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CHAPTER XXV.
ARION- IBYCUS-
SIMONIDES- SAPPHO.
THE poets whose adventures compose this chapter were real persons
some of whose works yet remain, and their influence on poets who
succeeded them is yet more important than their poetical remains.
The adventures recorded of them in the following stories rest on the
same authority as other narratives of the "Age of Fable," that is,
of the poets who have told them. In their present form, the first
two are translated from the German, Arion from Schlegel, and Ibycus
from Schiller.
ARION.
Arion was a famous musician, and dwelt at the court of Periander,
king of Corinth, with whom he was a great favourite. There was to be
a musical contest in Sicily, and Arion longed to compete for the
prize, He told his wish to Periander, who besought him like a
brother to give up the thought. "Pray stay with me," he said, "and
be contented. He who strives to win may lose." Arion answered, "A
wandering life best suits the free heart of a poet. The talent which
a god bestowed on me, I would fain make a source of pleasure to
others. And if I win the prize, how will the enjoyment of it be
increased by the consciousness of my widespread fame!" He went, won
the prize, and embarked with his wealth in a Corinthian ship for
home. On the second morning after setting sail, the wind breathed
mild and fair. "O Periander," he exclaimed, "dismiss your fears!
Soon shall you forget them in my embrace. With what lavish offerings
will we display our gratitude to the gods, and how merry will we be
at the festal board!" The wind and sea continued propitious. Not a
cloud dimmed the firmament. He had not trusted too much to the
ocean- but he had to man. He overheard the seamen exchanging hints
with one another, and found they were plotting to possess themselves
of his treasure. Presently they surrounded him loud and mutinous,
and said, "Arion, you must die! If you would have a grave on shore,
yield yourself to die on this spot; but if otherwise, cast yourself
into the sea." "Will nothing satisfy you but my life?" said he.
"Take my gold, and welcome, I willingly buy my life at that price."
"No, no; we cannot spare you. Your life would be too dangerous to
us. Where could we go to escape from Periander, if he should know
that you had been robbed by us? Your gold would be of little use to
us, if, on returning home, we could never more be free from fear."
"Grant me, then," said he, "a last request, since nought will avail
to save my life, that I may die, as I have lived, as becomes a bard.
When I shall have sung my death song, and my harp-strings shall have
ceased to vibrate, then I will bid farewell to life, and yield
uncomplaining to my fate." This prayer, like the others, would have
been unheeded,- they thought only of their booty,- but to hear so
famous a musician, that moved their rude hearts. "Suffer me," he
added, "to arrange my dress. Apollo will not favour me unless I be
clad in my minstrel garb."
He clothed his well-proportioned limbs in gold and purple fair to
see, his tunic fell around him in graceful folds, jewels adorned his
arms, his brow was crowned with a golden wreath, and over his neck
and shoulders flowed his hair perfumed with odours. His left hand
held the lyre, his right the ivory wand with which he struck its
chords. Like one inspired, he seemed to drink the morning air and
glitter in the morning ray. The seamen gazed with admiration. He
strode forward to the vessel's side and looked down into the deep
blue sea. Addressing his lyre, he sang, "Companion of my voice, come
with me to the realm of shades. Though Cerberus may growl, we know
the power of song can tame his rage. Ye heroes of Elysium, who have
passed the darkling flood,- ye happy souls, soon shall I join your
band. Yet can ye relieve my grief? Alas, I leave my friend behind
me. Thou, who didst find thy Eurydice, and lose her again as soon as
found; when she had vanished like a dream, how didst thou hate the
cheerful light! I must away, but I will not fear. The gods look down
upon us. Ye who slay me unoffending, when I am no more, your time of
trembling shall come. Ye Nereids, receive your guest, who throws
himself upon your mercy!" So saying, he sprang into the deep sea.
The waves covered him, and the seamen held on their way, fancying
themselves safe from all danger of detection.
But the strains of his music had drawn round him the inhabitants
of the deep to listen, and Dolphins followed the ship as if chained
by a spell. While he struggled in the waves, a Dolphin offered him
his back, and carried him mounted thereon safe to shore. At the spot
where he landed, a monument of brass was afterwards erected upon the
rocky shore, to preserve the memory of the event.
When Arion and the dolphin parted, each to his own element, Arion
thus poured forth his thanks: "Farewell, thou faithful, friendly
fish! Would that I could reward thee; but thou canst not wend with
me, nor I with thee. Companionship we may not have. May Galatea,
queen of the deep, accord thee her favour, and thou, proud of the
burden, draw her chariot over the smooth mirror of the deep."
Arion hastened from the shore, and soon saw before him the towers
of Corinth. He journeyed on, harp in hand, singing as he went, full
of love and happiness, forgetting his losses, and mindful only of
what remained, his friend and his lyre. He entered the hospitable
halls, and was soon clasped in the embrace of Periander. "I come
back to thee, my friend," he said. "The talent which a god bestowed
has been the delight of thousands, but false knaves have stripped me
of my well-earned treasure; yet I retain the consciousness of
widespread fame." Then he told Periander all the wonderful events
that had befallen him, who heard him with amazement. "Shall such
wickedness triumph?" said he. "Then in vain is power lodged in my
hands. That we may discover the criminals, you must remain here in
concealment, and so they will approach without suspicion." When the
ship. arrived in the harbour, he summoned the mariners before him.
"Have you heard anything of Arion?" he inquired. "I anxiously look
for his return." They replied, "We left him well and prosperous in
Tarentum." As they said these words, Arion stepped forth and faced
them. His well-proportioned limbs were arrayed in gold and purple
fair to see, his tunic fell around him in graceful folds, jewels
adorned his arms, his brow was crowned with a golden wreath, and
over his neck and shoulders flowed his hair perfumed with odours;
his left hand held the lyre, his right the ivory wand with which he
struck its chords. They fell prostrate at his feet, as if a
lightning bolt had struck them. "We meant to murder him, and he has
become a god. O Earth, open and receive us!" Then Periander spoke.
"He lives, the master of the lay! Kind Heaven protects the poet's
life. As for you, I invoke not the spirit of vengeance; Arion wishes
not your blood. Ye slaves of avarice, begone! Seek some barbarous
land, and never may aught beautiful delight your souls!"
Spenser represents Arion, mounted on his dolphin, accompanying
the train of Neptune and Amphitrite:
"Then was there heard a most celestial sound
Of dainty music which did next ensue,
And, on the floating waters as enthroned,
Arion with his harp unto him drew
The ears and hearts of all that goodly crew;
Even when as yet the dolphin which him bore
Through the AEgean Seas from pirates' view,
Stood still, by him astonished at his lore,
And all the raging seas for joy forgot to roar."
Byron, in his "Childe Harold," Canto II., alludes to the story of
Arion, when, describing his voyage, he represents one of the seamen
making music to entertain the rest:
"The moon is up; by Heaven a lovely eve!
Long streams of light o'er dancing waves expand;
Now lads on shore may sigh and maids believe;
Such be our fate when we return to land!
Meantime some rude Arion's restless hand
Wakes the brisk harmony that sailors love;
A circle there of merry listeners stand,
Or to some well-known measure featly move
Thoughtless as if on shore they still were free to rove."
IBYCUS.
