Tales of Troy(特罗伊的传说)

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Tales of Troy

by Andrew Lang

Tales of Troy

THE BOYHOOD AND PARENTS

OF ULYSSES

Long ago, in a little island called Ithaca, on the west coast of Greece,

there lived a king named Laertes. His kingdom was small and

mountainous. People used to say that Ithaca "lay like a shield upon the

sea," which sounds as if it were a flat country. But in those times shields

were very large, and rose at the middle into two peaks with a hollow

between them, so that Ithaca, seen far off in the sea, with her two chief

mountain peaks, and a cloven valley between them, looked exactly like a

shield. The country was so rough that men kept no horses, for, at that

time, people drove, standing up in little light chariots with two horses;

they never rode, and there was no cavalry in battle: men fought from

chariots. When Ulysses, the son of Laertes, King of Ithaca grew up, he

never fought from a chariot, for he had none, but always on foot.

If there were no horses in Ithaca, there was plenty of cattle. The

father of Ulysses had flocks of sheep, and herds of swine, and wild goats,

deer, and hares lived in the hills and in the plains. The sea was full of

fish of many sorts, which men caught with nets, and with rod and line and

hook.

Thus Ithaca was a good island to live in. The summer was long, and

there was hardly any winter; only a few cold weeks, and then the swallows

came back, and the plains were like a garden, all covered with wild

flowers--violets, lilies, narcissus, and roses. With the blue sky and the

blue sea, the island was beautiful. White temples stood on the shores;

and the Nymphs, a sort of fairies, had their little shrines built of stone,

with wild rose-bushes hanging over them.

Other islands lay within sight, crowned with mountains, stretching

away, one behind the other, into the sunset. Ulysses in the course of his

life saw many rich countries, and great cities of men, but, wherever he was,

his heart was always in the little isle of Ithaca, where he had learned how

to row, and how to sail a boat, and how to shoot with bow and arrow, and

to hunt boars and stags, and manage his hounds.

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The mother of Ulysses was called Anticleia: she was the daughter of

King Autolycus, who lived near Parnassus, a mountain on the mainland.

This King Autolycus was the most cunning of men. He was a Master

Thief, and could steal a man's pillow from under his head, but he does not

seem to have been thought worse of for this. The Greeks had a God of

Thieves, named Hermes, whom Autolycus worshipped, and people

thought more good of his cunning tricks than harm of his dishonesty.

Perhaps these tricks of his were only practised for amusement; however

that may be, Ulysses became as artful as his grandfather; he was both the

bravest and the most cunning of men, but Ulysses never stole things,

except once, as we shall hear, from the enemy in time of war. He showed

his cunning in stratagems of war, and in many strange escapes from giants

and man-eaters.

Soon after Ulysses was born, his grandfather came to see his mother

and father in Ithaca. He was sitting at supper when the nurse of Ulysses,

whose name was Eurycleia, brought in the baby, and set him on the knees

of Autolycus, saying, "Find a name for your grandson, for he is a child of

many prayers."

"I am very angry with many men and women in the world," said

Autolycus, "so let the child's name be A MAN OF WRATH," which, in

Greek, was Odysseus. So the child was called Odysseus by his own

people, but the name was changed into Ulysses, and we shall call him

Ulysses.

We do not know much about Ulysses when he was a little boy, except

that he used to run about the garden with his father, asking questions, and

begging that he might have fruit trees "for his very own." He was a great

pet, for his parents had no other son, so his father gave him thirteen pear

trees, and forty fig trees, and promised him fifty rows of vines, all covered

with grapes, which he could eat when he liked, without asking leave of the

gardener. So he was not tempted to steal fruit, like his grandfather.

When Autolycus gave Ulysses his name, he said that he must come to

stay with him, when he was a big boy, and he would get splendid presents.

Ulysses was told about this, so, when he was a tall lad, he crossed the sea

and drove in his chariot to the old man's house on Mount Parnassus.

