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+**The Project Gutenberg Etext of Tales of Troy, by Andrew Lang**
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+Tales of Troy
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+by Andrew Lang
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+November, 1999  [Etext #1973]
+
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+**The Project Gutenberg Etext of Tales of Troy, by Andrew Lang**
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+This etext was prepared by David Price, email ccx074@coventry.ac.uk
+from the 1912 Longmans, Green, and Co. edition.
+
+
+
+
+
+Tales of Troy
+
+by Andrew Lang
+
+
+
+
+
+TALES OF TROY: ULYSSES THE SACKER OF CITIES
+
+
+
+
+Contents:
+
+The Boyhood and Parents of Ulysses
+How People Lived in the Time of Ulysses
+The Wooing of Helen of the Fair Hands
+The Stealing of Helen
+Trojan Victories
+Battle at the Ships
+The Slaying and Avenging of Patroclus
+The Cruelty of Achilles, and the Ransoming of Hector
+How Ulysses Stole the Luck of Troy
+The Battles with the Amazons and Memnon--the Death of Achilles
+Ulysses Sails to seek the Son of Achilles.--The Valour of Eurypylus
+The Slaying of Paris
+How Ulysses Invented the Device of the Horse of Tree
+The End of Troy and the Saving of Helen
+
+
+
+
+THE BOYHOOD AND PARENTS OF ULYSSES
+
+
+
+Long ago, in a little island called Ithaca, on the west coast of
+Greece, there lived a king named Laertes.  His kingdom was small
+and mountainous.  People used to say that Ithaca "lay like a shield
+upon the sea," which sounds as if it were a flat country.  But in
+those times shields were very large, and rose at the middle into
+two peaks with a hollow between them, so that Ithaca, seen far off
+in the sea, with her two chief mountain peaks, and a cloven valley
+between them, looked exactly like a shield.  The country was so
+rough that men kept no horses, for, at that time, people drove,
+standing up in little light chariots with two horses; they never
+rode, and there was no cavalry in battle:  men fought from
+chariots.  When Ulysses, the son of Laertes, King of Ithaca grew
+up, he never fought from a chariot, for he had none, but always on
+foot.
+
+If there were no horses in Ithaca, there was plenty of cattle.  The
+father of Ulysses had flocks of sheep, and herds of swine, and wild
+goats, deer, and hares lived in the hills and in the plains.  The
+sea was full of fish of many sorts, which men caught with nets, and
+with rod and line and hook.
+
+Thus Ithaca was a good island to live in.  The summer was long, and
+there was hardly any winter; only a few cold weeks, and then the
+swallows came back, and the plains were like a garden, all covered
+with wild flowers--violets, lilies, narcissus, and roses.  With the
+blue sky and the blue sea, the island was beautiful.  White temples
+stood on the shores; and the Nymphs, a sort of fairies, had their
+little shrines built of stone, with wild rose-bushes hanging over
+them.
+
+Other islands lay within sight, crowned with mountains, stretching
+away, one behind the other, into the sunset.  Ulysses in the course
+of his life saw many rich countries, and great cities of men, but,
+wherever he was, his heart was always in the little isle of Ithaca,
+where he had learned how to row, and how to sail a boat, and how to
+shoot with bow and arrow, and to hunt boars and stags, and manage
+his hounds.
+
+The mother of Ulysses was called Anticleia:  she was the daughter
+of King Autolycus, who lived near Parnassus, a mountain on the
+mainland.  This King Autolycus was the most cunning of men.  He was
+a Master Thief, and could steal a man's pillow from under his head,
+but he does not seem to have been thought worse of for this.  The
+Greeks had a God of Thieves, named Hermes, whom Autolycus
+worshipped, and people thought more good of his cunning tricks than
+harm of his dishonesty.  Perhaps these tricks of his were only
+practised for amusement; however that may be, Ulysses became as
+artful as his grandfather; he was both the bravest and the most
+cunning of men, but Ulysses never stole things, except once, as we
+shall hear, from the enemy in time of war.  He showed his cunning
+in stratagems of war, and in many strange escapes from giants and
+man-eaters.
+
+Soon after Ulysses was born, his grandfather came to see his mother
+and father in Ithaca.  He was sitting at supper when the nurse of
+Ulysses, whose name was Eurycleia, brought in the baby, and set him
+on the knees of Autolycus, saying, "Find a name for your grandson,
+for he is a child of many prayers."
+
+"I am very angry with many men and women in the world," said
+Autolycus, "so let the child's name be A MAN OF WRATH," which, in
+Greek, was Odysseus.  So the child was called Odysseus by his own
+people, but the name was changed into Ulysses, and we shall call
+him Ulysses.
+
+We do not know much about Ulysses when he was a little boy, except
+that he used to run about the garden with his father, asking
+questions, and begging that he might have fruit trees "for his very
+own."  He was a great pet, for his parents had no other son, so his
+father gave him thirteen pear trees, and forty fig trees, and
+promised him fifty rows of vines, all covered with grapes, which he
+could eat when he liked, without asking leave of the gardener.  So
+he was not tempted to steal fruit, like his grandfather.
+
+When Autolycus gave Ulysses his name, he said that he must come to
+stay with him, when he was a big boy, and he would get splendid
+presents.  Ulysses was told about this, so, when he was a tall lad,
+he crossed the sea and drove in his chariot to the old man's house
+on Mount Parnassus.  Everybody welcomed him, and next day his
+uncles and cousins and he went out to hunt a fierce wild boar,
+early in the morning.  Probably Ulysses took his own dog, named
+Argos, the best of hounds, of which we shall hear again, long
+afterwards, for the dog lived to be very old.  Soon the hounds came
+on the scent of a wild boar, and after them the men went, with
+spears in their hands, and Ulysses ran foremost, for he was already
+the swiftest runner in Greece.
+
+He came on a great boar lying in a tangled thicket of boughs and
+bracken, a dark place where the sun never shone, nor could the rain
+pierce through.  Then the noise of the men's shouts and the barking
+of the dogs awakened the boar, and up he sprang, bristling all over
+his back, and with fire shining from his eyes.  In rushed Ulysses
+first of all, with his spear raised to strike, but the boar was too
+quick for him, and ran in, and drove his sharp tusk sideways,
+ripping up the thigh of Ulysses.  But the boar's tusk missed the
+bone, and Ulysses sent his sharp spear into the beast's right
+shoulder, and the spear went clean through, and the boar fell dead,
+with a loud cry.  The uncles of Ulysses bound up his wound
+carefully, and sang a magical song over it, as the French soldiers
+wanted to do to Joan of Arc when the arrow pierced her shoulder at
+the siege of Orleans.  Then the blood ceased to flow, and soon
+Ulysses was quite healed of his wound.  They thought that he would
+be a good warrior, and gave him splendid presents, and when he went
+home again he told all that had happened to his father and mother,
+and his nurse, Eurycleia.  But there was always a long white mark
+or scar above his left knee, and about that scar we shall hear
+again, many years afterwards.
+
+
+
+HOW PEOPLE LIVED IN THE TIME OF ULYSSES
+
+
+
+When Ulysses was a young man he wished to marry a princess of his
+own rank.  Now there were at that time many kings in Greece, and
+you must be told how they lived.  Each king had his own little
+kingdom, with his chief town, walled with huge walls of enormous
+stone.  Many of these walls are still standing, though the grass
+has grown over the ruins of most of them, and in later years, men
+believed that those walls must have been built by giants, the
+stones are so enormous.  Each king had nobles under him, rich men,
+and all had their palaces, each with its courtyard, and its long
+hall, where the fire burned in the midst, and the King and Queen
+sat beside it on high thrones, between the four chief carved
+pillars that held up the roof.  The thrones were made of cedar wood
+and ivory, inlaid with gold, and there were many other chairs and
+small tables for guests, and the walls and doors were covered with
+bronze plates, and gold and silver, and sheets of blue glass.
+Sometimes they were painted with pictures of bull hunts, and a few
+of these pictures may still be seen.  At night torches were lit,
+and placed in the hands of golden figures of boys, but all the
+smoke of fire and torches escaped by a hole in the roof, and made
+the ceiling black.  On the walls hung swords and spears and helmets
+and shields, which needed to be often cleaned from the stains of
+the smoke.  The minstrel or poet sat beside the King and Queen,
+and, after supper he struck his harp, and sang stories of old wars.
+At night the King and Queen slept in their own place, and the women
+in their own rooms; the princesses had their chambers upstairs, and
+the young princes had each his room built separate in the
+courtyard.
+
+There were bath rooms with polished baths, where guests were taken
+when they arrived dirty from a journey.  The guests lay at night on
+beds in the portico, for the climate was warm.  There were plenty
+of servants, who were usually slaves taken in war, but they were
+very kindly treated, and were friendly with their masters.  No
+coined money was used; people paid for things in cattle, or in
+weighed pieces of gold.  Rich men had plenty of gold cups, and
+gold-hilted swords, and bracelets, and brooches.  The kings were
+the leaders in war and judges in peace, and did sacrifices to the
+Gods, killing cattle and swine and sheep, on which they afterwards
+dined.
+
+They dressed in a simple way, in a long smock of linen or silk,
+which fell almost to the feet, but was tucked up into a belt round
+the waist, and worn longer or shorter, as they happened to choose.
+Where it needed fastening at the throat, golden brooches were used,
+beautifully made, with safety pins.  This garment was much like the
+plaid that the Highlanders used to wear, with its belt and
+brooches.  Over it the Greeks wore great cloaks of woollen cloth
+when the weather was cold, but these they did not use in battle.
+They fastened their breastplates, in war, over their smocks, and
+had other armour covering the lower parts of the body, and leg
+armour called "greaves"; while the great shield which guarded the
+whole body from throat to ankles was carried by a broad belt slung
+round the neck.  The sword was worn in another belt, crossing the
+shield belt.  They had light shoes in peace, and higher and heavier
+boots in war, or for walking across country.
+
+The women wore the smock, with more brooches and jewels than the
+men; and had head coverings, with veils, and mantles over all, and
+necklaces of gold and amber, earrings, and bracelets of gold or of
+bronze.  The colours of their dresses were various, chiefly white
+and purple; and, when in mourning, they wore very dark blue, not
+black.  All the armour, and the sword blades and spearheads were
+made, not of steel or iron, but of bronze, a mixture of copper and
+tin.  The shields were made of several thicknesses of leather, with
+a plating of bronze above; tools, such as axes and ploughshares,
+were either of iron or bronze; and so were the blades of knives and
+daggers.
+
+To us the houses and way of living would have seemed very splendid,
+and also, in some ways, rather rough.  The palace floors, at least
+in the house of Ulysses, were littered with bones and feet of the
+oxen slain for food, but this happened when Ulysses had been long
+from home.  The floor of the hall in the house of Ulysses was not
+boarded with planks, or paved with stone:  it was made of clay; for
+he was a poor king of small islands.  The cooking was coarse:  a
+pig or sheep was killed, roasted and eaten immediately.  We never
+hear of boiling meat, and though people probably ate fish, we do
+not hear of their doing so, except when no meat could be procured.
+Still some people must have liked them; for in the pictures that
+were painted or cut in precious stones in these times we see the
+half-naked fisherman walking home, carrying large fish.
+
+The people were wonderful workers of gold and bronze.  Hundreds of
+their golden jewels have been found in their graves, but probably
+these were made and buried two or three centuries before the time
+of Ulysses.  The dagger blades had pictures of fights with lions,
+and of flowers, inlaid on them, in gold of various colours, and in
+silver; nothing so beautiful is made now.  There are figures of men
+hunting bulls on some of the gold cups, and these are wonderfully
+life-like.  The vases and pots of earthenware were painted in
+charming patterns:  in short, it was a splendid world to live in.
+
+The people believed in many Gods, male and female, under the chief
+God, Zeus.  The Gods were thought to be taller than men, and
+immortal, and to live in much the same way as men did, eating,
+drinking, and sleeping in glorious palaces.  Though they were
+supposed to reward good men, and to punish people who broke their
+oaths and were unkind to strangers, there were many stories told in
+which the Gods were fickle, cruel, selfish, and set very bad
+examples to men.  How far these stories were believed is not sure;
+it is certain that "all men felt a need of the Gods," and thought
+that they were pleased by good actions and displeased by evil.
+Yet, when a man felt that his behaviour had been bad, he often
+threw the blame on the Gods, and said that they had misled him,
+which really meant no more than that "he could not help it."
+
+There was a curious custom by which the princes bought wives from
+the fathers of the princesses, giving cattle and gold, and bronze
+and iron, but sometimes a prince got a wife as the reward for some
+very brave action.  A man would not give his daughter to a wooer
+whom she did not love, even if he offered the highest price, at
+least this must have been the general rule, for husbands and wives
+were very fond of each other, and of their children, and husbands
+always allowed their wives to rule the house, and give their advice
+on everything.  It was thought a very wicked thing for a woman to
+like another man better than her husband, and there were few such
+wives, but among them was the most beautiful woman who ever lived.
+
+
+
+THE WOOING OF HELEN OF THE FAIR HANDS
+
+
+
+This was the way in which people lived when Ulysses was young, and
+wished to be married.  The worst thing in the way of life was that
+the greatest and most beautiful princesses might be taken
+prisoners, and carried off as slaves to the towns of the men who
+had killed their fathers and husbands.  Now at that time one lady
+was far the fairest in the world:  namely, Helen, daughter of King
+Tyndarus.  Every young prince heard of her and desired to marry
+her; so her father invited them all to his palace, and entertained
+them, and found out what they would give.  Among the rest Ulysses
+went, but his father had a little kingdom, a rough island, with
+others near it, and Ulysses had not a good chance.  He was not
+tall; though very strong and active, he was a short man with broad
+shoulders, but his face was handsome, and, like all the princes, he
+wore long yellow hair, clustering like a hyacinth flower.  His
+manner was rather hesitating, and he seemed to speak very slowly at
+first, though afterwards his words came freely.  He was good at
+everything a man can do; he could plough, and build houses, and
+make ships, and he was the best archer in Greece, except one, and
+could bend the great bow of a dead king, Eurytus, which no other
+man could string.  But he had no horses, and had no great train of
+followers; and, in short, neither Helen nor her father thought of
+choosing Ulysses for her husband out of so many tall, handsome
+young princes, glittering with gold ornaments.  Still, Helen was
+very kind to Ulysses, and there was great friendship between them,
+which was fortunate for her in the end.
+
+Tyndarus first made all the princes take an oath that they would
+stand by the prince whom he chose, and would fight for him in all
+his quarrels.  Then he named for her husband Menelaus, King of
+Lacedaemon.  He was a very brave man, but not one of the strongest;
+he was not such a fighter as the gigantic Aias, the tallest and
+strongest of men; or as Diomede, the friend of Ulysses; or as his
+own brother, Agamemnon, the King of the rich city of Mycenae, who
+was chief over all other princes, and general of the whole army in
+war.  The great lions carved in stone that seemed to guard his city
+are still standing above the gate through which Agamemnon used to
+drive his chariot.
+
+The man who proved to be the best fighter of all, Achilles, was not
+among the lovers of Helen, for he was still a boy, and his mother,
+Thetis of the silver feet, a goddess of the sea, had sent him to be
+brought up as a girl, among the daughters of Lycomedes of Scyros,
+in an island far away.  Thetis did this because Achilles was her
+only child, and there was a prophecy that, if he went to the wars,
+he would win the greatest glory, but die very young, and never see
+his mother again.  She thought that if war broke out he would not
+be found hiding in girl's dress, among girls, far away.
+
+So at last, after thinking over the matter for long, Tyndarus gave
+fair Helen to Menelaus, the rich King of Lacedaemon; and her twin
+sister Clytaemnestra, who was also very beautiful, was given to
+King Agamemnon, the chief over all the princes.  They all lived
+very happily together at first, but not for long.
+
+In the meantime King Tyndarus spoke to his brother Icarius, who had
+a daughter named Penelope.  She also was very pretty, but not
+nearly so beautiful as her cousin, fair Helen, and we know that
+Penelope was not very fond of her cousin.  Icarius, admiring the
+strength and wisdom of Ulysses, gave him his daughter Penelope to
+be his wife, and Ulysses loved her very dearly, no man and wife
+were ever dearer to each other.  They went away together to rocky
+Ithaca, and perhaps Penelope was not sorry that a wide sea lay
+between her home and that of Helen; for Helen was not only the
+fairest woman that ever lived in the world, but she was so kind and
+gracious and charming that no man could see her without loving her.
+When she was only a child, the famous prince Theseus, who was
+famous in Greek Story, carried her away to his own city of Athens,
+meaning to marry her when she grew up, and even at that time, there
+was a war for her sake, for her brothers followed Theseus with an
+army, and fought him, and brought her home.
+
+She had fairy gifts; for instance, she had a great red jewel,
+called "the Star," and when she wore it red drops seemed to fall
+from it and vanished before they touched and stained her white
+breast--so white that people called her "the Daughter of the Swan."
+She could speak in the very voice of any man or woman, so folk also
+named her Echo, and it was believed that she could neither grow old
+nor die, but would at last pass away to the Elysian plain and the
+world's end, where life is easiest for men.  No snow comes thither,
+nor great storm, nor any rain; but always the river of Ocean that
+rings round the whole earth sends forth the west wind to blow cool
+on the people of King Rhadamanthus of the fair hair.  These were
+some of the stories that men told of fair Helen, but Ulysses was
+never sorry that he had not the fortune to marry her, so fond he
+was of her cousin, his wife, Penelope, who was very wise and good.
+
+When Ulysses brought his wife home they lived, as the custom was,
+in the palace of his father, King Laertes, but Ulysses, with his
+own hands, built a chamber for Penelope and himself.  There grew a
+great olive tree in the inner court of the palace, and its stem was
+as large as one of the tall carved pillars of the hall.  Round
+about this tree Ulysses built the chamber, and finished it with
+close-set stones, and roofed it over, and made close-fastening
+doors.  Then he cut off all the branches of the olive tree, and
+smoothed the trunk, and shaped it into the bed-post, and made the
+bedstead beautiful with inlaid work of gold and silver and ivory.
+There was no such bed in Greece, and no man could move it from its
+place, and this bed comes again into the story, at the very end.
+
+Now time went by, and Ulysses and Penelope had one son called
+Telemachus; and Eurycleia, who had been his father's nurse, took
+care of him.  They were all very happy, and lived in peace in rocky
+Ithaca, and Ulysses looked after his lands, and flocks, and herds,
+and went hunting with his dog Argos, the swiftest of hounds.
+
+
+
+THE STEALING OF HELEN
+
+
+
+This happy time did not last long, and Telemachus was still a baby,
+when war arose, so great and mighty and marvellous as had never
+been known in the world.  Far across the sea that lies on the east
+of Greece, there dwelt the rich King Priam.  His town was called
+Troy, or Ilios, and it stood on a hill near the seashore, where are
+the straits of Hellespont, between Europe and Asia; it was a great
+city surrounded by strong walls, and its ruins are still standing.
+The kings could make merchants who passed through the straits pay
+toll to them, and they had allies in Thrace, a part of Europe
+opposite Troy, and Priam was chief of all princes on his side of
+the sea, as Agamemnon was chief king in Greece.  Priam had many
+beautiful things; he had a vine made of gold, with golden leaves
+and clusters, and he had the swiftest horses, and many strong and
+brave sons; the strongest and bravest was named Hector, and the
+youngest and most beautiful was named Paris.
