The Story of Troy · Michael Clarke
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-chilʹles. 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 principal 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-meʹdes, king of the island of Scyʹros. Here Achilles, dressed like a young girl, resided as a companion of the king's daughters. But Calʹchas, 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. [Illustration: 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 Phthiʹa, 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 Myrʹmi-dons, as his soldiers were called, accompanied also by his devoted friend and constant companion, Pa-troʹclus.
Full fifty ships beneath Achilles' care, The Achaians, Myrmidons, Hellenians 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 ships from his kingdom of Mycenæ, and his brother Menelaus, eager for vengeance upon the Trojans, sailed with sixty ships 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 ships with Menelaus draws. POPE, _Iliad_ Book II. Among the other great warriors of Hellas who joined the expedition was Nesʹtor, the venerable king of Pyʹlos, 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 wishing 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 pass'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-iʹleus, 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 ships to Troy they steer their course, And with the great Athenians join their force. POPE, _Iliad_, Book II. Ajax Oileus, king of Loʹcris, was less in stature than his namesake, but few excelled him in the use of the spear or in swiftness of foot. He commanded forty ships in the great expedition. Fierce Ajax led the Locrian squadrons on, Ajax the less, Oileus' valiant son; Skill'd to direct the flying dart aright; Swift in pursuit, and active in the fight. POPE, _Iliad_, Book II Two other valiant warriors, who led eighty ships each to the great muster, were Diomede, king of Argos, and I-domʹe-neus, king of Crete,--the "spear-renowned Idomeneus."
Crete's hundred cities pour forth all her sons. These march'd, Idomeneus, beneath thy care. POPE, _Iliad_, Book II. When at length all the kings and princes were assembled at Aulis, the vast fleet numbered 1185 ships, according to the account given by Homer. The total number of men which the ships carried is not known, but it is probable that it was not less than 100,000, as the largest of the vessels contained about 120, and the smallest 50 men each. Such was the mighty host that Hellas marshaled to punish Troy for the crime committed by Paris. Before setting out on so important an expedition the Greek chiefs deemed it proper, according to the custom of the ancients, to offer sacrifices to the gods, that their undertaking might have the favor of heaven. Altars were therefore erected, and the sacred services were carried out in due order. On these occasions animals--very frequently oxen--were killed, and portions of their flesh consumed by fire, such sacrifices being supposed to be very pleasing to the gods.
While the Grecian chiefs were engaged in their religious ceremonies, the greater part of the army having already gone aboard the ships, they were startled at beholding a serpent dart out from beneath one of the altars, and, gliding along the ground, ascend a plane tree which grew close by. At the top of the tree was a nest containing eight young birds. The serpent devoured them, and immediately afterwards seized and devoured the mother bird, which had been fluttering around the nest. Then suddenly, before the eyes of the astonished Greeks, the reptile turned into stone. Amazed at this occurrence, and believing it to have some connection with their expedition, the assembled chiefs asked the soothsayer Calchas to explain what it meant. The seer replied, telling them that it was a sign that the war upon which they were about to enter would last ten years. "For us, indeed," said he, "Jupiter has shown a great sign. As this serpent has devoured the young of the sparrow, eight in number, and herself, the mother of the brood, was the ninth, so must we for as many years wage war, but in the tenth year we shall take the city." This story was eloquently told by Ulysses in the Greek camp before Troy, when in the tenth year of the siege, many of the troops, having grown weary of the war, desired to return to their homes.
Text from Project Gutenberg, public domain in the United States.