Still enraged at their former ill-treatment of him, Philoctetes at first
refused the request of the two chiefs. Their mission would have failed
had not Hercules appeared to him in a dream and advised him to go to
Troy, telling him that his wound would be healed by the famous Machaon.
He then gladly went with Ulysses and Diomede. On his arrival at the
Grecian camp the great physician cured him by casting him into a deep
sleep and cutting away the diseased flesh from the injured foot. He
awoke in perfect health and strength, and at once joined his countrymen
in the war, resolved to make good use of his fatal arrows.
An opportunity soon offered, for the Trojans now began again to venture
out in the open plain, thinking that the Greeks were not so dangerous
since the terrible Achilles was no longer at their head. Their new
general in chief was Paris, and Philoctetes, happening to encounter him
in battle, aimed at him with one of his poisoned arrows and pierced him
through the shoulder. Paris was immediately carried back to the city,
suffering intense pain, for the poison quickly began to take effect.
Then at last the thoughts of Paris turned to the fair Œnone, whom,
twenty years before, he had left in sorrow and loneliness on Mount Ida.
He remembered her words, that he would one day have recourse to her for
help. Hoping, therefore, that she might take pity on him, and perhaps
cure him of his wound, for she had been instructed in medicine by
Apollo, he ordered his attendants to carry him to where she still dwelt
on the slopes of Ida. Œnone had not forgotten his cruel desertion of
her, and so she refused to use her skill in his behalf. But when she
heard that he was dead, she came down to Troy, and in her grief threw
herself on his funeral pyre, and perished by his side.
She rose, and slowly down,
By the long torrent's ever-deepen'd roar,
Paced, following, as in trance, the silent cry.
. . . . . . .
Then moving quickly forward till the heat
Smote on her brow, she lifted up a voice
Of shrill command, "Who burns upon the pyre?"
Whereon their oldest and their boldest said,
"He whom thou wouldst not heal!" and all at once
The morning light of happy marriage broke
Thro' all the clouded years of widowhood,
And muffling up her comely head, and crying
"Husband!" she leapt upon the funeral pile,
And mixt herself with him and past in fire.
TENNYSON, _Death of Œnone_.
Meanwhile the Ithacan king, not forgetting the other conditions
mentioned by Helenus, set sail for the island of Scyros, where the son
of Achilles resided. His name was Pyrʹrhus, or Ne-op-tolʹ-mus, and, as
he was a brave youth, he rejoiced at having an opportunity of fighting
the Trojans, by whom his father had been killed. Ulysses gave him his
father's armor, and by many heroic deeds in the war he proved that he
was worthy to wear it.
The Palladium was now to be carried off from Troy, and this was a task
by no means easy to perform. But the man of many arts succeeded in
accomplishing it. Putting on the garments of a beggar, and scourging his
body so as to leave marks, he went to the Scæan Gate, and entreated the
guards to admit him. He told them that he was a Greek slave, and that he
wished to escape from his master who had cruelly ill-used him. The
guards, believing his story, permitted him to enter the city.
"He had given himself
Unseemly stripes, and o'er his shoulders flung
Vile garments like a slave's, and entered thus
The enemy's town, and walked its spacious streets.
Another man he seemed in that disguise.--
A beggar, though when at the Achaian fleet
So different was the semblance that he wore.
He entered Ilium thus transformed, and none
Knew who it was that passed."
BRYANT, _Odyssey_, Book IV.
But Helen, happening to pass by at a place near the king's palace, where
the pretended beggar sat down to rest, immediately recognized him. He
made a sign to her to keep silent, thinking that Paris being now dead,
Helen perhaps was friendly to the Greeks, and wished them to take Troy,
so that she might return to her own country. In this Ulysses was right,
as very soon appeared, and as Helen declared years afterwards, when
telling to his own son, Telemachus, the story of the Ithacan king's
adventure within the walls of Troy.
"For I already longed
For my old home, and deeply I deplored
The evil fate that Venus brought on me,
Who led me thither from my own dear land."
BRYANT, _Odyssey_, Book IV.
Helen passed on without uttering a word, but in the evening she sent one
of her maids to bring Ulysses secretly to her apartment in the palace.
There she expressed her joy at meeting her countryman, and after
hospitably entertaining him, she listened with pleasure to his plans.
She then told him of the plans of the Trojans, and where and how the
Palladium was to be got. Having thus obtained the information he
desired, Ulysses contrived to make his way back unobserved to the Greek
camp. In a few days he returned, accompanied by Diomede. They got into
the city by scaling the walls, and Diomede, climbing on the shoulders of
Ulysses, entered the citadel. Here, by following the directions given by
Helen, he found the famous statue, and he and his companion carried it
off to their friends at the ships, who rejoiced at the success of the
undertaking.
Troy was now no longer under the protection of Pallas Minerva. Though
that goddess helped the Greeks in their battles, she was obliged to
save the city itself while it contained her sacred statue. But the
Palladium being no longer within the walls, she was now at liberty to
help the Greeks to capture and destroy the city. She therefore put into
the mind of Ulysses the idea of the wooden horse, and she instructed the
Greek chief E-peʹus how to make it. This horse was of vast size, large
enough to contain about a hundred men, for it was hollow within.
By Minerva's aid, a fabric reared,
Which like a steed of monstrous height appeared;
The sides were flanked with pine.