In order to effect the ruin of Palamedes, Odysseus concealed in his tent a
vast sum of money. He next wrote a letter, purporting to be from king Priam
to Palamedes, in which the former thanked the Greek hero effusively for the
valuable information received from him, referring at the same time to a
large sum of money which he had sent to him as a reward.
This letter, which
was found upon the person of a Phrygian prisoner, was read aloud in a
council of the Greek princes. Palamedes was arraigned before the chiefs of
the army and accused of betraying his country to the enemy, whereupon a
search was instituted, and a large sum of money being found in his tent, he
was pronounced guilty and sentenced to be stoned to death. Though fully
aware of the base treachery practised against him, Palamedes offered not a
word in self-defence, knowing but too well that, in the face of such
damning evidence, the attempt to prove his innocence would be vain.
DEFECTION OF ACHILLES.--During the first year of the campaign the Greeks
ravaged the surrounding country, {292} and pillaged the neighbouring
villages. Upon one of these foraging expeditions the city of Pedasus was
sacked, and Agamemnon, as commander-in-chief, received as his share of the
spoil the beautiful Chrysëis, daughter of Chryses, the priest of Apollo;
whilst to Achilles was allotted another captive, the fair Brisëis. The
following day Chryses, anxious to ransom his daughter, repaired to the
Greek camp; but Agamemnon refused to accede to his proposal, and with rude
and insulting words drove the old man away. Full of grief at the loss of
his child Chryses called upon Apollo for vengeance on her captor. His
prayer was heard, and the god sent a dreadful pestilence which raged for
ten days in the camp of the Greeks. Achilles at length called together a
council, and inquired of Calchas the soothsayer how to arrest this terrible
visitation of the gods. The seer replied that Apollo, incensed at the
insult offered to his priest, had sent the plague, and that only by the
surrender of Chrysëis could his anger be appeased.
On hearing this Agamemnon agreed to resign the maiden; but being already
embittered against Calchas for his prediction with regard to his own
daughter Iphigenia, he now heaped insults upon the soothsayer and accused
him of plotting against his interests. Achilles espoused the cause of
Calchas, and a violent dispute arose, in which the son of Thetis would have
killed his chief but for the timely interference of Pallas-Athene, who
suddenly appeared beside him, unseen by the rest, and recalled him to a
sense of the duty he owed to his commander. Agamemnon revenged himself on
Achilles by depriving him of his beautiful captive, the fair Brisëis, who
had become so attached to her kind and noble captor that she wept bitterly
on being removed from his charge. Achilles, now fairly disgusted with the
ungenerous conduct of his chief, withdrew himself to his tent, and
obstinately declined to take further part in the war.
Heart-sore and dejected he repaired to the sea-shore, and there invoked the
presence of his divine mother. In answer to his prayer Thetis emerged from
beneath {293} the waves, and comforted her gallant son with the assurance
that she would entreat the mighty Zeus to avenge his wrongs by giving
victory to the Trojans, so that the Greeks might learn to realize the great
loss which they had sustained by his withdrawal from the army. The Trojans
being informed by one of their spies of the defection of Achilles, became
emboldened by the absence of this brave and intrepid leader, whom they
feared above all the other Greek heroes; they accordingly sallied forth,
and made a bold and eminently successful attack upon the Greeks, who,
although they most bravely and obstinately defended their position, were
completely routed, and driven back to their intrenchments, Agamemnon and
most of the other Greek leaders being wounded in the engagement.
Encouraged by this marked and signal success the Trojans now commenced to
besiege the Greeks in their own camp. At this juncture Agamemnon, seeing
the danger which threatened the army, sunk for the moment all personal
grievances, and despatched an embassy to Achilles consisting of many noble
and distinguished chiefs, urgently entreating him to come to the assistance
of his countrymen in this their hour of peril; promising that not only
should the fair Brisëis be restored to him, but also that the hand of his
own daughter should be bestowed on him in marriage, with seven towns as her
dowry. But the obstinate determination of the proud hero was not to be
moved; and though he listened courteously to the arguments and
representations of the messengers of Agamemnon, his resolution to take no
further part in the war remained unshaken.
