Helen threw into the wine a drug from Egypt that banishes grief — whoever drank it would not shed a tear that day, not even for parents or a brother killed before his eyes. Such healing drugs Polydamna wife of Thon had given her; every man in Egypt is a physician of Paeeon’s race. She poured it into the bowl and bade them drink. Then she told how Odysseus, beaten and wrapped as a beggar, entered Troy. She alone knew him, bathed him, swore not to betray him, and heard the Achaeans’ plan. He killed many Trojans and brought news back. The Trojan women wailed; her heart already longed for home.
Menelaus added the wooden horse: Helen walked round it three times calling the Danaans’ best in their wives’ voices, Deiphobus following. He and Diomedes nearly answered; Odysseus held them and clamped Anticlus’s mouth until Athena led her away. Telemachus said none of it had kept cold doom from his father, and asked for bed. Helen ordered beds under the portico; the two young men slept in the forehall, Menelaus and Helen in the inmost room.