Troilus (trō´il-us).—Son of Priam and Hecuba; slain by Achilles.
Troja (trō´ja), or Troy, called by the Greeks Ilium (ī´li-um).—A city of Asia Minor, situated in the Troad, famous for its ten years’ siege by the Greeks. The name Troy was derived from king Tros (trōs), who gave his name originally to the district (Troas) and the people; Ilium from Ilus, son of Tros, who founded the city—which, however, was also called, after his father, Troy. The Trojan war forms the subject of Homer’s immortal poem, the Iliad. The history of this celebrated war may be briefly told as follows: The war arose from the abduction of Helen, wife of Menelaus, king of Sparta, and the most beautiful woman of her time, by Paris, son of Priam, king of Troy. The cause of her abduction is given under “[Paris]” and “[Helen].” All the chiefs of Greece, who had been former suitors of Helen, joined Menelaus in an expedition to Troy to bring her back. They accordingly massed all their forces and sailed for the coast of Troas. Even the gods took an active part in the contest: Juno and Minerva, owing to the judgment of Paris, were hostile to the Trojans, and accordingly sided with the Greeks; while Venus, to whom Paris had awarded the golden apple, took the side of the Trojans. The innumerable incidents of the siege itself must be passed over; only the remarkable way in which, after a ten years’ siege, the city was finally taken, must be told. The city contained an ancient statue of Pallas (i. e. Minerva), called the Palladium, (q.v.) on the preservation of which the safety of the city was supposed to depend. Accordingly the Greeks make a night attack on Troy, and Ulysses and Diomedes succeeded in carrying off this Palladium. A little later the Greeks returned to their ships and sailed away, pretending that they had relinquished the siege. On the plain before the city, however, they left behind them the celebrated wooden horse, the invention of Ulysses, which was hollowed out in the interior sufficiently to admit of the presence of its wily inventor and a few other heroes within it. Meanwhile Sinon, a relation of Ulysses, had allowed himself to be taken prisoner by the Trojans, and then persuaded them to draw this wooden horse, which he pretended was an atonement for the Palladium, into the city. They foolishly believed him and dragged the horse into the city, and in the dead of night Sinon let the Greeks out of the horse, and they at once set fire to the city. Meanwhile the main body of the Greeks, who had gone no farther than the island of Tenedos, returned and rushed through the gates of the city, opened by their friends within, and in this way the city was taken. The date most generally accepted for the capture of Troy is B. C. 1184.
Trolls.—Dwarfs of Northern mythology, living in hills or mounds; they are represented as stumpy, misshapen, and humpbacked, inclined to thieving, and fond of carrying off children or substituting one of their own offspring for that of a human mother. They are called hill-people, and are especially averse to noise, from a recollection of the time when Thor used to fling his hammer after them.
Tydeus (tī´dēs).—Son of Œneus, king of Calydon, and father of Diomedes, who was one of the principal Greek heroes at the Trojan war. Hence Diomedes is often called by his patronymic Tydides (ti-dī´dēz).
Tyndareus (tin´dar-ūs).—King of Sparta and husband of Leda. He invited Menelaus to come to Sparta, and handed over the kingdom to him.
Typhoeus (ti-fō´ūs), or Typhon (ti´fon).—A giant who wished to acquire the sovereign power over gods and men, but was overcome with a thunderbolt from Jupiter and buried under Mount Ætna.
Tyr.—In Norse mythology, a warrior deity, and the protector of champions and brave men; he was also noted for his sagacity. When the gods wished to bind the wolf Fenrir, Tyr put his hand into the demon’s mouth as a pledge that the bonds should be removed again. But Fenrir found that the gods had no intention of keeping their word, and revenged himself in some degree by biting the hand off. Tyr was the son of Odin and brother of Thor.
U
Ulin.—An enchantress, who had no power over those who remained faithful to Allah and their duty; but if any fell into error or sin, she had full power to do as she liked. Thus, when Misnar (sultan of India) mistrusted the protection of Allah, she transformed him into a toad. When the Vizier Horam believed a false report, obviously untrue, she transformed him also into a toad. And when the Princess Hemjunah, to avoid a marriage projected by her father, ran away with a stranger, her indiscretion placed her in the power of the enchantress, who transformed her likewise into a toad. Ulin was ultimately killed by Misnar, sultan of Delhi, who felled her to the ground with a blow.
Ulysses (ū-lis´ēz), or Ulixes (u-lix´ēz); called Odysseus (od-is´sūs) by the Greeks.—A king of Ithaca, famed among the Grecian heroes of the Trojan war for his craft and eloquence; the son of Laertes, husband of Penelope, and father of Telemachus and Telegonus (by Circe). In order to escape from going with the other Greek heroes against Troy, he feigned madness, ploughing the sea-shore with a horse and bull yoked together and sowing salt. The imposture, however, was laid bare by [Palamedes] (q.v.), who placed Telemachus, the infant son of Ulysses, in the furrow, when the latter at once turned aside the plough; but the wily Ulysses had his revenge on Palamedes. Ulysses, in his turn, sought out and obtained the indispensable assistance of [Achilles] (q.v.). At the siege of Troy his cunning and valor were of the greatest service to the Greeks. In company with Diomedes he slew the horses of Rhesus, and also carried off the Palladium (q.v.). Perhaps the crowning effort of his ingenuity was the invention of the famous wooden horse, by means of which the city of [Troy] (q.v.) was ultimately taken by the Greeks. After the taking of Troy Ulysses set out for Ithaca, which, however, he did not reach for twenty years. During this time he passed through the adventures which form the subject of Homer’s glorious poem, the Odyssey, which takes its name from Odysseus, the Greek name for Ulysses. He thus visited [Circe] (q.v.), [Polyphemus] (q.v.), the Lotophagi, and other persons and places. In order to get safely past the island of the Sirens, he, with his usual sagacity, devised special means, which proved entirely successful (see “[Sirens]”). He lost six of his companions while sailing between [Scylla] (q.v.) and Charybdis. He then suffered shipwreck, he alone escaping by means of the mast and planks. In ten days he was drifted on to the island of Ogygia, inhabited by [Calypso] (q.v.), with whom he stayed for eight years. He then constructed a raft, and made his way to the island of Scheria (q.v.), whence he obtained a ship that carried him to Ithaca. He did not, however, make himself known at once to his wife and son. In order to see how the land lay, he disguised himself [845] as a beggar, but was kindly received by the old swineherd. Meanwhile his son Telemachus, now grown up to manhood, returned from a journey to Pylos and Sparta, undertaken with a view to gleaning what information he could as to the probable whereabouts of his father. Ulysses then made himself known to Telemachus, and the two resolved on a plan of revenge on the numerous unfortunate suitors for the hand of the virtuous and constant [Penelope] (q.v.). With great difficulty she was induced (being, as yet, unaware of the safe arrival of her husband) to promise her hand to that suitor who could shoot with the bow of Ulysses. Not one of them, however, was able to draw this bow, whereupon Ulysses himself took it up and slew them all. He then made himself known to Penelope, and went to see his father Laertes, bowed down with grief and years. Now Circe, who had had a son, Telegonus, by Ulysses, sent him in search of his father. Telegonus encountered a storm which cast his ship on the coast of Ithaca, and being pressed by hunger, he began to plunder the fields. Ulysses and Telemachus hearing of this, went out against the spoliator; but Telegonus, not knowing Ulysses, ran him through the body with a spear given to him by his mother. Thus the famous hero died at the hands of his own son. Telegonus afterwards married Penelope, and became by her the father of Italus.