The Story of Troy Part 21

But soon their attention was attracted by the huge wooden horse, and they gathered about it, astonished at its great size, and wondering what it meant. Some thought that it meant evil to Troy, and advised that it should be burned; others proposed that it should be hauled into the city and placed within the citadel. La-oc'o-on, one of Priam's sons, who was also a priest of Apollo, cried out in a loud voice, warning the king and people against doing this. "Are you so foolish," he exclaimed, "as to suppose that the enemy are gone? Put no faith in this horse. Whatever it is, I fear the Greeks even when offering gifts."

"This hollow fabric either must enclose Within its blind recess, our secret foes; Or 'tis an engine raised above the town To overlook the walls, and then to batter down.

Somewhat is sure designed by fraud or force: Trust not their presents, nor admit the horse."

VERGIL.

Thus saying, Laoc.o.o.n hurled his spear against the side of the horse, and it sent forth a hollow sound like a deep groan. But at this moment a stranger, having the appearance of a Greek, was brought before the king.

Some Trojan shepherds, finding him loitering on the river bank, had made him prisoner. Being asked who he was and why he was there, he told an artful story. His name, he said, was Si'non, and he was a Greek. His countrymen, having decided to give up the war, resolved to offer one of themselves as a sacrifice to the G.o.ds, that they might get fair winds to return home, and they selected him to be the victim. To escape that terrible fate he concealed himself among the reeds by the side of the Scamander until the fleet departed. This was Sinon's account of himself. The Trojans believed it, and the prisoner was set free. But the king asked him to tell them about the wooden horse,--why it had been made, and left there upon the plain.

Then Sinon told another false story. He said that the horse was a peace offering to Minerva, who had been angry because the Palladium was taken from Troy. For that insult to her, the G.o.ddess commanded the Greeks to return to their own country, and Calchas ordered them to build the horse as an atonement for their crime. He also told them to make it so large that the Trojans might not be able to drag it within their gates; for if it were brought into the city, it would be a protection to Troy, but if any harm were done to it, ruin would come on the kingdom of Priam.

"We raised and dedicate this wondrous frame, So lofty, lest through your forbidden gates It pa.s.s, and intercept our better fates; For, once admitted there, our hopes are lost; And Troy may then a new Palladium boast For so religion and the G.o.ds ordain, That, if you violate with hands profane Minerva's gift, your town in flames shall burn; (Which omen, O ye G.o.ds, on Graecia turn!) But if it climb, with your a.s.sisting hands, The Trojan walls, and in the city stands; Then Troy shall Argos and Mycenae burn, And the reverse of fate on us return."

VERGIL.

King Priam and the Trojans believed this story too, and a terrible thing which just then happened made them believe it all the more. After Laoc.o.o.n had hurled his spear at the wooden horse, he and his two sons went to offer sacrifice to the G.o.ds at an altar erected on the beach.

While they were thus engaged, two enormous serpents, darting out from the sea, glided up to the altar, seized the priest and his sons, and crushed all three to death in their tremendous coils.

First around the tender boys they wind, Then with their sharpened fangs their limbs and bodies grind.

The wretched father, running to their aid With pious haste, but vain, they next invade: Twice round his waist their winding volumes rolled; And twice about his gasping throat they fold.

The priest thus doubly choked--their crests divide, And towering o'er his head in triumph ride.

VERGIL.

The terrified Trojans regarded this awful event as a punishment sent by the G.o.ds upon Laoc.o.o.n for insulting Minerva by casting his spear at her gift, which they now believed the horse to be. They therefore resolved to take the huge figure into the city in spite of the advice of Ca.s.sandra, who also warned them that it would bring ruin upon Troy. And so they made a great breach in the walls, for none of their gates were large enough to admit the vast image, and fastening strong ropes to its feet they dragged it into the citadel. Then they decorated the temples with garlands of green boughs, and spent the remainder of the day in festivity and rejoicing.

But in the dead of the night, when they were all sunk in deep repose, the treacherous Sinon drew the bolts from the trapdoor in the side of the wooden horse, and out came the Greek warriors, rejoicing at the success of their stratagem.

