The Library of Greek Mythology (Oxford World's Classics) (27 page)

¹
In his anger over Briseis, the daughter of Chryses the priest,

4

Achilles would no longer go out to fight. As a result, the barbarians recovered their confidence and advanced outside the city. Alexander fought in single combat against Menelaos, but when Alexander faced defeat, Aphrodite snatched him away; and Pandaros broke the truce by shooting an arrow at Menelaos.

²
Diomedes performed deeds of valour
*
and wounded Aphrodite when she came to the aid of Aeneas; and when he encountered Glaucos, he remembered the friendship between their fathers and exchanged armour
*
with him. Hector challenged the bravest man present to single combat. Although many stepped forward, Aias was chosen by lot and engaged in combat; but the pair were separated at nightfall by the heralds.

³
To protect the anchorage, the Greeks constructed a wall and a ditch; and after a battle on the plain, the Trojans chased the Greeks to the safety of their wall. The Greeks dispatched Odysseus, Phoenix, and Aias as envoys to Achilles, to ask him to assist them in the fighting and promise him Briseis and other gifts.
⁴
At nightfall, they sent Odysseus and Diomedes on reconnaissance; and they killed Dolon, son of Eumelos, and Rhesos the Thracian (who had arrived the previous day as anally of the Trojans, and because he had yet to enter battle, had set up camp at some distance from the Trojan force, and separately from Hector). They also killed the twelve men who were sleeping around Rhesos and took their horses to the ships.
^s
The next day, a fierce battle developed. Agamemnon, Diomedes, Odysseus, Eurypylos, and Machaon were wounded, and the Greeks were put to flight; Hector breached the wall and passed inside, and after Aias had retreated, set fire to the ships.

⁶
When he saw the ship of Protesilaos in flames, Achilles sent out Patroclos with the Myrmidons, equipping him with
his own arms and lending him his horses. When the Trojans saw Patroclos, they took him for Achilles, and turned to flee. Patroclos pursued them up to the city wall, killing many of them, including Sarpedon, son of Zeus, but met his own death at the hand of Hector after first being wounded by Euphorbos.
⁷
In the fierce battle that developed for his corpse, Aias performed deeds of valour and, with difficulty, rescued the body. Achilles now put his anger aside, and recovered Briseis; and when a full set of arms was brought to him from Hephaistos, he put on the armour and went out to fight. He chased the Trojans in a mass as far as the Scamander, killing many of them including Asteropaios, son of Pelagon, son of the River Axios. The river rushed out at him in fury,
⁸
but Hephaistos turned its flooding waters dry, and pursued it [back to its bed] with a massive flame.
*
And Achilles killed Hector in single combat, and tying him by the ankles to his chariot, dragged him back to the ships. When he had buried Patroclos, he celebrated games in his honour, in the course of which Diomedes won the chariot race, Epeios the boxing, and Aias and Odysseus the wrestling. After the games, Priam visited Achilles, and ransomed Hector’s body and buried it.

^l
Penthesileia, daughter of Otrere and Ares, had accidentally

5

killed Hippolyte
*
and had been purified by Priam. She killed many Greeks in battle, including Machaon, but later died at the hand of Achilles, who fell in love with the Amazon after her death, and killed Thersites
*
for abusing him. [
²
]†

³
Memnon,
*
the son of Tithonos and Dawn, arrived at Troy to fight the Greeks, accompanied by a large force of Ethiopians, and after killing many of the Greeks, including Antilochos, he met his own death at the hand of Achilles. When Achilles went in pursuit of the Trojans also, he was shot down in front of the Scaean Gates
*
by Alexander and Apollo, with an arrow in the ankle.
*
⁴
In the fight for his body, Aias killed Glaucos, and asking someone else to carry Achilles’ arms to the ships, he picked up the body, and surrounded by the enemy, carried
it away through a hail of missiles while Odysseus fought off the attackers.

