4. O no- but through eternity, she will be blamed for this and she feels it coming. She will blacken her face like the prophetic _femme noir_ of antiquity. But it does not work. He is here to impeach her. Why? We must blame someone. Hecate- a witch- a vulture, and finally, as if he had run out of common invective, he taunts her- a hieroglyph. This is almost funny, she must stop him, he is after all, the son of the sea-goddess. She has named Isis, the Egyptian Aphrodite, the primal cause of all the madness. But another, xixu- one born-of-the-sea, is nearer, his own mother. Again, she thinks of her and reminds Achilles of his divine origin, "O child of Thetis." This is quite enough. Can you throttle a phantom? He tries. The end is inevitable,

## II

I. But Helen seems concerned not only with the mystery of their reconciliation but with the problem of why he had, in the first instance, attacked her. There seems this latent hostility; with her love, there is fear, yet there is strength, too, and defiance not only of Achilles, but of the whole powerful war-faction.

2. But this host of Spirits, the Greek heroes? Without the Trojan War, she would never have found them or they would never have found her. Nor, we may presume, would she and Achilles have met in this out-of-time dimension. But Helen seems divided in her loyalties. She speaks of the Achil- lus, though she seems to wish to dismiss the image of "funeral pyre of the Greek heroes, but we feel that she is concerned with remembering that heap of brushwood and the fragrance of burnt dried sr sea-weed, rather than the temple incense."

in any case, her personal "burning ember", the funeral pyre of the Greek heroes, and in her thought, dismissed. But we feel that she is really concerned with the other "burning ember"... the flint, the spark of his anger."

3. We were right. Helen herself denies an actual intellectual knowledge of the temple-symbols. But she is nearer to them than the instructed scribe; ἀμαχοῦ ἁμαχία for her, ἀμαχῶ the secret of the stone-writing is repeated in natural or human symbols. *She herself is the writing.*

4. Helen is a Greek, a Ἀμαχοῦ, born from a sea-faring people. Although in Egypt, it is not the primitive caravel, as she calls/ the shadow or death-ship of Osiris, that she visualizes, when she would recall the host of Spirits. Her vision is wholly Greek, though she returns to the sacred Egyptian lily for her final inspiration.

5. But Helen returns to the caravel, the death-ship, as a suitable attribute of Osiris, "King and Magician, ruler of the dead." She sees clearly the parallel. Has her knowledge made her happier ? Perhaps. In any case, if Achilles has taunted her with her resemblance to Isis, and related the Isis-magic to a Hecate or witch-cult, so she sees clearly the duality of the legendary *héros fatal*.

6. As Isis seeks to reclaim Osiris with the aid of their Child, the sun-god, Horus, so Helen, with the ἀμαχῶ aid of "the un-numbered host "( symbolized by the *golden feather*, "the Hawk with the fiery pinions", or "the thousand-petalled lily") would gain spiritual recognition and ascendency over "Typhon, the Destroyer."

6.

7. But if she accuses Achilles of weighing "a feather's weight with a feather", she herself seems equally introspective. She seems to doubt her power, or the magic of the goddess (Aphrodite, XXIX Thetis). She is jealous of "man alone", the flight from laughter to the trumpet's call. She seems to doubt her power to lure Achilles from this, or the power of women in general. There is no good in this postulate. She will get nowhere. She knows this.

8.

So being Helen of Troy, whether or not she ever walked upon the ramparts, she flings knowledge away. Let the temple walls flower with "the indecipherable Amen-script." It is not necessary to understand the riddle. The pattern in itself is sufficient and it is beautiful.

### III

I. Now they are both here in the temple, but Helen does not like the fixed stare of Achilles. This is not the "sea-enchantment" of his eyes. She mistrusts this metallic glitter. He is thinking of the Battle. She speaks of the Greek islands in order to recall him, but apparently, he is unmoved for she would dismiss him, "go, follow the ways of the sea." But he speaks of her name, Helena, XANAXXXIXIXIXX seemingly XXXPHIXIXEXXXIXIXIXXEXXXEXXIXIXIXX and IXIXIXIXIXX not XXXIXIXIXX altogether in character, asks an enigmatic question.

2. What does he mean? She does not know. We do not know. But for the second time, he has spoken her name. That is sufficient. He asks her of Cytheraea. She has been trying to charm him with the names of Greek islands, but his charm or enchantment is stronger. So strong that she must fight for her identity, for Helena. And more than that, she must invoke or recall the "spread of wings." It was XANAXXXIXIXIXX "the thousand sails" that brought them together. If she forgets that, she is lost.

8. But still Helen wants "some simple answer." She 8. feels that Achilles can give it to her. But she delays asking the direct question that will tell her everything. When she introduces it, it is in a round about way. She knows that her name was Helen, in Sparta, in Greece. But she wants to know of that other, "walking upon the ramparts." She does not directly ask Achilles, if he recognizes in her, the Helen of his first accusation, "I have seen you upon the ramparts."