+
+There was a prophecy that Priam's wife would give birth to a
+burning torch, so, when Paris was born, Priam sent a servant to
+carry the baby into a wild wood on Mount Ida, and leave him to die
+or be eaten by wolves and wild cats.  The servant left the child,
+but a shepherd found him, and brought him up as his own son.  The
+boy became as beautiful, for a boy, as Helen was for a girl, and
+was the best runner, and hunter, and archer among the country
+people.  He was loved by the beautiful OEnone, a nymph--that is, a
+kind of fairy--who dwelt in a cave among the woods of Ida.  The
+Greeks and Trojans believed in these days that such fair nymphs
+haunted all beautiful woodland places, and the mountains, and
+wells, and had crystal palaces, like mermaids, beneath the waves of
+the sea.  These fairies were not mischievous, but gentle and kind.
+Sometimes they married mortal men, and OEnone was the bride of
+Paris, and hoped to keep him for her own all the days of his life.
+
+It was believed that she had the magical power of healing wounded
+men, however sorely they were hurt.  Paris and OEnone lived most
+happily together in the forest; but one day, when the servants of
+Priam had driven off a beautiful bull that was in the herd of
+Paris, he left the hills to seek it, and came into the town of
+Troy.  His mother, Hecuba, saw him, and looking at him closely,
+perceived that he wore a ring which she had tied round her baby's
+neck when he was taken away from her soon after his birth.  Then
+Hecuba, beholding him so beautiful, and knowing him to be her son,
+wept for joy, and they all forgot the prophecy that he would be a
+burning torch of fire, and Priam gave him a house like those of his
+brothers, the Trojan princes.
+
+The fame of beautiful Helen reached Troy, and Paris quite forgot
+unhappy OEnone, and must needs go to see Helen for himself.
+Perhaps he meant to try to win her for his wife, before her
+marriage.  But sailing was little understood in these times, and
+the water was wide, and men were often driven for years out of
+their course, to Egypt, and Africa, and far away into the unknown
+seas, where fairies lived in enchanted islands, and cannibals dwelt
+in caves of the hills.
+
+Paris came much too late to have a chance of marrying Helen;
+however, he was determined to see her, and he made his way to her
+palace beneath the mountain Taygetus, beside the clear swift river
+Eurotas.  The servants came out of the hall when they heard the
+sound of wheels and horses' feet, and some of them took the horses
+to the stables, and tilted the chariots against the gateway, while
+others led Paris into the hall, which shone like the sun with gold
+and silver.  Then Paris and his companions were led to the baths,
+where they were bathed, and clad in new clothes, mantles of white,
+and robes of purple, and next they were brought before King
+Menelaus, and he welcomed them kindly, and meat was set before
+them, and wine in cups of gold.  While they were talking, Helen
+came forth from her fragrant chamber, like a Goddess, her maidens
+following her, and carrying for her an ivory distaff with violet-
+coloured wool, which she span as she sat, and heard Paris tell how
+far he had travelled to see her who was so famous for her beauty
+even in countries far away.
+
+Then Paris knew that he had never seen, and never could see, a lady
+so lovely and gracious as Helen as she sat and span, while the red
+drops fell and vanished from the ruby called the Star; and Helen
+knew that among all the princes in the world there was none so
+beautiful as Paris.  Now some say that Paris, by art magic, put on
+the appearance of Menelaus, and asked Helen to come sailing with
+him, and that she, thinking he was her husband, followed him, and
+he carried her across the wide waters of Troy, away from her lord
+and her one beautiful little daughter, the child Hermione.  And
+others say that the Gods carried Helen herself off to Egypt, and
+that they made in her likeness a beautiful ghost, out of flowers
+and sunset clouds, whom Paris bore to Troy, and this they did to
+cause war between Greeks and Trojans.  Another story is that Helen
+and her bower maiden and her jewels were seized by force, when
+Menelaus was out hunting.  It is only certain that Paris and Helen
+did cross the seas together, and that Menelaus and little Hermione
+were left alone in the melancholy palace beside the Eurotas.
+Penelope, we know for certain, made no excuses for her beautiful
+cousin, but hated her as the cause of her own sorrows and of the
+deaths of thousands of men in war, for all the Greek princes were
+bound by their oath to fight for Menelaus against any one who
+injured him and stole his wife away.  But Helen was very unhappy in
+Troy, and blamed herself as bitterly as all the other women blamed
+her, and most of all OEnone, who had been the love of Paris.  The
+men were much more kind to Helen, and were determined to fight to
+the death rather than lose the sight of her beauty among them.
+
+The news of the dishonour done to Menelaus and to all the princes
+of Greece ran through the country like fire through a forest.  East
+and west and south and north went the news:  to kings in their
+castles on the hills, and beside the rivers and on cliffs above the
+sea.  The cry came to ancient Nestor of the white beard at Pylos,
+Nestor who had reigned over two generations of men, who had fought
+against the wild folk of the hills, and remembered the strong
+Heracles, and Eurytus of the black bow that sang before the day of
+battle.
+
+The cry came to black-bearded Agamemnon, in his strong town called
+"golden Mycenae," because it was so rich; it came to the people in
+Thisbe, where the wild doves haunt; and it came to rocky Pytho,
+where is the sacred temple of Apollo and the maid who prophesies.
+It came to Aias, the tallest and strongest of men, in his little
+isle of Salamis; and to Diomede of the loud war-cry, the bravest of
+warriors, who held Argos and Tiryns of the black walls of huge,
+stones, that are still standing.  The summons came to the western
+islands and to Ulysses in Ithaca, and even far south to the great
+island of Crete of the hundred cities, where Idomeneus ruled in
+Cnossos; Idomeneus, whose ruined palace may still be seen with the
+throne of the king, and pictures painted on the walls, and the
+King's own draught-board of gold and silver, and hundreds of
+tablets of clay, on which are written the lists of royal treasures.
+Far north went the news to Pelasgian Argos, and Hellas, where the
+people of Peleus dwelt, the Myrmidons; but Peleus was too old to
+fight, and his boy, Achilles, dwelt far away, in the island of
+Scyros, dressed as a girl, among the daughters of King Lycomedes.
+To many another town and to a hundred islands went the bitter news
+of approaching war, for all princes knew that their honour and
+their oaths compelled them to gather their spearmen, and bowmen,
+and slingers from the fields and the fishing, and to make ready
+their ships, and meet King Agamemnon in the harbour of Aulis, and
+cross the wide sea to besiege Troy town.
+
+Now the story is told that Ulysses was very unwilling to leave his
+island and his wife Penelope, and little Telemachus; while Penelope
+had no wish that he should pass into danger, and into the sight of
+Helen of the fair hands.  So it is said that when two of the
+princes came to summon Ulysses, he pretended to be mad, and went
+ploughing the sea sand with oxen, and sowing the sand with salt.
+Then the prince Palamedes took the baby Telemachus from the arms of
+his nurse, Eurycleia, and laid him in the line of the furrow, where
+the ploughshare would strike him and kill him.  But Ulysses turned
+the plough aside, and they cried that he was not mad, but sane, and
+he must keep his oath, and join the fleet at Aulis, a long voyage
+for him to sail, round the stormy southern Cape of Maleia.
+
+Whether this tale be true or not, Ulysses did go, leading twelve
+black ships, with high beaks painted red at prow and stern.  The
+ships had oars, and the warriors manned the oars, to row when there
+was no wind.  There was a small raised deck at each end of the
+ships; on these decks men stood to fight with sword and spear when
+there was a battle at sea.  Each ship had but one mast, with a
+broad lugger sail, and for anchors they had only heavy stones
+attached to cables.  They generally landed at night, and slept on
+the shore of one of the many islands, when they could, for they
+greatly feared to sail out of sight of land.
+
+The fleet consisted of more than a thousand ships, each with fifty
+warriors, so the army was of more than fifty thousand men.
+Agamemnon had a hundred ships, Diomede had eighty, Nestor had
+ninety, the Cretans with Idomeneus, had eighty, Menelaus had sixty;
+but Aias and Ulysses, who lived in small islands, had only twelve
+ships apiece.  Yet Aias was so brave and strong, and Ulysses so
+brave and wise, that they were ranked among the greatest chiefs and
+advisers of Agamemnon, with Menelaus, Diomede, Idomeneus, Nestor,
+Menestheus of Athens, and two or three others.  These chiefs were
+called the Council, and gave advice to Agamemnon, who was
+commander-in-chief.  He was a brave fighter, but so anxious and
+fearful of losing the lives of his soldiers that Ulysses and
+Diomede were often obliged to speak to him very severely.
+Agamemnon was also very insolent and greedy, though, when anybody
+stood up to him, he was ready to apologise, for fear the injured
+chief should renounce his service and take away his soldiers.
+
+Nestor was much respected because he remained brave, though he was
+too old to be very useful in battle.  He generally tried to make
+peace when the princes quarrelled with Agamemnon.  He loved to tell
+long stories about his great deeds when he was young, and he wished
+the chiefs to fight in old-fashioned ways.
+
+For instance, in his time the Greeks had fought in clan regiments,
+and the princely men had never dismounted in battle, but had fought
+in squadrons of chariots, but now the owners of chariots fought on
+foot, each man for himself, while his squire kept the chariot near
+him to escape on if he had to retreat.  Nestor wished to go back to
+the good old way of chariot charges against the crowds of foot
+soldiers of the enemy.  In short, he was a fine example of the old-
+fashioned soldier.
+
+Aias, though so very tall, strong, and brave, was rather stupid.
+He seldom spoke, but he was always ready to fight, and the last to
+retreat.  Menelaus was weak of body, but as brave as the best, or
+more brave, for he had a keen sense of honour, and would attempt
+what he had not the strength to do.  Diomede and Ulysses were great
+friends, and always fought side by side, when they could, and
+helped each other in the most dangerous adventures.
+
+These were the chiefs who led the great Greek armada from the
+harbour of Aulis.  A long time had passed, after the flight of
+Helen, before the large fleet could be collected, and more time
+went by in the attempt to cross the sea to Troy.  There were
+tempests that scattered the ships, so they were driven back to
+Aulis to refit; and they fought, as they went out again, with the
+peoples of unfriendly islands, and besieged their towns.  What they
+wanted most of all was to have Achilles with them, for he was the
+leader of fifty ships and 2,500 men, and he had magical armour
+made, men said, for his father, by Hephaestus, the God of armour-
+making and smithy work.
+
+At last the fleet came to the Isle of Scyros, where they suspected
+that Achilles was concealed.  King Lycomedes received the chiefs
+kindly, and they saw all his beautiful daughters dancing and
+playing at ball, but Achilles was still so young and slim and so
+beautiful that they did not know him among the others.  There was a
+prophecy that they could not take Troy without him, and yet they
+could not find him out.  Then Ulysses had a plan.  He blackened his
+eyebrows and beard and put on the dress of a Phoenician merchant.
+The Phoenicians were a people who lived near the Jews, and were of
+the same race, and spoke much the same language, but, unlike the
+Jews, who, at that time were farmers in Palestine, tilling the
+ground, and keeping flocks and herds, the Phoenicians were the
+greatest of traders and sailors, and stealers of slaves.  They
+carried cargoes of beautiful cloths, and embroideries, and jewels
+of gold, and necklaces of amber, and sold these everywhere about
+the shores of Greece and the islands.
+
+Ulysses then dressed himself like a Phoenician pedlar, with his
+pack on his back:  he only took a stick in his hand, his long hair
+was turned up, and hidden under a red sailor's cap, and in this
+figure he came, stooping beneath his pack, into the courtyard of
+King Lycomedes.  The girls heard that a pedlar had come, and out
+they all ran, Achilles with the rest to watch the pedlar undo his
+pack.  Each chose what she liked best:  one took a wreath of gold;
+another a necklace of gold and amber; another earrings; a fourth a
+set of brooches, another a dress of embroidered scarlet cloth;
+another a veil; another a pair of bracelets; but at the bottom of
+the pack lay a great sword of bronze, the hilt studded with golden
+nails.  Achilles seized the sword.  "This is for me!" he said, and
+drew the sword from the gilded sheath, and made it whistle round
+his head.
+
+"You are Achilles, Peleus' son!" said Ulysses; "and you are to be
+the chief warrior of the Achaeans," for the Greeks then called
+themselves Achaeans.  Achilles was only too glad to hear these
+words, for he was quite tired of living among maidens.  Ulysses led
+him into the hall where the chiefs were sitting at their wine, and
+Achilles was blushing like any girl.
+
+"Here is the Queen of the Amazons," said Ulysses--for the Amazons
+were a race of warlike maidens--"or rather here is Achilles,
+Peleus' son, with sword in hand."  Then they all took his hand, and
+welcomed him, and he was clothed in man's dress, with the sword by
+his side, and presently they sent him back with ten ships to his
+home.  There his mother, Thetis, of the silver feet, the goddess of
+the sea, wept over him, saying, "My child, thou hast the choice of
+a long and happy and peaceful life here with me, or of a brief time
+of war and undying renown.  Never shall I see thee again in Argos
+if thy choice is for war."  But Achilles chose to die young, and to
+be famous as long as the world stands.  So his father gave him
+fifty ships, with Patroclus, who was older than he, to be his
+friend, and with an old man, Phoenix, to advise him; and his mother
+gave him the glorious armour that the God had made for his father,
+and the heavy ashen spear that none but he could wield, and he
+sailed to join the host of the Achaeans, who all praised and
+thanked Ulysses that had found for them such a prince.  For
+Achilles was the fiercest fighter of them all, and the swiftest-
+footed man, and the most courteous prince, and the gentlest with
+women and children, but he was proud and high of heart, and when he
+was angered his anger was terrible.
+
+The Trojans would have had no chance against the Greeks if only the
+men of the city of Troy had fought to keep Helen of the fair hands.
+But they had allies, who spoke different languages, and came to
+fight for them both from Europe and from Asia.  On the Trojan as
+well as on the Greek side were people called Pelasgians, who seem
+to have lived on both shores of the sea.  There were Thracians,
+too, who dwelt much further north than Achilles, in Europe and
+beside the strait of Hellespont, where the narrow sea runs like a
+river.  There were warriors of Lycia, led by Sarpedon and Glaucus;
+there were Carians, who spoke in a strange tongue; there were
+Mysians and men from Alybe, which was called "the birthplace of
+silver," and many other peoples sent their armies, so that the war
+was between Eastern Europe, on one side, and Western Asia Minor on
+the other.  The people of Egypt took no part in the war:  the
+Greeks and Islesmen used to come down in their ships and attack the
+Egyptians as the Danes used to invade England.  You may see the
+warriors from the islands, with their horned helmets, in old
+Egyptian pictures.
+
+The commander-in-chief, as we say now, of the Trojans was Hector,
+the son of Priam.  He was thought a match for any one of the
+Greeks, and was brave and good.  His brothers also were leaders,
+but Paris preferred to fight from a distance with bow and arrows.
+He and Pandarus, who dwelt on the slopes of Mount Ida, were the
+best archers in the Trojan army.  The princes usually fought with
+heavy spears, which they threw at each other, and with swords,
+leaving archery to the common soldiers who had no armour of bronze.
+But Teucer, Meriones, and Ulysses were the best archers of the
+Achaeans.  People called Dardanians were led by Aeneas, who was
+said to be the son of the most beautiful of the goddesses.  These,
+with Sarpedon and Glaucus, were the most famous of the men who
+fought for Troy.
+
+Troy was a strong town on a hill.  Mount Ida lay behind it, and in
+front was a plain sloping to the sea shore.  Through this plain ran
+two beautiful clear rivers, and there were scattered here and there
+what you would have taken for steep knolls, but they were really
+mounds piled up over the ashes of warriors who had died long ago.
+On these mounds sentinels used to stand and look across the water
+to give warning if the Greek fleet drew near, for the Trojans had
+heard that it was on its way.  At last the fleet came in view, and
+the sea was black with ships, the oarsmen pulling with all their
+might for the honour of being the first to land.  The race was won
+by the ship of the prince Protesilaus, who was first of all to leap
+on shore, but as he leaped he was struck to the heart by an arrow
+from the bow of Paris.  This must have seemed a good omen to the
+Trojans, and to the Greeks evil, but we do not hear that the
+landing was resisted in great force, any more than that of Norman
+William was, when he invaded England.
+
+The Greeks drew up all their ships on shore, and the men camped in
+huts built in front of the ships.  There was thus a long row of
+huts with the ships behind them, and in these huts the Greeks lived
+all through the ten years that the siege of Troy lasted.  In these
+days they do not seem to have understood how to conduct a siege.
+You would have expected the Greeks to build towers and dig trenches
+all round Troy, and from the towers watch the roads, so that
+provisions might not be brought in from the country.  This is
+called "investing" a town, but the Greeks never invested Troy.
+Perhaps they had not men enough; at all events the place remained
+open, and cattle could always be driven in to feed the warriors and
+the women and children.
+
+Moreover, the Greeks for long never seem to have tried to break
+down one of the gates, nor to scale the walls, which were very
+high, with ladders.  On the other hand, the Trojans and allies
+never ventured to drive the Greeks into the sea; they commonly
+remained within the walls or skirmished just beneath them.  The
+older men insisted on this way of fighting, in spite of Hector, who
+always wished to attack and storm the camp of the Greeks.  Neither
+side had machines for throwing heavy stones, such as the Romans
+used later, and the most that the Greeks did was to follow Achilles
+and capture small neighbouring cities, and take the women for
+slaves, and drive the cattle.  They got provisions and wine from
+the Phoenicians, who came in ships, and made much profit out of the
+war.
+
+It was not till the tenth year that the war began in real earnest,
+and scarcely any of the chief leaders had fallen.  Fever came upon
+the Greeks, and all day the camp was black with smoke, and all
+night shone with fire from the great piles of burning wood, on
+which the Greeks burned their dead, whose bones they then buried
+under hillocks of earth.  Many of these hillocks are still standing
+on the plain of Troy.  When the plague had raged for ten days,
+Achilles called an assembly of the whole army, to try to find out
+why the Gods were angry.  They thought that the beautiful God
+Apollo (who took the Trojan side) was shooting invisible arrows at
+them from his silver bow, though fevers in armies are usually
+caused by dirt and drinking bad water.  The great heat of the sun,
+too, may have helped to cause the disease; but we must tell the
+story as the Greeks told it themselves.  So Achilles spoke in the
+assembly, and proposed to ask some prophet why Apollo was angry.
+The chief prophet was Calchas.  He rose and said that he would
+declare the truth if Achilles would promise to protect him from the
+anger of any prince whom the truth might offend.
+
+Achilles knew well whom Calchas meant.  Ten days before, a priest
+of Apollo had come to the camp and offered ransom for his daughter
+Chryseis, a beautiful girl, whom Achilles had taken prisoner, with
+many others, when he captured a small town.  Chryseis had been
+given as a slave to Agamemnon, who always got the best of the
+plunder because he was chief king, whether he had taken part in the
+fighting or not.  As a rule he did not.  To Achilles had been given
+another girl, Briseis, of whom he was very fond.  Now when Achilles
+had promised to protect Calchas, the prophet spoke out, and boldly
+said, what all men knew already, that Apollo caused the plague
+because Agamemnon would not return Chryseis, and had insulted her
+father, the priest of the God.
+
+On hearing this, Agamemnon was very angry.  He said that he would
+send Chryseis home, but that he would take Briseis away from
+Achilles.  Then Achilles was drawing his great sword from the
+sheath to kill Agamemnon, but even in his anger he knew that this
+was wrong, so he merely called Agamemnon a greedy coward, "with
+face of dog and heart of deer," and he swore that he and his men
+would fight no more against the Trojans.  Old Nestor tried to make
+peace, and swords were not drawn, but Briseis was taken away from
+Achilles, and Ulysses put Chryseis on board of his ship and sailed
+away with her to her father's town, and gave her up to her father.
+Then her father prayed to Apollo that the plague might cease, and
+it did cease--when the Greeks had cleansed their camp, and purified
+themselves and cast their filth into the sea.
