Aeneas in a fatherly way

Sent Achates for Ascanius his son

To come with precious gifts

Snatched from the ruins of Troy

A gossamer robe stiff with golden wire

An upper vest once Helen's rich attire

From Argos by the adulteress brought

With golden flowers and foliage wrought

Her mother’s gift when she came

To ruin Troy light the war flame

The scepter Priam's eldest daughter bore

Her necklace and the crown she wore

Of double texture, glorious to behold

One set with gems and one with gold

The wise Achates goes

In his diligence his duty he knows

End 21

Notes

It may seem, and at first thought it felt, frivolous to cut out this litany of treasures for discussion. For the reader and the writer are investigating the morality, actionism and fate of our extreme cultural ancestors. This break in the text was made originally to separate the following supernatural interlude from the sober business of migratory peace-making.

Then it occurred, when reshaping the text, that the possible cause behind the masculine obsession with the glittering attire of great ladies, queens and princesses may have a nomadic origin.

They number five and are:

-1. A robe worn by a captive princess

Helen has variously been described as a captive or a whore, ancients debating whether she was sexually taken by Paris before or after her abduction and even if it was an abduction. Based on the account that she was reunited with her husband Menaleus, and gave good council to the exiled son of Odysseus, this reader is inclined to agree with the author of her apologies, that she was taken, as indicated and she arrives in Troy with only the clothes on her back.

-2. A vest worn by a captive princess

-3. A scepter held by the host princess

-4. A necklace worn by the host princess

-5. A crown worn by the host princess

Helen in exile arrives with the clothes on her back, as a prize. Her sister-in-law, daughter of the king, actually holds and wears the two symbols of power. Aside from the utility of parading beautiful young women of the power structure in finery—all of it implicitly mobile—the idea of a princess wielding the implements of state argues for a nomadic origin for this cultural diaspora. Just as heathen chieftains would wear bands of silver and gold wrapped about their arm to apportion as mobile wealth, the use of high status women as walking treasuries and symbols of power and alliance appears most practical in a nomadic light.