possible to send a ship to Egypt, in order to obtain information upon a subject so interesting to an entire kingdom and a large invading army. It is inconceivable, taking the facts assumed by Herodotus, that such a contest should have been continued for ten years through a mere mistake. If Priam would have been insane for fighting so long on account of Helen, he appears scarcely wiser in allowing the war to last for ten years, when he might without serious difficulty have proved to the Greeks that the supposed cause of offence had no existence in reality. The belief in the connexion of Menelaus with Egypt doubtless originated in the narrative of the Odyssey"; but the notion of Helen not having gone to Troy, is, in all probability, to be referred to the celebrated Palinodia of Stesichorus; whence it passed, directly or indirectly, to the Egyptian priests seen by Herodotus 16. The story of Stesichorus (partially followed by Euripides in his tragedy), is as decidedly mythical as the old epic account, and involves the purely supernatural incident of the eïdwλor of Helen. The object of this version of the fable is, not to diminish its improbability, or to invest it with a seemingly historical character, but to save the honour of Helen and Greece, which was tainted by her flight with the Phrygian adulterer". Euripides indeed supposes her to have been placed by Hermes in Egypt 20, in the custody of 17 IV. 351-586. 18 The Proteus of the Odyssey, a seagod, and a thoroughly marvellous being, (whose daughter, Eidothea, is moreover a goddess,) appears in the story of the Egyptian priests as king of Egypt. The name of Proteus, and his connexion with Menelaus, must have been borrowed by the Egyptian priests from the Homeric account. In the tragedy of Euripides, Eidothea (under the name of Theonoë) is the daughter of King Proteus, but so far retains her divine character that she is skilled in divination. See Hermann on v. 11. Concerning Proteus, see Nitzsch, Anm. zur Od. Vol. 1. p. 270. 19 Concerning the purpose of Stesichorus, see Müller, Hist. of Greek Lit. ch. xiv. § 5. Schneidewin Poes. Gr. p. 330-2. For the Helena of Euripides, see v. 720-1, 881-3. 20 Eur. Hel. 44-8. The legendary character of the accounts of the Trojan war is well exhibited in the treatment which the person of Helen receives from the hands of Euripides. In the Helena, she is an affectionate and virtuous wife, who is deposited safely, by the care of the gods, in Egypt, until Menelaus recognizes her, and by a stratagem (in which he risks his life) conveys her out of the country. In the Troades, he follows the epic view of Helen, and he moreover represents Menelaus as resolved to kill her, after he had recovered her at Troy, v.860-1059. Hermann, Præf. ad Helen. p. viii, citing the remark of Valckenaer on Herod. 11. 116, that Herodotus had probably read the Helena of Euripides, remarks that more probably Euripides had read Herodotus. Perhaps a more probable supposition still, is, that each followed Stesichorus independently of the other. On the Proteus; but Stesichorus represented her as having never left Sparta in her own proper person 21. The preceding examples illustrate the essential distinction between the poetical legends of Greece and genuine matter of fact, and exhibit the failure of the attempts which were made, even by the ablest and best-informed of the Greeks themselves, to extract truth out of their mythology. They likewise show the absurdity of criticising the mythical narratives according to the ordinary rules of probability, and of expecting to find in them such a coherent series of events as would occur in an authentic history of real political and military events. The tendency of mind, and spirit of criticism, which have been thus briefly characterised, appear, in a remarkable manner, in some observations on the second book of the Eneid, which Napoleon dictated at St. Helena, and which have been published by his valet-de-chambre, M. Marchand, in a volume containing a detailed and highly-interesting military commentary on the wars of Cæsar, equally by Napoleon". The purpose of these observations is indeed different from the aim of the rationalising criticisms which have been cited from Thucydides and Herodotus, inasmuch as they do not profess to transmute fable into history; but they analyse Virgil's account of the taking of Troy, as if it was an historical event, and make no allowance for the poetical and imaginative character of the materials out of which it is formed. The imperial critic begins by observing that the second book of the Eneid is considered as the finest part of that poem; but that although it deserves this reputation on account of its style, its matter is entitled to far less praise. "The wooden horse may have been a popular tradition; but the tradition is a ridiculous one, and quite unworthy of an epic Ελένης ἁρπαγὴ of Sophocles, i. e. her removal from Troy by Menelaus, see Welcker Griech. Trag. Vol. 1. p. 158–61. 21 Proteus, in the Odyssey, informs Menelaus that he is not to die, but to be carried by the gods to the happy Elysian plain at the extremity of the earth, because he is the husband of Helen, and son-in-law of Zeus; IV. 569. There was a temple of Helen at Sparta; Herod. VI. 61. According to a legend of the Crotoniats and Himeræans, Helen lived after death in the island of Leuce in the Black Seama sort of μακάρων νῆσος. as the wife of Achilles; Paus. III. 19, § 11-13. 22 Précis des Guerres de César, par Napoléon, écrit par M. Marchand, à l'île Sainte Helène, sous la dictée de l'empereur, suivi de plusieurs fragmens inédits. Paris, 1836. 