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The story of the Trojan War was the subject of a great cycle of legends, and the deeds of the heroes engaged in it inspired the imagination of the Greeks in all ages. Homer's Iliad is but the greatest of many epics written about the siege of Troy, and the Odyssey is concerned with the adventures of one of the heroes of that war on his return voyage. All the great writers of tragedy turned to some phase of the struggle or to the history of one or other of the families engaged in it. Alexander the Great set Achilles before him as his ideal hero and turned aside from his march of conquest to visit his reputed tomb. The fame and influence of the story descended upon Rome, and the poet Vergil took as the subject of his national epic the wanderings of Trojan Æneas from burning Troy until he settled in Italy and became the ancestor of the Roman race. For more than two thousand years scholars have discussed the historical basis for the legend, and not fifty years ago a Ger man business man, having acquired a sufficient fortune, determined to devote-the rest of his life and a large part of his money to excavating beneath a little Turkish village on the legendary site of Troy. There, buried beneath three other ruined cities, were unearthed the remains of a walled town of the time of which Homer tells. Whether history, legend, or myth, the Trojan War has left its mark deep on the thought and poetry of our world, and the actors in that drama are pictured on the walls of our libraries and public buildings along with Columbus and the Pilgrim Fathers, as part of our heritage from the past.

The siege took place in the generation succeeding that of the Calydonian Boar Hunt, the Seven against Thebes, and the voyage of the Argonauts, and many of the warriors engaged before Troy were the sons of the earlier heroes. Three families are of especial importance in this connection.

Ag a mem’non and Men e la’us, the leaders of the Greek hosts, were descended from Tan’ta lus, who was the son of Zeus. This Tantalus was remarkably favored by the gods, for he was invited to their banquets, partook of their nectar and ambrosia, and shared their secrets. For what crime he lost his exalted position and in what way he was punished is a matter of dispute. Some say that he stole nectar and ambrosia and shared it with his friends; some, that he divulged the secrets of Zeus; some, that he became so presumptuous that to test the gods he served up to them at a feast the flesh of his own son Pelops. There are also differing accounts of the punishment he received: that he stood in Hades below a rock that seemed ever about to fall and crush him, or that, as was told in an earlier chapter (see p. 190), in the presence of food and drink he was always unable to reach it and appease his torturing hunger and thirst. Though Pelops had been served up in this cannibal fashion, he had been restored to life by Hermes and came out of the ordeal whole and strong except for one shoulder, which Demeter, in the absentmindedness induced by her grief for her daughter, had unfortunately eaten. For it she substituted a shoulder of ivory. It was Pelops who won his wife Hippodamia by contending with her father in a chariot race (see p. 147), and some say that it was his violence to the charioteer Myrtilus that brought on his family the curse that pursued it through three generations. Because of their murder of their brother, Pelops drove his sons A’treus and Thy es’tes, from his kingdom, and they came to Mycenæ where they succeeded to the power after Eurystheus' death. Atreus caught Thyestes in an attempt to deprive him of his power and, while appearing to forgive him, avenged himself by serving up his son to him at dinner. The sons of Atreus were Agamemnon and Menelaüs, the former, king of Mycenæ and overlord of a large part of the Peloponnesus and surrounding islands, the latter, ruler of Sparta and husband of Zeus's beautiful daughter Helen.

Achilles was descended from Æ’a cus, who was of noted for his uprightness and justice. He was the son of Zeus by Æ gi’na, whom Zeus in the form of an eagle had stolen from her father, a river-god, and had carried off to the island near Athens that still bears her name. Hera, in anger at the island for affording hospitality to a rival, sent upon it a plague that destroyed all the inhabitants except Æacus, who in his loneliness called upon his father to give him a people. Zeus answered his prayer by turning a tribe of ants into men, called from the Greek word Myr’mi dons. Because of his righteousness, Æacus after death was made a judge in the lower world. (See p. 189.) Æacus' son Peleus, with the Myrmidons, migrated to a part of Thessaly called Phthia. As a young man he took part in the Calydonian boar hunt and the quest of the golden fleece. His wife was the Nereid Thetis, whom Zeus himself had been deterred from marrying only by the prophecy that she would bear a son greater than his father. The issue of this marriage was Achilles. Because of a prophecy that her son would die in war, Thetis had tried to make him invulnerable by dipping him as a baby in the potent waters of the Styx. The heel by which she held him had been unwet by the waters and hence was the one vulnerable spot. After this Thetis left her husband and child and returned to her father Nereus in the depths of the sea, and Achilles was given to the centaur Chiron to be educated. He grew up strong and beautiful, and so swift of foot that he needed no dog nor spear in hunting but overtook his game and caught it alive.