Is this Helen actually that Helen ? Achilles seems grudgingly, to apologize for his first boorishness, "I was afraid." Who indeed would not be, at sudden encounter with the admitted first-cause "of all-time , of all-history." Fate, Death, Reintegration, Resurrection ? What was she then, if she was there, at all, in Troy ? His answer is unequivocal and final, " a fountain of water in that desert ... we died of thirst."

## IV

I. So at last we see, with the eyes of Achilles, Helen upon the walls.

2. This is the Achilles of legend, Lord of the Myrmidons, indisputable dictator with his select body-guard, the seven, of whom he, the eighth, received the directives of campaign. Technically, he shares the Command, as he calls it, with Helen's discredited with Agememnon, husband, Menelaus and the husband of her sister. There is also, plot or Odysseus, with whom we gather, there has been some compromise.

But Achilles will compromise for once, though this is not his usual way of fighting. There is evidently a bribe, some counter-bargaining. Agememnon and Menelaus are too slow, too heavy-handed. Perhaps the plan of the wooden-horse, or the iron-horse, as he call it, does not materialize before Achilles falls before the Scaean Gate. But there is some secret agreement. If Odysseus succeeds in his designs, Achilles will be given Helen and world-leadership. This is contrary to the first agreement of the allies.

3. He still seems to be arguing the point. It is evidently not in character for him to take second place. His Myrmidons have been first always. He must have some direct guidance. Where will he get it ? He seems for once, to be at odds with the Command. " Did the Command read backward " ? He will consult a new oracle, after all, it is only a "game of prophecy." He will watch Helen, measure her paces, the direction she takes, how and where she looks. If she pauses here or there - yes. If she goes on there or here - no. He forgets the vulnerability of the Achilles heel and " Another command."

4. The symbolic "veil" to white Achilles had enigmatically referred, now resolves itself down to the memory of a woman's scarf, blowing in the winter-wind, one day before he had begun to tire or distrust the original oracle of the purely masculine "iron-ring whom Death made stronger." Does he blame Helen for luring him from the Command, which had evidently instructed him to follow Odysseus.

5. Is his reluctance to follow Odysseus or in any case, "to take second place", even at the Command's suggestion, the cause of his death ? His after-life apparently, was not what he expected. Where was the circle of immortals to hail and acclaim him ? Time values have altered, present is past, past is future. The whole heroic sequence is over, forgotten, re-lived, forgotten again. Only one thing is certain, the caravel, as Helen had first called the death-ship of Osiris. And as on his first meeting with her, there are still the familiar stars."

6. Now Achilles himself admits defeat. For what had he lost "the rule of the world and Greece" ? For two things, "the turn of a Greek wrist" and "a ship's mast that measured the stars."

7. The Command or the adamant rule of the inner circle of the warrior caste was "bequest from the past". Equally, each group or circle had its responsibility to the future. Had Achilles broken the connection of " the present to aeons to come " ?

Was this his punishment for his" game of prophecy" xixix ? IO.
the
Has he "lost in a game of chance " ?

8. It seems so. Achilles himself might be thought to loose
stature by apology. Can he apologize ? Or does he bargain, in a
sense, play for time? Superficially now, they appear to accept
second-best. Actually, they are both occupied with the thought
of reconstruction, he "to re-claim the coast with the Pharos,
the light-house," she to establish or re-establish the
ancient Mysteries.

V
------

I. "How have the paths met ?" This is indeed the lesser
mystery. "The harpers will sing forever of how Achilles met
Helen among the shades," but perhaps they can not tell us
why they met, for exactly what reason "the circles crossed."
Greater Mystery. Helen will come from the oracle.
This is part of theryptosomachionot force an answer, She will
take her time about it.

2. But in the meantime, she goes on examining the "pictures";
there is the boat again, a symbol of the death-ship that
Achilles
had brought him to her. There is the death-dealing dragon
or Typhon-serpent, "reared to attack", xixix Achilles, and herself,
"crowned with the helm of defence." Mutually, they would have
destroyed each other, but for xxix "the wisdom of Thoth".

3. We are back now with our first meeting of Helen, in the
Great Temple, when she says, "Amen ( or Zeus we call him )
as on that first occasion,
brought me here." So recalling this Father, she remembers/
her
/xxix "twin-brothers and Clytaemnestra, shadow of us all."
It is as if Helen wanted to recall her immediate "family",
as protection or balance against the over-whelming fact of
her Fate or Destiny, this meeting with Achilles.

re-tells

II

4. She / xxxxxxxx a story that may still be in the future,
as Achilles remembers "Odysseus' wanderings xma that had not
yet happened."

5. Why does Helen recall Iphigenia ? Does she identify herself
with her sister's child ? Does she feel that she ,like
Iphigenia, was "a pledge to Death" and that like Iphigenia, she had
been rescued at the last moment ? She reminds us that Iphigenia
was summoned to Aulis, on the pretext of a marriage to Achilles.