In order to understand the story of Ibycus which follows it is
necessary to remember, first, that the theatres of the ancients were
immense fabrics capable of containing from ten to thirty thousand
spectators, and as they were used only on festal occasions, and
admission was free to all, they were usually filled. They were
without roofs and open to the sky, and the performances were in the
daytime. Secondly, the appalling representation of the Furies is not
exaggerated in the story. It is recorded that AEschylus, the tragic
poet, having on one occasion represented the Furies in a chorus of
fifty performers, the terror of the spectators was such that many
fainted and were thrown into convulsions, and the magistrates
forbade a like representation for the future.
Ibycus, the pious poet, was on his way to the chariot races and
musical competitions held at the Isthmus of Corinth, which attracted
all of Grecian lineage. Apollo had bestowed on him the gift of song,
the honeyed lips of the poet, and he pursued his way with lightsome
step, full of the god. Already the towers of Corinth crowning the
height appeared in view, and he had entered with pious awe the
sacred grove of Neptune. No living object was in sight, only a flock
of cranes flew overhead taking the same course as himself in their
migration to a southern clime. "Good luck to you, ye friendly
squadrons," he exclaimed, "my companions from across the sea. I take
your company for a good omen. We come from far and fly in search of
hospitality. May both of us meet that kind reception which shields
the stranger guest from harm!"
He paced briskly on, and soon was in the middle of the wood.
There suddenly, at a narrow pass, two robbers stepped forth and
barred his way. He must yield or fight. But his hand, accustomed to
the lyre, and not to the strife of arms, sank powerless. He called
for help on men and gods, but his cry reached no defender's ear.
"Then here must I die," said he, "in a strange land, unlamented, cut
off by the hand of outlaws, and see none to avenge my, cause." Sore
wounded, he sank to the earth, when hoarse screamed the cranes
overhead. "Take up my cause, ye cranes," he said, "since no voice
but yours answers to my cry." So saying he closed his eyes in death.
The body, despoiled and mangled, was found, and though disfigured
with wounds, was recognized by the friend in Corinth who had
expected him as a guest. "Is it thus I find you restored to me?" he
exclaimed. "I who hoped to entwine your temples with the wreath of
triumph in the strife of song!"
The guests assembled at the festival heard the tidings with
dismay. All Greece felt the wound, every heart owned its loss. They
crowded round the tribunal of the magistrates, and demanded
vengeance on the murderers and expiation with their blood.
But what trace or mark shall point out the perpetrator from
amidst the vast multitude attracted by the splendour of the feast?
Did he fall by the hands of robbers or did some private enemy slay
him? The all-discerning sun alone can tell, for no other eye beheld
it. Yet not improbably the murderer even now walks in the midst of
the throng, and enjoys the fruits of his crime, while vengeance
seeks for him in vain. Perhaps in their own temple's enclosure he
defies the gods, mingling freely in this throng of men that now
presses into the amphitheatre.
For now crowded together, row on row, the multitude fills the
seats till it seems as if the very fabric would give way. The murmur
of voices sounds like the roar of the sea, while the circles
widening in their ascent rise tier on tier, as if they would reach
the sky.
And now the vast assemblage listens to the awful voice of the
chorus personating the Furies, which in solemn guise advances with
measured step, and moves around the circuit of the theatre. Can they
be mortal women who compose that awful group, and can that vast
concourse of silent forms be living beings?
The choristers, clad in black, bore in their fleshless hands
torches blazing with a pitchy flame. Their cheeks were bloodless,
and in place of hair writhing and swelling serpents curled around
their brows. Forming a circle, these awful beings sang their hymns,
rending the hearts of the guilty, and enchaining all their
faculties. It rose and swelled, overpowering the sound of the
instruments, stealing the judgment, palsying the heart, curdling the
blood.
"Happy the man who keeps his heart pure from guilt and crime! Him
we avengers touch not; he treads the path of life secure from us.
But woe! woe! to him who has done the deed of secret murder. We, the
fearful family of Night, fasten ourselves upon his whole being.
Thinks he by flight to escape us? We fly still faster in pursuit,
twine our snakes around his feet, and bring him to the ground.
Unwearied we pursue; no pity checks our course; still on and on, to
the end of life, we give him no peace nor rest." Thus the Eumenides
sang, and moved in solemn cadence, while stillness like the
stillness of death sat over the whole assembly as if in the presence
of superhuman beings; and then in solemn march completing the
circuit of the theatre, they passed out at the back of the stage.
Every heart fluttered between illusion and reality, and every
breast panted with undefined terror, quailing before the awful power
that watches secret crimes and winds unseen the skein of destiny. At
that moment a cry burst forth from one of the uppermost benches-
"Look! look! comrade, yonder are the cranes of Ibycus!" And suddenly
there appeared sailing across the sky a dark object which a moment's
inspection showed to be a flock of cranes flying directly over the
theatre. "Of Ibycus! did he say?" The beloved name revived the
sorrow in every breast. As wave follows wave over the face of the
sea, so ran from mouth to mouth the words, "Of Ibycus! him whom we
all lament, whom some murderer's hand laid low! What have the cranes
to do with him?" And louder grew the swell of voices, while like a
lightning's flash the thought sped through every heart, "Observe the
power of the Eumenides! The pious poet shall be avenged! the
murderer has informed against himself. Seize the man who uttered
that cry and the other to whom he spoke!"
The culprit would gladly have recalled his words, but it was too
late. The faces of the murderers, pale with terror, betrayed their
guilt. The people took them before the judge, they confessed their
crime, and suffered the punishment they deserved.
SIMONIDES.
Simonides was one of the most prolific of the early poets of
Greece, but only a few fragments of his compositions have descended
to us. He wrote hymns, triumphal odes, and elegies. In the last
species of composition he particularly excelled. His genius was
inclined to the pathetic, and none could touch with truer effect the
chords of human sympathy. The "Lamentation of Danae," the most
important of the fragments which remain of his poetry, is based upon
the tradition that Danae and her infant son were confined by order
of her father, Acrisius, in a chest and set adrift on the sea. The
chest floated towards the island of Seriphus, where both were
rescued by Dictys, a fisherman, and carried to Polydectes, king of
the country, who received and protected them. The child, Perseus,
when grown up became a famous hero, whose adventures have been
recorded in a previous chapter.
Simonides passed much of his life at the courts of princes, and
often employed his talents in panegyric and festal odes, receiving
his reward from the munificence of those whose exploits he
celebrated. This employment was not derogatory, but closely
resembles that of the earliest bards, such as Demodocus, described
by Homer, or of Homer himself, as recorded by tradition.
On one occasion, when residing at the court of Scopas, king of
Thessaly, the prince desired him to prepare a poem in celebration of
his exploits, to be recited at a banquet. In order to diversify his
theme, Simonides, who was celebrated for his piety, introduced into
his poem the exploits of Castor and Pollux. Such digressions were
not unusual with the poets on similar occasions, and one might
suppose an ordinary mortal might have been content to share the
praises of the sons of Leda. But vanity is exacting; and as Scopas
sat at his festal board among his courtiers and sycophants, he
grudged every verse that did not rehearse his own praises. When
Simonides approached to receive the promised reward Scopas bestowed
but half the expected sum, saying, "Here is payment for my portion
of thy performance; Castor and Pollux will doubtless compensate thee
for so much as relates to them." The disconcerted poet returned to
his seat amidst the laughter which followed the great man's jest. In
a little time he received a message that two young men on horseback
were waiting without and anxious to see him. Simonides hastened to
the door, but looked in vain for the visitors. Scarcely, however,
had he left the banqueting hall when the roof fell in with a loud
crash, burying Scopas and all his guests beneath the ruins. On
inquiring as to the appearance of the young men who had sent for
him, Simonides was satisfied that they were no other than Castor and
Pollux themselves.
