... (Fab91, 107-11): Various sections of Hyginus treat the end of Troy
91. Alexander Paris.
When Priam, the son of Laomedon, had numerous children from his union with Hecuba, the daughter of Cisseus or of Dymas, his pregnant wife beheld in a dream that she bore a flaming torch from which innumerable serpents teemed forth. When this vision was told to all interpreters, they commanded that she kill whatever offspring she would have, to keep it from resulting in the kingdom’s demise. After Hecuba bore Alexander, the child was offered up for execution, but servants pitied the child and exposed it mercifully. Shepherd found the exposed child and raised him as their own and named him Paris. When he had reached the age of puberty, he kept a favorite bull; but when the servants sent by Priam came to select a bull that would be sacrificed in the funeral rites he was performing, they started to lead away Paris’ bull. He, however, followed them and asked where they were taking him; they answered that they were taking the bull to Priam to be included in the funeral games for Alexander. He then was overwhelmed by fondness for his bull and fell into a dispute, but he defeated all and overcame his own brothers as well. Deiphobus angrily drew his sword against Paris. He, however, lept upon the altar of Jupiter Herceus. When Cassandra divined from this that he was her brother, Priam recognized him and received him in his royal home.
107. Contest for the Arms.
After Hector’s entombment, when Achilles was ranging still around the walls of Troy and claiming that he alone had sacked Troy, Apollo grew angry and disguised himself as Alexander Paris and shot him with an arrow in that heel that is said to have been mortal, and slew Achilles. After he was killed and drawn off to entombment, Telamonian Ajax, because he was Achilles’ first cousin, demanded that the Danaans give Achilles’ weapons to him. All this rankled Minerva to anger against him, and the arms were given by Agamemnon and Menelaus to Ulysses. Ajax was overcome by madness such that in insanity he impaled himself and fell upon his own sword, upon that weapon which he took from Hector’s spoils when he fought against him in the battle.
108. The Trojan Horse.
Since the Achaeans for ten years were unable to take Troy, Epeus built at Minerva’s command a wooden horse of enormous proportions, and within it were gathered Menelaus, Ulysses, Diomedes, Thessander, Sthenelus, Acamas, Thoas, Machaon, and Neoptolemus. Upon the horse they inscribed “The Danaans give this as a gift to Minerva”, then struck camp and left for Tenedos. When the Trojans saw this, they thought that the enemy had departed; Priam decreed that the horse ought to be drawn into the citadel of Minerva and proclaimed that they should celebrate greatly. When the prophetic Cassandra shouted that the enemy were within, she was believed by no one. When they had drawn it into the citadel and had fallen asleep late in a night of wearying revelry, the Achaeans climbed out of the horse that Sinon opened and killed the guards at the gates; they then received their comrades by an appointed sign and sacked Troy.
109. Iliona.
When a son, Polydorus, was born to Priam of Hecuba, they gave him to their daughter Iliona to be raised. She was betrothed to Polymestor, the king of the Thracians; and she raised him as her own child. Deipylus, however, whom she had conceived from Polymnestor, she raised as her own brother, so that if anything should happen to either of them it would still be well with the parents. However, when the Achaeans had sacked Troy and desired to eradicate the offspring of Priam, they hurled Astyanax, the son of Hector and Andromache, from the city wall and then sent an embassy to Polymnestor to promise to him Agamemnon’s daughter named Electra in marriage and also a treasure of gold if he should murder Priam’s son Polydorus. Polymnestor did not spurn the ambassadors’ urging and he murdered ignorantly him own son Deipylus, thinking that he had actually murdered Polydorus, the son of Priam. Polydorus, however, went to Apollo’s oracle to know about his parents, and the response came to him that his homeland was burned, his father murdered, and his mother now kept as a slave. When he returned from the oracle and saw that things had resulted differently than the oracle had uttered, he surmised that he was Polymnestor’s son, he asked Iliona his sister what others things the oracle had spoken differently. To this his sister disclosed what the truth was and at his own insistence blinded him and then killed him.
110. Polyxena.
When the victorious Danaans were embarking from Troy and desired that each return to his homeland and take loot for himself, Achilles’ voice is said to have risen from his tomb demanding part of the loot. Thus, the Danaans claimed Priam’s daughter Polyxena, who was an extraordinarily beautiful young woman — indeed, Achilles was seeking her out when he had come to meet with Alexander and Deiphobus and they murdered him — and then slaughtered her upon his tomb.
111. Hecuba.
When Ulysses was abducting as slave Hecuba, the daughter of Cisseus — or, according to some writers, of Dymas — the wife of Priam and the mother of Hector, she threw herself into the Hellespont and is said to have become a dog. The sea there is called from this the Dog’s Sea [i.e. Cape Kynossema].
