7.

Those who have paid particular attention to this subject conjecture, from the expressions of the poet, that all this coast was subject to the Trojans, when it was divided into nine dynasties, but that at the time of the war it was under the sway of Priam, and called Troja. This appears from the detail. Achilles and his army perceiving, at the beginning of the war, that the inhabitants of Ilium were defended by walls, carried on the war beyond them, made a circuit, and took the places about the country;

“I sacked with my ships twelve cities, and eleven in the fruitful land of Troja.”1330

By Troja he means the continent which he had ravaged. Among other places which had been plundered, was the country opposite Lesbos,—that about Thebe, Lyrnessus, and Pedasus belonging to the Leleges, and the territory also of Eurypylus, the son of Telephus;

“as when he slew with his sword the hero Eurypylus, the son of Telephus;”1331

and Neoptolemus,

“the hero Eurypylus.”

The poet says these places were laid waste, and even Lesbos;

“when he took the well-built Lesbos,”1332

and,

“he sacked Lyrnessus and Pedasus,”1333

and,

“laid waste Lyrnessus, and the walls of Thebe.”1334

Briseïs was taken captive at Lyrnessus;

“whom he carried away from Lyrnessus.”1335

In the capture of this place the poet says, Mynes and Epistrophus were slain, as Briseïs mentions in her lament over Patroclus,

“Thou didst not permit me, when the swift-footed Achilles slew my husband, and destroyed the city of the divine Mynes, to make any lamentation;”1336

for by calling Lyrnessus “the city of the divine Mynes,” the poet implies that it was governed by him who was killed fighting in its defence.

Chryseïs was carried away from Thebe;

“we came to Thebe, the sacred city of Eetion,”1337

and Chryseïs is mentioned among the booty which was carried off from that place.

Andromache, daughter of the magnanimous Eetion, Eetion king of the Cilicians, who dwelt under the woody Placus at Thebe Hypoplacia.1338

This is the second Trojan dynasty after that of Mynes, and in agreement with what has been observed are these words of Andromache;

[Pg 344]

[CAS. 585]

“Hector, wretch that I am; we were both born under the same destiny; thou at Troja in the palace of Priam, but I at Thebe.”

The words are not to be understood in their direct sense, but by a transposition; “both born in Troja, thou in the house of Priam, but I at Thebe.”

The third dynasty is that of the Leleges, which is also a Trojan dynasty;

“of Altes, the king of the war-loving Leleges,”1339

by whose daughter Priam had Lycaon and Polydorus. Even the people, who in the Catalogue are said to be commanded by Hector, are called Trojans;

“Hector, the mighty, with the nodding crest, commanded the Trojans;”1340

then those under Æneas,

“the brave son of Anchises had the command of the Dardanii,”1341

and these were Trojans, for the poet says,

“Thou, Æneas, that counsellest Trojans;”1342

then the Lycians under the command of Pandarus he calls Trojans;

“Aphneian Trojans, who inhabited Zeleia at the farthest extremity of Ida, who drink of the dark waters of Æsepus, these were led by Pandarus, the illustrious son of Lycaon.”1343

This is the sixth dynasty.

The people, also, who lived between the Æsepus and Abydos were Trojans, for the country about Abydos was governed by Asius;

“those who dwelt about Percote and Practius, at Sestos, Abydos, and the noble Arisbe, were led by Asius, the son of Hyrtacus.”1344

Now it is manifest that a son of Priam, who had the care of his father’s brood mares, dwelt at Abydos;

“he wounded the spurious son of Priam, Democoon, who came from Abydos from the pastures of the swift mares.”1345

At Percote,1346 the son of Hicetaon was the herdsman of oxen, but not of those belonging to strangers;

“first he addressed the brave son of Hicetaon, Melanippus, who was lately tending the oxen in their pastures at Percote.”1347

so that this country also was part of the Troad, and the subsequent tract as far as Adrasteia, for it was governed by

“the two sons of Merops of Percote.”1348

All therefore were Trojans from Abydos to Adrasteia, divided, however, into two bodies, one governed by Asius, the other by the Meropidæ, as the country of the Cilicians is divided into the Thebaic and the Lyrnessian Cilicia. To this district may have belonged the country under the sway of Eurypylus, for it follows next to the Lyrnessis, or territory of Lyrnessus.1349

That Priam1350 was king of all these countries the words with which Achilles addresses him clearly show;

“we have heard, old man, that your riches formerly consisted in what [Pg 346]

[CAS. 586] Lesbos, the city of Macar, contained, and Phrygia above it and the vast Hellespont.”1351