The earliest mortal ancestor of the Trojan royal family was Dar’da nus, a son of Zeus, who founded a city on the slopes of Mt. Ida, in the northwestern corner of Asia Minor. From his grandson Tros the Trojans took their name. One of Tros’s sons was the beautiful boy Ganymede, whom Zeus took to be his cup-bearer, and another was Ilus, who transferred the seat of his power to Ilium or Troy, a new city built between Mt. Ida and the Hellespont. The walls of the new city were built by Poseidon and Apollo for Ilus’s son, the faithless Laomedon. After the destruction of the city and the death of Laomedon at Heracles' hands (see p. 225), the rule fell to Laomedon's only living son, Priam, a just and god-fearing man, by whom the city was splendidly restored. Priam became the father of fifty daughters and fifty sons, of whom the noblest was Hector. Another of his sons was the ill-omened Paris, the curse of Troy.

The golden apple that the goddess had thrown in among the gods assembled as guests at the wedding of Peleus and Thetis (see p. III) had not only brought discord between Zeus's wife and his daughters, Athena and Aphrodite, but it was the first cause of the war between Greeks and Trojans, which, after lasting for ten years, ended in the utter destruction of Troy and the death of hundreds of heroes. For the Trojan prince and shepherd Paris, whom Zeus had made judge in the matter, had given the prize of beauty to Aphrodite because she had promised him as wife the most beautiful woman in the world. Now the most beautiful woman in the world was Helen, the daughter of Leda and Zeus (see p. 235), who, after being sought in marriage by all the princes of Greece, had been given by her step-father to Menelaüs, king of Sparta. Fulfilling her promise, Aphrodite led Paris to the court of Menelaüs, who, in accordance with the gracious custom that required hospitable treatment of strangers as a law of Zeus, received him kindly and entertained him at his palace. Then Paris did a treacherous thing; for while Menelaüs was away from home, he induced Helen to desert her husband, and putting her and much treasure on board his ship, he sailed away to Troy. Greek poets seem not to have attached so much blame in the matter to Helen as we might expect, partly, no doubt, because she had yielded to Aphrodite's persuasions, but partly, it would seem, because such divine beauty as hers seemed to them to cover a multitude of sins. But Paris' action was unreservedly condemned.

Fig. 88. The persuasion of Helen,

When the Greek chiefs had been contending for the hand of Helen, they had agreed that if violence should be done to her or to the man whom she married, they would all unite in avenging it. And so when Menelaüs and his brother Agamemnon, king of Mycenæ, called upon them to take arms against the Trojans, they hastened to fulfil their pledge. Agamemnon, as the most powerful prince of Greece, was chosen leader of the armies. His most trusted counselor was the aged Nestor, whose long reminiscences of the glories of his youth and the mighty deeds of the heroes of his generation met with unfailing respect from the courteous princes. Di o me’des, son of Tydeus, came from Argos; he was the bravest of Greeks, except only Achilles. Ajax, son of Telemon, led his forces from Salamis and earned for himself the title of "great bulwark of the Achæans." The catalogue of ships, as Homer gives it, amounted to more than twelve hundred; these were all rowed with great oars and carried fifty to one hundred and twenty men each. All the heroes were anxious to secure the help of Odysseus, prince of Ithaca, whose reputation for courage and endurance was equaled by his reputation for cunning devices and persuasive talk. But Odysseus was living happily with his wife Pe nel’o pe and his little son Te lem’a chus and wished to avoid going to the war. So when an embassy came to summon him, he feigned madness, and harnessing an ass and a bull to his plow, sowed his field with salt. But the clever ambassadors laid the baby Telemachus before the plow, and when Odysseus turned it aside, they proved his sanity and induced him to join the expedition. Once forced to throw in his fortune with theirs, Odysseus was more than ready to help in securing the company of young Achilles. For Achilles' mother, the sea-goddess Thetis, having prophetic knowledge that her son was not destined to return alive from the war, had sent him, disguised as a girl, to serve among the attendants of the princess of Scyros. Odysseus came to the court in the disguise of a peddler, bringing among the feminine silks and trinkets a sword. While the princess and her maids eagerly tried on the ear-rings and veils, Achilles with sparkling eyes seized upon the sword and brandished it above his head. Then Odysseus threw off his disguise and easily persuaded Achilles to join the army. He was the strongest and bravest of all the princes, in beauty, strength and noble nature the ideal hero of the Greeks. With Achilles came his friend Pat ro'clus, and so close was the affection between the two that their friendship takes its place beside that between David and Jonathan.

