Gods and Heroes of Ancient Greece

by Gustav Schwab

  PART II

  TALES OF TROY

  THE BUILDING OF TROY

  LONG, long ago two brothers, Jasion and Dardanus, sons of Zeus and an ocean-nymph, ruled over Samothrace, an island in the Aegean Sea. Jasion, well aware that he was descended from immortals, ventured to raise his eyes to a daughter of Olympus. Overcome with impetuous passion he wooed the goddess Demeter, whereupon his father punished him for his boldness by striking him dead with a thunderbolt. Dardanus grieved so sorely for the death of his brother that he left his realm and his country and journeyed to the mainland of Asia, to the coast of Mysia, where the rivers Simois and Scamander meet before they flow into the sea, and the lofty mountain range of Ida tapers off toward the shore and merges with the plain.

  The king of this region was Teucer, whose ancestors came from Crete, and the people of his country, a people of shepherds, were called Teucri after him. This king received Dardanus hospitably, gave him his daughter to wife, and a strip of land of his own. This he called Dardania, and the Teucri who settled there were called Dardanians. His son Erichthonius succeeded to the throne and begot Tros; after him the country was called the Troad and its capital Troy. Both Teucri and Dardanians were now known as Trojans. Ilos, the eldest son of King Tros, succeeded his father.

  Once, when he was visiting the neighboring country of Phrygia, the king of that country asked him to take part in contests which had recently been initiated there. Ilos won in wrestling, and his prize consisted of fifty youths and fifty maidens as well as a brindled cow which the king gave him, repeating an ancient oracle to the effect that wherever the cow lay down, he was to build a citadel. Ilos followed the cow, and since she lay down near the site which had been the capital of the country ever since the days of his father Tros, and was called Troy, he set about building on this hill the solid citadel of Ilios, or Ilium, which also went by the name of Pergamum, and from this time on the entire region was called Troy, or Ilium, or Pergamum. But before beginning the work, he begged Zeus, his divine forbear, to give him a sign if the plan were pleasing to him. On the very next day he found an image of Pallas Athene, called Palladium, which had fallen from heaven and was lying in front of his house. It was three cubits in height. The feet were placed close together. In her right hand the goddess held a spear, in her left a distaff and a spindle. Now the story of this image was as follows.

  Legend had it that from the day of her birth the goddess was brought up by Triton, a sea-god, who had a daughter Pallas, of the same age as Athene. The two girls were inseparable companions. Once they decided to vie with each other in play to see who was stronger. Pallas, the child of the sea-god, was just aiming her spear at her friend when Zeus, who feared for his daughter, held before her a shield covered with goatskin, the aegis. Pallas was startled by this unlooked-for sight. She looked up timidly, and at that moment Athene dealt her a fatal wound. The goddess mourned her death deeply. In memory of her beloved friend she had an image made of her, furnished it with a breastplate of the same goatskin as the shield, set the image before the statue of Zeus, and held it in high honor. And from this time on she called herself Pallas Athene. With his daughter’s consent, Zeus now cast this Palladium down from the sky into the region of Ilium, as a sign that both the stronghold and the city were to be under his and his daughter’s protection.

  The son of King Ilos and Eurydice was Laomedon, a self-willed and violent man who deceived not only his fellow men but the gods as well. It was he who thought of insuring the safety of Troy, which was not fortified like the citadel, by surrounding it with a wall and thus making it a real city. At that time Apollo and Poseidon, who had rebelled against the father of gods and been thrust out of heaven, were homeless wanderers in the world below. It was the will of Zeus that they help King Laomedon build the walls of Troy, so that this city which he and his daughter Athene cherished might be safe against aggressors. Fate brought the errant gods to the environs of Troy just as the building of the walls was begun. They offered the king their assistance, asked a certain wage which he promised them, and began their period of servitude. Poseidon helped with the building itself. Under his direction the wall rose broad and beautiful, a solid defense for the city. Phoebus Apollo, in the meantime, pastured the king’s horned cattle in the winding valleys and ravines of the wooded mountains of Ida. The gods had pledged their service for the space of a year. When twelve months had passed and the wall stood complete in all its splendor, the treacherous king refused to pay them their due, and when they argued the matter and eloquent Apollo broke into bitter reproaches, he drove them off, threatening to bind the sun-god hand and foot and mutilate the ears of both. The gods left him in sullen anger and became implacably hostile to Laomedon and the entire Trojan people. Athene, too, withdrew her favor from the city which, up to this time, had been under her protection, so that, with the tacit consent of Zeus, Troy, which had just been safeguarded with a stately wall, Troy with her kings and her citizens, was abandoned to destruction by these immortals, who soon counted among their number Hera, who also turned against the city with burning hatred.

