3. Either concubines recognised as in a position wholly subordinate, or
women who were in no permanent relation of any kind with Priam.
Beyond the case of Priam, we have slender means of ascertaining the
usages and ideas of marriage among the Trojans. We have Andromache,
wife of Hector; Helen, a sort of wife to Paris; Theano, wife to
Antenor, and priestess of Minerva; who also took charge of and brought
up his illegitimate son Pedæus[448]. The manner in which this is
mentioned, as a favour to her husband, certainly shows that the mark
of bastardy was not wholly overlooked, even in Troy. But, besides this
Pedæus, we meet in different places of the Iliad no less than ten
other sons of Antenor, all, I think, within the fighting age. This is
not demonstrative, but it raises a presumption that some of them were
probably the sons of other wives than Theano; who is twice described as
Theano of the blooming cheeks, and can hardly therefore be supposed to
have reached a very advanced period of life[449].
[448] Il. v. 71.
[449] Il. vii. 298. xi. 224.
But it is clear from the important case of Priam, even if it stands
alone, that among the Trojans no shame attaches to the plurality of
wives, or to having many illegitimate children, the birth of various
mothers. It is possible that the manners of Troy, with regard to
polygamy, were at this time the same (unless as to the reason given,)
with those which Tacitus ascribes to the Germans of his own day:
_Singulis uxoribus contenti sunt; exceptis admodum paucis, qui, non
libidine, sed ob nobilitatem, plurimis nuptiis ambiuntur_[450]. We
must add to this, that Paris, in detaining as his wife the spouse of
another man still living, does an act of which we have no example,
to which we find no approximation, in the Greek manners of the time.
Its significance is increased, when we find that after his death she
is given to Deiphobus: for this further union alters the individual
trait into one which is national. Her Greek longings, as well as her
remorse for the surrender of her honour to Paris, afford the strongest
presumption that the arrangement could hardly have been adopted
to meet her own inclination; and that it must have been made for
her without her choice, as a matter of supposed family or political
convenience.
[450] Tac. Germ. c. 18.
We seem therefore to be justified in concluding that, as singleness
did not enter essentially into the Trojan idea of marriage, so neither
did the bond with them either possess or even approximate to the
character of indissolubility. The difference is very remarkable between
the horror which attaches to the first crime of Ægisthus in Greece,
the corruption of Clytemnestra, though it was analogous to the act of
Paris, and the indifference of the Trojans to the offence committed
by their own prince. We have no means indeed of knowing directly how
Ægisthus was regarded by the Greeks around him, during the period
which preceded the return and murder of Agamemnon. But we find that
Jupiter, in the Olympian Court, distinctly describes his adultery as a
substantive part of his sin[451];
[451] Od. i. 35.
ὡς καὶ νῦν Αἴγισθος ὑπέρμορον Ἀτρείδαο
γῆμ’ ἄλοχον μνηστὴν, τὸν δ’ ἔκτανε νοστήσαντα.
And I think we may rest assured, that Jupiter never would give
utterance on Olympus to any rule of matrimonial morality, higher than
that which was observed among the Greeks on earth.
So again, it was a specific part of the offence of the Suitors in
the Odyssey, that they sought to wed Penelope while her husband was
alive[452]; that is to say, before his death was ascertained, though it
was really not extravagant to presume that it had occurred.
[452] Od. xxii. 37.
~_Stricter ideas among the Greeks._~
From both these instances, and more especially from the last, we must,
I think, reasonably conclude that the moral code of Greece was far
more adverse to the act of Paris, considered as an offence against
matrimonial laws, than the corresponding rule in Troy.
In connection with this topic, we may notice, how Homer has overspread
the Dardanid family, at the epoch of the war as well as in former
times, with redundance of personal beauty. Of Paris we are prepared
to hear it as a matter of course; but Hector has also the εἶδος
ἀγητόν[453]; and, even in his old age, the ὄψις ἀγαθὴ of Priam was
admired by Achilles[454]. Deiphobus again is called θεοείκελος and
θεοειδὴς[455], and on two of Priam’s daughters severally does Homer
bestow the praise of being each the most beautiful[456] among them
all. With this was apparently connected, in many of them, effeminacy,
as well as insolence and falseness of character; for we must suppose
a groundwork of truth in the wrathful invective of their father, who
describes his remaining sons as (Il. xxiv. 261.)
