Soon taught the sweet civilities of life"
Chapter XXVII: The Trojan War
Minerva was the goddess of wisdom, but on one occasion she did a very foolish
thing; she entered into competition with Juno and Venus for the prize of beauty. It
happened thus: At the nuptials of Peleus and Thetis all the gods were invited with the
exception of Eris, or Discord. Enraged at her exclusion, the goddess threw a golden
apple among the guests, with the inscription, "For the fairest." Thereupon Juno, Venus,
and Minerva each claimed the apple. Jupiter, not willing to decide in so delicate a
matter, sent the goddesses to Mount Ida, where the beautiful shepherd Paris was
tending his flocks, and to him was committed the decision. The goddesses
accordingly appeared before him. Juno promised him power and riches, Minerva glory
and renown in war, and Venus the fairest of women for his wife, each attempting to
bias his decision in her own favor. Paris decided in favor of Venus and gave her the
golden apple, thus making the two other goddesses his enemies. Under the protection
of Venus, Paris sailed to Greece, and was hospitably received by Menelaus, king of
Sparta. Now Helen, the wife of Menelaus, was the very woman whom Venus had
destined for Paris, the fairest of her sex. She had been sought as a bride by
numerous suitors, and before her decision was made known, they all, at the
suggestion of Ulysses, one of their number, took an oath that they would defend her
from all injury and avenge her cause if necessary. She chose Menelaus, and was
living with him happily when Paris became their guest. Paris, aided by Venus,
persuaded her to elope with him, and carried her to Troy, whence arose the famous
Trojan war, the theme of the greatest poems of antiquity, those of Homer and Virgil.
Menelaus called upon his brother chieftains of Greece to fulfil their pledge, and
join him in his efforts to recover his wife. They generally came forward, but Ulysses,
who had married Penelope and was very happy in his wife and child, had no
disposition to embark in such a troublesome affair. He therefore hung back and
Palamedes was sent to urge him. When Palamedes arrived at Ithaca, Ulysses
pretended to be mad. He yoked an ass and an ox together to the plough and began to
sow salt. Palamedes, to try him, placed the infant Telemachus before the plough,
whereupon the father turned the plough aside, showing plainly that he was no
madman, and after that could no longer refuse to fulfil his promise. Being now himself
gained for the undertaking he lent his aid to bring in other reluctant chiefs, especially
Achilles. This hero was the son of that Thetis at whose marriage the apple of Discord
had been thrown among the goddesses. Thetis was herself one of the immortals, a
sea-nymph, and knowing that her son was fated to perish before Troy if he went on the
expedition, she endeavored to prevent his going. She sent him away to the court of
King Lycomedes, and induced him to conceal himself in the disguise of a maiden
among the daughters of the king. Ulysses, hearing he was there, went disguised as a
merchant to the palace and offered for sale female ornaments, among which he had
placed some arms. While the king's daughters were engrossed with the other contents
of the merchant's pack, Achilles handled the weapons and thereby betrayed himself to
the keen eye of Ulysses, who found no great difficulty in persuading him to disregard
his mother's prudent counsels and join his countrymen in the war.
Priam was king of Troy, and Paris, the shepherd and seducer of Helen, was his
son. Paris had been brought up in obscurity, because there were certain ominous
forebodings connected with him from his infancy that he would be the ruin of the state.
These forebodings seemed at length likely to be realized, for the Grecian armament
now in preparation was the greatest that had ever been fitted out. Agamemnon, king
of Mycenae, and brother of the injured Menelaus, was chosen commander-in-chief.
Achilles was their most illustrious warrior. After him ranked Ajax, gigantic in size and
of great courage, but dull of intellect, Diomede, second only to Achilles in all the
qualities of a hero, Ulysses, famous for his sagacity, and Nestor, the oldest of the
Grecian chiefs, and one to whom they all looked up for counsel. But Troy was no
feeble enemy. Priam the king was now old, but he had been a wise prince and had
strengthened his state by good government at home and numerous alliances with his
neighbors. But the principal stay and support of his throne was his son Hector, one of
the noblest characters painted by heathen antiquity. He felt, from the first, a
presentiment of the fall of his country, but still persevered in his heroic resistance, yet
by no means justified the wrong which brought this danger upon her. He was united in
marriage with Andromache, and as a husband and father his character was not less
admirable than as a warrior. The principal leaders on the side of the Trojans, besides
Hector, were Aeneas and Deiphobus, Glaucus and Sarpedon.
