The Children's Hour, Volume 3 (of 10): Stories from the Classics
General
The Children's Hour, Volume 3 (of 10): Stories from the Classics
Children's stories; Classical literature -- Adaptations
That very night Sinon the spy opened the hidden door of the Wooden Horse,
and in the darkness, Ulysses, Menelaus, and the other chiefs who had lain
hidden there crept out and gave the signal to the Grecian army. For, under
cover of night, those ships that had been moored behind the island had
sailed back again, and the Greeks were come upon Troy.
Not a Trojan was on guard. The whole city was at feast when the enemy rose
in its midst, and the warning of Laocoön was fulfilled.
Priam and his warriors fell by the sword, and their kingdom was plundered
of all its fair possessions, women and children and treasure. Last of all,
the city itself was burned to its very foundations.
Homeward sailed the Greeks, taking as royal captives poor Cassandra and
Andromache and many another Trojan. And home at last went fair Helen, the
cause of all this sorrow, eager to be forgiven by her husband, King
Menelaus. For she had awakened from the enchantment of Venus, and even
before the death of Paris she had secretly longed for her home and
kindred. Home to Sparta she came with the king after a long and stormy
voyage, and there she lived and died the fairest of women.
But the kingdom of Troy was fallen. Nothing remained of all its glory but
the glory of its dead heroes and fair women, and the ruins of its citadel
by the river Scamander. There even now, beneath the foundations of later
homes that were built and burned, built and burned, in the wars of a
thousand years after, the ruins of ancient Troy lie hidden, like mouldered
leaves deep under the new grass. And there, to this very day, men who love
the story are delving after the dead city as you might search for a buried
treasure.
THE WANDERINGS OF ULYSSES
AN ADVENTURE WITH THE CYCLOPS
By Alfred J. Church
[After the fall of Troy the Greeks set out for home, but many of
them had troubles and dangers to meet before they saw again the
shores of their native land. The one who suffered most was
Ulysses, and the following is his story of his adventure with the
one-eyed giant, the Cyclops.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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