[453] Il. xxii. 370.
[454] Il. xxiv. 632.
[455] Il. xii. 94. and Od. iv. 276. See also the case of Euphorbus, Il.
xvii. 51.
[456] The sense of ἄριστος in Homer, though emphatic, is not absolute.
ψευσταί τ’ ὀρχησταί τε, χοροιτυπίῃσιν ἄριστοι,
ἀρνῶν ἠδ’ ἐρίφων ἐπιδήμιοι ἁρπακτῆρες.
An invective, which completely corresponds with the Greek belief
concerning their general character in the Third Book[457]. The great
Greek heroes are also beautiful; but their mere beauty, particularly in
the Iliad, is for the most part kept carefully in the shade.
[457] Il. iii. 106.
~_Trojan polity less highly organized._~
We will turn now to the political institutions of Troy. Less advanced
towards organization, and of a less firm tone than in Greece, they will
help to explain how it could happen that a people should bear prolonged
calamity and constant defeat, and could pass on to final ruin, for the
wicked and wanton wrong of an individual prince.
It has been noticed, that the idea of hereditary succession was
definite, as well as familiar, in Greece. In Troy it appears to have
been less so. And this is certainly what we might expect from the
recognition in any form, however qualified, of polygamy. It tends to
confound the position of any one wife, although supposed supreme, with
that of others; and in confounding the order of succession, as among
the issue of different wives, it altogether breaks up the simplicity of
the rule of primogeniture.
And again, if, as we shall presently see, the Trojan race had a less
developed capacity for political organization, they would be less
likely to establish a clear rule and practice of succession, which is
a primary element of political order in well-governed countries.
The evidence as to the Asiatic rule of inheritance is, I admit,
indirect and scanty: nor do I attempt to place what I have now to offer
in a rank higher than that of probable conjecture.
1. Sarpedon was clearly leader of the Lycians, with some kind of
precedence over Glaucus.
The general tenour of the poem clearly gives this impression. He speaks
and acts as the person principally responsible[458]. But by birth he
was inferior to Glaucus; for he was the grandson of Bellerophon only
in the female line through Laodamia, while Glaucus stood alone in the
male line through Hippolochus. I do not venture to rely much on the
mere order of the names; and therefore I do not press the fact, which
indeed is not needed for the argument, that it makes Laodamia junior
to Hippolochus. It will be said that Sarpedon was in chief command,
because he was of superior merit. But among the Greeks we have no
instance in which superior merit gives preeminence as against birth.
And the reputation of divine origin clearly could not put aside the
prior right of succession.
[458] See Il. v. 482.
Again, both Sarpedon and Glaucus are both expressly called
βασιλῆες[459], kings. Now, they were first cousins, and they belonged
to the same kingdom. Hippolochus was perhaps still alive[460]; for
he gave Glaucus a parting charge, and his death is not mentioned. In
Greece we find the heir apparent called king, namely, Achilles: but
the title is never given to more than one person standing in the line
of succession. A possible explanation, I think, is, that the Lycian
kingdom had been divided[461]: but if this be not so, then the use of
the term seems to prove that in Asia all the children of the common
ancestor stood, or might stand, upon the same footing by birth: and as
if it was left to other causes, instead of to a definite and single
rule, to determine who should succeed to the throne.
[459] Il. xii. 319.
[460] Il. vi. 207.
[461] Il. vi. 193.
