The Trojans following the advice of Sinon, beat down part of the wall to
make an entrance for the horse into the city; they then celebrated the
deliverance of their country with feasts and festivals.
Aided by the darkness of night the Greek ships left Tenedos and set sail
with all haste towards Troy. Their soldiers disembarked, and penetrated
through the breach which had been made to admit the horse. At the same time
the warriors that were hidden within the colossal structure appeared,
spreading slaughter and devastation all over the city. Aeneas awoke, put on
his arms, and ran to the palace of Priam, in time to see, but not to save,
the aged monarch, his daughters, and his sons, from falling beneath the
edge of the sword.
He then sought to rally the Trojans, and make head against the {240} enemy,
but when he abandoned himself to feelings of grief and rage at not being
able, his mother made known to him the uselessness of his efforts.
[Illustration]
Aeneas followed the council of Venus. He awoke his father Anchises, placed
the old man on his shoulders, took the young Ascanius, his son, by the
hand, and led him away from the tumult, giving him in charge to Creusa, his
wife, telling her to follow closely, and not to leave him. The unfortunate
woman, however, lost sight of him, and was put to death by the Greeks.
After a vain search to find Creusa, the hero joined the Trojans that
survived, and all retired to mount Ida, where they constructed a fleet of
twenty vessels, in which they set sail, endeavouring to find out a new
country.
The conquerors razed Troy to the ground, and divided the plunder. The
widows and daughters of the Trojan princes who were left behind, were
obliged to remain in the country. Several of them, famed for beauty,
inspired their masters with passions which manifested themselves in
quarrels, finishing by many a bloody catastrophe. Among this number was
Andromache, widow of Hector, and mother of Astyanax. She fell to the share
of {241} Neoptolemus, but though she conceived an aversion for him, the
widow of Hector promised her hand to him, on condition that he would save
the life of her son, which was menaced by the Greeks: and accompanied into
Epirus the ambassadors sent to claim from Pyrrhus the last scion of a
foeman's race; Orestes, the ambassador, explained to the king the object of
his mission, he was met by a stern refusal, which so irritated the warrior,
that he stabbed Pyrrhus for attempting that which he designated a base
treason.
[Illustration]
Following the fortunes of Ulysses--scarcely had he quitted the Phrygian
shores, than he and his companions became the sport of Neptune and Juno,
and a crowd of miseries beset them. At length, after a thousand reverses on
the seas, a tempest precipitated his vessel on a rock, he saved himself on
a floating wreck, and was driven by the waves towards the shores of the
isle of the Phaeacians. He saw on the shores the beautiful Nausica, who
took him to King Alcinous, her father, from whom he received every
hospitality. At the end of the repast to which he had been invited, he
related his wonderful adventures.
He told of his arrival in the country of the Lotophagi, people who lived on
lotos, and of the frightful dangers he encountered in the isle of Cyclops.
"The land of Cyclops first, a savage kind,
Nor tamed by manner, nor by laws confined:
Untaught to plant, to turn the glebe and sow;
They all their products to free nature owe.
The soil untill'd a ready harvest yields,
With wheat and barley wave the golden fields,
{242}
Spontaneous wines from weighty clusters pour,
And Jove descends in each prolific shower.
By these no statutes and no rights are known,
No council held, no monarch fills the throne.
But high on hills, or airy cliffs, they dwell,
Or deep in caves whose entrance leads to hell.
Each rules his race, his neighbour not his care,
Heedless of others, to his own severe."