Tales of Troy

Everybody welcomed him, and next day his uncles and cousins and he

went out to hunt a fierce wild boar, early in the morning. Probably

Ulysses took his own dog, named Argos, the best of hounds, of which we

shall hear again, long afterwards, for the dog lived to be very old. Soon

the hounds came on the scent of a wild boar, and after them the men went,

with spears in their hands, and Ulysses ran foremost, for he was already

the swiftest runner in Greece.

He came on a great boar lying in a tangled thicket of boughs and

bracken, a dark place where the sun never shone, nor could the rain pierce

through. Then the noise of the men's shouts and the barking of the dogs

awakened the boar, and up he sprang, bristling all over his back, and with

fire shining from his eyes. In rushed Ulysses first of all, with his spear

raised to strike, but the boar was too quick for him, and ran in, and drove

his sharp tusk sideways, ripping up the thigh of Ulysses. But the boar's

tusk missed the bone, and Ulysses sent his sharp spear into the beast's

right shoulder, and the spear went clean through, and the boar fell dead,

with a loud cry. The uncles of Ulysses bound up his wound carefully,

and sang a magical song over it, as the French soldiers wanted to do to

Joan of Arc when the arrow pierced her shoulder at the siege of Orleans.

Then the blood ceased to flow, and soon Ulysses was quite healed of his

wound. They thought that he would be a good warrior, and gave him

splendid presents, and when he went home again he told all that had

happened to his father and mother, and his nurse, Eurycleia. But there

was always a long white mark or scar above his left knee, and about that

scar we shall hear again, many years afterwards.

Tales of Troy

HOW PEOPLE LIVED IN THE

TIME OF ULYSSES

When Ulysses was a young man he wished to marry a princess of his

own rank. Now there were at that time many kings in Greece, and you

must be told how they lived. Each king had his own little kingdom, with

his chief town, walled with huge walls of enormous stone. Many of

these walls are still standing, though the grass has grown over the ruins of

most of them, and in later years, men believed that those walls must have

been built by giants, the stones are so enormous. Each king had nobles

under him, rich men, and all had their palaces, each with its courtyard, and

its long hall, where the fire burned in the midst, and the King and Queen

sat beside it on high thrones, between the four chief carved pillars that

held up the roof. The thrones were made of cedar wood and ivory, inlaid

with gold, and there were many other chairs and small tables for guests,

and the walls and doors were covered with bronze plates, and gold and

silver, and sheets of blue glass. Sometimes they were painted with pictures

of bull hunts, and a few of these pictures may still be seen. At night

torches were lit, and placed in the hands of golden figures of boys, but all

the smoke of fire and torches escaped by a hole in the roof, and made the

ceiling black. On the walls hung swords and spears and helmets and

shields, which needed to be often cleaned from the stains of the smoke.

The minstrel or poet sat beside the King and Queen, and, after supper he

struck his harp, and sang stories of old wars. At night the King and Queen

slept in their own place, and the women in their own rooms; the princesses

had their chambers upstairs, and the young princes had each his room built

separate in the courtyard.

There were bath rooms with polished baths, where guests were taken

when they arrived dirty from a journey. The guests lay at night on beds

in the portico, for the climate was warm. There were plenty of servants,

who were usually slaves taken in war, but they were very kindly treated,

and were friendly with their masters. No coined money was used; people

Tales of Troy

paid for things in cattle, or in weighed pieces of gold. Rich men had

plenty of gold cups, and gold-hilted swords, and bracelets, and brooches.

The kings were the leaders in war and judges in peace, and did sacrifices

to the Gods, killing cattle and swine and sheep, on which they afterwards

dined.

