Page:History of Greece Vol I.djvu/337

 CAPTURE OF TROY. 305 city to the Greeks : a panther's skin had been hung over the door of Antenor's house as a signal for the victorious besiegers to spare it in the general plunder. 1 In the distribution of the prin- cipal captives, Astyanax, the infant son of Hector, was cast from the top of the wall and killed, by Odysseus or Neoptolemus : Polyxena, the daughter of Priam, was immolated on the tomb of Achilles, in compliance with a requisition made by the shade of the deceased hero to his countrymen ; 2 while her sister Kassandra was presented as a prize to Agamemnon. She had sought sanctuary at the altar of Athene, where Ajax, the son of Oileus, making a guilty attempt to seize her, had drawn both upon him- self and upon the army the serious wrath of the goddess, insomuch that the Greeks could hardly be restrained from stoning him to death. 3 Andromache and Helenus were both given to Neopto- lemus, who, according to the Ilias Minor, carried away also JEneas as his captive. 4 Helen gladly resumed her union with Menelaus : she accom- panied him back to Sparta, and lived with him there many years in comfort and dignity, 5 passing afterwards to a happy immortality 1 This symbol of treachery also figured in the picture of Polygnotus. A different story appears in Schol. Iliad, iii. 206. 2 Euripid. Hecub. 38-114, and Troad. 716; Lesches ap.Pausan. x. 25, 9; Virgil, JEneid, iii. 322, and Servius ad loc. A romantic tale is found in Diktys respecting the passion of Achilles for Polyxena (iii. 2). 3 Odyss. xi. 422. Arktinus, Argum. p. 21, Diintz. Theognis, 1232 Pausan. i. 15, 2; x. 26, 3 ; 31, 1. As an expiation of this sin of their national hero, the Lokrians sent to Ilium periodically some of their maidens, to do menial service in the temple of Athene (Plutarch. Ser. Numin. Vindict p. 557, with the citation from Euphorion or Kallimachus, Diintzer, Epicc. Vet. p. 118). 4 Lesches, Fr. 7, DQntz.; ap. Schol. Lycophr. 1263. Compare Schol. ad. 1232, for the respectful recollection of Andromache, among the traditions of ths Molossian kings, as their heroic mother, and Strabo, xiii. p. 594. Such is the story of the old epic ("see Odyss. iv. 260, and the fourth book generally; Argument of Ilias Minor, p. 20. DOntz.). Polygnotus, in thu paintings above alluded to, followed the same tale (Pausan. x. 25, 3^. The anger of the Greeks against Helen, and the statement that Menelaus after the capture of Troy approached her with revengeful purposes, but was so mollified by her surpassing beauty as to cast away his uplifted sword, belongs to the age of the tragedians (JEschyl. Agamem. 685-1455 : Eurip, VOL, I. 200C.