Page:The Odyssey of Homer, with the Hymns, Epigrams, and Battle of the Frogs and Mice (Buckley 1853).djvu/79

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came to hollow Lacedæmon with its many clefts; and they drove to the house of glorious Menelaus. And they found him making a nuptial feast in his house, of his son and spotless daughter, to many friends. Her he sent to the son of the warlike Achilles; for in Troy he first promised and agreed that he would bestow her: and the gods brought their marriage to pass. He sent her to go there with horses and chariots, to the illustrious city of the Myrmidons, over whom he reigned: and to his son he brought from Sparta the daughter of Alector, who was born to him in his old age, brave Megapenthes, from a slave: but the gods no more gave an offspring to Helen, after she had first brought forth her lovely daughter Hermione, who had the form of golden Venus.

So these neighbours and friends of glorious Menelaus feasted in the lofty-roofed, large house, delighted: and amongst them a divine bard sang, playing on the harp; and two dancers amongst them turned round in the middle, the song having commenced. But they themselves and their horses,