SAPPHO.
Sappho was a poetess who flourished in a very early age of Greek
literature. Of her works few fragments remain, but they are enough
to establish her claim to eminent poetical genius. The story of
Sappho commonly alluded to is that she was passionately in love with
a beautiful youth named Phaon, and failing to obtain a return of
affection she threw herself from the promontory of Leucadia into the
sea, under a superstition that those who should take that
"Lover's-leap" would, if not destroyed, be cured of their love.
Byron alludes to the story of Sappho in "Childe Harold," Canto
II.:
"Childe Harold sailed and passed the barren spot
Where sad Penelope o'erlooked the wave,
And onward viewed the mount, not yet forgot,
The lover's refuge and the Lesbian's grave.
Dark Sappho! could not verse immortal save
That breast imbued with such immortal fire?
"'Twas on a Grecian autumn's gentle eve
Childe Harold hailed Leucadia's cape afar; etc.
Those who wish to know more of Sappho and her "leap" are referred
to the "Spectator," Nos. 223 and 229. See also Moore's "Evenings in
Greece."
CHAPTER XXVI.
ENDYMION- ORION- AURORA AND TITHONUS- ACIS AND GALATEA.
ENDYMION was a beautiful youth who fed his flock on Mount Latmos.
One calm, clear night Diana, the moon, looked down and saw him
sleeping. The cold heart of the virgin goddess was warmed by his
surpassing beauty, and she came down to him, kissed him, and watched
over him while he slept.
Another story was that Jupiter bestowed on him the gift of
perpetual youth united with perpetual sleep. Of one so gifted we can
have but few adventures to record. Diana, it was said, took care
that his fortunes should not suffer by his inactive life, for she
made his flock increase, and guarded his sheep and lambs from the
wild beasts.
The story of Endymion has a peculiar charm from the human meaning
which it so thinly veils. We see in Endymion the young poet, his
fancy and his heart seeking in vain for that which can satisfy them,
finding his favourite hour in the quiet moonlight, and nursing there
beneath the beams of the bright and silent witness the melancholy
and the ardour which consume him. The story suggests aspiring and
poetic love, a life spent more in dreams than in reality, and an
early and welcome death.- S. G. B.
The "Endymion" of Keats is a wild and fanciful poem, containing
some exquisite poetry, as this, to the moon:
"...The sleeping kine
Couched in thy brightness dream of fields divine.
Innumerable mountains rise, and rise,
Ambitious for the hallowing of thine eyes,
And yet thy benediction passeth not
One obscure hiding-place, one little spot
Where pleasure may be sent; the nested wren
Has thy fair face within its tranquil ken;" etc., etc.
Dr. Young, in the "Night Thoughts," alludes to Endymion thus:
"...These thoughts, O Night, are thine;
From thee they came like lovers' secret sighs,
While others slept. So Cynthia, poets feign,
In shadows veiled, soft, sliding from her sphere,
Her shepherd cheered, of her enamoured less
Than I of thee."
Fletcher, in the "Faithful Shepherdess," tells:
"How the pale Phoebe, hunting in a grove,
First saw the boy Endymion, from whose eyes
She took eternal fire that never dies;
How she conveyed him softly in a sleep,
His temples bound with poppy, to the steep
Head of old Latmos, where she stoops each night,
Gilding the mountain with her brother's light,
To kiss her sweetest."
ORION.
Orion was the son of Neptune. He was a handsome giant and a
mighty hunter. His father gave him the power of wading through the
depths of the sea, or, as others say, of walking on its surface.
Orion loved Merope, the daughter of OEnopion, king of Chios, and
sought her in marriage. He cleared the island of wild beasts, and
brought the spoils of the chase as presents to his beloved; but as
OEnopion constantly deferred his consent, Orion attempted to gain
possession of the maiden by violence. Her father, incensed at this
conduct, having made Orion drunk, deprived him of his sight and cast
him out on the seashore. The blinded hero followed the sound, of a
Cyclops' hammer till he reached Lemnos, and came to the forge of
Vulcan, who, taking pity on him, gave him Kedalion, one of his men,
to be his guide to the abode of the sun. Placing Kedalion on his
shoulders, Orion proceeded to the east, and there meeting the
sun-god, was restored to sight by his beam.
After this he dwelt as a hunter with Diana, with whom he was a
favourite, and it is even said she was about to marry him. Her
brother was highly displeased and often chid her, but to no purpose.
One day, observing Orion wading through the sea with his head just
above the water, Apollo pointed it out to his sister and maintained
that she could not hit that black thing on the sea. The
archer-goddess discharged a shaft with fatal aim. The waves rolled
the dead body of Orion to the land, and bewailing her fatal error
with many tears, Diana placed him among the stars, where he appears
as a giant, with a girdle, sword, lion's skin, and club. Sirius, his
dog, follows him, and the Pleiads fly before him.
The Pleiads were daughters of Atlas, and nymphs of Diana's train.
One day Orion saw them and became enamoured and pursued them. In
their distress they prayed to the gods to change their form, and
Jupiter in pity turned them into pigeons, and then made them a
constellation in the sky. Though their number was seven, only six
stars are visible, for Electra, one of them, it is said left her
place that she might not behold the ruin of Troy, for that city was
founded by her son Dardanus. The sight had such an effect on her
sisters that they have looked pale ever since.
Mr. Longfellow has a poem on the "Occultation of Orion." The
following lines are those in which he alludes to the mythic story.
We must premise that on the celestial globe Orion is represented as
robed in a lion's skin and wielding a club. At the moment the stars
of the constellation, one by one, were quenched in the light of the
moon, the poet tells us
"Down fell the red skin of the lion
Into the river at his feet.
His mighty club no longer beat
The forehead of the bull; but he
Reeled as of yore beside the sea,
When blinded by OEnopion
He sought the blacksmith at his forge,
And climbing up the narrow gorge,
Fixed his blank eyes upon the sun."
Tennyson has a different theory of the Pleiads:
"Many a night I saw the Pleiads, rising through the mellow
shade,
Glitter like a swarm of fire-flies tangled in a silver braid."
Locksley
Hall.
Byron alludes to the lost Pleiad:
"Like the lost Pleiad seen no more below."
See also Mrs. Hemans's verses on the same subject.
AURORA AND TITHONUS.
The goddess of the Dawn, like her sister the Moon, was at times
inspired with the love of mortals. Her greatest favourite was
Tithonus son of Laomedon, king of Troy. She stole him away, and
prevailed on Jupiter to grant him immortality; but, forgetting to
have youth joined in the gift, after some time she began to discern,
to her great mortification, that he was growing old. When his hair
was quite white she left his society; but he still had the range of
her palace, lived on ambrosial food, and was clad in celestial
raiment. At length he lost the power of using his limbs, and then
she shut him up in his chamber, whence his feeble voice might at
times be heard. Finally she turned him into a grasshopper.
Memnon was the son of Aurora and Tithonus. He was king of the
AEthiopians, and dwelt in the extreme east, on the shore of Ocean.
He came with his warriors to assist the kindred of his father in the
war of Troy. King Priam received him with great honours, and
listened with admiration to his narrative of the wonders of the
ocean shore.