After two years of preparation the Greek fleet and army assembled in the port of
Aulis in Boeotia. Here Agamemnon in hunting killed a stag which was sacred to
Diana, and the goddess in return visited the army with pestilence, and produced a
calm which prevented the ships from leaving the port. Calchas the soothsayer
thereupon announced that the wrath of the virgin goddess could only be appeased by
the sacrifice of a virgin on her altar, and that none other but the daughter of the
offender would be acceptable. Agamemnon, however reluctant, yielded his consent,
and the maiden Iphigenia was sent for under the pretence that she was to be married
to Achilles. When she was about to be sacrificed the goddess relented and snatched
her away, leaving a hind in her place, and Iphigenia enveloped in a cloud was carried
to Tauris, where Diana made her priestess of her temple.
Tennyson, in his Dream of Fair Women, makes Iphigenia thus describe her
feelings at the moment of sacrifice the moment represented in our engraving: -
"I was cut off from hope in that sad place,
Which yet to name my spirit loathes and fears;
My father held his hand upon his face;
I, blinded by my tears,
"Still strove to speak; my voice was thick with sighs,
As in a dream. Dimly I could descry
The stern black-bearded kings, with wolfish eyes,
Waiting to see me die.
"The tall masts quivered as they lay afloat,
The temples and the people and the shore;
One drew a sharp knife through my tender throat
Slowly, - and - nothing more."
The wind now proving fair the fleet made sail and brought the forces to the coast
of Troy. The Trojans came to oppose their landing, and at the first onset Protesilaus fell
by the hand of Hector. Protesilaus had left at home his wife Laodamia, who was most
tenderly attached to him. When the news of his death reached her she implored the
gods to be allowed to converse with him only three hours. The request was granted.
Mercury led Protesilaus back to the upper world, and when he died a second time
Laodamia died with him. There was a story that the nymphs planted elm trees round his
grave which grew
very well till they were high enough to command a view of Troy, and
then withered away, while fresh branches sprang from the roots.
Wordsworth has taken the story of Protesilaus and Laodamia for the subject of a
poem. It seems the oracle had declared that victory should be the lot of that party from
which should fall the first victim to the war. The poet represents Protesilaus, on his brief
return to earth, as relating to Laodamia the story of his fate: -
"The wished-for wind was given; I then revolved
The oracle, upon the silent sea;
And if no worthier led the way, resolved
That of a thousand vessels mine should be
The foremost prow impressing to the strand, -
Mine the first blood that tinged the Trojan sand.
"Yet bitter, ofttimes bitter was the pang
When of thy loss I thought, beloved wife!
On thee too fondly did my memory hang,
And on the joys we shared in mortal life,
The paths which we had trod, - these fountains, flowers;
My new planned cities and unfinished towers.
'But should suspense permit the foe to cry,
'Behold they tremble! haughty their array,
Yet of their number no one dares to die?'
In soul I swept the indignity away:
Old frailties then recurred: but lofty thought
In act imbodied my deliverance wrought.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
". . . upon the side
Of Hellespont (such faith was entertained)
A knot of spiry trees for ages grew
From out the tomb of him for whom she died;
And ever when such stature they had gained
That Ilium's walls were subject to their view,
The trees' tall summits withered at the sight,
A constant interchange of growth and blight!"
The Iliad.
The war continued without decisive results for nine years. Then an event
occurred which seemed likely to be fatal to the cause of the Greeks, and that was a
quarrel between Achilles and Agamemnon. It is at this point that the great poem of
Homer, the Iliad, begins. The Greeks though unsuccessful against Troy, had taken the
neighboring and allied cities, and in the division of the spoil a female captive, by name
Chryseis, daughter of Chryses, priest of Apollo, had fallen to the share of Agamemnon.
Chryses came bearing the sacred emblems of his office, and begged the release of his
daughter. Agamemnon refused. Thereupon Chryses implored Apollo to afflict the
Greeks till they should be forced to yield their prey. Apollo granted the prayer of his
priest, and sent pestilence into the Grecian camp. Then a council was called to
deliberate how to allay the wrath of the gods and avert the plague. Achilles boldly
charged their misfortunes upon Agamemnon as caused by his withholding Chryseis.
Agamemnon enraged consented to relinquish his captive, but demanded that Achilles
should yield to him in her stead Briseis, a maiden who had fallen to Achilles' share in the
division of the spoil. Achilles submitted, but forthwith declared that he would take no
further part in the war. He withdrew his forces from the general camp and openly
avowed his intention of returning home to Greece.
The gods and goddesses interested themselves as much in this famous war as
the parties themselves. It was well known to them that fate had decreed that Troy
should fall, at last, if her enemies should persevere and not voluntarily abandon the
enterprise. Yet there was room enough left for chance to excite by turns the hopes and
fears of the powers above who took part with either side. Juno and Minerva, in
consequence of the slight put upon their charms by Paris, were hostile to the Trojans;
Venus for the opposite cause favored them. Venus enlisted her admirer Mars on the
same side, but Neptune favored the Greeks. Apollo was neutral, sometimes taking one
side, sometimes the other, and Jove himself, though he loved the good King Priam, yet
exercised a degree of impartiality; not however without exceptions.