—trans. RTM
Hyg. Fab., 91, 107-11: Alexander Paris.
alexander paris.
Priamus Laomedontis filius cum complures liberos haberet ex concubitu Hecubae Cissei siue Dymantis filiae, uxor eius praegnans in quiete uidit se facem ardentem parere ex qua serpentes plurimos exisse. [2] id uisum omnibus coniectoribus cum narratum esset, imperant quicquid pareret necaret, ne id patriae exitio foret. [3] postquam Hecuba peperit Alexandrum, datur interficiendus, quem satellites misericordia exposuerunt; eum pastores pro suo filio repertum expositum educarunt eumque Parim nominauerunt. [4] is cum ad puberem aetatem peruenisset, habuit taurum in deliciis; quo cum satellites missi a Priamo ut taurum aliquis adduceret uenissent, qui in athlo funebri quod ei fiebat poneretur, coeperunt Paridis taurum abducere. [5] qui persecutus est eos et inquisiuit quo eum ducerent; illi indicant se eum ad Priamum adducere ei, qui uicisset ludis funebribus Alexandri. ille amore incensus tauri sui descendit in certamen et omnia uicit, fratres quoque suos superauit. [6] indignans Deiphobus gladium ad eum strinxit; at ille in aram Iouis Hercei insiluit; quod cum Cassandra uaticinaretur
eum fratrem esse, Priamus eum agnouit regiaque recepit.
107-111
armorvm ivdicivm.
Hectore sepulto cum Achilles circa moenia Troianorum uagaretur ac diceret se solum Troiam expugnasse, Apollo iratus Alexandrum Parin se simulans talum quem mortalem habuisse dicitur
sagitta percussit et occidit. [2] Achille occiso ac sepulturae tradito Aiax Telamonius quod frater patruelis eius fuit postulauit a Danais ut arma sibi Achillis darent; quae ira Mineruae
eqvvs troianvs.
Achiui cum per decem annos Troiam capere non possent, Epeus monitu Mineruae equum mirae magnitudinis ligneum fecit, eoque sunt collecti Menelaus Vlixes Diomedes Thessander Sthenelus Acamas Thoas Machaon Neoptolemus; et in equo scripserunt DANAI MINERVAE DONO DANT, castraque transtulerunt Tenedo. [2] id Troiani cum uiderunt arbitrati sunt hostes abisse; Priamus equum in arcem Mineruae duci imperauit, feriatique magno opere ut essent edixit; id uates Cassandra cum uociferaretur, inesse hostes, fides ei habita non est. [3] quem in arcem cum statuissent et ipsi noctu lusu atque uino lassi obdormissent, Achiui ex equo aperto a Sinone exierunt et portarum custodes occiderunt, sociosque signo dato receperunt et Troia sunt potiti.
iliona.
Priamo Polydorus filius ex Hecuba cum esset natus, Ilionae filiae suae dederunt eum educandum, quae Polymnestori regi Thracum erat nupta, quem illa pro filio suo educauit, Deipylum autem quem ex Polymnestore procreauerat, pro suo fratre educauit, ut si alteri eorum quid foret, parentibus praestaret. [2] sed cum Achiui Troia capta prolem Priami exstirpare uellent, Astyanacta Hectoris et Andromachae filium de muro deiecerunt et ad Polymnestorem legatos miserunt qui ei Agamemnonis filiam nomine Electram pollicerentur in coniugium et auri magnam copiam si Polydorum Priami filium interfecisset. [3] Polymnestor legatorum dicta non repudiauit, Deipylumque filium suum imprudens occidit, arbitrans se Polydorum filium Priami interfecisse. [4] Polydorus autem ad oraculum Apollinis de parentibus suis sciscitatum est profectus, cui responsum est patriam incensam, patrem occisam, matrem in seruitute teneri. [5] cum inde rediret et uidit aliter esse ac sibi responsum fuit
polyxena.
Danai uictores cum ab Ilio classem conscenderent et uellent in patriam suam quisque reuerti et praedam quisque sibi duceret, ex sepulcro uox Achillis dicitur praedae partem expostulasse. itaque Danai Polyxenam Priami filiam, quae uirgo fuit formosissima, propter quam Achilles cum eam peteret et ad colloquium uenisset ab Alexandro et Deiphobo est occisus, ad sepulcrum eius eam immolauerunt.
hecvba.
Vlixes Hecubam Cissei filiam, uel ut alii auctores dicunt Dymantis, Priami uxorem, Hectoris matrem, in seruitutem cum duceret, illa in Hellespontum mare se praecipitauit et canis dicitur
facta esse, unde et Cyneum est appellatum.