The Story of Troy Part 3

Helen was the daughter of Tyn'da-rus, who was king of Sparta before Menelaus. Some say that she was the daughter of Jupiter, and that Tyndarus was her stepfather. But from her infancy she was brought up at the royal palace of Sparta as the daughter of Tyndarus and his wife, Le'da. When she became old enough to marry, the fame of her great beauty drew many of the young princes of Greece to Sparta, all competing for her favor, and each hoping to win her for his wife. This placed Tyndarus in a difficulty. He was alarmed at the sight of so many suitors for the hand of his daughter, for he knew that he could not give her to one without offending all the rest. He therefore resolved to adopt the advice of Ulysses, the prince of Ith'a-ca (an island on the west coast of Greece). Ulysses, also named O-dys'seus, was famed for great wisdom as well as valor in war.

Ulysses, man of many arts, Son of Laertes, reared in Ithaca, That rugged isle, and skilled in every form Of shrewd device and action wisely planned.

BRYANT, _Iliad_, Book III.

Ulysses had himself been one of the suitors for Helen, but he saw that among so many compet.i.tors he had little chance of success. Besides, he had fallen in love with Pe-nel'o-pe, the niece of Tyndarus. He therefore withdrew from the contest, and he offered to suggest a plan for settling the difficulty about Helen, if Tyndarus would give him Penelope to be his wife. Tyndarus consented. Ulysses then advised that Helen should choose for herself which of the princes she would have for her husband, but that before she did so, all the suitors should pledge themselves by oath to submit to her decision, and engage that if any one should take her away from the husband of her choice, they would all join in punis.h.i.+ng the offender.

If any dared to seize and bear her off, All would unite in arms, and lay his town Level with the ground.

EURIPIDES (Potter's tr.).

The Grecian princes consented to this proposal. They all, including Ulysses himself, took the required oath. Helen then made choice of Menelaus, to whom she was immediately married with great pomp and popular rejoicing. On the death of Tyndarus, Menelaus became king of Sparta, and he and his beautiful queen lived and reigned together in prosperity and happiness until the ill-fated visit of Paris.

Menelaus was the brother of Ag-a-mem'non, king of My-ce'nae, one of the most powerful and wealthy of the kings of Hel'las, as Greece was anciently called. Their father, A'treus, was a son of the hero Pe'lops, who conquered the greater part of the peninsula named from him the Pel-oponne'sus, and who was the grandson of Jupiter. Agamemnon, or A-tri'des (son of Atreus), as he is often called, was commander in chief of all the Greek armies during the siege of Troy. From his high rank and authority Homer calls him the "king of men" and the "king of kings." He is sometimes also called "king of all Ar'gos," a powerful kingdom near Mycenae, and from this name the Greeks are sometimes called "Ar'gives."

The royal scepter which Agamemnon bore in his hands when addressing his soldiers was made by Vulcan for Jupiter.

The king of kings his awful figure raised; High in his hand the golden sceptre blazed; The golden sceptre, of celestial flame, By Vulcan formed, from Jove to Hermes came: To Pelops he the immortal gift resign'd; The immortal gift great Pelops left behind.

POPE, _Iliad_, Book II.

The kings and princes of h.e.l.las, who met at the call of Menelaus, decided, after some discussion of the matter, that before declaring war against Troy it would be well to try to obtain satisfaction by peaceful means. They therefore sent amba.s.sadors to Troy to demand the restoration of Helen and the treasures which Paris had carried off. Di'o-mede, king of ae-to'lia, and the wise Ulysses, were chosen for this mission.

Menelaus volunteered to accompany them, thinking that he might be able to persuade his wife to return to her home.

When the Greek amba.s.sadors arrived in the Trojan capital they were respectfully received by the king. During their stay in the city they were entertained at the residence of An-te'nor, one of Priam's ministers of state, who had the wisdom to disapprove of the action of Paris, and to advise that the Spartan queen should be given back to her husband.

Antenor much admired the appearance and eloquence of Ulysses, which are thus described in the Iliad:

"But when Ulysses rose, in thought profound, His modest eyes he fixed upon the ground; As one unskilled or dumb, he seem'd to stand, Nor raised his head, nor stretch'd his sceptred hand; But, when he speaks, what elocution flows!