+
+We know how fierce and brave Achilles was, and we may wonder that
+he did not challenge Agamemnon to fight a duel.  But the Greeks
+never fought duels, and Agamemnon was believed to be chief king by
+right divine.  Achilles went alone to the sea shore when his dear
+Briseis was led away, and he wept, and called to his mother, the
+silver-footed lady of the waters.  Then she arose from the grey
+sea, like a mist, and sat down beside her son, and stroked his hair
+with her hand, and he told her all his sorrows.  So she said that
+she would go up to the dwelling of the Gods, and pray Zeus, the
+chief of them all, to make the Trojans win a great battle, so that
+Agamemnon should feel his need of Achilles, and make amends for his
+insolence, and do him honour.
+
+Thetis kept her promise, and Zeus gave his word that the Trojans
+should defeat the Greeks.  That night Zeus sent a deceitful dream
+to Agamemnon.  The dream took the shape of old Nestor, and said
+that Zeus would give him victory that day.  While he was still
+asleep, Agamemnon was fun of hope that he would instantly take
+Troy, but, when he woke, he seems not to have been nearly so
+confident, for in place of putting on his armour, and bidding the
+Greeks arm themselves, he merely dressed in his robe and mantle,
+took his sceptre, and went and told the chiefs about his dream.
+They did not feel much encouraged, so he said that he would try the
+temper of the army.  He would call them together, and propose to
+return to Greece; but, if the soldiers took him at his word, the
+other chiefs were to stop them.  This was a foolish plan, for the
+soldiers were wearying for beautiful Greece, and their homes, and
+wives and children.  Therefore, when Agamemnon did as he had said,
+the whole army rose, like the sea under the west wind, and, with a
+shout, they rushed to the ships, while the dust blew in clouds from
+under their feet.  Then they began to launch their ships, and it
+seems that the princes were carried away in the rush, and were as
+eager as the rest to go home.
+
+But Ulysses only stood in sorrow and anger beside his ship, and
+never put hand to it, for he felt how disgraceful it was to run
+away.  At last he threw down his mantle, which his herald Eurybates
+of Ithaca, a round-shouldered, brown, curly-haired man, picked up,
+and he ran to find Agamemnon, and took his sceptre, a gold-studded
+staff, like a marshal's baton, and he gently told the chiefs whom
+he met that they were doing a shameful thing; but he drove the
+common soldiers back to the place of meeting with the sceptre.
+They all returned, puzzled and chattering, but one lame, bandy-
+legged, bald, round-shouldered, impudent fellow, named Thersites,
+jumped up and made an insolent speech, insulting the princes, and
+advising the army to run away.  Then Ulysses took him and beat him
+till the blood came, and he sat down, wiping away his tears, and
+looking so foolish that the whole army laughed at him, and cheered
+Ulysses when he and Nestor bade them arm and fight.  Agamemnon
+still believed a good deal in his dream, and prayed that he might
+take Troy that very day, and kill Hector.  Thus Ulysses alone saved
+the army from a cowardly retreat; but for him the ships would have
+been launched in an hour.  But the Greeks armed and advanced in
+full force, all except Achilles and his friend Patroclus with their
+two or three thousand men.  The Trojans also took heart, knowing
+that Achilles would not fight, and the armies approached each
+other.  Paris himself, with two spears and a bow, and without
+armour, walked into the space between the hosts, and challenged any
+Greek prince to single combat.  Menelaus, whose wife Paris had
+carried away, was as glad as a hungry lion when he finds a stag or
+a goat, and leaped in armour from his chariot, but Paris turned and
+slunk away, like a man when he meets a great serpent on a narrow
+path in the hills.  Then Hector rebuked Paris for his cowardice,
+and Paris was ashamed and offered to end the war by fighting
+Menelaus.  If he himself fell, the Trojans must give up Helen and
+all her jewels; if Menelaus fell, the Greeks were to return without
+fair Helen.  The Greeks accepted this plan, and both sides disarmed
+themselves to look on at the fight in comfort, and they meant to
+take the most solemn oaths to keep peace till the combat was lost
+and won, and the quarrel settled.  Hector sent into Troy for two
+lambs, which were to be sacrificed when the oaths were taken.
+
+In the meantime Helen of the fair hands was at home working at a
+great purple tapestry on which she embroidered the battles of the
+Greeks and Trojans.  It was just like the tapestry at Bayeux on
+which Norman ladies embroidered the battles in the Norman Conquest
+of England.  Helen was very fond of embroidering, like poor Mary,
+Queen of Scots, when a prisoner in Loch Leven Castle.  Probably the
+work kept both Helen and Mary from thinking of their past lives and
+their sorrows.
+
+When Helen heard that her husband was to fight Paris, she wept, and
+threw a shining veil over her head, and with her two bower maidens
+went to the roof of the gate tower, where king Priam was sitting
+with the old Trojan chiefs.  They saw her and said that it was
+small blame to fight for so beautiful a lady, and Priam called her
+"dear child," and said, "I do not blame you, I blame the Gods who
+brought about this war."  But Helen said that she wished she had
+died before she left her little daughter and her husband, and her
+home:  "Alas! shameless me!"  Then she told Priam the names of the
+chief Greek warriors, and of Ulysses, who was shorter by a head
+than Agamemnon, but broader in chest and shoulders.  She wondered
+that she could not see her own two brothers, Castor and Polydeuces,
+and thought that they kept aloof in shame for her sin; but the
+green grass covered their graves, for they had both died in battle,
+far away in Lacedaemon, their own country.
+
+Then the lambs were sacrificed, and the oaths were taken, and Paris
+put on his brother's armour, helmet, breastplate, shield, and leg-
+armour.  Lots were drawn to decide whether Paris or Menelaus should
+throw his spear first, and, as Paris won, he threw his spear, but
+the point was blunted against the shield of Menelaus.  But when
+Menelaus threw his spear it went clean through the shield of Paris,
+and through the side of his breastplate, but only grazed his robe.
+Menelaus drew his sword, and rushed in, and smote at the crest of
+the helmet of Paris, but his bronze blade broke into four pieces.
+Menelaus caught Paris by the horsehair crest of his helmet, and
+dragged him towards the Greeks, but the chin-strap broke, and
+Menelaus turning round threw the helmet into the ranks of the
+Greeks.  But when Menelaus looked again for Paris, with a spear in
+his hand, he could see him nowhere!  The Greeks believed that the
+beautiful goddess Aphrodite, whom the Romans called Venus, hid him
+in a thick cloud of darkness and carried him to his own house,
+where Helen of the fair hands found him and said to him, "Would
+that thou hadst perished, conquered by that great warrior who was
+my lord!  Go forth again and challenge him to fight thee face to
+face."  But Paris had no more desire to fight, and the Goddess
+threatened Helen, and compelled her to remain with him in Troy,
+coward as he had proved himself.  Yet on other days Paris fought
+well; it seems that he was afraid of Menelaus because, in his
+heart, he was ashamed of himself.
+
+Meanwhile Menelaus was seeking for Paris everywhere, and the
+Trojans, who hated him, would have shown his hiding place.  But
+they knew not where he was, and the Greeks claimed the victory, and
+thought that, as Paris had the worst of the fight, Helen would be
+restored to them, and they would all sail home.
+
+
+
+TROJAN VICTORIES
+
+
+
+The war might now have ended, but an evil and foolish thought came
+to Pandarus, a prince of Ida, who fought for the Trojans.  He chose
+to shoot an arrow at Menelaus, contrary to the sworn vows of peace,
+and the arrow pierced the breastplate of Menelaus through the place
+where the clasped plates meet, and drew his blood.  Then Agamemnon,
+who loved his brother dearly, began to lament, saying that if he
+died, the army would all go home and Trojans would dance on the
+grave of Menelaus.  "Do not alarm all our army," said Menelaus,
+"the arrow has done me little harm;" and so it proved, for the
+surgeon easily drew the arrow out of the wound.
+
+Then Agamemnon hastened here and there, bidding the Greeks arm and
+attack the Trojans, who would certainly be defeated, for they had
+broken the oaths of peace.  But with his usual insolence he chose
+to accuse Ulysses and Diomede of cowardice, though Diomede was as
+brave as any man, and Ulysses had just prevented the whole army
+from launching their ships and going home.  Ulysses answered him
+with spirit, but Diomede said nothing at the moment; later he spoke
+his mind.  He leaped from his chariot, and all the chiefs leaped
+down and advanced in line, the chariots following them, while the
+spearmen and bowmen followed the chariots.  The Trojan army
+advanced, all shouting in their different languages, but the Greeks
+came on silently.  Then the two front lines clashed, shield against
+shield, and the noise was like the roaring of many flooded torrents
+among the hills.  When a man fell he who had slain him tried to
+strip off his armour, and his friends fought over his body to save
+the dead from this dishonour.
+
+Ulysses fought above a wounded friend, and drove his spear through
+head and helmet of a Trojan prince, and everywhere men were falling
+beneath spears and arrows and heavy stones which the warriors
+threw.  Here Menelaus speared the man who built the ships with
+which Paris had sailed to Greece; and the dust rose like a cloud,
+and a mist went up from the fighting men, while Diomede stormed
+across the plain like a river in flood, leaving dead bodies behind
+him as the river leaves boughs of trees and grass to mark its
+course.  Pandarus wounded Diomede with an arrow, but Diomede slew
+him, and the Trojans were being driven in flight, when Sarpedon and
+Hector turned and hurled themselves on the Greeks; and even Diomede
+shuddered when Hector came on, and charged at Ulysses, who was
+slaying Trojans as he went, and the battle swayed this way and
+that, and the arrows fell like rain.
+
+But Hector was sent into the city to bid the women pray to the
+goddess Athene for help, and he went to the house of Paris, whom
+Helen was imploring to go and fight like a man, saying:  "Would
+that the winds had wafted me away, and the tides drowned me,
+shameless that I am, before these things came to pass!"
+
+Then Hector went to see his dear wife, Andromache, whose father had
+been slain by Achilles early in the siege, and he found her and her
+nurse carrying her little boy, Hector's son, and like a star upon
+her bosom lay his beautiful and shining golden head.  Now, while
+Helen urged Paris to go into the fight, Andromache prayed Hector to
+stay with her in the town, and fight no more lest he should be
+slain and leave her a widow, and the boy an orphan, with none to
+protect him.  The army she said, should come back within the walls,
+where they had so long been safe, not fight in the open plain.  But
+Hector answered that he would never shrink from battle, "yet I know
+this in my heart, the day shall come for holy Troy to be laid low,
+and Priam and the people of Priam.  But this and my own death do
+not trouble me so much as the thought of you, when you shall be
+carried as a slave to Greece, to spin at another woman's bidding,
+and bear water from a Grecian well.  May the heaped up earth of my
+tomb cover me ere I hear thy cries and the tale of thy captivity."
+
+Then Hector stretched out his hands to his little boy, but the
+child was afraid when he saw the great glittering helmet of his
+father and the nodding horsehair crest.  So Hector laid his helmet
+on the ground and dandled the child in his arms, and tried to
+comfort his wife, and said good-bye for the last time, for he never
+came back to Troy alive.  He went on his way back to the battle,
+and Paris went with him, in glorious armour, and soon they were
+slaying the princes of the Greeks.
+
+The battle raged till nightfall, and in the night the Greeks and
+Trojans burned their dead; and the Greeks made a trench and wall
+round their camp, which they needed for safety now that the Trojans
+came from their town and fought in the open plain.
+
+Next day the Trojans were so successful that they did not retreat
+behind their walls at night, but lit great fires on the plain:  a
+thousand fires, with fifty men taking supper round each of them,
+and drinking their wine to the music of flutes.  But the Greeks
+were much discouraged, and Agamemnon called the whole army
+together, and proposed that they should launch their ships in the
+night and sail away home.  Then Diomede stood up, and said:  "You
+called me a coward lately.  You are the coward!  Sail away if you
+are afraid to remain here, but all the rest of us will fight till
+we take Troy town."
+
+Then all shouted in praise of Diomede, and Nestor advised them to
+send five hundred young men, under his own son, Thrasymedes, to
+watch the Trojans, and guard the new wall and the ditch, in case
+the Trojans attacked them in the darkness.  Next Nestor counselled
+Agamemnon to send Ulysses and Aias to Achilles, and promise to give
+back Briseis, and rich presents of gold, and beg pardon for his
+insolence.  If Achilles would be friends again with Agamemnon, and
+fight as he used to fight, the Trojans would soon be driven back
+into the town.
+
+Agamemnon was very ready to beg pardon, for he feared that the
+whole army would be defeated, and cut off from their ships, and
+killed or kept as slaves.  So Ulysses and Aias and the old tutor of
+Achilles, Phoenix, went to Achilles and argued with him, praying
+him to accept the rich presents, and help the Greeks.  But Achilles
+answered that he did not believe a word that Agamemnon said;
+Agamemnon had always hated him, and always would hate him.  No; he
+would not cease to be angry, he would sail away next day with all
+his men, and he advised the rest to come with him.  "Why be so
+fierce?" said tall Aias, who seldom spoke.  "Why make so much
+trouble about one girl?  We offer you seven girls, and plenty of
+other gifts."
+
+Then Achilles said that he would not sail away next day, but he
+would not fight till the Trojans tried to burn his own ships, and
+there he thought that Hector would find work enough to do.  This
+was the most that Achilles would promise, and all the Greeks were
+silent when Ulysses delivered his message.  But Diomede arose and
+said that, with or without Achilles, fight they must; and all men,
+heavy at heart, went to sleep in their huts or in the open air at
+their doors.
+
+Agamemnon was much too anxious to sleep.  He saw the glow of the
+thousand fires of the Trojans in the dark, and heard their merry
+flutes, and he groaned and pulled out his long hair by handfuls.
+When he was tired of crying and groaning and tearing his hair, he
+thought that he would go for advice to old Nestor.  He threw a lion
+skin, the coverlet of his bed, over his shoulder, took his spear,
+went out and met Menelaus--for he, too, could not sleep--and
+Menelaus proposed to send a spy among the Trojans, if any man were
+brave enough to go, for the Trojan camp was all alight with fires,
+and the adventure was dangerous.  Therefore the two wakened Nestor
+and the other chiefs, who came just as they were, wrapped in the
+fur coverlets of their beds, without any armour.  First they
+visited the five hundred young men set to watch the wall, and then
+they crossed the ditch and sat down outside and considered what
+might be done.  "Will nobody go as a spy among the Trojans?" said
+Nestor; he meant would none of the young men go.  Diomede said that
+he would take the risk if any other man would share it with him,
+and, if he might choose a companion, he would take Ulysses.
+
+"Come, then, let us be going," said Ulysses, "for the night is
+late, and the dawn is near."  As these two chiefs had no armour on,
+they borrowed shields and leather caps from the young men of the
+guard, for leather would not shine as bronze helmets shine in the
+firelight.  The cap lent to Ulysses was strengthened outside with
+rows of boars' tusks.  Many of these tusks, shaped for this
+purpose, have been found, with swords and armour, in a tomb in
+Mycenae, the town of Agamemnon.  This cap which was lent to Ulysses
+had once been stolen by his grandfather, Autolycus, who was a
+Master Thief, and he gave it as a present to a friend, and so,
+through several hands, it had come to young Meriones of Crete, one
+of the five hundred guards, who now lent it to Ulysses.  So the two
+princes set forth in the dark, so dark it was that though they
+heard a heron cry, they could not see it as it flew away.
+
+While Ulysses and Diomede stole through the night silently, like
+two wolves among the bodies of dead men, the Trojan leaders met and
+considered what they ought to do.  They did not know whether the
+Greeks had set sentinels and outposts, as usual, to give warning if
+the enemy were approaching; or whether they were too weary to keep
+a good watch; or whether perhaps they were getting ready their
+ships to sail homewards in the dawn.  So Hector offered a reward to
+any man who would creep through the night and spy on the Greeks; he
+said he would give the spy the two best horses in the Greek camp.
+
+Now among the Trojans there was a young man named Dolon, the son of
+a rich father, and he was the only boy in a family of five sisters.
+He was ugly, but a very swift runner, and he cared for horses more
+than for anything else in the world.  Dolon arose and said, "If you
+will swear to give me the horses and chariot of Achilles, son of
+Peleus, I will steal to the hut of Agamemnon and listen and find
+out whether the Greeks mean to fight or flee."  Hector swore to
+give these horses, which were the best in the world, to Dolon, so
+he took his bow and threw a grey wolf's hide over his shoulders,
+and ran towards the ships of the Greeks.
+
+Now Ulysses saw Dolon as he came, and said to Diomede, "Let us
+suffer him to pass us, and then do you keep driving him with your
+spear towards the ships, and away from Troy."  So Ulysses and
+Diomede lay down among the dead men who had fallen in the battle,
+and Dolon ran on past them towards the Greeks.  Then they rose and
+chased him as two greyhounds course a hare, and, when Dolon was
+near the sentinels, Diomede cried "Stand, or I will slay you with
+my spear!" and he threw his spear just over Dolon's shoulder.  So
+Dolon stood still, green with fear, and with his teeth chattering.
+When the two came up, he cried, and said that his father was a rich
+man, who would pay much gold, and bronze, and iron for his ransom.
+
+Ulysses said, "Take heart, and put death out of your mind, and tell
+us what you are doing here."  Dolon said that Hector had promised
+him the horses of Achilles if he would go and spy on the Greeks.
+"You set your hopes high," said Ulysses, "for the horses of
+Achilles are not earthly steeds, but divine; a gift of the Gods,
+and Achilles alone can drive them.  But, tell me, do the Trojans
+keep good watch, and where is Hector with his horses?" for Ulysses
+thought that it would be a great adventure to drive away the horses
+of Hector.
+
+"Hector is with the chiefs, holding council at the tomb of Ilus,"
+said Dolon; "but no regular guard is set.  The people of Troy,
+indeed, are round their watch fires, for they have to think of the
+safety of their wives and children; but the allies from far lands
+keep no watch, for their wives and children are safe at home."
+Then he told where all the different peoples who fought for Priam
+had their stations; but, said he, "if you want to steal horses, the
+best are those of Rhesus, King of the Thracians, who has only
+joined us to-night.  He and his men are asleep at the furthest end
+of the line, and his horses are the best and greatest that ever I
+saw:  tall, white as snow, and swift as the wind, and his chariot
+is adorned with gold and silver, and golden is his armour.  Now
+take me prisoner to the ships, or bind me and leave me here while
+you go and try whether I have told you truth or lies."
+
+"No," said Diomede, "if I spare your life you may come spying
+again," and he drew his sword and smote off the head of Dolon.
+They hid his cap and bow and spear where they could find them
+easily, and marked the spot, and went through the night to the dark
+camp of King Rhesus, who had no watch-fire and no guards.  Then
+Diomede silently stabbed each sleeping man to the heart, and
+Ulysses seized the dead by the feet and threw them aside lest they
+should frighten the horses, which had never been in battle, and
+would shy if they were led over the bodies of dead men.  Last of
+all Diomede killed King Rhesus, and Ulysses led forth his horses,
+beating them with his bow, for he had forgotten to take the whip
+from the chariot.  Then Ulysses and Diomede leaped on the backs of
+the horses, as they had not time to bring away the chariot, and
+they galloped to the ships, stopping to pick up the spear, and bow,
+and cap of Dolon.  They rode to the princes, who welcomed them, and
+all laughed for glee when they saw the white horses and heard that
+King Rhesus was dead, for they guessed that all his army would now
+go home to Thrace.  This they must have done, for we never hear of
+them in the battles that followed, so Ulysses and Diomede deprived
+the Trojans of thousands of men.  The other princes went to bed in
+good spirits, but Ulysses and Diomede took a swim in the sea, and
+then went into hot baths, and so to breakfast, for rosy-fingered
+Dawn was coming up the sky.
