Page:History of Greece Vol I.djvu/334

 302 HISTORY OF GREECE Neoptoleraus were numerous, worthy of the glory of his race and the renown of his father. He encountered and slew Eurypylus, together with numbers of the Mysian warriors : he routed the Trojans and drove them within their walls, from whence they never again emerged to give battle : nor was he less distinguished for his good sense and persuasive diction, than for forward energy in the field. 1 Troy however was still impregnable so long as the Palladium, a statue given by Zeus himself to Dardanus, remained in the citadel; and great care had been taken by the Trojans not only to conceal this valuable present, but to construct other statues so like it as to mislead any intruding robber. Nevertheless the enterprising Odysseus, having disguised his person with miserable clothing and self-inflicted injuries, found means to penetrate into the city and to convey the Palladium by stealth away : Helen alone recognized him ; but she was now anxious to return to Greece, and even assisted Odysseus in concerting means for the capture of the town. 2 To accomplish this object, one final stratagem was resorted to. By the hands of Epeius of Panopeus, and at the suggestion of Athene, a capacious hollow wooden horse was constructed, capable of containing one hundred men : the elite of the Grecian heroes, Neoptolemus, Odysseus, Menelaus and others, concealed them- selves in the inside of it, and the entire Grecian army sailed away time of Pausanias. Telephus, father of Eurypylus. was the local hero and mythical king of Teuthrania, in which Pergamus was situated. In the hymns there sung, the proem and the invocation were addressed to Telephus j but nothing was said in them about Eurypylus, nor was it permitted even to mention his name in the temple, " they knew him to be the slayer of Ma- chaon : " apxovTai p.ev UTTO TriTifyov TUV v/nvuv, TrpoatfSovai 6e oidev ( rdv Evpinruhov, oiide upxrjv kv T& vau> dehovaiv bvofiu&iv aiirov, ola hrufT&fUlUt Qovea ovra Ma^aovof (Pausan. iii. 26, 7). The combination of these qualities in other Homeric chiefs is noted in a subsjquent chapter of his work, ch. xx. vol. ii. 1 Argument. Iliad. Minor, p. 17, Diintzer. Homer, Odyss. xi. 510-520. Pausan. iii. 26, 7. Quint. Smyrn. vii. 553 ; viii. 201. 2 Argument. Iliad. Minor, p. 18, Diintz. ; Arctinus ap. Dionys. Hal. i. 69; Homer, Odyss. iv. 246; Quint. Smyrn. x. 354 : Virgil, jEneid. ii. 164, and the 9th Excursus of Heyne on that book. Compare with this legend about the Palladium, the Roman legend respect Ing the Ancylia (Ovid, Fasti, III. 381 ).