In one of the engagements which took place soon afterwards, the Trojans,
under the command of Hector, penetrated into the heart of the Greek camp,
and had already commenced to burn their ships, when Patroclus, seeing the
distress of his countrymen, earnestly besought Achilles to send him to the
rescue at the head of the Myrmidons. The better nature of the hero
prevailed, and he not only intrusted to his friend the command of {294} his
brave band of warriors, but lent him also his own suit of armour.
Patroclus having mounted the war-chariot of the hero, Achilles lifted on
high a golden goblet and poured out a libation of wine to the gods,
accompanied by an earnest petition for victory, and the safe return of his
beloved comrade. As a parting injunction he warned Patroclus against
advancing too far into the territory of the enemy, and entreated him to be
content with rescuing the galleys.
At the head of the Myrmidons Patroclus now made a desperate attack upon the
enemy, who, thinking that the invincible Achilles was himself in command of
his battalions, became disheartened, and were put to flight. Patroclus
followed up his victory and pursued the Trojans as far as the walls of
their city, altogether forgetting in the excitement of battle the
injunction of his friend Achilles. But his temerity cost the young hero his
life, for he now encountered the mighty Hector himself, and fell by his
hands. Hector stripped the armour from his dead foe, and would have dragged
the body into the city had not Menelaus and Ajax the Greater rushed
forward, and after a long and fierce struggle succeeded in rescuing it from
desecration.
DEATH OF HECTOR.--And now came the mournful task of informing Achilles of
the fate of his friend. He wept bitterly over the dead body of his comrade,
and solemnly vowed that the funereal rites should not be solemnized in his
honour until he had slain Hector with his own hands, and captured twelve
Trojans to be immolated on his funeral pyre. All other considerations
vanished before the burning desire to avenge the death of his friend; and
Achilles, now thoroughly aroused from his apathy, became reconciled to
Agamemnon, and rejoined the Greek army. At the request of the goddess
Thetis, Hephæstus forged for him a new suit of armour, which far surpassed
in magnificence that of all the other heroes.
Thus gloriously arrayed he was soon seen striding {295}
along, calling the
Greeks to arms. He now led the troops against the enemy, who were defeated
and put to flight until, near the gates of the city, Achilles and Hector
encountered each other. But here, for the first time throughout his whole
career, the courage of the Trojan hero deserted him. At the near approach
of his redoubtable antagonist he turned and fled for his life. Achilles
pursued him; and thrice round the walls of the city was the terrible race
run, in sight of the old king and queen, who had mounted the walls to watch
the battle. Hector endeavoured, during each course, to reach the city
gates, so that his comrades might open them to admit him or cover him with
their missiles; but his adversary, seeing his design, forced him into the
open plain, at the same time calling to his friends to hurl no spear upon
his foe, but to leave to him the vengeance he had so long panted for. At
length, wearied with the hot pursuit, Hector made a stand and challenged
his foe to single combat. A desperate encounter took place, in which Hector
succumbed to his powerful adversary at the Scæan gate; and with his last
dying breath the Trojan hero foretold to his conqueror that he himself
would soon perish on the same spot.
The infuriated victor bound the lifeless corse of his fallen foe to his
chariot, and dragged it three times round the city walls and thence to the
Greek camp. Overwhelmed with horror at this terrible scene the aged parents
of Hector uttered such heart-rending cries of anguish that they reached the
ears of Andromache, his faithful wife, who, rushing to the walls, beheld
the dead body of her husband, bound to the conqueror's car.
Achilles now solemnized the funereal rites in honour of his friend
Patroclus. The dead body of the hero was borne to the funeral pile by the
Myrmidons in full panoply. His dogs and horses were then slain to accompany
him, in case he should need them in the realm of shades; after which
Achilles, in fulfilment of his savage vow, slaughtered twelve brave Trojan
captives, who were {296} laid on the funeral pyre, which was now lighted.
