And marching, arms in hand, into
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the city, they entered the houses and slew the sleepers. Neoptolemus slew Priam, who had taken refuge at the altar of Zeus of the Courtyard.
[*](As to the death of Priam at the altar, compare Arctinus, Ilii Persis, summarized by Proclus, in Epicorum Graecorum Fragmenta, ed. G. Kinkel, p. 49; Eur. Tro. 16ff.; Eur. Tro. 481-483; Eur. Hec. 22-24; Paus. 4.17.4; Quintus Smyrnaeus, Posthomerica xiii.220-250; Tryphiodorus, Excidium Ilii 634-639; Tzetzes, Posthomerica 732ff.; Verg. A. 2.533-558; Dictys Cretensis v.12. According to Lesches, the ruthless Neoptolemus dragged Priam from the altar and despatched him at his own door. See Paus. 10.27.2, with Frazer's note (vol. v. p. 371). The summary account of Proclus agrees almost verbally with the equally summary account of Apollodorus.) But when Glaucus, son of Antenor, fled to his house, Ulysses and Menelaus recognized and rescued him by their armed intervention.
[*](Ulysses and Menelaus were bound by ties of hospitality to Antenor; for when they went as ambassadors to Troy to treat of the surrender of Helen, he entertained them hospitably in his house. See Hom. Il. 3.203-207. Moreover, Antenor had advocated the surrender of Helen and her property to the Greeks. See Hom. Il. 3.347-353. According to Lesches, one of Antenor's sons, Lycaon, was wounded in the sack of Troy, but Ulysses recognized him and carried him safe out of the fray. See Paus. 10.26.8. Sophocles composed a tragedy on the subject of Antenor and his sons, in which he said that at the storming of Troy the Greeks hung a leopard's skin in front of Antenor's house in token that it was to be respected by the soldiery. See Strab. 13.1.53. In Polygnotus's great picture of the sack of Troy, which was one of the sights of Delphi, the painter depicted the house of Antenor with the leopard's skin hung on the wall; in front of it were to be seen Antenor and his wife, with their children, including Glaucus, while beside them servants were lading an ass, to indicate the long journey which the exiles were about to undertake. See Paus. 10.27.3ff. According to Roman tradition, Antenor led a colony of Enetians to the head of the Adriatic, where the people were thenceforth called Venetians (Livy i.1). As to Sophocles's play, The Antenorids, see TGF (Nauck 2nd ed.), p. 160; The Fragments of Sophocles, ed. A. C. Pearson, vol. i. pp. 86ff. ) Aeneas took up his father Anchises and fled, and the Greeks let him alone on account of his piety.
[*](Compare Xen. Cyn. 1.15; Quintus Smyrnaeus, Posthomerica xiii.315-327; Verg. A. 2.699ff. ) But Menelaus slew Deiphobus and led away Helen to the ships[*](Compare Arctinus, Ilii Persis, summarized by Proclus, in Epicorum Graecorum Fragmenta, ed. G. Kinkel, p. 49; Quintus Smyrnaeus, Posthomerica xiii.354ff.; Tryphiodorus, Excidium Ilii 627-633; Tzetzes, Posthomerica 729-731; Dictys Cretensis v.12. Deiphobus had married Helen after the death of Paris. See above, Apollod. E.5.8.9.); and Aethra, mother of Theseus, was also led away by Demophon and Acamas, the sons of Theseus; for they say that they afterwards went to Troy.[*](Compare Arctinus, Ilii Persis, summarized by Proclus, in Epicorum Graecorum Fragmenta, ed. G. Kinkel, p. 50; Paus. 10.25.8; Quintus Smyrnaeus, Posthomerica xiii.496-543; Scholiast on Eur. Hec. 123 and Scholiast on Eur. Tro. 31; Dictys Cretensis v.13. Homer mentions Aethra as one of the handmaids of Helen at Troy (Hom. Il. 3.53). Quintus Smyrnaeus, Posthomerica xiii.496-543 has described at length the recognition of the grandmother by the grandsons, who, according to Hellanicus, went to Troy for the purpose of rescuing or ransoming her (Scholiast on Eur. Hec. 123). The recognition was related also by Lesches (Paus. 10.25.8). Aethra had been taken prisoner at Athens by Castor and Pollux when they rescued their sister Helen. See above, Apollod. 3.7.4, Apollod. E.1.23. On the chest of Cypselus at Olympia the artist portrayed Helen setting her foot on Aethra's head and tugging at her handmaid's hair. See Paus. 5.19.3; Dio Chrysostom xi. vol. i. p. 179, ed. L. Dindorf.) And
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the Locrian Ajax, seeing Cassandra clinging to the wooden image of Athena, violated her; therefore they say that the image looks to heaven.
