Introduction
Greek kings leading a mighty host have for ten years laid siege to the city of Troy (in what is now northwest Turkey), demanding the return of Helen, a kidnapped princess. Dido listened with shining eyes, as Trojan hero Aeneas told how the Trojans looked out and saw the Greeks had gone, leaving nothing but an enormous wooden horse — to be placed in the temple of Athene, as a prayer for their journey home.
Broken in war and thrust back by the fates, the Danaan chiefs,* now that so many years were gliding by,* build by Pallas’ divine art* a horse of mountainous bulk, and interweave its ribs with planks of fir. They feign it as a votive offering for their safe return; this rumour goes abroad. Here, within its dark sides, they stealthily enclose the choicest of their stalwart men and deep in the paunch fill the huge cavern with armed soldiery.
There lies in sight Tenedos,* an island well known to fame — rich in wealth while Priam’s kingdom stood, now but a bay and unsafe anchorage for ships. Hither they sail and hide themselves on the barren shore. We thought they had gone and before the wind were bound for Mycenae. So all the Teucrian* land frees herself from her long sorrow. The gates are opened; it is a joy to go and see the Doric camp, the deserted stations and forsaken shore. Here the Dolopian bands encamped,* here cruel Achilles; here lay the fleet; here they used to meet us in battle.
Some marvel at the massive horse: and first Thymoetes urges that it be drawn within our walls and lodged in the citadel (whether in treachery, or that now the doom of Troy was thus setting).*
* The first of several synonyms for Greeks, taken from Danaus, a king of Libya who founded Argos in the northeastern Peloponnese; see also The Doom of the Danaides. These multiple terms are a literary device, but also remind us that Greece was a confederation of city states. Although ‘Greeks’ is an ancient term, used by Virgil and others, historically the Greeks themselves have not embraced it. German historian Hieronymus Wolf (1516-1580) led the way in accustoming Western scholars to speak of ‘Greece’ and ‘Greeks’, as he was unwilling any longer to call them by their proudly-held name of ‘Romans’ after the Fall of Constantinople in 1453, which ended the Roman Empire once and for all. The name they use today is Hellenes, which Homer gives as the name of one of the peoples who descended upon Troy.
* The Trojan crisis lasted twenty years in all, ten of diplomatic standoff and ten of siege. The traditional date for the fall of Troy is April 24th, 1184 BC. See The Siege of Troy.
* Pallas is Athene, the Greek goddess of wisdom and strategy, and the patroness of Athens, who helped the Greeks in their campaign. Hera also took the Greeks’ part, as she had been nursing a grievance against Paris, the Trojan prince, ever since he failed to award her the title of ‘the fairest’. See Apple of Discord.
* Tenedos is the island called Bozcaada by the Turks, lying just off the western coast of Turkey.
* Mycenae was an ancient city at what is now Mykines near Argos in the northeastern Peloponnese.
* Teucer was an ancestor of the kings of Troy, so Teucrians means Trojans.
* That is, Aeneas is not sure whether Thymoetes was a Greek spy or simply driven by the gods to make a disastrous choice so that their prophecies should be fulfilled. As John Dryden (1631-1700) put it in his rhyming couplets,
’tis doubtful whether hir’d,
Or so the Trojan destiny requir’d.
Précis
After ten years of siege, the Trojans were overjoyed to see the Greek host decamp, leaving behind only a vast wooden horse as a gift. Some were for bringing it straight into the citadel, Aeneas recalled, but Laocoön was loud in his opposition, urging them to do nothing until they knew the Greeks really had gone. (56 / 60 words)
After ten years of siege, the Trojans were overjoyed to see the Greek host decamp, leaving behind only a vast wooden horse as a gift. Some were for bringing it straight into the citadel, Aeneas recalled, but Laocoön was loud in his opposition, urging them to do nothing until they knew the Greeks really had gone.
Variations: 1.increase the length of this precis to exactly 60 words. 2.reduce the length of this precis to exactly 50 words. 3.introduce one of the following words into the precis: about, besides, if, must, ought, whereas, whether, who.
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