Helen, ac cording to fome, never reached Troy. land in Troas. Ulyffes embaffadors to Troy, to demand Helen and the treasures which Paris had carried off with her. What answer they received we know not; but it is certain they returned without Helen, and highly diffatisfied with their reception at Troy. According to the accounts of the Egyptian priests to Herodotus, Helen was not in Troy; but was detained in Egypt, whither her ravisher had been driven by ftrefs of weather. Proteus the king of that country having ordered Paris to leave his dominions in three days, on pain of being treated as an enemy, took Helen and the treasures he had brought from Greece from him, in order to restore them to Menelaus. The Greeks thinking the Trojans only wanted to deceive them when they told them that Helen was never in their country, began the war; but after taking the city, Helen not being found, Menelaus then went into Egypt, where he was kindly entertained by Proteus, and had his wife reftored to him. Herodotus, in proof of this tradition, alleges very reafonably, that if it had been in king Priam's power to reftore Helen, he would certainly have done it, rather than suffer the unspeakable calamities that befel his family, his kingdom, and himself, during the course of the war. Homer even mentions the arrival of Paris and Helen in Egypt, and fays that Menelaus went thither before he returned home to Sparta; which voyage it is not likely he undertook at that time for pleafure. Nevertheless Homer, and with him all the Greek poets (after whom the Latins have copied) except Euripides, fupprefs the circumftance of Helen's not being in Troy, as too favourable to the Trojan caufe. TheGreeks The Greeks, after continuing a confiderable time wind-bound, arrived on the coaft of Troas, where, on their landing, they met with fo warm a reception, that they began to be fenfible of the difficulty of the enterprife. Being encamped in an enemy's country, they quickly found themfelves diftreffed for want of provifions; the fmallnefs of their veffels, which were without any decks, rendering them incapable of carrying fuch ftores of provifions as were neceflary to fupply the army. They were therefore obliged to divide their forces, fending part of them to cultivate the ground in the Thracian Cherfonefus, and part to rove about the feas, for the relief of the camp. All writers agree that the Greeks employed the first eight or nine years in fcouring the feas, pillaging the coafts, and reducing fuch cities and iflands as fided with the Trojans. At laft the feveral parties that had been difperfed up and down the neighbouring countries and iflands, being joined in one body, and well ftored with provifions, approached the city, with a defign to exert their utmost efforts to put an end to the tedious war. The Trojans, in the mean time, having been re inforced with confiderable bodies both of mercenaries and allies, attacked the Greeks, upon their first investing the town, with A plague an army fcarce inferior to theirs in number. A plague foon after broke out in the Grecian camp, which Homer fays was fent Grecian by Apollo, because Agamemnon refused to release the daughter of in the camp. one one of his priests: but Heraclides on this paffage informs us, that it was occafioned by the violent heats and peftilentious vapours raised by the fun, the Greeks being encamped among fens and marshes. The plague was foon followed by a quarrel Quarrel between Agamemnon and Achilles, Agamemnon having forcibly between taken from Achilles his captive Brifeis, to fupply the place of chiles the priest's daughter, whom he had reftored, to appeafe the and gawrath of Apollo. Achilles, on this rupture, retiring with his memnon. forces to his fhips, the Trojans, in the mean time, defeated the Greeks in feveral fallies, in one of which Patroclus, the friend of Achilles, was flain by Hector. His lofs occafioned the reconciliation of Agamemnon and Achilles, who returning to the camp, revenged the death of his friend, by killing Hector; but was foon after flain himself by Paris. The Greeks at length made Trog themselves mafters of the city; but whether by force, ftrata- taken. gem, or treachery, is uncertain. All writers agree that it was taken by night; fome alleging that Æneas and Antenor, finding Priam unreafonably obftinate, concluded a feparate peace with the Greeks, betraying the city into their hands. The poets tell us, that it was taken by the contrivance of a wooden horse, that is, according to fome, the Greeks entered the city by the Scaan gate, over which was the picture or ftatue of a horse. Others think they entered the town thro' a breach made in the wall by fome wooden engine called a horse. Having taken poffeffion of the city, they laid it in afhes, the inhabitants that did not escape being either all put