TFBT; "Troy" by Walter Leaf

I recently purchased a copy of “Troy: A Study in Homeric Geography” by Walter Leaf.  (Ends up I did not get a real book, rather one of the Xeroxed copies where you see a person’s hand occasionally and badly bound in a hard cover.  The pages are already coming out of the binding.)  I find Leaf’s writing beautiful and his concepts way ahead of their time.  (Although I skipped the flat-out archeology bits.) He was writing about stuff in 1912, that I thought hadn’t been worked out until recently.  A few great quotes.  More to come. 

 

“The summit of Ida is a shapeless plateau, strewn with stones, and in itself most unlovely. But as the pasture of the plains below begins to die out in the heat of early summer, the fresh grass grows on the heights, and offers food to countless flocks and herds. And all round the fields of melting snow there springs up in May a glory of colour which those who have seen it are not likely to forget — crocus and hyacinth carpeting the slopes with brilliant orange and blue, mingled in thick beds worthy for the couch of gods.”

 

“It would seem to follow that there existed from the first some sort of a metrical narrative of the [Trojan] war... gradually transformed, by the natural growth of centuries, from a narrative into a poem, each generation taking up the tradition, and gradually moulding it by expansion and omission, to be handed on to the next for fresh development, till it reached its final form in the Iliad as we now have it.”

 

Leaf speaking of the Iliad, “the story which, of all that have ever been set down, has most affected the imagination of succeeding generations”

 

“Careful investigations by Virchow and others have failed to produce any sign of marine deposits in the plain, and it may be taken as certain that the coast-line did not in the Mycenaean age materially differ from that which now exists. Hissarlik [Troy] was as far from the sea then as it is now.”

 

“Skamandros, and Simoeis, where many cowhide-shields and helmets fell in the dust—as also a generation of demigods.”  (Iliad 12:22-23)

 

“One thing at least has passed for me beyond all doubt: that the poet who wrote those lines either knew the scene himself, or was following in careful detail a predecessor who had put into living words a tradition founded on real fighting in this very place.”

 

Referring to Achilles chasing Hector; “The triple course round the city is easy even now: it must have been still easier when the neck to the south-east of the fortress was materially lower than it is to-day. That it should be done in full accoutrement after a morning of hard fighting with river gods as well as men raises it to the level of a truly heroic performance.”

 

 

TFBT: I, the Goddess Casandra

Scamander, my native stream! Upon your sandy banks and flowery mead in bygone days, happy maid, was I nurtured with fostering care.[i]   You naiads of Troy, daughters of the god of the river, Lord Xanthus, I oft-times left on your father’s sands the combs that bind your hair, the bracelet that bind your wrists and slim ankles that array you for the dance on Mt. Ida. [ii]  I recall the elms, the willows and tamarisks, the clover, the rushes and the galingale, all those plants that grew in abundance by the lovely stream of the River.  [iii] 

My father was King Priam of Troy. Priam ruled from a magnificent palace, which was fronted by marble colonnades. In the main building there were fifty apartments of polished stone, where his sons lived with their wives. His daughters occupied the chambers in the building on the other side of the courtyard, and there they lived with the sons-in-law of the king. [iv]In his youth my father journeyed to the land of Phrygia, rich in vines, and there he saw in multitudes the Phrygian warriors, masters of glancing steeds, even the people of Otreus and godlike Mygdon, that were then encamped along the banks of Sangarius. Being their ally, he was numbered among them on the day when the Amazons came, the peers of men.[v] My mother was Hecuba, wife of Priam, mother of Hector, the invincible, steadfast pillar of Troy[vi].  My mother Hecuba dreamed once that she had borne a fire-brand.[vii]   

My twin brother Helenus and I were left by our parents in the shrine of the Thymbraean Apollo. There the Thymbrios River flows through the plain and empties into the River Skamandros.[viii]  The festival in honour of our birth was   held in the sanctuary. We fell asleep in the temple. Meantime our parents and their friends, flushed with wine, returned to Troy, forgetting all about us twins whose birth had given occasion to the festivity. Next morning, when they were sober, they returned to the temple and found the sacred serpents purging with their tongues the organs of sense in Helenus and I. Frightened by the cry which the women raised at the strange sight, the serpents disappeared among the laurel boughs upon which we slept. From that hour Helenus and I possessed the gift of prophecy.[ix]   In like manner Melampus is said to have acquired the art of soothsaying through the action of serpents which licked his ears.  He… 

