31
such a sign to happen in the city upon the altar of Apollo. They cast fire onto the altar for the sacrifice; but the things were not burning. And with fire being brought many times and not burning, all the things on the altar fall to the ground. And as other signs also were happening, the Trojans, knowing, say that the omen is not good for them. And the leaders of the Trojans and Priam and the army compel Antenor to go out to you the kings and through his own embassy to persuade you Danaans to receive a ransom and to end the war. And having learned all these things, we came out and reported them to all of you. But Antenor arrived, having gone out on an embassy, and he said these things as if from Priam and the rest. Being kings of the Hellenes, perform the deeds of friends and not of enemies. We have suffered all the things that transgressors ought to suffer. For in return for the ways in which Alexander, also called Paris, wronged Menelaus, Ilion has paid the penalty; and the tombs of those who perished in the battles bear witness. We, therefore, who have been left, bring a ransom to you for the sake of the gods, for the sake of our fatherland, for the sake of our children. But being Hellenes, save those who were then disobedient, but are now suppliants, with money being stipulated. And you all, being persuaded by Antenor, sent me and with me Diomedes to Priam to stipulate the amount of the money. And when we had entered 113 into Troy to Priam, and after much had been set in motion, we stipulated that two talents of gold be given to you and in addition to these an equal amount of silver. And we returned to you, reporting what had been decided. And we received what was stipulated, after I put you all under oath at the sacrifices not to sail away from Ilion, until after we have made the wooden horse with suitable timbers and adorned it with every excellence, we should seem to sail away directly to Tenedos, burning our tents, and the barbarians, thinking that we have departed, might remain at ease feasting, and returning by night from Tenedos and entering, having made the city burnt with fire and having killed Priam, we will restore Helen to the palace of Pleisthenes. And since my counsel prevailed, the gods granted us victory against the barbarians. You therefore, kings and heroes, be judges of my labors. And Agamemnon and Diomedes and their army supported Odysseus, but Neoptolemus Pyrrhus, being of his lineage, and his army supported Ajax son of Telamon. And