to the fword, or made captives. Thus ended the kingdom of Troy, after having ftood, from Teucer to Priam, 296 years, according to the common computation. The Greeks, in their return home, met with various adven- The adtures, and many of them were driven on far diftant coafts. ventures of Mneftheus king of Athens died at Melos. Teucer the fon of Tela- the Greeks mon fettled in Cyprus, where he built the city of Salamis. Aga- in their pener, who commanded the Arcadians, built in the fame island return the city of Paphos. Pyrrhus the fon of Achilles fettled in Epirus. home, Ajax the fon of Oileus was loft. Many who got fafe home were obliged to put to fea again, in queft of new feats, their territories having been feized by others during their abfence. Agamemnon arrived fafe at Mycena, where he was, foon after his arrival, murdered by his wife Clytemneftra. His fon Oreftes, however, revenged his death, by the murder of Clytemnestra, of Egyfthus her gallant, and of Helen their daughter; for which murders he was tried and acquitted by the Areopagus. The adventures of Ulyffes are related by Homer in a fabulous manner; but that fome years paft before he got home, may have fome foundation in hiftory. On the whole, it appears that the war proved no lefs fatal to the conquerors than to the conquered. As for the Trojans, the greatest part of those who efcaped the and of general flaughter fled to diftant regions. Antenor led a colony to the Trothe bottom of the Adriatic gulph. Helenus, one of Priam's fons, jans. F 2 fettled fettled in Macedonia, where he built the city of Ilium. Some fay, that during the fiege he went over to the Greeks, and fhewed them in what manner they might easily mafter the city. All the Roman writers affure us Eneas fettled in Italy, and there founded the kingdom of Alba, the Cafars affecting to derive their pedigree from him, as the other Romans did theirs from the Trojans who accompanied him. Others think, that having gathered together the scattered remains of the Trojans, he rebuilt the city, and that his defcendants and the defcendants of Hector, reigned there till the country was fubdued by the Lydians, who became fo powerful as to over-run all Afia Minor. The learned Bochart has carefully collected feveral arguments of great weight to evince the arrival of Æneas in Italy to be a mere fable. Strabo affures us the families of Hector and Æneas reigned for many years in the city of Scepfis, about fixty furlongs from Troy. Agathocles Cyzienfis, quoted by Feftus, cites many authors affirming Eneas to have been buried in the city of Berecynthia, not far from Troy. Homer alfo fuppofes Eneas to have remained in Phrygia; for he introduces Neptune, affuring him that he and his pofterity fhould reign over the Trojans. To these authorities Bochart adds two arguments of no fmall weight, namely, that Venus, Apollo, Cybele, &c. the chief deities of the antient Trojans, were for a long time quite unknown to the Romans, and that there is not the leaft fimilitude imaginable between the antient Phrygian and Roman language *. TH SECT. IV. The Hiftory of the MYSIANS. HIS fmall country is fuppofed to be fo called from the Lydian word Myfos, fignifying a beech tree, because that tree remarkably abounded here. It was divided into the leffer and greater Myfia. The lefler, or Myfia Minor, lay on the fouth-eaft fide of the Propontis, having the two Phrygias on the fouth and eaft. The greater, or Myfia Major, had the Egean fea on the weft, Phrygia Major on the eaft, Phrygia Minor on the north, and on the fouth Eolia. What Strabo, whom we have followed, calls Myfia Minor, Ptolemy calls Myfia Major. Abrettana, the name of a part of Myfia near the river Rhindacus, is fometimes given to the whole country. The chief of the cities in Mia Minor was Cyzicus, or Cyzicum, feated in an ifland of the Propontis, but joined to the continent with two bridges by Alexander the Great. This city, Feftus voce Roma. Bochart. Epift. utrum Æneas unquam fuit in Italiæ. when when first known to the Romans, was one of the greatest and richeft of all Afia, and hence was ftiled by Florus the Rome of Afia. Among its many magnificent buildings, the chief temple is mightly cried up by the antients. The whole ftructure was of polished marble, and the joinings all covered with lines of gold. The pillars were four cubits thick and fifty high, each of one piece. In after ages this city made a glorious stand against Mithridates, who loft under its walls no fewer than 300,000 men, and after all could not conquer it. As for the beauty, greatnefs, riches and laws of this city, we refer our reader to Appian (in Mithrid.) It was ruined by an earthquake, and the fallen marbles and pillars were conveyed to Conftantinople to embellish that city. At prefent it is little better than a village, and known under