Soft as the fleeces of descending snows, The copious accents fall, with easy art; Melting they fall, and sink into the heart!"

POPE, _Iliad_, Book III.

But the eloquence of Ulysses was of no avail. King Priam, blinded by his love for his son, saw not the threatened danger, and he refused the demand of the amba.s.sadors. Menelaus was not even permitted to see his wife. Ulysses and his companions then returned to Greece, and at once preparations for war with Troy were commenced.

These preparations occupied a very long time. Ten years were spent in getting together the vast force, which in more than a thousand s.h.i.+ps was carried across the aegean Sea to the Trojan sh.o.r.es, from the port of Au'lis on the east coast-of Greece. Some of the Hel-len'ic (Greek) princes were very unwilling to join the expedition, as they knew that the struggle would be a tedious and perilous one. Even Ulysses, who, as we have seen, had first proposed the suitors' oath at Sparta, was at the last moment unwilling to go. He had now become king of Ithaca, his father, La-er'tes, having retired from the cares of government, and he would gladly have remained in his happy island home with his young wife, Penelope, and his infant son, Te-lem'a-chus, both of whom he tenderly loved.

But the man of many arts could not be spared from the Trojan War. He paid no heed, however, to the messages sent to him asking him to join the army at Aulis. Agamemnon resolved, therefore, to go himself to Ithaca to persuade Ulysses to take part in the expedition. He was accompanied by his brother Menelaus, and by a chief named Pal-a-me'des, a very wise and learned man as well as a brave warrior. As soon as Ulysses heard of their arrival in Ithaca, he pretended to be insane, and he tried by a very amusing stratagem to make them believe that he was really mad. Dressing himself in his best clothes, and going down to the seash.o.r.e, he began to plow the beach with a horse and an _ox_ yoked together, and to scatter salt upon the sand instead of seed.

[Ill.u.s.tration: ULYSSES FEIGNING MADNESS.

_Heywood Hardy._]

Palamedes, however, was more than a match in artifice for the Ithacan king. Taking Telemachus from the arms of his nurse, he placed the infant on the sand in front of the plowing team. Ulysses quickly turned the animals aside to avoid injuring his child, thus proving that he was not mad but in full possession of his senses. The king of Ithaca was therefore obliged to join the expedition to Troy. With twelve s.h.i.+ps well manned he sailed from his rugged island, which he did not again see for twenty years. Ten years he spent at the siege, and ten on his homeward voyage, during which he met with the wonderful adventures that Homer describes in the Odyssey.

Ulysses had his revenge upon Palamedes in a manner very unworthy of a brave man. In the camp before Troy, during the siege, he bribed one of the servants of Palamedes to conceal a sum of money in his master's tent. He then forged a letter, which he read before a council of the Greek generals, saying that Palamedes had taken it from a Trojan prisoner. This letter was written as if by King Priam to Palamedes, thanking him for the information he had given regarding the plans of the Greeks, and mentioning money as having been sent him in reward for his services. The Greek generals at once ordered a search to be made in the tent of Palamedes, and the money being found where it had been hidden by direction of Ulysses, the unfortunate Palamedes was immediately put to death as a traitor.

Palamedes, not unknown to fame, Who suffered from the malice of the times, Accused and sentenced for pretended crimes.

VERGIL.

It is said that Palamedes was the inventor of weights and measures, and of the games of chess and backgammon, and that it was he who first placed sentinels round a camp and gave them a watchword.

There was another of the Greek princes whose help in the Trojan War was obtained only by an ingenious trick. This was the famous A-chil'les. He was the son of Peleus and Thetis, at whose marriage feast Eris threw the apple of discord on the table. The prophecy that Thetis would have a son greater than his father was fulfilled in Achilles, the bravest of the Greeks at the Trojan War, and the princ.i.p.al hero of Homer's Iliad.

Thetis educated her son with great care. She had him instructed in all the accomplishments fitting for princes of those times. When he was an infant she dipped him in the river Styx, which, it was believed, made it impossible for any weapon wielded by mortal hands to wound him. But the water did not touch the child's heel by which his mother held him when she plunged him in the river, and it was in this part that he received the wound of which he died.

