[Illustration: _Design by Burne-Jones._]
That part of Asia Minor which borders the narrow channel now known as
the Dar-da-nellesʹ, was in ancient times called Troʹas. Its capital was
the city of Troy, which stood about three miles from the shore of the
Æ-geʹan Sea, at the foot of Mount Ida, near the junction of two rivers,
the Simʹo-is, and the Sca-manʹder or Xanʹthus. The people of Troy and
Troas were called Trojans.
Some of the first settlers in northwestern Asia Minor, before it was
called Troas, came from Thrace, a country lying to the north of Greece.
The king of these Thraʹcian colonists was Teuʹcer. During his reign a
prince named Darʹdanus arrived in the new settlement. He was a son of
Jupiter, and he came from Samʹo-thrace, one of the many islands of the
Ægean Sea. It is said that he escaped from a great flood which swept
over his native island, and that he was carried on a raft of wood to the
coast of the kingdom of Teucer. Soon afterwards he married Teucer's
daughter. He then built a city for himself amongst the hills of Mount
Ida, and called it Dar-daʹni-a; and on the death of Teucer he became
king of the whole country, to which he gave the same name, Dardania.
Jove was the father, cloud-compelling Jove,
Of Dardanus, by whom Dardania first
Was peopled, ere our sacred Troy was built
On the great plain,--a populous town; for men
Dwelt still upon the roots of Ida fresh
With Qiany springs.
BRYANT, _Iliad_, Book XX.
Dardanus was the ancestor of the Trojan line of kings. He had a grandson
named Tros, and from him the city Troy, as well as the country Troas,
took its name. The successor of King Tros was his son Iʹlus. By him Troy
was built, and it was therefore also called Ilʹi-um or Ilʹi-on; hence
the title of Homer's great poem,--the Iliad. From the names Dardanus
and Teucer the city of Troy has also been sometimes called Dardania and
Teuʹcri-a, and the Trojans are often referred to as Dardanians and
Teucrians. Ilus was succeeded by his son La-omʹe-don, and Laomedon's son
Priʹam was king of Troy during the famous siege.
The story of the founding of Troy is a very interesting one. Ilus went
forth from his father's city of Dardania, in search of adventures, as
was the custom of young princes and heroes in those days; and he
traveled on until he arrived at the court of the king of Phrygʹi-a, a
country lying east of Troas. Here he found the people engaged in
athletic games, at which the king gave valuable prizes for competition.
Ilus took part in a wrestling match, and he won fifty young men and
fifty maidens,--a strange sort of prize we may well think, but not at
all strange or unusual in ancient times, when there were many slaves
everywhere. During his stay in Phrygia the young Dardanian prince was
hospitably entertained at the royal palace. When he was about to depart,
the king gave him a spotted heifer, telling him to follow the animal,
and to build a city for himself at the place where she should first lie
down to rest.
Ilus did as he was directed. With his fifty youths and fifty maidens he
set out to follow the heifer, leaving her free to go along at her
pleasure. She marched on for many miles, and at last lay down at the
foot of Mount Ida on a beautiful plain watered by two rivers, and here
Ilus encamped for the night. Before going to sleep he prayed to Jupiter
to send him a sign that that was the site meant for his city. In the
morning he found standing in front of his tent a wooden statue of the
goddess Minerva, also called Pallas. The figure was three cubits high.
In its right hand it held a spear, and in the left, a distaff and
spindle.
This was the Pal-laʹdi-um of Troy, which afterwards became very famous.
The Trojans believed that it had been sent down from heaven, and that
the safety of their city depended upon its preservation. Hence it was
guarded with the greatest care in a temple specially built for the
purpose.
Ilus, being satisfied that the statue was the sign for which he had
prayed, immediately set about building his city, and thus Troy was
founded. It soon became the capital of Troas and the richest and most
powerful city in that part of the world. During the reign of Laomedon,
son of Ilus, its mighty walls were erected, which in the next reign
withstood for ten years all the assaults of the Greeks. These walls were
the work of no human hands. They were built by the ocean god Neptune.
This god had conspired against Jupiter and attempted to dethrone him,
and, as a punishment, his kingdom of the sea was taken away from him for
one year, and he was ordered to spend that time in the service of the
king of Troy.
In building the great walls, Neptune was assisted by Apollo, who had
also been driven from Olympus for an offense against Jupiter. Apollo had
a son named Æs-cu-laʹpi-us, who was so skilled a physician that he
could, and did, raise people from death to life. Jupiter was very angry
at this. He feared that men might forget him and worship Æsculapius. He
therefore hurled a thunderbolt at the great physician and killed him.
Enraged at the death of his son, Apollo threatened to destroy the
Cyclops, the giant workmen of Vulcan, who had forged the terrible
thunderbolt. Before he could carry out his threat, however, Jupiter
expelled him from heaven. He remained on earth for several years, after
which he was permitted to return to his place among the gods on the top
of Mount Olympus.
[Illustration: NEPTUNE.
_National Museum, Athens._]
Though Neptune was bound to serve Laomedon for one year, there was an
agreement between them that the god should get a certain reward for
building the walls. But when the work was finished the Trojan king
refused to keep his part of the bargain. Apollo had assisted by his
powers of music. He played such tunes that he charmed even the huge
blocks of stone, so that they moved themselves into their proper places,
after Neptune had wrenched them from the mountain sides and had hewn
them into shape. Moreover, Apollo had taken care of Laomedon's numerous
flocks on Mount Ida. During the siege, Neptune, in a conversation with
Apollo before the walls of Troy, spoke of their labors in the service of
the Trojan king:
"Hast thou forgot, how, at the monarch's prayer,
We shared the lengthen'd labors of a year?
Troy walls I raised (for such were Jove's commands),
And yon proud bulwarks grew beneath my hands:
Thy task it was to feed the bellowing droves
Along fair Ida's vales and pendant groves."
POPE, _Iliad_, Book XXI.
Long before this, however, the two gods had punished Laomedon very
severely for breaking his promise. Apollo, after being restored to
heaven, sent a plague upon the city of Troy, and Neptune sent up from
the sea an enormous serpent which killed many of the people.
A great serpent from the deep,
Lifting his horrible head above their homes,
Devoured the children.