“lived in the country, and before his house there was an oak, in which there was a lair of snakes. His servants killed the snakes, but Melampus gathered wood and burnt the reptiles, and reared the young ones. And when the young were full grown, they stood beside him at each of his shoulders as he slept, and they purged his ears with their tongues. He started up in a great fright, but understood the voices of the birds flying overhead, and from what he learned from them he foretold to men what should come to pass. He acquired besides the art of taking the auspices, and having fallen in with Apollo at the Alpheus he was ever after an excellent soothsayer.[x] 

In due time I would have my own interview with Apollo alongside a lovely river.   

My brother Helenus was a skillful observer of auguries, and knew the counsel of the gods [xi] but he was at the same time a warrior, and with Deiphobus he led the third host of the Trojans against the camp of the Greeks. (Il. xii. 94.)  His original name was Scamandrius, and that he received the name of Helenus from a Thracian soothsayer, who also instructed him in the prophetic art.[xii]  It was Helenus, who predicted that if that fire-brand Prince Alexander brought home an Achaean wife, the Greeks would pursue, and overpower Troy and slay our parents and brothers.[xiii]  Naturally when I heard of my father’s intentions in this regard my voice echoed my twin’s word.  My words told what the Trojans were going to suffer if he should sent a fleet into Greece.[xiv]  “I see thee, hapless city, fired a second time by Aeacide hands.”[xv]

With the war came my suitors; Othryoneus, Coroebus and Thoraiox, Lord of Ptoon

Othryoneus of Cabesus, came upon the rumour of war.  He asked to wed me, whom Homer called “the comeliest of the daughters of Priam”.  He brought no gifts of wooing, but promised he would drive out of Troy’s lands the sons of Achaeans. [xvi]  Some believe that he whispered in my ear about his homeland.  He told me of the sacred River Hebros, which flows, the most beautiful of rivers, past Ainos into the turbid sea, surging through the land of Thrace. And of the many maidens like me that visit the river to bathe their lovely thighs with tender hands; becoming enchanted as we handle his marvelous cleansing waters. [xvii]   Othryoneus was slain by Idomeneus.

Coroebus, the son of Mygdon came to marry me, and was killed, when Diomedes amid the war-storm met my spearman Coroebus, “and 'neath the left ribs pierced him with the lance …Ah fool! The bride he won not, Priam's child Cassandra, yea, his loveliest, for whose sake to Priam's burg but yesterday he came,  [xviii]

Apollo I spurned from my maiden bed,  the Lord of Ptoön, Ruler of the Seasons, Leader of the Muses, “as one who had taken eternal maidenhood for my portion to uttermost old age, in imitation of her who abhors marriage, even Pallas Athena ” [xix]  Or maybe I choose like Marpessa, because she feared that Apollo might desert her in her old age,  instead she chose Idas (a mortal) for her husband[xx]  Or maybe I chose like Achilles; If I stay here at Troy to await my destiny, then I will attain glory imperishable. Whereas if I go off to some new home, with the Lord of Delphi  then it is my glory genuine as it is, that will be destroyed for me, but my life will then last a long time, and the final moment of death will not be swift in catching up with me.[xxi]  Regardless, I had promised consent to Apollo but broke my word ... and ever after I could persuade no one of the truth of my utterances. [xxii]

Here my brother wisely insured his destiny parted from mine and he went on to attain his best possible fate; husband to the daughter of Eetion and King of Molossus. [xxiii]

That fateful night arrived;

 “So feasted they through Troy, and in their midst loud pealed the flutes and pipes: on every hand were song and dance, laughter and cries confused of banqueters beside the meats and wine. They, lifting in their hands the beakers brimmed, recklessly drank, till heavy of brain they grew, till rolled their fluctuant eyes. Now and again some mouth would babble the drunkard's broken words. The household gear, the very roof and walls seemed as they rocked: all things they looked on seemed whirled in wild dance. About their eyes a veil of mist dropped” [xxiv]