+
+
+
+BATTLE AT THE SHIPS
+
+
+
+With dawn Agamemnon awoke, and fear had gone out of his heart.  He
+put on his armour, and arrayed the chiefs on foot in front of their
+chariots, and behind them came the spearmen, with the bowmen and
+slingers on the wings of the army.  Then a great black cloud spread
+over the sky, and red was the rain that fell from it.  The Trojans
+gathered on a height in the plain, and Hector, shining in armour,
+went here and there, in front and rear, like a star that now gleams
+forth and now is hidden in a cloud.
+
+The armies rushed on each other and hewed each other down, as
+reapers cut their way through a field of tall corn.  Neither side
+gave ground, though the helmets of the bravest Trojans might be
+seen deep in the ranks of the Greeks; and the swords of the bravest
+Greeks rose and fell in the ranks of the Trojans, and all the while
+the arrows showered like rain.  But at noon-day, when the weary
+woodman rests from cutting trees, and takes his dinner in the quiet
+hills, the Greeks of the first line made a charge, Agamemnon
+running in front of them, and he speared two Trojans, and took
+their breastplates, which he laid in his chariot, and then he
+speared one brother of Hector and struck another down with his
+sword, and killed two more who vainly asked to be made prisoners of
+war.  Footmen slew footmen, and chariot men slew chariot men, and
+they broke into the Trojan line as fire falls on a forest in a
+windy day, leaping and roaring and racing through the trees.  Many
+an empty chariot did the horses hurry madly through the field, for
+the charioteers were lying dead, with the greedy vultures hovering
+above them, flapping their wide wings.  Still Agamemnon followed
+and slew the hindmost Trojans, but the rest fled till they came to
+the gates, and the oak tree that grew outside the gates, and there
+they stopped.
+
+But Hector held his hands from fighting, for in the meantime he was
+making his men face the enemy and form up in line and take breath,
+and was encouraging them, for they had retreated from the wall of
+the Greeks across the whole plain, past the hill that was the tomb
+of Ilus, a king of old, and past the place of the wild fig-tree.
+Much ado had Hector to rally the Trojans, but he knew that when men
+do turn again they are hard to beat.  So it proved, for when the
+Trojans had rallied and formed in line, Agamemnon slew a Thracian
+chief who had come to fight for Troy before King Rhesus came.  But
+the eldest brother of the slain man smote Agamemnon through the arm
+with his spear, and, though Agamemnon slew him in turn, his wound
+bled much and he was in great pain, so he leaped into his chariot
+and was driven back to the ships.
+
+Then Hector gave the word to charge, as a huntsman cries on his
+hounds against a lion, and he rushed forward at the head of the
+Trojan line, slaying as he went.  Nine chiefs of the Greeks he
+slew, and fell upon the spearmen and scattered them, as the spray
+of the waves is scattered by the wandering wind.
+
+Now the ranks of the Greeks were broken, and they would have been
+driven among their ships and killed without mercy, had not Ulysses
+and Diomede stood firm in the centre, and slain four Trojan
+leaders.  The Greeks began to come back and face their enemies in
+line of battle again, though Hector, who had been fighting on the
+Trojan right, rushed against them.  But Diomede took good aim with
+his spear at the helmet of Hector, and struck it fairly.  The
+spear-point did not go through the helmet, but Hector was stunned
+and fell; and, when he came to himself, he leaped into his chariot,
+and his squire drove him against the Pylians and Cretans, under
+Nestor and Idomeneus, who were on the left wing of the Greek army.
+Then Diomede fought on till Paris, who stood beside the pillar on
+the hillock that was the tomb of old King Ilus, sent an arrow clean
+through his foot.  Ulysses went and stood in front of Diomede, who
+sat down, and Ulysses drew the arrow from his foot, and Diomede
+stepped into his chariot and was driven back to the ships.
+
+Ulysses was now the only Greek chief that still fought in the
+centre.  The Greeks all fled, and he was alone in the crowd of
+Trojans, who rushed on him as hounds and hunters press round a wild
+boar that stands at bay in a wood.  "They are cowards that flee
+from the fight," said Ulysses to himself; "but I will stand here,
+one man against a multitude."  He covered the front of his body
+with his great shield, that hung by a belt round his neck, and he
+smote four Trojans and wounded a fifth.  But the brother of the
+wounded man drove a spear through the shield and breastplate of
+Ulysses, and tore clean through his side.  Then Ulysses turned on
+this Trojan, and he fled, and Ulysses sent a spear through his
+shoulder and out at his breast, and he died.  Ulysses dragged from
+his own side the spear that had wounded him, and called thrice with
+a great voice to the other Greeks, and Menelaus and Aias rushed to
+rescue him, for many Trojans were round him, like jackals round a
+wounded stag that a man has struck with an arrow.  But Aias ran and
+covered the wounded Ulysses with his huge shield till he could
+climb into the chariot of Menelaus, who drove him back to the
+ships.
+
+Meanwhile, Hector was slaying the Greeks on the left of their
+battle, and Paris struck the Greek surgeon, Machaon, with an arrow;
+and Idomeneus bade Nestor put Machaon in his chariot and drive him
+to Nestor's hut, where his wound might be tended.  Meanwhile,
+Hector sped to the centre of the line, where Aias was slaying the
+Trojans; but Eurypylus, a Greek chief, was wounded by an arrow from
+the bow of Paris, and his friends guarded him with their shields
+and spears.
+
+Thus the best of the Greeks were wounded and out of the battle,
+save Aias, and the spearmen were in flight.  Meanwhile Achilles was
+standing by the stern of his ship watching the defeat of the
+Greeks, but when he saw Machaon being carried past, sorely wounded,
+in the chariot of Nestor, he bade his friend Patroclus, whom he
+loved better than all the rest, to go and ask how Machaon did.  He
+was sitting drinking wine with Nestor when Patroclus came, and
+Nestor told Patroclus how many of the chiefs were wounded, and
+though Patroclus was in a hurry Nestor began a very long story
+about his own great deeds of war, done when he was a young man.  At
+last he bade Patroclus tell Achilles that, if he would not fight
+himself, he should at least send out his men under Patroclus, who
+should wear the splendid armour of Achilles.  Then the Trojans
+would think that Achilles himself had returned to the battle, and
+they would be afraid, for none of them dared to meet Achilles hand
+to hand.
+
+So Patroclus ran off to Achilles; but, on his way, he met the
+wounded Eurypylus, and he took him to his hut and cut the arrow out
+of his thigh with a knife, and washed the wound with warm water,
+and rubbed over it a bitter root to take the pain away.  Thus he
+waited for some time with Eurypylus, but the advice of Nestor was
+in the end to cause the death of Patroclus.  The battle now raged
+more fiercely, while Agamemnon and Diomede and Ulysses could only
+limp about leaning on their spears; and again Agamemnon wished to
+moor the ships near shore, and embark in the night and run away.
+But Ulysses was very angry with him, and said:  "You should lead
+some other inglorious army, not us, who will fight on till every
+soul of us perish, rather than flee like cowards!  Be silent, lest
+the soldiers hear you speaking of flight, such words as no man
+should utter.  I wholly scorn your counsel, for the Greeks will
+lose heart if, in the midst of battle, you bid them launch the
+ships."
+
+Agamemnon was ashamed, and, by Diomede's advice, the wounded kings
+went down to the verge of the war to encourage the others, though
+they were themselves unable to fight.  They rallied the Greeks, and
+Aias led them and struck Hector full in the breast with a great
+rock, so that his friends carried him out of the battle to the
+river side, where they poured water over him, but he lay fainting
+on the ground, the black blood gushing up from his mouth.  While
+Hector lay there, and all men thought that he would die, Aias and
+Idomeneus were driving back the Trojans, and it seemed that, even
+without Achilles and his men, the Greeks were able to hold their
+own against the Trojans.  But the battle was never lost while
+Hector lived.  People in those days believed in "omens:" they
+thought that the appearance of birds on the right or left hand
+meant good or bad luck.  Once during the battle a Trojan showed
+Hector an unlucky bird, and wanted him to retreat into the town.
+But Hector said, "One omen is the best:  to fight for our own
+country."  While Hector lay between death and life the Greeks were
+winning, for the Trojans had no other great chief to lead them.
+But Hector awoke from his faint, and leaped to his feet and ran
+here and there, encouraging the men of Troy.  Then the most of the
+Greeks fled when they saw him; but Aias and Idomeneus, and the rest
+of the bravest, formed in a square between the Trojans and the
+ships, and down on them came Hector and Aeneas and Paris, throwing
+their spears, and slaying on every hand.  The Greeks turned and
+ran, and the Trojans would have stopped to strip the armour from
+the slain men, but Hector cried:  "Haste to the ships and leave the
+spoils of war.  I will slay any man who lags behind!"
+
+On this, all the Trojans drove their chariots down into the ditch
+that guarded the ships of the Greeks, as when a great wave sweeps
+at sea over the side of a vessel; and the Greeks were on the ship
+decks, thrusting with very long spears, used in sea fights, and the
+Trojans were boarding the ships, and striking with swords and axes.
+Hector had a lighted torch and tried to set fire to the ship of
+Aias; but Aias kept him back with the long spear, and slew a
+Trojan, whose lighted torch fell from his hand.  And Aias kept
+shouting:  "Come on, and drive away Hector; it is not to a dance
+that he is calling his men, but to battle."
+
+The dead fell in heaps, and the living ran over them to mount the
+heaps of slain and climb the ships.  Hector rushed forward like a
+sea wave against a great steep rock, but like the rock stood the
+Greeks; still the Trojans charged past the beaks of the foremost
+ships, while Aias, thrusting with a spear more than twenty feet
+long, leaped from deck to deck like a man that drives four horses
+abreast, and leaps from the back of one to the back of another.
+Hector seized with his hand the stern of the ship of Protesilaus,
+the prince whom Paris shot when he leaped ashore on the day when
+the Greeks first landed; and Hector kept calling:  "Bring fire!"
+and even Aias, in this strange sea fight on land, left the decks
+and went below, thrusting with his spear through the portholes.
+Twelve men lay dead who had brought fire against the ship which
+Aias guarded.
+
+
+
+THE SLAYING AND AVENGING OF PATROCLUS
+
+
+
+At this moment, when torches were blazing round the ships, and all
+seemed lost, Patroclus came out of the hut of Eurypylus, whose
+wound he had been tending, and he saw that the Greeks were in great
+danger, and ran weeping to Achilles.  "Why do you weep," said
+Achilles, "like a little girl that runs by her mother's side, and
+plucks at her gown and looks at her with tears in her eyes, till
+her mother takes her up in her arms?  Is there bad news from home
+that your father is dead, or mine; or are you sorry that the Greeks
+are getting what they deserve for their folly?"  Then Patroclus
+told Achilles how Ulysses and many other princes were wounded and
+could not fight, and begged to be allowed to put on Achilles'
+armour and lead his men, who were all fresh and unwearied, into the
+battle, for a charge of two thousand fresh warriors might turn the
+fortune of the day.
+
+Then Achilles was sorry that he had sworn not to fight himself till
+Hector brought fire to his own ships.  He would lend Patroclus his
+armour, and his horses, and his men; but Patroclus must only drive
+the Trojans from the ships, and not pursue them.  At this moment
+Aias was weary, so many spears smote his armour, and he could
+hardly hold up his great shield, and Hector cut off his spear-head
+with the sword; the bronze head fell ringing on the ground, and
+Aias brandished only the pointless shaft.  So he shrank back and
+fire blazed all over his ship; and Achilles saw it, and smote his
+thigh, and bade Patroclus make haste.  Patroclus armed himself in
+the shining armour of Achilles, which all Trojans feared, and
+leaped into the chariot where Automedon, the squire, had harnessed
+Xanthus and Balius, two horses that were the children, men said, of
+the West Wind, and a led horse was harnessed beside them in the
+side traces.  Meanwhile the two thousand men of Achilles, who were
+called Myrmidons, had met in armour, five companies of four hundred
+apiece, under five chiefs of noble names.  Forth they came, as
+eager as a pack of wolves that have eaten a great red deer and run
+to slake their thirst with the dark water of a well in the hills.
+
+So all in close array, helmet touching helmet and shield touching
+shield, like a moving wall of shining bronze, the men of Achilles
+charged, and Patroclus, in the chariot led the way.  Down they came
+at full speed on the flank of the Trojans, who saw the leader, and
+knew the bright armour and the horses of the terrible Achilles, and
+thought that he had returned to the war.  Then each Trojan looked
+round to see by what way he could escape, and when men do that in
+battle they soon run by the way they have chosen.  Patroclus rushed
+to the ship of Protesilaus, and slew the leader of the Trojans
+there, and drove them out, and quenched the fire; while they of
+Troy drew back from the ships, and Aias and the other unwounded
+Greek princes leaped among them, smiting with sword and spear.
+Well did Hector know that the break in the battle had come again;
+but even so he stood, and did what he might, while the Trojans were
+driven back in disorder across the ditch, where the poles of many
+chariots were broken and the horses fled loose across the plain.
+
+The horses of Achilles cleared the ditch, and Patroclus drove them
+between the Trojans and the wall of their own town, slaying many
+men, and, chief of all, Sarpedon, king of the Lycians; and round
+the body of Sarpedon the Trojans rallied under Hector, and the
+fight swayed this way and that, and there was such a noise of
+spears and swords smiting shields and helmets as when many
+woodcutters fell trees in a glen of the hills.  At last the Trojans
+gave way, and the Greeks stripped the armour from the body of brave
+Sarpedon; but men say that Sleep and Death, like two winged angels,
+bore his body away to his own country.  Now Patroclus forgot how
+Achilles had told him not to pursue the Trojans across the plain,
+but to return when he had driven them from the ships.  On he raced,
+slaying as he went, even till he reached the foot of the wall of
+Troy.  Thrice he tried to climb it, but thrice he fell back.
+
+Hector was in his chariot in the gateway, and he bade his squire
+lash his horses into the war, and struck at no other man, great or
+small, but drove straight against Patroclus, who stood and threw a
+heavy stone at Hector; which missed him, but killed his charioteer.
+Then Patroclus leaped on the charioteer to strip his armour, but
+Hector stood over the body, grasping it by the head, while
+Patroclus dragged at the feet, and spears and arrows flew in clouds
+around the fallen man.  At last, towards sunset, the Greeks drew
+him out of the war, and Patroclus thrice charged into the thick of
+the Trojans.  But the helmet of Achilles was loosened in the fight,
+and fell from the head of Patroclus, and he was wounded from
+behind, and Hector, in front, drove his spear clean through his
+body.  With his last breath Patroclus prophesied:  "Death stands
+near thee, Hector, at the hands of noble Achilles."  But Automedon
+was driving back the swift horses, carrying to Achilles the news
+that his dearest friend was slain.
+
+After Ulysses was wounded, early in this great battle, he was not
+able to fight for several days, and, as the story is about Ulysses,
+we must tell quite shortly how Achilles returned to the war to take
+vengeance for Patroclus, and how he slew Hector.  When Patroclus
+fell, Hector seized the armour which the Gods had given to Peleus,
+and Peleus to his son Achilles, while Achilles had lent it to
+Patroclus that he might terrify the Trojans.  Retiring out of reach
+of spears, Hector took off his own armour and put on that of
+Achilles, and Greeks and Trojans fought for the dead body of
+Patroclus.  Then Zeus, the chief of the Gods, looked down and said
+that Hector should never come home out of the battle to his wife,
+Andromache.  But Hector returned into the fight around the dead
+Patroclus, and here all the best men fought, and even Automedon,
+who had been driving the chariot of Patroclus.  Now when the
+Trojans seemed to have the better of the fight, the Greeks sent
+Antilochus, a son of old Nestor, to tell Achilles that his friend
+was slain, and Antilochus ran, and Aias and his brother protected
+the Greeks who were trying to carry the body of Patroclus back to
+the ships.
+
+Swiftly Antilochus came running to Achilles, saying:  "Fallen is
+Patroclus, and they are fighting round his naked body, for Hector
+has his armour."  Then Achilles said never a word, but fell on the
+floor of his hut, and threw black ashes on his yellow hair, till
+Antilochus seized his hands, fearing that he would cut his own
+throat with his dagger, for very sorrow.  His mother, Thetis, arose
+from the sea to comfort him, but he said that he desired to die if
+he could not slay Hector, who had slain his friend.  Then Thetis
+told him that he could not fight without armour, and now he had
+none; but she would go to the God of armour-making and bring from
+him such a shield and helmet and breastplate as had never been seen
+by men.
+
+Meanwhile the fight raged round the dead body of Patroclus, which
+was defiled with blood and dust, near the ships, and was being
+dragged this way and that, and torn and wounded.  Achilles could
+not bear this sight, yet his mother had warned him not to enter
+without armour the battle where stones and arrows and spears were
+flying like hail; and he was so tall and broad that he could put on
+the arms of no other man.  So he went down to the ditch as he was,
+unarmed, and as he stood high above it, against the red sunset,
+fire seemed to flow from his golden hair like the beacon blaze that
+soars into the dark sky when an island town is attacked at night,
+and men light beacons that their neighbours may see them and come
+to their help from other isles.  There Achilles stood in a
+splendour of fire, and he shouted aloud, as clear as a clarion
+rings when men fall on to attack a besieged city wall.  Thrice
+Achilles shouted mightily, and thrice the horses of the Trojans
+shuddered for fear and turned back from the onslaught,--and thrice
+the men of Troy were confounded and shaken with terror.  Then the
+Greeks drew the body of Patroclus out of the dust and the arrows,
+and laid him on a bier, and Achilles followed, weeping, for he had
+sent his friend with chariot and horses to the war; but home again
+he welcomed him never more.  Then the sun set and it was night.
+
+Now one of the Trojans wished Hector to retire within the walls of
+Troy, for certainly Achilles would to-morrow be foremost in the
+war.  But Hector said, "Have ye not had your fill of being shut up
+behind walls?  Let Achilles fight; I will meet him in the open
+field."  The Trojans cheered, and they camped in the plain, while
+in the hut of Achilles women washed the dead body of Patroclus, and
+Achilles swore that he would slay Hector.
+
+In the dawn came Thetis, bearing to Achilles the new splendid
+armour that the God had made for him.  Then Achilles put on that
+armour, and roused his men; but Ulysses, who knew all the rules of
+honour, would not let him fight till peace had been made, with a
+sacrifice and other ceremonies, between him and Agamemnon, and till
+Agamemnon had given him all the presents which Achilles had before
+refused.  Achilles did not want them; he wanted only to fight, but
+Ulysses made him obey, and do what was usual.  Then the gifts were
+brought, and Agamemnon stood up, and said that he was sorry for his
+insolence, and the men took breakfast, but Achilles would neither
+eat nor drink.  He mounted his chariot, but the horse Xanthus bowed
+his head till his long mane touched the ground, and, being a fairy
+horse, the child of the West Wind, he spoke (or so men said), and
+these were his words:  "We shall bear thee swiftly and speedily,
+but thou shalt be slain in fight, and thy dying day is near at
+hand."  "Well I know it," said Achilles, "but I will not cease from
+fighting till I have given the Trojans their fill of war."
+
+So all that day he chased and slew the Trojans.  He drove them into
+the river, and, though the river came down in a red flood, he
+crossed, and slew them on the plain.  The plain caught fire, the
+bushes and long dry grass blazed round him, but he fought his way
+through the fire, and drove the Trojans to their walls.  The gates
+were thrown open, and the Trojans rushed through like frightened
+fawns, and then they climbed to the battlements, and looked down in
+safety, while the whole Greek army advanced in line under their
+shields.
+
+But Hector stood still, alone, in front of the gate, and old Priam,
+who saw Achilles rushing on, shining like a star in his new armour,
+called with tears to Hector, "Come within the gate!  This man has
+slain many of my sons, and if he slays thee whom have I to help me
+in my old age?"  His mother also called to Hector, but he stood
+firm, waiting for Achilles.  Now the story says that he was afraid,
+and ran thrice in full armour round Troy, with Achilles in pursuit.
