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THE END OF TROY AND THE SAVING OF HELEN
From the walls the Trojans saw the black smoke go up thick into the sky,
and the whole fleet of the Greeks sailing out to sea. Never were men so
glad, and they armed themselves for fear of an ambush, and went
cautiously, sending forth scouts in front of them, down to the seashore.
Here they found the huts burned down and the camp deserted, and some of
the scouts also caught Sinon, who had hid himself in a place where he was
likely to be found. They rushed on him with fierce cries, and bound his
hands with a rope, and kicked and dragged him along to the place where
Priam and the princes were wondering at the great horse of tree. Sinon
looked round upon them, while some were saying that he ought to be
tortured with fire to make him tell all the truth about the horse. The
chiefs in the horse must have trembled for fear lest torture should wring
the truth out of Sinon, for then the Trojans would simply burn the
machine and them within it.
But Sinon said: "Miserable man that I am, whom the Greeks hate and the
Trojans are eager to slay!" When the Trojans heard that the Greeks hated
him, they were curious, and asked who he was, and how he came to be
there. "I will tell you all, oh King!" he answered Priam. "I was a
friend and squire of an unhappy chief, Palamedes, whom the wicked Ulysses
hated and slew secretly one day, when he found him alone, fishing in the
sea. I was angry, and in my folly I did not hide my anger, and my words
came to the ears of Ulysses. From that hour he sought occasion to slay
me. Then Calchas--" here he stopped, saying: "But why tell a long tale?
If you hate all Greeks alike, then slay me; this is what Agamemnon and
Ulysses desire; Menelaus would thank you for my head."
The Trojans were now more curious than before. They bade him go on, and
he said that the Greeks had consulted an Oracle, which advised them to
sacrifice one of their army to appease the anger of the Gods and gain a
fair wind homewards. "But who was to be sacrificed? They asked Calchas,
who for fifteen days refused to speak. At last, being bribed by Ulysses,
he pointed to me, Sinon, and said that I must be the victim. I was bound
and kept in prison, while they built their great horse as a present for
Pallas Athene the Goddess. They made it so large that you Trojans might
never be able to drag it into your city; while, if you destroyed it, the
Goddess might turn her anger against you. And now they have gone home to
bring back the image that fell from heaven, which they had sent to
Greece, and to restore it to the Temple of Pallas Athene, when they have
taken your town, for the Goddess is angry with them for that theft of
Ulysses."
The Trojans were foolish enough to believe the story of Sinon, and they
pitied him and unbound his hands. Then they tied ropes to the wooden
horse, and laid rollers in front of it, like men launching a ship, and
they all took turns to drag the horse up to the Scaean gate. Children
and women put their hands to the ropes and hauled, and with shouts and
dances, and hymns they toiled, till about nightfall the horse stood in
the courtyard of the inmost castle.
Then all the people of Troy began to dance, and drink, and sing. Such
sentinels as were set at the gates got as drunk as all the rest, who
danced about the city till after midnight, and then they went to their
homes and slept heavily.
Meanwhile the Greek ships were returning from behind Tenedos as fast as
the oarsmen could row them.
One Trojan did not drink or sleep; this was Deiphobus, at whose house
Helen was now living. He bade her come with them, for he knew that she
was able to speak in the very voice of all men and women whom she had
ever seen, and he armed a few of his friends and went with them to the
citadel. Then he stood beside the horse, holding Helen's hand, and
whispered to her that she must call each of the chiefs in the voice of
his wife. She was obliged to obey, and she called Menelaus in her own
voice, and Diomede in the voice of his wife, and Ulysses in the very
voice of Penelope. Then Menelaus and Diomede were eager to answer, but
Ulysses grasped their hands and whispered the word "Echo!" Then they
remembered that this was a name of Helen, because she could speak in all
voices, and they were silent; but Anticlus was still eager to answer,
till Ulysses held his strong hand over his mouth. There was only
silence, and Deiphobus led Helen back to his house. When they had gone
away Epeius opened the side of the horse, and all the chiefs let
themselves down softly to the ground. Some rushed to the gate, to open
it, and they killed the sleeping sentinels and let in the Greeks. Others
sped with torches to burn the houses of the Trojan princes, and terrible
was the slaughter of men, unarmed and half awake, and loud were the cries
of the women. But Ulysses had slipped away at the first, none knew
where. Neoptolemus ran to the palace of Priam, who was sitting at the
altar in his courtyard, praying vainly to the Gods, for Neoptolemus slew
the old man cruelly, and his white hair was dabbled in his blood. All
through the city was fighting and slaying; but Menelaus went to the house
of Deiphobus, knowing that Helen was there.
In the doorway he found Deiphobus lying dead in all his armour, a spear
standing in his breast. There were footprints marked in blood, leading
through the portico and into the hall. There Menelaus went, and found
Ulysses leaning, wounded, against one of the central pillars of the great
chamber, the firelight shining on his armour.
"Why hast thou slain Deiphobus and robbed me of my revenge?" said
Menelaus. "You swore to give me a gift," said Ulysses, "and will you
keep your oath?" "Ask what you will," said Menelaus; "it is yours and my
oath cannot be broken." "I ask the life of Helen of the fair hands,"
said Ulysses "this is my own life-price that I pay back to her, for she
saved my life when I took the Luck of Troy, and I swore that hers should
be saved."
Then Helen stole, glimmering in white robes, from a recess in the dark
hall, and fell at the feet of Menelaus; her golden hair lay in the dust
of the hearth, and her hands moved to touch his knees. His drawn sword
fell from the hands of Menelaus, and pity and love came into his heart,
and he raised her from the dust and her white arms were round his neck,
and they both wept. That night Menelaus fought no more, but they tended
the wound of Ulysses, for the sword of Deiphobus had bitten through his
helmet.
When dawn came Troy lay in ashes, and the women were being driven with
spear shafts to the ships, and the men were left unburied, a prey to dogs
and all manner of birds. Thus the grey city fell, that had lorded it for
many centuries. All the gold and silver and rich embroideries, and ivory
and amber, the horses and chariots, were divided among the army; all but
a treasure of silver and gold, hidden in a chest within a hollow of the
wall, and this treasure was found, not very many years ago, by men
digging deep on the hill where Troy once stood. The women, too, were
given to the princes, and Neoptolemus took Andromache to his home in
Argos, to draw water from the well and to be the slave of a master, and
Agamemnon carried beautiful Cassandra, the daughter of Priam, to his
palace in Mycenae, where they were both slain in one night. Only Helen
was led with honour to the ship of Menelaus.
The story of all that happened to Ulysses on his way home from Troy is
told in another book, "Tales of the Greek Seas."
[The end]
Andrew Lang's fiction book: Tales of Troy: Ulysses the Sacker of Cities
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