6. By identifying Clytaemnestra with Iphigenia, " as one before tx
the altar", it seems as if Helen were trying to re-instate her
or dismiss her tragic story. It is as if Helen were
re-living her own story and visualizing her own fate in terms
of that of her twin-sister. Helen has been so signally favoured.
She would recall Clytaemnestra and "rememberance of childhood
together."

7. Does Helen feel that it was her sister's consummation in-time
that had led to disaster ? Is she contrasting her sister's
husband, "her first lover", with her own ? Does she possibly feel
that her assertion of Menelaus is comparable to her sister's murder
of Agamemnon ? Do they share Nemesis together ?

8. But xixxxpxxxxxxpxxxxxxxH Helen compares
Clytaemnestra and Iphigenia to "one swan and one cygnet."
Their divinity, the beauty of their story, is stronger than all the
material forces gathered against them. They must forget
the war and its consequences - but no, there is this as yet,
unresolved - without war, there would have been no Achilles,
no "Star in the night."

15

Leuké

( l'isle Blanche )

I

I. Why Leuké ? Because here, Achilles is said to have married Helen who bore him a son, Euphorion. Helen in Egypt did not taste of Lethe, forgetfulness, on the other hand, she was in an ecstatic or semi-trance state. Though she says, "I am awake, no trance", yet she confesses, "I move as one in a dream." Now, it is as if momentarily, at any rate, the dream is over. Rememberance is taking its place. She immediately reminds us of her "first rebellion" and the so far suppressed memory and unspoken name - Paris.

2. And now she is back with the old dilemma - who caused the war ? She has been blamed, Paris has been blamed but fundamentally, this was the fault of Thetis, the mother of Achilles. There is the old fable regarding *mésalliance*, a goddess marries a mortal, some social discord is sure to arise. The traditional uninvited guest introduces the fatal apple of discord. But Helen outlives, as it were, her own destiny and "Helen's epiphany in Egypt."

3. There is more to it. She would have taken the "wisdom of Thoth" or of Egypt, "back to the islands." Now on Leuké, l'isle Blanche, she would reconstruct the Greek past. Thetis had said, "Achilles waits", but he must wait a little longer. He was given to her with the mystery, the miracle, in another dimension, in Egypt. But there is this paradox of which Thetis had spoken, of forest-trees, involuted sea-shells, snow. She had lived here before. In the light of her inheritance as neophite or initiate, she would re-assess that first experience. It is true that Love "let fly the dart" that had sent Achilles to her, but it was Paris who was the agent, medium or intermediary of Love and of Troy's great patron, Apollo, the god of Song.

["4. Surely, her former state was perfect, but now the temple or the tomb, the infinite is reduced to a finite sea-shell image, a \"delicate\" (x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x

["lightning", "XXYYXX", "5. Such love, \" \\ lightning out of a clear sky\", 6. to\nargues Paris, destroys not only the love-object but itself as\nwell. And now we find, actually, that Paris and Helen are together in\nthis peace,\n\"this small x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x

IV

7.

I. So Helen finds her way to another lover, whose story is not so familiar to us as that of Paris and the early suitors. For Helen, we gather, was a child when Theseus, the legendary king and hero, stole her from Sparta. He had left Helen with his mother when he went to help his friend, Pirithoúס steal Persephone /Περιφρονή/ from Hades. "We had sworn each to wed only God's daughters, Swan-Helen and Eleusinian Persephone." During the absence of Theseus on this "mad adventure", the Dioscuri, Helen's brothers rescue her and take her home again.

2. Theseus outlines this story and philosophically, his other better known adventures. The love-stories, he tells us, have grown dim and distant, but the memory of the heroes, the Quest and the Argo is still vivid and inspiring. Helen appears "blown by the wind", the snow" and her garments cling to her, Theseus says, "like the carven folds of the Pallas, but frayed." Though driven by the wind and snow, Helen seems to have taken on something of the attributes of the Athenian goddess, and of her "olive-wood statue that directed the Quest." Perhaps she also reminds Theseus of his former encounter with Hippolyta, the devote of Artemis, in her "huntsman's boots."

3. But Helen must relinquish her borrowed cloak and "huntsman's gear". She is baffled and buffeted and very tired.

4. "A goddess speaks," says Theseus. but it is rather the child Helen who says, "I wanted to come home." She has quarrelled with Paris, she has left Achilles, though she had "found perfection in the Mysteries." There is some readjustment to be made. Symbolically, Theseus unclasps the "heavy thongs" and finds that Helen's xénex "feet are wounded". But Theseus will laugh at her and her presumptions and her borrowed "gear". He will find fleece-lined slippers for her, the glowing members in his brazier will revive her, together they will forget and together they will remember.

5. There is the paradox of the years. Helen and Paris in-time, are about the same age. But Helen, having crossed the threshold into Egypt, finds on her return ( though she says, " I shed my years on Leuké ") that she is incomparably older in perception and understanding, than her former lover. The noble hero-king Theseus will find the solution for her. " All myth, the one reality dwells here."

