{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/wikisource_The_Age_of_Fable_Chapter_XXVIII/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/wikisource_The_Age_of_Fable_Chapter_XXVIII","id":"wikisource_The_Age_of_Fable_Chapter_XXVIII","license":"Public Domain / CC-BY-SA (see source)","rights_basis":"wikisource_site_inclusion_policy","source":"wikisource","source_url":"https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Age_of_Fable/Chapter_XXVIII","summary":null,"tags":["Headers_applying_DefaultSort_key","Subpages"],"text":"XXVIII. THE FALL OF TROY \u2014 RETURN OF THE GREEKS \u2014 ORESTES AND ELECTRA\n\nTHE FALL OF TROY\n\nThe story of the Iliad ends with the death of Hector, and it is\nfrom the Odyssey and later poems that we learn the fate of the\nother heroes. After the death of Hector, Troy did not immediately\nfall, but receiving aid from new allies still continued its\nresistance. One of these allies was Memnon, the \u00c6thiopian prince,\nwhose story we have already told. Another was Penthesilea, queen\nof the Amazons, who came with a band of female warriors. All the\nauthorities attest their valor and the fearful effect of their war\ncry. Penthesilea slew many of the bravest warriors, but was at\nlast slain by Achilles. But when the hero bent over his fallen\nfoe, and contemplated her beauty, youth, and valor, he bitterly\nregretted his victory. Thersites, an insolent brawler and\ndemagogue, ridiculed his grief, and was in consequence slain by\nthe hero.\n\nAchilles by chance had seen Polyxena, daughter of King Priam,\nperhaps on the occasion of the truce which was allowed the Trojans\nfor the burial of Hector. He was captivated with her charms, and\nto win her in marriage agreed to use his influence with the Greeks\nto grant peace to Troy. While in the temple of Apollo, negotiating\nthe marriage, Paris discharged at him a poisoned arrow, which,\nguided by Apollo, wounded Achilles in the heel, the only\nvulnerable part about him. For Thetis his mother had dipped him\nwhen an infant in the river Styx, which made every part of him\ninvulnerable except the heel by which she held him.\n\nThe body of Achilles so treacherously slain was rescued by Ajax\nand Ulysses. Thetis directed the Greeks to bestow her son's armor\non the hero who of all the survivors should be judged most\ndeserving of it. Ajax and Ulysses were the only claimants; a\nselect number of the other chiefs were appointed to award the\nprize. It was awarded to Ulysses, thus placing wisdom before\nvalor; whereupon Ajax slew himself. On the spot where his blood\nsank into the earth a flower sprang up, called the hyacinth,\nbearing on its leaves the first two letters of the name of Ajax,\nAi, the Greek for \"woe.\" Thus Ajax is a claimant with the boy\nHyacinthus for the honor of giving birth to this flower. There is\na species of Larkspur which represents the hyacinth of the poets\nin preserving the memory of this event, the Delphinium Ajacis\u2014\nAjax's Larkspur.\n\nIt was now discovered that Troy could not be taken but by the aid\nof the arrows of Hercules. They were in possession of Philoctetes,\nthe friend who had been with Hercules at the last and lighted his\nfuneral pyre. Philoctetes had joined the Grecian expedition\nagainst Troy, but had accidentally wounded his foot with one of\nthe poisoned arrows, and the smell from his wound proved so\noffensive that his companions carried him to the isle of Lemnos\nand left him there. Diomed was now sent to induce him to rejoin\nthe army. He succeeded. Philoctetes was cured of his wound by\nMachaon, and Paris was the first victim of the fatal arrows. In\nhis distress Paris bethought him of one whom in his prosperity he\nhad forgotten. This was the nymph \u0152none, whom he had married when\na youth, and had abandoned for the fatal beauty Helen. \u0152none,\nremembering the wrongs she had suffered, refused to heal the\nwound, and Paris went back to Troy and died. \u0152none quickly\nrepented, and hastened after him with remedies, but came too late,\nand in her grief hung herself.\n\nThere was in Troy a celebrated statue of Minerva called the\nPalladium. It was said to have fallen from heaven, and the belief\nwas that the city could not be taken so long as this statue\nremained within it. Ulysses and Diomed entered the city in\ndisguise and succeeded in obtaining the Palladium, which they\ncarried off to the Grecian camp.