They dressed in a simple way, in a long smock of linen or silk, which

fell almost to the feet, but was tucked up into a belt round the waist, and

worn longer or shorter, as they happened to choose. Where it needed

fastening at the throat, golden brooches were used, beautifully made, with

safety pins. This garment was much like the plaid that the Highlanders

used to wear, with its belt and brooches. Over it the Greeks wore great

cloaks of woollen cloth when the weather was cold, but these they did not

use in battle. They fastened their breastplates, in war, over their smocks,

and had other armour covering the lower parts of the body, and leg armour

called "greaves"; while the great shield which guarded the whole body

from throat to ankles was carried by a broad belt slung round the neck.

The sword was worn in another belt, crossing the shield belt. They had

light shoes in peace, and higher and heavier boots in war, or for walking

across country.

The women wore the smock, with more brooches and jewels than the

men; and had head coverings, with veils, and mantles over all, and

necklaces of gold and amber, earrings, and bracelets of gold or of bronze.

The colours of their dresses were various, chiefly white and purple; and,

when in mourning, they wore very dark blue, not black. All the armour,

and the sword blades and spearheads were made, not of steel or iron, but

of bronze, a mixture of copper and tin. The shields were made of several

thicknesses of leather, with a plating of bronze above; tools, such as axes

and ploughshares, were either of iron or bronze; and so were the blades of

knives and daggers.

To us the houses and way of living would have seemed very splendid,

and also, in some ways, rather rough. The palace floors, at least in the

house of Ulysses, were littered with bones and feet of the oxen slain for

food, but this happened when Ulysses had been long from home. The

floor of the hall in the house of Ulysses was not boarded with planks, or

Tales of Troy

paved with stone: it was made of clay; for he was a poor king of small

islands. The cooking was coarse: a pig or sheep was killed, roasted and

eaten immediately. We never hear of boiling meat, and though people

probably ate fish, we do not hear of their doing so, except when no meat

could be procured. Still some people must have liked them; for in the

pictures that were painted or cut in precious stones in these times we see

the half-naked fisherman walking home, carrying large fish.

The people were wonderful workers of gold and bronze. Hundreds

of their golden jewels have been found in their graves, but probably these

were made and buried two or three centuries before the time of Ulysses.

The dagger blades had pictures of fights with lions, and of flowers, inlaid

on them, in gold of various colours, and in silver; nothing so beautiful is

made now. There are figures of men hunting bulls on some of the gold

cups, and these are wonderfully life-like. The vases and pots of

earthenware were painted in charming patterns: in short, it was a

splendid world to live in.

The people believed in many Gods, male and female, under the chief

God, Zeus. The Gods were thought to be taller than men, and immortal,

and to live in much the same way as men did, eating, drinking, and

sleeping in glorious palaces. Though they were supposed to reward good

men, and to punish people who broke their oaths and were unkind to

strangers, there were many stories told in which the Gods were fickle,

cruel, selfish, and set very bad examples to men. How far these stories

were believed is not sure; it is certain that "all men felt a need of the

Gods," and thought that they were pleased by good actions and displeased

by evil. Yet, when a man felt that his behaviour had been bad, he often

threw the blame on the Gods, and said that they had misled him, which

really meant no more than that "he could not help it."

There was a curious custom by which the princes bought wives from

the fathers of the princesses, giving cattle and gold, and bronze and iron,

but sometimes a prince got a wife as the reward for some very brave

action. A man would not give his daughter to a wooer whom she did not

love, even if he offered the highest price, at least this must have been the

general rule, for husbands and wives were very fond of each other, and of

Tales of Troy

their children, and husbands always allowed their wives to rule the house,

and give their advice on everything. It was thought a very wicked thing

for a woman to like another man better than her husband, and there were

few such wives, but among them was the most beautiful woman who ever

lived.