Sinon next hurried down to the beach, and there kindled a fire as a signal to his countrymen on the ships. They knew what it meant, for it was part of the plan that had been agreed on. Quickly plying their oars, they soon reached the sh.o.r.e, and, marching across the plain, the Greeks poured in thousands into the streets, through the breach that had been made in the walls.

The Trojans, startled from their sleep by the noise, understood at once what had happened. Hastily they rushed to arms, and, led and encouraged by aeneas and other chiefs, they fought valiantly to drive out the enemy, but all their valor was in vain. Troy was at last taken. The victorious Greeks swept through the city, dealing death and destruction around them. King Priam was slain by Pyrrhus, at the foot of the altar in one of the temples, to which he fled for safety. His son Deiphobus, who had married Helen after the death of Paris, was slain by Menelaus. The Spartan king, believing that what his wife had done had been decreed by the Fates and the will of the G.o.ds, pardoned her and took her with him to his ships. The women of the Trojan royal family were carried off as slaves.

aeneas, with his father Anchises and his son I-u'lus, escaped from the city, and sailed from Troas with a fleet and a number of warlike followers. After many adventures by sea and land, which the Roman poet, Ver'gil, tells about in his poem called the ae-ne'id, he reached Italy.

There he established a settlement, and his descendants, it is said, were the founders of Rome.

Having completed their work of destruction and carried off to their ships all the riches of Troy, the Greeks set fire to the city, and in a few hours nothing remained but a ma.s.s of smouldering ruins. So ended the famous Trojan War. The prophecy of the soothsayer, aesacus, at the birth of Paris, was fulfilled. Paris had brought destruction upon his family and country.

[Ill.u.s.tration: CAPTIVE ANDROMACHE.

_Painting by Lord Leighton._]

XIII. THE GREEK CHIEFS AFTER THE WAR.

Great was the rejoicing of the Greeks at having at last brought the long and terrible war to a successful end. They had lost heavily in men and treasure, but they had defeated and destroyed the enemy, and taken possession of all the wealth of the rich city of Troy. They now looked forward with pleasure to the prospect of a safe return to their homes and families, which they had not seen for ten years. But for some of them, as we shall see, this happy hope was never realized.

The most unfortunate of them all was Agamemnon. He reached his kingdom and city of Mycenae in safety, but he was there cruelly murdered by ae-gis'thus, a relative of his, whom his wife, Clytemnestra, had married during his absence.

aegisthus planned a snare.

He chose among the people twenty men, The bravest, whom he stationed out of sight, And gave command that others should prepare A banquet. Then with chariots and with steeds, And with a deadly purpose in his heart, He went, and, meeting Agamemnon, bade The shepherd of the people to the feast, And slew him at the board.

BRYANT, _Odyssey_, Book IV.

The Trojan princess, Ca.s.sandra, who accompanied Agamemnon to Mycenae, had warned him of his doom, but as usual her words were disregarded, and she herself was slain at the same time as the ill-fated king. Agamemnon had a son named O-res'tes, who was then but a boy, and aegisthus intended to kill him also, but the youth's sister, E-lec'tra, contrived to have him sent secretly to the court of his uncle, Stro'phi-us, king of Pho'cis.

Here he was affectionately received and tenderly cared for. His constant companion was his cousin, Pyl'a-des, the son of Strophius, and so strong was their friendship for each other that it became famous in song and story.

When Orestes reached the years of manhood, he resolved to punish the murderers of his father. With this object he went to Mycenae, taking with him his friend and companion, Pylades; and having obtained admission to the royal palace, he slew aegisthus.

Seven years in rich Mycenae he bore rule, And on the eighth, to his destruction, came The n.o.bly-born Orestes, just returned From Athens, and cut off that man of blood, The crafty wretch aegisthus, by whose hand Fell his ill.u.s.trious father.

BRYANT, _Odyssey_, Book III.