\n\nBut Troy still held out, and the Greeks began to despair of ever\nsubduing it by force, and by advice of Ulysses resolved to resort\nto stratagem. They pretended to be making preparations to abandon\nthe siege, and a portion of the ships were withdrawn and lay hid\nbehind a neighboring island. The Greeks then constructed an\nimmense wooden horse, which they gave out was intended as a\npropitiatory offering to Minerva, but in fact was filled with\narmed men. The remaining Greeks then betook themselves to their\nships and sailed away, as if for a final departure. The Trojans,\nseeing the encampment broken up and the fleet gone, concluded the\nenemy to have abandoned the siege. The gates were thrown open, and\nthe whole population issued forth rejoicing at the long-prohibited\nliberty of passing freely over the scene of the late encampment.\nThe great horse was the chief object of curiosity. All wondered\nwhat it could be for. Some recommended to take it into the city as\na trophy; others felt afraid of it.\n\nWhile they hesitate, Laoco\u014dn, the priest of Neptune exclaims,\n\"What madness, citizens, is this? Have you not learned enough of\nGrecian fraud to be on your guard against it? For my part, I fear\nthe Greeks even when they offer gifts.\" So saying he threw his lance at the horse's side. It\nstruck, and a hollow sound reverberated like a groan. Then perhaps\nthe people might have taken his advice and destroyed the fatal\nhorse and all its contents; but just at that moment a group of\npeople appeared, dragging forward one who seemed a prisoner and a\nGreek. Stupefied with terror, he was brought before the chiefs,\nwho reassured him, promising that his life should be spared on\ncondition of his returning true answers to the questions asked\nhim. He informed them that he was a Greek, Sinon by name, and that\nin consequence of the malice of Ulysses he had been left behind by\nhis countrymen at their departure. With regard to the wooden\nhorse, he told them that it was a propitiatory offering to\nMinerva, and made so huge for the express purpose of preventing\nits being carried within the city; for Calchas the prophet had\ntold them that if the Trojans took possession of it they would\nassuredly triumph over the Greeks. This language turned the tide\nof the people's feelings and they began to think how they might\nbest secure the monstrous horse and the favorable auguries\nconnected with it, when suddenly a prodigy occurred which left no\nroom to doubt. There appeared, advancing over the sea, two immense\nserpents. They came upon the land, and the crowd fled in all\ndirections. The serpents advanced directly to the spot where\nLaocoon stood with his two sons. They first attacked the children,\nwinding round their bodies and breathing their pestilential breath\nin their faces. The father, attempting to rescue them, is next\nseized and involved in the serpents' coils. He struggles to tear\nthem away, but they overpower all his efforts and strangle him and\nthe children in their poisonous folds. This event was regarded as\na clear indication of the displeasure of the gods at Laocoon's\nirreverent treatment of the wooden horse, which they no longer\nhesitated to regard as a sacred object, and prepared to introduce\nwith due solemnity into the city. This was done with songs and\ntriumphal acclamations, and the day closed with festivity. In the\nnight the armed men who were enclosed in the body of the horse,\nbeing let out by the traitor Sinon, opened the gates of the city\nto their friends, who had returned under cover of the night. The\ncity was set on fire; the people, overcome with feasting and\nsleep, put to the sword, and Troy completely subdued.\n\nOne of the most celebrated groups of statuary in existence is that\nof Laoco\u014dn and his children in the embrace of the serpents. A cast\nof it is owned by the Boston Athenaeum; the original is in the\nVatican at Rome. The following lines are from the \"Childe Harold\"\nof Byron:\n\n\"Now turning to the Vatican go see\n\nLaoco\u014dn's torture dignifying pain;\n\nA father's love and mortal's agony\n\nWith an immortal's patience blending;\u2014vain\n\nThe struggle! vain against the coiling strain\n\nAnd gripe and deepening of the dragon's grasp\n\nThe old man's clinch; the long envenomed chain\n\nRivets the living links; the enormous asp\n\nEnforces pang on pang and stifles gasp on gasp.