Chapter XV: Legend of Troy (1)

We now arrive at the capital and culminating point of the Grecian epic,—the two sieges and capture of Troy, with the destinies of the dispersed heroes, Trojan as well as Grecian, after the second and most celebrated capture and destruction of the city.

It would require a large volume to convey any tolerable idea of the vast extent and expansion of this interesting fable, first handled by so many poets, epic, lyric and tragic, with their endless additions, transformations and contradictions,—then purged and recast by historical inquirers, who under color of setting aside the exaggerations of the poets, introduced a new vein of prosaic invention,—lastly, moralized and allegorized by philosophers. In the present brief outline of the general field of Grecian legend, or of that which the Greeks believed to be their antiquities, the Trojan war can be regarded as only one among a large number of incidents upon which Hekatæus and Herodotus looked back as constituting their fore-time. Taken as a special legendary event, it is indeed of wider and larger interest than any other, but it is a mistake to single it out from the rest as if it rested upon a different and more trustworthy basis. I must therefore confine myself to an abridged narrative of the current and leading facts; and amidst the numerous contradictory statements which are to be found respecting every one of them, I know no better ground of preference than comparative antiquity, though even the oldest tales which we possess—those contained in the Iliad—evidently presuppose others of prior date.

The primitive ancestor of the Trojan line of kings is Dardanus, son of Zeus, founder and eponymus of Dardania:[675] in the account of later authors, Dardanus was called the son of Zeus by Elektra, daughter of Atlas, and was further said to have come from Samothrace, or from Arcadia, or from Italy;[676] but of this Homer mentions nothing. The first Dardanian town founded by him was in a lofty position on the descent of Mount Ida; for he was not yet strong enough to establish himself on the plain. But his son Erichthonius, by the favor of Zeus, became the wealthiest of mankind. His flocks and herds having multiplied, he had in his pastures three thousand mares, the offspring of some of whom, by Boreas, produced horses of preternatural swiftness. Trôs, the son of Erichthonius, and the eponym of the Trojans, had three sons—Ilus, Assaracus, and the beautiful Ganymêdês, whom Zeus stole away to become his cup-bearer in Olympus, giving to his father Trôs, as the price of the youth, a team of immortal horses.[677]

[675] Iliad, xx. 215.

[676] Hellanik. Fragm. 129, Didot; Dionys. Hal. i. 50-61;
Apollodôr. iii. 12, 1; Schol. Iliad. xviii. 486; Varro, ap.
Servium ad Virgil. Æneid. iii. 167. Kephalôn. Gergithius ap.
Steph. Byz. v. Ἀρίσβη.

[677] Iliad, v. 265; Hellanik. Fr. 146; Apollod. ii. 5, 9.

From Ilus and Assaracus the Trojan and Dardanian lines diverge; the former passing from Ilus to Laomedôn, Priam and Hectôr; the latter from Assaracus to Capys, Anchisês and Æneas. Ilus founded in the plain of Troy the holy city of Ilium; Assaracus and his descendants remained sovereigns of Dardania.[678]

[678] Iliad, xx. 236.

It was under the proud Laomedôn, son of Ilus, that Poseidôn and Apollo underwent, by command of Zeus, a temporary servitude; the former building the walls of the town, the latter tending the flocks and herds. When their task was completed and the penal period had expired, they claimed the stipulated reward; but Laomedôn angrily repudiated their demand, and even threatened to cut off their ears, to tie them hand and foot, and to sell them in some distant island as slaves.[679] He was punished for this treachery by a sea-monster, whom Poseidôn sent to ravage his fields and to destroy his subjects. Laomedôn publicly offered the immortal horses given by Zeus to his father Trôs, as a reward to any one who would destroy the monster. But an oracle declared that a virgin of noble blood must be surrendered to him, and the lot fell upon Hesionê, daughter of Laomedôn himself. Hêraklês arriving at this critical moment, killed the monster by the aid of a fort built for him by Athênê and the Trojans,[680] so as to rescue both the exposed maiden and the people; but Laomedôn, by a second act of perfidy, gave him mortal horses in place of the matchless animals which had been promised. Thus defrauded of his due, Hêraklês equipped six ships, attacked and captured Troy and killed Laomedôn,[681] giving Hesionê to his friend and auxiliary Telamôn, to whom she bore the celebrated archer Teukros.[682] A painful sense of this expedition was preserved among the inhabitants of the historical town of Ilium, who offered no worship to Hêraklês.[683]

[679] Iliad, vii. 451; xxi. 456. Hesiod. ap. Schol. Lycophr. 393.

[680] Iliad, xx. 145; Dionys. Hal. i. 52.

[681] Iliad, v. 640. Meneklês (ap. Schol. Venet. _ad loc._)
affirmed that this expedition of Hêraklês was a fiction; but
Dikæarchus gave, besides, other exploits of the hero in the same
neighborhood, at Thêbê Hypoplakiê (Schol. Iliad, vi. 396).

[682] Diodôr. iv. 32-49. Compare Venet. Schol. ad Iliad. viii.
284.

[683] Strabo, xiii. p. 596.

Among all the sons of Laomedôn, Priam[684] was the only one who had remonstrated against the refusal of the well-earned guerdon of Hêraklês; for which the hero recompensed him by placing him on the throne. Many and distinguished were his sons and daughters, as well by his wife Hekabê, daughter of Kisseus, as by other women.[685] Among the sons were Hectôr,[686] Paris, Dêiphobus, Helenus, Trôilus, Politês, Polydôrus; among the daughters Laodikê, Kreüsa, Polyxena, and Kassandra.

[684] As Dardanus, Trôs and Ilus are respectively eponyms of
Dardania, Troy and Ilium, so Priam is eponym of the acropolis
_Pergamum_. Πρίαμος is in the Æolic dialect Πέῤῥαμος (Hesychius):
upon which Ahrens remarks, “Cæterum ex hac Æolicâ nominis formâ
apparet, Priamum non minus arcis Περγάμων eponymum esse, quam
Ilum urbis, Troem populi: Πέργαμα enim a Περίαμα natum est, ι
in γ mutato.” (Ahrens, De Dialecto Æolicâ, 8, 7. p. 56: compare
_ibid._ 28, 8. p. 150, πεῤῥ᾽ ἁπάλω).

[685] Iliad, vi. 245; xxiv. 495.

[686] Hectôr was affirmed, both by Stesichorus and Ibykus, to be
the son of Apollo (Stesichorus, ap. Schol. Ven. ad Iliad. xxiv.
259; Ibyki Fragm. xiv. ed. Schneidewin): both Euphoriôn (Fr. 125,
Meineke) and Alexander Ætôlus follow the same idea. Stesichorus
further stated, that after the siege Apollo had carried Hekabê
away into Lykia to rescue her from captivity (Pausanias, x. 27,
1): according to Euripidês, Apollo had promised that she should
die in Troy (Troad. 427).

