It is said that Palamedes was the inventor of weights and measures, and
of the games of chess and backgammon, and that it was he who first
placed sentinels round a camp and gave them a watchword.
There was another of the Greek princes whose help in the Trojan War was
obtained only by an ingenious trick. This was the famous A-chilʹles. He
was the son of Peleus and Thetis, at whose marriage feast Eris threw the
apple of discord on the table. The prophecy that Thetis would have a son
greater than his father was fulfilled in Achilles, the bravest of the
Greeks at the Trojan War, and the principal hero of Homer's Iliad.
Thetis educated her son with great care. She had him instructed in all
the accomplishments fitting for princes of those times. When he was an
infant she dipped him in the river Styx, which, it was believed, made it
impossible for any weapon wielded by mortal hands to wound him. But the
water did not touch the child's heel by which his mother held him when
she plunged him in the river, and it was in this part that he received
the wound of which he died.
Notwithstanding his being dipped in the Styx, Thetis was afraid to let
Achilles go to the Trojan War, for Jupiter had told her that he would be
killed if he took part in it. For this reason, as soon as she heard that
the Grecian princes were gathering their forces, she secretly sent the
youth to the court of Lyc-o-meʹdes, king of the island of Scyʹros. Here
Achilles, dressed like a young girl, resided as a companion of the
king's daughters. But Calʹchas, the soothsayer of the Grecian army, told
the chiefs that without the help of Achilles Troy could not be taken.
Calchas the wise, the Grecian priest and guide,
That sacred seer, whose comprehensive view,
The past, the present, and the future knew.
POPE, _Iliad_, Book I.
Calchas, however, could not tell where Achilles was to be found, and
when they applied to Peleus, he too was unable or unwilling to tell
them. In this difficulty the wily king of Ithaca did good service. After
much inquiry he discovered that Achilles was at Scyros with the king's
daughters. He soon made his way to the island, but here there was a new
difficulty. He had never seen the young prince, and how was he to know
him? But he devised a scheme which proved entirely successful. Equipping
himself as a peddler, he went to the royal palace, exhibiting jewelry
and other fancy articles to attract the attention of the ladies of the
family. He also had some beautiful weapons of war among his wares.
[Illustration: ACHILLES AT THE COURT OF LYCOMEDES.
_Painting by Battoni._]
As soon as he appeared, the maidens gathered about him and began
examining the jewels. But one of the group eagerly seized a weapon, and
handled it with much skill and pleasure. Satisfied that this was the
young prince of whom he was in search, the pretended peddler announced
his name and told why he had come. Achilles, for it was he, gladly
agreed to take part with his countrymen in their great expedition, and
he immediately returned to Phthiʹa, the capital of his father's kingdom
of Thessaly. There he lost no time in making all necessary preparations.
Soon afterwards he sailed for Aulis with the brave Myrʹmi-dons, as his
soldiers were called, accompanied also by his devoted friend and
constant companion, Pa-troʹclus.
Full fifty ships beneath Achilles' care,
The Achaians, Myrmidons, Hellenians bear;
Thessalians all, though various in their name;
The same their nation, and their chief the same.
POPE, _Iliad_, Book II.
Agamemnon, the commander in chief of the great host, sailed with a
hundred ships from his kingdom of Mycenæ, and his brother Menelaus,
eager for vengeance upon the Trojans, sailed with sixty ships and a
strong force of brave Spartans.
Great Agamemnon rules the numerous band,
A hundred vessels in long order stand,
And crowded nations wait his dread command.
High on the deck the king of men appears,
And his refulgent arms in triumph wears;
Proud of his host, unrivall'd in his reign,
In silent pomp he moves along the main.
His brother follows, and to vengeance warms,
The hardy Spartans, exercised in arms:
. . . . . .
These, o'er the bending ocean, Helen's cause,
In sixty ships with Menelaus draws.
POPE, _Iliad_ Book II.
Among the other great warriors of Hellas who joined the expedition was
Nesʹtor, the venerable king of Pyʹlos, distinguished for his eloquence,
wisdom, and prudence.
In ninety sail, from Pylos' sandy coast,
Nestor the sage conducts his chosen host.
POPE, _Iliad_, Book II.
The ancients believed that Nestor outlived three generations of men,
which some suppose to have been three hundred years. From this it was a
custom of the ancient Greeks and Romans, when wishing a long and happy
life to their friends, to wish them to live as long as Nestor.
Experienced Nestor, in persuasion skill'd;
Words, sweet as honey, from his lips distill'd;
Two generations now had pass'd away,
Wise by his rules, and happy by his sway;
Two ages o'er his native realm he reign'd,
And now the example of the third remain'd.
POPE, _Iliad_, Book I.
The two Ajaxes were also renowned warriors of the Grecian army,--Ajax
Telamon and Ajax O-iʹleus, so called from the names of their fathers.
Telamon was the king of Salamis, to whom, as has been told, Hercules
gave Laomedon's daughter, Hesione. His son Ajax, a man of huge stature
and giant strength, was, next to Achilles, the bravest of all the Greeks
who went to the Trojan War.
With these appear the Salaminian bands,
Whom the gigantic Telamon commands;
In twelve black ships to Troy they steer their course,
And with the great Athenians join their force.
POPE, _Iliad_, Book II.
Ajax Oileus, king of Loʹcris, was less in stature than his namesake, but
few excelled him in the use of the spear or in swiftness of foot. He
commanded forty ships in the great expedition.
Fierce Ajax led the Locrian squadrons on,
Ajax the less, Oileus' valiant son;
Skill'd to direct the flying dart aright;
Swift in pursuit, and active in the fight.