\"\n\nThe comic poets will also occasionally borrow a classical\nallusion. The following is from Swift's \"Description of a City\nShower\":\n\n\"Boxed in a chair the beau impatient sits,\n\nWhile spouts run clattering o'er the roof by fits,\n\nAnd ever and anon with frightful din\n\nThe leather sounds; he trembles from within.\n\nSo when Troy chairmen bore the wooden steed\n\nPregnant with Greeks impatient to be freed,\n\n(Those bully Greeks, who, as the moderns do,\n\nInstead of paying chairmen, run them through);\n\nLaoco\u014dn struck the outside with a spear,\n\nAnd each imprisoned champion quaked with fear.\"\n\nKing Priam lived to see the downfall of his kingdom and was slain\nat last on the fatal night when the Greeks took the city. He had\narmed himself and was about to mingle with the combatants, but was\nprevailed on by Hecuba, his aged queen, to take refuge with\nherself and his daughters as a suppliant at the altar of Jupiter.\nWhile there, his youngest son Polites, pursued by Pyrrhus, the son\nof Achilles, rushed in wounded, and expired at the feet of his\nfather; whereupon Priam, overcome with indignation, hurled his\nspear with feeble hand against Pyrrhus, and\nwas forthwith slain by him.\n\nQueen Hecuba and her daughter Cassandra were carried captives to\nGreece. Cassandra had been loved by Apollo, and he gave her the\ngift of prophecy; but afterwards offended with her, he rendered\nthe gift unavailing by ordaining that her predictions should never\nbe believed. Polyxena, another daughter, who had been loved by\nAchilles, was demanded by the ghost of that warrior, and was\nsacrificed by the Greeks upon his tomb.\n\nMENELAUS AND HELEN\n\nOur readers will be anxious to know the fate of Helen, the fair\nbut guilty occasion of so much slaughter. On the fall of Troy\nMenelaus recovered possession of his wife, who had not ceased to\nlove him, though she had yielded to the might of Venus and\ndeserted him for another. After the death of Paris she aided the\nGreeks secretly on several occasions, and in particular when\nUlysses and Diomed entered the city in disguise to carry off the\nPalladium. She saw and recognized Ulysses, but kept the secret and\neven assisted them in obtaining the image. Thus she became\nreconciled to her husband, and they were among the first to leave\nthe shores of Troy for their native land. But having incurred the\ndispleasure of the gods they were driven by storms from shore to\nshore of the Mediterranean, visiting Cyprus, Phoenicia, and Egypt.\nIn Egypt they were kindly treated and presented with rich gifts,\nof which Helen's share was a golden spindle and a basket on\nwheels. The basket was to hold the wool and spools for the queen's\nwork.\n\nDyer, in his poem of the \"Fleece,\" thus alludes to this incident:\n\n\"... many yet adhere\n\nTo the ancient distaff, at the bosom fixed,\n\nCasting the whirling spindle as they walk.\n\n\u2022\u2022\u2022\u2022This was of old, in no inglorious days,\n\nThe mode of spinning, when the Egyptian prince\n\nA golden distaff gave that beauteous nymph,\n\nToo beauteous Helen; no uncourtly gift.\"\n\nMilton also alludes to a famous recipe for an invigorating\ndraught, called Nepenthe, which the Egyptian queen gave to Helen:\n\n\"Not that Nepenthes which the wife of Thone\n\nIn Egypt gave to Jove-born Helena,\n\nIs of such power to stir up joy as this,\n\nTo life so friendly or so cool to thirst.\"\n\n\u2014Comus.\n\nMenelaus and Helen at length arrived in safety at Sparta, resumed\ntheir royal dignity, and lived and reigned in splendor; and when\nTelemachus, the son of Ulysses, in search of his father, arrived\nat Sparta, he found Menelaus and Helen celebrating the marriage of\ntheir daughter Hermione to Neoptolemus, son of Achilles.\n\nAGAMEMNON, ORESTES, AND ELECTRA\n\nAgamemnon, the general-in-chief of the Greeks, the brother of\nMenelaus, and who had been drawn into the quarrel to avenge his\nbrother's wrongs, not his own, was not so fortunate in the issue.\nDuring his absence his wife Clytemnestra had been false to him,\nand when his return was expected, she with her paramour,\nAegisthus, laid a plan for his destruction, and at the banquet\ngiven to celebrate his return, murdered him.\n\nIt was intended by the conspirators to slay his son Orestes also,\na lad not yet old enough to be an object of apprehension, but from\nwhom, if he should be suffered to grow up, there might be danger.\nElectra, the sister of Orestes, saved her brother's life by\nsending him secretly away to his uncle Strophius, King of Phocis.