The very day after his arrival, Memnon, impatient of repose, led
his troops to the field. Antilochus, the brave son of Nestor, fell
by his hand, and the Greeks were put to flight, when Achilles
appeared and restored the battle. A long and doubtful contest ensued
between him and the son of Aurora; at length victory declared for
Achilles, Memnon fell, and the Trojans fled in dismay.
Aurora, who from her station in the sky had viewed with
apprehension the danger of her son, when she saw him fall, directed
his brothers, the Winds, to convey his body to the banks of the
river Esepus in Paphlagonia. In the evening Aurora came, accompanied
by the Hours and the Pleiads, and wept and lamented over her son.
Night, in sympathy with her grief, spread the heaven with clouds;
all nature mourned for the offspring of the Dawn. The AEthiopians
raised his tomb on the banks of the stream in the grove of the
Nymphs, and Jupiter caused the sparks and cinders of his funeral
pile to be turned into birds, which, dividing into two flocks,
fought over the pile till they fell into the flames. Every year at
the anniversary of his death they return and celebrate his obsequies
in like manner. Aurora remains inconsolable for the loss of her son.
Her tears still flow, and may be seen at early morning in the form
of dew-drops on the grass.
Unlike most of the marvels of ancient mythology, there still
exist some memorials of this. On the banks of the river Nile, in
Egypt, are two colossal statues, one of which is said to be the
statue of Memnon. Ancient writers record that when the first rays of
the rising sun fall upon this statue a sound is heard to issue from
it, which they compare to the snapping of a harp-string. There is
some doubt about the identification of the existing statue with the
one described by the ancients, and the mysterious sounds are still
more doubtful. Yet there are not wanting some modern testimonies to
their being still audible. It has been suggested that sounds
produced by confined air making its escape from crevices or caverns
in the rocks may have given some ground for the story. Sir Gardner
Wilkinson, a late traveller, of the highest authority, examined the
statue itself, and discovered that it was hollow, and that "in the
lap of the statue is a stone, which on being struck emits a metallic
sound, that might still be made use of to deceive a visitor who was
predisposed to believe its powers."
The vocal statue of Memnon is a favourite subject of allusion
with the poets. Darwin, in his "Botanic Garden," says:
"So to the sacred Sun in Memnon's fane
Spontaneous concords choired the matin strain;
Touched by his orient beam responsive rings
The living lyre and vibrates all its strings;
Accordant aisles the tender tones prolong,
And holy echoes swell the adoring song."
Book I., 1. 182.
ACIS AND GALATEA.
Scylla was a fair virgin of Sicily, a favourite of the
Sea-Nymphs. She had many suitors, but repelled them all, and would
go to the grotto of Galatea, and tell her how she was persecuted.
One day the goddess, while Scylla dressed her hair, listened to the
story, and then replied, "Yet, maiden, your persecutors are of the
not ungentle race of men, whom, if you will, you can repel; but I,
the daughter of Nereus, and protected by such a band of sisters,
found no escape from the passion of the Cyclops but in the depths of
the sea;" and tears stopped her utterance, which when the pitying
maiden had wiped away with her delicate finger, and soothed the
goddess, "Tell me, dearest," said she, "the cause of your grief."
Galatea then said, "Acis was the son of Faunus, and a Naiad. His
father and mother loved him dearly, but their love was not equal to
mine. For the beautiful youth attached himself to me alone, and he
was just sixteen years old, the down just beginning to darken his
cheeks. As much as I sought his society, so much did the Cyclops
seek mine; and if you ask me whether my love for Acis or my hatred
of Polyphemus was the stronger, I cannot tell you; they were in
equal measure. O Venus, how great is thy power! this fierce giant,
the terror of the woods, whom no hapless stranger escaped unharmed,
who defied even Jove himself, learned to feel what love was, and,
touched with a passion for me, forgot his flocks and his well-stored
caverns. Then for the first time he began to take some care of his
appearance, and to try to make himself agreeable; he harrowed those
coarse locks of his with a comb, and mowed his beard with a sickle,
looked at his harsh features in the water, and composed his
countenance. His love of slaughter, his fierceness and thirst of
blood prevailed no more, and ships that touched at his island went
away in safety. He paced up and down the sea-shore, imprinting huge
tracks with his heavy tread, and, when weary, lay tranquilly in his
cave.
"There is a cliff which projects into the sea, which washes it on
either side. Thither one day the huge Cyclops ascended, and sat down
while his flocks spread themselves around. Laying down his staff,
which would have served for a mast to hold a vessel's sail, and
taking his instrument compacted of numerous pipes, he made the hills
and the waters echo the music of his song. I lay hid under a rock by
the side of my beloved Acis, and listened to the distant strain. It
was full of extravagant praises of my beauty, mingled with
passionate reproaches of my coldness and cruelty.
"When he had finished he rose up, and, like a raging bull that
cannot stand still, wandered off into the woods. Acis and I thought
no more of him, till on a sudden he came to a spot which gave him a
view of us as we sat. 'I see you,' he exclaimed, 'and I will make
this the last of your love-meetings.' His voice was a roar such as
an angry Cyclops alone could utter. AEtna trembled at the sound. I,
overcome with terror, plunged into the water. Acis turned and fled,
crying, 'Save me, Galatea, save me, my parents!' The Cyclops pursued
him, and tearing a rock from the side of the mountain hurled it at
him. Though only a corner of it touched him, it overwhelmed him.
"All that fate left in my power I did for Acis. I endowed him
with the honours of his grandfather, the river-god. The purple blood
flowed out from under the rock, but by degrees grew paler and looked
like the stream of a river rendered turbid by rains, and in time it
became clear. The rock cleaved open, and the water, as it gushed
from the chasm, uttered a pleasing murmur."
Thus Acis was changed into a river, and the river retains the
name of Acis.
Dryden, in his "Cymon and Iphigenia," has told the story of a
clown converted into a gentleman by the power of love, in a way that
shows traces of kindred to the old story of Galatea and the Cyclops.
"What not his father's care nor tutor's art
Could plant with pains in his unpolished heart,
The best instructor, Love, at once inspired,
As barren grounds to fruitfulness are fired.
Love taught him shame, and shame with love at strife
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 favour.
Paris decided in favour 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 endeavoured 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 neighbours. But the principal stay and support of
his throne was his own 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:
"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 shark 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 embodied 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
neighbouring 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
favoured them. Venus enlisted her admirer Mars on the same side, but
Neptune favoured 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, favoured 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
ardour to such a pitch that they forced the Trojans to give way.
Ajax performed prodigies of valour, 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 an 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 armour,
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 Patroclus his request to lead the
Myrmidons (for so were Achilles' soldiers called) to the field, and
to lend him his armour, that he might thereby strike more terror
into the minds of the Trojans. Without delay the soldiers were
marshalled, Patroclus put on the radiant armour and mounted the
chariot of Achilles, and led forth the men ardent for battle. But
before he went, Achilles strictly charged him that he should be
content with repelling the foe. "Seek not," said he, "to press the
Trojans without me, lest thou add still more to the disgrace already
mine." Then exhorting the troops to do their best he dismissed them
full of ardour to the fight.
