Chapter 56 56

On this night, the Trojans held feasts and celebrations.They played flutes and harps and sang songs of joy.Everyone filled up the wine again and again and drank it down.Drunk and lethargic, the soldiers were completely off guard. Sinon, who was feasting with the Trojans, also pretended to be drunk and fell asleep.In the middle of the night, he got up, sneaked out of the city gate, lit a torch, held it high and kept shaking it, sending the agreed signal to the distance.Then he extinguished the torch, sneaked up to the wooden horse, and tapped the horse's belly lightly.The heroes heard the voice, but Odysseus reminded everyone not to be impatient and to go out as quietly as possible.He gently opened the door latch, poked his head out, peeped around for a while, and found that the Trojans had fallen asleep.So, he quietly put down the wooden ladder that Epous had placed in advance, and walked down.The other heroes followed him down one by one, their hearts pounding with nervousness.When they got outside, they brandished their spears and drew their swords, and scattered in every street of the city, massacring the drunken and sleepy Trojans.They put the torches into the houses of the Trojans, and after a while, the roof caught fire, and the fire spread, and the whole city became a sea of ​​​​flames.

When the Greeks hiding near the island of Tenedos saw the signal of the torch from Sinon, they immediately pulled anchor and set sail, sailing quickly to the Hellegon with a favorable wind, and landed on the shore.All the soldiers quickly rushed into the city through the gap through which the Trojans had demolished the wall to let the wooden horses pass.The captured city of Troy was reduced to ruins.There were cries and wailing, and dead bodies everywhere.The crippled and wounded crawled over the dead, and those still running were shot in the back.The howling of frightened dogs, the groans of the dying, and the cries of women and children were intertwined, making it miserable and terrifying.

But the Greeks also suffered heavy losses, for although most of the enemy had no time to take up arms, they still fought desperately.Some threw cups, others hurled tables, or grabbed firewood from the hearth, or forks and axes, or whatever they could get their hands on, and struck at the rushing Daneans.At this time, the Greeks besieged Priam's castle, and many heavily armed Trojans rushed out like a tide, fighting desperately and desperately. It was late at night when the battle took place, but the flames burning on the houses and the torches held by the Achaeans illuminated the whole city as if it were day.The whole city became a battlefield.The battle is getting fiercer and more brutal.

Neoptolemus regarded Priam as an enemy, and he killed three of his sons in succession, including Agenor, who dared to challenge his father Achilles.Later, he met the majestic King Priam, who was praying before the altar of Zeus.Neoptolemus was overjoyed when he saw it, raised his sword and rushed towards him.Priam looked at Neoptolemus without fear, and said calmly: "Kill me, brave son of Achilles! I have suffered so much, I have seen myself One by one, my sons died. I don’t need to see the sunshine of tomorrow anymore!” "Old man," replied Neoptolemus, "you persuade me to do exactly what I want to do!" And with that he struck off the king's head with a swing of his sword.Ordinary warriors in Greece killed more brutally.They found Astyanacus, Hector's youngest son, in the palace.They snatched him from his mother's arms, and, filled with hatred for Hector and his family, threw the boy from the tower.The child's mother cried out to them, "Why don't you push me down too, or throw me into the fire? Since Achilles killed my husband, I have only lived for this child. Please Do it, end my life!" But they didn't listen to her, and rushed elsewhere.

Death wandered about, but did not enter a house where Antenor the old man of Troy dwelt.Because Menelaus and Odysseus had been sheltered by him and received warm hospitality when they came to Troy as messengers, the Daneans did not kill him, but let him keep all his property. A few days before, the outstanding hero Aeneas had bravely repelled the enemy's attack on the city wall.However, when he saw that the city of Troy was in flames, and he could not repel the enemy after many hours of fighting, he was like a brave sailor who had weathered a storm. Go alive.He put his old father Anchises on his back, took his son Ascanius by the hand, and fled hastily.The child clings to his father, jumping over many corpses with his father almost without touching the ground.Aeneas' mother, Aphrodite, also followed closely, protecting her son.Along the way, the flames gave way, the smoke gave way, and the arrows and spears thrown by the Dane'a people missed their targets and fell to the ground.Aeneas was the only one who escaped the city with his children.

Menelaus met Deiphobus, son of Priam, at the house of his unfaithful wife Helen.Since Hector's death, he has become an important pillar of the family and nation.After Paris died, Helen married him as his wife.Drunk after dinner he heard the news of the murder of Atreus' sons, and he stumbled through the corridors of the palace, preparing to flee.Menelaus chased after him and stabbed him in the back, "You die at my wife's door!" Menelaus roared, his voice was like thunder, "I wish I could kill you Paris! No sinner can escape from Themis, the Goddess of Justice!"

Menelaus kicked the body aside and walked down the corridors of the palace, searching for Helen, filled with conflicting feelings for his first wife, Helen.Helen trembled all over for fear of her husband's anger. She hid quietly in a dark corner, and it took a long time for her husband Menelaus to find her.Seeing his wife in front of his eyes, Menelaus was so jealous that he wanted to cut her to death with a sword, but Aphrodite had already made her more charming and beautiful, and knocked down the sword in his hand, It calmed down the anger in his heart and awakened the old love in his heart.Immediately, Menelaus forgot all his wife's faults.Suddenly, he heard the majestic shouting of the Argives behind him, and he felt ashamed again, feeling that the unfaithful Helen had made him lose face.He hardened his heart again, picked up the sword on the ground, and approached his wife step by step.But in his heart, he still couldn't bear to kill her.Therefore, when his brother Agamemnon came, he graciously held back.Agamemnon patted him on the shoulder and said to him: "Brother, lay down your arms! You cannot kill your own wife. We have suffered for her. In this matter, her sin is even greater than that of Paris. Much lighter. Paris broke the law of the host and guest, worse than a pig or a dog. He, his family, and even his people were punished and destroyed for it!"

Menelaus obeyed the advice, feigning reluctance on the surface, but very happy in his heart.Later, he returned to Sparta with Helen.After Menelaus died, she was banished to the island of Rhodes. When the massacre was going on on the earth, the gods in the sky covered themselves with dark clouds and lamented the fall of Troy.Only Hera, the sworn enemy of the Trojans, and Thetis, the mother of the fallen Achilles, cheered loudly and contentedly.But even Pallas Athena, who wished for Troy's defeat, could not hold back her tears, for she saw Ajax enter her temple, grab her priestess Cassandra by the hair, and dragged out.Though the goddess could not save her enemy's daughter, her cheeks burned with rage and shame.Her idol rattled, shaking the foundations beneath the temple.She swore revenge on him for his blasphemy.

The fire, the massacre continued for a long time.The blazing pillar of fire shot straight into the sky, announcing the destruction of the unfortunate city of Troy.