thoughts. Presently she
cast a drug into the wine whereof they drank, a drug to lull all pain and
anger, and bring forgetfulness of every sorrow. Whoso should drink a
draught thereof, when it is mingled in the bowl, on that day he would let
no tear fall down his cheeks, not though his mother and his father died,
not though men slew his brother or dear son with the sword before his
face, and his own eyes beheld it. Medicines of such virtue and so
helpful had the daughter of Zeus, which Polydamna, the wife of Thon, had
given her, a woman of Egypt, where Earth the grain-giver yields herbs in
greatest plenty, many that are healing in the cup, and many baneful."

So Telemachus was kindly entertained by Helen and Menelaus, and when he
left them it was not without a gift.

"And Helen stood by the coffers wherein were her robes of curious
needlework which she herself had wrought. Then Helen, the fair lady,
lifted one and brought it out, the widest and most beautifully
embroidered of all, and it shone like a star, and lay far beneath the
rest."

Presently, we read, "Helen of the fair face came up with the robe in her
hands, and spake: 'Lo! I too give thee this gift, dear child, a memorial
of the hands of Helen, for thy bride to wear upon the day of thy desire,
even of thy marriage. But meanwhile let it lie with thy mother in her
chamber. And may joy go with thee to thy well-builded house, and thine
own country.'"

Helen's last words, in Homer, are words of good omen, her prophecy to
Telemachus that Odysseus shall return home after long wanderings, and
take vengeance on the rovers. We see Helen no more, but Homer does not
leave us in doubt as to her later fortunes. He quotes the prophecy which
Proteus, the ancient one of the sea, delivered to Menelaus:--

"But thou, Menelaus, son of Zeus, art not ordained to die and meet thy
fate in Argos, the pasture-land of horses, but the deathless gods will
convey thee to the Elysian plain and the world's end, where is
Rhadamanthus of the fair hair, where life is easiest for men. No snow is
there, nor yet great storm, nor any rain; but alway ocean sendeth forth
the breeze of the shrill West to blow cool on men: yea, for thou hast
Helen to wife, and thereby they deem thee to be son of Zeus."

We must believe, with Isocrates, that Helen was translated, with her
lord, to that field of Elysium, "where falls not hail, or rain, or any
snow." This version of the end of Helen's hist