Patroclus and his Myrmidons at once plunged into the contest
where it raged hottest; at the sight of which the joyful Grecians
shouted and the ships re-echoed the acclaim. The Trojans, at the
sight of the well-known armour, struck with terror, looked
everywhere for refuge. First those who had got possession of the
ship and set it on fire left and allowed the Grecians to retake it
and extinguish the flames. Then the rest of the Trojans fled in
dismay. Ajax, Menelaus, and the two sons of Nestor performed
prodigies of valour. Hector was forced to turn his horses' heads and
retire from the enclosure, leaving his men entangled in the fosse to
escape as they could. Patroclus drove them before him, slaying many,
none daring to make a stand against him.
At last Sarpedon, son of Jove, ventured to oppose himself in
fight to Patroclus. Jupiter looked down upon him and would have
snatched him from the fate which awaited him, but Juno hinted that
if he did so it would induce all others of the inhabitants of heaven
to interpose in like manner whenever any of their offspring were
endangered; to which reason Jove yielded. Sarpedon threw his spear,
but missed Patroclus, but Patroclus threw his with better success.
It pierced Sarpedon's breast and he fell, and, calling to his
friends to save his body from the foe, expired. Then a furious
contest arose for the possession of the corpse. The Greeks succeeded
and stripped Sarpedon of his armour; but Jove would not allow the
remains of his son to be dishonoured, and by his command Apollo
snatched from the midst of the combatants the body of Sarpedon and
committed it to the care of the twin brothers Death and Sleep, by
whom it was transported to Lycia, the native land of Sarpedon, where
it received due funeral rites.
Thus far Patroclus had succeeded to his utmost wish in repelling
the Trojans and relieving his countrymen, but now came a change of
fortune. Hector, borne in his chariot, confronted him. Patroclus
threw a vast stone at Hector, which missed its aim, but smote
Cebriones, the charioteer, and knocked him from the car. Hector
leaped from the chariot to rescue his friend, and Patroclus also
descended to complete his victory. Thus the two heroes met face to
face. At this decisive moment the poet, as if reluctant to give
Hector the glory, records that Phoebus took part against Patroclus.
He struck the helmet from his head and the lance from his hand. At
the same moment an obscure Trojan wounded him in the back, and
Hector, pressing forward, pierced him with his spear. He fell
mortally wounded.
Then arose a tremendous conflict for the body of Patroclus, but
his armour was at once taken possession of by Hector, who retiring a
short distance divested himself of his own armour and put on that of
Achilles, then returned to the fight. Ajax and Menelaus defended the
body, and Hector and his bravest warriors struggled to capture it.
The battle raged with equal fortunes, when Jove enveloped the whole
face of heaven with a dark cloud. The lightning flashed, the thunder
roared, and Ajax, looking round for some one whom he might despatch
to Achilles to tell him of the death of his friend, and of the
imminent danger that his remains would fall into the hands of the
enemy, could see no suitable messenger. It was then that he
exclaimed in those famous lines so often quoted,
"Father of heaven and earth! deliver thou
Achaia's host from darkness; clear the skies;
Give day; and, since thy sovereign will is such,
Destruction with it; but, O, give us day."
Cowper.
Or, as rendered by Pope,
"...Lord of earth and air!
O king! O father! hear my humble prayer!
Dispel this cloud, the light of heaven restore;
Give me to see and Ajax asks no more;
If Greece must perish we thy will obey,
But let us perish in the face of day."
Jupiter heard the prayer and dispersed the clouds. Then Ajax sent
Antilochus to Achilles with the intelligence of Patroclus's death,
and of the conflict raging for his remains. The Greeks at last
succeeded in bearing off the body to the ships, closely pursued by
Hector and AEneas and the rest of the Trojans.
Achilles heard the fate of his friend with such distress that
Antilochus feared for a while that he would destroy himself. His
groans reached the ears of his mother, Thetis, far down in the deeps
of ocean where she abode, and she hastened to him to inquire the
cause. She found him overwhelmed with self-reproach that he had
indulged his resentment so far, and suffered his friend to fall a
victim to it. But his only consolation was the hope of revenge. He
would fly instantly in search of Hector. But his mother reminded him
that he was now without armour, and promised him, if he would but
wait till the morrow, she would procure for him a suit of armour
from Vulcan more than equal to that he had lost. He consented, and
Thetis immediately repaired to Vulcan's palace. She found him busy
at his forge making tripods for his own use, so artfully constructed
that they moved forward of their own accord when wanted, and retired
again when dismissed. On hearing the request of Thetis, Vulcan
immediately laid aside his work and hastened to comply with her
wishes. He fabricated a splendid suit of armour for Achilles, first
a shield adorned with elaborate devices, then a helmet crested with
gold, then a corselet and greaves of impenetrable temper, all
perfectly adapted to his form, and of consummate workmanship. It was
all done in one night, and Thetis, receiving it, descended with it
to earth and laid it down at Achilles' feet at the dawn of day.
The first glow of pleasure that Achilles had felt since the death
of Patroclus was at the sight of this splendid armour. And now,
arrayed in it, he went forth into the camp, calling all the chiefs
to council. When they were all assembled he addressed them.
Renouncing his displeasure against Agamemnon and bitterly lamenting
the miseries that had resulted from it, he called on them to proceed
at once to the field. Agamemnon made a suitable reply, laying all
the blame on Ate, the goddess of discord; and thereupon complete
reconcilement took place between the heroes.
Then Achilles went forth to battle inspired with a rage and
thirst for vengeance that made him irresistible. The bravest
warriors fled before him or fell by his lance. Hector, cautioned by
Apollo, kept aloof; but the god, assuming the form of one of Priam's
sons, Lycaon, urged AEneas to encounter the terrible warrior.
AEneas, though he felt himself unequal, did not decline the combat.
He hurled his spear with all his force against the shield, the work
of Vulcan. It was formed of five metal plates; two were of brass,
two of tin, and one of gold. The spear pierced two thicknesses, but
was stopped in the third. Achilles threw his with better success. It
pierced through the shield of AEneas, but glanced near his shoulder
and made no wound. Then AEneas seized a stone, such as two men of
modern times could hardly lift, and was about to throw it, and
Achilles, with sword drawn, was about to rush upon him, when
Neptune, who looked out upon the contest, moved with pity for
AEneas, who he saw would surely fall a victim if not speedily
rescued, spread a cloud between the combatants, and lifting AEneas
from the ground, bore him over the heads of warriors and steeds to
the rear of the battle. Achilles, when the mist cleared away, looked
round in vain for his adversary, and acknowledging the prodigy,
turned his arms against other champions. But none dared stand before
him, and Priam looking down from the city walls beheld his whole
army in full flight towards the city. He gave command to open wide
the gates to receive the fugitives, and to shut them as soon as the
Trojans should have passed, lest the enemy should enter likewise.
But Achilles was so close in pursuit that that would have been
impossible if Apollo had not, in the form of Agenor, Priam's son,
encountered Achilles for a while, then turned to fly, and taken the
way apart from the city. Achilles pursued and had chased his
supposed victim far from the walls, when Apollo disclosed himself,
and Achilles, perceiving how he had been deluded, gave up the chase.
But when the rest had escaped into the town Hector stood without
determined to await the combat. His old father called to him from
the walls and begged him to retire nor tempt the encounter. His
mother, Hecuba, also besought him to the same effect, but all in
vain. "How can I," said he to himself, "by whose command the people
went to this day's contest, where so many have fallen, seek safety
for myself against a single foe? But what if I offer him to yield up
Helen and all her treasures and ample of our own beside? Ah, no! it
is too late. He would not even hear me through, but slay me while I
spoke." While he thus ruminated, Achilles approached, terrible as
Mars, his armour flashing lightning as he moved. At that sight
Hector's heart failed him and he fled. Achilles swiftly pursued.