[*](As to the violence offered to Cassandra by Ajax, compare Arctinus, Ilii Persis, summarized by Proclus, in Epicorum Graecorum Fragmenta, ed. G. Kinkel, pp. 49ff.; Scholiast on Hom. Il. xiii.66, referring to Callimachus; Paus. 1.15.2; Paus. 5.11.6; Paus. 5.19.5; Paus. 10.26.3; Paus. 10.31.2; Quintus Smyrnaeus, Posthomerica xiii.420-429; Tryphiodorus, Excidium Ilii 647-650; Verg. A. 2.403-406; Dictys Cretensis v.12; Scriptores rerum mythicarum Latini, ed. Bode, i. p. 55 (First Vatican Mythographer 181). Arctinus described how, in dragging Cassandra from the image of Athena, at which she had taken refuge, Ajax drew down the image itself. This incident was carved on the chest of Cypselus at Olympia (Paus. 5.19.5), and painted by Polygnotus in his great picture of the sack of Troy at Delphi (Paus. 10.26.3). The Scholiast on Hom. Il. xiii.66 and Quintus Smyrnaeus describe how the image of Athena turned up its eyes to the roof in horror at the violence offered to the suppliant.) And having slain the Trojans, they set fire to the city and divided the spoil among them. And having sacrificed to all the gods, they threw Astyanax from the battlements[*](Compare Arctinus, Ilii Persis, summarized by Proclus, in Epicorum Graecorum Fragmenta, ed. G. Kinkel, p. 50; Eur. Tro. 719-739, Eur. Tro. 1133-1135; Eur. And. 8-11; Paus. 10.26.9; Quintus Smyrnaeus, Posthomerica xiii.251-257; Tryphiodorus, Excidium Ilii 644-646; Tzetzes, Scholiast on Lycophron 1263; Scholiast on Eur. Andr. 10; Ov. Met. 13.415-417; Hyginus, Fab. 109; Seneca, Troades 524ff., 1063ff. While ancient writers generally agree that Astyanax was killed by being thrown from a tower at or after the sack of Troy, they differ as to the agent of his death. Arctinus, as reported by Proclus, says merely that he was killed by Ulysses. Tryphiodorus reports that he was hurled by Ulysses from a high tower. On the other hand, Lesches in the Little Iliad said that it was Neoptolemus who snatched Astyanax from his mother's lap and cast him down from the battlements (Tzetzes and Paus. 10.26.9). According to Euripides and Seneca, the murder of the child was not perpetrated in hot blood during the sack of Troy but was deliberately executed after the capture of the city in pursuance of a decree passed by the Greeks in a regular assembly. This seems to have been the version followed by Apollodorus, who apparently regarded the death of Astyanax as a sacrifice, like the slaughter of Polyxena on the grave of Achilles. But the killing of Astyanax was not thus viewed by our other ancient authorities, unless we except Seneca, who describes how Astyanax leaped voluntarily from the wall while Ulysses was reciting the words of the soothsayer Calchas and invoking the cruel gods to attend the rite.) and slaughtered Polyxena on the
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grave of Achilles.