When all was consumed the bones of Patroclus were carefully collected and
inclosed in a golden urn. Then followed the funereal games, which consisted
of chariot-races, fighting with the cestus (a sort of boxing-glove),
wrestling matches, foot-races, and single combats with shield and spear, in
all of which the most distinguished heroes took part, and contended for the
prizes.
PENTHESILEA.--After the death of Hector, their great hope and bulwark, the
Trojans did not venture beyond the walls of their city.
But soon their
hopes were revived by the appearance of a powerful army of Amazons under
the command of their queen Penthesilea, a daughter of Ares, whose great
ambition was to measure swords with the renowned Achilles himself, and to
avenge the death of the valiant Hector.
Hostilities now recommenced in the open plain.
Penthesilea led the Trojan
host; the Greeks on their side being under the command of Achilles and
Ajax. Whilst the latter succeeded in putting the enemy to flight, Achilles
was challenged by Penthesilea to single combat. With heroic courage she
went forth to the fight; but even the strongest men failed before the power
of the great Achilles, and though a daughter of Ares, Penthesilea was but a
woman. With generous chivalry the hero endeavoured to spare the brave and
beautiful maiden-warrior, and only when his own life was in imminent danger
did he make a serious effort to vanquish his enemy, when Penthesilea shared
the fate of all who ventured to oppose the spear of Achilles, and fell by
his hand.
Feeling herself fatally wounded, she remembered the desecration of the dead
body of Hector, and earnestly entreated the forbearance of the hero. But
the petition was hardly necessary, for Achilles, full of compassion for his
brave but unfortunate adversary, lifted her gently from the ground, and she
expired in his arms.
On beholding the dead body of their leader in the {297}
possession of
Achilles, the Amazons and Trojans prepared for a fresh attack in order to
wrest it from his hands; but observing their purpose, Achilles stepped
forward and loudly called upon them to halt. Then in a few well-chosen
words he praised the great valour and intrepidity of the fallen queen, and
expressed his willingness to resign the body at once.
The chivalrous conduct of Achilles was fully appreciated by both Greeks and
Trojans. Thersites alone, a base and cowardly wretch, attributed unworthy
motives to the gracious proceedings of the hero; and, not content with
these insinuations, he savagely pierced with his lance the dead body of the
Amazonian queen; whereupon Achilles, with one blow of his powerful arm,
felled him to the ground, and killed him on the spot.
The well-merited death of Thersites excited no commiseration, but his
kinsman Diomedes came forward and claimed compensation for the murder of
his relative; and as Agamemnon, who, as commander-in-chief, might easily
have settled the difficulty, refrained from interfering, the proud nature
of Achilles resented the implied condemnation of his conduct, and he once
more abandoned the Greek army and took ship for Lesbos.
Odysseus, however,
followed him to the island, and, with his usual tact, succeeded in inducing
the hero to return to the camp.
DEATH OF ACHILLES.--A new ally of the Trojans now appeared on the field in
the person of Memnon, the Æthiopian, a son of Eos and Tithonus, who brought
with him a powerful reinforcement of negroes. Memnon was the first opponent
who had yet encountered Achilles on an equal footing; for like the great
hero himself he was the son of a goddess, and possessed also, like
Achilles, a suit of armour made for him by Hephæstus.
Before the heroes encountered each other in single combat, the two
goddesses, Thetis and Eos, hastened to Olympus to intercede with its mighty
ruler for the life of their sons. Resolved even in this instance not to act
in opposition to the Moiræ, Zeus seized the golden scales {298} in which he
weighed the lot of mortals, and placed in it the respective fates of the
two heroes, whereupon that of Memnon weighed down the balance, thus
portending his death.
Eos abandoned Olympus in despair. Arrived on the battlefield she beheld the
lifeless body of her son, who, after a long and brave defence, had at
length succumbed to the all-conquering arm of Achilles.
At her command her
children, the Winds, flew down to the plain, and seizing the body of the
slain hero conveyed it through the air safe from the desecration of the
enemy.
The triumph of Achilles was not of long duration.