+But this cannot be true, for no mortal men could run thrice, in
+heavy armour, with great shields that clanked against their ankles,
+round the town of Troy:  moreover Hector was the bravest of men,
+and all the Trojan women were looking down at him from the walls.
+
+We cannot believe that he ran away, and the story goes on to tell
+that he asked Achilles to make an agreement with him.  The
+conqueror in the fight should give back the body of the fallen to
+be buried by his friends, but should keep his armour.  But Achilles
+said that he could make no agreement with Hector, and threw his
+spear, which flew over Hector's shoulder.  Then Hector threw his
+spear, but it could not pierce the shield which the God had made
+for Achilles.  Hector had no other spear, and Achilles had one, so
+Hector cried, "Let me not die without honour!" and drew his sword,
+and rushed at Achilles, who sprang to meet him, but before Hector
+could come within a sword-stroke Achilles had sent his spear clean
+through the neck of Hector.  He fell in the dust and Achilles said,
+"Dogs and birds shall tear your flesh unburied."  With his dying
+breath Hector prayed him to take gold from Priam, and give back his
+body to be burned in Troy.  But Achilles said, "Hound! would that I
+could bring myself to carve and eat thy raw flesh, but dogs shall
+devour it, even if thy father offered me thy weight in gold."  With
+his last words Hector prophesied and said, "Remember me in the day
+when Paris shall slay thee in the Scaean gate."  Then his brave
+soul went to the land of the Dead, which the Greeks called Hades.
+To that land Ulysses sailed while he was still a living man, as the
+story tells later.
+
+Then Achilles did a dreadful deed; he slit the feet of dead Hector
+from heel to ankle, and thrust thongs through, and bound him by the
+thongs to his chariot and trailed the body in the dust.  All the
+women of Troy who were on the walls raised a shriek, and Hector's
+wife, Andromache, heard the sound.  She had been in an inner room
+of her house, weaving a purple web, and embroidering flowers on it,
+and she was calling her bower maidens to make ready a bath for
+Hector when he should come back tired from battle.  But when she
+heard the cry from the wall she trembled, and the shuttle with
+which she was weaving fell from her hands.  "Surely I heard the cry
+of my husband's mother," she said, and she bade two of her maidens
+come with her to see why the people lamented.
+
+She ran swiftly, and reached the battlements, and thence she saw
+her dear husband's body being whirled through the dust towards the
+ships, behind the chariot of Achilles.  Then night came over her
+eyes and she fainted.  But when she returned to herself she cried
+out that now none would defend her little boy, and other children
+would push him away from feasts, saying, "Out with you; no father
+of thine is at our table," and his father, Hector, would lie naked
+at the ships, unclad, unburned, unlamented.  To be unburned and
+unburied was thought the greatest of misfortunes, because the dead
+man unburned could not go into the House of Hades, God of the Dead,
+but must always wander, alone and comfortless, in the dark
+borderland between the dead and the living.
+
+
+
+THE CRUELTY OF ACHILLES, AND THE RANSOMING OF HECTOR
+
+
+
+When Achilles was asleep that night the ghost of Patroclus came,
+saying, "Why dost thou not burn and bury me? for the other shadows
+of dead men suffer me not to come near them, and lonely I wander
+along the dark dwelling of Hades."  Then Achilles awoke, and he
+sent men to cut down trees, and make a huge pile of fagots and
+logs.  On this they laid Patroclus, covered with white linen, and
+then they slew many cattle, and Achilles cut the throats of twelve
+Trojan prisoners of war, meaning to burn them with Patroclus to do
+him honour.  This was a deed of shame, for Achilles was mad with
+sorrow and anger for the death of his friend.  Then they drenched
+with wine the great pile of wood, which was thirty yards long and
+broad, and set fire to it, and the fire blazed all through the
+night and died down in the morning.  They put the white bones of
+Patroclus in a golden casket, and laid it in the hut of Achilles,
+who said that, when he died, they must burn his body, and mix the
+ashes with the ashes of his friend, and build over it a chamber of
+stone, and cover the chamber with a great hill of earth, and set a
+pillar of stone above it.  This is one of the hills on the plain of
+Troy, but the pillar has fallen from the tomb, long ago.
+
+Then, as the custom was, Achilles held games--chariot races, foot
+races, boxing, wrestling, and archery--in honour of Patroclus.
+Ulysses won the prize for the foot race, and for the wrestling, so
+now his wound must have been healed.
+
+But Achilles still kept trailing Hector's dead body each day round
+the hill that had been raised for the tomb of Patroclus, till the
+Gods in heaven were angry, and bade Thetis tell her son that he
+must give back the dead body to Priam, and take ransom for it, and
+they sent a messenger to Priam to bid him redeem the body of his
+son.  It was terrible for Priam to have to go and humble himself
+before Achilles, whose hands had been red with the blood of his
+sons, but he did not disobey the Gods.  He opened his chests, and
+took out twenty-four beautiful embroidered changes of raiment; and
+he weighed out ten heavy bars, or talents, of gold, and chose a
+beautiful golden cup, and he called nine of his sons, Paris, and
+Helenus, and Deiphobus, and the rest, saying, "Go, ye bad sons, my
+shame; would that Hector lived and all of you were dead!" for
+sorrow made him angry; "go, and get ready for me a wain, and lay on
+it these treasures."  So they harnessed mules to the wain, and
+placed in it the treasures, and, after praying, Priam drove through
+the night to the hut of Achilles.  In he went, when no man looked
+for him, and kneeled to Achilles, and kissed his terrible death-
+dealing hands.  "Have pity on me, and fear the Gods, and give me
+back my dead son," he said, "and remember thine own father.  Have
+pity on me, who have endured to do what no man born has ever done
+before, to kiss the hands that slew my sons."
+
+Then Achilles remembered his own father, far away, who now was old
+and weak:  and he wept, and Priam wept with him, and then Achilles
+raised Priam from his knees and spoke kindly to him, admiring how
+beautiful he still was in his old age, and Priam himself wondered
+at the beauty of Achilles.  And Achilles thought how Priam had long
+been rich and happy, like his own father, Peleus, and now old age
+and weakness and sorrow were laid upon both of them, for Achilles
+knew that his own day of death was at hand, even at the doors.  So
+Achilles bade the women make ready the body of Hector for burial,
+and they clothed him in a white mantle that Priam had brought, and
+laid him in the wain; and supper was made ready, and Priam and
+Achilles ate and drank together, and the women spread a bed for
+Priam, who would not stay long, but stole away back to Troy while
+Achilles was asleep.
+
+All the women came out to meet him, and to lament for Hector.  They
+carried the body into the house of Andromache and laid it on a bed,
+and the women gathered around, and each in turn sang her song over
+the great dead warrior.  His mother bewailed him, and his wife, and
+Helen of the fair hands, clad in dark mourning raiment, lifted up
+her white arms, and said:  "Hector, of all my brethren in Troy thou
+wert the dearest, since Paris brought me hither.  Would that ere
+that day I had died!  For this is now the twentieth year since I
+came, and in all these twenty years never heard I a word from thee
+that was bitter and unkind; others might upbraid me, thy sisters or
+thy mother, for thy father was good to me as if he had been my own;
+but then thou wouldst restrain them that spoke evil by the courtesy
+of thy heart and thy gentle words.  Ah! woe for thee, and woe for
+me, whom all men shudder at, for there is now none in wide Troyland
+to be my friend like thee, my brother and my friend!"
+
+So Helen lamented, but now was done all that men might do; a great
+pile of wood was raised, and Hector was burned, and his ashes were
+placed in a golden urn, in a dark chamber of stone, within a hollow
+hill.
+
+
+
+HOW ULYSSES STOLE THE LUCK OF TROY
+
+
+
+After Hector was buried, the siege went on slowly, as it had done
+during the first nine years of the war.  The Greeks did not know at
+that time how to besiege a city, as we saw, by way of digging
+trenches and building towers, and battering the walls with machines
+that threw heavy stones.  The Trojans had lost courage, and dared
+not go into the open plain, and they were waiting for the coming up
+of new armies of allies--the Amazons, who were girl warriors from
+far away, and an Eastern people called the Khita, whose king was
+Memnon, the son of the Bright Dawn.
+
+Now everyone knew that, in the temple of the Goddess Pallas Athene,
+in Troy, was a sacred image, which fell from heaven, called the
+Palladium, and this very ancient image was the Luck of Troy.  While
+it remained safe in the temple people believed that Troy could
+never be taken, but as it was in a guarded temple in the middle of
+the town, and was watched by priestesses day and night, it seemed
+impossible that the Greeks should ever enter the city secretly and
+steal the Luck away.
+
+As Ulysses was the grandson of Autolycus, the Master Thief, he
+often wished that the old man was with the Greeks, for if there was
+a thing to steal Autolycus could steal it.  But by this time
+Autolycus was dead, and so Ulysses could only puzzle over the way
+to steal the Luck of Troy, and wonder how his grandfather would
+have set about it.  He prayed for help secretly to Hermes, the God
+of Thieves, when he sacrificed goats to him, and at last he had a
+plan.
+
+There was a story that Anius, the King of the Isle of Delos, had
+three daughters, named OEno, Spermo, and Elais, and that OEno could
+turn water into wine, while Spermo could turn stones into bread,
+and Elais could change mud into olive oil.  Those fairy gifts,
+people said, were given to the maidens by the Wine God, Dionysus,
+and by the Goddess of Corn, Demeter.  Now corn, and wine, and oil
+were sorely needed by the Greeks, who were tired of paying much
+gold and bronze to the Phoenician merchants for their supplies.
+Ulysses therefore went to Agamemnon one day, and asked leave to
+take his ship and voyage to Delos, to bring, if he could, the three
+maidens to the camp, if indeed they could do these miracles.  As no
+fighting was going on, Agamemnon gave Ulysses leave to depart, so
+he went on board his ship, with a crew of fifty men of Ithaca, and
+away they sailed, promising to return in a month.
+
+Two or three days after that, a dirty old beggar man began to be
+seen in the Greek camp.  He had crawled in late one evening,
+dressed in a dirty smock and a very dirty old cloak, full of holes,
+and stained with smoke.  Over everything he wore the skin of a
+stag, with half the hair worn off, and he carried a staff, and a
+filthy tattered wallet, to put food in, which swung from his neck
+by a cord.  He came crouching and smiling up to the door of the hut
+of Diomede, and sat down just within the doorway, where beggars
+still sit in the East.  Diomede saw him, and sent him a loaf and
+two handfuls of flesh, which the beggar laid on his wallet, between
+his feet, and he made his supper greedily, gnawing a bone like a
+dog.
+
+After supper Diomede asked him who he was and whence he came, and
+he told a long story about how he had been a Cretan pirate, and had
+been taken prisoner by the Egyptians when he was robbing there, and
+how he had worked for many years in their stone quarries, where the
+sun had burned him brown, and had escaped by hiding among the great
+stones, carried down the Nile in a raft, for building a temple on
+the seashore.  The raft arrived at night, and the beggar said that
+he stole out from it in the dark and found a Phoenician ship in the
+harbour, and the Phoenicians took him on board, meaning to sell him
+somewhere as a slave.  But a tempest came on and wrecked the ship
+off the Isle of Tenedos, which is near Troy, and the beggar alone
+escaped to the island on a plank of the ship.  From Tenedos he had
+come to Troy in a fisher's boat, hoping to make himself useful in
+the camp, and earn enough to keep body and soul together till he
+could find a ship sailing to Crete.
+
+He made his story rather amusing, describing the strange ways of
+the Egyptians; how they worshipped cats and bulls, and did
+everything in just the opposite of the Greek way of doing things.
+So Diomede let him have a rug and blankets to sleep on in the
+portico of the hut, and next day the old wretch went begging about
+the camp and talking with the soldiers.  Now he was a most impudent
+and annoying old vagabond, and was always in quarrels.  If there
+was a disagreeable story about the father or grandfather of any of
+the princes, he knew it and told it, so that he got a blow from the
+baton of Agamemnon, and Aias gave him a kick, and Idomeneus drubbed
+him with the butt of his spear for a tale about his grandmother,
+and everybody hated him and called him a nuisance.  He was for ever
+jeering at Ulysses, who was far away, and telling tales about
+Autolycus, and at last he stole a gold cup, a very large cup, with
+two handles, and a dove sitting on each handle, from the hut of
+Nestor.  The old chief was fond of this cup, which he had brought
+from home, and, when it was found in the beggar's dirty wallet,
+everybody cried that he must be driven out of the camp and well
+whipped.  So Nestor's son, young Thrasymedes, with other young men,
+laughing and shouting, pushed and dragged the beggar close up to
+the Scaean gate of Troy, where Thrasymedes called with a loud
+voice, "O Trojans, we are sick of this shameless beggar.  First we
+shall whip him well, and if he comes back we shall put out his eyes
+and cut off his hands and feet, and give him to the dogs to eat.
+He may go to you, if he likes; if not, he must wander till he dies
+of hunger."
+
+The young men of Troy heard this and laughed, and a crowd gathered
+on the wall to see the beggar punished.  So Thrasymedes whipped him
+with his bowstring till he was tired, and they did not leave off
+beating the beggar till he ceased howling and fell, all bleeding,
+and lay still.  Then Thrasymedes gave him a parting kick, and went
+away with his friends.  The beggar lay quiet for some time, then he
+began to stir, and sat up, wiping the tears from his eyes, and
+shouting curses and bad words after the Greeks, praying that they
+might be speared in the back, and eaten by dogs.
+
+At last he tried to stand up, but fell down again, and began to
+crawl on hands and knees towards the Scaean gate.  There he sat
+down, within the two side walls of the gate, where he cried and
+lamented.  Now Helen of the fair hands came down from the gate
+tower, being sorry to see any man treated so much worse than a
+beast, and she spoke to the beggar and asked him why he had been
+used in this cruel way?
+
+At first he only moaned, and rubbed his sore sides, but at last he
+said that he was an unhappy man, who had been shipwrecked, and was
+begging his way home, and that the Greeks suspected him of being a
+spy sent out by the Trojans.  But he had been in Lacedaemon, her
+own country, he said, and could tell her about her father, if she
+were, as he supposed, the beautiful Helen, and about her brothers,
+Castor and Polydeuces, and her little daughter, Hermione.
+
+"But perhaps," he said, "you are no mortal woman, but some goddess
+who favours the Trojans, and if indeed you are a goddess then I
+liken you to Aphrodite, for beauty, and stature, and shapeliness."
+Then Helen wept; for many a year had passed since she had heard any
+word of her father, and daughter, and her brothers, who were dead,
+though she knew it not.  So she stretched out her white hand, and
+raised the beggar, who was kneeling at her feet, and bade him
+follow her to her own house, within the palace garden of King
+Priam.
+
+Helen walked forward, with a bower maiden at either side, and the
+beggar crawling after her.  When she had entered her house, Paris
+was not there, so she ordered the bath to be filled with warm
+water, and new clothes to be brought, and she herself washed the
+old beggar and anointed him with oil.  This appears very strange to
+us, for though Saint Elizabeth of Hungary used to wash and clothe
+beggars, we are surprised that Helen should do so, who was not a
+saint.  But long afterwards she herself told the son of Ulysses,
+Telemachus, that she had washed his father when he came into Troy
+disguised as a beggar who had been sorely beaten.
+
+You must have guessed that the beggar was Ulysses, who had not gone
+to Delos in his ship, but stolen back in a boat, and appeared
+disguised among the Greeks.  He did all this to make sure that
+nobody could recognise him, and he behaved so as to deserve a
+whipping that he might not be suspected as a Greek spy by the
+Trojans, but rather be pitied by them.  Certainly he deserved his
+name of "the much-enduring Ulysses."
+
+Meanwhile he sat in his bath and Helen washed his feet.  But when
+she had done, and had anointed his wounds with olive oil, and when
+she had clothed him in a white tunic and a purple mantle, then she
+opened her lips to cry out with amazement, for she knew Ulysses;
+but he laid his finger on her lips, saying "Hush!"  Then she
+remembered how great danger he was in, for the Trojans, if they
+found him, would put him to some cruel death, and she sat down,
+trembling and weeping, while he watched her.
+
+"Oh thou strange one," she said, "how enduring is thy heart and how
+cunning beyond measure!  How hast thou borne to be thus beaten and
+disgraced, and to come within the walls of Troy?  Well it is for
+thee that Paris, my lord, is far from home, having gone to guide
+Penthesilea, the Queen of the warrior maids whom men call Amazons,
+who is on her way to help the Trojans."
+
+Then Ulysses smiled, and Helen saw that she had said a word which
+she ought not to have spoken, and had revealed the secret hope of
+the Trojans.  Then she wept, and said, "Oh cruel and cunning!  You
+have made me betray the people with whom I live, though woe is me
+that ever I left my own people, and my husband dear, and my child!
+And now if you escape alive out of Troy, you will tell the Greeks,
+and they will lie in ambush by night for the Amazons on the way to
+Troy and will slay them all.  If you and I were not friends long
+ago, I would tell the Trojans that you are here, and they would
+give your body to the dogs to eat, and fix your head on the
+palisade above the wall.  Woe is me that ever I was born."
+
+Ulysses answered, "Lady, as you have said, we two are friends from
+of old, and your friend I will be till the last, when the Greeks
+break into Troy, and slay the men, and carry the women captives.
+If I live till that hour no man shall harm you, but safely and in
+honour you shall come to your palace in Lacedaemon of the rifted
+hills.  Moreover, I swear to you a great oath, by Zeus above, and
+by Them that under earth punish the souls of men who swear falsely,
+that I shall tell no man the thing which you have spoken."
+
+So when he had sworn and done that oath, Helen was comforted and
+dried her tears.  Then she told him how unhappy she was, and how
+she had lost her last comfort when Hector died.  "Always am I
+wretched," she said, "save when sweet sleep falls on me.  Now the
+wife of Thon, King of Egypt, gave me this gift when we were in
+Egypt, on our way to Troy, namely, a drug that brings sleep even to
+the most unhappy, and it is pressed from the poppy heads of the
+garland of the God of Sleep."  Then she showed him strange phials
+of gold, full of this drug:  phials wrought by the Egyptians, and
+covered with magic spells and shapes of beasts and flowers.  "One
+of these I will give you," she said, "that even from Troy town you
+may not go without a gift in memory of the hands of Helen."  So
+Ulysses took the phial of gold, and was glad in his heart, and
+Helen set before him meat and wine.  When he had eaten and drunk,
+and his strength had come back to him, he said:
+
+"Now I must dress me again in my old rags, and take my wallet, and
+my staff, and go forth, and beg through Troy town.  For here I must
+abide for some days as a beggar man, lest if I now escape from your
+house in the night the Trojans may think that you have told me the
+secrets of their counsel, which I am carrying to the Greeks, and
+may be angry with you."  So he clothed himself again as a beggar,
+and took his staff, and hid the phial of gold with the Egyptian
+drug in his rags, and in his wallet also he put the new clothes
+that Helen had given him, and a sword, and he took farewell,
+saying, "Be of good heart, for the end of your sorrows is at hand.
+But if you see me among the beggars in the street, or by the well,
+take no heed of me, only I will salute you as a beggar who has been
+kindly treated by a Queen."
+
+So they parted, and Ulysses went out, and when it was day he was
+with the beggars in the streets, but by night he commonly slept
+near the fire of a smithy forge, as is the way of beggars.  So for
+some days he begged, saying that he was gathering food to eat while
+he walked to some town far away that was at peace, where he might
+find work to do.  He was not impudent now, and did not go to rich
+men's houses or tell evil tales, or laugh, but he was much in the
+temples, praying to the Gods, and above all in the temple of Pallas
+Athene.  The Trojans thought that he was a pious man for a beggar.