The armies of the Greek leaders assembled at Aulis, on the eastern coast of Central Greece. There Artemis, in punishment for the killing of a sacred hind, refused them favorable winds and would not allow them to sail, until Agamemnon, summoning his young daughter Iph i ge ni’a on the plea of giving her in marriage to Achilles, offered her as a sacrifice. At the moment when the knife was about to descend upon her, Artemis snatched her away to serve as priestess in her temple at Taurus, putting in her place a hind. Then favorable winds brought the fleet to Troy. There is nothing more moving in all tragedy than Iphigenia's appeal to her father, as Euripides tells it, and nothing more noble than her final willing submission when she knew that without it her people could never be victorious.

Fig. 89. Sacrifice of Iphigenia.

A second act of self-sacrifice marked the landing of the Greeks. Pro tes i la’us, knowing the prophecy that the man who first touched Trojan soil should meet his death, leaped from the ship, offering his life for the cause. His devoted wife La od a mi’a prayed to the gods that he might return to her for one day. The prayer was granted, and when he died the second time she threw herself upon his funeral pyre and so accompanied him to Hades. The siege of the city now began. The gods took an active part in the struggle, protecting and inspiring their sons and favorites among the heroes and in some cases even entering the battle in person. On the Trojan side were Aphrodite (Venus), Ares (Mars), and Apollo; on the Greek side, Hera (June), Athena (Minerva), and Poseidon (Neptune). Zeus (Jupiter) held victory in the balance, yielding to the persuasion now of this god, now of that, for Greeks or Trojans, but keeping his eyes fixed on the fate that required the ultimate overthrow of Troy. For nine years the siege continued with varying fortune, yet, on the whole, advantage lay with the Greeks, since they had driven the Trojans within their walled city and had ravaged the neighboring country.

After one of these raids Agamemnon had received as his share of the booty a maiden named Chry se’is, whose father was a priest of Apollo. The priest, coming to ransom his daughter, was driven off with insults, and called upon the god for vengeance.

And Phœbus Apollo heard him and came down from the peaks of Olympus wroth at heart, bearing on his shoulders his bow and covered quiver. And the arrows clanged upon his shoulders in his wrath, as the god moved; and he descended like to night. Then he sate him aloof from the ships, and let an arrow fly; and there was heard a great clanging of the silver bow. First did he assail the mules and fleet dogs, but afterward, aiming at the men his swift dart, he smote; and the pyres of the dead burnt continually in multitude. (Iliad, I. 42 ff.)

On the tenth day of the plague brought by Apollo’s arrows Achilles, inspired by Hera, called the Greeks to an assembly and urged the prophet Calchas to tell what had aroused the anger of the god. When the prophet made known the truth, Agamemnon was furiously angry against him and against Achilles for protecting him, and declared that if Chryseis was taken from him he would take in return Achilles' slave maiden Bri se’is. So began the quarrel between Agamemnon and Achilles, which, as Homer says, "hurled down into Hades many strong souls of heroes." For Achilles, in wrath at the loss of Brisei’s and in indignation at the insolent invasion of his rights, retired to his tent and refused to lead his Myrmidons to battle. Moreover he complained of his ungrateful treatment to his mother Thetis, calling her up from her home in the depths of ocean to listen to his angry complaints. And she "rose from the gray sea like a mist," and caressed her son and promised to go to Father Zeus and demand Agamemnon's punishment. So when Thetis came to Olympus and clasped his knees, Zeus bowed his ambrosial head in assent, promising that the Greeks should flee before the Trojans until Agamemnon should bitterly repent of his insolence. It is the story of this quarrel between the heroes and its results which Homer tells in the Iliad.