Intoxicated with success
he attempted, at the head of the Greek army, to storm the city of Troy,
when Paris, by the aid of Phoebus-Apollo, aimed a well-directed dart at the
hero, which pierced his vulnerable heel, and he fell to the ground fatally
wounded before the Scæan gate. But though face to face with death, the
intrepid hero, raising himself from the ground, still performed prodigies
of valour, and not until his tottering limbs refused their office was the
enemy aware that the wound was mortal.
By the combined efforts of Ajax and Odysseus the body of Achilles was
wrested from the enemy after a long and terrible fight, and conveyed to the
Greek camp. Weeping bitterly over the untimely fate of her gallant son,
Thetis came to embrace him for the last time, and mingled her regrets and
lamentations with those of the whole Greek army. The funeral pyre was then
lighted, and the voices of the Muses were heard chanting his funeral dirge.
When, according to the custom of the ancients, the body had been burned on
the pyre, the bones of the hero were collected, inclosed in a golden urn,
and deposited beside the remains of his beloved friend Patroclus.
In the funereal games celebrated in honour of the fallen hero, the property
of her son was offered by Thetis as the prize of victory. But it was
unanimously agreed that the beautiful suit of armour made by Hephæstus
should be awarded to him who had contributed the most to the {299} rescue
of the body from the hands of the enemy. Popular opinion unanimously
decided in favour of Odysseus, which verdict was confirmed by the Trojan
prisoners who were present at the engagement. Unable to endure the slight,
the unfortunate Ajax lost his reason, and in this condition put an end to
his existence.
FINAL MEASURES.--Thus were the Greeks deprived at one and the same time of
their bravest and most powerful leader, and of him also who approached the
nearest to this distinction. For a time operations were at a standstill,
until Odysseus at length, contrived by means of a cleverly-arranged ambush
to capture Helenus, the son of Priam. Like his sister Cassandra, Helenus
possessed the gift of prophecy, and the unfortunate youth was now coerced
by Odysseus into using this gift against the welfare of his native city.
The Greeks learned from the Trojan prince that three conditions were
indispensable to the conquest of Troy:--In the first place the son of
Achilles must fight in their ranks; secondly, the arrows of Heracles must
be used against the enemy; and thirdly, they must obtain possession of the
wooden image of Pallas-Athene, the famous Palladium of Troy.
The first condition was easily fulfilled. Ever ready to serve the interests
of the community, Odysseus repaired to the island of Scyros, where he found
Neoptolemus, the son of Achilles. Having succeeded in arousing the ambition
of the fiery youth, he generously resigned to him the magnificent armour of
his father, and then conveyed him to the Greek camp, where he immediately
distinguished himself in single combat with Eurypylus, the son of Telephus,
who had come to the aid of the Trojans.
To procure the poison-dipped arrows of Heracles was a matter of greater
difficulty. They were still in the possession of the much-aggrieved
Philoctetes, who had remained in the island of Lemnos, his wound still
unhealed, suffering the most abject misery. But the
{300} judicious zeal of
the indefatigable and ever-active Odysseus, who was accompanied in this
undertaking by Diomedes, at length gained the day, and he induced
Philoctetes to accompany him to the camp, where the skilful leech Machaon,
the son of Asclepias, healed him of his wound.
Philoctetes became reconciled to Agamemnon, and in an engagement which took
place soon after, he mortally wounded Paris, the son of Priam. But though
pierced by the fatal arrow of the demi-god, death did not immediately
ensue; and Paris, calling to mind the prediction of an oracle, that his
deserted wife Oenone could alone cure him if wounded, caused himself to be
transported to her abode on Mount Ida, where he implored her by the memory
of their past love to save his life. But mindful only of her wrongs, Oenone
crushed out of her heart every womanly feeling of pity and compassion, and
sternly bade him depart. Soon, however, all her former affection for her
husband awoke within her. With frantic haste she followed him; but on her
arrival in the city she found the dead body of Paris already laid on the
lighted funeral pile, and, in her remorse and despair, Oenone threw herself
on the lifeless form of her husband and perished in the flames.