By Sapphô, Hectôr was given as a surname of Zeus, Ζεὺς Ἕκτωρ
(Hesychius, v. Ἕκτορες); a prince belonging to the regal family
of Chios, anterior to the Ionic settlement, as mentioned by the
Chian poet Iôn (Pausan. vii. 3, 3), was so called.

The birth of Paris was preceded by formidable presages; for Hekabê dreamt that she was delivered of a firebrand, and Priam, on consulting the soothsayers, was informed that the son about to be born would prove fatal to him. Accordingly he directed the child to be exposed on Mount Ida; but the inauspicious kindness of the gods preserved him, and he grew up amidst the flocks and herds, active and beautiful, fair of hair and symmetrical in person, and the special favorite of Aphroditê.[687]

[687] Iliad, iii. 45-55; Schol. Iliad. iii. 325; Hygin. fab. 91;
Apollodôr. iii. 12, 5.

It was to this youth, in his solitary shepherd’s walk on Mount Ida, that the three goddesses Hêrê, Athênê, and Aphroditê were conducted, in order that he might determine the dispute respecting their comparative beauty, which had arisen at the nuptials of Pêleus and Thetis,—a dispute brought about in pursuance of the arrangement, and in accomplishment of the deep-laid designs, of Zeus. For Zeus, remarking with pain the immoderate numbers of the then existing heroic race, pitied the earth for the overwhelming burden which she was compelled to bear, and determined to lighten it by exciting a destructive and long-continued war.[688] Paris awarded the palm of beauty to Aphroditê, who promised him in recompense the possession of Helena, wife of the Spartan Menelaus,—the daughter of Zeus and the fairest of living women. At the instance of Aphroditê, ships were built for him, and he embarked on the enterprise so fraught with eventual disaster to his native city, in spite of the menacing prophecies of his brother Helenus, and the always neglected warnings of Kassandra.[689]

[688] This was the motive assigned to Zeus by the old epic poem,
the Cyprian Verses (Frag. 1. Düntz. p. 12; ap. Schol. ad Iliad.
i. 4):—

Ἡ δὲ ἱστορία παρὰ Στασίνῳ τῷ τὰ Κύπρια πεποιηκότι εἰπόντι οὕτως·

Ἦν ὅτε μύρια φῦλα κατὰ χθόνα πλαζόμενα ...
... βαρυστέρνου πλάτος αἴης.
Ζεὺς δὲ ἰδὼν ἐλέησε, καὶ ἐν πυκιναῖς πραπίδεσσι
Σύνθετο κουφίσαι ἀνθρώπων παμβώτορα γαῖαν,
Ῥιπίσας πολέμου μεγάλην ἔριν Ἰλιακοῖο,
Ὄφρα κενώσειεν θάνατῳ βάρος· οἱ δ᾽ ἐνὶ Τροίῃ
Ἥρωες κτείνοντο, Διὸς δ᾽ ἐτελείετο βουλή.

The same motive is touched upon by Eurip. Orest, 1635; Helen.
38; and seriously maintained, as it seems, by Chrysippus, ap.
Plutarch. Stoic. Rep. p. 1049: but the poets do not commonly go
back farther than the passion of Paris for Helen (Theognis, 1232;
Simonid. Amorg. Fragm. 6, 118).

The judgment of Paris was one of the scenes represented on the
ancient chest of Kypselus at Olympia (Pausan. v. 19, 1).

[689] Argument of the Ἔπη Κύπρια (ap. Düntzer, p. 10). These
warnings of Kassandra form the subject of the obscure and
affected poem of Lycophrôn.

Paris, on arriving at Sparta, was hospitably entertained by Menelaus as well as by Kastôr and Pollux, and was enabled to present the rich gifts which he had brought to Helen.[690] Menelaus then departed to Krête, leaving Helen to entertain his Trojan guest—a favorable moment which was employed by Aphroditê to bring about the intrigue and the elopement. Paris carried away with him both Helen and a large sum of money belonging to Menelaus—made a prosperous voyage to Troy—and arrived there safely with his prize on the third day.[691]

[690] According to the Cyprian Verses, Helena was daughter of
Zeus by Nemesis, who had in vain tried to evade the connection
(Athenæ. viii. 334). Hesiod (Schol. Pindar. Nem. x. 150)
represented her as daughter of Oceanus and Têthys, an oceanic
nymph: Sapphô (Fragm. 17, Schneidewin), Pausanias (i. 33, 7),
Apollodôrus (iii. 10, 7), and Isokratês (Encom. Helen. v. ii. p.
366, Auger) reconcile the pretensions of Lêda and Nemesis to a
sort of joint maternity (see Heinrichsen, De Carminibus Cypriis,
p. 45-46).

[691] Herodot. ii. 117. He gives distinctly the assertion of
the Cyprian Verses, which contradicts the argument of the poem
as it appears in Proclus (Fragm. 1, 1), according to which
latter, Paris is driven out of his course by a storm and captures
the city of Sidôn. Homer (Iliad, vi. 293) seems however to
countenance the statement in the argument.

That Paris was guilty of robbery, as well as of the abduction of
Helen, is several times mentioned in the Iliad (iii. 144; vii.
350-363), also in the argument of the Cyprian Verses (see Æschyl.
Agam. 534).

Menelaus, informed by Iris in Krête of the perfidious return made by Paris for his hospitality, hastened home in grief and indignation to consult with his brother Agamemnôn, as well as with the venerable Nestôr, on the means of avenging the outrage. They made known the event to the Greek chiefs around them, among whom they found universal sympathy: Nestôr, Palamêdês and others went round to solicit aid in a contemplated attack of Troy, under the command of Agamemnôn, to whom each chief promised both obedience and unwearied exertion until Helen should be recovered.[692] Ten years were spent in equipping the expedition. The goddesses Hêrê and Athênê, incensed at the preference given by Paris to Aphroditê, and animated by steady attachment to Argos, Sparta and Mykênæ, took an active part in the cause; and the horses of Hêrê were fatigued with her repeated visits to the different parts of Greece.[693]

[692] The ancient epic (Schol. ad Il. ii. 286-339) does not
recognize the story of the numerous suitors of Helen, and
the oath by which Tyndareus bound them all before he made
the selection among them, that each should swear not only to
acquiesce, but even to aid in maintaining undisturbed possession
to the husband whom she should choose. This story seems to have
been first told by Stesichorus (see Fragm. 20. ed. Kleine;
Apollod. iii. 10, 8). Yet it was evidently one of the prominent
features of the current legend in the time of Thucydidês (i. 9;
Euripid. Iphig. Aul. 51-80; Soph. Ajax, 1100).

The exact spot in which Tyndareus exacted this oath from the
suitors, near Sparta, was pointed out even in the time of
Pausanias (iii. 20, 9).

[693] Iliad, iv. 27-55; xxiv. 765. Argument. Carm. Cypri. The
point is emphatically touched upon by Dio Chrysostom (Orat.
xi. p. 335-336) in his assault upon the old legend. Two years’
preparation—in Dictys Cret. i. 16.

