Part 10 (1/2)
All the heroes of Greece flew to arms to avenge the wrong. A host of one hundred thousand warriors was speedily gathered. Agamemnon, brother of Menelaus and ”king of men,” was chosen leader of the expedition. Under him were the ”lion-hearted Achilles,” of Thessaly, the ”crafty Ulysses”
(Odysseus), king of Ithaca, Ajax, ”the swift son of Oileus,” the Telamonian Ajax, the aged Nestor, and many more--the most valiant heroes of all h.e.l.las. Twelve hundred galleys bore the gathered clans from Aulis in Greece, across the aegean to the Trojan sh.o.r.es.
For ten years the Greeks and their allies hold in close siege the city of Priam. On the plains beneath the walls of the capital, the warriors of the two armies fight in general battle, or contend in single encounter. At first, Achilles is foremost in every fight; but a fair-faced maiden, who fell to him as a prize, having been taken from him by his chief, Agamemnon, he is filled with wrath, and sulks in his tent. Though the Greeks are often sorely pressed, still the angered hero refuses them his aid. At last, however, his friend Patroclus is killed by Hector, eldest son of Priam, and then Achilles goes forth to avenge his death. In a fierce combat he slays Hector, fastens his body to his chariot wheels, and drags it thrice around the walls of Troy.
The city is at last taken through a device of the ”crafty Ulysses.” Upon the plain in sight of the walls is built a wooden statue of a horse, in the body of which are hidden several Grecian warriors. Then the Greeks retire to their s.h.i.+ps, as though about to abandon the siege. The Trojans issue from the gates and gather in wondering crowds about the image. They believe it to be an offering sacred to Athena, and so dare not destroy it; but, on the other hand, misled by certain omens and by a lying Greek named Sinon, they level a place in the walls of their city, and drag the statue within. At night the concealed warriors issue from the horse, open the gates of the city to the Grecians, and Troy is sacked, and burned to the ground. The aged Priam is slain, after having seen his sons and many of his warriors perish before his face. aeneas, with his aged father, Anchises, and a few devoted followers, escapes, and, after long wanderings, becomes the fabled founder of the Roman race in Italy.
It is a matter of difficulty to point out the nucleus of fact in this the most elaborate and interesting of the Grecian legends. Some believe it to be the dim recollection of a prehistoric conflict between the Greeks and the natives of Asia Minor, arising from the attempt of the former to secure a foothold upon the coast. That there really existed in prehistoric times such a city as Troy, has been placed beyond doubt by the excavations and discoveries of Dr. Schliemann.
RETURN OF THE GRECIAN CHIEFTAINS.--After the fall of Troy, the Grecian chieftains and princes returned home. The poets represent the G.o.ds as withdrawing their protection from the hitherto favored heroes, because they had not respected the altars of the Trojans. So, many of them were driven in endless wanderings over sea and land. Homer's _Odyssey_ portrays the sufferings of the ”much-enduring” Odysseus (Ulysses), impelled by divine wrath to long journeyings through strange seas.
In some cases, according to the tradition, advantage had been taken of the absence of the princes, and their thrones had been usurped. Thus at Argos, aegisthus had won the unholy love of Clytemnestra, wife and queen of Agamemnon, who on his return was murdered by the guilty couple. In pleasing contrast with this we have exhibited to us the constancy of Penelope, although sought by many suitors during the absence of her husband Ulysses.
THE DORIAN INVASION, OR THE RETURN OF THE HERACLIDae (legendary date 1104 B.C.).--We set the tradition of the return of the Heraclidae apart from the legends of the enterprises just detailed, for the reason that it undoubtedly contains quite a large historical element. The legend tells how Heracles, an Achaean, in the times before the Trojan War, ruled over the Peloponnesian Achaeans. Just before that event his children were driven from the land. Eighty years after the war, the hundred years of exile appointed by the Fates having expired, the descendants of the hero, at the head of the Dorians from Northern Greece, returned, and with their aid effected the conquest of the greater part of the Peloponnesus, and established themselves as conquerors and masters in the land that had formerly been ruled by their semi-divine ancestor.
This legend seems to be a dim remembrance of a prehistoric invasion of the Peloponnesus by the Dorians from the north of Greece, and the expulsion or subjugation of the native inhabitants of the peninsula.
Some of the dispossessed Achaeans, crowding towards the north of the Peloponnesus, drove out the Ionians who occupied the southern sh.o.r.e of the Corinthian Gulf, and settling there, gave the name _Achaia_ to all that region.
Arcadia, in the centre of the Peloponnesus, was another district which did not fall into the hands of the Dorians. The people here, even down to the latest times, retained their primitive customs and country mode of life; hence _Arcadian_ came to mean rustic and artless.
MIGRATIONS TO ASIA MINOR.--The Greek legends represent that the Dorian invasion of the Peloponnesus resulted in three distinct migrations from the mother-land to the sh.o.r.es of Asia Minor and the adjoining islands.
The northwestern sh.o.r.e of Asia Minor was settled, mainly, by Aeolian emigrants from Boeotia. The neighboring island of Lesbos became the home and centre of aeolian culture in poetry and music.
The coast to the south of the aeolians was occupied by Ionian emigrants, who, uniting with their Ionian kinsmen already settled upon that sh.o.r.e, built up twelve splendid cities (Ephesus, Miletus, etc.), which finally united to form the celebrated Ionian confederacy.
South of the Ionians, all along the southwestern sh.o.r.e of Asia Minor, the Dorians established their colonies. They also settled the important islands of Cos and Rhodes, and conquered and colonized Crete.
The traditions of these various settlements represent them as having been effected in a very short period; but it is probable that the movement embraced several centuries,--possibly a longer time than has been occupied by the English race in colonizing the different lands of the Western World.
With these migrations to the Asiatic sh.o.r.es, the Legendary Age of Greece comes to an end. From this time forward we tread upon fairly firm historic ground.
SOCIETY IN THE HEROIC AGE.--In Homeric times the Greeks were ruled by hereditary kings, who were believed to be of divine or superhuman lineage.
The king was at once the lawgiver, the judge, and the military leader of his people. He was expected to prove his divine right to rule, by his courage, strength, wisdom, and eloquence. When he ceased to display these qualities, ”the sceptre departed from him.”
The king was surrounded by an advisory council of chiefs or n.o.bles. The king listened to what the n.o.bles had to say upon any measure he might propose, and then acted according to his own will or judgment, restrained only by the time-honored customs of the community.
Next to the council of chiefs, there was a general a.s.sembly, called the _Agora_, made up of all the common freemen. The members of this body could not take part in any debate, nor could they vote upon any question.
This body, so devoid seemingly of all authority in the Homeric age, was destined to become the all-powerful popular a.s.sembly in the democratic cities of historic Greece.
Of the condition of the common freemen we know but little; the legendary tales were concerned chiefly with the kings and n.o.bles. Slavery existed, but the slaves did not const.i.tute as numerous a cla.s.s as they became in historic times.
In the family, the wife held a much more honored position than she occupied in later times. The charming story of the constant Penelope, which we find in the _Odyssey_, a.s.sures us that the Homeric age cherished a chivalric feeling for woman.
In all ranks of society, life was marked by a sort of patriarchal simplicity. Manual labor was not yet thought to be degrading. Ulysses constructs his own house and raft, and boasts of his skill in swinging the scythe and guiding the plow. Spinning and weaving were the chief occupations of the women of all cla.s.ses.