Thetis, the mother of Achilles, warmly resented the injury done to her son. She
repaired immediately to Jove's palace and besought him to make the Greeks repent of
their injustice to Achilles by granting success to the Trojan arms. Jupiter consented; and
in the battle which ensued the Trojans were completely successful. The Greeks were
driven from the field and took refuge in their ships.
Then Agamemnon called a council of his wisest and bravest chiefs. Nestor
advised that an embassy should be sent to Achilles to persuade him to return to the
field; that Agamemnon should yield the maiden, the cause of the dispute, with ample
gifts to atone for the wrong he had done. Agamemnon consented, and Ulysses, Ajax,
and Phoenix were sent to carry to Achilles the penitent message. They performed that
duty, but Achilles was deaf to their entreaties. He positively refused to return to the field,
and persisted in his resolution to embark for Greece without delay.
The Greeks had constructed a rampart around their ships, and now instead of
besieging Troy they were in a manner besieged themselves, within their rampart. The
next day after the unsuccessful embassy to Achilles, a battle was fought, and the
Trojans, favored by Jove, were successful, and succeeded in forcing a passage through
the Grecian rampart, and were about to set fire to the ships. Neptune, seeing the
Greeks so pressed, came to their rescue. He appeared in the form of Calchas the
prophet encouraged the warriors with his shouts and appealed to each individually till he
raised their ardor to such a pitch that they forced the Trojans to give way. Ajax
performed prodigies of valor, and at length encountered Hector. Ajax shouted defiance,
to which Hector replied, and hurled his lance at the huge warrior. It was well aimed and
struck Ajax where the belts that bore his sword and shield crossed each other on the
breast. The double guard prevented its penetrating and it fell harmless. Then Ajax
seizing a huge stone, one of those that served to prop the ships, hurled it at Hector. It
struck him in the neck and stretched him on the plain. His followers instantly seized him
and bore him off stunned and wounded.
While Neptune was thus aiding the Greeks and driving back the Trojans, Jupiter
saw nothing of what was going on, for his attention had been drawn from the field by the
wiles of Juno. That goddess had arrayed herself in all her charms, and to crown all had
borrowed of Venus her girdle called Cestus, which had the effect to heighten the
wearer's charms to such a degree that they were quite irresistible. So prepared, Juno
went to join her husband, who sat on Olympus watching the battle. When he beheld her
she looked so charming that the fondness of his early love revived, and, forgetting the
contending armies and all other affairs of state, he thought only of her and let the battle
go as it would.
But this absorption did not continue long, and when, upon turning his eyes
downward, he beheld Hector stretched on the plain almost lifeless from pain and
bruises, he dismissed Juno in a rage, commanding her to send Iris and Apollo to him.
When Iris came he sent her with a stern message to Neptune, ordering him instantly to
quit the field. Apollo was despatched
to heal Hector's bruises and to inspirit his heart.
These orders were obeyed with such speed that while the battle still raged, Hector
returned to the field and Neptune betook himself to his own dominions.
An arrow from Paris's bow wounded Machaon, son of Aesculapius, who inherited
his father's art of healing, and was therefore of great value to the Greeks as their
surgeon, besides being one of their bravest warriors. Nestor took Machaon in his chariot
and conveyed him from the field. As they passed the ships of Achilles, that hero, looking
out over the field, saw the chariot of Nestor and recognized the old chief, but could not
discern who the wounded chief was. So calling Patroclus, his companion and dearest
friend, he sent him to Nestor's tent to inquire.
Patroclus, arriving at Nestor's tent, saw Machaon wounded, and having told the
cause of his coming would have hastened away, but Nestor detained him, to tell him the
extent of the Grecian calamities. He reminded him also how, at the time of departing for
Troy, Achilles and himself had been charged by their respective fathers with different
advice; Achilles to aspire to the highest pitch of glory, Patroclus, as the elder, to keep
watch over his friend, and to guide his inexperience. "Now," said Nestor, "is the time for
such influence. If the gods so please, thou mayest win him back to the common cause;
but if not let him at least send his soldiers to the field, and come thou Patroclus clad in
his armor, and perhaps the very sight of it may drive back the Trojans."
Patroclus was strongly moved with this address, and hastened back to Achilles
revolving in his mind all he had seen and heard. He told the prince the sad condition of
affairs at the camp of their late associates; Diomede, Ulysses, Agamemnon, Machaon,
all wounded, the rampart broken down, the enemy among the ships preparing to burn
them, and thus to cut off all means of return to Greece. While they spoke the flames
burst forth from one of the ships. Achilles, at the sight, relented so far as to grant
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