Book IV

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Helen passed on without uttering a word, but in the evening she sent one of her maids to bring Ulysses secretly to her apartment in the palace. There she expressed her joy at meeting her countryman, and after hospitably entertaining him, she listened with pleasure to his plans. She then told him of the plans of the Trojans, and where and how the Palladium was to be got. Having thus obtained the information he desired, Ulysses contrived to make his way back unobserved to the Greek camp. In a few days he returned, accompanied by Diomede. They got into the city by scaling the walls, and Diomede, climbing on the shoulders of Ulysses, entered the citadel. Here, by following the directions given by Helen, he found the famous statue, and he and his companion carried it off to their friends at the ships, who rejoiced at the success of the undertaking.

Troy was now no longer under the protection of Pallas Minerva. Though that goddess helped the Greeks in their battles, she was obliged to save the city itself while it contained her sacred statue. But the Palladium being no longer within the walls, she was now at liberty to help the Greeks to capture and destroy the city. She therefore put into the mind of Ulysses the idea of the wooden horse, and she instructed the Greek chief E-peʹus how to make it. This horse was of vast size, large enough to contain about a hundred men, for it was hollow within.

By Minerva's aid, a fabric reared, Which like a steed of monstrous height appeared; The sides were flanked with pine.

VERGIL.

When it was finished, provisions were put into it. Then Ulysses, and Pyrrhus, and Menelaus, and Epeus, and a number of other Greek warriors, mounted into it by means of a ladder, after which the opening was fastened by strong bolts.

In the hollow side, Selected numbers of their soldiers hide; With inward arms the dire machine they load; And iron bowels stuff the dark abode.

VERGIL.

Meanwhile the other Greeks broke up their camp, and all going aboard their ships, they set sail, as if they had given up the siege, and were about to return to Greece. But they went no farther than the island of Tenʹe-dos, about three miles from the shore.

In sight of Troy lies Tenedos, an isle (While Fortune did on Priam's empire smile) Renowned for wealth; but since, a faithless bay, Where ships exposed to wind and weather lay. There was their fleet concealed.

VERGIL.

As soon as the Trojans saw from their walls that the tents of the enemy were removed, and that their fleet had departed, they were filled with surprise and delight. They believed that the Greeks had given up the war, and so, throwing open their gates, they rushed out in multitudes upon the plain, King Priam riding in his chariot at their head.

The Trojans, cooped within their walls so long, Unbar their gates, and issue in a throng Like swarming bees, and with delight survey The camp deserted, where the Grecians lay.

VERGIL.

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

"This hollow fabric either must enclose Within its blind recess, our secret foes; Or 'tis an engine raised above the town To overlook the walls, and then to batter down. Somewhat is sure designed by fraud or force: Trust not their presents, nor admit the horse."

VERGIL.

Thus saying, Laocoon hurled his spear against the side of the horse, and it sent forth a hollow sound like a deep groan. But at this moment a stranger, having the appearance of a Greek, was brought before the king. Some Trojan shepherds, finding him loitering on the river bank, had made him prisoner. Being asked who he was and why he was there, he told an artful story. His name, he said, was Si'non, and he was a Greek. His countrymen, having decided to give up the war, resolved to offer one of themselves as a sacrifice to the gods, that they might get fair winds to return home, and they selected him to be the victim. To escape that terrible fate he concealed himself among the reeds by the side of the Scamander until the fleet departed. This was Sinon's account of himself. The Trojans believed it, and the prisoner was set free. But the king asked him to tell them about the wooden horse,--why it had been made, and left there upon the plain.

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

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

VERGIL.

King Priam and the Trojans believed this story too, and a terrible thing which just then happened made them believe it all the more. After Laocoon had hurled his spear at the wooden horse, he and his two sons went to offer sacrifice to the gods at an altar erected on the beach. While they were thus engaged, two enormous serpents, darting out from the sea, glided up to the altar, seized the priest and his sons, and crushed all three to death in their tremendous coils.

First around the tender boys they wind, Then with their sharpened fangs their limbs and bodies grind. The wretched father, running to their aid With pious haste, but vain, they next invade: Twice round his waist their winding volumes rolled; And twice about his gasping throat they fold. The priest thus doubly choked--their crests divide, And towering o'er his head in triumph ride.

VERGIL.

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

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

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

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

Æneas, with his father Anchises and his son I-uʹlus, escaped from the city, and sailed from Troas with a fleet and a number of warlike followers. After many adventures by sea and land, which the Roman poet, Verʹgil, tells about in his poem called the Æ-neʹid, he reached Italy. There he established a settlement, and his descendants, it is said, were the founders of Rome.

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

[Illustration: CAPTIVE ANDROMACHE.

_Painting by Lord Leighton._]

XIII. THE GREEK CHIEFS AFTER THE WAR.

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

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

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

BRYANT, _Odyssey_,