2,

130

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 Command, that of the "royal sacred High Priest of love-rites."

You ask how you came here;
Theseus' servants bore your couch,
silently, set down the lion-claws

on the steps; softly
as those lion-paws on sand,
Theseus and Achilles

lifted the catafalque, the bier
and you sleeping, exhausted
with the fight, your struggle

to understand Leukê, the light;
silently, Thetis commanded,
Thetis in her guise of mother,

who first summoned you here
with *Achilles waits*;
I waited before the frozen portal,

the gates; yes, you had come home,
but the long way (Theseus told me
of your prayer, your Wheel),

the long way (Theseus told me
of your Achilles-Hercules),
the long way was revoked

by your longing, your prayer,
I would endure with him;
Thetis summoned you here,

Theseus protected, renewed you,
not for your starry circle
in a crystal sphere,

but for the brand, burning here,
the Wheel is a seal;
Theseus revealed all your secrets.

sal 47

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 al[
most 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 de[
puty to the god Apollo (or even as legend states, that Apollo had mani-
fested in his image) to strike down "the greatest hero in Greece."

Pluto-Achilles' this is a death-cult
to drag you further and further underground,
underneath vault and tomb;

to rise in long corridors,
to re-read your old script?
Boar? Lion? he would sacrifice

Boar, Lion, Stag, Man,
aye, and another Hippolyta
for her star-zone;

leave him to the sea-ways,
let him re-assemble new Myrmidons,
rather than call by stealth,

ghosts, phantoms of old legions;
he would turn you to Pythoness,
Priestess — is there no magic

left above earth?
remember my arrow
that found his heel;

the brand he would proffer
is burnt-out, extinguished;
Achilles is old, his war is over;

my war? defence of the shepherd
against wolf, panther,
ravaging eagle; his war

was death of brother by brother,
blight, ruin, plague, famine;
his war? my war? ... Helen's?

If Achilles is my father
in this new spirit-order,
I will accept the Hero

6.

#

2

l.c.

138

8

Helen seems to start awake from this dream? delirium? 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."

#

Helen :

I do not see Achilles,
Paris is far, far away,
it was a dream, a catafalque, a bier,

a temple again, infinite corridors,
a voice to lure, a voice to proclaim,
the script was a snare;

a name of incense,
I can not remember,
sandarac? sandal?

my heart beating,
my head enclosed in a ring, a band,
someone defined as crystal

and a tomb; a small room?
a taper, a candle, then
a blaze of splendour, a brand

to flame through long halls,
we would find bliss again;
but he reviled us from
who? who?

I ask myself who said this,
who spoke (if any), who answered;
was it Paris defied the kiss

of his very begetting?
a name that was foretold
would bring ruin to ruin?

it is I, Helen, who took the blame;
what flame over Troy?
no, it is only the dim glow

of the brazier; I remember,
I stumbled here out of the snow;
I sat there, I lay here,