The Trojans were now shut up within their walls and closely besieged; but
the third and most difficult condition being still unfulfilled, all efforts
to take the city were unavailing. In this emergency the wise and devoted
Odysseus came once more to the aid of his comrades.
Having disfigured
himself with self-inflicted wounds, he assumed the disguise of a wretched
old mendicant, and then crept stealthily into the city in order to discover
where the Palladium was preserved. He succeeded in his object, and was
recognized by no one save the fair Helen, who after the death of Paris had
been given in marriage to his brother Deiphobus. But since death had robbed
her of her lover, the heart of the Greek princess had turned yearningly
towards her native country and her husband Menelaus, and Odysseus now found
in her a most unlooked-for ally. On his return to the camp {301} Odysseus
called to his aid the valiant Diomedes, and with his assistance the
perilous task of abstracting the Palladium from its sacred precincts was,
after some difficulty, effected.
The conditions of conquest being now fulfilled, a council was called to
decide on final proceedings. Epeios, a Greek sculptor, who had accompanied
the expedition, was desired to construct a colossal wooden horse large
enough to contain a number of able and distinguished heroes. On its
completion a band of warriors concealed themselves within, whereupon the
Greek army broke up their camp, and then set fire to it, as though, wearied
of the long and tedious ten years' siege, they had abandoned the enterprise
as hopeless.
Accompanied by Agamemnon and the sage Nestor, the fleet set sail for the
island of Tenedos, where they cast anchor, anxiously awaiting the torch
signal to hasten back to the Trojan coast.
DESTRUCTION OF TROY.--When the Trojans saw the enemy depart, and the Greek
camp in flames, they believed themselves safe at last, and streamed in
great numbers out of the town in order to view the site where the Greeks
had so long encamped. Here they found the gigantic wooden horse, which they
examined with wondering curiosity, various opinions being expressed with
regard to its utility. Some supposed it to be an engine of war, and were in
favour of destroying it, others regarded it as a sacred idol, and proposed
that it should be brought into the city. Two circumstances which now
occurred induced the Trojans to incline towards the latter opinion.
Chief among those who suspected a treacherous design in this huge
contrivance was Laocoon, a priest of Apollo, who, in company with his two
young sons, had issued from the city with the Trojans in order to offer a
sacrifice to the gods. With all the eloquence at his command he urged his
countrymen not to place confidence in any gift of the Greeks, and even went
so far as to pierce the {302} side of the horse with a spear which he took
from a warrior beside him, whereupon the arms of the heroes were heard to
rattle. The hearts of the brave men concealed inside the horse quailed
within them, and they had already given themselves up for lost, when
Pallas-Athene, who ever watched over the cause of the Greeks, now came to
their aid, and a miracle occurred in order to blind and deceive the devoted
Trojans;--for the fall of Troy was decreed by the gods.
[Illustration]
Whilst Laocoon with his two sons stood prepared to perform the sacrifice,
two enormous serpents suddenly rose out of the sea, and made direct for the
altar. They entwined themselves first round the tender limbs of the
helpless youths, and then encircled their father who rushed to their
assistance, and thus all three were destroyed in sight of the horrified
multitude. The Trojans naturally interpreted the fate of Laocoon and his
sons to be a punishment sent by Zeus for his sacrilege against the wooden
horse, and were now fully convinced that it must be consecrated to the
gods.
The crafty Odysseus had left behind his trusty friend Sinon with full
instructions as to his course of action. Assuming the rôle assigned to him,
he now approached king Priam with fettered hands and piteous entreaties,
alleging that the Greeks, in obedience to the command of an oracle, had
attempted to immolate him as a sacrifice; but that he had contrived to
escape from their hands, and now sought protection from the king.
The kind-hearted monarch, believing his story, released
{303} his bonds,
assured him of his favour, and then begged him to explain the true meaning
of the wooden horse. Sinon willingly complied. He informed the king that
Pallas-Athene, who had hitherto been the hope and stay of the Greeks
throughout t