after many other things had been set in motion between them until evening, it was finally decided that Diomedes should take the Palladium in deposit until the dawning day and guard it, and that each of them should be dismissed, so that on the next day a decision might be given as to which of them the Palladium should be given. But Ajax, being 114 against Odysseus and Agamemnon and Diomedes, withdrew to his own pavilion; and during the night Ajax was slaughtered with a sword. And in the morning his corpse was found; and his army and that of Pyrrhus rose up against Odysseus, wanting to kill him. And Odysseus, taking his own ships, fled, sailing away to the Pontic sea. And having spent some time there, he returned from there, wishing to go to the city of Ithaca, to his own fatherland, with his own ships and his own army. But arriving in a land called Maronida, he met resistance from the people of the land. And making war he conquered them, and became master of much wealth. And supposing that into whatever land he arrived he would surely conquer the people of that land and carry off the wealth of each land he encountered, he arrived at the land called of the Lotus-eaters and joined battle with them. And the people of that same land conquered him, almost destroying everyone; and fleeing from there he was put to sea, being storm-tossed after a very long voyage, to the island called Sikila, which is now called Sicily. The
31
σημεῖον γενέσθαι τοιοῦτον εἰς τὴν πόλιν ἐπὶ τὸν βωμὸν τοῦ Ἀπόλλωνος. βάλλουσι πῦρ εἰς τὸν βωμὸν διὰ τὴν θυσίαν· τὰ δὲ οὐκ ἐκαίοντο. καὶ πολλάκις προσφερομένου τοῦ πυρὸς καὶ μὴ καιομένου, πίπτει τὰ ἐν τῷ βωμῷ πάντα εἰς τὸ ἔδαφος. γινομένων δὲ καὶ ἄλλων σημείων, οἱ Τρῶες εἰδότες λέγουσιν οὐκ ἀγαθὸν αὐτοῖς εἶναι τὸν οἰωνόν. καὶ ἀναγκάζουσι τὸν Ἀντήνορα οἱ ἔξαρχοι τῶν Τρώων καὶ ὁ Πρίαμος καὶ ὁ στρατὸς ὥστε ἐξελθεῖν πρὸς ὑμᾶς τοὺς βασιλεῖς καὶ διὰ τῆς ἰδίας πρεσβείας πεῖσαι τοὺς ∆αναοὺς ὑμᾶς λαβεῖν λύτρα καὶ διαλῦσαι τὸν πόλεμον. καὶ ταῦτα πάντα ἱστορήσαντες ἡμεῖς ἐξελθόντες ἀνηγγείλαμεν πᾶσιν ὑμῖν. ὁ δὲ Ἀντήνωρ κατέφθασεν ἐξελθὼν εἰς πρεσβείαν, καὶ ἔφη ταῦτα ὡς ἐκ Πριάμου καὶ τῶν λοιπῶν. Βασιλεῖς Ἑλλήνων ὄντες, φίλων ἔργα διαπράξασθε καὶ μὴ πολεμίων. πάντα ἐπάθομεν ὅσα ἐχρῆν παθεῖν τοὺς ἡμαρτηκότας. ἀνθ' ὧν γὰρ Ἀλέξανδρος ὁ καὶ Πάρις Μενέλαον ἠδίκησε δίκας δέδωκε τὸ Ἴλιον· καὶ μαρτυροῦσιν οἱ τάφοι τῶν ἐν ταῖς μάχαις ἀπολομένων. οἱ οὖν περιλειφθέντες ἡμεῖς λύτρα φέρομεν ὑμῖν ὑπὲρ θεῶν, ὑπὲρ πατρίδος, ὑπὲρ παίδων. ἀλλ' Ἕλληνες ὄντες τοὺς τότε ἀπειθεῖς, νῦν