⁵
At the death of Achilles, the army was filled with gloom. They buried him with Patroclos [on the White Island
*
], mixing the bones of the pair together. It is said that Achilles lives on after his death as the husband of Medea on the Isles of the Blessed.
*
The Greeks held games in his honour, in the course of which Eumelos won the chariot race and Diomedes the footrace, Aias the discus-throwing, and Teucros the archery.
⁶
When Achilles’ armour was offered as a prize to the bravest, Aias and Odysseus entered the lists. With the Trojans acting as judges,
*
or according to some, the allies,
*
Odysseus was picked as the winner. Aias was so overcome by resentment that he planned a night attack on the army; but Athene drove him out of his wits and turned him against the cattle, sword in hand, and in his delusion, he slaughtered the cattle along with their herdsmen, supposing them to be the Achaeans.
*
⁷
Afterwards, however, when he had recovered his wits, Aias killed himself.
*
Agamemnon ordered that his body should not be burned, so Aias alone of the men who fell at Ilion lies in a coffin. His grave is at Rhoiteion.

⁸
When the war had already lasted for ten years and the Greeks were losing heart, Calchas prophesied that Troy could not be taken unless they had the bow of Heracles
*
to help them. On hearing this prophecy, Odysseus made his way to Lemnos with Diomedes to see Philoctetes,
*
and gaining possession of his bow by a trick, he persuaded him to sail to Troy. So Philoctetes arrived there, and after he had been cured by Podaleirios,
*
killed Alexander with an arrow.

⁹
After the death of Alexander, Helenos and Deiphobos quarrelled over Helen’s hand; and because Deiphobos was preferred, Helenos left Troy and went to live on Mount Ida. But when Calchas declared that Helenos had knowledge of the oracles that protected the city, Odysseus captured him in an ambush and brought him to the camp;
¹⁰
and Helenos was forced to
reveal
*
how Ilion could be captured. This could be achieved if, in the first place, the bones of Pelops
*
were brought to the Greeks, and then if Neoptolemos fought as their ally, and thirdly, if the Palladion (which had fallen from heaven) was stolen from Troy—for while it remained inside the walls, the city was impregnable.

¹¹
When they heard this, the Greeks had the bones of Pelops brought over, and sent Odysseus and Phoenix to Lycomedes on Scyros to persuade him to allow Neoptolemos
*
to go to war. So Neoptolemos arrived in the camp, where he received his father’s arms from Odysseus, who willingly surrendered them; and he killed a large number of the Trojans.
¹²
Eurypylos, the son of Telephos, later arrived as an ally of the Trojans, bringing with him a powerful force of Mysians. He performed deeds of valour, but died at the hand of Neoptolemos.
*

¹³
Odysseus went up to the city with Diomedes by night. Leaving Diomedes waiting outside, he assumed a mean appearance and put on shabby clothing, and entered the city undetected in the guise of a beggar. He was recognized, however, by Helen, and with her assistance he stole the Palladion, and then, after killing many of the guards, he took it to the ships with the aid of Diomedes.
*

¹⁴
Odysseus later had the idea of constructing a wooden horse, and he suggested it to Epeios,
*
who was an architect. Using timber felled on Mount Ida, Epeios constructed a horse that was hollow within and opened up at the side. Odysseus urged fifty—or according to the author of the
Little Iliad
, three thousand
*
—of the bravest men to enter this horse; as for all the rest, they were to burn their tents when night fell and put out to sea, but then lie in wait off Tenedos, ready to sail back again the following night.
¹⁵
Persuaded by his plan, the Greeks put their bravest men inside the horse, making Odysseus their commander; and they carved an inscription on it reading, ‘For their return home, a thank-offering to Athene from the Greeks.’ The others burned their tents, and leaving Sinon in place to light
a beacon for them, they put out to sea at night and lay in wait off Tenedos.

