The polished statue's magic grace, Which imaged forth her loveliness,

Is hateful to his eyes, and joy gives place* To wounded pride and deep distress. Enchanting scenes of airy bliss arise,

Grief's forgeries, to cheat his sleeping eyes:

strophe in the original is incurably corrupt, (aρεσTI σιγασ' ατιμος, &c.) and has defeated the conjectural emendations of the ablest critics. The allusion to the statues or busts of Helen which adorned the royal palace may be cited as a proof of the prevalence of such ornaments in Grecian houses in the age of Eschylus. In the heroic age, if busts were elaborated at all, they must have been sad caricatures of the human face divine. The anguish with which Menelaus is described as viewing these memorials of days of happiness is very true to nature, and resembles a passage in Dante

'Appodira, where Aphrodite, Venus, is put for grace, or

charms.

He wakes-but seeks in vain those forms to clasp, Floating on sleep's light wings they shun his eager

grasp.

Such griefs the royal house, and woes

Still heavier curse, meanwhile through all her land, Greece pours the tributary tear for those,

Who sought elate with hope the Trojan strand: Where are they? what returns to cheer

The heart to hope deferred a prey?

Ashes, to crown the sad funereal bier-
Arms, from dead warriors reft away!

These relics sad are all that Mars bestows
Of heroes falling amid slaughter'd foes-

Mars, who throughout the contest's wild career
The doubtful scales displays, their balance-beam*

a spear.

*The epithets here applied to Mars are very difficult either to understand or to translate. Heath interprets raλarrouxoc," who weighs the events of battle," "who ταλαντούχος, holds the beam of victory." It has been referred by