δὲ ἱκέτας, σώσατε, χρημάτων τυπουμένων. πεισθέντες δὲ ὑμεῖς πάντες τοῦ Ἀντήνορος, ἐξεπέμψατέ με καὶ σὺν ἐμοὶ τὸν ∆ιομήδην πρὸς Πρίαμον τυπῶσαι τὴν ποσότητα τῶν χρημάτων. εἰσελθόντων δὲ ἡμῶν 113 ἐν τῇ Τροίῃ πρὸς Πρίαμον, καὶ πολλῶν κινηθέντων, ἐτυπώσαμεν δοθῆναι ὑμῖν χρυσίου τάλαντα β καὶ πρὸς τούτοις ἴσα ἀργύρου. καὶ ἐπανήλθαμεν πρὸς ὑμᾶς ἀπαγγείλαντες τὰ δόξαντα. καὶ ἐκομισάμεθα τὰ τυπωθέντα, πάντας ὑμᾶς ἐνορκώσας ἐν ταῖς θυσίαις μὴ ἀποπλεῦσαι ἐξ Ἰλίου, πρὶν ἂν ποιήσαντες τὸν δούριον ἵππον ἁρμοδίοις ξύλοις καὶ κοσμήσαντες αὐτὸν πάσῃ ἀρετῇ δόξομεν ἀποπλέειν ἄντικρυς εἰς τὴν Τένεδον, καίοντες τὰς σκηνὰς ἡμῶν, καὶ νομίσαντες οἱ βάρβαροι ὅτι ἐξωρμήσαμεν, μένωσιν ἀνετοὶ εὐωχούμενοι, καὶ νυκτὸς ὑποστρέψαντες ἀπὸ τῆς Τενέδου καὶ εἰσελθόντες, πυρίκαυστον τὴν πόλιν ποιήσαντες καὶ Πρίαμον ἀνελόντες ἀποδώσομεν τὴν Ἑλένην εἰς τὰ βασίλεια τοῦ Πλεισθένους. καὶ τῆς ἐμῆς βουλῆς κρατησάσης παρέσχον ἡμῖν οἱ θεοὶ νίκην κατὰ τῶν βαρβάρων. ὑμεῖς οὖν, οἱ βασιλεῖς καὶ ἥρωες, κριταὶ γένεσθε τῶν ἐμῶν καμάτων. Καὶ ἀντεποιοῦντο τοῦ Ὀδυσσέως ὁ Ἀγαμέμνων καὶ ὁ ∆ιομήδης καὶ ὁ τούτων στρατός, τοῦ δὲ Τελαμωνίου Αἴαντος ἀντείχετο ὁ Νεοπτόλεμος Πύῤῥος, ὡς ἐκ γένους αὐτοῦ ὑπάρχων, καὶ ὁ τούτου στρατός. πολλῶν δὲ ἄλλων κινηθέντων μεταξὺ αὐτῶν ἄχρις ἑσπέρας, τέλος ἔδοξεν ὥστε λαβεῖν ἐν παραθήκῃ ἕως τῆς ἐπιφωσκούσης ἡμέρας τὸν ∆ιομήδην τὸ Παλλάδιον καὶ τοῦτο φυλάξαι, καὶ ἕκαστον αὐτῶν ἀνεθῆναι, ἵνα κατὰ τὴν ἑξῆς τύπος δοθῇ τίνι ἐξ αὐτῶν χρὴ δοθῆναι τὸ Παλλάδιον. ὁ δὲ Αἴας, γε 114 νόμενος κατὰ τοῦ Ὀδυσσέως καὶ Ἀγαμέμνονος καὶ ∆ιομήδους, ἀνεχώρησεν εἰς τὸν ἴδιον αὐτοῦ παπυλεῶνα· καὶ διὰ νυκτὸς σιδήρῳ ἐσφάγη ὁ Αἴας. καὶ τῇ πρωὶ ηὑρέθη τὸ λείψανον αὐτοῦ· καὶ ἐστασίασεν ὁ στρατὸς αὐτοῦ καὶ τοῦ Πύῤῥου κατὰ τοῦ Ὀδυσσέως, θέλων αὐτὸν φονεῦσαι. καὶ λαβὼν τὰ ἴδια πλοῖα ὁ Ὀδυσσεὺς ἔφυγεν, ἀποπλεύσας ἐπὶ τὴν Ποντικὴν θάλασσαν. καὶ διατρίψας ἐκεῖ καιρὸν ἐπανῆλθεν ἐκεῖθεν, βουλόμενος εἰς τὴν Ἰθάκην πόλιν εἰς τὴν ἰδίαν αὐτοῦ πατρίδα μετὰ τῶν ἰδίων νηῶν αὐτοῦ καὶ τοῦ ἰδίου στρατοῦ. καταντήσας δὲ εἰς χώραν λεγομένην Μαρωνίδα, ἀντίστασιν ὑπέστη ἀπὸ τῶν τῆς χώρας. καὶ πολεμήσας ἐνίκησεν αὐτούς, καὶ πολλῶν χρημάτων κύριος ἐγένετο. καὶ ὑπολαβὼν ὅτι εἰς οἱανδήποτε χώραν καταντῶν πάντως ὅτι καὶ τοὺς τῆς αὐτῆς χώρας νικᾷ καὶ τὸν πλοῦτον ἑκάστης αὐτῷ χώρας ἀπαντώσης κομίζεται, καταφθάσας τὴν Λωτοφάγων λεγομένην χώραν συνέβαλε μετ' αὐτῶν πόλεμον. καὶ ἐνίκησαν αὐτὸν οἱ τῆς αὐτῆς χώρας μικροῦ δεῖν ὀλέσαι πάντας· κἀκεῖθεν φυγὼν ἀνήχθη χειμαζόμενος μετὰ πλεῖστον πλοῦν εἰς τὴν λεγομένην Σικίλαν νῆσον, τὴν νυνὶ λεγομένην Σικελίαν. ἡ