Notwithstanding his being dipped in the Styx, Thetis was afraid to let Achilles go to the Trojan War, for Jupiter had told her that he would be killed if he took part in it. For this reason, as soon as she heard that the Grecian princes were gathering their forces, she secretly sent the youth to the court of Lyc-o-me'des, king of the island of Scy'ros. Here Achilles, dressed like a young girl, resided as a companion of the king's daughters. But Cal'chas, the soothsayer of the Grecian army, told the chiefs that without the help of Achilles Troy could not be taken.

Calchas the wise, the Grecian priest and guide, That sacred seer, whose comprehensive view, The past, the present, and the future knew.

POPE, _Iliad_, Book I.

Calchas, however, could not tell where Achilles was to be found, and when they applied to Peleus, he too was unable or unwilling to tell them. In this difficulty the wily king of Ithaca did good service. After much inquiry he discovered that Achilles was at Scyros with the king's daughters. He soon made his way to the island, but here there was a new difficulty. He had never seen the young prince, and how was he to know him? But he devised a scheme which proved entirely successful. Equipping himself as a peddler, he went to the royal palace, exhibiting jewelry and other fancy articles to attract the attention of the ladies of the family. He also had some beautiful weapons of war among his wares.

[Ill.u.s.tration: ACHILLES AT THE COURT OF LYCOMEDES.

_Painting by Battoni._]

As soon as he appeared, the maidens gathered about him and began examining the jewels. But one of the group eagerly seized a weapon, and handled it with much skill and pleasure. Satisfied that this was the young prince of whom he was in search, the pretended peddler announced his name and told why he had come. Achilles, for it was he, gladly agreed to take part with his countrymen in their great expedition, and he immediately returned to Phthi'a, the capital of his father's kingdom of Thessaly. There he lost no time in making all necessary preparations.

Soon afterwards he sailed for Aulis with the brave Myr'mi-dons, as his soldiers were called, accompanied also by his devoted friend and constant companion, Pa-tro'clus.

Full fifty s.h.i.+ps beneath Achilles' care, The Achaians, Myrmidons, h.e.l.lenians bear; Thessalians all, though various in their name; The same their nation, and their chief the same.

POPE, _Iliad_, Book II.

Agamemnon, the commander in chief of the great host, sailed with a hundred s.h.i.+ps from his kingdom of Mycenae, and his brother Menelaus, eager for vengeance upon the Trojans, sailed with sixty s.h.i.+ps and a strong force of brave Spartans.

Great Agamemnon rules the numerous band, A hundred vessels in long order stand, And crowded nations wait his dread command.

High on the deck the king of men appears, And his refulgent arms in triumph wears; Proud of his host, unrivall'd in his reign, In silent pomp he moves along the main.

His brother follows, and to vengeance warms, The hardy Spartans, exercised in arms: . . . . . .

These, o'er the bending ocean, Helen's cause, In sixty s.h.i.+ps with Menelaus draws.

POPE, _Iliad_ Book II.

Among the other great warriors of h.e.l.las who joined the expedition was Nes'tor, the venerable king of Py'los, distinguished for his eloquence, wisdom, and prudence.

In ninety sail, from Pylos' sandy coast, Nestor the sage conducts his chosen host.

POPE, _Iliad_, Book II.

The ancients believed that Nestor outlived three generations of men, which some suppose to have been three hundred years. From this it was a custom of the ancient Greeks and Romans, when wis.h.i.+ng a long and happy life to their friends, to wish them to live as long as Nestor.

Experienced Nestor, in persuasion skill'd; Words, sweet as honey, from his lips distill'd; Two generations now had pa.s.s'd away, Wise by his rules, and happy by his sway; Two ages o'er his native realm he reign'd, And now the example of the third remain'd.

POPE, _Iliad_, Book I.

The two Ajaxes were also renowned warriors of the Grecian army,--Ajax Telamon and Ajax O-i'leus, so called from the names of their fathers.

Telamon was the king of Salamis, to whom, as has been told, Hercules gave Laomedon's daughter, Hesione. His son Ajax, a man of huge stature and giant strength, was, next to Achilles, the bravest of all the Greeks who went to the Trojan War.

With these appear the Salaminian bands, Whom the gigantic Telamon commands; In twelve black s.h.i.+ps to Troy they steer their course, And with the great Athenians join their force.