Page:History of the Literature of Ancient Greece (Müller) 2ed.djvu/88

66 66 HISTORY OF THE tory of the wooden horse, the careless security of the Trojans, and the de- struction of Laocoon, which induces iEneas to flee for safety to Ida before the impending destruction of the town*. The sack of Troy by the Greeks returning from Tenedos, and issuing from the Trojan horse, was described so as to display in a conspicuous manner the arrogance and mercilessness of the Greeks, and to occasion the resolution of Athene, already known from the Odyssey, to punish them in various ways on their return home. This last part, when divided from the preceding, was called the Destruction of Troy ('IX/ow irepan) ; the former, com- prising the events up to the death of Achilles, the Aethiopis of Arc- tinus. § 3. Lesches, or Lescheus, from Mytilene, or Pyrrha, in the island of Lesbos, was considerably later than Arctinus; the best authorities concur in placing him in the time of Archilochus, or about Olymp. xviii. Hence the account which we find in ancient authors of a contest between Arctinus and Lesches can only mean that the later competed with the earlier poet in treating the same subjects. His poem, which was attributed by many to Homer, and, besides, to very different authors, was called the Little Iliad, and was clearly intended as a sup- plement to the great Iliad. We learn from Aristotle t that it comprised the events before the fall of Troy, the fate of Ajax, the exploits of Phi- loctetes, Neoptolemus, and Ulysses, which led to the taking of the town, as well as the account of the destruction of Troy itself: which statement is confirmed by numerous fragments. The last part of this (like the first part of the poem of Arctinus) was called the Destruction of Troy ; from which Pausanias makes several quotations, with reference to the sacking of Troy, and the partition and carrying away of the prisoners. It is evident from his citations that Lesches, in many important events (e. g-., the death of Priam, the end of the little Astyanax, and the fate of jEneas, whom he represents Neoptolemus as taking to Pharsalus), fol- lowed quite different traditions from Arctinus. The connexion of the several events was necessarily loose and superficial, and without any unity of subject. Hence, according to Aristotle, whilst the Iliad and Odyssey only furnished materials for one tragedy each, more than eight might be formed out of the Little Iliad. Hence, also, the opening of the vEneid chiefly followed Arctinus. t Poet. c. 23, ad fin. ed. Bekker. (c. 38, ed. Tyrwhitt.) Ten are mentioned by Aristotle, viz., "OxXav Kg'ari;, $ioxrnrn;, tHioirroXipo;, 'EupuwXt>$, Ilru^uot. (see Od. iv. 244), hu.x.a.mx.1, 'IA/su viptris, ' AvotXov;, Itteov, T/iuiabi;. Among these tragedies the subject of the Adxaivxi is not apparent. The name of course means " Lacedaemonian women ;" who, as the attendants of Helen, formed the chorus. Helen played a chief part in the adventures of Ulysses as a spy in Tro) : the subject of the Tlra^tia above mentioned. Or perhaps Helen was represented as the accomplice of the heroes in the wooden horse. See Od. iv. 271. Compare JEneid. vi. 517. Of Sophocles' tragedy of this name only a few fragments are extant : Nos. 336—9, ed. Dindorf.
 * Quite differently from Virgil, who in other respects has in the second book of