But one heart was steadfast, and one soul clear-eyed, mine!  And I paced as mid the hills a furious lioness with savage heart and abided my time.  [xxv]  That night the Horse birthed and the gates burst open. The city was set afire and flooded with blood.  I suppose you think it not odd, that I still a virgin should take sanctuary in the temple of the virgin-goddess Athena.  Did I know that Athena did not love us? (Iliad 6.310)  Did I know that the Locrian Ajax, would find me there clinging to the wooden image of Athena?  That he would drag me form there knocking the goddess’ image to the ground in the process?[xxvi]     Did I know that consequently the majority of the Danaans would die when gods sent a storm and contrary winds against them?  That my enemies and the enemies of my people upon returning home after the destruction of my home and the division of our wealth would wreck on the Cepharean Rocks thanks to the anger of the gods? 

I am the loveliest of Priam’s daughters so naturally when the loot was portioned out I received as my prize, finally,  a husband the greatest of the Achaean kings; Agamemnon. 

For those who don’t know the story, men die.  So do women, but my husband shall be called Zeus-Agamemnon in Sparta, obtaining highest honours from the descendants of Gorgophone.^[xxvii]   Nor shall my name be unsung and unhonored among men, nor fade hereafter in the darkness of oblivion for I shall long be called an immortal goddess.^[xxviii]   

And it will be said of me and mine that;

 “Zeus the son of Kronos made a noble and righteous god-like generation of heroes who are called demi-gods throughout the boundless earth. Grim war and dread battle destroyed a part of them, some in the land of Kadmos at seven-gated Thebe when they fought for the flocks of Oidipous, and some, when it had brought them in ships over the great sea gulf to Troy for rich-haired Helen's sake: there death's end enshrouded a part of them . But to the others father Zeus the son of Kronos gave a living and an abode apart from men, and made them to dwell at the ends of earth. They live untouched by sorrow in the Islands of the Blessed along the shore of deep swirling Okeanos, happy heroes for whom the grain-giving earth bears honey-sweet fruit flourishing thrice a year.”[xxix]    

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[i] “Agamemnon” Aeschylus

[ii] THE RAPE OF HELEN by Colluthus TRANSLATED BY A. W. MAIR

[iii] Homer, Iliad 21. 211

[iv] (Iliad 6.240)

[v] (Iliad 3.182) 

[vi] Odyssey 2.89

[vii] Lychophron, Alexandra 216, footnote 7

[viii] Strabo, Geography 13. 1. 35

[ix] Pausanias 10.27.1] XXVII

[x] Apollodorus, Library 1.9.11

[xi] (Hom. Il. vi. 76, vii. 44; Apollod. iii. 12. § 5);

[xii] (Eustath. ad Hom. p. 626.)

[xiii] Dares of Phrygia History of the Fall of Troy 7

[xiv] Dares of Phrygia History of the Fall of Troy 8

[xv] Lychophron, Alexandra 31

[xvi] Hom. Il. xiii. 363

[xvii] Alcaeus, Fragment 45a (trans. Campbell, Vol. Greek Lyric I) (C7th to 6th B.C  http://www.theoi.com/Potamos/PotamosHebros.html

[xviii] QUINTUS SMYRNAEUS 13 Quintus Smyrnaeus. The Fall of Troy. Translated by Way. A. S. Loeb Classical Library Volume 19. 190] London: William Heinemann, 1913  http://www.theoi.com/Text/QuintusSmyrnaeus1.html

[xix] Callimachus, Hymns and Epigrams. (352-353):Lycophron. Aratus. Translated by Mair, A. W. & G. R. Loeb Classical Library Volume 129. London: William Heinemann, 1921.  Book 1 http://www.theoi.com/Text/LycophronAlexandra.html

[xx] Apollodorus. The Library. Translated by Sir James George Frazer. Loeb Classical Library Volumes 121 & 122. [1.7.9] Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1921  http://www.theoi.com/Text/Apollodorus1.html

[xxi] Iliad 9.413

[xxii] Aeschylus, Agamemnon 1208

[xxiii] Pausanias [1.11.2]

[xxiv] Quintus Smyrnaeus 13.1 The Fall of Troy. Translated by Way. A. S. Loeb Classical Library Volume 19. London: William Heinemann, 1913  http://www.theoi.com/Text/QuintusSmyrnaeus1.html