+
+Now there was a custom in these times that men and women who were
+sick or in distress, should sleep at night on the floors of the
+temples.  They did this hoping that the God would send them a dream
+to show them how their diseases might be cured, or how they might
+find what they had lost, or might escape from their distresses.
+
+Ulysses slept in more than one temple, and once in that of Pallas
+Athene, and the priests and priestesses were kind to him, and gave
+him food in the morning when the gates of the temple were opened.
+
+In the temple of Pallas Athene, where the Luck of Troy lay always
+on her altar, the custom was that priestesses kept watch, each for
+two hours, all through the night, and soldiers kept guard within
+call.  So one night Ulysses slept there, on the floor, with other
+distressed people, seeking for dreams from the Gods.  He lay still
+all through the night till the turn of the last priestess came to
+watch.  The priestess used to walk up and down with bare feet among
+the dreaming people, having a torch in her hand, and muttering
+hymns to the Goddess.  Then Ulysses, when her back was turned,
+slipped the gold phial out of his rags, and let it lie on the
+polished floor beside him.  When the priestess came back again, the
+light from her torch fell on the glittering phial, and she stooped
+and picked it up, and looked at it curiously.  There came from it a
+sweet fragrance, and she opened it, and tasted the drug.  It seemed
+to her the sweetest thing that ever she had tasted, and she took
+more and more, and then closed the phial and laid it down, and went
+along murmuring her hymn.
+
+But soon a great drowsiness came over her, and she sat down on the
+step of the altar, and fell sound asleep, and the torch sunk in her
+hand, and went out, and all was dark.  Then Ulysses put the phial
+in his wallet, and crept very cautiously to the altar, in the dark,
+and stole the Luck of Troy.  It was only a small black mass of what
+is now called meteoric iron, which sometimes comes down with
+meteorites from the sky, but it was shaped like a shield, and the
+people thought it an image of the warlike shielded Goddess, fallen
+from Heaven.  Such sacred shields, made of glass and ivory, are
+found deep in the earth in the ruined cities of Ulysses' time.
+Swiftly Ulysses hid the Luck in his rags and left in its place on
+the altar a copy of the Luck, which he had made of blackened clay.
+Then he stole back to the place where he had lain, and remained
+there till dawn appeared, and the sleepers who sought for dreams
+awoke, and the temple gates were opened, and Ulysses walked out
+with the rest of them.
+
+He stole down a lane, where as yet no people were stirring, and
+crept along, leaning on his staff, till he came to the eastern
+gate, at the back of the city, which the Greeks never attacked, for
+they had never drawn their army in a circle round the town.  There
+Ulysses explained to the sentinels that he had gathered food enough
+to last for a long journey to some other town, and opened his bag,
+which seemed full of bread and broken meat.  The soldiers said he
+was a lucky beggar, and let him out.  He walked slowly along the
+waggon road by which wood was brought into Troy from the forests on
+Mount Ida, and when he found that nobody was within sight he
+slipped into the forest, and stole into a dark thicket, hiding
+beneath the tangled boughs.  Here he lay and slept till evening,
+and then took the new clothes which Helen had given him out of his
+wallet, and put them on, and threw the belt of the sword over his
+shoulder, and hid the Luck of Troy in his bosom.  He washed himself
+clean in a mountain brook, and now all who saw him must have known
+that he was no beggar, but Ulysses of Ithaca, Laertes' son.
+
+So he walked cautiously down the side of the brook which ran
+between high banks deep in trees, and followed it till it reached
+the river Xanthus, on the left of the Greek lines.  Here he found
+Greek sentinels set to guard the camp, who cried aloud in joy and
+surprise, for his ship had not yet returned from Delos, and they
+could not guess how Ulysses had come back alone across the sea.  So
+two of the sentinels guarded Ulysses to the hut of Agamemnon, where
+he and Achilles and all the chiefs were sitting at a feast.  They
+all leaped up, but when Ulysses took the Luck of Troy from within
+his mantle, they cried that this was the bravest deed that had been
+done in the war, and they sacrificed ten oxen to Zeus.
+
+"So you were the old beggar," said young Thrasymedes.
+
+"Yes," said Ulysses, "and when next you beat a beggar, Thrasymedes,
+do not strike so hard and so long."
+
+That night all the Greeks were full of hope, for now they had the
+Luck of Troy, but the Trojans were in despair, and guessed that the
+beggar was the thief, and that Ulysses had been the beggar.  The
+priestess, Theano, could tell them nothing; they found her, with
+the extinguished torch drooping in her hand, asleep, as she sat on
+the step of the altar, and she never woke again.
+
+
+
+THE BATTLES WITH THE AMAZONS AND MEMNON--THE DEATH OF ACHILLES
+
+
+
+Ulysses thought much and often of Helen, without whose kindness he
+could not have saved the Greeks by stealing the Luck of Troy.  He
+saw that, though she remained as beautiful as when the princes all
+sought her hand, she was most unhappy, knowing herself to be the
+cause of so much misery, and fearing what the future might bring.
+Ulysses told nobody about the secret which she had let fall, the
+coming of the Amazons.
+
+The Amazons were a race of warlike maids, who lived far away on the
+banks of the river Thermodon.  They had fought against Troy in
+former times, and one of the great hill-graves on the plain of Troy
+covered the ashes of an Amazon, swift-footed Myrine.  People
+believed that they were the daughters of the God of War, and they
+were reckoned equal in battle to the bravest men.  Their young
+Queen, Penthesilea, had two reasons for coming to fight at Troy:
+one was her ambition to win renown, and the other her sleepless
+sorrow for having accidentally killed her sister, Hippolyte, when
+hunting.  The spear which she threw at a stag struck Hippolyte and
+slew her, and Penthesilea cared no longer for her own life, and
+desired to fall gloriously in battle.  So Penthesilea and her
+bodyguard of twelve Amazons set forth from the wide streams of
+Thermodon, and rode into Troy.  The story says that they did not
+drive in chariots, like all the Greek and Trojan chiefs, but rode
+horses, which must have been the manner of their country.
+
+Penthesilea was the tallest and most beautiful of the Amazons, and
+shone among her twelve maidens like the moon among the stars, or
+the bright Dawn among the Hours which follow her chariot wheels.
+The Trojans rejoiced when they beheld her, for she looked both
+terrible and beautiful, with a frown on her brow, and fair shining
+eyes, and a blush on her cheeks.  To the Trojans she came like
+Iris, the Rainbow, after a storm, and they gathered round her
+cheering, and throwing flowers and kissing her stirrup, as the
+people of Orleans welcomed Joan of Arc when she came to deliver
+them.  Even Priam was glad, as is a man long blind, when he has
+been healed, and again looks upon the light of the sun.  Priam held
+a great feast, and gave to Penthesilea many beautiful gifts:  cups
+of gold, and embroideries, and a sword with a hilt of silver, and
+she vowed that she would slay Achilles.  But when Andromache, the
+wife of Hector, heard her she said within herself, "Ah, unhappy
+girl, what is this boast of thine!  Thou hast not the strength to
+fight the unconquerable son of Peleus, for if Hector could not slay
+him, what chance hast thou?  But the piled-up earth covers Hector!"
+
+In the morning Penthesilea sprang up from sleep and put on her
+glorious armour, with spear in hand, and sword at side, and bow and
+quiver hung behind her back, and her great shield covering her side
+from neck to stirrup, and mounted her horse, and galloped to the
+plain.  Beside her charged the twelve maidens of her bodyguard, and
+all the company of Hector's brothers and kinsfolk.  These headed
+the Trojan lines, and they rushed towards the ships of the Greeks.
+
+Then the Greeks asked each other, "Who is this that leads the
+Trojans as Hector led them, surely some God rides in the van of the
+charioteers!"  Ulysses could have told them who the new leader of
+the Trojans was, but it seems that he had not the heart to fight
+against women, for his name is not mentioned in this day's battle.
+So the two lines clashed, and the plain of Troy ran red with blood,
+for Penthesilea slew Molios, and Persinoos, and Eilissos, and
+Antiphates, and Lernos high of heart, and Hippalmos of the loud
+warcry, and Haemonides, and strong Elasippus, while her maidens
+Derinoe and Clonie slew each a chief of the Greeks.  But Clonie
+fell beneath the spear of Podarkes, whose hand Penthesilea cut off
+with the sword, while Idomeneus speared the Amazon Bremousa, and
+Meriones of Crete slew Evadre, and Diomede killed Alcibie and
+Derimacheia in close fight with the sword, so the company of the
+Twelve were thinned, the bodyguard of Penthesilea.
+
+The Trojans and Greeks kept slaying each other, but Penthesilea
+avenged her maidens, driving the ranks of Greece as a lioness
+drives the cattle on the hills, for they could not stand before
+her.  Then she shouted, "Dogs! to-day shall you pay for the sorrows
+of Priam!  Where is Diomede, where is Achilles, where is Aias,
+that, men say, are your bravest?  Will none of them stand before my
+spear?"  Then she charged again, at the head of the Household of
+Priam, brothers and kinsmen of Hector, and where they came the
+Greeks fell like yellow leaves before the wind of autumn.  The
+white horse that Penthesilea rode, a gift from the wife of the
+North Wind, flashed like lightning through a dark cloud among the
+companies of the Greeks, and the chariots that followed the charge
+of the Amazon rocked as they swept over the bodies of the slain.
+Then the old Trojans, watching from the walls, cried:  "This is no
+mortal maiden but a Goddess, and to-day she will burn the ships of
+the Greeks, and they will all perish in Troyland, and see Greece
+never more again."
+
+Now it so was that Aias and Achilles had not heard the din and the
+cry of war, for both had gone to weep over the great new grave of
+Patroclus.  Penthesilea and the Trojans had driven back the Greeks
+within their ditch, and they were hiding here and there among the
+ships, and torches were blazing in men's hands to burn the ships,
+as in the day of the valour of Hector:  when Aias heard the din of
+battle, and called to Achilles to make speed towards the ships.
+
+So they ran swiftly to their huts, and armed themselves, and Aias
+fell smiting and slaying upon the Trojans, but Achilles slew five
+of the bodyguard of Penthesilea.  She, beholding her maidens
+fallen, rode straight against Aias and Achilles, like a dove
+defying two falcons, and cast her spear, but it fell back blunted
+from the glorious shield that the God had made for the son of
+Peleus.  Then she threw another spear at Aias, crying, "I am the
+daughter of the God of War," but his armour kept out the spear, and
+he and Achilles laughed aloud.  Aias paid no more heed to the
+Amazon, but rushed against the Trojan men; while Achilles raised
+the heavy spear that none but he could throw, and drove it down
+through breastplate and breast of Penthesilea, yet still her hand
+grasped her sword-hilt.  But, ere she could draw her sword,
+Achilles speared her horse, and horse and rider fell, and died in
+their fall.
+
+There lay fair Penthesilea in the dust, like a tall poplar tree
+that the wind has overthrown, and her helmet fell, and the Greeks
+who gathered round marvelled to see her lie so beautiful in death,
+like Artemis, the Goddess of the Woods, when she sleeps alone,
+weary with hunting on the hills.  Then the heart of Achilles was
+pierced with pity and sorrow, thinking how she might have been his
+wife in his own country, had he spared her, but he was never to see
+pleasant Phthia, his native land, again.  So Achilles stood and
+wept over Penthesilea dead.
+
+Now the Greeks, in pity and sorrow, held their hands, and did not
+pursue the Trojans who had fled, nor did they strip the armour from
+Penthesilea and her twelve maidens, but laid the bodies on biers,
+and sent them back in peace to Priam.  Then the Trojans burned
+Penthesilea in the midst of her dead maidens, on a great pile of
+dry wood, and placed their ashes in a golden casket, and buried
+them all in the great hill-grave of Laomedon, an ancient King of
+Troy, while the Greeks with lamentation buried them whom the Amazon
+had slain.
+
+The old men of Troy and the chiefs now held a council, and Priam
+said that they must not yet despair, for, if they had lost many of
+their bravest warriors, many of the Greeks had also fallen.  Their
+best plan was to fight only with arrows from the walls and towers,
+till King Memnon came to their rescue with a great army of
+Aethiopes.  Now Memnon was the son of the bright Dawn, a beautiful
+Goddess who had loved and married a mortal man, Tithonus.  She had
+asked Zeus, the chief of the Gods, to make her lover immortal, and
+her prayer was granted.  Tithonus could not die, but he began to
+grow grey, and then white haired, with a long white beard, and very
+weak, till nothing of him seemed to be left but his voice, always
+feebly chattering like the grasshoppers on a summer day.
+
+Memnon was the most beautiful of men, except Paris and Achilles,
+and his home was in a country that borders on the land of
+sunrising.  There he was reared by the lily maidens called
+Hesperides, till he came to his full strength, and commanded the
+whole army of the Aethiopes.  For their arrival Priam wished to
+wait, but Polydamas advised that the Trojans should give back Helen
+to the Greeks, with jewels twice as valuable as those which she had
+brought from the house of Menelaus.  Then Paris was very angry, and
+said that Polydamas was a coward, for it was little to Paris that
+Troy should be taken and burned in a month if for a month he could
+keep Helen of the fair hands.
+
+At length Memnon came, leading a great army of men who had nothing
+white about them but the teeth, so fiercely the sun burned on them
+in their own country.  The Trojans had all the more hopes of Memnon
+because, on his long journey from the land of sunrising, and the
+river Oceanus that girdles the round world, he had been obliged to
+cross the country of the Solymi.  Now the Solymi were the fiercest
+of men and rose up against Memnon, but he and his army fought them
+for a whole day, and defeated them, and drove them to the hills.
+When Memnon came, Priam gave him a great cup of gold, full of wine
+to the brim, and Memnon drank the wine at one draught.  But he did
+not make great boasts of what he could do, like poor Penthesilea,
+"for," said he, "whether I am a good man at arms will be known in
+battle, where the strength of men is tried.  So now let us turn to
+sleep, for to wake and drink wine all through the night is an ill
+beginning of war."
+
+Then Priam praised his wisdom, and all men betook them to bed, but
+the bright Dawn rose unwillingly next day, to throw light on the
+battle where her son was to risk his fife.  Then Memnon led out the
+dark clouds of his men into the plain, and the Greeks foreboded
+evil when they saw so great a new army of fresh and unwearied
+warriors, but Achilles, leading them in his shining armour, gave
+them courage.  Memnon fell upon the left wing of the Greeks, and on
+the men of Nestor, and first he slew Ereuthus, and then attacked
+Nestor's young son, Antilochus, who, now that Patroclus had fallen,
+was the dearest friend of Achilles.  On him Memnon leaped, like a
+lion on a kid, but Antilochus lifted a huge stone from the plain, a
+pillar that had been set on the tomb of some great warrior long
+ago, and the stone smote full on the helmet of Memnon, who reeled
+beneath the stroke.  But Memnon seized his heavy spear, and drove
+it through shield and corselet of Antilochus, even into his heart,
+and he fell and died beneath his father's eyes.  Then Nestor in
+great sorrow and anger strode across the body of Antilochus and
+called to his other son, Thrasymedes, "Come and drive afar this man
+that has slain thy brother, for if fear be in thy heart thou art no
+son of mine, nor of the race of Periclymenus, who stood up in
+battle even against the strong man Heracles!"
+
+But Memnon was too strong for Thrasymedes, and drove him off, while
+old Nestor himself charged sword in hand, though Memnon bade him
+begone, for he was not minded to strike so aged a man, and Nestor
+drew back, for he was weak with age.  Then Memnon and his army
+charged the Greeks, slaying and stripping the dead.  But Nestor had
+mounted his chariot and driven to Achilles, weeping, and imploring
+him to come swiftly and save the body of Antilochus, and he sped to
+meet Memnon, who lifted a great stone, the landmark of a field, and
+drove it against the shield of the son of Peleus.  But Achilles was
+not shaken by the blow; he ran forward, and wounded Memnon over the
+rim of his shield.  Yet wounded as he was Memnon fought on and
+struck his spear through the arm of Achilles, for the Greeks fought
+with no sleeves of bronze to protect their arms.
+
+Then Achilles drew his great sword, and flew on Memnon, and with
+sword-strokes they lashed at each other on shield and helmet, and
+the long horsehair crests of the helmets were shorn off, and flew
+down the wind, and their shields rang terribly beneath the sword
+strokes.  They thrust at each others' throats between shield and
+visor of the helmet, they smote at knee, and thrust at breast, and
+the armour rang about their bodies, and the dust from beneath their
+feet rose up in a cloud around them, like mist round the falls of a
+great river in flood.  So they fought, neither of them yielding a
+step, till Achilles made so rapid a thrust that Memnon could not
+parry it, and the bronze sword passed clean through his body
+beneath the breast-bone, and he fell, and his armour clashed as he
+fell.
+
+Then Achilles, wounded as he was and weak from loss of blood, did
+not stay to strip the golden armour of Memnon, but shouted his
+warcry, and pressed on, for he hoped to enter the gate of Troy with
+the fleeing Trojans, and all the Greeks followed after him.  So
+they pursued, slaying as they went, and the Scaean gate was choked
+with the crowd of men, pursuing and pursued.  In that hour would
+the Greeks have entered Troy, and burned the city, and taken the
+women captive, but Paris stood on the tower above the gate, and in
+his mind was anger for the death of his brother Hector.  He tried
+the string of his bow, and found it frayed, for all day he had
+showered his arrows on the Greeks; so he chose a new bowstring, and
+fitted it, and strung the bow, and chose an arrow from his quiver,
+and aimed at the ankle of Achilles, where it was bare beneath the
+greave, or leg-guard of metal, that the God had fashioned for him.
+Through the ankle flew the arrow, and Achilles wheeled round, weak
+as he was, and stumbled, and fell, and the armour that the God had
+wrought was defiled with dust and blood.
+
+Then Achilles rose again, and cried:  "What coward has smitten me
+with a secret arrow from afar?  Let him stand forth and meet me
+with sword and spear!"  So speaking he seized the shaft with his
+strong hands and tore it out of the wound, and much blood gushed,
+and darkness came over his eyes.  Yet he staggered forward,
+striking blindly, and smote Orythaon, a dear friend of Hector,
+through the helmet, and others he smote, but now his force failed
+him, and he leaned on his spear, and cried his warcry, and said,
+"Cowards of Troy, ye shall not all escape my spear, dying as I am."
+But as he spoke he fell, and all his armour rang around him, yet
+the Trojans stood apart and watched; and as hunters watch a dying
+lion not daring to go nigh him, so the Trojans stood in fear till
+Achilles drew his latest breath.  Then from the wall the Trojan
+women raised a great cry of joy over him who had slain the noble
+Hector:  and thus was fulfilled the prophecy of Hector, that
+Achilles should fall in the Scaean gateway, by the hand of Paris.
+
+Then the best of the Trojans rushed forth from the gate to seize
+the body of Achilles, and his glorious armour, but the Greeks were
+as eager to carry the body to the ships that it might have due
+burial.  Round the dead Achilles men fought long and sore, and both
+sides were mixed, Greeks and Trojans, so that men dared not shoot
+arrows from the walls of Troy lest they should kill their own
+friends.  Paris, and Aeneas, and Glaucus, who had been the friend
+of Sarpedon, led the Trojans, and Aias and Ulysses led the Greeks,
+for we are not told that Agamemnon was fighting in this great
+battle of the war.  Now as angry wild bees flock round a man who is
+taking their honeycombs, so the Trojans gathered round Aias,
+striving to stab him, but he set his great shield in front, and
+smote and slew all that came within reach of his spear.  Ulysses,
+too, struck down many, and though a spear was thrown and pierced
+his leg near the knee he stood firm, protecting the body of
+Achilles.  At last Ulysses caught the body of Achilles by the
+hands, and heaved it upon his back, and so limped towards the
+ships, but Aias and the men of Aias followed, turning round if ever
+the Trojans ventured to come near, and charging into the midst of
+them.  Thus very slowly they bore the dead Achilles across the
+plain, through the bodies of the fallen and the blood, till they
+met Nestor in his chariot and placed Achilles therein, and swiftly
+Nestor drove to the ships.
