Aunt Charlotte's Stories of Greek HistoryYonge, Charlotte M. (Charlotte Mary)
History
Aunt Charlotte's Stories of Greek History
Yonge, Charlotte M. (Charlotte Mary)
Greece -- History -- Juvenile literature; Mythology, Greek -- Juvenile literature
Instead of now giving up Helen, Deiphobus and Helenus, the two next
brothers, quarrelled as to which should marry her, and when she was given
to Deiphobus, Helenus was so angry that he went out and wandered in the
forests of Mount Ida, where he was made prisoner by Ulysses, who
contrived to find out from him that Troy could never be taken while it
had the Palladium within it. Accordingly, Ulysses and Diomed set out,
and, climbing over the wall by night, stole the wondrous image. While
the Trojans were dismayed at the loss, the Greeks seemed to have changed
their minds. They took ship and went away, and all the surviving
Trojans, relieved from their siege, rushed down to the shore, where all
they found was a monstrous wooden horse. While they were looking at it
in wonder, a Greek came out of the rocks, and told them that his name was
Sinon, and that he had been cruelly left behind by the Greeks, who had
grown weary of the siege and gone home, but that if the wonderful horse
were once taken into Troy it would serve as another Palladium. The
priest of Neptune, Laocöon, did not believe the story, and declared that
Sinon was a spy; but he was cut short in his remonstrance by two huge
serpents, which glided out of the sea and devoured him and his two sons.
Cassandra, too, a daughter of Priam, who had the gift of prophecy, but
was fated never to be believed, shrieked with despair when she saw the
Trojans harnessing themselves to the horse to drag it into Troy, but
nobody heeded her, and there was a great feast to dedicate it to Pallas.
Helen perhaps guessed or knew what it meant, for at dark she walked round
it, and called the names of Ulysses, and many other Greeks, in the voices
of Penelope and the other wives at home.
[Picture: Laocöon] For indeed the horse was full of Greeks; and at dark
Sinon lighted a beacon as a signal to the rest, who were only waiting
behind the little isle of Tenedos. Then he let the others out of the
horse, and slaughter and fire reigned throughout Troy. Menelaus slew
Deiphobus as he tried to rise from bed, and carried Helen down to his
ship. Poor old Priam tried to put on his armour and defend Hecuba and
his daughters, but Pyrrhus killed him at the altar in his palace-court;
and Æneas, after seeing this, and that all was lost, hurried back to his
own house, took his father Anchises on his back, and his little son Iulus
in one hand, his household gods in the other, and, with his wife Creusa
following, tried to escape from the burning city with his own troop of
warriors. All succeeded except poor Creusa, who was lost in the throng
of terrified fugitives, and was never found again; but Æneas found ships
on the coast, and sailed safely away to Italy.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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