They ran, still keeping near the walls, till they had thrice
encircled the city. As often as Hector approached the walls Achilles
intercepted him and forced him to keep out in a wider circle. But
Apollo sustained Hector's strength and would not let him sink in
weariness. Then Pallas, assuming the form of Deiphobus, Hector's
bravest brother, appeared suddenly at his side. Hector saw him with
delight, and thus strengthened stopped his flight and turned to meet
Achilles. Hector threw his spear, which struck the shield of
Achilles and bounded back. He. turned to receive another from the
hand of Deiphobus, but Deiphobus was gone. Then Hector understood
his doom and said, "Alas! it is plain this is my hour to die! I
thought Deiphobus at hand, but Pallas deceived me, and he is still
in Troy. But I will not fall inglorious." So saying he drew his
falchion from his side and rushed at once to combat. Achilles,
secure behind his shield, waited the approach of Hector. When he
came within reach of his spear, Achilles choosing with his eye a
vulnerable part where the armour leaves the neck uncovered, aimed
his spear at that part and Hector fell, death-wounded, and feebly
said, "Spare my body! Let my parents ransom it, and let me receive
funeral rites from the sons and daughters of Troy." To which
Achilles replied, "Dog, name not ransom nor pity to me, on whom you
have brought such dire distress. No! trust me, nought shall save thy
carcass from the dogs. Though twenty ransoms and thy weight in gold
were offered, I would refuse it all."
So saying he stripped the body of its armour, and fastening cords
to the feet tied them behind his chariot, leaving the body to trail
along the ground. Then mounting the chariot he lashed the steeds and
so dragged the body to and fro before the city. What words can tell
the grief of King Priam and Queen Hecuba at this sight! His people
could scarce restrain the old king from rushing forth. He threw
himself in the dust and besought them each by name to give him way.
Hecuba's distress was not less violent. The citizens stood round
them weeping. The sound of the mourning reached the ears of
Andromache, the wife of Hector, as she sat among her maidens at
work, and anticipating evil she went forth to the wall. When she saw
the sight there presented, she would have thrown herself headlong
from the wall, but fainted and fell into the arms of her maidens.
Recovering, she bewailed her fate, picturing to herself her country
ruined, herself a captive, and her son dependent for his bread on
the charity of strangers.
When Achilles and the Greeks had taken their revenge on the
killer of Patroclus they busied themselves in paying due funeral
rites to their friend. A pile was erected, and the body burned with
due solemnity; and then ensued games of strength and skill, chariot
races, wrestling, boxing and archery. Then the chiefs sat down to
the funeral banquet and after that retired to rest. But Achilles
neither partook of the feast nor of sleep. The recollection of his
lost friend kept him awake, remembering their companionship in toil
and dangers, in battle or on the perilous deep. Before the earliest
dawn he left his tent, and joining to his chariot his swift steeds,
he fastened Hector's body to be dragged behind. Twice he dragged him
round the tomb of Patroclus, leaving him at length stretched in the
dust. But Apollo would not permit the body to be torn or disfigured
with all this abuse, but preserved it free from all taint or
defilement.
While Achilles indulged his wrath in thus disgracing brave
Hector, Jupiter in pity summoned Thetis to his presence. He told her
to go to her son and prevail on him to restore the body of Hector to
his friends. Then Jupiter sent Iris to King Priam to encourage him
to go to Achilles and beg the body of his son. Iris delivered her
message, and Priam immediately prepared to obey. He opened his
treasuries and took out rich garments and cloths, with ten talents
in gold and two splendid tripods and a golden cup of matchless
workmanship. Then he called to his sons and bade them draw forth his
litter and place in it the various articles designed for a ransom to
Achilles. When all was ready, the old king with a single companion
as aged as himself, the herald Idaeus, drove forth from the gates,
parting there with Hecuba, his queen, and all his friends, who
lamented him as going to certain death.
But Jupiter, beholding with compassion the venerable king, sent
Mercury to be his guide and protector. Mercury, assuming the form of
a young warrior, presented himself to the aged couple, and while at
the sight of him they hesitated whether to fly or yield, the god
approached, and grasping Priam's hand offered to be their guide to
Achilles' tent. Priam gladly accepted his offered service, and he,
mounting the carriage, assumed the reins and soon conveyed them to
the tent of Achilles. Mercury's wand put to sleep all the guards,
and without hindrance he introduced Priam into the tent where
Achilles sat, attended by two of his warriors. The old king threw
himself at the feet of Achilles, and kissed those terrible hands
which had destroyed so many of his sons. "Think, O Achilles," he
said, "of thy own father, full of days like me, and trembling on the
gloomy verge of life. Perhaps even now some neighbour chief
oppresses him and there is none at hand to succour him in his
distress. Yet doubtless knowing that Achilles lives he still
rejoices, hoping that one day he shall see thy face again. But no
comfort cheers me, whose bravest sons, so late the flower of Ilium,
all have fallen. Yet one I had, one more than all the rest the
strength of my age, whom, fighting for his country, thou hast slain.
I come to redeem his body, bringing inestimable ransom with me.
Achilles! reverence the gods! recollect thy father! for his sake
show compassion to me!" These words moved Achilles, and he wept
remembering by turns his absent father and his lost friend. Moved
with pity of Priam's silver locks and beard, he raised him from the
earth, and thus spake: "Priam, I know that thou hast reached this
place conducted by some god, for without aid divine no mortal even
in his prime of youth had dared the attempt. I grant thy request,
moved thereto by the evident will of Jove." So saying he arose, and
went forth with his two friends, and unloaded of its charge the
litter, leaving two mantles and a robe for the covering of the body,
which they placed on the litter, and spread the garments over it,
that not unveiled it should be borne back to Troy. Then Achilles
dismissed the old king with his attendants, having first pledged
himself to allow a truce of twelve days for the funeral solemnities.
As the litter approached the city and was descried from the
walls, the people poured forth to gaze once more on the face of
their hero. Foremost of all, the mother and the wife of Hector came,
and at the sight of the lifeless body renewed their lamentations.
The people all wept with them, and to the going down of the sun
there was no pause or abatement of their grief.
The next day preparations were made for the funeral solemnities.
For nine days the people brought wood and built the pile, and on the
tenth they placed the body on the summit and applied the torch;
while all Troy thronging forth encompassed the pile. When it had
completely burned, they quenched the cinders with wine, collected
the bones and placed them in a golden urn, which they buried in the
earth, and reared a pile of stones over the spot.
"Such honours Ilium to her hero paid,
And peaceful slept the mighty Hector's shade."
Pope.
CHAPTER XXVIII.
THE FALL OF TROY- RETURN OF THE GREEKS-AGAMEMNON, ORESTES
AND ELECTRA.
THE FALL OF TROY.
THE story of the Iliad ends with the death of Hector, and it is
from the Odyssey and later poems that we learn the fate of the other
heroes. After the death of Hector, Troy did not immediately fall,
but receiving aid from new allies still continued its resistance.
