The Story of Troy Part 11

Meanwhile, on the plain before Troy Diomede still eagerly pursued aeneas, though knowing that the hero was under divine protection. Thrice did he rush on, and thrice did Apollo drive him back, but when he made the fourth attempt,

The archer of the skies, Apollo, thus With menacing words rebuked him: "Diomed, Beware; desist, nor think to make thyself The equal of a G.o.d. The deathless race Of G.o.ds is not as those who walk the earth."

BRYANT, _Iliad_, Book V.

Diomede shrank back, fearing the wrath of the Far-darter, and Apollo bore aeneas away, and set him down in his own temple in sacred Per'ga-mus, the citadel of Troy. There Diana and La-to'na, the mother of Apollo, healed his wound and restored his health and strength. Then Apollo begged Mars to a.s.sist the Trojans in the battle, and particularly to drive from the field the impious son of Tydeus, who had dared to attack the immortals with his spear, and would now fight even with Jupiter himself. The G.o.d of war consented, and a.s.suming the form of Ac'a-mas, a Thracian leader, he went through the Trojan ranks encouraging the chiefs to fight bravely.

"O sons of Priam, him who claims descent From Jupiter! how long will ye submit To see your people slaughtered by the Greeks?

Is it until the battle-storm shall reach Your city's stately portals?"

POPE, _Iliad_, Book V.

The hero Sarpedon also appealed to Hector, and then the Trojan commander in chief, leaping from his chariot, and brandishing his javelins, rushed among his troops exhorting them to battle.

Terrible The conflict that ensued. The men of Troy Made head against the Greeks: the Greeks stood firm, Nor ever thought of flight.

BRYANT, _Iliad_, Book V.

Soon, however, the Greeks were forced to fall back. Their great chiefs, Agamemnon and Menelaus, and the two Ajaxes and Ulysses, performed wondrous deeds of courage, slaying many Trojan warriors. But Minerva had left the field, and Mars was fighting on the Trojan side. aeneas, too, had returned to the battle with renewed strength and courage, and Hector and Sarpedon were in the front, dealing death among the enemy. The fierce G.o.d of war and mighty Hector fought side by side, and they slew numbers of Argive warriors.

Such destruction of her beloved Greeks was not pleasing to Juno, who was watching the conflict from her place on high Olympus, and she begged of Jupiter to permit her to drive Mars from the battle. Jupiter consented, but he advised her to intrust that work to Minerva, who had often before "brought grievous troubles on the G.o.d of war." Juno obeyed. Then the two G.o.ddesses, who had already mounted the queen of heaven's own grand chariot, glittering with gold and silver and bra.s.s, set out for the Grecian camp.

Eight brazen spokes in radiant order flame; The circles gold, of uncorrupted frame, Such as the heavens produce: and round the gold Two brazen rings of work divine were roll'd.

The bossy naves of solid silver shone; Braces of gold suspend the moving throne; The car, behind, an arching figure bore; The bending concave form'd an arch before.

Silver the beam, the extended yoke was gold, And golden reins the immortal coursers hold.

POPE, _Iliad_, Book V.

Riding in this magnificent chariot, driven by Juno herself, "midway between the earth and the starry heaven," the G.o.ddesses descended upon the plain of Troy, near where the Simois and the Scamander united their streams. There they alighted, and cast a dense mist around the chariot and the steeds to hide them from mortal view. Then they hastened to where the bravest of the Greek chiefs were standing around the warrior Diomede, Juno likening herself to the herald Sten'tor, who had a voice louder than the shout of fifty men.

Stentor the strong, endued with brazen lungs, Whose throat surpa.s.s'd the force of fifty tongues.

POPE, _Iliad_, Book V.

Appearing before the Greek chiefs in the form of the loud-voiced herald, the queen of heaven cried out in words of reproof:

"Shame upon you, Argives! You are heroes only in name. While the divine Achilles was with you, fighting at the front, the Trojans dared not advance beyond their gates, for they dreaded his mighty spear; but now they are almost at your ships."

Minerva, too, severely censured Diomede for holding back from the battle, but the warrior answered that it was by her command that he had refrained from attacking Mars. "You did not permit me," said he, "to fight with any of the G.o.ds except Venus."

"Fear not this Mars at all," answered Minerva, "nor any of the immortals. Come now and direct your steeds against the war G.o.d, and I will be with you." So saying, and putting on her head the helmet of Pluto, which made any person who wore it invisible, she mounted the chariot beside the brave Diomede, and, seizing the reins, drove rapidly to where the fierce Mars was slaying Greek warriors.

As soon as Mars beheld Diomede approaching, he rushed against him, and hurled his brazen spear; but Minerva grasped the weapon and turned it aside from the chariot. Diomede now thrust forward his lance, Minerva directing it, and adding her strength to give force to the blow. It pierced the loin of the war G.o.d, making a deep wound.

Mars bellows with the pain: Loud as the roar encountering armies yield, When shouting millions shake the thundering field.

Both armies start, and trembling gaze around; And earth and heaven rebellow to the sound.

POPE, _Iliad_, Book V.

The wounded G.o.d disappeared in a dark cloud, and, quickly ascending to Olympus, made bitter complaint to Jupiter against Minerva. But the king of heaven sternly reproved him, saying that he had brought his sufferings upon himself, for discord and wars were always his delight.

