Dr A. Sophie Schoess [email protected] Classical Literature in Translation Live Session Te Trojan Horse: Te Story of a Myth One of the earliest depictions of the Trojan Horse on the Mykonos vase, c. 670 B.C. cc by Travelling Runes (accessed online via https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mykonos_vase.jpg) I. Te Trojan Horse in Archaic Poetry 1.1 Lesches of Mytilene, Little Iliad (Ilias parva) — Proclus’ summary (4) Epeios, following an initiative of Athena’s, <fells timber from Ida> and constructs the woo- den horse. Odysseus disfigures himself <and puts on pauper’s clothes> and enters Ilion to re- connoitre. He is recognized by Helen, and comes to an agreement with her about the taking of the city. Afer killing some Trojans, he gets back to the ships. Afer this he brings the Palladion out of Ilios with Diomedes. (5) Ten they put the leading heroes into the wooden horse. Te rest of the Greeks burn their huts and <leaving Sinon behind, who was to light a torch signal for them, in the night> they withdraw to Tenedos. Te Trojans, believing themselves rid of their troubles, take the wooden horse into the city by breaching a portion of the wall, and start celebrating their supposed vic- tory over the Greeks. 1.2 Arctinus of Miletus, Te Sack of Ilion (Iliou persis) — Proclus’ summary (1) Te Trojans are suspicious in the matter of the horse, and stand round it debating what to do: <with Cassandra saying that it contained an armed force, and the seer Laocoon likewise,> some want to push it over a cliff, and some to set fire to it, but others say it is a sacred object to be dedicated to Athena, and in the end their opinion prevails. Tey turn to festivity and cele- brate their deliverance from the war. But in the middle of this <Apollo sends them a sign:> two serpents appear, <swimming across the sea from the nearby islands,> and they kill Lao- coon and one of his two sons. Feeling misgivings at the portent, Aeneas and his party slip away to Ida. 2.1 Homer, Odyssey 4.233–89. Ten fair-haired Menelaus answered her [Helen] and said: “Truly, all this, wife, have you told properly. Before this have I come to know the counsel and the mind of many heroes, and have traveled over the wide earth, but never yet have my eyes beheld such a one as was steadfast Odysseus in heart. What a thing was this, too, which that mighty man performed and endured in the carved horse, wherein all we chiefs of the Argives were sitting, bearing to the Trojans slaughter and death! You came there then, and it must be that you were bidden by some god who wished to grant glory to the Trojans; and godlike Deiphobus followed you on your way. Tree times did you circle the hollow ambush, trying it with your touch, and you named aloud the chiefains of the Danaans by their names, likening your voice to the voices of the wives of all the Argives. Now I and the son of Tydeus and noble Odysseus sat there in the midst and heard how you called, and we two were eager to rise up and come out, or else to answer at once from inside, but Odysseus held us back and stopped us, in spite of our eagerness. Ten all the other sons of the Achaeans kept quiet, but Anticlus alone wished to speak and answer you; but Odysseus firmly closed his mouth with strong hands, and saved all the Achaeans, and held him thus until Pallas Athene led you away.” - 2 - 2.2 Homer, Odyssey 8.486–521 ... then to Demodocus said resourceful Odysseus: “Demodocus, truly above all mortal men do I praise you, whether it was the Muse, daughter of Zeus, that taught you, or Apollo; for well and truly do you sing of the fate of the Achaeans, all that they did and suffered, and all the toils they endured, as if perhaps you had yourself been present, or had heard the tale from another. But come now, change your theme, and sing of the building of the horse of wood, which Epeius made with Athene’s help, the horse which once Odysseus led up into the citadel as a thing of guile, when he had filled it with the men who sacked Ilium. If you indeed tell me this tale rightly, I will declare to all mankind that the god has with a ready heart granted you the gif of divine song.” So he spoke, and the minstrel, moved by the god, began, and let his song be heard, taking up the tale where the Argives had embarked on their benched ships and were sailing away, afer throwing