Though he delayed in its accomplishment, Zeus did not forget his promise, and he laid his stern command upon all the gods to refrain from further interference in the battle. Then Hector rallied the Trojans and drove the Greeks back to their ships, and the battle swayed now this way, now that, and all the plain was strewn with dead and wounded. For a time Agamemnon took the lead and seemed invincible, but at the last he was disabled by a wound, and Menelaüs was wounded, and Odysseus, and many others of the chiefs. So Hector led his people against the wall that the Greeks had built about their camp, and Apollo, disobeying Zeus's command, put himself at their head and cast down the wall "as a boy scatters the sand beside the sea." Fire was thrown on one of the Greek ships and the whole fleet might have been destroyed and the Greeks cut off from return home if great Ajax had not stubbornly held the Trojans at bay.

At this desperate crisis Patroclus, grieving for the sufferings of his friends, went to Achilles and begged that if he was unwilling himself to forget his resentment and return to the conflict, he would permit him, clad in his armor, to lead the Myrmidons to the rescue. For he hoped that the Trojans seeing Achilles' well known arms would think that the hero himself had come against them and so would lose confidence. Half unwillingly Achilles gave his consent, at the same time earnestly warning Patroclus that when he had driven the Trojans back and saved the ships he should refrain from pursuing to the walls of the city. On the appearance of Patroclus in Achilles' armor the tide of the battle was turned, and the Greeks drove back the Trojans. Then Patroclus, in the fury of the fight, forgot his chief's orders and pursued even to the city and would have scaled the wall at the head of his victorious Myrmidons if Apollo had not appeared on the ramparts and forced them back. Although the Trojans rallied, Patroclus held his ground beneath the walls of the city, until Apollo, coming behind him, struck him and cast off his helmet and broke his spear. So, unarmed by the god, Patroclus was overthrown and killed by Hector, prophesying as the breath left his body the approaching death of his victorious foe at the hands of the vengeful Achilles. Menelaus and Ajax, standing over the body of their fallen comrade, with grim determination beat back the fierce attacks of the Trojans. But Achilles' armor fell into Hector's hands, though the horses and chariot were saved and driven out of the field. Homer says of those immortal horses:

As a pillar abideth firm that standeth on the tomb of a man or woman dead, so abode they immovably with the beautiful chariot, abasing their heads unto the earth. And hot tears flowed from their eyes to the ground as they mourned in sorrow for their charioteer. (Iliad, XVII. 434.)

A messenger from the battle came to Achilles the war. as he sat beside the ships, waiting anxiously for the return of his friend. When he heard the news "a black cloud of grief enwrapped Achilles, and with both hands he took dark dust and poured it over his head and defiled his comely face, and on his fragrant doublet black ashes fell." Thetis heard her son's moans and rose from the sea and came and, sitting beside him, tried to comfort him. She promised to go to Hephæstus and persuade him to make for the hero arms greater and more glorious than those he had lost, so that he might return to the battle and avenge his dead friend. After Thetis had left him, Hera sent Iris, bidding him show himself to the Trojans, even unarmed as he was.

Around his strong shoulders Athena cast her tasseled ægis, and around his head the bright goddess set a crown of a golden cloud, and kindled therefrom a blazing flame.

So when Achilles shouted aloud, the Trojans were dismayed and drew back, and the Greeks drew the body of Patroclus from under the heap of slain that had fallen on him and carried him to Achilles' tent. Meanwhile Thetis, fulfilling her promise, found Hephæstus working at his forge and made her request. And the lame god made for Achilles marvelous armor, worthy of a god. The shield was wrought in wonderful designs, the earth and heavens, the sun, moon, and stars, were in the middle of it, and there were two cities, one at peace, where people were being married and dancing and holding their law-courts, the other under siege, and the gods mingling in the fight. On other circles of the shield he pictured fields plowed and harvested, and a vineyard, and herds of cattle attacked by lions, and flocks of sheep; besides these, a dancing-place where boys and girls were dancing to music. All around the edge of the shield he wrought the river of Ocean. When Achilles had received the glorious armor from his mother, he was filled with a furious eagerness to join battle with the Trojans and avenge himself on Hector; but first he went to the assembly of the Greeks and became reconciled with Agamemnon. The other heroes were glad of his return, but most of all, Agamemnon, who acknowledged the wrong he had done and offered all the reparation in his power. So Zeus's promise to Thetis had been fulfilled, and now, calling the gods to assembly, he bade them go and enter the conflict, helping whatever heroes they would.

