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HOW ULYSSES INVENTED THE DEVICE OF THE HORSE OF TREE
After Paris died, Helen was not given back to Menelaus. We are often
told that only fear of the anger of Paris had prevented the Trojans from
surrendering Helen and making peace. Now Paris could not terrify them,
yet for all that the men of the town would not part with Helen, whether
because she was so beautiful, or because they thought it dishonourable to
yield her to the Greeks, who might put her to a cruel death. So Helen
was taken by Deiphobus, the brother of Paris, to live in his own house,
and Deiphobus was at this time the best warrior and the chief captain of
the men of Troy.
Meanwhile, the Greeks made an assault against the Trojan walls and fought
long and hardily; but, being safe behind the battlements, and shooting
through loopholes, the Trojans drove them back with loss of many of their
men. It was in vain that Philoctetes shot his poisoned arrows, they fell
back from the stone walls, or stuck in the palisades of wood above the
walls, and the Greeks who tried to climb over were speared, or crushed
with heavy stones. When night fell, they retreated to the ships and held
a council, and, as usual, they asked the advice of the prophet Calchas.
It was the business of Calchas to go about looking at birds, and taking
omens from what he saw them doing, a way of prophesying which the Romans
also used, and some savages do the same to this day. Calchas said that
yesterday he had seen a hawk pursuing a dove, which hid herself in a hole
in a rocky cliff. For a long while the hawk tried to find the hole, and
follow the dove into it, but he could not reach her. So he flew away for
a short distance and hid himself; then the dove fluttered out into the
sunlight, and the hawk swooped on her and killed her.
The Greeks, said Calchas, ought to learn a lesson from the hawk, and take
Troy by cunning, as by force they could do nothing. Then Ulysses stood
up and described a trick which it is not easy to understand. The Greeks,
he said, ought to make an enormous hollow horse of wood, and place the
bravest men in the horse. Then all the rest of the Greeks should embark
in their ships and sail to the Isle of Tenedos, and lie hidden behind the
island. The Trojans would then come out of the city, like the dove out
of her hole in the rock, and would wander about the Greek camp, and
wonder why the great horse of tree had been made, and why it had been
left behind. Lest they should set fire to the horse, when they would
soon have found out the warriors hidden in it, a cunning Greek, whom the
Trojans did not know by sight, should be left in the camp or near it. He
would tell the Trojans that the Greeks had given up all hope and gone
home, and he was to say that they feared the Goddess Pallas was angry
with them, because they had stolen her image that fell from heaven, and
was called the Luck of Troy. To soothe Pallas and prevent her from
sending great storms against the ships, the Trojans (so the man was to
say) had built this wooden horse as an offering to the Goddess. The
Trojans, believing this story, would drag the horse into Troy, and, in
the night, the princes would come out, set fire to the city, and open the
gates to the army, which would return from Tenedos as soon as darkness
came on.
The prophet was much pleased with the plan of Ulysses, and, as two birds
happened to fly away on the right hand, he declared that the stratagem
would certainly be lucky. Neoptolemus, on the other hand, voted for
taking Troy, without any trick, by sheer hard fighting. Ulysses replied
that if Achilles could not do that, it could not be done at all, and that
Epeius, a famous carpenter, had better set about making the horse at
once.
Next day half the army, with axes in their hands, were sent to cut down
trees on Mount Ida, and thousands of planks were cut from the trees by
Epeius and his workmen, and in three days he had finished the horse.
Ulysses then asked the best of the Greeks to come forward and go inside
the machine; while one, whom the Greeks did not know by sight, should
volunteer to stay behind in the camp and deceive the Trojans. Then a
young man called Sinon stood up and said that he would risk himself and
take the chance that the Trojans might disbelieve him, and burn him
alive. Certainly, none of the Greeks did anything more courageous, yet
Sinon had not been considered brave.
Had he fought in the front ranks, the Trojans would have known him; but
there were many brave fighters who would not have dared to do what Sinon
undertook.
Then old Nestor was the first that volunteered to go into the horse; but
Neoptolemus said that, brave as he was, he was too old, and that he must
depart with the army to Tenedos. Neoptolemus himself would go into the
horse, for he would rather die than turn his back on Troy. So
Neoptolemus armed himself and climbed into the horse, as did Menelaus,
Ulysses, Diomede, Thrasymedes (Nestor's son), Idomeneus, Philoctetes,
Meriones, and all the best men except Agamemnon, while Epeius himself
entered last of all. Agamemnon was not allowed by the other Greeks to
share their adventure, as he was to command the army when they returned
from Tenedos. They meanwhile launched their ships and sailed away.
But first Menelaus had led Ulysses apart, and told him that if they took
Troy (and now they must either take it or die at the hands of the
Trojans), he would owe to Ulysses the glory. When they came back to
Greece, he wished to give Ulysses one of his own cities, that they might
always be near each other. Ulysses smiled and shook his head; he could
not leave Ithaca, his own rough island kingdom. "But if we both live
through the night that is coming," he said, "I may ask you for one gift,
and giving it will make you none the poorer." Then Menelaus swore by the
splendour of Zeus that Ulysses could ask him for no gift that he would
not gladly give; so they embraced, and both armed themselves and went up
into the horse. With them were all the chiefs except Nestor, whom they
would not allow to come, and Agamemnon, who, as chief general, had to
command the army. They swathed themselves and their arms in soft silks,
that they might not ring and clash, when the Trojans, if they were so
foolish, dragged the horse up into their town, and there they sat in the
dark waiting. Meanwhile, the army burned their huts and launched their
ships, and with oars and sails made their way to the back of the isle of
Tenedos. _
Read next: THE END OF TROY AND THE SAVING OF HELEN
Read previous: THE SLAYING OF PARIS
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