fire on their huts, while those others led by glorious Odysseus were now sitting in the place of assembly of the Trojans, hidden in the horse; for the Trojans had themselves dragged it into the citadel. So there it stood, while the people talked long as they sat about it, and could form no resolve. Tree counsels found favor in their minds: either to cleave the hol- low timber with the pitiless bronze, or to drag it to the height and throw it down the rocks, or to let it stand as a great offering to propitiate the gods, just as in the end it was to be brought to pass; for it was their fate to perish when their city should enclose the great horse of wood, in which were sitting all the best of the Argives, bearing to the Trojans slaughter and death. And he sang how the sons of the Achaeans poured forth from the horse and, leaving their hollow ambush, sacked the city. Of the others he sang how, some here, some there, they wasted the lofy city, but of Odysseus, how he went like Ares to the house of Deiphobus together with godlike Menelaus. Tere it was, he said, that Odysseus dared the most terrible fight and in the end conquered by the aid of great-hearted Athene. Tis song the famous minstrel sang. - 3 - II. Te Trojan Horse in Latin Epic 3. Vergil, Aeneid 2.1–269 All were hushed, and kept their rapt gaze upon him; then from his raised couch father Aeneas thus began: “Too deep for words, O queen, is the grief you bid me renew, how the Greeks overthrew Troy’s wealth and woeful realm—the sights most piteous that I saw myself and wherein I played no small role. What Myrmidon or Dolopian, or soldier of the stern Ulysses, could refrain from tears in telling such a tale? And now dewy night is speeding from the sky and the setting stars counsel sleep. Yet if such is your desire to learn of our disasters, and in few words to hear of Troy’s last agony, though my mind shudders to remember and has recoiled in pain, I will begin. Broken in war and thwarted by the fates, the Danaan chiefs, now that so many years were gliding by, build by Pallas’ divine art a horse of mountainous bulk, and interweave its ribs with planks of fir. Tey pretend it is an offering for their safe return; this is the rumour that goes abroad. Here, within its dark sides, they stealthily enclose the choicest of their stalwart men and deep within they fill the huge cavern of the belly with armed soldiery. ... Some are amazed at maiden Minerva’s gif of death, and marvel at the massive horse: and first Tymoetes urges that it be drawn within our walls and lodged in the citadel; either it was treachery or the doom of Troy was already tending that way. But Capys, and they whose minds were wiser in counsel, bid us either hurl headlong into the sea this guile of the Greeks, this distrusted gif, or fire it with flames heaped beneath; or else pierce and probe the hollow hiding place of the belly. Te wavering crowd is torn into opposing factions. Ten, foremost of all and with a great throng following, Laocoön in hot haste runs down from the citadel’s height, and cries from afar: ‘My poor countrymen, what monstrous madness is this? Do you believe the foe has sailed away? Do you think that any gifs of the Greeks are free from treach- ery? Is Ulysses known to be this sort of man? Either enclosed in this frame there lurk Achaeans, or this has been built as an engine of war against our walls, to spy into our homes and come down upon the city from above; or some trickery lurks inside. Men of Troy, trust not the horse. Whatever it be, I fear the Greeks, even when bringing gifs.’ So saying, with mighty force he hurled his great spear at the beast’s side and the arched frame of the belly. Te spear stood quivering and with the cavity’s reverberation the vaults rang hollow, sending forth a moan. And had the gods’ decrees, had our mind not been perverse, he would have driven us to violate with steel the Argive den, and Troy would now be standing, and you, lofy citadel of Priam, would still abide! ... Trough such snares and craf of forsworn Sinon the story won belief, and we were en- snared by wiles and forced tears—we whom neither the son of Tydeus nor Achilles of Larissa laid low, not ten years, not a thousand ships! Hereupon another portent, more fell and more frightful by far, is thrust upon us, unhappy ones, and confounds our unforeseeing souls.