2. In a former part of this work[462], I have stated reasons for
supposing that Æneas represented the elder branch of the house of
Dardanus. But, whether he did so or not, it is sufficiently clear from
the Iliad that he was not without pretensions to the succession. The
dignity of his father Anchises is marked by his remaining at Dardania,
and not appearing in the court of Priam. Æneas habitually abstains
from attending the meetings or assemblies for consultation, in which
Priam, where they are civil, and Hector, where they are military,
takes the lead. Achilles taunts him expressly with looking forward to
the succession after the death of Priam, and with the anticipation of
public lands which he was to get from the Trojans forthwith, if he
could but slay the great Greek warrior. The particular succession, to
which the taunt refers, is marked out; it is the dominion, not over the
mere Dardanians, but over the Τρῶες ἱππόδαμοι[463]. In following down
the genealogy, Æneas does not adhere to either of the two lines (from
Ilus and Assaracus respectively) throughout, as senior, and therefore
supreme; but, after putting the line of Ilus first in the earlier part
of the chain, he places his own birth from Anchises before that of
Hector from Priam.
[462] On the ἄναξ ἀνδρῶν, see Achæis, sect. ix.
[463] xx. 180.
Apart from the question _which_ was the older line, the effect of all
these particulars, taken together, is to show an indeterminateness
in the rule of succession, of which we have no indication among the
Greeks. Even the incidental notice of the right of Priam to give it
to Æneas, if he pleased, is as much without example in anything Homer
tells us of the Greek manners, as the corresponding power conferred by
the Parliament on the Crown in the Tudor period was at variance with
the general analogies of English history and institutions.
~_Succession to the Throne of Priam._~
3. The third case before us is one in the family of Priam itself. It
appears extremely doubtful whether we can, upon the authority of the
poems, confidently mark out one of his sons as having been the eldest,
or as standing on that account in the line of succession to the throne
of Priam. The evidence, so far as it goes, seems rather to point to
Paris; while the question lies between him and Hector.
Theocritus[464] indeed calls Hector the eldest of the twenty children
of Hecuba. But this is an opinion, not an authority; and the number
named shows it to be unlikely that he was thinking of historic
accuracy, for Homer says, Hecuba had nineteen sons, while she had also
several daughters[465].
[464] Idyll. xv. 139.
[465] Il. xxiv. 496. vi. 252.
There can be no doubt whatever, that Hector was the most conspicuous
person, the most considerable champion of the city. He was charged
exclusively with the direction of the war, and with the regulation of
the supplies necessary to feed the force of Trojans and of allies.
Polydamas, who so often takes a different view of affairs, and
Sarpedon, when having a complaint to make, alike apply to him. Æneas
is the only person who appears upon the field in the same rank with
him, and he stands in a position wholly distinct from the family of
Priam. As among the members of that family, there can be no doubt of
the preeminence of Hector. He was, indeed, in actual exercise of the
heaviest part of the duties of sovereignty. Æneas, in the genealogy,
finishes the line of Assaracus with himself; and, to all appearance,
as not less a matter of course, the line of Ilus with Hector[466].
Again, the name Astuanax, conferred by the people on his son, appears
to show that the crown was to come to him. But all this in no degree
answers the question, whether Hector held his position as probable
king-designate by birth, or whether it was rather due to his personal
qualities, and his great and unshared responsibilities and exertions.
There are several circumstances, which may lead us to incline towards
the latter alternative.
[466] Il. xx. 240.
(1.) When his parents and widow bewail his loss, it is the loss of
their great defender and chief glory[467], not of one who by death had
vacated the place of known successor to the sovereignty.
[467] Il. xxii. 56, 433, 507. xxiv. 29.
(2.) Had Hector been by birth assured of the seat of Priam, his right
would have been sufficient cause for giving to his son at once the
name of Astuanax. But this we are told the people did for the express
reason, that Hector was the only real bulwark of Troy. It seems
unlikely that in such a case his character as heir by birth would have
been wholly passed by. The name, therefore, appears to suggest, that it
was by proving himself the bulwark of the throne that Hector had become
as it were the presumptive heir to it[468].
[468] Il. vi. 402, and xxii. 506.
When Hector takes his child in his arms, he prays, on the infant’s
behalf, that he may become, like himself[469],
[469] Il. vi. 477.