By such efforts a force was at length assembled at Aulis[694] in Bœôtia, consisting of 1186 ships and more than 100,000 men,—a force outnumbering by more than ten to one anything that the Trojans themselves could oppose, and superior to the defenders of Troy even with all her allies included.[695] It comprised heroes with their followers from the extreme points of Greece—from the north-western portions of Thessaly under Mount Olympus, as well as the western islands of Dulichium and Ithaca, and the eastern islands of Krête and Rhodes. Agamemnôn himself contributed 100 ships manned with the subjects of his kingdom of Mykênæ, besides furnishing 60 ships to the Arcadians, who possessed none of their own. Menelaus brought with him 60 ships, Nestôr from Pylus 90, Idomeneus from Krête and Diomêdês from Argos 80 each. Forty ships were manned by the Eleians, under four different chiefs; the like number under Megês from Dulichium and the Echinades, and under Thoas from Kalydôn and the other Ætôlian towns. Odysseus from Ithaca, and Ajax from Salamis, brought 12 ships each. The Abantes from Eubœa, under Elephênôr, filled 40 vessels; the Bœôtians, under Peneleôs and Lêitus, 50; the inhabitants of Orchomenos and Aspledôn, 30; the light-armed Locrians, under Ajax son of Oileus,[696] 40; the Phôkians as many. The Athenians, under Menestheus, a chief distinguished for his skill in marshalling an army, mustered 50 ships; the Myrmidons from Phthia and Hellas, under Achilles, assembled in 50 ships; Protesilaus from Phylakê and Pyrasus, and Eurypylus from Ormenium, each came with 40 ships; Machaôn and Podaleirius, from Trikka, with 30; Admêtus, from Pheræ and the lake Bœbêis, with 11; and Philoktêtês from Melibœa with 7: the Lapithæ, under Polypœtês, son of Peirithous, filled 40 vessels; the Ænianes and Perrhæbians, under Guneus,[697] 22; and the Magnêtês under Prothous, 40; these last two were from the northernmost parts of Thessaly, near the mountains Pêlion and Olympus. From Rhodes, under Tlêpolemus, son of Hêraklês, appeared 9 ships; from Symê under the comely but effeminate Nireus, 3; from Kôs, Krapathus and the neighboring islands, 30, under the orders of Pheidippus and Antiphus, sons of Thessalus and grandsons of Hêraklês.[698]

[694] The Spartan king Agesilaus, when about to start from Greece
on his expedition into Asia Minor (396 B. C.) went to Aulis
personally, in order that he too might sacrifice on the spot
where Agamemnôn had sacrificed when he sailed for Troy (Xenoph.
Hellen. iii. 4, 4).

Skylax (c. 60) notices the ἱερὸν at Aulis, and nothing else: it
seems to have been like the adjoining Delium, a temple with a
small village grown up around it.

Aulis is recognized as the port from which the expedition
started, in the Hesiodic Works and Days (v. 650).

[695] Iliad, ii. 128. Uschold (Geschichte des Trojanischen
Kriegs, p. 9, Stutgart 1836) makes the total 135,000 men.

[696] The Hesiodic Catalogue notices Oileus, or Ileus, with a
singular etymology of his name (Fragm. 136, ed. Marktscheffel).

[697] Γουνεὺς is the Heros Eponymus of the town of Gonnus in
Thessaly; the duplication of the consonant and shortening of the
vowel belong to the Æolic dialect (Ahrens, De Dialect. Æolic. 50,
4. p. 220).

[698] See the Catalogue in the second book of the Iliad. There
must probably have been a Catalogue of the Greeks also in
the Cyprian Verses; for a Catalogue of the allies of Troy is
specially noticed in the Argument of Proclus (p. 12. Düntzer).

Euripidês (Iphig. Aul. 165-300) devotes one of the songs of the
Chorus to a partial Catalogue of the chief heroes.

According to Dictys Cretensis, all the principal heroes engaged
in the expedition were kinsmen, all Pelopids (i. 14): they take
an oath not to lay down their arms until Helen shall have been
recovered, and they receive from Agamemnôn a large sum of gold.

Among this band of heroes were included the distinguished warriors Ajax and Diomêdês, and the sagacious Nestôr; while Agamemnôn himself, scarcely inferior to either of them in prowess, brought with him a high reputation for prudence in command. But the most marked and conspicuous of all were Achilles and Odysseus; the former a beautiful youth born of a divine mother, swift in the race, of fierce temper and irresistible might; the latter not less efficient as an ally from his eloquence, his untiring endurance, his inexhaustible resources under difficulty, and the mixture of daring courage with deep-laid cunning which never deserted him:[699] the blood of the arch-deceiver Sisyphus, through an illicit connection with his mother Antikleia, was said to flow in his veins,[700] and he was especially patronized and protected by the goddess Athênê. Odysseus, unwilling at first to take part in the expedition, had even simulated insanity; but Palamêdês, sent to Ithaca to invite him, tested the reality of his madness by placing in the furrow where Odysseus was ploughing, his infant son Telemachus. Thus detected, Odysseus could not refuse to join the Achæan host, but the prophet Halithersês predicted to him that twenty years would elapse before he revisited his native land.[701] To Achilles the gods had promised the full effulgence of heroic glory before the walls of Troy; nor could the place be taken without both his coöperation and that of his son after him. But they had forewarned him that this brilliant career would be rapidly brought to a close; and that if he desired a long life, he must remain tranquil and inglorious in his native land. In spite of the reluctance of his mother Thetis, he preferred few years with bright renown, and joined the Achæan host.[702] When Nestôr and Odysseus came to Phthia to invite him, both he and his intimate friend Patroclus eagerly obeyed the call.[703]

[699] For the character of Odysseus, Iliad, iii. 202-220; x. 247.
Odyss. xiii. 295.

The Philoktêtês of Sophoklês carries out very justly the
character of the Homeric Odysseus (see v. 1035)—more exactly than
the Ajax of the same poet depicts it.

[700] Sophokl. Philoktêt. 417, and Schol.—also Schol. ad Soph.
Ajac. 190.

[701] Homer, Odyss. xxiv. 115; Æschyl. Agam. 841; Sophokl.
Philoktêt. 1011, with the Schol. Argument of the Cypria in
Heinrichsen, De Carmin. Cypr. p. 23 (the sentence is left out in
Düntzer, p. 11).

A lost tragedy of Sophoklês, Ὀδυσσεὺς Μαινόμενος, handled this
subject.

Other Greek chiefs were not less reluctant than Odysseus to take
part in the expedition: see the tale of Pœmandrus, forming a
part of the temple-legend of the Achilleium at Tanagra in Bϙtia
(Plutarch, Quæstion. Græc. p. 299).

[702] Iliad, i. 352; ix. 411.

[703] Iliad, xi. 782.