6. How reconcile Trojan and Greek? It is Helen's old and
Helen's own problem. Tragedy iskue Truly, on Leuké, the dead
must be reconciled, the slayer with the slain. Achilles ? Paris ?
Trojan and Greek arrow alike, must be re-dedicated. For as
Theseus says, " we are "weary of" War, only the Quest remains."

7. But Theseus, the legendary hero-king of Athens, in
an endeavouring to help Helen answer her own questions and
"reconcile Trojan and Greek", seems inclined in spite of
or perhaps because of the Argo and the Quest, to sympathize with
the Trojan rather than the Greek cause. He asks of Paris, "why did
he hate Achilles ?" and answers, "he hated the blight of the
spears and Troy-town taken."

8. Theseus senses the danger of Helen's recapitulation to her
own apotheosis. "It is one thing, Helen, to slay Death, it is
another thing to come back." She has come back, she has spoken of Paris as Eros-Adonis - "what scarlet, what purple,
what fire," Theseus exclaims. But Helen contradicts him, the fire
is "brighter than the sun at noon-day, yet whiter than frost."
Again, this is the "flash in the heaven at noon that
blinds the sun." Theseus realizes that "it was all a dream
until Achilles came," but he would recall, re-vitalize and
re-awaken Helen. "Even a Spirit loves laughter, did you laugh
with Achilles ? No."

V

9. 13

I. Helen must be re-born, that is, her soul must return wholly to her body. Her emotional experience has been " too great a suspense to endure. " Theseus recalls names from his own past, Ariadne, Phaedra, Hippolyta as if to balance or match Helen's Menelaus, Paris, Achilles "with bones or stones for counters. " But " of the many, many in-between ? " he asks. " The memory of breath-taking encounters with those half-seen" must balance and compensate for the too intense primary experience.

2. Helen must remember other loves, small things, " a pearl, a bead, a comb, a cup, a bowl ", and he tells her that she must " return to the Shell, your mother, Leda, Thetis or Cytheraea. " Theseus says that she is like a butterfly, " a Psyche with half-dried wings."

3. So as if to reassure, to strengthen this Psyche, this revenant, Theseus tells her his own story, and to allay her fears of "the Towers and the blackened Walls," primeval recalls his own terror. But the Minotaur in retrospect, was "an idle fancy, a dream, a Centaur."

4. The mountain, the reality, Theseus seems to argue, must recall us from the dream, "the oplate of non-rememberance." The majic of Crete was inherited from Egypt. Parnassus or Greek creative thought, must not be entangled in the labyrinth or dissolved or washed away by "the ancient Nile."

5. And all this time, Helen has apparently been dated before the glowing coals. "Take this low chair," Theseus had said, and now, "shall I draw the low couch, nearer the brazier?" He will cover her with fleece or if that is too heavy, with "soft woven wool," she that she ("my Psyche") may "disappear into the web, the shell, re-integrate". She is safe, she need not be afraid to recall the shock of the iron-Ram, the break in the Wall, or equally, if she is free to forget everything. But Helen's only answer to that is " never ... Achilles."

6. There are new names, Chryseis, Deidamia, IO.
Briseis; they seem unrelated to our Achilles concept.
Nor does the story of Polyxena, the Trojan princess, sacrificed
to placate him the ghost of Achilles, seem altogether
relevant. Theseus begins "to remember the story".
It is another story. He seems deliberately to have stepped out of
the stream of our and of Helen's consciousness. Why? He has
told her that she was safe with him. He reminds her that she
"found life here with Paris." His Achilles lingering with
Polyxena ("leave him with the asphodels") is not Helen's
Achilles "on the desolate beach."

7. Helen has heard what he said but she lies "quietly as
the snow, drifted outside." Theseus' words with the names of
the four women "sacrificed in some way or another" seem
hardly to have reached her. She can only ask, "does the ember
glow in the heart of the snow?" and then answer, "there is a
voice within me, listen - let it speak for me."

8. It is an heroic voice, the voice of Helen of Sparta.
The loves of Achilles, the loves of Helen of Troy seem
ephemeral and unimportant beside their passionate devotion
and dedication to "the rage of the sea, the thunder of battle,
shouting and the walls."

VI

II.

I. Again, the "voice" seems to speak for Helen. It is a lyric voice this time, a song, rather than a challenge. It takes us back to Egypt but in a Greek mode. Isis is Cypris (Cytheraea) and Isis is Thetis. Amen-Zeus is the father of

Isis-Thetis-Aphrodite (Cypris). We can not altogether understand this evocation, the rythms must speak for themselves and the alliterations, Cypris, Thetis, Nephthys, Isis, Paris.

Proteus, the legendary King of Egypt, as we have learned before, takes many shapes. Could he "manifest as Achilles?" If so, (the question is not asked but implied), could he manifest as Paris? Then, could the two opposites MÄXIX (the slayer and the slain) merge into one, and that One, the Absolute? implicit
This last question is imπικια but not formulated by the final phrase or strophe, "Amen begot Amor."