+
+There the women, weeping, washed Achilles' comely body, and laid
+him on a bier with a great white mantle over him, and all the women
+lamented and sang dirges, and the first was Briseis, who loved
+Achilles better than her own country, and her father, and her
+brothers whom he had slain in war.  The Greek princes, too, stood
+round the body, weeping and cutting off their long locks of yellow
+hair, a token of grief and an offering to the dead.
+
+Men say that forth from the sea came Thetis of the silver feet, the
+mother of Achilles, with her ladies, the deathless maidens of the
+waters.  They rose up from their glassy chambers below the sea,
+moving on, many and beautiful, like the waves on a summer day, and
+their sweet song echoed along the shores, and fear came upon the
+Greeks.  Then they would have fled, but Nestor cried:  "Hold, flee
+not, young lords of the Achaeans!  Lo, she that comes from the sea
+is his mother, with the deathless maidens of the waters, to look on
+the face of her dead son."  Then the sea nymphs stood around the
+dead Achilles and clothed him in the garments of the Gods, fragrant
+raiment, and all the Nine Muses, one to the other replying with
+sweet voices, began their lament.
+
+Next the Greeks made a great pile of dry wood, and laid Achilles on
+it, and set fire to it, till the flames had consumed his body
+except the white ashes.  These they placed in a great golden cup
+and mingled with them the ashes of Patroclus, and above all they
+built a tomb like a hill, high on a headland above the sea, that
+men for all time may see it as they go sailing by, and may remember
+Achilles.  Next they held in his honour foot races and chariot
+races, and other games, and Thetis gave splendid prizes.  Last of
+all, when the games were ended, Thetis placed before the chiefs the
+glorious armour that the God had made for her son on the night
+after the slaying of Patroclus by Hector.  "Let these arms be the
+prize of the best of the Greeks," she said, "and of him that saved
+the body of Achilles out of the hands of the Trojans."
+
+Then stood up on one side Aias and on the other Ulysses, for these
+two had rescued the body, and neither thought himself a worse
+warrior than the other.  Both were the bravest of the brave, and if
+Aias was the taller and stronger, and upheld the fight at the ships
+on the day of the valour of Hector; Ulysses had alone withstood the
+Trojans, and refused to retreat even when wounded, and his courage
+and cunning had won for the Greeks the Luck of Troy.  Therefore old
+Nestor arose and said:  "This is a luckless day, when the best of
+the Greeks are rivals for such a prize.  He who is not the winner
+will be heavy at heart, and will not stand firm by us in battle, as
+of old, and hence will come great loss to the Greeks.  Who can be a
+just judge in this question, for some men will love Aias better,
+and some will prefer Ulysses, and thus will arise disputes among
+ourselves.  Lo! have we not here among us many Trojan prisoners,
+waiting till their friends pay their ransom in cattle and gold and
+bronze and iron?  These hate all the Greeks alike, and will favour
+neither Aias nor Ulysses.  Let THEM be the judges, and decide who
+is the best of the Greeks, and the man who has done most harm to
+the Trojans."
+
+Agamemnon said that Nestor had spoken wisely.  The Trojans were
+then made to sit as judges in the midst of the Assembly, and Aias
+and Ulysses spoke, and told the stories of their own great deeds,
+of which we have heard already, but Aias spoke roughly and
+discourteously, calling Ulysses a coward and a weakling.  "Perhaps
+the Trojans know," said Ulysses quietly, "whether they think that I
+deserve what Aias has said about me, that I am a coward; and
+perhaps Aias may remember that he did not find me so weak when we
+wrestled for a prize at the funeral of Patroclus."
+
+Then the Trojans all with one voice said that Ulysses was the best
+man among the Greeks, and the most feared by them, both for his
+courage and his skill in stratagems of war.  On this, the blood of
+Aias flew into his face, and he stood silent and unmoving, and
+could not speak a word, till his friends came round him and led him
+away to his hut, and there he sat down and would not eat or drink,
+and the night fell.
+
+Long he sat, musing in his mind, and then rose and put on all his
+armour, and seized a sword that Hector had given him one day when
+they two fought in a gentle passage of arms, and took courteous
+farewell of each other, and Aias had given Hector a broad sword-
+belt, wrought with gold.  This sword, Hector's gift, Aias took, and
+went towards the hut of Ulysses, meaning to carve him limb from
+limb, for madness had come upon him in his great grief.  Rushing
+through the night to slay Ulysses he fell upon the flock of sheep
+that the Greeks kept for their meat.  And up and down among them he
+went, smiting blindly till the dawn came, and, lo! his senses
+returned to him, and he saw that he had not smitten Ulysses, but
+stood in a pool of blood among the sheep that he had slain.  He
+could not endure the disgrace of his madness, and he fixed the
+sword, Hector's gift, with its hilt firmly in the ground, and went
+back a little way, and ran and fell upon the sword, which pierced
+his heart, and so died the great Aias, choosing death before a
+dishonoured life.
+
+
+
+ULYSSES SAILS TO SEEK THE SON OF ACHILLES.--THE VALOUR OF EURYPYLUS
+
+
+
+When the Greeks found Aias lying dead, slain by his own hand, they
+made great lament, and above all the brother of Aias, and his wife
+Tecmessa bewailed him, and the shores of the sea rang with their
+sorrow.  But of all no man was more grieved than Ulysses, and he
+stood up and said:  "Would that the sons of the Trojans had never
+awarded to me the arms of Achilles, for far rather would I have
+given them to Aias than that this loss should have befallen the
+whole army of the Greeks.  Let no man blame me, or be angry with
+me, for I have not sought for wealth, to enrich myself, but for
+honour only, and to win a name that will be remembered among men in
+times to come."  Then they made a great fire of wood, and burned
+the body of Aias, lamenting him as they had sorrowed for Achilles.
+
+Now it seemed that though the Greeks had won the Luck of Troy and
+had defeated the Amazons and the army of Memnon, they were no
+nearer taking Troy than ever.  They had slain Hector, indeed, and
+many other Trojans, but they had lost the great Achilles, and Aias,
+and Patroclus, and Antilochus, with the princes whom Penthesilea
+and Memnon slew, and the bands of the dead chiefs were weary of
+fighting, and eager to go home.  The chiefs met in council, and
+Menelaus arose and said that his heart was wasted with sorrow for
+the death of so many brave men who had sailed to Troy for his sake.
+"Would that death had come upon me before I gathered this host," he
+said, "but come, let the rest of us launch our swift ships, and
+return each to our own country."
+
+He spoke thus to try the Greeks, and see of what courage they were,
+for his desire was still to burn Troy town and to slay Paris with
+his own hand.  Then up rose Diomede, and swore that never would the
+Greeks turn cowards.  No! he bade them sharpen their swords, and
+make ready for battle.  The prophet Calchas, too, arose and
+reminded the Greeks how he had always foretold that they would take
+Troy in the tenth year of the siege, and how the tenth year had
+come, and victory was almost in their hands.  Next Ulysses stood up
+and said that, though Achilles was dead, and there was no prince to
+lead his men, yet a son had been born to Achilles, while he was in
+the isle of Scyros, and that son he would bring to fill his
+father's place.
+
+"Surely he will come, and for a token I will carry to him those
+unhappy arms of the great Achilles.  Unworthy am I to wear them,
+and they bring back to my mind our sorrow for Aias.  But his son
+will wear them, in the front of the spearmen of Greece and in the
+thickest ranks of Troy shall the helmet of Achilles shine, as it
+was wont to do, for always he fought among the foremost."  Thus
+Ulysses spoke, and he and Diomede, with fifty oarsmen, went on
+board a swift ship, and sitting all in order on the benches they
+smote the grey sea into foam, and Ulysses held the helm and steered
+them towards the isle of Scyros.
+
+Now the Trojans had rest from war for a while, and Priam, with a
+heavy heart, bade men take his chief treasure, the great golden
+vine, with leaves and clusters of gold, and carry it to the mother
+of Eurypylus, the king of the people who dwell where the wide
+marshlands of the river Cayster clang with the cries of the cranes
+and herons and wild swans.  For the mother of Eurypylus had sworn
+that never would she let her son go to the war unless Priam sent
+her the vine of gold, a gift of the gods to an ancient King of
+Troy.
+
+With a heavy heart, then, Priam sent the golden vine, but Eurypylus
+was glad when he saw it, and bade all his men arm, and harness the
+horses to the chariots, and glad were the Trojans when the long
+line of the new army wound along the road and into the town.  Then
+Paris welcomed Eurypylus who was his nephew, son of his sister
+Astyoche, a daughter of Priam; but the grandfather of Eurypylus was
+the famous Heracles, the strongest man who ever lived on earth.  So
+Paris brought Eurypylus to his house, where Helen sat working at
+her embroideries with her four bower maidens, and Eurypylus
+marvelled when he saw her, she was so beautiful.  But the Khita,
+the people of Eurypylus, feasted in the open air among the Trojans,
+by the light of great fires burning, and to the music of pipes and
+flutes.  The Greeks saw the fires, and heard the merry music, and
+they watched all night lest the Trojans should attack the ships
+before the dawn.  But in the dawn Eurypylus rose from sleep and put
+on his armour, and hung from his neck by the belt the great shield
+on which were fashioned, in gold of many colours and in silver, the
+Twelve Adventures of Heracles, his grandfather; strange deeds that
+he did, fighting with monsters and giants and with the Hound of
+Hades, who guards the dwellings of the dead.  Then Eurypylus led on
+his whole army, and with the brothers of Hector he charged against
+the Greeks, who were led by Agamemnon.
+
+In that battle Eurypylus first smote Nireus, who was the most
+beautiful of the Greeks now that Achilles had fallen.  There lay
+Nireus, like an apple tree, all covered with blossoms red and
+white, that the wind has overthrown in a rich man's orchard.  Then
+Eurypylus would have stripped off his armour, but Machaon rushed
+in, Machaon who had been wounded and taken to the tent of Nestor,
+on the day of the Valour of Hector, when he brought fire against
+the ships.  Machaon drove his spear through the left shoulder of
+Eurypylus, but Eurypylus struck at his shoulder with his sword, and
+the blood flowed; nevertheless, Machaon stooped, and grasped a
+great stone, and sent it against the helmet of Eurypylus.  He was
+shaken, but he did not fall, he drove his spear through breastplate
+and breast of Machaon, who fell and died.  With his last breath he
+said, "Thou, too, shalt fall," but Eurypylus made answer, "So let
+it be!  Men cannot live for ever, and such is the fortune of war."
+
+Thus the battle rang, and shone, and shifted, till few of the
+Greeks kept steadfast, except those with Menelaus and Agamemnon,
+for Diomede and Ulysses were far away upon the sea, bringing from
+Scyros the son of Achilles.  But Teucer slew Polydamas, who had
+warned Hector to come within the walls of Troy; and Menelaus
+wounded Deiphobus, the bravest of the sons of Priam who were still
+in arms, for many had fallen; and Agamemnon slew certain spearmen
+of the Trojans.  Round Eurypylus fought Paris, and Aeneas, who
+wounded Teucer with a great stone, breaking in his helmet, but he
+drove back in his chariot to the ships.  Menelaus and Agamemnon
+stood alone and fought in the crowd of Trojans, like two wild boars
+that a circle of hunters surrounds with spears, so fiercely they
+stood at bay.  There they would both have fallen, but Idomeneus,
+and Meriones of Crete, and Thrasymedes, Nestor's son, ran to their
+rescue, and fiercer grew the fighting.  Eurypylus desired to slay
+Agamemnon and Menelaus, and end the war, but, as the spears of the
+Scots encompassed King James at Flodden Field till he ran forward,
+and fell within a lance's length of the English general, so the men
+of Crete and Pylos guarded the two princes with their spears.
+
+There Paris was wounded in the thigh with a spear, and he retreated
+a little way, and showered his arrows among the Greeks; and
+Idomeneus lifted and hurled a great stone at Eurypylus which struck
+his spear out of his hand, and he went back to find it, and
+Menelaus and Agamemnon had a breathing space in the battle.  But
+soon Eurypylus returned, crying on his men, and they drove back
+foot by foot the ring of spears round Agamemnon, and Aeneas and
+Paris slew men of Crete and of Mycenae till the Greeks were pushed
+to the ditch round the camp; and then great stones and spears and
+arrows rained down on the Trojans and the people of Eurypylus from
+the battlements and towers of the Grecian wall.  Now night fell,
+and Eurypylus knew that he could not win the wall in the dark, so
+he withdrew his men, and they built great fires, and camped upon
+the plain.
+
+The case of the Greeks was now like that of the Trojans after the
+death of Hector.  They buried Machaon and the other chiefs who had
+fallen, and they remained within their ditch and their wall, for
+they dared not come out into the open plain.  They knew not whether
+Ulysses and Diomede had come safely to Scyros, or whether their
+ship had been wrecked or driven into unknown seas.  So they sent a
+herald to Eurypylus, asking for a truce, that they might gather
+their dead and burn them, and the Trojans and Khita also buried
+their dead.
+
+Meanwhile the swift ship of Ulysses had swept through the sea to
+Scyros, and to the palace of King Lycomedes.  There they found
+Neoptolemus, the son of Achilles, in the court before the doors.
+He was as tall as his father, and very like him in face and shape,
+and he was practising the throwing of the spear at a mark.  Right
+glad were Ulysses and Diomede to behold him, and Ulysses told
+Neoptolemus who they were, and why they came, and implored him to
+take pity on the Greeks and help them.
+
+"My friend is Diomede, Prince of Argos," said Ulysses, "and I am
+Ulysses of Ithaca.  Come with us, and we Greeks will give you
+countless gifts, and I myself will present you with the armour of
+your father, such as it is not lawful for any other mortal man to
+wear, seeing that it is golden, and wrought by the hands of a God.
+Moreover, when we have taken Troy, and gone home, Menelaus will
+give you his daughter, the beautiful Hermione, to be your wife,
+with gold in great plenty."
+
+Then Neoptolemus answered:  "It is enough that the Greeks need my
+sword.  To-morrow we shall sail for Troy."  He led them into the
+palace to dine, and there they found his mother, beautiful
+Deidamia, in mourning raiment, and she wept when she heard that
+they had come to take her son away.  But Neoptolemus comforted her,
+promising to return safely with the spoils of Troy, "or, even if I
+fall," he said, "it will be after doing deeds worthy of my father's
+name."  So next day they sailed, leaving Deidamia mournful, like a
+swallow whose nest a serpent has found, and has killed her young
+ones; even so she wailed, and went up and down in the house.  But
+the ship ran swiftly on her way, cleaving the dark waves till
+Ulysses showed Neoptolemus the far off snowy crest of Mount Ida;
+and Tenedos, the island near Troy; and they passed the plain where
+the tomb of Achilles stands, but Ulysses did not tell the son that
+it was his father's tomb.
+
+Now all this time the Greeks, shut up within their wall and
+fighting from their towers, were looking back across the sea, eager
+to spy the ship of Ulysses, like men wrecked on a desert island,
+who keep watch every day for a sail afar off, hoping that the
+seamen will touch at their isle and have pity upon them, and carry
+them home, so the Greeks kept watch for the ship bearing
+Neoptolemus.
+
+Diomede, too, had been watching the shore, and when they came in
+sight of the ships of the Greeks, he saw that they were being
+besieged by the Trojans, and that all the Greek army was penned up
+within the wall, and was fighting from the towers.  Then he cried
+aloud to Ulysses and Neoptolemus, "Make haste, friends, let us arm
+before we land, for some great evil has fallen upon the Greeks.
+The Trojans are attacking our wall, and soon they will burn our
+ships, and for us there will be no return."
+
+Then all the men on the ship of Ulysses armed themselves, and
+Neoptolemus, in the splendid armour of his father, was the first to
+leap ashore.  The Greeks could not come from the wall to welcome
+him, for they were fighting hard and hand-to-hand with Eurypylus
+and his men.  But they glanced back over their shoulders and it
+seemed to them that they saw Achilles himself, spear and sword in
+hand, rushing to help them.  They raised a great battle-cry, and,
+when Neoptolemus reached the battlements, he and Ulysses, and
+Diomede leaped down to the plain, the Greeks following them, and
+they all charged at once on the men of Eurypylus, with levelled
+spears, and drove them from the wall.
+
+Then the Trojans trembled, for they knew the shields of Diomede and
+Ulysses, and they thought that the tall chief in the armour of
+Achilles was Achilles himself, come back from the land of the dead
+to take vengeance for Antilochus.  The Trojans fled, and gathered
+round Eurypylus, as in a thunderstorm little children, afraid of
+the lightning and the noise, run and cluster round their father,
+and hide their faces on his knees.
+
+But Neoptolemus was spearing the Trojans, as a man who carries at
+night a beacon of fire in his boat on the sea spears the fishes
+that flock around, drawn by the blaze of the flame.  Cruelly he
+avenged his father's death on many a Trojan, and the men whom
+Achilles had led followed Achilles' son, slaying to right and left,
+and smiting the Trojans, as they ran, between the shoulders with
+the spear.  Thus they fought and followed while daylight lasted,
+but when night fell, they led Neoptolemus to his father's hut,
+where the women washed him in the bath, and then he was taken to
+feast with Agamemnon and Menelaus and the princes.  They all
+welcomed him, and gave him glorious gifts, swords with silver
+hilts, and cups of gold and silver, and they were glad, for they
+had driven the Trojans from their wall, and hoped that to-morrow
+they would slay Eurypylus, and take Troy town.
+
+But their hope was not to be fulfilled, for though next day
+Eurypylus met Neoptolemus in the battle, and was slain by him, when
+the Greeks chased the Trojans into their city so great a storm of
+lightning and thunder and rain fell upon them that they retreated
+again to their camp.  They believed that Zeus, the chief of the
+Gods, was angry with them, and the days went by, and Troy still
+stood unconquered.
+
+
+
+THE SLAYING OF PARIS
+
+
+
+When the Greeks were disheartened, as they often were, they
+consulted Calchas the prophet.  He usually found that they must do
+something, or send for somebody, and in doing so they diverted
+their minds from their many misfortunes.  Now, as the Trojans were
+fighting more bravely than before, under Deiphobus, a brother of
+Hector, the Greeks went to Calchas for advice, and he told them
+that they must send Ulysses and Diomede to bring Philoctetes the
+bowman from the isle of Lemnos.  This was an unhappy deserted
+island, in which the married women, some years before, had murdered
+all their husbands, out of jealousy, in a single night.  The Greeks
+had landed in Lemnos, on their way to Troy, and there Philoctetes
+had shot an arrow at a great water dragon which lived in a well
+within a cave in the lonely hills.  But when he entered the cave
+the dragon bit him, and, though he killed it at last, its poisonous
+teeth wounded his foot.  The wound never healed, but dripped with
+venom, and Philoctetes, in terrible pain, kept all the camp awake
+at night by his cries.
