Classical Wisdom Litterae - April 2019

Ancient Anecdotes TrojanWar:Would-beDraft Dodgers

Odysseus feigned madness in order to avoid the war. He tried to sow his fields with salt as proof, but Agamemnon’s man tricked him into revealing his sanity. He placed Odysseus’ infant son in front of the plough’s path, and the father could not fake delusion any more. He turned aside to save his child. Achilles did not readily join forces either. His mother disguised him as a woman so he would not have to go to battle. When Odysseus, Telamonian Ajax, and Achilles’ tutor Phoenix came to fetch him from the island of Skyros, they could not immediately recognize him.

and weapons. They were then able to spot Achilles out the second he chose to look at the swords and spears rather than bracelets and beads. The Achean army was almost ready. All of the suitors sent their forces to the city of Aulis, and one by one the commanders with their ships and men arrived. The last one to show up was Achilles, who was at the time only 15 years old. An omen then occurred. A snake slithered from a sacrificial altar to a sparrow’s nest nearby. It ate the mother and her nine babies and was then converted into stone. Troy, apparently, would fall in the tenth year of war.

Fortunately, they had a plan. The men pretended to be merchants bearing trinkets

Odysseus recognizes Achilles amongst the daughters of Lycomedes, by Louis Gauffier, 1791

XIII