistinctly, than in the tone of conversation among men. Asolemn dignity belonged to it even in common intercourse ;the style of salutation and address is connected with certainforms ;the epithetswith which the heroes honoured each*1In the third book.Odyss. iv. and xv.48Odyss, iv. 121, illvi.490.