TROY 



5888 



TROY 



mander-in-chief, had to placate Diana by the 

 sacrifice of his daughter Iphigenia, but finally 

 the fleet set sail for Troy, where preparations 

 had also been in progress. 



The Siege of Troy. For nine years the strug- 

 gle went on with varying fortunes. The Tro- 

 jans were compelled to shut themselves up 

 within their city, but beyond that the invaders 

 were able to accomplish nothing. Then came 

 the "ruinous wrath" of Achilles, greatest of 

 Greek heroes, which was almost fatal to the 

 Grecian cause and which he was induced only 

 by the death of his friend Patroclus to lay 

 aside. With Achilles once more fighting for 

 them, the Greeks felt a return of confidence, 

 and when Hector, the noble hero of Troy, was 

 killed, it seemed as if their victory was won. 

 But Achilles himself was put to death soon 

 afterward by the treacherous Paris, and matters 

 were again at a standstill. 



The Wooden Horse. But the crafty Ulysses 

 devised a plan. He induced the Greeks to 

 build a gigantic wooden horse and to conceal 

 in it a body of armed men, while all the rest 

 of the Greeks took to their ships, apparently 

 with the intention of sailing for home. The 

 stratagem was successful. The curious Trojans, 

 despite the warnings of Laocoon, priest of 



Neptune, dragged the wonderfuU horse within 

 the city walls, and in the night the armed men 

 crept out and let into the city the Greek forces, 

 which had stolen back under cover of the dark- 

 ness. The terrified Trojans rushed from their 

 houses only to fall by the swords of the 

 Greeks, and in a brief time the whole city was 

 in flames. A few escaped, and one great chief- 

 tain, Aeneas, embarked on a most marvelous 

 voyage (see AENEID). 



So fell Troy. The Greeks could claim for 

 themselves no proud victory, since it was by 

 craft and not by valor that the long siege was 

 ended. A.MC c. 



Consult Leaf's Homer and History; Saints- 

 bury's The Flourishing of Romance and the Rise 

 of Allegory. 



Related Subjects. The following articles in 

 these volumes will be of interest in connection 

 with this story of ancient Troy: 



Achilles 



Aeneas 



Aeneid 



Agamemnon 



Apple of Discord 



Eris 



Hector 



Helen of Troy 



Iliad 



Iphigenia 



Juno 



Laocoon 



Menelaus 



Minerva 



Paris 



Priam 



Thetis 



Ulysses 



Venus 



Wooden Horse 



End of Volume Nine 