Agamemnôn and his powerful host set sail from Aulis; but being ignorant of the locality and the direction, they landed by mistake in Teuthrania, a part of Mysia near the river Kaïkus, and began to ravage the country under the persuasion that it was the neighborhood of Troy. Telephus, the king of the country,[704] opposed and repelled them, but was ultimately defeated and severely wounded by Achilles. The Greeks now, discovering their mistake, retired; but their fleet was dispersed by a storm and driven back to Greece. Achilles attacked and took Skyrus, and there married Deidamia, the daughter of Lycomêdês.[705] Telephus, suffering from his wounds, was directed by the oracle to come to Greece and present himself to Achilles to be healed, by applying the scrapings of the spear with which the wound had been given: thus restored, he became the guide of the Greeks when they were prepared to renew their expedition.[706]

[704] Telephus was the son of Augê, daughter of king Aleus
of Tegea in Arcadia, by Hêraklês: respecting her romantic
adventures, see the previous chapter on Arcadian legends—Strabo’s
faith in the story (xii. p. 572).

The spot called the Harbor of the Achæans, near Gryneium, was
stated to be the place where Agamemnôn and the chiefs took
counsel whether they should attack Telephus or not (Skylax, c.
97; compare Strabo, xiv. p. 622).

[705] Iliad, xi. 664; Argum. Cypr. p. 11, Düntzer; Diktys Cret.
ii. 3-4.

[706] Euripid. Telephus, Frag. 26, Dindorf; Hygin. f. 101;
Diktys, ii. 10. Euripidês had treated the adventure of Telephus
in this lost tragedy: he gave the miraculous cure with the dust
of the spear, πριστοῖσι λογχῆς θέλγεται ῥινήμασι. Diktys softens
down the prodigy: “Achilles cum Machaone et Podalirio adhibeutes
curam vulneri,” etc. Pliny (xxxiv. 15) gives to the rust of brass
or iron a place in the list of genuine remedies.

“Longe omnino a Tiberi ad Caicum: quo in loco etiam Agamemnôn
errasset, nisi ducem Telephum invenisset” (Cicero, Pro L. Flacco,
c. 29). The portions of the Trojan legend treated in the lost
epics and the tragedians, seem to have been just as familiar to
Cicero as those noticed in the Iliad.

Strabo pays comparatively little attention to any portion of the
Trojan war except what appears in Homer. He even goes so far as
to give a reason why the Amazons _did not_ come to the aid of
Priam: they were at enmity with him, because Priam had aided
the Phrygians against them (Iliad, iii. 188: in Strabo, τοῖς
Ἰῶσιν must be a mistake for τοῖς Φρυξίν). Strabo can hardly have
read, and never alludes to, Arktinus; in whose poem the brave
and beautiful Penthesileia, at the head of her Amazons, forms a
marked epoch and incident of the war (Strabo, xii. 552).

The armament was again assembled at Aulis, but the goddess Artemis, displeased with the boastful language of Agamemnôn, prolonged the duration of adverse winds, and the offending chief was compelled to appease her by the well-known sacrifice of his daughter Iphigeneia.[707] They then proceeded to Tenedos, from whence Odysseus and Menelaus were despatched as envoys to Troy, to redemand Helen and the stolen property. In spite of the prudent counsels of Antenôr, who received the two Grecian chiefs with friendly hospitality, the Trojans rejected the demand, and the attack was resolved upon. It was foredoomed by the gods that the Greek who first landed should perish: Protesilaus was generous enough to put himself upon this forlorn hope, and accordingly fell by the hand of Hectôr.

[707] Nothing occurs in Homer respecting the sacrifice of
Iphigeneia (see Schol. Ven. ad Il. ix. 145).

Meanwhile the Trojans had assembled a large body of allies from various parts of Asia Minor and Thrace: Dardanians under Æneas, Lykians under Sarpedôn, Mysians, Karians, Mæonians, Alizonians,[708] Phrygians, Thracians, and Pæonians.[709] But vain was the attempt to oppose the landing of the Greeks: the Trojans were routed, and even the invulnerable Cycnus,[710] son of Poseidôn, one of the great bulwarks of the defence, was slain by Achilles. Having driven the Trojans within their walls, Achilles attacked and stormed Lyrnêssus, Pêdasus, Lesbos and other places in the neighborhood, twelve towns on the sea-coast and eleven in the interior; he drove off the oxen of Æneas and pursued the hero himself, who narrowly escaped with his life: he surprised and killed the youthful Trôilus, son of Priam, and captured several of the other sons, whom he sold as prisoners into the islands of the Ægean.[711] He acquired as his captive the fair Brisêis, while Chrysêis was awarded to Agamemnôn: he was moreover eager to see the divine Helen, the prize and stimulus of this memorable struggle; and Aphroditê and Thetis contrived to bring about an interview between them.[712]

[708] No portion of the Homeric Catalogue gave more trouble
to Dêmêtrius of Skêpsis and the other expositors than these
Alizonians (Strabo, xii. p. 549; xiii. p. 603): a fictitious
place called Alizonium, in the region of Ida, was got up to meet
the difficulty (εἶτ᾽ Ἀλιζώνιον, τοῦτ᾽ ἤδη ~πεπλασμένον~ πρὸς τὴν
τῶν Ἀλιζώνων ὑπόθεσιν, etc., Strabo, _l. c._).

[709] See the Catalogue of the Trojans (Iliad, ii. 815-877).

[710] Cycnus was said by later writers to be king of Kolônæ
in the Troad (Strabo, xiii. p. 589-603; Aristotel. Rhetoric.
ii. 23). Æschylus introduced upon the Attic stage both Cycnus
and Memnôn in terrific equipments (Aristophan. Ran. 957. Οὐδ᾽
ἐξέπληττον αὐτοὺς Κύκνους ἄγων καὶ Μέμνονας κωδωνοφαλαροπώλους).
Compare Welcker, Æschyl. Trilogie, p. 433.

[711] Iliad, xxiv. 752; Argument of the Cypria, pp. 11, 12,
Düntzer. These desultory exploits of Achilles furnished much
interesting romance to the later Greek poets (see Parthênius,
Narrat. 21). See the neat summary of the principal events of the
war in Quintus Smyrn. xiv. 125-140; Dio Chrysost. Or. xi. p.
338-342.

Trôilus is only once named in the Iliad (xxiv. 253); he was
mentioned also in the Cypria; but his youth, beauty, and untimely
end made him an object of great interest with the subsequent
poets. Sophoklês had a tragedy called _Trôilus_ (Welcker,
Griechisch. Tragöd. i. p. 124); Τὸν ἀνδρόπαιδα δεσπότην ἀπώλεσα,
one of the Fragm. Even earlier than Sophoklês, his beauty was
celebrated by the tragedian Phrynichus (Athenæ, xiii. p. 564;
Virgil, Æneid, i. 474; Lycophrôn, 307).

[712] Argument. Cypr. p. 11, Düntz. Καὶ μετὰ ταῦτα Ἀχιλλεὺς
Ἑλένην ἐπιθυμεῖ θεάσασθαι, καὶ συνήγαγον αὐτοὺς εἰς τὸ αὐτὸ
Ἀφροδίτη καὶ Θέτις. A scene which would have been highly
interesting in the hands of Homer.