+
+The Greeks were sorry for him, but he was not a pleasant companion,
+shrieking as he did, and exuding poison wherever he came.  So they
+left him on the lonely island, and did not know whether he was
+alive or dead.  Calchas ought to have told the Greeks not to desert
+Philoctetes at the time, if he was so important that Troy, as the
+prophet now said, could not be taken without him.  But now, as he
+must give some advice, Calchas said that Philoctetes must be
+brought back, so Ulysses and Diomede went to bring him.  They
+sailed to Lemnos, a melancholy place they found it, with no smoke
+rising from the ruinous houses along the shore.  As they were
+landing they learned that Philoctetes was not dead, for his dismal
+old cries of pain, ototototoi, ai, ai; pheu, pheu; ototototoi, came
+echoing from a cave on the beach.  To this cave the princes went,
+and found a terrible-looking man, with long, dirty, dry hair and
+beard; he was worn to a skeleton, with hollow eyes, and lay moaning
+in a mass of the feathers of sea birds.  His great bow and his
+arrows lay ready to his hand:  with these he used to shoot the sea
+birds, which were all that he had to eat, and their feathers
+littered all the floor of his cave, and they were none the better
+for the poison that dripped from his wounded foot.
+
+When this horrible creature saw Ulysses and Diomede coming near, he
+seized his bow and fitted a poisonous arrow to the string, for he
+hated the Greeks, because they had left him in the desert isle.
+But the princes held up their hands in sign of peace, and cried out
+that they had come to do him kindness, so he laid down his bow, and
+they came in and sat on the rocks, and promised that his wound
+should be healed, for the Greeks were very much ashamed of having
+deserted him.  It was difficult to resist Ulysses when he wished to
+persuade any one, and at last Philoctetes consented to sail with
+them to Troy.  The oarsmen carried him down to the ship on a
+litter, and there his dreadful wound was washed with warm water,
+and oil was poured into it, and it was bound up with soft linen, so
+that his pain grew less fierce, and they gave him a good supper and
+wine enough, which he had not tasted for many years.
+
+Next morning they sailed, and had a fair west wind, so that they
+soon landed among the Greeks and carried Philoctetes on shore.
+Here Podaleirius, the brother of Machaon, being a physician, did
+all that could be done to heal the wound, and the pain left
+Philoctetes.  He was taken to the hut of Agamemnon, who welcomed
+him, and said that the Greeks repented of their cruelty.  They gave
+him seven female slaves to take care of him, and twenty swift
+horses, and twelve great vessels of bronze, and told him that he
+was always to live with the greatest chiefs and feed at their
+table.  So he was bathed, and his hair was cut and combed and
+anointed with oil, and soon he was eager and ready to fight, and to
+use his great bow and poisoned arrows on the Trojans.  The use of
+poisoned arrow-tips was thought unfair, but Philoctetes had no
+scruples.
+
+Now in the next battle Paris was shooting down the Greeks with his
+arrows, when Philoctetes saw him, and cried:  "Dog, you are proud
+of your archery and of the arrow that slew the great Achilles.
+But, behold, I am a better bowman than you, by far, and the bow in
+my hands was borne by the strong man Heracles!"  So he cried and
+drew the bowstring to his breast and the poisoned arrowhead to the
+bow, and the bowstring rang, and the arrow flew, and did but graze
+the hand of Paris.  Then the bitter pain of the poison came upon
+him, and the Trojans carried him into their city, where the
+physicians tended him all night.  But he never slept, and lay
+tossing in agony till dawn, when he said:  "There is but one hope.
+Take me to OEnone, the nymph of Mount Ida!"
+
+"Then his friends laid Paris on a litter, and bore him up the steep
+path to Mount Ida.  Often had he climbed it swiftly, when he was
+young, and went to see the nymph who loved him; but for many a day
+he had not trod the path where he was now carried in great pain and
+fear, for the poison turned his blood to fire.  Little hope he had,
+for he knew how cruelly he had deserted OEnone, and he saw that all
+the birds which were disturbed in the wood flew away to the left
+hand, an omen of evil.
+
+At last the bearers reached the cave where the nymph OEnone lived,
+and they smelled the sweet fragrance of the cedar fire that burned
+on the floor of the cave, and they heard the nymph singing a
+melancholy song.  Then Paris called to her in the voice which she
+had once loved to hear, and she grew very pale, and rose up, saying
+to herself, "The day has come for which I have prayed.  He is sore
+hurt, and has come to bid me heal his wound."  So she came and
+stood in the doorway of the dark cave, white against the darkness,
+and the bearers laid Paris on the litter at the feet of OEnone, and
+he stretched forth his hands to touch her knees, as was the manner
+of suppliants.  But she drew back and gathered her robe about her,
+that he might not touch it with his hands.
+
+Then he said:  "Lady, despise me not, and hate me not, for my pain
+is more than I can bear.  Truly it was by no will of mine that I
+left you lonely here, for the Fates that no man may escape led me
+to Helen.  Would that I had died in your arms before I saw her
+face!  But now I beseech you in the name of the Gods, and for the
+memory of our love, that you will have pity on me and heal my hurt,
+and not refuse your grace and let me die here at your feet."
+
+Then OEnone answered scornfully:  "Why have you come here to me?
+Surely for years you have not come this way, where the path was
+once worn with your feet.  But long ago you left me lonely and
+lamenting, for the love of Helen of the fair hands.  Surely she is
+much more beautiful than the love of your youth, and far more able
+to help you, for men say that she can never know old age and death.
+Go home to Helen and let her take away your pain."
+
+Thus OEnone spoke, and went within the cave, where she threw
+herself down among the ashes of the hearth and sobbed for anger and
+sorrow.  In a little while she rose and went to the door of the
+cave, thinking that Paris had not been borne away back to Troy, but
+she found him not; for his bearers had carried him by another path,
+till he died beneath the boughs of the oak trees.  Then his bearers
+carried him swiftly down to Troy, where his mother bewailed him,
+and Helen sang over him as she had sung over Hector, remembering
+many things, and fearing to think of what her own end might be.
+But the Trojans hastily built a great pile of dry wood, and thereon
+laid the body of Paris and set fire to it, and the flame went up
+through the darkness, for now night had fallen.
+
+But OEnone was roaming in the dark woods, crying and calling after
+Paris, like a lioness whose cubs the hunters have carried away.
+The moon rose to give her light, and the flame of the funeral fire
+shone against the sky, and then OEnone knew that Paris had died--
+beautiful Paris--and that the Trojans were burning his body on the
+plain at the foot of Mount Ida.  Then she cried that now Paris was
+all her own, and that Helen had no more hold on him:  "And though
+when he was living he left me, in death we shall not be divided,"
+she said, and she sped down the hill, and through the thickets
+where the wood nymphs were wailing for Paris, and she reached the
+plain, and, covering her head with her veil like a bride, she
+rushed through the throng of Trojans.  She leaped upon the burning
+pile of wood, she clasped the body of Paris in her arms, and the
+flame of fire consumed the bridegroom and the bride, and their
+ashes mingled.  No man could divide them any more, and the ashes
+were placed in a golden cup, within a chamber of stone, and the
+earth was mounded above them.  On that grave the wood nymphs
+planted two rose trees, and their branches met and plaited
+together.
+
+This was the end of Paris and OEnone.
+
+
+
+HOW ULYSSES INVENTED THE DEVICE OF THE HORSE OF TREE
+
+
+
+After Paris died, Helen was not given back to Menelaus.  We are
+often told that only fear of the anger of Paris had prevented the
+Trojans from surrendering Helen and making peace.  Now Paris could
+not terrify them, yet for all that the men of the town would not
+part with Helen, whether because she was so beautiful, or because
+they thought it dishonourable to yield her to the Greeks, who might
+put her to a cruel death.  So Helen was taken by Deiphobus, the
+brother of Paris, to live in his own house, and Deiphobus was at
+this time the best warrior and the chief captain of the men of
+Troy.
+
+Meanwhile, the Greeks made an assault against the Trojan walls and
+fought long and hardily; but, being safe behind the battlements,
+and shooting through loopholes, the Trojans drove them back with
+loss of many of their men.  It was in vain that Philoctetes shot
+his poisoned arrows, they fell back from the stone walls, or stuck
+in the palisades of wood above the walls, and the Greeks who tried
+to climb over were speared, or crushed with heavy stones.  When
+night fell, they retreated to the ships and held a council, and, as
+usual, they asked the advice of the prophet Calchas.  It was the
+business of Calchas to go about looking at birds, and taking omens
+from what he saw them doing, a way of prophesying which the Romans
+also used, and some savages do the same to this day.  Calchas said
+that yesterday he had seen a hawk pursuing a dove, which hid
+herself in a hole in a rocky cliff.  For a long while the hawk
+tried to find the hole, and follow the dove into it, but he could
+not reach her.  So he flew away for a short distance and hid
+himself; then the dove fluttered out into the sunlight, and the
+hawk swooped on her and killed her.
+
+The Greeks, said Calchas, ought to learn a lesson from the hawk,
+and take Troy by cunning, as by force they could do nothing.  Then
+Ulysses stood up and described a trick which it is not easy to
+understand.  The Greeks, he said, ought to make an enormous hollow
+horse of wood, and place the bravest men in the horse.  Then all
+the rest of the Greeks should embark in their ships and sail to the
+Isle of Tenedos, and lie hidden behind the island.  The Trojans
+would then come out of the city, like the dove out of her hole in
+the rock, and would wander about the Greek camp, and wonder why the
+great horse of tree had been made, and why it had been left behind.
+Lest they should set fire to the horse, when they would soon have
+found out the warriors hidden in it, a cunning Greek, whom the
+Trojans did not know by sight, should be left in the camp or near
+it.  He would tell the Trojans that the Greeks had given up all
+hope and gone home, and he was to say that they feared the Goddess
+Pallas was angry with them, because they had stolen her image that
+fell from heaven, and was called the Luck of Troy.  To soothe
+Pallas and prevent her from sending great storms against the ships,
+the Trojans (so the man was to say) had built this wooden horse as
+an offering to the Goddess.  The Trojans, believing this story,
+would drag the horse into Troy, and, in the night, the princes
+would come out, set fire to the city, and open the gates to the
+army, which would return from Tenedos as soon as darkness came on.
+
+The prophet was much pleased with the plan of Ulysses, and, as two
+birds happened to fly away on the right hand, he declared that the
+stratagem would certainly be lucky.  Neoptolemus, on the other
+hand, voted for taking Troy, without any trick, by sheer hard
+fighting.  Ulysses replied that if Achilles could not do that, it
+could not be done at all, and that Epeius, a famous carpenter, had
+better set about making the horse at once.
+
+Next day half the army, with axes in their hands, were sent to cut
+down trees on Mount Ida, and thousands of planks were cut from the
+trees by Epeius and his workmen, and in three days he had finished
+the horse.  Ulysses then asked the best of the Greeks to come
+forward and go inside the machine; while one, whom the Greeks did
+not know by sight, should volunteer to stay behind in the camp and
+deceive the Trojans.  Then a young man called Sinon stood up and
+said that he would risk himself and take the chance that the
+Trojans might disbelieve him, and burn him alive.  Certainly, none
+of the Greeks did anything more courageous, yet Sinon had not been
+considered brave.
+
+Had he fought in the front ranks, the Trojans would have known him;
+but there were many brave fighters who would not have dared to do
+what Sinon undertook.
+
+Then old Nestor was the first that volunteered to go into the
+horse; but Neoptolemus said that, brave as he was, he was too old,
+and that he must depart with the army to Tenedos.  Neoptolemus
+himself would go into the horse, for he would rather die than turn
+his back on Troy.  So Neoptolemus armed himself and climbed into
+the horse, as did Menelaus, Ulysses, Diomede, Thrasymedes (Nestor's
+son), Idomeneus, Philoctetes, Meriones, and all the best men except
+Agamemnon, while Epeius himself entered last of all.  Agamemnon was
+not allowed by the other Greeks to share their adventure, as he was
+to command the army when they returned from Tenedos.  They
+meanwhile launched their ships and sailed away.
+
+But first Menelaus had led Ulysses apart, and told him that if they
+took Troy (and now they must either take it or die at the hands of
+the Trojans), he would owe to Ulysses the glory.  When they came
+back to Greece, he wished to give Ulysses one of his own cities,
+that they might always be near each other.  Ulysses smiled and
+shook his head; he could not leave Ithaca, his own rough island
+kingdom.  "But if we both live through the night that is coming,"
+he said, "I may ask you for one gift, and giving it will make you
+none the poorer."  Then Menelaus swore by the splendour of Zeus
+that Ulysses could ask him for no gift that he would not gladly
+give; so they embraced, and both armed themselves and went up into
+the horse.  With them were all the chiefs except Nestor, whom they
+would not allow to come, and Agamemnon, who, as chief general, had
+to command the army.  They swathed themselves and their arms in
+soft silks, that they might not ring and clash, when the Trojans,
+if they were so foolish, dragged the horse up into their town, and
+there they sat in the dark waiting.  Meanwhile, the army burned
+their huts and launched their ships, and with oars and sails made
+their way to the back of the isle of Tenedos.
+
+
+
+THE END OF TROY AND THE SAVING OF HELEN
+
+
+
+From the walls the Trojans saw the black smoke go up thick into the
+sky, and the whole fleet of the Greeks sailing out to sea.  Never
+were men so glad, and they armed themselves for fear of an ambush,
+and went cautiously, sending forth scouts in front of them, down to
+the seashore.  Here they found the huts burned down and the camp
+deserted, and some of the scouts also caught Sinon, who had hid
+himself in a place where he was likely to be found.  They rushed on
+him with fierce cries, and bound his hands with a rope, and kicked
+and dragged him along to the place where Priam and the princes were
+wondering at the great horse of tree.  Sinon looked round upon
+them, while some were saying that he ought to be tortured with fire
+to make him tell all the truth about the horse.  The chiefs in the
+horse must have trembled for fear lest torture should wring the
+truth out of Sinon, for then the Trojans would simply burn the
+machine and them within it.
+
+But Sinon said:  "Miserable man that I am, whom the Greeks hate and
+the Trojans are eager to slay!"  When the Trojans heard that the
+Greeks hated him, they were curious, and asked who he was, and how
+he came to be there.  "I will tell you all, oh King!" he answered
+Priam.  "I was a friend and squire of an unhappy chief, Palamedes,
+whom the wicked Ulysses hated and slew secretly one day, when he
+found him alone, fishing in the sea.  I was angry, and in my folly
+I did not hide my anger, and my words came to the ears of Ulysses.
+From that hour he sought occasion to slay me.  Then Calchas--" here
+he stopped, saying:  "But why tell a long tale?  If you hate all
+Greeks alike, then slay me; this is what Agamemnon and Ulysses
+desire; Menelaus would thank you for my head."
+
+The Trojans were now more curious than before.  They bade him go
+on, and he said that the Greeks had consulted an Oracle, which
+advised them to sacrifice one of their army to appease the anger of
+the Gods and gain a fair wind homewards.  "But who was to be
+sacrificed?  They asked Calchas, who for fifteen days refused to
+speak.  At last, being bribed by Ulysses, he pointed to me, Sinon,
+and said that I must be the victim.  I was bound and kept in
+prison, while they built their great horse as a present for Pallas
+Athene the Goddess.  They made it so large that you Trojans might
+never be able to drag it into your city; while, if you destroyed
+it, the Goddess might turn her anger against you.  And now they
+have gone home to bring back the image that fell from heaven, which
+they had sent to Greece, and to restore it to the Temple of Pallas
+Athene, when they have taken your town, for the Goddess is angry
+with them for that theft of Ulysses."
+
+The Trojans were foolish enough to believe the story of Sinon, and
+they pitied him and unbound his hands.  Then they tied ropes to the
+wooden horse, and laid rollers in front of it, like men launching a
+ship, and they all took turns to drag the horse up to the Scaean
+gate.  Children and women put their hands to the ropes and hauled,
+and with shouts and dances, and hymns they toiled, till about
+nightfall the horse stood in the courtyard of the inmost castle.
+
+Then all the people of Troy began to dance, and drink, and sing.
+Such sentinels as were set at the gates got as drunk as all the
+rest, who danced about the city till after midnight, and then they
+went to their homes and slept heavily.
+
+Meanwhile the Greek ships were returning from behind Tenedos as
+fast as the oarsmen could row them.
+
+One Trojan did not drink or sleep; this was Deiphobus, at whose
+house Helen was now living.  He bade her come with them, for he
+knew that she was able to speak in the very voice of all men and
+women whom she had ever seen, and he armed a few of his friends and
+went with them to the citadel.  Then he stood beside the horse,
+holding Helen's hand, and whispered to her that she must call each
+of the chiefs in the voice of his wife.  She was obliged to obey,
+and she called Menelaus in her own voice, and Diomede in the voice
+of his wife, and Ulysses in the very voice of Penelope.  Then
+Menelaus and Diomede were eager to answer, but Ulysses grasped
+their hands and whispered the word "Echo!"  Then they remembered
+that this was a name of Helen, because she could speak in all
+voices, and they were silent; but Anticlus was still eager to
+answer, till Ulysses held his strong hand over his mouth.  There
+was only silence, and Deiphobus led Helen back to his house.  When
+they had gone away Epeius opened the side of the horse, and all the
+chiefs let themselves down softly to the ground.  Some rushed to
+the gate, to open it, and they killed the sleeping sentinels and
+let in the Greeks.  Others sped with torches to burn the houses of
+the Trojan princes, and terrible was the slaughter of men, unarmed
+and half awake, and loud were the cries of the women.  But Ulysses
+had slipped away at the first, none knew where.  Neoptolemus ran to
+the palace of Priam, who was sitting at the altar in his courtyard,
+praying vainly to the Gods, for Neoptolemus slew the old man
+cruelly, and his white hair was dabbled in his blood.  All through
+the city was fighting and slaying; but Menelaus went to the house
+of Deiphobus, knowing that Helen was there.
+
+In the doorway he found Deiphobus lying dead in all his armour, a
+spear standing in his breast.  There were footprints marked in
+blood, leading through the portico and into the hall.  There
+Menelaus went, and found Ulysses leaning, wounded, against one of
+the central pillars of the great chamber, the firelight shining on
+his armour.
+
+"Why hast thou slain Deiphobus and robbed me of my revenge?" said
+Menelaus.  "You swore to give me a gift," said Ulysses, "and will
+you keep your oath?"  "Ask what you will," said Menelaus; "it is
+yours and my oath cannot be broken."  "I ask the life of Helen of
+the fair hands," said Ulysses "this is my own life-price that I pay
+back to her, for she saved my life when I took the Luck of Troy,
+and I swore that hers should be saved."
+
+Then Helen stole, glimmering in white robes, from a recess in the
+dark hall, and fell at the feet of Menelaus; her golden hair lay in
+the dust of the hearth, and her hands moved to touch his knees.
+His drawn sword fell from the hands of Menelaus, and pity and love
+came into his heart, and he raised her from the dust and her white
+arms were round his neck, and they both wept.  That night Menelaus
+fought no more, but they tended the wound of Ulysses, for the sword
+of Deiphobus had bitten through his helmet.
+
+When dawn came Troy lay in ashes, and the women were being driven
+with spear shafts to the ships, and the men were left unburied, a
+prey to dogs and all manner of birds.  Thus the grey city fell,
+that had lorded it for many centuries.  All the gold and silver and
+rich embroideries, and ivory and amber, the horses and chariots,
+were divided among the army; all but a treasure of silver and gold,
+hidden in a chest within a hollow of the wall, and this treasure
+was found, not very many years ago, by men digging deep on the hill
+where Troy once stood.  The women, too, were given to the princes,
+and Neoptolemus took Andromache to his home in Argos, to draw water
+from the well and to be the slave of a master, and Agamemnon
+carried beautiful Cassandra, the daughter of Priam, to his palace
+in Mycenae, where they were both slain in one night.  Only Helen
+was led with honour to the ship of Menelaus.
+
+The story of all that happened to Ulysses on his way home from Troy
+is told in another book, "Tales of the Greek Seas."
+
+
+
+
+
+End of The Project Gutenberg Etext of Tales of Troy, by Andrew Lang
+
+
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