¹⁶
When day came and the Trojans saw the Greek camp deserted, they thought that the Greeks had fled. Overjoyed, they hauled the horse to the city, stationed it beside the palace of Priam, and debated what they should do.
¹⁷
When Cassandra said that there was an armed force inside it and she received support from the seer Laocoon, some proposed that they should burn it, and others that they should throw it down a cliff; but the majority decided that they should spare it because it was an offering sacred to a deity, and they turned to sacrifice and feasting.
¹⁸
A sign was then sent to them by Apollo; for two serpents swam across the sea from the islands nearby and devoured the sons of Laocoon.
*
¹⁹
When night fell and all were fast asleep, the Greeks sailed over from Tenedos, and Sinon lit a fire on the grave of Achilles to guide their way. And Helen walked around the horse and called out to the heroes within, imitating the voice of each of their wives; but when Anticlos wanted to answer, Odysseus covered his mouth.
*
²⁰
When they judged that their enemies were asleep, they opened up the horse and climbed out with their weapons. Echion, son of Portheus, the first to emerge, was killed by the leap, but the others lowered themselves on a rope, made their way to the wall, and opened the gates to let in the Greeks who had sailed back from Tenedos.

²¹
Advancing into the city fully armed, they entered the houses and killed the Trojans as they slept. Neoptolemos killed Priam, who had taken refuge at the altar of Zeus of the Courtyard. But when Odysseus and Menelaos recognized Glaucos, son of Antenor, fleeing to his house, they came to his rescue
*
arms in hand. Aeneas picked up his father Anchises and fled, and the Greeks allowed him to pass because of his piety.
*
²²
Menelaos killed Deiphobos and led Helen away to the ships. Aithra,
*
the mother of Theseus, was led away also by Demophon and Acamas, the sons of Theseus (for they say that the two of them had later arrived at Troy
*
). The Locrian
Aias saw Cassandra clinging to the wooden image of Athene and raped her; and for that reason, they say, the statue looks up towards the sky.
*

²³
After killing the Trojans, they set fire to the city and divided the spoils. When they had sacrificed to all the gods, they hurled Astyanax from the ramparts
*
and slaughtered Polyxene
*
on the grave of Achilles.
²⁴
As a special honour, Agamemnon received Cassandra, and Neoptolemos received Andromache, and Odysseus Hecuba. According to some accounts, however, Hecuba was awarded to Helenos, who crossed over to the Chersonese with her, where she turned into a bitch and was buried by him at the place now called the Bitch’s Tomb.
*
²⁵
As for Laodice, the most beautiful of Priam’s daughters,
*
the earth swallowed her up in chasm in full view of everyone. As the Greeks were about to sail off after sacking Troy, they were held back by Calchas, who said that Athene was angry with them because of the impiety of Aias. And they intended to kill him, but he took refuge by the altar
*
and they let him be.

14. The returns

¹
After these events, the Greeks gathered together in assembly,

6

and Agamemnon and Menelaos quarrelled, Menelaos advising that they should sail away and Agamemnon urging that they should remain and sacrifice to Athene.
*
Diomedes, Nestor, and Menelaos set out to sea together, and the first two had a favourable passage, but Menelaos ran into a storm, and losing the rest of his vessels, arrived in Egypt with only five ships.
*

²
Amphilochos, Calchas, Leonteus, Podaleirios, and Polypoites left their ships at Ilion and travelled on foot to Colophon, where they buried Calchas the diviner; for he had been told in an oracle that he would die if he met a better diviner than himself.
³
Now they were received at Colophon by the diviner Mopsos, who was a son of Apollo and Manto,
*
and this Mopsos
challenged Calchas to a contest in the art of divination. There was a wild fig tree growing there, and when Calchas asked, ‘How many figs is it carrying?’, Mopsos replied, ‘Ten thousand, or a bushel with one fig left over,’ which was discovered to be the case.
⁴
Mopsos then questioned Calchas about a pregnant sow, asking, ‘How many piglets is she carrying in her womb?’ When Calchas replied, ‘Eight,’ Mopsos smiled and said, ‘The divination of Calchas is anything but exact, but I, who am a son of Apollo and Manto, am richly provided with the clarity of vision that arises from exact divination, and I maintain that there are not eight piglets, as Calchas says, but nine piglets in her womb; and I can say, furthermore, that all of them are males and will be born tomorrow at the sixth hour without a doubt.’
*
When this all turned out to be true, Calchas was so dejected that he died. He was buried at Notion.