  PRIAM, HECUBA, AND PARIS

  What happened to King Laomedon and his daughter Hesione has already been related elsewhere. Priam, his son, whose second wife was Hecabe or Hecuba, daughter of Dymas, king of Phrygia, succeeded to the throne. Hecuba had one son, Hector. When she was carrying her second child she had a dream which filled her with dread. She saw herself giving birth to a flaming torch which set afire the entire city of Troy and burned it to ash. In great trepidation she told this to her husband, and Priam immediately summoned Aesacus, a son of his first marriage, for he was a soothsayer whom Merops, his grandfather on his mother’s side, had taught the art of interpreting dreams. Aesacus declared that his stepmother Hecuba was about to give birth to a son who would cause disaster to his native city. He therefore counselled that the child be exposed upon birth. The queen bore a son, just as he had foretold, and regard for her country overcame her feeling of motherly love. She permitted Priam to put the newborn child into the hands of a slave, who was to take it up to Mount Ida and abandon it there. The name of the slave was Agelaus. He did as he was told, but a mother bear gave the child suck, and when, after five days, Agelaus returned to where he had left it, he found the baby lying in the moss sound and well-fed. He took him in his arms, reared him as his son on his own little strip of land, and gave the boy the name of Paris.

  When, under the shepherd’s care, the king’s son had grown into a youth, he was noted both for the strength and the beauty of his body. He protected all the herdsmen of Mount Ida against the robbers roaming through those regions; for this they called him Alexander, the helper of men.

  Now one day it came to pass that he found himself in a valley shaded by tall pines and broad oaks, far from his herd, which could not find the entrance to this green gorge among the mountains. As he was leaning against a tree with folded arms and gazing down at the palaces of Troy and the distant sea through a rift in the hills, he suddenly heard the footsteps of a god shaking the earth. Before he could collect himself he saw Hermes, the messenger of the gods, approaching on winged feet. In his hands he held the golden herald’s staff. Yet, marvellous as he was to behold, he was only the forerunner of a still fairer vision, for now three goddesses from Olympus touched their light feet to the grass that had never been sheared or grazed upon. The youth shuddered with awe and the hair rose on his head, but the winged messenger of the gods called to him: “Do not be afraid! The goddesses have come to you so that you may judge them. They have chosen you to decide which of them is fairest. Zeus bids you accept the office to which they have elected you. He will not deny you his aid and protection.”

  So said Hermes and, rising on his wings, floated up from the narrow valley, and soon was lost from sight. But what Paris had heard gave him the courage to lift his shy gaze to the immortals who stood before him in divine majesty and loveliness, awaiting his decision. At first glance it seemed to him that each deserved to
be called the most beautiful. But the longer he looked, the more he wavered, preferring now one and now the other. Gradually, however, the youngest, the most delicately fair, seemed to him more charming and desirable than the rest, and he felt as if her eyes caressed and caught him in a radiant snare.

  And now the proudest of the three, she who was taller and statelier than the others, addressed the youth. “I am Hera, sister and wife of Zeus. If you accord me this golden apple which Eris, the goddess of discord, threw among the guests at the wedding feast of Peleus and Thetis, and on which are inscribed the words ‘To the Most Beautiful,’ you shall rule the richest realm on earth, even though once you were thrust from a palace and are now no more than a shepherd.”