2. Now Helen asks the question, "must youth and maturity quarrel?" "The heroic Spartan Helen had, like the hero-king Theseus, "passed the frontier, the very threshold." Theseus had been successful in his Quest of the symbolic Golden Fleece, Helen in her Quest of Love. But in both cases, there was an enemy to be conquered, "they called it MÄXIX" and then? the way out, the way back, the way home."

3. So "Eros? Eris?" are again balanced in the mind of Helen, or Eros and Death.

4. And Eris is this fire-brand, Paris, and Eros is again, the "unconquerable child." How reconcile the opposites? Helen endeavours to do this, with partial success. Perhaps for her, the transition is possible or the "subtle genealogy". For us, "this is no easy thing to explain." The slayer becomes the son of the slain, "he is incarnate Helen-Achilles." This is perhaps a pre-vision on Helen's part of the traditional Euphorion, But we feel that Helen will return to her original concept or a new revelation of the "heroes slain."

5. Helen has gone too far or not far enough. 12.
Theseus recalls her from her abstrac tion , her Absolute, the
"Star in the night." The child (like Proteus-Amen) xvmexvmexux
xhexux takes many forms, and in her case especially, there are
the twin-brothers and the twin-sister to consider. She is
(or was ) a composite of all these, " growing within the egg."
Zeus-Amen decreed that two of the four should be born of light,
the other two of darkness. The child of light will strive to
redeem the child of darkness. "Castor received immortality through
Pollux, you sought ( do you still seek ? ) Clytaemnestra
in Egypt ? "

6. Helen does not answer this last question, nor directly
repudiate Theseus, when he suggests that she temper her emotional
intensity, lest she "flame out, incandescent." Rather,
she compares Theseus with Achilles, and asks, how have the
arcs crossed? how have the paths met? "

7. How indeed? Theseus answers her. It seems that Theseus and
Achilles, like Castor and Pollux are twin-stars, or
" a twin-star to guide ships." They meet as opposites
meet, dark-light, life-death, death-life and so on.
They meet finally in "Helen in Egypt" and
"Helen in Hellas forever."

8. And Helen understands, though we do
not know exactly what it is that she understands. To her,
"it is all very simple." She says, "it was darkness, Achilles
and war, it was light with the Argo, the Quest."

VII

13.

---

I. So Helen is at peace, she has found the answer, she will rest. Now Thetis who ( like Proteus ) "can change her shape", is Artemis, the Moon-goddess, "her sphere is remote, white, near, is Leuké ... let me stay here."

the

2. So there must be no rivalry with either/ earth or the heaven mother . Helen says, " I am only a daughter." She will not compete with Demeter xxwixxx for union with her absolute or with Leda for this same Zeus. There is another Absolute, that of "the crystal, the center, the ice-star. " It is the Absolute of negation, if you will, or of completion, "this immaculate purity", and hence in a sense, of Death. Helen had said, " my heart had been frozen, melted, re-moulded, re-crystallized in the fires of Egypt , or in the fire of Death." So she compares herself to Persephone and recalls Theseus' question," did you too seek Persephone's drear icy way to Death ?" Helen's answer is yes, " I found or was found by Dis."

3. Achilles is "a sword-blade drawn from fire ... "

Menelaus, Paris had not yet been "tempered". Helen seems to ask, how can I compromise ? My soul or my spirit was snatched from its body, or even more miraculously, with its body, by this "ger-falcon". All she asks now is "time to remember."

4. She will encompass infinity by intense concentration on the moment. She has finished her cycle in time. But out-of-time, or beyond moon-time, are the "widening star-circles". But she will not attempt to escape "the moment" by a flight to infinity with "wild wings". She will bring the moment and infinity together in the crystal, in my thought here."

5. Time-in-time (personal time) however, as well as star-time (the eternal) seem alike incalculable to Helen, without Achilles. But by a miracle of re-adjustment, through her contact with Theseus, "the Wheel is still." Helen says, "the Wheel is as small as the gold shoulder-clasp, I wore as a girl." Yet the Wheel is the great circle of the Zodiac with its "outline of hero and beast," which Achilles found were still "the familiar stars," as the mast of the caravel, the death-ship measured them out, "picture by picture".

6. So "picture by picture", Helen would read the star-script, as Achilles had done. Paris will come back, he "will reflect the past" and Helen as she was "before the ultimate Mystery." But Helen in her mind, or "in my crystal" as she calls it, "would see further". She would relate the pictures in time, to the pictures in eternity, as she "strove in the precinct, to decipher the Amen-script."

7. She would see and be. Though herself free from time-restrictions and the Wheel, she would endure or share the "labours" of Achilles, whatever they might be. At the same time, she "would wander through the temples of the stars." This is possible only through reflection and meditation. "What was Helena's task?" She can not altogether say, only that through the power and tenderness of Theseus, "it was finished."