[xxv] Quintus Smyrnaeus. 12.565 & [12.625]]  The Fall of Troy. Translated by Way. A. S. Loeb Classical Library Volume 19. London: William Heinemann, 1913  http://www.theoi.com/Text/QuintusSmyrnaeus1.html

[xxvi] [Apollodours EPITOME OF THE LIBRARY, TRANS. BY J. G. FRAZERE.5.22]

[xxvii] http://shortstories-bill.blogspot.com/2013/01/wfbt-divine-descendants-of-gorgophone.html

[xxviii]

[xxix] Hesiod, Works and Days 156

TFBT: Review of the "Destruction of Troy"

Memnon at Hour 25 recently pointed out a on-line posting of Destruction of Troy by an anonymous author.  https://archive.org/details/ExcidiumTroiae [i]

This short piece is apparently a medieval romance written in Latin.  It reviews all the details relating to the epic cycle, starting with the wedding of Peleus and Thetis and ending with the founding of Rome.  Apparently the author had neither Greek or Hesiod, but relies heavily on Virgil. Polyxena betrayed the secret of Achilles heel.  There are numerous typos and confused genealogies, but on occasion the story gives a different bent on our understanding of the epic tales or the perfect phrase.  The bulk of the beautiful language flew off to the tweeter sphere under WilliamMoulton2,  leaving here some thoughts for your consideration and contemplation.
 

Ares and Paris

The first story to discuss is Paris' expertise in training bulls to fight one another.  Paris is a Trojan prince and the story takes plays when he tended livestock outside the city.

 

 "Mars (Ares), being in the form of a bull, fought Paris’ bull, and Mars stood as the victor. Then Paris, seeing Mars in the form of a bull, surmounted his bull and gave Mars the crown which he previously put on his bull. And because he served justice and he did not hinder himself, he was called a just judge. This opinion of him spread out."

 I don’t  know this story.  I recall Ares taking the form of a boar to slay Adonis (Nonnus, dionysusica 42.1). But that was a matter of love and jealousy not athletics.  Zeus and Poseidon both take on animal forms occasionally, but that too is for love.  Zeus seduces Leda as swan, Europa as a bull, Antiope as satyr.  Poseidon took on a the form of a horse to rape his sister Demeter.   If I was looking for a comparative myth to understand Ares as a bull in a competition, I needed to think less literally

I vaguely recalled the story of Androgeus. A little explanation here.  King Minos of Crete was supposed to   beautiful bull sent to him by Poseidon, god of the sea.  Instead he kept it.  It went wild and all sorts of problem occurred.  Eventually, as one of his Labors, Heracles came and took the bull way to Greece.  It was released there and became a problem again.  Several heroes tried to deal with the bull including Prince Androgeus of Crete, Minos son while he was attending a funeral there near Marathon.  Androgeus died, Minos attacked Athens in revenge which lead to the Athenian Prince Theseus going to Crete and fighting Androgeus' half-brother the Minotaur, another bull.  But that is another story.  Here is what Apollodorus has to say about Androgeus' death.

"But he himself came to Athens and celebrated the games of the Panathenian festival, in which Androgeus, son of Minos, vanquished all comers. Him Aegeus sent against the bull of Marathon, by which he was destroyed. But some say that as he journeyed to Thebes to take part in the games in honor of Laius, he was waylaid and murdered by the jealous competitors. (Apollodorus Bibliotheca 3.15.7)  

You can find further discussion and explanation at item 332 in “Notes on Book 3 of the Library of Apollodorus” by J. G. Frazer.  So, what the stories have in common is;

• a divine bull; Ares/Poseidon's Bull,  
• competition; shepherds with their bulls on Mt. Ida / the competitors at the funeral of Laius  
• finally two princes who do or do not understand proper behavior in these situations; Paris/Androgeus.  The Cretan prince might have benefitted from the advice of Odysseus as we all might;

(Bk VIII:199-255 ) Noble and long-suffering Odysseus was pleased by her words, happy to find a genuine supporter at the games. He spoke to the Phaeacians now with a lighter heart...if anyone has the courage and the spirit, let him come and prove himself, in boxing, wrestling, running, it matters not: let any of you Phaeacians try, except Laodamas. For he’s my host, and who would quarrel with the one who shows him hospitality? Only a worthless idiot would challenge the man who welcomes him to a foreign land. He would ruin his own good luck… When we Achaeans fought at Troy only Philoctetes surpassed me (at archery). But I count myself the best by far of all the other mortal men on earth, who eat their bread. Still, I would not claim to compete with Hercules, or Oechalian Eurytus, archers who vied with the gods. That’s why great Eurytus died swiftly, and never reached old age in his halls, because Apollo, challenged to an archery contest, killed him in anger.