The most terrible battle of the war now began, and Achilles raged across the plain like a god, seemingly invincible. All that met him fell before him, among them two sons of Priam. At last the river Xanthus, choked with the bodies of the sons of Troy, rose in his might against the hero and pursued him across the plain, threatening to overwhelm him in his great waves. Achilles might well have died there, with his vengeance unaccomplished, if Hera had not roused her son Hephæstus to meet and check the oncoming flood of the river with a flood of fire. Freed from the pursuit of the river-god, Achilles returned to the pursuit of his enemies and drove them before him to the city. From his post on the' walls Priam saw the danger of his people and ordered the gates to be thrown open to afford them a refuge. This might have been the signal for the destruction of Troy, for Achilles was so close on their heels that he had almost entered the gates behind them, when Apollo inspired one of the fugitives to stand and meet him. Then, when Achilles would have killed the rash mortal, the god snatched him away, and assuming his form, drew Achilles in pursuit away from the open gates.

But brave Hector still stood outside the gates of the city and would not hear the prayers of his father and mother that he should follow his comrades into safety; for he dreaded the reproach of his people that he had led them on to battle and had brought many to death and had then feared himself to stand against Achilles. So when Achilles returned from his vain pursuit of the god. Hector boldly stood to meet him,— only for a moment, for when he saw him near, in his blazing armor and brandishing his great spear, a panic seized Hector and he turned and fled. Three times around the walls of Troy Hector fled and Achilles pursued.

But when the fourth time they had reached the springs, then the Father hung his golden balances, and set therein two lots of dreary death, one of Achilles, one of horse-taming Hector, and held them by the midst and poised. Then Hector's fated day sank down, and fell to the house of Hades, and Phœbus Apollo left him. (Iliad, XXII. 208.)

Then Athena, the enemy of Troy, came in the form of his brother and urged Hector to stand and wait for Achilles' onset, and he was deceived and obeyed. But when, having thrown his spear against Achilles and missed him, he turned to receive a second spear from his brother and saw no one near, he knew that the gods had deceived him and drew his sword for the last desperate chance. The end had been determined by fate, and noble Hector fell before Achilles, as Patroclus had fallen before him, "and his soul flew forth of his limbs and was gone to the house of Hades, wailing her fate, leaving her vigor and youth." Then Achilles took a savage vengeance for his friend's death, for he bound his fallen enemy to his chariot by the feet and dragged him in the dust about the walls of Troy. This last insult to the noblest of their sons Priam and Hecuba saw from the walls, and his people could scarcely prevent the old man from rushing out to his own death. And Hector's noble wife Androm'ache, as she waited at home for her lord's return, hearing the moans and laments rushed in terror to the walls, and seeing that terrible sight joined her despairing grief with theirs.

So Achilles returned victorious from the battle with all his purpose accomplished, and he held a splendid funeral for Patroclus, with a feast and a great sacrifice and a triumphal procession about his funeral pyre. And when the body had been burned, he gathered the ashes and put them in a golden urn and buried them and raised over them a mound. Then followed the funeral games — chariot-racing, boxing, wrestling, spear throwing, and other contests, and Achilles offered splendid prizes, and all the heroes entered the lists. When this was over, Zeus sent Iris to Priam to bid him go to Achilles' tent to ransom the body of his son. As Priam went in his chariot, Hermes met him and guided him safely through the sleeping guards and brought him to Achilles' tent. And Achilles, who had been warned by Thetis that this was Zeus's will, received the old man courteously, and thinking of his own father, far away in Greece, whom he should never see again, spoke kindly to him and granted his request. He had the body washed and anointed and laid over it a rich robe and set it on the wagon. Then he had a feast spread and he and his enemy's father ate and drank together, and Priam gave a great ramson. So Priam brought Hector's body back to the city, and all Troy came out to meet him with weeping and laments, and Achilles granted a truce of eleven days that the Trojans might perform their funeral rites.