the names of Chizico, Spiga, and Palormi*. In this country was alfo Parium, now a village. In this city, which is faid to have received its name from Parus the fon of Jafon, was a naked Cupid deemed no ways inferior to the famous Venus at Cnidos. The antient Parians were a colony of the Milefians, and the more modern of the Romans. Lampfacus, which was feated at the entrance of the Propontis, had a capacious and fafe harbour, and a noble temple confecrated to Cybele. It was built, according to fome, by the Phocenfes, according to others by Priapus, who was a native of this city, and the most infamous of all the heathen deities. It was in antient times famous for its wine, and on that confideration given by Artaxerxes to Themistocles in his exile. Priapus was worshiped here in a particular manner, and his temple was a perfect fink of lewdness, a very school of the most unnatural luft. This city is ftill in a tolerable good condition, fituated in a pleasant plain, and furrounded with vineyards which produce excellent wine. The Greeks call it Lampfaco, and the Turks Lepfeck. In midland Myfia, which according to Strabo lay between the river Rhindacus and mount Ida, Stephanus places the city of Apollonia on the banks of the Rhindacus. But according to others, it was feated on an island in a lake called Abouillona, 25 miles in compafs, and 8 miles wide +. The chief rivers in Myfia Minor are the Rhindacus and the Granicus; the firft now called Lartacho and the other Soufaughirli. In this part of Myfia ftands mount Olympus, one of the higheft in Afia, and great part of the year covered with fnow. The city of greatest note in Myfia Major was Pergamus, seated on a fpacious plain on the banks of the Caicus. It was the royal feat of the Attalic kings and of Eumenes, and enriched with a library containing 200,000 choice volumes. King Eumenes propofing to caufe all the valuable books then extant * Flor. 1. iii. Plin. 1. xxxvi. Xiphilin. in Dion. Hefych. Erafın. Chi+ Tournefort. liad. F 3 to to be tranfcribed, and being denied papyrus from Egypt, was obliged to have recourfe to fome other material, which gave occafion to the invention of parchment, thence called by the Latins Charta Pergamena. In Pergamus were likewife invented those coftly hangings which we call tapeftry, and the Romans name Aulea, from Aula, a hall. This city was one of the feven churches mentioned in the Revelations. On the coafts of the greater Myfia were feated the following cities, Antandrus, Scepfis, Affus, Adramyttium, Pitane, &c. The foil of this country is one of the fineft and richest in Afia, and is celebrated as fuch by the antients. As to the oriOrigin of gin of the Myfians, Herodotus informs us that they were Lydians by defcent. Others derive them from the Phrygians, and tell us, that Myfus, their fuppofed progenitor, was not a Lydian but a Phrygian. According to Strabo, they originally came from Europe, from about Bofnia and Bulgaria. the My frans. Their character. Religion. Their hiftory. Antiently they feem to have had the character of a warlike people; but in after ages they became fo degenerate, that they were looked upon as the moft contemptible and infignificant nation on the earth; the laft of the Myfians, being an expreffion among the Greeks to fignify a perfon of no worth or merit. They were prone to tears, and on that account employed by the Greeks to attend their funerals +. Their language was in all likelihood the fame as the Phrygian and Trojan, with some variation of dialect. We are quite in the dark as to their manners, cuftoms, arts and fciences. Their religion was much the fame with that of the neighbouring Phrygians. Their priests abftained from flesh, and were not allowed to marry; and it was a ceremony practifed among them, to facrifice a horfe and eat his entrails before they were admitted to the priesthood. Their government appears in the early ages not to have been monarchical, as there is no mention of their kings till the Argonautic expedition. Their firft king we find mentioned is Olympus, who is faid to have married the niece of Dardanus king of Troy. The next is Teuthras, who is faid to have reigned over the Myfians, Cilicians, and Cetears. By his first wife he had a daughter named Agriope, and afterwards marrying Auge the grandaughter of the king of Arcadia, he gave Agriope to her fon Telephus, whom the had had by Hercules. Tecmeffa, another of his daughters, was the captive of Ajax the son of Telamon. As he had no fon, he was fucceeded by Telephus the natural fon of Hercules by Auge, who in the Trojan war first fided with king Priam, but was afterwards prevailed upon by the Greeks to stand neuter. He had two fons, Eurypylus and Latinus, which laft is faid to have led a colony of Ceteans into * Herod. 1. vii. Plin. 1. vii. Strab. 1. xii. Æfchyl, in Perf. |