\nIn the palace of Strophius Orestes grew up with the king's son\nPylades, and formed with him that ardent friendship which has\nbecome proverbial. Electra frequently reminded her brother by\nmessengers of the duty of avenging his father's death, and when\ngrown up he consulted the oracle of Delphi, which confirmed him in\nhis design. He therefore repaired in disguise to Argos, pretending\nto be a messenger from Strophius, who had come to announce the\ndeath of Orestes, and brought the ashes of the deceased in a\nfuneral urn. After visiting his father's tomb and sacrificing upon\nit, according to the rites of the ancients, he made himself known\nto his sister Electra, and soon after slew both \u00c6gisthus and\nClytemnestra.\n\nThis revolting act, the slaughter of a mother by her son, though\nalleviated by the guilt of the victim and the express command of\nthe gods, did not fail to awaken in the breasts of the ancients\nthe same abhorrence that it does in ours. The Eumenides, avenging\ndeities, seized upon Orestes, and drove him frantic from land to\nland. Pylades accompanied him in his wanderings and watched over\nhim. At length, in answer to a second appeal to the oracle, he was\ndirected to go to Tauris in Scythia, and to bring thence a statue\nof Diana which was believed to have fallen from heaven.\nAccordingly Orestes and Pylades went to Tauris, where the\nbarbarous people were accustomed to sacrifice to the goddess all\nstrangers who fell into their hands. The two friends were seized\nand carried bound to the temple to be made victims. But the\npriestess of Diana was no other than Iphigenia, the sister of\nOrestes, who, our readers will remember, was snatched away by\nDiana at the moment when she was about to be sacrificed.\nAscertaining from the prisoners who they were, Iphigenia disclosed\nherself to them, and the three made their escape with the statue\nof the goddess, and returned to Mycen\u00e6.\n\nBut Orestes was not yet relieved from the vengeance of the\nErinyes. At length he took refuge with Minerva at Athens. The\ngoddess afforded him protection, and appointed the court of\nAreopagus to decide his fate. The Erinyes brought forward their\naccusation, and Orestes made the command of the Delphic oracle his\nexcuse. When the court voted and the voices were equally divided,\nOrestes was acquitted by the command of Minerva.\n\n\u00a0\n\nByron, in \"Childe Harold,\" Canto IV., alludes to the story of\nOrestes:\n\n\"O thou who never yet of human wrong\n\nLeft the unbalanced scale, great Nemesis!\n\nThou who didst call the Furies from the abyss,\n\nAnd round Orestes bade them howl and hiss,\n\nFor that unnatural retribution,\u2014just,\n\nHad it but been from hands less near,\u2014in this,\n\nThy former realm, I call thee from the dust!\"\n\nOne of the most pathetic scenes in the ancient drama is that in\nwhich Sophocles represents the meeting of Orestes and Electra, on\nhis return from Phocis. Orestes, mistaking Electra for one of the\ndomestics, and desirous of keeping his arrival a secret till the\nhour of vengeance should arrive, produces the urn in which his\nashes are supposed to rest. Electra, believing him to be really\ndead, takes the urn and, embracing it, pours forth her grief in\nlanguage full of tenderness and despair.\n\nMilton, in one of his sonnets, says:\n\n\"... The repeated air\n\nOf sad Electra's poet had the power\n\nTo save the Athenian walls from ruin bare.\"\n\nThis alludes to the story that when, on one occasion, the city of\nAthens was at the mercy of her Spartan foes, and it was proposed\nto destroy it, the thought was rejected upon the accidental\nquotation, by some one, of a chorus of Euripides.\n\nTROY\n\nThe facts relating to the city of Troy are still unknown to\nhistory. Antiquarians have long sought for the actual city and\nsome record of its rulers. The most interesting explorations were\nthose conducted about 1890 by the German scholar, Henry\nSchliemann, who believed that at the mound of Hissarlik, the\ntraditional site of Troy, he had uncovered the ancient capital.\nSchliemann excavated down below the ruins of three or four\nsettlements, each revealing an earlier civilization, and finally\ncame upon some royal jewels and other relics said to be \"Priam's\nTreasure.\" Scholars are by no means agreed as to the historic\nvalue of these discoveries.","title":"The Age of Fable/Chapter XXVIII","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":2909}