Fig. 90. Priam ransoming Hector's Body.

With the funeral of Hector the Iliad ends, but from other sources we learn of the later events of the war. Twice the hopes of the Trojans were raised by the coming of powerful allies. The first of these was Pen thes i le’a, queen of the Amazons, who came with her band of warrior women and brought momentary success to the sinking cause of Troy. After many great deeds, she fell in a fierce encounter with Achilles, though it was said that when her helmet fell off and disclosed her noble beauty, the hero repented of his success. Memnon, son of the goddess of dawn, came from Ethiopia with a great following, and he too fell before Achilles. But the hero's great career was run, and he met his death, as the Fates decreed, by the arrow of Paris, guided by Apollo, to pierce him in the only vulnerable spot, his heel. When the Greeks had rescued his body, they burned it, and putting his ashes in a golden urn with the ashes of his friend Patroclus, raised over it a great mound. Near the shore of the Dardanelles at this day there is a hill that bears the name of the "Tomb of Achilles." His spirit joined the other great heroes in the Elysian Fields.

After this a contest arose between Ajax and Odysseus as to which of them should receive the arms of Achilles, and when the decision was given in Odysseus' favor, Ajax, crazed with anger, made an onslaught on an innocent flock of sheep, imagining them to be Odysseus and his followers. When he came to his senses, he killed himself. Then the gods made it known to the Greeks that they could never take Troy until Phil oc te’tes, who was the possessor of Heracles' bow and poisoned arrows (see p. 227) should be brought from the island of Lesbos, where his comrades had most cruelly left him suffering from a horrible wound. With some difficulty Philoctetes was induced to forego his resentment and come ta the Greek camp. Being cured of his wound he met Paris in battle and killed him with one of his poisoned arrows. Even then two things were still necessary before the gods would give Troy over to her enemies. Achilles' son Ne op tol’emus had to be summoned from Greece to take his father's place, and the Pal la'di um, or sacred image of Athena, which had fallen from heaven long ago, and on the possession of which the safety of the city depended, must be taken. This extraordinary feat was performed by Odysseus and Diomedes, who, entering the city by night, abstracted the image from the shrine and carried it to the Greek camp.

The final device by which Troy fell into the hands of its besiegers was planned with the help of Athena. A huge hollow structure in the form of a horse was set up near the walls, and in the belly armed men, the bravest of the Greeks, were placed in ambush. Then the hosts sailed off, pretending to be returning to Greece, while, in reality, they concealed themselves behind the island of Tenedos, ready to return at a given signal. The Trojans poured out of the city, rejoicing in the unexpected freedom and wondering at the wooden horse. The question as to what it meant and what should be done with it was decided by the testimony of a clever Greek named Sinon, who, having gained the confidence of the Trojans, explained the horse as a final tribute to Athena, which, if taken within the city by the people of Troy, would certainly protect them from harm. La oc'o on, the priest of Apollo, suspecting the wiles of the Greeks, urged that it be thrown into the sea and raised his weapon to strike the wood a blow. Immediately two horrible serpents appeared on the sea, and glided with their slimy lengths over the water, caught Laocoon and his two sons and strangled them with their coils. Then all believed that the gods had sent retribution upon the priest for his impious doubts, and resolved to draw the horse within the walls As it was too high to go under the gates, a piece of the wall was thrown down and the horse brought in amid great rejoicing.

Fig. 91. Laocoon and his Sons.

That night while all Troy slept, the Greek spy Sinon unloosed the bolts and let out the heroes concealed in the horse. At the signal given by fire, the fleet returned from Tenedos, the gates were opened from within, and the Greeks fell upon the sleeping city. The brave resistance offered by the Trojans, taken unawares in the blackness of night, was useless. The prophetic daughter of Priam, Cas san’dra, was dragged from the sanctuary of Athena and carried into slavery; the same fate overtook Hector's wife Andromache, after she had seen her infant son dashed from the wall that his father had so long defended. Priam was cut down before the altar in his own palace, and all the city sank in ashes.

Fig. 92. Priam slain on the Altar.