Tales of Troy

THE WOOING OF HELEN OF

THE FAIR HANDS

This was the way in which people lived when Ulysses was young, and

wished to be married. The worst thing in the way of life was that the

greatest and most beautiful princesses might be taken prisoners, and

carried off as slaves to the towns of the men who had killed their fathers

and husbands. Now at that time one lady was far the fairest in the world:

namely, Helen, daughter of King Tyndarus. Every young prince heard of

her and desired to marry her; so her father invited them all to his palace,

and entertained them, and found out what they would give. Among the

rest Ulysses went, but his father had a little kingdom, a rough island, with

others near it, and Ulysses had not a good chance. He was not tall;

though very strong and active, he was a short man with broad shoulders,

but his face was handsome, and, like all the princes, he wore long yellow

hair, clustering like a hyacinth flower. His manner was rather hesitating,

and he seemed to speak very slowly at first, though afterwards his words

came freely. He was good at everything a man can do; he could plough,

and build houses, and make ships, and he was the best archer in Greece,

except one, and could bend the great bow of a dead king, Eurytus, which

no other man could string. But he had no horses, and had no great train

of followers; and, in short, neither Helen nor her father thought of

choosing Ulysses for her husband out of so many tall, handsome young

princes, glittering with gold ornaments. Still, Helen was very kind to

Ulysses, and there was great friendship between them, which was

fortunate for her in the end.

Tyndarus first made all the princes take an oath that they would stand

by the prince whom he chose, and would fight for him in all his quarrels.

Then he named for her husband Menelaus, King of Lacedaemon. He was

a very brave man, but not one of the strongest; he was not such a fighter as

the gigantic Aias, the tallest and strongest of men; or as Diomede, the

friend of Ulysses; or as his own brother, Agamemnon, the King of the rich

Tales of Troy

city of Mycenae, who was chief over all other princes, and general of the

whole army in war. The great lions carved in stone that seemed to guard

his city are still standing above the gate through which Agamemnon used

to drive his chariot.

The man who proved to be the best fighter of all, Achilles, was not

among the lovers of Helen, for he was still a boy, and his mother, Thetis of

the silver feet, a goddess of the sea, had sent him to be brought up as a girl,

among the daughters of Lycomedes of Scyros, in an island far away.

Thetis did this because Achilles was her only child, and there was a

prophecy that, if he went to the wars, he would win the greatest glory, but

die very young, and never see his mother again. She thought that if war

broke out he would not be found hiding in girl's dress, among girls, far

away.

So at last, after thinking over the matter for long, Tyndarus gave fair

Helen to Menelaus, the rich King of Lacedaemon; and her twin sister

Clytaemnestra, who was also very beautiful, was given to King

Agamemnon, the chief over all the princes. They all lived very happily

together at first, but not for long.

In the meantime King Tyndarus spoke to his brother Icarius, who had a

daughter named Penelope. She also was very pretty, but not nearly so

beautiful as her cousin, fair Helen, and we know that Penelope was not

very fond of her cousin. Icarius, admiring the strength and wisdom of

Ulysses, gave him his daughter Penelope to be his wife, and Ulysses loved

her very dearly, no man and wife were ever dearer to each other. They

went away together to rocky Ithaca, and perhaps Penelope was not sorry

that a wide sea lay between her home and that of Helen; for Helen was not

only the fairest woman that ever lived in the world, but she was so kind

and gracious and charming that no man could see her without loving her.

When she was only a child, the famous prince Theseus, who was famous

in Greek Story, carried her away to his own city of Athens, meaning to

marry her when she grew up, and even at that time, there was a war for her

sake, for her brothers followed Theseus with an army, and fought him, and

brought her home.

She had fairy gifts; for instance, she had a great red jewel, called "the

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TalesofTroy1TalesofTroybyAndrewLangTalesofTroy2THEBOYHOODANDPARENTSOFULYSSESLongago,inalittleislandcalledIthaca,onthewestcoastofGreece,therelivedakingnamedLaertes.Hiskingdomwassmallandmountainous.PeopleusedtosaythatIthaca"laylikeashielduponthesea,"whichsoundsasifitwereaflatcountry.Butinthosetimesshi...

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