After this barbarous act, Achilles, led by Destiny, obtained sight of
Polyxena, the daughter of Priam, in the temple of Apollo.
[Illustration]
Availing himself of treachery, Paris basely slew him by shooting him in the
heel, the only part not rendered invulnerable, by being washed in the river
Styx. When Achilles died, the Greeks erected a superb tomb to his memory
upon the shores of the Hellespont, and after the taking of Troy, Polyxena
was sacrificed to the manes of Achilles. So glorious had been his arms,
that Ajax and Ulysses disputed for them, and they were given to the King of
Ithaca {238} which so enraged Ajax that he slew himself, and the blood
which flowed from him was turned into a hyacinth.
Aeneas, son of Venus and Anchises, took part in all the battles which
preceded the fall of his country, and relates the stratagem by which the
Greeks gained possession of the city. Repulsed in many assaults, they
constructed an enormous horse of wood, and shut up in it the best and
bravest of their soldiers. Then pretending to raise the siege, they left
it, and embarked, casting anchor near the isle of Tenedos. The Trojans,
happy to see their sails retreating from their shores, left their walls to
look at the immense machine which remained behind. Some proposed to destroy
it. The most superstitious demanded on the contrary, that it should be
conducted to the city, and offered to Minerva. Laocoon, grand priest of
Neptune, in the spirit of prophecy, told them to destroy it, and to doubt
the gift of an enemy. Vainly he cried, "fear the Greeks and their gifts!"
They would not listen to him. At this moment a Greek named Sinon was
brought before them. This perfidious man said that his brothers in arms,
irritated against him, had abandoned him, and that this horse was an
offering made by the Greeks, to moderate the anger of Minerva, and to
obtain from her a happy return.
In vain did Laocoon persist in his assertion that danger was near, and in
vain was he commissioned by the Trojans to offer a bullock to Neptune, to
render him propitious.
[Illustration]
During the sacrifice, two enormous serpents issued from the sea, and
attacked Laocoon's two sons, who stood next to the altar. The father
immediately attempted to defend them, but the serpents coiling round him,
squeezed him in their complicated wreaths, so that he died in the greatest
torture.
[Illustration: The Anger of Priam.]
{239}
--------"By Scamander when Laocoon stood,
Where Troy's proud turrets glittered in the flood,
Raised high his arm and with prophetic call
To shrinking realms announced her fated fall;
Whirled his fierce spear with more than mortal force,
And pierced the thick ribs of the echoing horse;
Two serpent forms incumbent on the main
Lashing the white waves with their redundant train,
Arched their blue necks, and shook their towering crests,
And ploughed their foamy way with speckled breasts;
Then, darting fierce amid the affrighted throngs,
Rolled their red eyes, and shot their forked tongues.--
--Two daring youths to guard the hoary sire,
Thwart their dread progress, and provoke their ire,
Round sire and sons the scaly monsters rolled,
Ring above ring in many a tangled fold,
Close and more close their writhing limbs surround,
And fix with foamy teeth the envenomed wound.
With brow upturned to Heaven the holy sage
In silent agony sustains their rage;
While each fond youth, in vain, with piercing cries
Bends on the tortured Sire his dying eyes."