One of these allies was Memnon, the AEthiopian prince, whose story
we have already told. Another was Penthesilea, queen of the Amazons,
who came with a band of female warriors. All the authorities attest
their valour and the fearful effect of their war cry. Penthesilea
slew many of the bravest warriors, but was at last slain by
Achilles. But when the hero bent over his fallen foe, and
contemplated her beauty, youth and valour, he bitterly regretted his
victory. Thersites, an insolent brawler and demagogue, ridiculed his
grief, and was in consequence slain by the hero.
Achilles by chance had seen Polyxena, daughter of King Priam,
perhaps on occasion of the truce which was allowed the Trojans for
the burial of Hector. He was captivated with her charms, and to win
her in marriage agreed to use his influence with the Greeks to grant
peace to Troy. While in the temple of Apollo, negotiating the
marriage, Paris discharged at him a poisoned arrow, which, guided by
Apollo, wounded Achilles in the heel, the only vulnerable part about
him. For Thetis his mother had dipped him when an infant in the
river Styx, which made every part of him invulnerable except the
heel by which she held him.*
* The story of the invulnerability of Achilles is not found in
Homer, and is inconsistent with his account. For how could Achilles
require the aid of celestial armour if he were invulnerable?
The body of Achilles so treacherously slain was rescued by Ajax
and Ulysses. Thetis directed the Greeks to bestow her son's armour
on the hero who of all the survivors should be judged most deserving
of it. Ajax and Ulysses were the only claimants; a select number of
the other chiefs were appointed to award the prize. It was awarded
to Ulysses, thus placing wisdom before valour, whereupon Ajax slew
himself. On the spot where his blood sank into the earth a flower
sprang up, called the hyacinth, bearing on its leaves the first two
letters of the name of Ajax, Ai, the Greek for "woe." Thus Ajax is a
claimant with the boy Hyacinthus for the honour of giving birth to
this flower. There is a species of Larkspur which represents the
hyacinth of the poets in preserving the memory of this event, the
Delphinium Ajacis- Ajax's Larkspur.
It was now discovered that Troy could not be taken but by the aid
of the arrows of Hercules. They were in possession of Philoctetes,
the friend who had been with Hercules at the last and lighted his
funeral pyre. Philoctetes had joined the Grecian expedition against
Troy, but had accidentally wounded his foot with one of the poisoned
arrows, and the smell from his wound proved so offensive that his
companions carried him to the isle of Lemnos and left him there.
Diomed was now sent to induce him to rejoin the army. He succeeded.
Philoctetes was cured of his wound by Machaon, and Paris was the
first victim of the fatal arrows. In his distress Paris bethought
him of one whom in his prosperity he had forgotten. This was the
nymph OEnone, whom he had married when a youth, and had abandoned
for the fatal beauty Helen. OEnone remembering the wrongs she had
suffered, refused to heal the wound, and Paris went back to Troy and
died. OEnone quickly repented, and hastened after him with remedies,
but came too late, and in her grief hung herself.*
* Tennyson has chosen OEnone as the subject of a short poem; but
he has omitted the most poetical part of the story, the return of
Paris wounded, her cruelty and subsequent repentance.
There was in Troy a celebrated statue of Minerva called the
Palladium. It was said to have fallen from heaven, and the belief
was that the city could not be taken so long as this statue remained
within it. Ulysses and Diomed entered the city in disguise and
succeeded in obtaining the Palladium, which they carried off to the
Grecian camp.
But Troy still held out, and the Greeks began to despair of ever
subduing it by force, and by advice of Ulysses resolved to resort to
stratagem. They pretended to be making preparations to abandon the
siege, and a portion of the ships were withdrawn and lay hid behind
a neighbouring island. The Greeks then constructed an immense wooden
horse, which they gave out was intended as a propitiatory offering
to Minerva, but in fact was filled with armed men. The remaining
Greeks then betook themselves to their ships and sailed away, as if
for a final departure. The Trojans, seeing the encampment broken up
and the fleet gone, concluded the enemy to have abandoned the siege.
The gates were thrown open, and the whole population issued forth
rejoicing at the long-prohibited liberty of passing freely over the
scene of the late encampment. The great horse was the chief object
of curiosity. All wondered what it could be for. Some recommended to
take it into the city as a trophy; others felt afraid of it.
While they hesitate, Laocoon, the priest of Neptune, exclaims,
"What madness, citizens, is this? Have you not learned enough of
Grecian fraud to be on your guard against it? For my part, I fear
the Greeks even when they offer gifts."* So saying he threw his
lance at the horse's side. It struck, and a hollow sound
reverberated like a groan. Then perhaps the people might have taken
his advice and destroyed the fatal horse and all its contents; but
just at that moment a group of people appeared, dragging forward one
who seemed a prisoner and a Greek. Stupefied with terror, he was
brought before the chiefs, who reassured him, promising that his
life should be spared on condition of his returning true answers to
the questions asked him. He informed them that he was a Greek, Sinon
by name, and that in consequence of the malice of Ulysses he had
been left behind by his countrymen at their departure. With regard
to the wooden horse, he told them that it was a propitiatory
offering to Minerva, and made so huge for the express purpose of
preventing its being carried within the city; for Calchas the
prophet had told them that if the Trojans took possession of it they
would assuredly triumph over the Greeks. This language turned the
tide of the people's feelings and they began to think how they might
best secure the monstrous horse and the favourable auguries
connected with it, when suddenly a prodigy occurred which left no
room to doubt. There appeared, advancing over the sea, two immense
serpents. They came upon the land, and the crowd fled in all
directions. The serpents advanced directly to the spot where Laocoon
stood with his two sons. They first attacked the children, winding
round their bodies and breathing their pestilential breath in their
faces. The father, attempting to rescue them, is next seized and
involved in the serpents' coils. He struggles to tear them away, but
they overpower all his efforts and strangle him and the children in
their poisonous folds. This event was regarded as a clear indication
of the displeasure of the gods at Laocoon's irreverent treatment of
the wooden horse, which they no longer hesitated to regard as a
sacred object, and prepared to introduce with due solemnity into the
city. This was done with songs and triumphal acclamations, and the
day closed with festivity. In the night the armed men who were
enclosed in the body of the horse, being let out by the traitor
Sinon, opened the gates of the city to their friends, who had
returned under cover of the night. The city was set on fire; the
people, overcome with feasting and sleep, put to the sword, and Troy
completely subdued.
* See Proverbial Expressions, no. 6.
One of the most celebrated groups of statuary in existence is
that of Laocoon and his children in the embrace of the serpents. The
original is in the Vatican at Rome. The following lines are from the
"Childe Harold" of Byron:
"Now turning to the Vatican go see
Laocoon's torture dignifying pain;
A father's love and mortal's agony
With an immortal's patience blending;- vain
The struggle! vain against the coiling strain
And gripe and deepening of the dragon's grasp
The old man's clinch; the long envenomed chain
Rivets the living links; the enormous asp
Enforces pang on pang and stifles gasp on gasp."
The comic poets will also occasionally borrow a classical
allusion. The following is from Swift's "Description of a City
Shower":
"Boxed in a chair the beau impatient sits,
While spouts run clattering o'er the roof by fits,
And ever and anon with frightful din
The leather sounds; he trembles from within.
So when Troy chairmen bore the wooden steed
Pregnant with Greeks impatient to be freed,
(Those bully Greeks, who, as the moderns do,
Instead of paying chairmen, run them through);
Laocoon struck the outside with a spear,
And each imprisoned champion quaked with fear."
King Priam lived to see the downfall of his kingdom and was slain
at last on the fatal night when the Greeks took the city. He had
armed himself and was about to mingle with the combatants, but was
prevailed on by Hecuba, his aged queen, to take refuge with herself
and his daughters as a suppliant at the altar of Jupiter. While
there, his youngest son Polites, pursued by Pyrrhus, the son of
Achilles, rushed in wounded, and expired at the feet of his father;
whereupon Priam, overcome with indignation, hurled his spear with
feeble hand against Pyrrhus,* and was forthwith slain by him.
* Pyrrhus's exclamation, "Not such aid nor such defenders does
the time require," has become proverbial. See Proverbial
Expressions, no. 7.
Queen Hecuba and her daughter Cassandra were carried captives to
Greece. Cassandra had been loved by Apollo, and he gave her the gift
of prophecy; but afterwards offended with her, he rendered the gift
unavailing by ordaining that her predictions should never be
believed. Polyxena, another daughter, who had been loved by
Achilles, was demanded by the ghost of that warrior, and was
sacrificed by the Greeks upon his tomb.
MENELAUS AND HELEN.
Our readers will be anxious to know the fate of Helen, the fair
but guilty occasion of so much slaughter. On the fall of Troy
Menelaus recovered possession of his wife, who had not ceased to
love him, though she had yielded to the might of Venus and deserted
him for another. After the death of Paris she aided the Greeks
secretly on several occasions, and in particular when Ulysses and
Diomed entered the city in disguise to carry off the Palladium. She
saw and recognized Ulysses, but kept the secret and even assisted
them in obtaining the image. Thus she became reconciled to her
husband, and they were among the first to leave the shores of Troy
for their native land. But having incurred the displeasure of the
gods they were driven by storms from shore to shore of the
Mediterranean, visiting Cyprus, Phoenicia and Egypt. In Egypt they
were kindly treated and presented with rich gifts, of which Helen's
share was a golden spindle and a basket on wheels. The basket was to
hold the wool and spools for the queen's work.
Dyer, in his poem of the "Fleece," thus alludes to this incident:
"...many yet adhere
To the ancient distaff, at the bosom fixed,
Casting the whirling spindle as they walk.
. . . . . . . .
This was of old, in no inglorious days,
The mode of spinning, when the Egyptian prince
A golden distaff gave that beauteous nymph,
Too beauteous Helen; no uncourtly gift."
Milton also alludes to a famous recipe for an invigorating
draught, called Nepenthe, which the Egyptian queen gave to Helen:
"Not that Nepenthes which the wife of Thone
In Egypt gave to Jove-born Helena,
Is of such power to stir up joy as this,
To life so friendly or so cool to thirst."
Comus.
Menelaus and Helen at length arrived in safety at Sparta, resumed
their royal dignity, and lived and reigned in splendour; and when
Telemachus, the son of Ulysses, in search of his father, arrived at
Sparta, he found Menelaus and Helen celebrating the marriage of
their daughter Hermione to Neoptolemus, son of Achilles.
AGAMEMNON,
ORESTES AND ELECTRA.
Agamemnon, the general-in-chief of the Greeks, the brother of
Menelaus, and who had been drawn into the quarrel to avenge his
brother's wrongs, not his own, was not so fortunate in the issue.
During his absence his wife Clytemnestra had been false to him, and
when his return was expected, she with her paramour, AEgisthus, laid
a plan for his destruction, and at the banquet given to celebrate
his return, murdered him.
It was intended by the conspirators to slay his son Orestes also,
a lad not yet old enough to be an object of apprehension, but from
whom, if he should be suffered to grow up, there might be danger.
Electra, the sister of Orestes, saved her brother's life by sending
him secretly away to his uncle Strophius, King of Phocis. In the
palace of Strophius Orestes grew up with the king's son Pylades, and
formed with him that ardent friendship which bas become proverbial.
Electra frequently reminded her brother by messengers of the duty of
avenging his father's death, and when grown up he consulted the
oracle of Delphi, which confirmed him in his design. He therefore
repaired in disguise to Argos, pretending to be a messenger from
Strophius, who had come to announce the death of Orestes, and
brought the ashes of the deceased in a funeral urn. After visiting
his father's tomb and. sacrificing upon it, according to the rites
of the ancients he made himself known to his sister Electra, and
soon after slew both AEgisthus and Clytemnestra.
This revolting act, the slaughter of a mother by her son, though
alleviated by the guilt of the victim and the express command of the
gods, did not fail to awaken in the breasts of the ancients the same
abhorrence that it does in ours. The Eumenides, avenging deities,
seized upon Orestes, and drove him frantic from land to land.
Pylades accompanied him in his wanderings and watched over him. At
length, in answer to a second appeal to the oracle, he was directed
to go to Tauris in Scythia, and to bring thence a statue of Diana
which was believed to have fallen from heaven. Accordingly Orestes
and Pylades went to Tauris, where the barbarous people were
accustomed to sacrifice to the goddess all strangers who fell into
their hands. The two friends were seized and carried bound to the
temple to be made victims. But the priestess of Diana was no other
than Iphigenia, the sister of Orestes, who, our readers will
remember, was snatched away by Diana at the moment when she was
about to be sacrificed. Ascertaining from the prisoners who they
were, Iphigenia disclosed herself to them, and the three made their
escape with the statue of the goddess, and returned to Mycenae.
But Orestes was not yet relieved from the vengeance of the
Erinyes. At length he took refuge with Minerva at Athens. The
goddess afforded him protection, and appointed the court of
Areopagus to decide his fate. The Erinyes brought forward their
accusation, and Orestes made the command of the Delphic oracle his
excuse. When the court voted and the voices were equally divided,
Orestes was acquitted by the command of Minerva.
Byron, in "Childe Harold," Canto IV., alludes to the story of
Orestes:
"O thou who never yet of human wrong
Left the unbalanced scale, great Nemesis!
Thou who didst call the Furies from the abyss,
And round Orestes bade them howl and hiss,
For that unnatural retribution,-just
Had it but been from hands less near,- in this,
Thy former realm, I call thee from the dust!"
One of the most pathetic scenes in the ancient drama is that in
which Sophocles represents the meeting of Orestes and Electra, on
his return from Phocis. Orestes, mistaking Electra for one of the
domestics, and desirous of keeping his arrival a secret till the
hour of vengeance should arrive, produces the urn in which his ashes
are supposed to rest. Electra, believing him to be really dead,
takes the urn and, embracing it, pours forth her grief in language
full of tenderness and despair.
Milton in one of his sonnets, says:
"...The repeated air
Of sad Electra's poet had the power
To save the Athenian walls from ruin bare."
This alludes to the story that when, on one occasion, the city of
Athens was at the mercy of her Spartan foes, and it was proposed to
destroy it, the thought was rejected upon the accidental quotation,
by some one, of a chorus of Euripides.
TROY.
After hearing so much about the city of Troy and its heroes, the
reader will perhaps be surprised to learn that the exact site of
that famous city is still a matter of dispute. There are some
vestiges of tombs on the plain which most nearly answers to the
description given by Homer and the ancient geographers, but no other
evidence of the former existence of a great city. Byron thus
describes the present appearance of the scene:
"The winds are high, and Helle's tide
Rolls darkly heaving to the main;
And night's descending shadows hide
That field with blood bedewed in vain,
The desert of old Priam's pride,
The tombs, sole relics of his reign.
All- save immortal dreams that could beguile
The blind old man of Scio's rocky isle."
Bride of Abydos.
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