Tales of Troy: Ulysses, the Sacker of Cities — John Shaqi
Tales of Troy: Ulysses, the Sacker of CitiesLang, Andrew
General
Tales of Troy: Ulysses, the Sacker of Cities
Lang, Andrew
Mythology, Greek -- Juvenile literature; Trojan War -- Juvenile literature
The commander-in-chief, as we say now, of the Trojans was Hector, the son
of Priam. He was thought a match for any one of the Greeks, and was
brave and good. His brothers also were leaders, but Paris preferred to
fight from a distance with bow and arrows. He and Pandarus, who dwelt on
the slopes of Mount Ida, were the best archers in the Trojan army. The
princes usually fought with heavy spears, which they threw at each other,
and with swords, leaving archery to the common soldiers who had no armour
of bronze. But Teucer, Meriones, and Ulysses were the best archers of
the Achaeans. People called Dardanians were led by Aeneas, who was said
to be the son of the most beautiful of the goddesses. These, with
Sarpedon and Glaucus, were the most famous of the men who fought for
Troy.
Troy was a strong town on a hill. Mount Ida lay behind it, and in front
was a plain sloping to the sea shore. Through this plain ran two
beautiful clear rivers, and there were scattered here and there what you
would have taken for steep knolls, but they were really mounds piled up
over the ashes of warriors who had died long ago. On these mounds
sentinels used to stand and look across the water to give warning if the
Greek fleet drew near, for the Trojans had heard that it was on its way.
At last the fleet came in view, and the sea was black with ships, the
oarsmen pulling with all their might for the honour of being the first to
land. The race was won by the ship of the prince Protesilaus, who was
first of all to leap on shore, but as he leaped he was struck to the
heart by an arrow from the bow of Paris. This must have seemed a good
omen to the Trojans, and to the Greeks evil, but we do not hear that the
landing was resisted in great force, any more than that of Norman William
was, when he invaded England.
The Greeks drew up all their ships on shore, and the men camped in huts
built in front of the ships. There was thus a long row of huts with the
ships behind them, and in these huts the Greeks lived all through the ten
years that the siege of Troy lasted. In these days they do not seem to
have understood how to conduct a siege. You would have expected the
Greeks to build towers and dig trenches all round Troy, and from the
towers watch the roads, so that provisions might not be brought in from
the country. This is called "investing" a town, but the Greeks never
invested Troy. Perhaps they had not men enough; at all events the place
remained open, and cattle could always be driven in to feed the warriors
and the women and children.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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