Читать книгу Art of War - Sun-tzu - Страница 8

Amazonomachy, detail of a red-figure vase that is attributed to the Eritrea Painter, c. 420 BCE.

Terracotta, 20.5 × 49.5 cm.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

Photographer: Marie-Lan Nguyen.

The Trojan War
(c. 1194–1184 BCE)

Thus endeth the Trojan War; together with its sequel, the dispersion of the heroes, victors as well as vanquished. The account here given of it has been unavoidably brief and imperfect; for in a work intended to follow consecutively the real history of the Greeks. No greater space can be allotted even to the most splendid gem of their legendary period. Indeed, although it would be easy to fill a large volume with the separate incidents which have been introduced into the “Trojan cycle,” the misfortune is that they are for the most part so contradictory as to exclude all possibility of weaving them into one connected narrative. No one who has not studied the original documents can imagine the extent to which this discrepancy proceeds; it covers almost every portion and fragment of the tale. But though much may have been thus omitted of what the reader might expect to find in an account of the Trojan war, its genuine character has been studiously preserved, without either exaggeration or abatement. The real Trojan war is that which was recounted by Homer and the old epic poets, and continued by all the lyric and tragic composers. They preserved its well-defined object, at once righteous and romantic, the recovery of the daughter of Zeus and sister of the Dioskuri – its mixed agencies, divine, heroic and human. The enterprise was one comprehending all the members of the Hellenic body, of which each individually might be proud, and in which, nevertheless, those feelings of jealous and narrow patriotism, so lamentably prevalent in many of the towns, were as much as possible excluded. It supplied them with a grand and inexhaustible object of common sympathy, common faith, and common admiration; and when occasions arose for bringing together a Pan-Hellenic force against the barbarians, the precedent of the Homeric expedition was one upon which the elevated minds of Greece could dwell with the certainty of rousing an unanimous impulse.

Of such events the genuine Trojan war of the old epic was for the most part composed. Though literally believed, reverentially cherished, and numbered among the gigantic phenomena of the past, by the Grecian public, it is in the eyes of modern inquiry essentially a legend and nothing more. If we are asked whether it be not a legend embodying portions of historical matter, and raised upon a basis of truth, whether there may not really have occurred at the foot of the hill of Ilium a war purely human and political, without gods, without heroes, without Helen, without Amazons, without Ethiopians under the beautiful son of Eos, without the wooden horse, without the characteristic and expressive features of the old epical war; if we are asked whether there was not really some such historical Trojan war as this, our answer must be, that as the possibility of it cannot be denied, so neither can the reality of it be affirmed. We possess nothing but the ancient epic itself without any independent evidence: had it been an age of records indeed, the Homeric epic in its exquisite and unsuspecting simplicity would probably never have come into existence. Whoever therefore ventures to dissect Homer, Arktinus and Lesches, and to pick out certain portions as matters of fact, while he sets aside the rest as fiction, must do so in full reliance on his own powers of historical divination, without any means either of proving or verifying his conclusions.

(adapted from: History of Greece by G. Grote)

The Fall of Troy, detail of an Attic red-figure vase from the Brygos Painter, c. 420 BCE.

Terracotta, 13.5 × 42 × 33.2 cm.

Musée du Louvre, Paris. Photographer: Marie-Lan Nguyen.

Peter Paul Rubens and Jan Brueghel the Elder, The Battle of the Amazons, c. 1598–1600.

Oil on panel, 37 × 48 cm.

Stiftung Preußische Schlösser und Gärten, Schloss Sanssouci Bildergalerie, Potsdam.

Battle of the Amazons

The Amazons are particularly mentioned by Herodotus, who informs us that the Grecians fought a battle with the Amazons on the river Thermodoon, and defeated them. After their victory, they carried off all the Amazons they could take alive, in three ships. But whilst they were out at sea, these Amazons conspired against the men, and killed them all. Having, however, no knowledge of navigation, nor any skill in the use of the rudder, sails, or oars, they were driven by the wind and tide till they arrived at the precipices of the lake Maeotis, in the territories of the Scythians. Here they went ashore, and seized the first horses they met with, and began to plunder the inhabitants. The Scythians at first took them to be men; but after they had taken some prisoners, they discovered them to be women. They were then unwilling to carry on hostilities against them; and by degrees a number of the young Scythians formed connections with them, and were desirous that these gentle dames should live with them as wives, and be incorporated with the rest of the Scythians. The Amazons agreed to continue their connection with their Scythian husbands, but refused to associate with the rest of the inhabitants of the country, and especially with the women of it. Their marriages are attended with the circumstance: no virgin is permitted to marry till she has killed an enemy in the field.

