Chapter 16, The Trojan War
Previous Page Table of Contents Next Page
♠ Euripides, Orestes 432-33
Orestes
Oeax, who refers to my father his reason for hating Troy.
Menelaus
I understand; he is avenging on you the blood of Palamedes. Greek Text
♠ Dion of Prusa (Chrysostomos), Orationes 59 (42), Philoktetes –Dionis Prusaensis quem vocant Chrysostomum quae extant omnia, vol. 2, pp. 131-34, ed. J. de Arnim. Berlin 1886.
♠ Scholia to Euripides, Orestes 432 – Scholia in Euripidem, ed. E. Schwartz, vol. 1, pp. 147-49. Berlin 1887.
♠ Hyginus, Fabulae 105
PALAMEDES: Ulysses, because he had been tricked by Palamedes, son of Nauplius, kept plotting day by day how to kill him. At length, having formed a plan, he sent a soldier of his to Agamemnon to say that in a dream he had been warned that the camp should be moved for one day. Agamemnon, believing the warning true, gave orders that the camp be moved for one day. Ulysses, then, secretly by night hid a great quantity of gold in the place where the tent of Palamedes had been. He also gave to a Phrygian captive a letter to be carried to Priam, and sent a soldier of his ahead to kill him not far from the camp. On the next day when the army came back to the camp, a soldier found on the body of the Phrygian, the letter which Ulysses had written, and brought it to Agamemnon. Written on it were the words: “Sent to Palamedes from Priam,” and it promised him as much gold as Ulysses had hidden in the tent, if he would betray the camp of Agamemnon according to agreement. And so when Palamedes was brought before the king, and so denied the deed, they went to his tent and dug up the gold. Agamemnon believed the charge was true when he saw the gold. In this way Palamedes was tricked by the scheme of Ulysses, and though innocent, was put to death by the entire army. Latin Text
♠ Hyginus, Fabulae 95
ULYSSES: When Agamemnon and Menelaus, son of Atreus, were assembling the leaders who had pledged themselves to attack Troy, they came to the island of Ithaca to Ulysses, son of Laertes. He had been warned by an oracle that if he went to Troy he would return home alone and in need, with his comrades lost, after twenty years. And so when he learned that spokesmen would come to him, he put on a cap, pretending madness, and yoked a horse and an ox to the plow. Palamedes felt he was pretending when he saw this, and taking his son Telemachus from the cradle, put him in front of the plow with the words: “Give up your pretense and come and join the allies.” Then Ulysses promised that he would come; from that time he was hostile to Palamedes. Latin Text
♠ Ovid, Metamorphoses 13.56-60
Hapless Palamedes
might wish that he too had been left behind,
then he would live or would have met a death
without dishonor. For this man, who well
remembered the unfortunate discovery
of his feigned madness, made a fraudulent
attack on Palamedes, who he said
betrayed the Grecian interest. He proved
his false charge to the Greeks by showing them
the gold which he himself hid in the ground. Latin Text
♠ Apollodoros, Epitome 3.8
Having taken a Phrygian prisoner, Ulysses compelled him to write a letter of treasonable purport ostensibly sent by Priam to Palamedes; and having buried gold in the quarters of Palamedes, he dropped the letter in the camp. Agamemnon read the letter, found the gold, and delivered up Palamedes to the allies to be stoned as a traitor. Greek Text
♠ Servius, scholia at Vergil, Aeneid 2.81 – Servii Grammatici qui feruntur in Vergilii Carmina commentarii: Aeneis, ed G. Thilo and H. Hagen, Vol. 1 pp. 230-31. Leipzig 1878
♠ Polyainos, Strategemata 1 prooem 12 – Polyaeni strategematôn libri viii, p. 6, ed. E. Woelfflin and J. Melber. Stutttgart 1887.
Edited by Elena Bianchelli, Retired Senior Lecturer of Classical Languages and Culture, Univ. of Georgia, January 2023
509 total views, 1 views today