Heathen mythology Part 40

And shun so my embraces?

Am I wild And wandering in my fondness?

We are shades!!

Groan not thus deeply; blight not thus the season Of full orbed gladness! Shades we are indeed, But mingled, let us feel it, with the blest.

I knew it, but forgot it suddenly, Altho' I felt it all at your approach.

Look on me; smile with me at my illusion-- You are so like what you have ever been (Except in sorrow!) I might well forget I could not win you as I used to do.

It was the first embrace since my descent I ever aimed at: those who love me live, Save one, who loves me most, and now would chide me.

_Aga._ We want not O Iphigenia, we Want not embrace, nor kiss that cools the heart With purity, nor words that more and more Teach what we know, from those we know, and sink Often most deeply where they fall most light.

Time was when for the faintest breath of thine Kingdom and life were little.

_Iphig._ Value them As little now.

_Aga._ Were life and kingdom all!

_Iphig._ Ah! by our death many are sad who loved us.

They will be happy too.

Cheer! king of men!

Cheer! there are voices, songs--Cheer! arms advance.

_Aga._ Come to me, soul of peace! these, these alone, These are not false embraces."

W. S. LANDOR.

THE TROJAN WAR.

The sails were spread, and the vessels destined to the attack of Troy advanced quickly towards its sh.o.r.es. Priam and his brave sons though they received the enemy with vigour, could not prevent them from landing, and the siege commenced by a blockade, which lasted for the s.p.a.ce of nine years, and might have lasted much longer, as more than valour was necessary to take the city; for destiny had dictated the conditions to be fulfilled, ere its capture could be accomplished.

An ancient oracle had foretold that among the besiegers must be one of the descendants of Eachus, who had worked on the wall of {234} of Ilion, and Achilles, son of Thetis, considered Eachus as his ancestor. This young hero had been hidden by his frightened mother in the isle of Cyros. Clothed in female garments, he there lived with the beautiful Deidomia, and enslaved by Love, forgot over the cradle of his offspring, the glory of his country, and the precepts of his tutor, Chiron, the centaur. But it was necessary that he should be discovered; and that he should be animated with higher thoughts and more exalted sentiments.

Ulysses, King of Ithaca, took upon himself the charge of bringing the young Achilles from his inglorious ease to the post which awaited him in the camp. Disguised as a merchant, Ulysses introduced himself into the palace of the future hero, and as he paraded himself before the women with jewels and arms, one of them disdained the gems, and seized a sword!--It was Achilles!--who thus betrayed his manly inclinations.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

Thus discovered, the eloquence of Ulysses was exerted, and the youthful hero listened with astonishment to the King of Ithaca, as he told him of the dangers already overcome, and of the future conquests which awaited him. Ulysses departed, but not alone, for the spirit of glory was aroused in Achilles, and one more defender was added to the cause of Menelaus. But the besiegers were also to possess the arrows of Hercules, which this hero in dying had bequeathed to Philoctetes, who, however, would not give up the terrible arms that no mortal dared take from him. Ulysses presented himself to Philoctetes, who, at the command of the manes of Hercules, sought the Grecian camp with his terrible weapons to a.s.sist them against their enemies.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Pyrrha seizing the sword before Achilles.]

{235}

But this was not enough. It was necessary to take from the Trojans the talismanic protector of their city, the Palladium.

Ulysses was also charged with this mission, and the intrepid Diomedes a.s.sisted him to triumph over the obstacles which would have resisted his single efforts, and they went forth to seek the statue of Pallas, in the very city of their intrepid foes.

It was necessary likewise that Rhesus, King of Thrace, should be prevented from allowing his horses to drink of the waters of the Xanthus, an ancient oracle having declared that if they drank of those waters or fed in the Trojan plain, that Troy would never be taken. In this too they succeeded; for Diomedes and Ulysses intercepted him on his journey to the Trojan camp, entered his tent at night and slew him; they then carried off the horses which had been the innocent causes of his melancholy fate.

All the oracles being now fulfilled, the siege was commenced with vigour, when an unforeseen quarrel stopped the operations of the Greeks. Achilles having been deprived by Agamemnon of his favourite mistress, retired into his tent. Reverses of fortune instantly signalised his absence. A general a.s.sault, however, was ordered, but directly the army displayed itself before the walls, Paris challenged Menelaus to single combat, and promised to return Helen if he was vanquished. The King of Sparta, protected by his bravery and the justice of his cause, accepted his challenge, and would have sacrificed the coward Trojan to his vengeance, when he took flight, and escaped by the aid of Venus.

--------"Poised in air, the javelin sent, Through Paris' s.h.i.+eld the fearful weapon went, His corslet pierces, and his garment rends, And, glancing downward, near his flank descends.

The wary Trojan, bending from the blow, Eludes the death, and disappoints his foe: But fierce Atrides waved his sword, and struck Full on his casque, the crested helmet shook: The brittle steel, unfaithful to his hand, Broke short, the fragments glittered on the sand.

The raging warrior to the s.p.a.cious skies Raised his upbraiding voice and angry eyes.

'Then is it vain in Jove himself to trust?

And is it thus the G.o.ds a.s.sist the just?

When crimes provoke us, Heaven success denies, The dart falls harmless, and the falchion flies.'

{236} Furious he said, and tow'rd the Grecian crew Seized by the crest, th' unhappy warrior drew; Struggling he followed, while th' embroidered throng, That tied his helmet dragged the chief along.

Then had his ruin crowned Atrides' joy, But Venus trembled for the Prince of Troy; Unseen she came, and burst the golden band, And left an empty helmet in his hand."

HOMER.

The Greeks claimed the execution of the promise, and in return a Trojan archer sent an arrow which wounded Agamemnon. A general melee ensued, the formidable Diomedes dashed into the midst of the Trojans, wounded Venus, who protected Paris, and struck Mars himself; and Hector, the brave son of Priam was compelled to retire, exhorting the Trojans to supplicate Pallas to withdraw Diomedes from the combat.

After this b.l.o.o.d.y action, in which the G.o.ds themselves had taken part, the two armies engaged in several skirmishes without much advantage on either side. The siege still continued, and the anger of Achilles remained, until his revenge was aroused by the death of Patroclus, his friend, who was slain in battle by Hector.

"Thus by an arm divine and mortal spear Wounded at once, Patroclus yields to fear, Retires for succour to his social train, And flies the fate which Heaven decreed, in vain.

Stern Hector as the bleeding chief he views, Breaks through the ranks, and his retreat pursues: The lance arrests him with a mortal wound; He falls, earth shudders, and his arms resound.

With him all Greece was sunk, that moment all Her yet surviving heroes seemed to fall.

Patroclus thus, so many chiefs o'erthrown, So many lives effused, expires his own."

HOMER.

To avenge the death of his comrade in arms, Achilles conducted the Greeks to the attack. The G.o.ds again mingled in the fight. Hector and Achilles met in fierce combat, and the first fell gloriously. The son of Peleus refused to the Trojans the last and only consolation of thinking that the remains should be given to the aged Priam. He had the cruelty to tie the body to his chariot, and in that way to drag it three times round the city, a sacrifice to the tomb of Patroclus, and the unfortunate Priam was obliged to give a large ransom for the remains of Hector. {237}

"Then his fell soul a thought of vengeance bred, Unworthy of himself and of the dead, The nervous ancles bored, his feet he bound With thongs inserted through the double wound; These fixed up high behind the rolling wain, His graceful head was hauled along the plain.

Proud on his car th' insulting victor stood, And bore aloft his arms distilling blood.

He smites the steeds, the rapid chariot flies; The sudden clouds of circling dust arise.

Now lost is all that formidable air, The face divine and long descending hair, Purple the ground, and streak the sable sand; Deformed, dishonoured, in his native land, Given to the rage of an insulting throng, And in his parents sight now dragged along.

The mother first beheld with sad survey, She rent her tresses venerably gray: And cast far off the regal veils away.

With piercing shriek his bitter fate she moans, While the sad father answers groans with groans; Tears after tears his mournful cheeks o'erflow, And the whole city wears one face of woe."

HOMER.

After this barbarous act, Achilles, led by Destiny, obtained sight of Polyxena, the daughter of Priam, in the temple of Apollo.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

Availing himself of treachery, Paris basely slew him by shooting him in the heel, the only part not rendered invulnerable, by being washed in the river Styx. When Achilles died, the Greeks erected a superb tomb to his memory upon the sh.o.r.es of the h.e.l.lespont, and after the taking of Troy, Polyxena was sacrificed to the manes of Achilles. So glorious had been his arms, that Ajax and Ulysses disputed for them, and they were given to the King of Ithaca {238} which so enraged Ajax that he slew himself, and the blood which flowed from him was turned into a hyacinth.

aeneas, son of Venus and Anchises, took part in all the battles which preceded the fall of his country, and relates the stratagem by which the Greeks gained possession of the city. Repulsed in many a.s.saults, they constructed an enormous horse of wood, and shut up in it the best and bravest of their soldiers. Then pretending to raise the siege, they left it, and embarked, casting anchor near the isle of Tenedos. The Trojans, happy to see their sails retreating from their sh.o.r.es, left their walls to look at the immense machine which remained behind. Some proposed to destroy it. The most superst.i.tious demanded on the contrary, that it should be conducted to the city, and offered to Minerva. Laoc.o.o.n, grand priest of Neptune, in the spirit of prophecy, told them to destroy it, and to doubt the gift of an enemy. Vainly he cried, "fear the Greeks and their gifts!"

They would not listen to him. At this moment a Greek named Sinon was brought before them. This perfidious man said that his brothers in arms, irritated against him, had abandoned him, and that this horse was an offering made by the Greeks, to moderate the anger of Minerva, and to obtain from her a happy return.

In vain did Laoc.o.o.n persist in his a.s.sertion that danger was near, and in vain was he commissioned by the Trojans to offer a bullock to Neptune, to render him propitious.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

During the sacrifice, two enormous serpents issued from the sea, and attacked Laoc.o.o.n's two sons, who stood next to the altar. The father immediately attempted to defend them, but the serpents coiling round him, squeezed him in their complicated wreaths, so that he died in the greatest torture.

[Ill.u.s.tration: The Anger of Priam.]