Diodorus Siculus says “There was formerly a nation, who dwelt near the Thermodoon, which was subjected to the government of women, and in which the women managed all the military affairs, like men. Among these female warriors was one who excelled the rest in strength and valour. She assembled an army of women, whom she trained in military discipline, and subdued some of the neighbouring nations. Afterwards, having by her valour increased her fame, she led her army against the rest; and being successful, she was so puffed up, that she styled herself the daughter of Mars, and ordered the men to spin wool, and do the work of the women within doors. She also made laws, by which the women were enjoined to go to the wars, and the men to be kept at home in a servile state, and employed in the meanest offices. Having become eminent for skill in military affairs, she at length built a large city at the mouth of the Thermodoon, and adorned it with a magnificent palace. In her enterprises she enforced military discipline and good order; and she added to her empire all the adjoining nations, even to the river Tanais. She at last ended her days like a heroine, falling in a battle, in which she fought courageously. She was succeeded in the kingdom by her daughter, who imitated the valour of her mother, and in some exploits excelled her. She caused the girls from their infancy exercised in hunting, and trained up military exercises. She instituted solemn festivals and sacrifices to Mars and Diana, which were named Tauropoli. She afterwards carried her arms beyond the Tanais and subdued all the people of those regions, even unto Thrace. Returning with a great quantity of spoils into her own kingdom, she caused magnificent temples to be erected to the deities before mentioned; and she gained the love of her subjects, by her mild and gentle government. She afterwards undertook an expedition against those who were on the other side of the river, and subjected to her dominion a great part of Asia, extending her arms as far as Syria.”

(adapted from: Encyclopædia Perthensis; or Universal Dictionary of the Arts, Sciences, Literature, etc.)

The Rape of the Sabine Women

[The word “rape” in this context refers to an older usage, meaning “abduction”; from lat. raptio]

This episode in Roman mythology relates the collective abduction of the Sabine women during the founding of Rome by Romulus. A shortage of women led the Romans to seize those from their neighbours. Romulus also took other steps to increase the numbers of his new settlement. He made an ordinance compelling every man to rear all the male children, and the first-born of the female; and he prohibited the killing of infants, unless they were imperfectly formed. He likewise opened an asylum for refugees from foreign states on the Capitoline hill; the traces of which revealed themselves in later times.

The reception of refugees in the asylum disturbs the natural proportion of the two sexes, and produces a community in which the men preponderate. Hence Romulus sends to the neighbouring cities, inviting them to give their daughters in marriage to the Romans. His proposals are rejected, and he accordingly resorts to stratagem for effecting his purpose. He institutes a festival called Consualia (which continued to be celebrated in later times), and invites the neighbouring people to the amusement. On a signal given by himself, the unmarried women are seized, and detained as wives for the Romans. Other causes were found for the rape of the Sabine women; some considered it as an intentional provocative to war, and some thought that it was intended to bring about a reciprocity of marriages with the neighbouring states. Hersilia – who, according to some accounts, was the wife of Romulus, and, according to others, of Hostilius, the grandfather of King Tullus Hostilius – is reported to have been among these Sabine women. Certain ceremonies of the Roman marriage – which supposed the bride to be taken against her will to her husband’s house – and particularly the cry of Talassio, which was customary on that occasion – were derived from the Rape of the Sabines.

The outrage thus committed by the Romans roused the anger of the neighbouring cities, and particularly of Cænina, Antemnæ, and Crustumerium, which prepared to attack Rome, and attempted to induce the more powerful Sabine nation to join in the war. Romulus speedily marched against the people of Cænina: he defeated them, killed their king Acron with his own hand, and stripped off his arms, which he dedicated as spolia opima in the temple of Jupiter Feretrius. Hence arose the custom when the Roman general slew the hostile general, of dedicating his spoils in this temple. The event, however happened only twice in Roman history after the deed of Romulus; viz., once when Cornelius Cossus slew the Veientine king Tolumnius, and again when Marcellus slew a king of the Gauls. Romulus then turned his arms against Antemnae; and having reduced this town, he returned with the spoil to Rome, and his army preceding him in a triumphal procession; and this was the origin of the Roman Triumph, so celebrated in later times. Romulus made these towns Roman colonies, by sending three hundred Roman colonists into each, and confiscating one third of the land for their use; while he removed them in the tribes and curiæ. Similar measures were adopted towards Crustumerium.

(adapted from the text: An Inquiry into the Credibility of the Early Roman History by Sir George Cornewall Lewis)

Nicolas Poussin, The Rape of the Sabine Women, 1637.

Oil on canvas, 154 × 206 cm.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.