8. And now there is one prayer, a prayer addressed to the king-hero Theseus ("O god-father"), rather than, as in the beginning, to that more distant abstraction, "Amen, All-father." The prayer will be answered, Helen knows. It is a simple prayer for Achilles, "may he find the way."

Eidolon

I.

I. Why eidolon ? At the end of the first book, Thetis appears, or the image or eidolon of Thetis calls Helen out of Egypt. Now after the reconciliation with time (Greek time), through the council and guidance of Theseus), Helen is called back to Egypt. It is Achilles who calls her - or it is the image or eidolon of Achilles who is "commanded to say, Theseus commands me."

2. Achilles reminds Helen of how Thetis, in the first instance, had summoned her with "Achilles waits." He waits, not as Lord of Legions, "King of Myrmidons", but as one dedicated to a new "royal Comman, that of the /Xanxex/ sacred High Priest of love-rites."

3. Who is Formalhaut ? We gather that this is a synonym for "the Nameless-of-many-Names", Proteus, King of Egypt. It is the same Amen-temple, at all times, in all places, on all planes of existence, whether they are symbolized by Athens, the intellect or by Eleusis, the mysteries.

4. But the innermost mystery of "life-in-death", it seems, must be balanced or tempered by outer circumstance. Paris or the voice or image of Paris, would call Helen back to "my small room." Even before she left him to find Theseus, Paris had been apprehensive, perhaps not so much fearing the loss of Helen to Achilles, but of her final translation to the transcendent plane, the fragrance of "Egyptian incense wafted through infinite corridors. " Now he would denigrate the "young hero", reminding Helen of the incident of Scyros. He says, "call on Thetis." Is this cronical ? It has been Thetis from the first, who reconciled Helen to Achilles. But Paris would reduce the valour of the hero to "woman's robe and ornament."

5. There is challenge and defiance in Paris, as he recalls Helen's own words to her. By tribal law, the young priest slays the old one, the son, the father. Helen had recalled the Oedipus story in her talk with Theseus. "It is very simple", she had said. It doesn't seem simple, nor does the explanation of Paris help much. He evidently represents a secondary order, "completing the circle, the triangle, the broken arc." In that sense, he is the third of the inevitable triad.

6. Now Paris himself refers to the legend. He will accept the accredited Hero, as father-symbol, if Helen will take the place of his mother, Hecuba, the Trojan Queen, who had left him "like Oedipus to die." But first, he would rescue Helen from what he seems to consider "a death-cult". It almost seems better, he seems to say, to have a new war, "new Myrmidons", than to "call by stealth, ghosts, phantoms of old legions."

Though the conventional image of Paris is of an effete youth, we must remember his claim to the title, "Wolf-slayer," and the fact that he was chosen as deputy to the god Apollo (or even as legend states, that Apollo had manifested in his image) to strike down "the greatest hero in Greece."

7. And now Paris repeats the names of those women whom Theseus had told us were "sacrificed in one way or another." It is especially with the sacrifice of his sister, Polyxena, that Paris seems concerned. He seems to intimate that this special sacrifice might have a parallel. Polyxena was slain to propitiate a ghost. Even the pretended marriage of Iphigenia to Achilles was by way of a pledge to "war and the armies of Greece." Her sacrifice was to have been to a living, even if an inimical concept. But Polyxena's sacrifice was to one already dead, and so by implication, Paris seems to say that Helen's might be.

31

8. Helen seems to start awake- was this dream ? 3. delerium ? She has been lying where Theseus left her, "everything is as it was before." But she is alone, though she knows that "Theseus will come if I call." Is the room dark? She wakes to confusion of images, " a catafalque, a bier/, a temple again." Was all her effort for nothing ?

Someone has mocked her, "the script was a snare." Where is she ? In "a tomb; a small room ?" Her heart, her head are alike anguished. But now she remembers," how I stumbled here out of the snow." Yes, she has "come home."

II

I. We have had the drean, delerium, trance, ecstasy. We have had Helen in Egypt and Helen in Leuké, l'îsle Blanche. Where is she now ? She had said to Theseus, " I must have time to remember. " She had said to Theseus, " teach me to remember ... teach me not to remember. " We feel that there is a balanced perfection in her surroundings, her state of mind, " as light begins - but far, far to show outline through the curtain". This is waking-dream or day-dream.

2. Yes, Achilles spoke, Paris spoke. Greece and Troy challenged and contradicted each other in her fantasy. She had said to Theseus, "there is a voice within me, listen - " But we do not feel that Achilles and Paris were " a voice within" her. They were disparate beings, separate from each other and separate from Helen. How bring them together ? But why bring them together ? Perhaps it is the very force of opposition that creates the dynamic intensity of "the high-altar, your couch here."

3. The opposites have been reconciled actually, in Theseus. " The lyre or the sword ? Theseus has both together. " Where Theseus is, Athens is. Where Helen is - ?

For the first time in our sequence, she is in Sparta. What had she lost ? What had she gained ? She had lost her childhood or her child, her "lord's devotion" or the devotion of the conventional/

4. What had she gained?
" a rythm as yet unheard."

She had gained

4.