Nevertheless he ordered Pae'on, the physician of the G.o.ds, to heal the wound, which was immediately done.

Meanwhile Juno and Minerva returned to Olympus, Mars being removed from the battlefield. And now the fortune of war began to favor the Greeks.

The Trojans, no longer aided by a G.o.d fighting on their side, were driven back to their walls, and it seemed as if they were about to be totally defeated. In this perilous situation Helenus, the prophet and soothsayer, advised his brother Hector to go quickly into the city, and request their mother, the queen, to call together the matrons of Troy, and with them to offer up sacrifices and prayers in the temple of Minerva, begging the help and protection of that G.o.ddess. The advice seemed good to Hector. Leaping from his chariot, he went through the army bidding the warriors to fight bravely during his absence. Then he hastened to the city. At the Scaean Gate he was met by crowds of anxious wives and mothers and daughters, who eagerly inquired for their husbands, sons, and brothers.

He admonished all Duly to importune the G.o.ds in prayer, For woe, he said, was near to many a one.

BRYANT, _Iliad_, Book VI.

Arriving at the royal palace Hector was met by his mother, who offered him wine to refresh himself with. But the hero would not taste the liquor. "Do not ask me to drink wine, dear mother," he said, "for it would enfeeble me, and deprive me of my strength and valor."

"Inflaming wine, pernicious to mankind, Unnerves the limbs, and dulls the n.o.ble mind."

POPE, _Iliad_, Book VI.

Then Hector told his mother why he had come from the field of battle.

She gladly consented to do as her son requested, and so Queen Hecuba and the matrons of Troy went to the temple of Minerva, and prayed and offered sacrifices. But the G.o.ddess refused to hear their prayers, for she still hated the Trojans because of the never-forgotten judgment on Mount Ida.

Meantime the hero went to the palace of Paris, whom he found in his chamber, handling and preparing his armor, while Helen sat near him with her maids, directing their various tasks. Angry at seeing his brother thus engaged, instead of being in the front of the fight, Hector reproached him in sharp and bitter words.

"The people," said he, "are perishing, the conflict rages round the walls, and all on your account. Arise, then, and act, lest our city soon be in flames." Paris answered mildly, saying that he deserved his brother's censure, and promising that he would immediately repair to the field of battle.

Hector next proceeded to his own home to visit his dear wife, An-drom'a-che, and his infant son; "for I know not," said he, "whether I shall ever return to them again." Arriving at the palace, he learned from Andromache's maids that their mistress had just gone towards the city walls.

"To the lofty tower of Troy she went When it was told her that the Trojan troops Lost heart, and that the valor of the Greeks Prevailed. She now is hurrying toward the walls.

Like one distracted, with her son and nurse."

BRYANT, _Iliad_, Book VI.

Leaving the palace, Hector hastened through the city, and, arriving at the Scaean Gate, he there met Andromache and her nurse, the latter bearing in her arms the infant Sca-man'dri-us. His father had given the child this name, from the name of the river, but the people called him As-ty'a-nax, meaning "city-king." The lines in which Homer describes the interview which here took place between the n.o.ble Hector and his loving wife, are among the most beautiful of the whole Iliad. Andromache was a daughter of E-e'ti-on, king of Thebe, the town from which the maiden Chryseis was carried away. Eetion and all his family had been slain, with the exception of Andromache, who therefore had now neither parents nor brothers nor sisters. Of this she spoke in touching words, while entreating Hector to remain within the city and not again risk his life in battle.

"Too brave! thy valor yet will cause thy death: Thou hast no pity on thy tender child, Nor me, unhappy one, who soon must be Thy widow. All the Greeks will rush on thee To take thy life. A happier lot were mine, If I must lose thee, to go down to earth, For I shall have no hope when thou art gone,-- Nothing but sorrow. Father I have none, And no dear mother. Great Achilles slew My father when he sacked the populous town Of the Cilicians,--Thebe with high gates.

Hector, thou Art father and dear mother now to me, And brother and my youthful spouse besides.

In pity keep within the fortress here, Nor make thy child an orphan nor thy wife A widow."

BRYANT, _Iliad_, Book VI.

Hector was deeply moved by these words, but he could not think of deserting his brave companions.

"All this I bear in mind, dear wife; but I should stand Ashamed before the men and long-robed dames Of Troy, were I to keep aloof and shun The conflict, cowardlike. Not thus my heart Prompts me, for greatly have I learned to dare And strike among the foremost sons of Troy, Upholding my great father's fame and mine; Yet well in my undoubting mind I know The day shall come in which our sacred Troy, And Priam, and the people over whom Spear-bearing Priam rules, shall perish all."

BRYANT, _Iliad_, Book VI.

But it was not the dark prospect of his country's ruin that grieved the loving husband so much as the thought that his wife might some day be carried off as a slave by the conquering Greeks.

"But not the sorrows of the Trojan race, Nor those of Hecuba herself, nor those Of royal Priam, nor the woes that wait My brothers many and brave,--who all at last, Slain by the pitiless foe, shall lie in dust,-- Grieve me so much as thine, when some mailed Greek Shall lead thee weeping hence, and take from thee Thy day of freedom. . . . .

O let the earth Be heaped above my head in death before I hear thy cries as thou art borne away!"

BRYANT, _Iliad_, Book VI.