At this period of the war the Grecian army was deprived of Palamêdês, one of its ablest chiefs. Odysseus had not forgiven the artifice by which Palamêdês had detected his simulated insanity, nor was he without jealousy of a rival clever and cunning in a degree equal, if not superior, to himself; one who had enriched the Greeks with the invention of letters, of dice for amusement, of night-watches, as well as with other useful suggestions. According to the old Cyprian epic, Palamêdês was drowned while fishing, by the hands of Odysseus and Diomêdês.[713] Neither in the Iliad nor the Odyssey does the name of Palamêdês occur: the lofty position which Odysseus occupies in both those poems—noticed with some degree of displeasure even by Pindar, who described Palamêdês as the wiser man of the two—is sufficient to explain the omission.[714] But in the more advanced period of the Greek mind, when intellectual superiority came to acquire a higher place in the public esteem as compared with military prowess, the character of Palamêdês, combined with his unhappy fate, rendered him one of the most interesting personages in the Trojan legend. Æschylus, Sophoklês and Euripidês each consecrated to him a special tragedy; but the mode of his death as described in the old epic was not suitable to Athenian ideas, and accordingly he was represented as having been falsely accused of treason by Odysseus, who caused gold to be buried in his tent, and persuaded Agamemnôn and the Grecian chiefs that Palamêdês had received it from the Trojans.[715] He thus forfeited his life, a victim to the calumny of Odysseus and to the delusion of the leading Greeks. In the last speech made by the philosopher Socratês to his Athenian judges, he alludes with solemnity and fellow-feeling to the unjust condemnation of Palamêdês, as analogous to that which he himself was about to suffer, and his companions seem to have dwelt with satisfaction on the comparison. Palamêdês passed for an instance of the slanderous enmity and misfortune which so often wait upon superior genius.[716]

[713] Argum. Cypr. 1. 1.; Pausan. x. 31. The concluding portion
of the Cypria seems to have passed under the title of Παλαμηδεία
(see Fragm. 16 and 18. p. 15, Düntz.; Welcker, Der Episch. Cycl.
p. 459; Eustath. ad Hom. Odyss. i. 107).

The allusion of Quintus Smyrnæus (v. 197) seems rather to point
to the story in the Cypria, which Strabo (viii. p. 368) appears
not to have read.

[714] Pindar, Nem. vii. 21; Aristidês, Orat. 46. p. 260.

[715] See the Fragments of the three tragedians,
Παλαμήδης—Aristeidês, Or. xlvi. p. 260; Philostrat. Heroic. x.;
Hygin. fab. 95-105. Discourses for and against Palamêdês, one
by Alkidamas, and one under the name of Gorgias, are printed in
Reiske’s Orr. Græc. t. viii. pp. 64, 102; Virgil, Æneid, ii. 82,
with the ample commentary of Servius—Polyæn. Proœ. p. 6.

Welcker (Griechisch. Tragöd. v. i. p. 130, vol. ii. p. 500)
has evolved with ingenuity the remaining fragments of the lost
tragedies.

According to Diktys, Odysseus and Diomêdês prevail upon Palamêdês
to be let down into a deep well, and then cast stones upon him
(ii. 15).

Xenophôn (De Venatione, c. 1) evidently recognizes the story
in the Cypria, that Odysseus and Diomêdês caused the death of
Palamêdês; but he _cannot_ believe that two such exemplary men
were really guilty of so iniquitous an act—κακοὶ δὲ ἔπραξαν τὸ
ἔργον.

One of the eminences near Napoli still bears the name of
_Palamidhi_.

[716] Plato, Apolog. Socr. c. 32; Xenoph. Apol. Socr. 26; Memor.
iv. 2, 33; Liban. pro Socr. p. 242, ed. Morell.; Lucian, Dial.
Mort 20.

In these expeditions the Grecian army consumed nine years, during which the subdued Trojans dared not give battle without their walls for fear of Achilles. Ten years was the fixed epical duration of the siege of Troy, just as five years was the duration of the siege of Kamikus by the Krêtan armament which came to avenge the death of Minôs:[717] ten years of preparation, ten years of siege, and ten years of wandering for Odysseus, were periods suited to the rough chronological dashes of the ancient epic, and suggesting no doubts nor difficulties with the original hearers. But it was otherwise when the same events came to be contemplated by the historicizing Greeks, who could not be satisfied without either finding or inventing satisfactory bonds of coherence between the separate events. Thucydidês tells us that the Greeks were less numerous than the poets have represented, and that being moreover very poor, they were unable to procure adequate and constant provisions: hence they were compelled to disperse their army, and to employ a part of it in cultivating the Chersonese,—a part in marauding expeditions over the neighborhood. Could the whole army have been employed against Troy at once (he says), the siege would have been much more speedily and easily concluded.[718] If the great historian could permit himself thus to amend the legend in so many points, we might have imagined that the simpler course would have been to include the duration of the siege among the list of poetical exaggerations, and to affirm that the real siege had lasted only one year instead of ten. But it seems that the ten years’ duration was so capital a feature in the ancient tale, that no critic ventured to meddle with it.

[717] Herodot. vii. 170. Ten years is a proper mythical period
for a great war to last: the war between the Olympic gods and the
Titan gods lasts ten years (Hesiod, Theogon. 636). Compare δεκάτῳ
ἐνιαυτῷ (Hom. Odyss. xvi. 17).

[718] Thucyd. i. 11.

A period of comparative intermission however was now at hand for the Trojans. The gods brought about the memorable fit of anger of Achilles, under the influence of which he refused to put on his armor, and kept his Myrmidons in camp. According to the Cypria, this was the behest of Zeus, who had compassion on the Trojans: according to the Iliad, Apollo was the originating cause,[719] from anxiety to avenge the injury which his priest Chrysês had endured from Agamemnôn. For a considerable time, the combats of the Greeks against Troy were conducted without their best warrior, and severe indeed was the humiliation which they underwent in consequence. How the remaining Grecian chiefs vainly strove to make amends for his absence—how Hectôr and the Trojans defeated and drove them to their ships—how the actual blaze of the destroying flame, applied by Hectôr to the ship of Protesilaus, roused up the anxious and sympathizing Patroclus, and extorted a reluctant consent from Achilles, to allow his friend and his followers to go forth and avert the last extremity of ruin—how Achilles, when Patroclus had been killed by Hectôr, forgetting his anger in grief for the death of his friend, reëntered the fight, drove the Trojans within their walls with immense slaughter, and satiated his revenge both upon the living and the dead Hectôr—all these events have been chronicled, together with those divine dispensations on which most of them are made to depend, in the immortal verse of the Iliad.

[719] Homer, Iliad, i. 21.

Homer breaks off with the burial of Hectôr, whose body has just been ransomed by the disconsolate Priam; while the lost poem of Arktinus, entitled the Æthiopis, so far as we can judge from the argument still remaining of it, handled only the subsequent events of the siege. The poem of Quintus Smyrnæus, composed about the fourth century of the Christian æra, seems in its first books to coincide with the Æthiopis, in the subsequent books partly with the Ilias Minor of Leschês.[720]

[720] Tychsen, Commentat. de Quinto Smyrnæo, § iii. c. 5-7. The
Ἰλίου Πέρσις was treated both by Arktinus and by Leschês: with
the latter it formed a part of the Ilias Minor.

The Trojans, dismayed by the death of Hectôr, were again animated with hope by the appearance of the warlike and beautiful queen of the Amazons, Penthesileia, daughter of Arês, hitherto invincible in the field, who came to their assistance from Thrace at the head of a band of her countrywomen. She again led the besieged without the walls to encounter the Greeks in the open field; and under her auspices the latter were at first driven back, until she too was slain by the invincible arm of Achilles. The victor, on taking off the helmet of his fair enemy as she lay on the ground, was profoundly affected and captivated by her charms, for which he was scornfully taunted by Thersitês: exasperated by this rash insult, he killed Thersitês on the spot with a blow of his fist. A violent dispute among the Grecian chiefs was the result, for Diomêdês, the kinsman of Thersitês, warmly resented the proceeding; and Achilles was obliged to go to Lesbus, where he was purified from the act of homicide by Odysseus.[721]

[721] Argument of the Æthiopis, p. 16, Düntzer; Quint. Smyrn.
lib. i.; Diktys Cret. iv. 2-3.

In the Philoktêtês, of Sophoklês, Thersitês survives Achilles
(Soph. Phil. 358-445).

Next arrived Memnôn, son of Tithônus and Eôs, the most stately of living men, with a powerful band of black Æthiopians, to the assistance of Troy. Sallying forth against the Greeks, he made great havoc among them: the brave and popular Antilochus perished by his hand, a victim to filial devotion in defence of Nestôr.[722] Achilles at length attacked him, and for a long time the combat was doubtful between them: the prowess of Achilles and the supplication of Thetis with Zeus finally prevailed; whilst Eôs obtained for her vanquished son the consoling gift of immortality. His tomb, however,[723] was shown near the Propontis, within a few miles of the mouth of the river Æsêpus, and was visited annually by the birds called Memnonides, who swept it and bedewed it with water from the stream. So the traveller Pausanias was told, even in the second century after the Christian æra, by the Hellespontine Greeks.

[722] Odyss. xi. 522. Κεῖνον δὴ κάλλιστον ἴδον, μετὰ Μέμνονα
δῖον: see also Odyss. iv. 187; Pindar, Pyth. vi. 31. Æschylus
(ap. Strabo. xv. p. 728) conceives Memnôn as a Persian starting
from Susa.

Ktêsias gave in his history full details respecting the
expedition of Memnôn, sent by the king of Assyria to the relief
of his dependent, Priam of Troy; all this was said to be recorded
in the royal archives. The Egyptians affirmed that Memnôn had
come from Egypt (Diodôr. ii. 22; compare iv. 77): the two stories
are blended together in Pausanias, x. 31, 2. The Phrygians
pointed out the road along which he had marched.

[723] Argum. Æth. _ut sup._; Quint. Smyrn. ii. 396-550; Pausan.
x. 31, 1. Pindar, in praising Achilles, dwells much on his
triumphs over Hectôr, Têlephus, Memnôn, and Cycnus, but never
notices Penthesileia (Olymp. ii. 90; Nem. iii. 60; vi. 52. Isthm.
v. 43).

Æschylus, in the Ψυχοστασία, introduced Thetis and Eôs, each in
an attitude of supplication for her son, and Zeus weighing in his
golden scales the souls of Achilles and Memnôn (Schol. Ven. ad
Iliad, viii. 70: Pollux, iv. 130; Plutarch, De Audiend. Poet. p.
17). In the combat between Achilles and Memnôn, represented on
the chest of Kypselus at Olympia, Thetis and Eôs were given each
as aiding her son (Pausan. v. 19, 1).

But the fate of Achilles himself was now at hand. After routing the Trojans and chasing them into the town, he was slain near the Skæan gate by an arrow from the quiver of Paris, directed under the unerring auspices of Apollo.[724] The greatest efforts were made by the Trojans to possess themselves of the body, which was however rescued and borne off to the Grecian camp by the valor of Ajax and Odysseus. Bitter was the grief of Thetis for the loss of her son: she came into the camp with the Muses and the Nêreids to mourn over him; and when a magnificent funeral-pile had been prepared by the Greeks to burn him with every mark of honor, she stole away the body and conveyed it to a renewed and immortal life in the island of Leukê in the Euxine Sea. According to some accounts he was there blest with the nuptials and company of Helen.[725]

[724] Iliad, xxii. 360; Sophokl. Philokt. 334; Virgil, Æneid, vi.
56.

[725] Argum. Æthiop. _ut sup._; Quint. Smyrn. 151-583; Homer,
Odyss. v. 310; Ovid, Metam. xiii. 284; Eurip. Androm. 1262;
Pausan. iii. 19, 13. According to Diktys (iv. 11), Paris and
Deiphobus entrap Achilles by the promise of an interview with
Polyxena and kill him.

A minute and curious description of the island Leukê, or Ἀχιλλέως
νῆσος, is given in Arrian (Periplus, Pont. Euxin. p. 21; ap.
Geogr. Min. t. 1).

The heroic or divine empire of Achilles in Scythia was recognized
by Alkæus the poet (Alkæi Fragm. Schneidew. Fr. 46), Ἀχιλλεῦ, ὃς
γᾶς Σκυθικᾶς μέδεις. Eustathius (ad Dionys. Periêgêt. 307) gives
the story of his having followed Iphigeneia thither: compare
Antonin. Liberal. 27.

Ibykus represented Achilles as having espoused Mêdea in the
Elysian Field (Idyk. Fragm. 18. Schneidewin). Simonidês followed
this story (ap. Schol. Apoll. Rhod. iv. 815).

Thetis celebrated splendid funeral games in honor of her son, and offered the unrivalled panoply, which Hêphæstos had forged and wrought for him, as a prize to the most distinguished warrior in the Grecian army. Odysseus and Ajax became rivals for the distinction, when Athênê, together with some Trojan prisoners, who were asked from which of the two their country had sustained greatest injury, decided in favor of the former. The gallant Ajax lost his senses with grief and humiliation: in a fit of phrenzy he slew some sheep, mistaking them for the men who had wronged him, and then fell upon his own sword.[726]

[726] Argument of Æthiopis and Ilias Minor, and Fragm. 2 of the
latter, pp. 17, 18, Düntz.; Quint. Smyrn. v. 120-482; Hom. Odyss.
xi. 550; Pindar, Nem. vii. 26. The Ajax of Sophoklês, and the
contending speeches between Ajax and Ulysses in the beginning of
the thirteenth book of Ovid’s Metamorphoses, are too well known
to need special reference.

The suicide of Ajax seems to have been described in detail in
the Æthiopis: compare Pindar. Isthm. iii. 51, and the Scholia
_ad loc._, which show the attention paid by Pindar to the minute
circumstances of the old epic. See Fragm. 2 of the Ἰλίου Πέρσις
of Arktinus, in Düntz. p. 22, which would seem more properly to
belong to the Æthiopis. Diktys relates the suicide of Ajax, as a
consequence of his unsuccessful competition with Odysseus, not
about the arms of Achilles, but about the Palladium, after the
taking of the city (v. 14).

There were, however, many different accounts of the manner in
which Ajax had died, some of which are enumerated in the argument
to the drama of Sophoklês. Ajax is never wounded in the Iliad:
Æschylus made him invulnerable except under the armpits (see
Schol. ad Sophok. Ajac. 833); the Trojans pelted him with mud—εἴ
πως βαρηθείῃ ὑπὸ τοῦ πήλου (Schol. Iliad. xiv. 404).

Odysseus now learnt from Helenus son of Priam, whom he had captured in an ambuscade,[727] that Troy could not be taken unless both Philoktêtês, and Neoptolemus, son of Achilles, could be prevailed upon to join the besiegers. The former, having been stung in the foot by a serpent, and becoming insupportable to the Greeks from the stench of his wound, had been left at Lemnus in the commencement of the expedition, and had spent ten years[728] in misery on that desolate island; but he still possessed the peerless bow and arrows of Hêraklês, which were said to be essential to the capture of Troy. Diomêdês fetched Philoktêtês from Lemnus to the Grecian camp, where he was healed by the skill of Machaôn,[729] and took an active part against the Trojans—engaging in single combat with Paris, and killing him with one of the Hêrakleian arrows. The Trojans were allowed to carry away for burial the body of this prince, the fatal cause of all their sufferings; but not until it had been mangled by the hand of Menelaus.[730] Odysseus went to the island of Skyrus to invite Neoptolemus to the army. The untried but impetuous youth gladly obeyed the call, and received from Odysseus his father’s armor, while on the other hand, Eurypylus, son of Têlephus, came from Mysia as auxiliary to the Trojans and rendered to them valuable service—turning the tide of fortune for a time against the Greeks, and killing some of their bravest chiefs, amongst whom was numbered Peneleôs, and the unrivalled leech Machaôn.[731] The exploits of Neoptolemus were numerous, worthy of the glory of his race and the renown of his father. He encountered and slew Eurypylus, together with numbers of the Mysian warriors: he routed the Trojans and drove them within their walls, from whence they never again emerged to give battle: nor was he less distinguished for his good sense and persuasive diction, than for forward energy in the field.[732]

[727] Soph. Philokt. 604.

[728] Soph. Philokt. 703. Ὦ μελέα ψυχὰ, Ὃς μηδ᾽ οἰνοχύτου πόματος
Ἥσθη δεκετῆ χρόνον, etc.

In the narrative of Diktys (ii. 47), Philoktêtês returns from
Lemnus to Troy much earlier in the war before the death of
Achilles, and without any assigned cause.

[729] According to Sophoklês, Hêraklês sends Asklêpius to Troy to
heal Philoktêtês (Soph. Philokt. 1415).

The subject of Philoktêtês formed the subject of a tragedy both
by Æschylus and by Euripidês (both lost) as well as by Sophoklês.

[730] Argument. Iliad. Minor. Düntz. _l. c._ Καὶ τὸν νεκρὸν
ὑπὸ Μενελάου καταικισθέντα ἀνελόμενοι θάπτουσιν οἱ Τρῶες. See
Quint. Smyrn. x. 240: he differs here in many respects from the
arguments of the old poems as given by Proclus, both as to the
incidents and as to their order in time (Diktys, iv. 20). The
wounded Paris flees to Œnônê, whom he had deserted in order
to follow Helen, and entreats her to cure him by her skill in
simples: she refuses, and permits him to die; she is afterwards
stung with remorse, and hangs herself (Quint. Smyrn. x. 285-331;
Apollodôr. iii. 12, 6; Conôn. Narrat. 23; see Bachet de Meziriac,
Comment. sur les Epîtres d’Ovide, t. i. p. 456). The story of
Œnônê is as old as Hellanikus and Kephalôn of Gergis (see Hellan.
Fragm. 126, Didot).

[731] To mark the way in which these legendary events pervaded
and became embodied in the local worship, I may mention the
received practice in the great temple of Asklêpius (father of
Machaôn) at Pergamus, even in the time of Pausanias. Têlephus,
father of Eurypylus, was the local hero and mythical king of
Teuthrania, in which Pergamus was situated. In the hymns there
sung, the poem and the invocation were addressed to Têlephus; but
nothing was said in them about Eurypylus, nor was it permitted
even to mention his name in the temple,—“they knew him to be
the slayer of Machaôn:” ἄρχονται μὲν ἀπὸ Τηλέφου τῶν ὕμνων,
προσᾴδουσι δὲ οὐδὲν ἐς τὸν Εὐρύπυλον, οὐδὲ ἀρχὴν ἐν τῷ ναῷ
θέλουσιν ὀνομάζειν αὐτὸν, οἷα ἐπιστάμενοι φονέα ὄντα Μαχάονος
(Pausan. iii. 26, 7).

The combination of these qualities in other Homeric chiefs is
noted in a subsequent chapter of his work, ch. xx. vol. ii.

[732] Argument. Iliad. Minor. p. 17, Düntzer. Homer, Odyss. xi.
510-520. Pausan. iii. 26, 7. Quint. Smyrn. vii. 553; viii. 201.

Troy however was still impregnable so long as the Palladium, a statue given by Zeus himself to Dardanus, remained in the citadel; and great care had been taken by the Trojans not only to conceal this valuable present, but to construct other statues so like it as to mislead any intruding robber. Nevertheless the enterprising Odysseus, having disguised his person with miserable clothing and self-inflicted injuries, found means to penetrate into the city and to convey the Palladium by stealth away: Helen alone recognized him; but she was now anxious to return to Greece, and even assisted Odysseus in concerting means for the capture of the town.[733]

[733] Argument. Iliad. Minor, p. 18, Düntz.; _Arktinus_ ap.
Dionys. Hal. i. 69; Homer, Odyss. iv. 246; Quint. Smyrn. x. 354:
Virgil, Æneid, ii. 164, and the 9th Excursus of Heyne on that
book.

Compare with this legend about the Palladium, the Roman legend
respecting the Ancylia (Ovid, Fasti, III. 381).

To accomplish this object, one final stratagem was resorted to. By the hands of Epeius of Panopeus, and at the suggestion of Athênê, a capacious hollow wooden horse was constructed, capable of containing one hundred men: the _élite_ of the Grecian heroes, Neoptolemus, Odysseus, Menelaus and others, concealed themselves in the inside of it, and the entire Grecian army sailed away to Tenedos, burning their tents and pretending to have abandoned the siege. The Trojans, overjoyed to find themselves free, issued from the city and contemplated with astonishment the fabric which their enemies had left behind: they long doubted what should be done with it; and the anxious heroes from within heard the surrounding consultations, as well as the voice of Helen when she pronounced their names and counterfeited the accents of their wives.[734] Many of the Trojans were anxious to dedicate it to the gods in the city as a token of gratitude for their deliverance; but the more cautious spirits inculcated distrust of an enemy’s legacy; and Laocoôn, the priest of Poseidôn, manifested his aversion by striking the side of the horse with his spear. The sound revealed that the horse was hollow, but the Trojans heeded not this warning of possible fraud; and the unfortunate Laocoôn, a victim to his own sagacity and patriotism, miserably perished before the eyes of his countrymen, together with one of his sons,—two serpents being sent expressly by the gods out of the sea to destroy him. By this terrific spectacle, together with the perfidious counsels of Sinon, a traitor whom the Greeks had left behind for the special purpose of giving false information, the Trojans were induced to make a breach in their own walls, and to drag the fatal fabric with triumph and exultation into their city.[735]

[734] Odyss. iv. 275; Virgil, Æneid, ii. 14; Heyne, Excurs. 3. ad
Æneid. ii. Stesichorus, in his Ἰλίου Πέρσις, gave the number of
heroes in the wooden horse as one hundred (Stesichor. Fragm. 26,
ed. Kleine; compare Athenæ. xiii. p. 610).

[735] Odyss. viii. 492; xi. 522. Argument of the Ἰλίου Πέρσις
of Arktinus, p. 21. Düntz. Hydin. f. 108-135. Bacchylidês and
Euphorion ap. Servium ad Virgil. Æneid. ii. 201.

Both Sinon and Laocoôn came originally from the old epic poem of
Arktinus, though Virgil may perhaps have immediately borrowed
both them, and other matters in his second book, from a poem
passing under the name of Pisander (see Macrob. Satur. v. 2;
Heyne, Excurs. 1. ad Æn. ii.; Welcker, Der Episch. Kyklus, v.
97). We cannot give credit either to Arktinus or Pisander for the
masterly specimen of oratory which is put into the mouth of Sinon
in the Æneid.

In Quintus Smyrnæus (xii. 366), the Trojans torture and mutilate
Sinon to extort from him the truth: his endurance, sustained
by the inspiration of Hêrê, is proof against the extremity of
suffering, and he adheres to his false tale. This is probably an
incident of the old epic, though the delicate taste of Virgil,
and his sympathy with the Trojans, has induced him to omit it.
Euphorion ascribed the proceedings of Sinon to Odysseus: he also
gave a different cause for the death of Laocoôn (Fr. 33-36. p.
55, ed. Düntz., in the Fragments of Epic Poets after Alexander
the Great). Sinon is ἐταῖρος Ὀδυσσέως in Pausan. x. 27, 1.

The destruction of Troy, according to the decree of the gods, was now irrevocably sealed. While the Trojans indulged in a night of riotous festivity, Sinon kindled the fire-signal to the Greeks at Tenedos, loosening the bolts of the wooden horse, from out of which the enclosed heroes descended. The city, assailed both from within and from without, was thoroughly sacked and destroyed, with the slaughter or captivity of the larger portion of its heroes as well as its people. The venerable Priam perished by the hand of Neoptolemus, having in vain sought shelter at the domestic altar of Zeus Herkeios; but his son Deiphobus, who since the death of Paris had become the husband of Helen, defended his house desperately against Odysseus and Menelaus, and sold his life dearly. After he was slain, his body was fearfully mutilated by the latter.[736]

[736] Odyss. viii. 515; Argument of Arktinas, _ut sup._; Euripid.
Hecub. 903; Virg. Æn. vi. 497; Quint. Smyrn. xiii. 35-229;
Leschês ap. Pausan. x. 27, 2; Diktys, v. 12. Ibykus and Simonidês
also represented Deiphobus as the ἀντεράστης Ἑλένης (Schol. Hom.
Iliad. xiii. 517).

The night-battle in the interior of Troy was described with all
its fearful details both by Leschês and Arktinus: the Ἰλίου
Πέρσις of the latter seems to have been a separate poem, that of
the former constituted a portion of the Ilias Minor (see Welcker,
Der Epische Kyklus, p. 215): the Ἰλίου Πέρσις by the lyric poets
Sakadas and Stesichorus probably added many new incidents.
Polygnôtus had painted a succession of the various calamitous
scenes, drawn from the poem of Leschês, on the walls of the
leschê at Delphi, with the name written over each figure (Pausan.
x. 25-26).

Hellanikus fixed the precise day of the month on which the
capture took place (Hellan. Fr. 143-144), the twelfth day of
Thargeliôn.

Thus was Troy utterly destroyed—the city, the altars and temples,[737] and the population. Æneas and Antenôr were permitted to escape, with their families, having been always more favorably regarded by the Greeks than the remaining Trojans. According to one version of the story, they had betrayed the city to the Greeks: a panther’s skin had been hung over the door of Antenôr’s house as a signal for the victorious besiegers to spare it in the general plunder.[738] In the distribution of the principal captives, Astyanax, the infant son of Hectôr, was cast from the top of the wall and killed, by Odysseus or Neoptolemus: Polyxena, the daughter of Priam, was immolated on the tomb of Achilles, in compliance with a requisition made by the shade of the deceased hero to his countrymen;[739] while her sister Kassandra was presented as a prize to Agamemnôn. She had sought sanctuary at the altar of Athênê, where Ajax, the son of Oileus, making a guilty attempt to seize her, had drawn both upon himself and upon the army the serious wrath of the goddess, insomuch that the Greeks could hardly be restrained from stoning him to death.[740] Andromachê and Helenus were both given to Neoptolemus, who, according to the Ilias Minor, carried away also Æneas as his captive.[741]

[737] Æschyl. Agamemn. 527.—

Βωμοὶ δ᾽ ἄϊστοι καὶ θεῶν ἱδρύματα,
Καὶ σπέρμα πάσης ἐξαπόλλυται χθονός.

[738] This symbol of treachery also figured in the picture of
Polygnôtus. A different story appears in Schol. Iliad. iii. 206.

[739] Euripid. Hecub. 38-114, and Troad. 716; Leschês ap. Pausan.
x. 25, 9; Virgil, Æneid, iii. 322, and Servius _ad loc._

A romantic tale is found in Diktys respecting the passion of
Achilles for Polyxena (iii. 2).

[740] Odyss. xi. 422. Arktinus, Argum. p. 21, Düntz. Theognis,
1232. Pausan. i. 15, 2; x. 26, 3; 31, 1. As an expiation of
this sin of their national hero, the Lokrians sent to Ilium
periodically some of their maidens, to do menial service in the
temple of Athênê (Plutarch. Ser. Numin. Vindict. p. 557, with the
citation from Euphorion or Kallimachus, Düntzer, Epicc. Vet. p.
118).