  “I am Pallas Athene, the goddess of wisdom,” said the second. Her forehead was broad and smooth, and the eyes in her grave and gracious face were of the deepest blue. “If you accord me the victory, you shall be famed as the wisest and most manly among men.”

  And now the third, who up to now had spoken only with her eyes, looked at the shepherd still more earnestly and sweetly and said: “Paris, surely you will not allow yourself to be swayed by the promise of gifts which imply danger and are a most insecure pledge of success! I shall bestow on you something which cannot but bring you joy. What I shall give you, you need only love to become happy: I shall give you the most beautiful woman on earth to wife! I am Aphrodite, the goddess of love!”

  When Aphrodite made this promise to Paris, the shepherd, she was wearing her girdle, which lent her irresistible loveliness. About her clung a shimmer of magic and hope before which the charms of the other goddesses paled. Dazzled by her radiance, Paris gave the goddess of love the golden apple he had received from Hera. Whereupon she and Athene angrily turned their backs and swore to revenge themselves for the wrong he had done them, upon Priam, his father, and upon Troy and all her people. From this moment on Hera, in particular, became the bitterest enemy of the Trojans. Aphrodite, however, solemnly repeated her promise and confirmed it with the oath of the gods. Then she took leave of the shepherd with a gesture both regal and tender and left him bewildered with happiness.

  For some time after this, Paris continued to live on the slopes of Ida, an unknown herdsman, hoping for the fulfillment of Aphrodite’s beguiling words. But when the wishes she had roused within him were not satisfied, he married Oenone, a girl bred in that region, who—so rumor had it—was the daughter of a river-god and a nymph. In her company he spent many joyful days in the solitude of the mountain, tending his herds far from the haunts of men. At last, however, he was lured down to the city he had never entered. It was on the occasion of funeral games which King Priam arranged after the burial of one of his kinsmen. There were to be contests, and the prize was a bullock, which the king ordered fetched from his herds on Ida. Now it happened that this very bullock was one Paris had chosen for his favorite, and since he could not very well withhold it from his master, the king, he decided he would at least take part in the contests and try to win the animal back. And he did, indeed, gain the victory, even over his brothers, even over Hector, the bravest and strongest of them all. One of the sons of King Priam, Deiphobus, was so overwhelmed with rage and shame at his defeat that he rushed forward to strike down this shepherd boy. But Paris fled to the altar of Zeus, and Priam’s daughter Cassandra, on whom the gods had conferred the gift of prophecy, recognized him as her brother. In the joy of reunion his parents embraced him, forgot what the soothsayer had predicted at his birth, and accepted him as their son.

  For the time being, Paris returned to his wife and his herds, but now he lived in a sumptuous house, as befitted his royal station. Soon, however, occasion arose to employ him on some of the king’s business, and without knowing it he journeyed to the prize Aphrodite had promised him.

  THE RAPE OF HELEN

  We know that when King Priam was still a tender boy, his sister Hesione was carried off by Heracles, who had killed Laomedon, conquered Troy, and given her to his friend Telamon. Although Telamon had taken her for his lawful wife and made her queen over Salamis, neither Priam nor his house had ever become reconciled to this loss. Once, when the abduction of Hesione again came up in council, and Priam expressed deep longing for his distant sister, his son Paris rose and declared that were he but given a fleet and sent to Greece, he would, with the help of the gods, wrest his father’s sister from their enemies and return victorious, crowned with glory. He founded these high hopes on the favor of Aphrodite and told his father and his brothers what had happened while he was pasturing his cattle on the slopes of Ida.

  Priam no longer doubted that Paris was under the special protection of the gods, and Deiphobus too seemed confident that if his brother appeared in battle-array, the Argives would have to return Hesione. Among Priam’s many sons was a soothsayer by the name of Helenus. He, of a sudden, broke into a flood of prophetic words, saying that if his brother Paris brought a woman home with him out of Greece, the Argives would come to Troy, raze the city to the ground, and slay the king and all his sons. This prediction caused a rift in the council. Troilus, Priam’s youngest son, who was full of vigor and the lust for action, was impatient of his brother’s forebodings, taunted him with a charge of cowardice, and exhorted the rest not to let his unfounded warnings keep them from battle. Some of the others, however, were doubtful. But Priam sided with Paris, for he was full of anxiety and longing for his sister.