ἀριπρεπέα Τρώεσσιν,
ὧδε βίην τ’ ἀγαθὸν, καὶ Ἰλίου ἶφι ἀνάσσειν·
that is, that he may become distinguished and valiant, and may mightily
rule over the Trojans. This seems to point to succession by virtue of
personal qualities rather than of birth.
~_Paris most probably the eldest-born._~
There are also signs that Paris, and not Hector, may have been the
eldest son of Priam, and may have had that feebler inchoate title to
succession, which, in the day of necessity, his brother’s superior
courage and character was to set aside.
This supposition accords better with the fact of his having had
influence sufficient to cause the refusal of the original demand for
the restitution of Helen, peacefully made by the Greek embassy; and the
endurance of so much evil by his country on his behalf.
It explains the fact of his having had a palace to himself on Pergamus;
a distinction which he shared with Hector only[470], for the married
sons as well as daughters of Priam in general slept in apartments
within the palace of their father[471]. And also it accords with his
original expedition, which was evidently an affair of great pains and
cost; and with his being plainly next in military rank to Hector among
the sons of Priam.
[470] Il. vi. 313, 317, 370.
[471] Ibid. 242-50.
Further, it would explain the fact, otherwise very difficult to deal
with, that alone among the children of Priam, Paris or Alexander is
honoured with the significant title of βασιλεύς. Helenus is called
ἄναξ, and Hector ποίμην λαῶν, but neither expression is of the same
rank, or has a similar effect. This exclusive application of the term
βασιλεὺς is a very strong piece of evidence, if, as I believe to be
the case, it is nowhere else applied in the Iliad to a person thus
selected, without indicating either the possession, or the hereditary
expectancy of a throne.
And indeed, even if we could show that Homer had applied the name
βασιλεὺς to two brothers in one family, the result would be the
same, as far as the main argument is concerned, for there is no such
pronounced mark of equality found among brothers in any of the royal
families of Greece.
Again; in considering the law of succession among the Greeks, we have
found four cases in the Catalogue, where contingents were placed under
the command of two leaders seemingly co-ordinate; they are in every
instance brothers, and the four dual commands occur in a total of
twenty-nine. Or let us state the case in another form, so as to include
the cases of Bœotia and Elis. Among sixteen Trojan contingents, there
are but six where the chief authority is plainly in a single hand; out
of twenty-nine Greek contingents, there are twenty-three, and, of the
remaining six, four are the cases of brothers. This fact is material,
as tending to show a looser and less effective military organization in
the ranks of the Trojans and their allies, than in those of the Greeks;
a circumstance which does not prove, but which harmonizes with, the
hypothesis that they were wanting also in a defined order of succession
to the seat of political power.
There are other reasons, immediately connected with Hector, for
supposing that Homer intended to represent Paris as older than his
brother[472]. Paris had been in manhood for at least twenty years,
according to the letter of the poem, which must at least represent a
long period of time. But Hector has one child only, a babe in arms,
which is in itself a presumption of his being less advanced in life.
Again, we must suppose his age probably to be not very different from
that of Andromache. But it is quite plain that she was a young mother;
since after the slaughter of Eetion, her father, Achilles shortly
took a ransom for her mother, who thereupon went back to the house of
her own father, Andromache’s maternal grandfather, and subsequently
died there[473]. If then the grandfather of Andromache was alive when
Thebe was taken, and Hector’s age was in due proportion to her own,
he must in all likelihood have been younger than Paris. Again, it may
be noticed that the term ἥβη is nowhere ascribed to Paris, but it is
assigned to Hector at his death[474]. Notwithstanding its complimentary
use for Ulysses in Od. viii. 135, that word has a certain leaning to
early life. But we have a stronger, and indeed I think a conclusive
argument in the speech of Andromache after his death[475];
[472] Il. xxiv. 765.
[473] Il. vi. 426-8.
[474] Il. xxii. 363.
[475] Il. xxiv. 725.
ἆνερ, ἀπ’ αἰῶνος νέος ὤλεο.
