Tales of Troy: Ulysses the Sacker of Cities

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TALES OF TROY: ULYSSES THE SACKER OF CITIES
by Andrew Lang


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.