The Story of Troy Part 22

Thus driven from his own country Idomeneus sailed westward until he came to the southern coast of Italy, where he founded the city and colony of Sal-len'tia, and lived to an extreme old age.

The fate of Ajax Oileus, king of Locris, was almost as terrible as that of Agamemnon. On the night of the destruction of Troy he had cruelly ill-treated the princess Ca.s.sandra, whom he dragged from the altar of the temple of Minerva, to which she had fled for refuge. Even the Greeks themselves were shocked at the crime, and they threatened to punish him for it. He was, however, allowed to set sail for Greece. But Minerva borrowed from Jupiter his flaming thunderbolts, and, obtaining permission from Neptune, she raised a furious tempest, which destroyed the Locrian king's s.h.i.+p. He himself swam to a rock, and as he sat there he defiantly cried out that he was safe in spite of all the G.o.ds. This insult to the immortals brought upon him the wrath of Neptune, who, smiting the rock with his awful trident, hurled the impious Ajax into the depths of the sea.

He had said That he, in spite of all the G.o.ds, would come Safe from those mountain waves. When Neptune heard The boaster's challenge, instantly he laid His strong hand on the trident, smote the rock And cleft it to the base. Part stood erect, Part fell into the deep. There Ajax sat, And felt the shock, and with the falling ma.s.s Was carried headlong to the billowy depths Below, and drank the brine and perished there.

BRYANT, _Odyssey_, Book IV.

The venerable Nestor reached his home without misfortune or accident He ended his days in peace in his kingdom of Pylos, though he had to mourn the loss of his brave son Antilochus, whom Memnon had slain.

Diomede also reached his kingdom of aetolia, but he found that in his absence his home had been seized by a stranger. This was a punishment sent upon him by Venus, whom, as we have seen, he had wounded in the hand at the siege of Troy.

"Mad as I was, when I, with mortal arms, Presumed against immortal powers to move, And violate with wounds the queen of love."

VERGIL.

Quitting his kingdom and country, the warrior wandered to other lands.

He finally settled in the south of Italy, where he built a city, which he called Ar-gyr'i-pa, and married the daughter of Dau'nus, the king of the country.

Great Diomede has compa.s.sed round with walls The city, which Argyripa he calls, From his own Argos named.

VERGIL.

Neoptolemus, or Pyrrhus, the son of Achilles, returned to Phthia, where his grandfather, Peleus, still lived and reigned. He took with him Andromache and Helenus, the only one of Priam's sons who lived after the destruction of Troy. Pyrrhus, died a few years after his return, and Andromache became the wife of Helenus. The Trojan prince soon gained the friends.h.i.+p of Peleus, who gave him a kingdom in E-pi'rus to rule over, and here he and Andromache spent the remainder of their lives together.

But no one of all the warrior chiefs of Greece who fought at Troy met with so many dangers in returning to his native land as the famous Ulysses. Ten year elapsed after the end of the great war before he reached his Ithacan home. There he was welcomed by his devoted wife, Penelope, and his affectionate son, Telemachus, who had pa.s.sed all those years in loving remembrance of him and anxious hope of his coming. His wonderful adventures during his many wanderings are described in Homer's Odyssey. An account of them would fill another book like this Story of Troy.