Thus he is distinctly called young. And we may consider it almost
certain, under these circumstances, that Paris was the first-born son
of Priam[476], but that his right of succession oozed away like water
from a man’s hand.
[476] Possibly Horace meant to convey this opinion in the words _Quid
Paris? ut salvus regnet, vivatque beatus, Cogi posse negat_. Epist. I.
ii. 10.
The relations of race between the Trojans and the Greeks have already
been examined, in connection with the great Homeric title of ἄναξ
ἀνδρῶν[477]; under some difficulties, which resolve themselves into
this, that Homer, on almost every subject so luminous a guide, is in
all likelihood here, as it were, retained on the side of silence; and
that we have no information, except such as he accidentally lets fall.
But he was under no such preoccupation with regard to the institutions
of Troy; so that, while he had no occasion for the same amount of
detail as he has given us with reference to the Greeks, or the same
minute accuracy as he has there observed, enough appears to supply a
tolerably clear and consistent outline.
[477] Achæis, sect. ix. p. 492.
We have been accustomed too negligently to treat the Homeric term Troy,
as if it designated only or properly a single city. But in Homer it
much more commonly means a country, with the city sometimes called Troy
for its capital, and containing many other cities beside it. The proper
name, however, of the city in the poems is Ἴλιος, not Τροίη. Ilios
is used above an hundred and twenty times in the Iliad and Odyssey,
and always strictly means the city. The word Τροίη is used nearly
ninety times, and in the great majority of cases it means the country.
Often it has the epithets εὐρεῖα, ἐρίβωλος, ἐριβώλαξ, which speak for
themselves. But more commonly it is without an epithet; and then too it
very generally means the country. When the Greeks speak, for example,
of the voyage Τροίηνδε, this is the natural sense, rather than to
suppose it means a city not on the sea shore, and into which, till the
end of the siege, they did not find their way at all[478].
[478] One only of the epithets of the word Ilios seems to point out
that it may too mean the district. It is εὔπωλος, used Il. v. 551, and
in four other places.
~_Priam and his dynasty in Troas._~
According to the genealogical tree in the Twentieth Iliad, Dardanus
built Dardania among the mountains: his son Erichthonius became
wealthy by possessions in the plain; and Tros, the son of Erichthonius,
was the real founder of the Trojan state and name[479].
[479] Il. xx. 230.
Τρῶα δ’ Ἐριχθόνιος τέκετο Τρώεσσιν ἄνακτα.
Thus the name of Troes at that time covered the whole race. But the
town of Ilios must, from its name, have been built not earlier than
the time of Ilus, the son of Tros. And now the dynasty separates into
two lines, as Assaracus, the brother of Ilus, continues to reign in
Dardania. Thus the local existence of the Dardanian name is prolonged;
for it is plain that the Dardanian throne was associated, at least in
dignity, with a rival, and not a subordinate, sovereignty. Still it
does not extend beyond the hills. It was over these that Æneas fled
from Achilles[480]. But even the Dardanians did not wholly cease to be
known by the appellation of Trojans; for not only does Homer frequently
use the dominant name Troes for the entire force opposed to the Greeks,
which is naming the whole from the principal part, but he also uses the
word Troes to signify all that part of the force, which was under the
house of Dardanus in either branch; and he distinguishes this portion
from the rest of the force described under the name ἐπίκουροι, at the
opening of the Trojan Catalogue:
[480] Ibid. 189.
ἔνθα τότε Τρῶές τε διέκριθεν, ἠδ’ ἐπίκουροι[481].
[481] Il. ii. 815. So likewise Il. vi. 111. xiii. 755. xvii. 14. xviii.
229.
This line is followed by an account of the whole force opposed to the
Greeks, in sixteen divisions. Of these the eleven last bear each their
own national name, beginning with the Pelasgians of Larissa, and ending
with the Lycians; and they are under leaders, whom the whole course
of the poem marks as not being Trojan, but independent. These eleven
evidently were the ἐπίκουροι of ver. 815.
The five first contingents are introduced and commanded as follows: