harm the divine shrine, a Delphian man smote and slew him with a holy knife.a
And Andromache bewailed short-lived Astyanaxb whom she saw dive headlong from the airy towers, hurled to death by the hand of Odysseus. Swift Aias, son of Oileus, assaulted Cassandra when she took shelter at the knees of the stainless goddess Pallas; and the goddess rejected his violence, and, helper though she had been aforetime, for one manâs sake Athena was angered against all the Argives. Aeneias and Anchises did Aphrodite steal away, taking pity on the old man and his son, and far from their fatherland established them in Ausonia.c So the counsel of the gods was fulfilled with approval of Zeus, so that imperishable sovereignty should be the lot of the children and the grandchildrend of Aphrodite dear to Ares. The children and race of godlike Antenor,e that hospitable old man, the son of Atreus saved, in gratitude for his former kindness and that table wherewith his gentle wife Theano had welcomed him. Poor Laodicef! thee by thy native land the enfolding earth took to her yawning bosom,
a There are several versions of the death of Neoptolemus at Delphi. (1) According to one story he came to plunder the temple of Apollo (Paus. x. 7. 1), and was slain at the instance of the Pythian priestess by the Delphians (Paus. i. 13. 9) or by Apolloâs priest himself (Paus. x. 24. 4). (2) According to another version he came to offer to Apollo the first-fruits of the spoil of Troy, ãand there in a quarrel over meats a man slew him with a knifeä (Pindar, Nem. vii. 40 f.). After his death he was buried in the precincts of Apolloâs temple, and yearly offerings were made to him as a hero by the Delphians (Paus. x. 24. 6).
b The fate of Astyanax, son of Hector and Andromache, who was hurled headlong from the wall of Troy, is fore-shadowed in Hom. Il. xxiv. 735.
c Italy.
d The Romans.
e Antenor and his wife Theano, sister of Hecabe, had entertained Odysseus and Menelaus when they came to Troy to ask the restoration of Helen before the war (Hom. Il. iii. 205), and subsequently he advised the surrender of Helen (Hom. Il. vii. 347 ff.). His friendly attitude to the Greeks (ãTroianae suasorem Antenora pacis,ä Ovid, F. iv. 75) led later to charges of treachery; cf. Lycophr. 340.
f Daughter of Priam and Hecabe, mother of Munitus by Acamas, son of Theseus, was, at the taking of Troy, swallowed up by the earth; cf. Lycophr. 314, 497.