The Judgment of Paris

                                                                                                               

Traditionally the story of the judgment of Paris is a as follows as told by Helen and Ovid at Heroides 17: [115]

 "You say Venus (Aphrodite) gave her word for this; and that in the vales of Ida three goddesses presented themselves unclad before you; and that when one of them would give you a throne, and the second glory in war, the third said: “The daughter of Tyndareus shall be your bride!” I can scarce believe "  

I have to agree with the woman who was the admitted first cause of all time and all history.   Can’t believe that the virgin-goddess Athena and the pompous Queen of the Gods would bare it all before a lowly shepherd.  Below is the description of the Judgment from "Destruction of Troy";  

 

"Venus (Aphrodite), covered with a purple cloak,  holding the cloak before herself with two fingers, went forth towards him, and when she stood before him, with the cloak released she appeared nude to him. She thus said to Paris: ‘I will give you a fairer wife, so judge me the most beautiful.’ He, seeing indeed the appearance of the goddess or virgin, that she has young age, incensed with the rage of lust he said to her: ‘I judge you the fairest of all".

Only Aphrodite got naked!  That’s a lot more believable than the usual version.

Thetis and Fairy Lore

 

"Achilles, was son of Peleus and  (Thetis) that when his mother had been struggling, holding his heel with her two fingers, with his head down she dipped him in the water of the underworld which is called Styx. And then he was made to stand, thus iron could not pierce him in any way, unless only in the heel where his mother’s fingers held him when she dipped him."  

According to Wikipedia (Iron in Folklore) "..,iron is historically believed to repel, contain, or harm ghosts, fairies, witches, and/or other...supernatural creatures. ". Thetis the primer "fairy wife" seems to be protecting her halfing son from the affects of iron specifically.  Ironically, the Destruction of Troy mentions no iron tip on the arrow that killed Achilles. " Paris the king’s son, Hector’s brother shot his arrow at Achilles in his heel, and because he had toxified the arrow with poison, the poison stung through Achilles’ limb." No mention of iron 

Not Xanthus and Balius 

"Achilles commanded two untamed horses be joined to a chariot, and Hector’s body be bound by his ankles behind the chariot and be dragged past the walls."  This is an interesting point.  Would Xanthus and Balius agreed to this!  The horses that showed so much sensitivity at the death of Patroclus (Homer, Iliad 17. 426 ) They would participate in the desecration of Hector's handsome frame?  

Raptured Ganymede  

The text makes referenced to “raptured Ganymede’s honors."  This is a nice euphemism for rape and immortality.  I mention it here, because of  my favorite painting by Rubens; Rape of the Daughters of Leucippus.  Greek mythology is full of references to “rapes”.  The word is used universally, but I’ve never thought always accurately.  In Rubens work, Castor and Polydeuces discover their cousins Hilaria and Phoebe out skinny-dipping in the middle of nowhere.  (Greek goddesses did this surprising often.)  The twins are not ripping of their own clothes and joining the ladies as one would expect in a “rape” .  Rather they are using the girls beach towels to hoist them aboard their horses.  The take the girls home, introduce them to their mother whom they already knew and wed. Oh, they all and their sons became goddess and goddesses. Besides calling this a rape, we could call it a traditional bride abduction.  Likewise the rape of young Ganymede, admittedly a rape by our standards also involved abduction and immortalization.  “Rapture” just adds another variation on rape for us to consider.

Conclusion 

In short Destruction of Troy offers us a new myth about Paris and Ares and a new way to consider the death of Androgeus, son of Minos, a more believeable version of the Judgment of Paris,  fairy tale twist on Achilles,  variation on his horses Xanthus and Balius and another perspective on the word “rape” in Greek mythology. 

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[i] Translated by Muhammad Syarif Fadhlurrahman[ http://www.upwork.com/freelancers/~0104febefc5dbc9ddb ] Sponsored by http://mitologia.blogs.sapo.pt Dedicated to João A.