  The king called an assembly of the people and told them how in days gone by he had sent an embassy to Greece under the leadership of Antenor, to ask satisfaction for the rape of Hesione and bring her back to her kinsmen. Antenor’s demand had been refused scornfully, but now—so said Priam—if the people were willing, he would send his own son Paris, with a formidable host, to accomplish by force what courtesy had failed to achieve. Antenor supported this proposal by rising and giving a vivid account of the insolence he, a peaceful emissary, had suffered in Greece, and described the Argives as arrogant in peace and timid in battle. His words kindled the people to fury and with noisy acclaim they called for war. But Priam, who was a wise king, did not wish this matter lightly concluded and invited anyone who had doubts about this enterprise to rise and have his say. Thereupon Panthous, one of the elders of Troy, rose in the assembly and related what he in his youth had been told by his father Othrys, who, in turn, had learned it from an oracle. It was that if ever a prince of the line of Laomedon brought home a wife from Greece, the Trojans would be faced with utter destruction. “And so,” the elder concluded his speech, “let us not be tempted by the hope of martial glory, my friends. Let us live in peace and quiet rather than stake everything on the fortunes of war and perhaps lose everything, including our liberty.” But the people muttered discontentedly, and begged Priam not to listen to the timid words of an old man, but to do what his heart had already resolved.

  Then Priam had ships built on Mount Ida, equipped them for the voyage, and sent his son Hector into Phrygia, and Paris and Deiphobus into the neighboring country of Paeonia, to enlist allied peoples for the cause of Troy. All Trojans able to bear arms prepared for war, so that soon a vast host was assembled. The king put Paris in command of it and as aids assigned to him his brother Deiphobus, Polydamas, son of Panthous, and Prince Aeneas. Then the great fleet put out to sea and steered for Cythera, the Greek island where they expected to make their first landing. On the way they met the ship of Menelaus, king of Sparta, who was bound for Pylos on a visit to wise Nestor. He was amazed at the long procession of stately ships, and the Trojans, on their part, marvelled at the beautiful vessel festively adorned, which apparently had aboard one of the foremost princes of Greece. Neither side knew the other, but each wondered where the other might be going, and thus the ships passed, skimming over the waves. The Trojan fleet landed safely on the island of Cythera. From there Paris was to go to Sparta and treat with Castor and Polydeuces, twin sons of Zeus, for the return of his father’s sister. In the event the Argive heroes refused to give up He
sione, he was to take the fleet to Salamis and carry off the princess by force.

  Before embarking on this voyage to Sparta, Paris wished to make offering in a temple sacred both to Aphrodite and Artemis. In the meantime, the inhabitants of the island had reported the arrival of this magnificent fleet to Sparta, where, in the absence of Menelaus, her husband, Queen Helen was holding court alone. This daughter of Zeus and Leda, the sister of Castor and Polydeuces, was the most beautiful woman of her time. She had been abducted by Theseus when she was little more than a child, but her brothers had gone in quest of her and brought her home again. As she grew to maidenhood in the palace of her stepfather Tyndareus, king of Sparta, her beauty attracted hosts of suitors, but the king was afraid that if he chose any one of them for a son-in-law, he would make enemies of all the others. Then crafty Odysseus, king of Ithaca, gave him the wise counsel to demand from every suitor an oath that with his weapons he would defend the chosen bridegroom against anyone whose hostility the king might incur through his daughter’s marriage. Tyndareus followed this shrewd piece of advice, had all the suitors swear the oath, and then chose Menelaus, king of the Argives, son of Atreus and brother of Agamemnon, gave him his daughter to wife, and made him the ruler of his realm. Helen bore her husband a daughter, Hermione, who was a mere infant when Paris reached Greece.