[*](As to the sacrifice of Polyxena on the grave of Achilles, see Arctinus, Ilii Persis, summarized by Proclus, in Epicorum Graecorum Fragmenta, ed. G. Kinkel, p. 50; Eur. Hec. 107ff.; Eur. Hec. 218ff.; Eur. Hec. 391-393; Eur. Hec. 521-582; Quintus Smyrnaeus, Posthomerica xiv.210-328; Tryphiodorus, Excidium Ilii 686ff.; Tzetzes, Scholiast on Lycophron 323; Hyginus, Fab. 110; Ov. Met. 13.439-480; Seneca, Troades 168ff., 938-944, 1118-1164; Dictys Cretensis v.13; Serv. Verg. A. 3.322. According to Euripides and Seneca, the ghost of Achilles appeared above his grave and demanded the sacrifice of the maiden. Others said that the spirit of the dead showed himself in a dream to Neoptolemus (so Quintus Smyrnaeus) or to Agamemnon (so Ovid). In Quintus Smyrnaeus the ghost threatens to keep the Greeks wind-bound at Troy until they have complied with his demand, and accordingly the offering of the sacrifice is followed by a great calm. Euripides seems to have contemplated the sacrifice, in primitive fashion, as a means of furnishing the ghost with the blood needed to quench his thirst (Eur. Hec. 391-393; Eur. Hec. 536ff.); but Seneca represents the ghost as desiring to have Polyxena as his wife in the Elysian Fields (Seneca, Troades 938-944). A more romantic turn is given to the tradition by Philostratus, who says that after the death of Achilles, and before the fall of Troy, the amorous Polyxena stole out from the city and stabbed herself to death on the grave of Achilles, that she might be his bride in the other world. See Philostratus, Her. xx.18; Philostratus, Vit. Apollon. iv.16.4. According to the usual tradition, it was Neoptolemus who slew the maiden on his father's tomb. Pictures of the sacrifice were to be seen at Athens and Pergamus (Paus. 1.22.6; Paus. 10.25.10). Sophocles wrote a tragedy on the theme. See The Fragments of Sophocles, ed. A. C. Pearson, vol. ii. pp. 161ff. ) And as special awards Agamemnon got Cassandra, Neoptolemus got Andromache, and Ulysses got Hecuba.
[*](Compare Quintus Smyrnaeus, Posthomerica xiv.20-23, who agrees with Apollodorus as to the partition of these captive women among the Greek leaders.) But some say that Helenus got her, and crossed over with her to the Chersonese
[*](This is the version of the story adopted by Dares Phrygius, who says that Helenus went to the Chersonese along with Hecuba, Andromache, and Cassandra (Dares Phrygius, De excidio Trojae 43).); and that there she turned into a bitch, and he buried her at the place now called the Bitch's Tomb.
[*](As to the transformation of Hecuba into a bitch, compare Eur. Hec. 1259-1273; Quintus Smyrnaeus, Posthomerica xiv.347-351; Dio Chrysostom xxxii. vol. ii. p. 20, ed. L. Dindorf; Agatharchides, De Erythraeo Mari, in Photius, Bibliotheca, p. 442a, ll. 23ff., ed. Bekker; Julius Pollux, v.45; Tzetzes, Scholiast on Lycophron 315, 1176; Excidium Ilii, Tusc. Disp. iii.26.63; Ov. Met. 13.565-571; Hyginus, Fab. 111; Serv. Verg. A. 3.6; Scriptores rerum mythicarum Latini, ed. G.H.Bode, i. p. 145 (Second Vatican Mythographer 209). A rationalistic version of the story is told by Dictys Cretensis v.16. We may conjecture that the fable of the transformation originated in the resemblance of the name Hecuba to the name Hecate; for Hecate was supposed to be attended by dogs, and Hecuba is called an attendant of Hecate (Tzetzes, Scholiast on Lycophron 1176).) As for Laodice, the fairest of the daughters of Priam, she was swallowed up by a chasm in the earth in the sight of all.
[*](Compare Quintus Smyrnaeus, Posthomerica xiii.544-551; Tryphiodorus, Excidium Ilii 660-663; Tzetzes, Posthomerica 736; Tzetzes, Scholiast on Lycophron 314.) When they
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had laid Troy waste and were about to sail away, they were detained by Calchas, who said that Athena was angry with them on account of the impiety of Ajax. And they would have killed Ajax, but he fled to the altar and they let him alone.
[*](Compare Arctinus, Ilii Persis, summarized by Proclus, in Epicorum Graecorum Fragmenta, ed. G. Kinkel, pp. 49ff. Ulysses advised the Greeks to stone Ajax to death for his crime against Cassandra (Paus. 10.31.2).)