1 vol. 8vo. poem. There is nothing similar in the Iliad, where everything is conformable to reality and the practices of war. How can one suppose the Trojans to have been so silly as not to send a fishing-boat to the island of Tenedos, in order to ascertain if the thousand vessels of the Greeks had staid there, or were really gone? But in fact the roadstead of Tenedos could be seen from the top of the towers of Ilion. How can one believe that Ulysses and the picked men of the Greeks would have been so senseless as to shut themselves up in a wooden horse; that is to say, to deliver themselves, bound hand and foot, to their implacable enemies? Supposing that this horse contained only 100 warriors, its weight must have been enormous; and it is not probable that it could have been brought from the sea-shore to the walls of Troy in one day, especially as it had two rivers to cross." "The entire episode of Sinon is improbable and absurd; the resources of the poet, and the eloquence of the speech which he puts in Sinon's mouth, do not at all diminish its absurdity. But it is necessary that the horse should be introduced into the city, on the very day that the Greeks go away; without which, it would be still more incredible that the 1000 ships of the Greeks could remain concealed so near to Troy." "The beautiful and pleasing episode of Laocoon requires no recommendation, but cannot at all diminish the absurdity of the conduct of the Trojans; since it would have been easy to leave the wooden horse for a few days in its place in the camp, and to ascertain that the enemy's fleet had sailed, before throwing down the walls in order to admit the horse into the town.' As we write for philological, not military readers, it is scarcely necessary for us to say that, however much we may be impressed with Virgil's general inferiority to Homer, we cannot concur in the compliment which is here paid to the Greek poet at his expence. It is true that the wooden horse is not mentioned in the Iliad, because the plan of the poem did not admit of its mention". But it is described in the Odyssey with a transparent simplicity, through which the improbability of the contrivance shews itself far more plainly, than it can be perceived under the covering of the diversified and artful narrative in the second Æneid. Heyne in his Excursus on the Trojan horse (Exc. 3 ad Æn. 11.), lays 23 It seems to be alluded to in Iliad, xv. 71; but the three verses, 69-71, are probably interpolated. See Heyne ad loc. Vol. VII. p. 20-1. much stress on the ingenuity with which Virgil has treated this ancient and improbable story. "Gravior observatio (he says) forte est illa, qua arte poeta fabulam per se puerilem et nullam #davórηra habentem ita tractaverit, ut nihil nos in ea offendat, multa delectent." The speciousness of the story, as related by Virgil, is owing, according to Heyne, partly to its antiquity, which induces us to acquiesce in some improbability; and partly to the skill and judgment with which everything that could lower the dignity of the narrative is kept out of sight, and with which cir cumstances tending to conceal the improbability of the incident are introduced. Thus, because it would be an act of the utmost folly to introduce the horse into the walls, after the suspicion of its containing armed men had once arisen, the poet employs the powerful incentives of religion to impel them forward; viz. the stratagem of Sinon, and the prodigy of Laocoon. The remark of Napoleon upon the ignorance of war shewn by Virgil as compared with Homer, applies with much truth to the battles in the latter books of the Æneid; but although all the details of the combats in the Iliad are admirable, and seem to shew that the poet had had personal experience in the matter", yet the narrative generally, even in the accounts of the battles, is quite as marvellous and remote from fact as that of the Æneid. There is no doubt that the conduct of the fated Trojans, as described in the poetical legend followed by Virgil, is altogether indefensible upon strategical principles, or even upon the mere principles of common sense. They would have acted more prudently and wisely, if they had adopted the precautions indicated by Napoleon, and would probably have prevented their city from being taken. But their folly in this respect is (as has been truly remarked) of the very essence of the old legend. The Trojans are predestined by the gods to destruction; their mental blindness is at once the sign and the cause of their impending fate; they are, through the divine irony, the willing and infatuated instruments of their own ruin: their ears are shut against the seasonable admonitions of Laocoon and Cassandra. 24 Iliacus poeta ipse bella gessisse et arma tractasse videtur; atque ideo omnia, quæ ex eorum usu fierent, summa scientia et simplici et severa veritate, ut experientia edoctus, et expertorum judicium subiturus, copiose et facunde in carmi nibus exhibet, neque dum singulorum hominum vires ultra modum, pro captu tamen audientium, auget et extollit, mortem ullius vulneri non fatali aut alii non idoneæ causæ usquam tribuit.' Payne Knight, Prol. in Hom. § 48. Scandit fatalis machina muros, Feta armis. Pueri circum innuptæque puellæ En. 11. 237-47. With respect to Napoleon's remarks on the episodes of Sinon and Laocoon, we cannot admit that their poetical beauty does not more than compensate for their improbability. If the events in Homer and Virgil were reduced to the ordinary standard, would they not lose in poetical interest far more than they would gain in probability? The narrative, in proportion as it approximated to a despatch, would recede from poetry. Napoleon might have remembered that even writers of bulletins have found that fiction is sometimes better fitted than truth to produce emotion. It is to be regretted that, amongst Napoleon's suite at St. Helena, there was no philologist who could point out to him the ingenious attempts which were made by the ancients to explain away the Trojan horse, and to substitute for the poetical narrative preferred by Virgil one more consonant with probability. With what satisfaction would he have learnt the suggestion of Hyginus and Tubero, that it was a machine for battering walls, called equus, as other similar machines were called aries and testudo? or the supposition of others, that a horse was painted over the gate which Antenor, by treachery, opened to the Greeks? Again, he might have been informed that some supposed the word horse to have been the watchword by which the Greeks distinguished friends and enemies during the sack of the town; or that a horse was painted upon the doors of Antenor and the other Trojans who had betrayed their city to the Greeks, in order that their houses might be spared; while others thought the origin of the story to have been that Troy was taken by a battle of cavalry; or that the mountain behind which the Greeks concealed themselves was named Hippius 25. 25 All these explanations may be seen in Servius on En. 11. 15. He himself approves of the supposition that the horse was a battering machine. Pausanias is of the same opinion; he thinks that unless the Trojans are supposed to have been perfect fools, the horse of Epeius must have been a machine for destroying the walls. 1. 23, § 8. |