Connecticut western news., 1873-01-31

The Giants of AntiNuity.

The Giants of Antiquity.
 In examining the claims of the giants of antiquity we must take into consideration the fact that 1t was the custom of all ancient nations to magnify the stature of their kings and heroes. To be considered giant in strength and size was the ambition of every war rior. Even the great Alexander was not free from this. vanity, for, we are told that, in one of his Asian expeditions, he caused to be made and left behind him suit of armor of huge proportions in order to induce a belief among the people he had conquered that he was of great stature. Homer exaggerates the size and strength of all the heroes of the Trojan war, and leads us to infer that the whole race of man, even in his day, had degenerated. We may sus- pect that even the Jewish writers were not entirely free from similar feeling. Admitting that people like the Rep hahn existed in Palestine, of greater stature than the Hebrews, it would re- quire but little stretch of @ poetic inn agination to paint them as giants. They may have been no larger in comparison with their conquerors than are the Pa tagonians beside other more civilized races of to-day, yet have seemed inn mense to the children of Israel. who were more probably under than over the average height.
 Again, there is no absolute certainty that the Biblical text, as we have it, is as it was originally written. Our au- thorized version makes Goliath, for in- stance, six cubits and a span in height; but the Vatican copy of the Septuagint, (Codex Vatioans), as old as any in existence, (unless the Sinaiticus exceeds it), reads "four cubits and a span," agreeing in tliA with Josephus. To which account are we to adhere? |? If to the latter, then the giant of the Philistihes was only little over six and half feet in stature, instead of nine and half. The sacred writer does not give us the measure of King Og, but only that of his bedstead. It is not necessary to dispute the thirteen and Q half feet of the giant couch. But we are half inclined to suspect that Og was afflicted with an ambition similar to that of Alexander, and used bedstead not in proportion to his actual size, but in proportion to his fancied importance It is curious to observe that, according to Dr. Smith, the words in Deuteronomy translated bedstead of iron" are also susceptible of the rendering, "sarco- phagus of black basalt," but this does not initiate againt the probability of our supposition.
 Comparatively modern writers are not free from like congregations in regard to the stature of noted men. William of Malmesbury makes the tomb of Wal win, nephew of King Arthur, and one of his famous knights, fourteen feet in length; and Hollinshead, quoting Syl- vester Giraldus, says that the body of King Arthur, found in Glastonbury in 1189, was two feet higher than any man who came to see it. Camden, who gives an account of the discovery, fails to note this peculiarity of the corpse, the story is probably without foundation. In like manner, Charlemagne and his pala- dins have been represented as of great stature
 Eginhard says that the great emperor was "seven of his own feet" in height !; from which we must infer either that he had very small foot, entirely out of proportion to his size, or that he was very tall man. The old writers would have us believe too that Rouland the hero of Roncesvalles, was also of gigan- tic stature and strength. Happily we have some direct evidence on this point. Hakewill, quoting Camerarius, says /: "FrancisI, King of France, who reigned about one hundred years since, being desirous to know the truth of those things which were commonly spread touching the strength and stature of Rouland, nephew to Charlemagne, caused his sepulchre to be opened, wherein his bones and bow were found rotten, but his arnor sound, though covered with rust, which the King, com manding to be secured off, and putting it on his own body, found it SO fit for him, as thereby it appeared that Rou- land exceeded him but little m bigness and stature of body, though himself were not excessive tall or big" Wehave similar evidence in relation to the body of William the Conqueror, which was reported to have been dug up, four hun dred years after buriel, and found to be eight feet in length for Stowe says that, when the English took Cannes, in 1852, Some soldiers broke into the monu: ment in search of booty, and found nothing remarkable about the bones.
 Were it possible to get at the truth concerning the giants of antiquity, there is little doubt but that half of them could be shows to be pure myths, and that nine-tenths of the remainder could be reduced in size very materially. Pliny's assertion that mankind is grad ually degenerating is wholly gratuitous, and has no foundation in fact. Indeed, vast deal of proof can be abducted tending to show that the men of to-day are equal, and probably superior, in stature to the ancients. The Greeks and Romans were undoubtedly of small l size. The helmets and sword -hilts that have come down to us from the hereic ages could not be used by the majority of soldiers of the present European nations. Ancient rings, also, are tee small for modern fingers.
 But the classic writers give testimony enough on this point. Caesar, speaking stature, in comparison with the great size of their bodies, is generally sub. ject of much contempt to the men ot Gaul." Tacitus also describes the Ger mans as of robust form and of great stature and Strabo says that he had seen Britons at Rome who were 8 half's foot taller than the tallest Italians. Yet there is no proof that the men of these nations were any larger in ancient times than they are ROW. On the contrary the graves and barrows tell different story. The remains are usually under the average height of men of the present day. It is the same with the Egyptian mummies. According to Athenaeus, { man of four cubits, or sixfeet, in heigth was considered of "gigantic size'' ir Egypt.
 Apollodorus, the grandmother o. Athens, gives the height of the "gigan tic Hercules" as four oubits the woman who was selected to personate Minerva at Athens, in the time of Pisistratus, or