16When day came and the Trojans saw the Greek camp deserted, they thought that the Greeks had fled. Overjoyed, they hauled the horse to the city, stationed it beside the palace of Priam, and debated what they should do. 17When Cassandra said that there was an armed force inside it and she received support from the seer Laocoon, some proposed that they should burn it, and others that they should throw it down a cliff; but the majority decided that they should spare it because it was an offering sacred to a deity, and they turned to sacrifice and feasting. 18A sign was then sent to them by Apollo; for two serpents swam across the sea from the islands nearby and devoured the sons of Laocoon.* 19When night fell and all were fast asleep, the Greeks sailed over from Tenedos, and Sinon lit a fire on the grave of Achilles to guide their way. And Helen walked around the horse and called out to the heroes within, imitating the voice of each of their wives; but when Anticlos wanted to answer, Odysseus covered his mouth.* 20When they judged that their enemies were asleep, they opened up the horse and climbed out with their weapons. Echion, son of Portheus, the first to emerge, was killed by the leap, but the others lowered themselves on a rope, made their way to the wall, and opened the gates to let in the Greeks who had sailed back from Tenedos.
The sack of Troy
21Advancing into the city fully armed, they entered the houses and killed the Trojans as they slept. Neoptolemos killed Priam, who had taken refuge at the altar of Zeus of the Courtyard. But when Odysseus and Menelaos recognized Glaucos, son of Antenor, fleeing to his house, they came to his rescue* arms in hand. Aeneas picked up his father Anchises and fled, and the Greeks allowed him to pass because of his piety.* 22Menelaos killed Deiphobos and led Helen away to the ships. Aithra,* the mother of Theseus, was led away also by Demophon and Acamas, the sons of Theseus (for they say that the two of them had later arrived at Troy*). The Locrian Aias saw Cassandra clinging to the wooden image of Athene and raped her; and for that reason, they say, the statue looks up towards the sky.*
23After killing the Trojans, they set fire to the city and divided the spoils. When they had sacrificed to all the gods, they hurled Astyanax from the ramparts* and slaughtered Polyxene* on the grave of Achilles. 24As a special honour, Agamemnon received Cassandra, and Neoptolemos received Andromache, and Odysseus Hecuba. According to some accounts, however, Hecuba was awarded to Helenos, who crossed over to the Chersonese with her, where she turned into a bitch and was buried by him at the place now called the Bitch’s Tomb.* 25As for Laodice, the most beautiful of Priam’s daughters,* the earth swallowed her up in chasm in full view of everyone. As the Greeks were about to sail off after sacking Troy, they were held back by Calchas, who said that Athene was angry with them because of the impiety of Aias. And they intended to kill him, but he took refuge by the altar* and they let him be.
14. The returns
Menelaos and Agamemnon quarrel; Calchas and Mopsos
1After these events, the Greeks gathered together in assembly,
6
and Agamemnon and Menelaos quarrelled, Menelaos advising that they should sail away and Agamemnon urging that they should remain and sacrifice to Athene.* Diomedes, Nestor, and Menelaos set out to sea together, and the first two had a favourable passage, but Menelaos ran into a storm, and losing the rest of his vessels, arrived in Egypt with only five ships.*
2Amphilochos, Calchas, Leonteus, Podaleirios, and Polypoites left their ships at Ilion and travelled on foot to Colophon, where they buried Calchas the diviner; for he had been told in an oracle that he would die if he met a better diviner than himself. 3Now they were received at Colophon by the diviner Mopsos, who was a son of Apollo and Manto,* and this Mopsos challenged Calchas to a contest in the art of divination. There was a wild fig tree growing there, and when Calchas asked, ‘How many figs is it carrying?’, Mopsos replied, ‘Ten thousand, or a bushel with one fig left over,’ which was discovered to be the case. 4Mopsos then questioned Calchas about a pregnant sow, asking, ‘How many piglets is she carrying in her womb?’ When Calchas replied, ‘Eight,’ Mopsos smiled and said, ‘The divination of Calchas is anything but exact, but I, who am a son of Apollo and Manto, am richly provided with the clarity of vision that arises from exact divination, and I maintain that there are not eight piglets, as Calchas says, but nine piglets in her womb; and I can say, furthermore, that all of them are males and will be born tomorrow at the sixth hour without a doubt.’* When this all turned out to be true, Calchas was so dejected that he died. He was buried at Notion.
Agamemnon sails with the main fleet; the storm at Tenos, and Nauplios the wrecker
5Agamemnon put to sea when he had offered his sacrifice, and called in at Tenedos. Neoptolemos was visited by Thetis,* who persuaded him to remain for two days and then offer a sacrifice; so he remained. But the others sailed off and were caught in a storm at Tenos (for Athene had appealed to Zeus to send a storm against the Greeks). And many ships were sunk.
6Athene hurled a thunderbolt at the ship of Aias, but when the ship broke up, Aias escaped to safety on a rock and proclaimed that he had saved himself against the goddess’s will. But Poseidon split the rock with a blow from his trident, and Aias fell into the sea and was killed.* His body was washed ashore and buried by Thetis at Myconos.
7When the others were driven towards Euboea by night, Nauplios* lit a beacon on Mount Caphereus, and the Greeks, thinking that it came from some comrades who had escaped, sailed towards it, only to have their vessels wrecked on the Capherian Rocks, with the loss of many lives.
8Now Palamedes, the son of Nauplios by Clymene, daughter of Catreus, had been stoned to death as a result of the intrigues of Odysseus.* And when Nauplios had come to hear of it, he had sailed to the Greeks and demanded restitution for the death of his son; 9but turning back with nothing achieved (because all the Greeks had wanted to gratify King Agamemnon, who had been involved with Odysseus in the murder of Palamedes), he had sailed along the coast of Greece contriving that the wives of the Greeks should be unfaithful to their husbands, Clytemnestra with Aigisthos, Aigialeia* with Cometes, son of Sthenelos, and Meda, wife of Idomeneus,* with Leucos. 10But Leucos killed Meda along with her daughter, Cleisithyra, who had taken refuge in a temple; and he then arranged the defection of ten Cretan cities and became their tyrant. And when Idomeneus landed in Crete after the Trojan War, Leucos drove him out. 11These, then, were the earlier machinations of Nauplios, and later, when he learned that the Greeks were returning home to their countries, he lit the beacon on Mount Caphereus, which is now called Xylophagos.* It was there that the Greeks approached the shore, supposing it to be a harbour, and met their deaths.
The fate of Neoptolemos; various wanderings and returns
12After he had remained in Tenedos for two days as Thetis had advised, Neoptolemos travelled by land to the country of the Molossians,* accompanied by Helenos. Along the way, Phoenix died, and Neoptolemos buried him. He became king of the Molossians after defeating them in battle, and had a son, Molossos, by Andromache. 13Helenos founded a city in Molossia, where he settled, and Neoptolemos gave him his mother, Deidameia, as a wife. When Peleus was expelled from Phthia by the sons of Acastos, and died, Neoptolemos recovered his father’s kingdom.*