5. There is no question now of Helen's integrity nor even of
the old antagonists, " Eros ? Eris ? " There is a story,
a song "the harpers will sing forever." It is a play, a
drama - "who set the scene ? who lured the players ?"
The players have no choice in the matter of the already-written
drama or script. They are supremely aware of the
honour that "all song forever" has conferred upon them.
They would play their parts well.

6. Indeed it was "Apollo's snare." None other.

7. So Helen remembers her part in the greatest drama of
Greece and of all time. She seems almost to speak by rote,
she had grown into her part. But she breaks off, as it were,
from the recorded drama to remind us of the unrecorded ... her
first meeting with Achilles, "on the edge of a desolate beach."

8. There is only a song now and rhetorical questions that
have been already answered.

### III

1. Again the veil, the dream, bringing the symbolism of the "fluttering veil" of which Helen has just spoken, into line with "the horizon". Achilles' early question, "Helena, which was the dream, which was the veil of Cytheraea ?" is answered, and Helen herself has answered it, "they were one. " They are xthm "the ships assembled at Aulis", and - a mermaid ...

2. Achilles had been alone, for the women that Theseus
had named and the same names as Paris repeats them, are to
Helen as she again recalls them, "no problem any more. "
For Achilles, there is one love and perhaps for Helen, " his
own ship that would lead them all. "

3. So we see with the eyes of Helen, "the swords flash". We
hear the "thunder across the plain." We feel and know the
dedication of the "child of Thetis" to the Sea. We are
hardly surprised that this "greatest hero in Greece" , dismissing

33

as it were, the traditional sacrifice of Iphigenia,
should promise "another white throat to a goddess."

5. Helen herself seems almost ready for this sacrifice - at least, for the immolation of herself before this greatest love of Achilles, his dedication to "his own ship" and the figurehead, x2xhexiexxxxarxxxiexiexuxx "an ideal or eidolon ... a mermaid, Thetis upon the prow."

5. So Achilles disguised, deserts "the Trojan plain" , and " a far shadow upon the beach ... he went to the hulk of his love, his beloved."

6. And at that most crucial momentuxx, Achilles turnsxxthe xixiexxxxhaxxwillxater directs the Battle that will prove the turning-point of the war and bring final Victory to the Greeks. But the "power of the tempest" has been misconstrued, and the "simple pass-word of Achilles' Myrmidons, Helena" has been forgotten.

as
7. Was Helen stronger than Achilles even "as the arrows fell?" That could not be, but he recognized in her some power other than her legendary beauty.

8. "So she cheated at last." It is not granted human or super-human intelligence and ingenuity to escape the "lure of the sea."

## IV

I. Helen says, "I am awake, I see things clearly; it is dawn."
If the Helen of our first sequence was translated to a
transcendental plane, the Amen-temple in Egypt, and the Helen of
our second sequence contacted a guide or guardian, near to her
in time, Theseus, the hero-king and "master of Argo", our
third Helen having realized "all myth, the one reality", is
concerned with the human content of the drama. "I am awake, I see
things clearly." Clearly, she realizes the "death" of Achilles
and his "ecstasy of desolation, a desire to return to the old
thunder and roar of the sea."

2. So this third Helen , for the moment, rejects both the transcendentál Helen and the intellectual or inspired Helen for thiðother, " numb with a memory."

6.

3. The memory is really that of Achilles but she lives it with him.

4. Helen ḫxš "had watched as a careful craftsman, the pattern shape." Indeed, she could never have done this, if she had not had the arduous, preliminary training or instruction of the Ἀμμηχχχρικ Amen-script. She herself had told us that " you may penetrate every shrine, an initiate, and remain unenlightened at last." Is the last enlightenment that of the woman Helen ? Is it after all, as she had said, "very simple ? "

5. Yes - Helen is awake, she sees the pattern; the Ἀκαλυψικ "old pictures" are eternal, the ibis, the hawk and the hare are painted in bright \ colours. But superimposed on the hieroglyphs, is the "marble and silver" of her Greek thought and Ἑλλάδα fantasy.

6. Helen was seeking the "Master Mariner" ; she does not find him, though her preliminary search leads finally to the "Master of Argo."

7. No, Helen can not escape from Troy through physical death. Now she is glad of her return, she is "happy to see the dawn." She was saved for this, _La Mort, L'amor_.

8. Indeed, the enchantment, the majic, at the time and equally in retrospect, is over-powering. It could not have been endured but "for her". It was to Thetis that Helen prayed , on her first encounter with Achilles. Now the "eternal moment" returns and "we stare and stare over the smouldering embers."

V

7.

