ãWhat spirit of ill name hath brought thee again, prophetess of evil, bold dog-fly? Vainly dost thou try to stay us with thy barking. Is thy mind not yet weary of its plague of madness, and hast thou not had thy fill of ill-omened ravings, but thou hast come in vexation at our mirth, when Zeus, the son of Cronus, hath lighted for us all the day of freedom and scattered the ships of the Achaeans? And no longer are the long spears brandished, no longer are the bows drawn, no longer flash the swords, the arrows are silent. But dances and honey-breathing music is ours and no more strife: no more wails the mother over the child, nor doth the wife send her husband to the fray and weep, a widow, over his corpse. Athena, guardian of the city, welcomes the horse which is drawn along. But thou, bold maiden, rushing before the house with false prophecies and wild raving, labourest to no purpose and pollutest the holy city. Go to! but our care is dance and mirth. For no longer is terror left under the walls of Troy, and no longer have we need of thy prophetic voice.ä
So he spake, and bade lead away the frenzied maiden, hiding her in her chamber. And hardly and against her will she obeyed her parent, and throwing herself upon her maiden bed she wept, knowing her own doom: already she beheld the fire raging on the walls of her burning fatherland. But the others at the temple of the goddess Athena, guardian of the city set up the horse on well-polished pedestal, and burned fair offerings on savoury altars; but the immortals refused their vain hecatombs. And there was festival in the town and infinite lust, lust uplifting the drunkenness of wine that unmans. And all the city was filled with foolishness and gaped