As Clytemnestra had taken part in the murder of Agamemnon, Orestes slew her also. This killing of his own mother provoked the anger of the G.o.ds, and Orestes was commanded to go to the oracle of Apollo, at Delphi, to learn there what punishment he should suffer for his crime. He obeyed, and the oracle told him that he must bring to Greece a statue of Diana which was then in the temple of that G.o.ddess in Taurica.

This was a dangerous enterprise, for the king of Taurica had a practice of sacrificing in that very temple any foreigners found in his country.

Nevertheless Orestes undertook the task. He went to Taurica, accompanied, as usual, by his ever faithful friend Pylades. No sooner had they arrived than they were seized and carried before the king, and condemned to be sacrificed. But Orestes discovered, to his surprise and delight, that the priestess of the temple was his own sister, Iphigenia, who, as will be remembered, had been carried away many years before by Diana herself, when about to be sacrificed by the Greeks at Aulis. By the help of Iphigenia, the two friends not only escaped from Taurica, but carried off the statue, and Iphigenia returned with them to Greece.

Orestes succeeded to the throne of his father, and as king of Mycenae he lived and reigned many years in prosperity and happiness.

Menelaus returned to his kingdom of Sparta with his wife, Helen, but he had many wanderings and adventures. He was detained by unfavorable winds for some time on an island near the coast of Egypt, and he might never have reached home but for the advice he received from Pro'teus, one of the sea G.o.ds. It was no easy matter to get advice from Proteus. It was very difficult to find him, and still more difficult to get him to answer questions, for he had a habit of changing himself rapidly into many different forms, and so escaping from those who came to consult him. But Menelaus had the good fortune of meeting a water nymph named I-do'the-a, a daughter of Proteus, and she directed him what to do.

There was a certain cave near the seaside, to which the Old Man of the Sea, as Proteus was sometimes called, came every day at noon to sleep.

Idothea told Menelaus he would find the old man there, and that he must seize him quickly in his arms, and hold him fast in spite of all his changes, until he took the shape in which he had first appeared. Then he would answer any question put to him.

"As soon As ye behold him stretched at length, exert Your utmost strength to hold him there, although He strive and struggle to escape your hands; For he will try all stratagems, and take The form of every reptile on the earth, And turn to water and to raging flame,-- Yet hold him firmly still, and all the more Make fast the bands. When he again shall take The form in which thou sawest him asleep, Desist from force, and loose the bands that held The ancient prophet. Ask of him what G.o.d Afflicts thee thus, and by what means to cross The fishy deep and find thy home again."

BRYANT, _Odyssey_, Book IV.

Menelaus followed these directions, taking with him three of his bravest warriors, as Idothea also advised. They found Proteus, and rushing upon him, they seized and held him firmly in their grip, though he tried hard to escape.

First he took the shape Of a maned lion, of a serpent next, Then of a panther, then of a huge boar, Then turned to flowing water, then became A tall tree full of leaves. With resolute hearts We held him fast, until the aged seer Was weaned out, in spite of all his wiles.

BRYANT, _Odyssey_, Book IV,

The Old Man of the Sea then told Menelaus that he must go to Egypt, to the river there, and offer sacrifices to the G.o.ds, and that they would send him forth upon his voyage home, which would be speedy and safe. The Greek chief did as Proteus directed, and the prophecy was fulfilled. He soon reached his Spartan home, where, with his famous queen, Helen, he spent the remainder of his life in happiness.

Idomeneus, the warrior king of Crete, reached his island kingdom in safety.

Idomeneus brought also back to Crete All his companions who survived the war; The sea took none of them.

BRYANT, _Odyssey_, Book III.

But a sad event occurred on his arrival in the island. During his voyage home there was a terrible storm, and Idomeneus much feared that his fleet might be destroyed. He then made a vow that if his ships escaped, he would sacrifice to Neptune the first living creature he met on landing. Unfortunately this happened to be his own son, who came down to the sh.o.r.e to receive and welcome his father. Idomeneus, though overwhelmed with grief, nevertheless fulfilled his promise to the G.o.d, but the Cre'tans were so incensed at the inhuman act that they banished him from the island.

A flying rumor had been spread That fierce Idomeneus from Crete was fled, Expelled and exiled.

VERGIL.