I. So they will always be centralized by a moment, "undecided yet". Though *La Mort, L'amor* will merge in the final illumination, there is this preliminary tension that can be symbolized by the "circle of god-like beasts." The great "frieze, the zodiac hieroglyph" comes to life ✶cks豹 with the magnetic intensity of these two. Forever, there is "the pad of paws on the sand ... "

2. Though there is the intense, almost unbearable excitement in this circle of "god-like beasts", Helen does not invoke the power of lion or panther, wolf or bear. Undoubtedly, she is at one with them. She loves them, certainly, nor does she dismiss them. She is not afraid of them but she feels that Achilles is afraid of something. That fear creates the tension that he expresses in his attack, "are you Hecate ? are you a witch ?" Maybe. If she had already proved the invincibility of the "lure of the sea, Queen of Myrmidons, Regent of heaven and the ✶cks豹 star-zone." So again, Helen "cried to one Daemon only, the goddesses I knew from his eyes, was his mother, the sea-enchantment."

3. We have seen that Thetis, like Proteus takes many forms. Nor will she neglect "the worshippers from the caves". To each adept of darkness, it seems, she appointments a companion "from the circles of heaven." Helen had asked of "the lion and the crouching panther", if they would "turn and rend each other". No, So, the assembled "host of spirits" form "the whole arc ... the circle complete."

There is a word. Helen has spoken it.

8.

"How did she know the word ?" It may not seem a
matter of great importance that in their first encounter,
she " dared speak the name that made that of the goddess fade, "
but apparently, "a whisper, a breath" of which Helen, it seems,
was unaware, had alarmed Achilles ( "O child of Thetis ") ,
provoked his attack and projected the first of the series or
circle of the ever-recurring "eternal moment."

5. What is this "simple majestic" of a "ring of no worth, a broken oar" that finds more favour in the eyes of the "Regent of heaven" than the priceless treasure "from the uttermost seas ?"

6. Perhaps it can not be defined. It is a "secret treasure" but Helen implies, as she counts "the seven and seven slats of the ladder or the bars of light on the wall", that it could only be judged or assessed if "God would let me lie here forever."

7. Chiron, the Centaur had trained most of the Greek heroes, outstanding among them, Achilles. So Helen recalls the scene of his boyhood and his childhood's secret idol, the first Thetis-eidolon.

8. But with "the lure of war", the hero forgot "the majestic of little things," and his mother's "simple wish that he learn to rule a x Kingdom", until in the end, "he paused to remember, but he was seared with an agony, the question that has no answer."

VI

L'amor

I. There is the ultimate experience, *la Mort, la Lamor*. But Helen "in the new light of a new day", fully realizes the price of that ultimate. Is the price too great? "The numberless tender kisses, the sex caresses" have no part in the epic. But there is a miraculous birth. The promised *Euphorion* is not one child but two. It is "the child in Chiron's cave" and the "frail maiden", stolen by Theseus from Sparta.

2. Helen had recalled "the fragrant bough",
9. when she thought of her childhood in Sparta. Now she thinks
of " a sorcery even more potent", that of the child
Achilles. A tree holds the secret of "that Thetis'
child hid away."

3. But what is "the living grain of the tree" and
" the rose-vein of the wood" to "one brandished spear
that enflames a thousand others?"

4. True, he forgot her and that is where her power lay.
Was not his own mother more desirable than the "wooden doll"
he had made to represent her? The prophecy of Achilles' fame
could only be fulfilled if he died in battle. So " his own
mother came" and Thetis "hid him in Scyros." But the
heroes found him and "mocked", and that was the end of Thetis' plan
for her son's inheritance of the island-kingdom. But Thetis a
sorcery even more potent" was to claim him in the end.

5. What was that sorcery or magic? It can only be defined
by the most abstruse hieroglyphs or the most simple memories.
All between, Helen seems to tell us "nothing, nothing at all."
But there is something between. There is the old problem," how
reconcile Trojan and Greek?" In the beginning of this sequence, the
voices of Achilles and Paris seemed to argue, unreconciled.
Helen woke to struggle with the ancient problem, in the human
dimension, "my mind goes on, spinning the infinite thread."
Now Helen is "awake, no trance." In a trance, "on the
gold-burning sands of Egypt", she may have solved the problem. And
Theseus, wholly intellectual and inspirational, resolved it
with his " all myth, the one reality dwells here." But
Helen says, " did I challenge the Fates when I said to
Theseus, 'the wheel is still'? "

["38", "IO.", "6. It is not so simple. Helen seems to wish to return to an easier \"formula\". But the \"sea-mother\", whether we call her Thetis, Isis or Aphrodite mourns for Hector dead.\" xix jour our first meeting with Helen, in the Amen-temple , she recalls ἡμα \"the glory and the beauty of the ships.\" These were Greek ships. In this last phase or mood, it seems inevitable and perhaps wholly human for Helen to turn on her Trojan lover, \"what can Paris know of the sea? \"", "7. Helen returns to the two voices and again, almost grudgingly it seems, contrasts them. She had not known Paris in Egypt, but she had said, \"Paris is beautiful enchantment\", and at the last, \"Paris before Egypt, Paris after, is Eros.\" L'amor ? Yet there is no refutation of her final decision or choice, \"there is not before and no after, there is one finite 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