The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1906-05-31

Hector anu AnuroMdcno (nlS WlIe), De-
fore he starts out on his eventful en-
counter with Achilles. And the
sorrow of Hecuba when she witnesses
the Staying of her favorite son, and
when, in spite of all warnings, she
leaves the safe shelter of the city, hur-
ries thru the enemy's camp to the
tent of Achilles, praying for her sons
body, which, when received, she takes
back with her to Ilium, without being
molested by any of the Greeks, is told
in most beautiful and touching man.
ner.
The entire "Iliad" is so full of great
and exciting scenes, that we cannot
even attempt to convey an adequate
description of them to those who have
not read Homer. Only two more in
cidents shall be mentioned. A temple
in Ilium contained the Palladium, an
image of Pallas Athene, and it was
believed that the city could not be
taken as long as the Palladium re-
NAMED within its wall. 1t was, there
fore, necessary for the Greeks to get |
possession of it. A plan to do so, like |
all matters of this kind, was invented
by Odysseus who, with the assistance
of DiOmedes, really managed to rob the
Trojans of their treasure. We shall
now refer to the tragic finale of the
great drama. When the Greeks had
made believe that they had sailed away
for good, and when the Trojans were
about to haul the wooden horse into
the city, Priamus' daughter, Cassandra,
who possessed the gift of looking into
the future, hurried excitedly from the
castle and exhorted her countrymen to
destroy the horse, as otherwise all
4 Trojans would be doomed to perdition,
I telling them thaGtfle GREEKS were not
to be trusted, EVEN IF THEY DID
;. BRING PRESENTS. These words of
Cassandra, in their Latin translation:
"timeo D0'aoes ct doaaa Jfereaates," be-
; came a much-used quotation in the
following twenty-five centuries, and
are so to this day. The high priest of
Ilium, LAGOON, was almost the only
, one who sided with Cassandra; but
!, when, while he was still talking in her
support, an enormous snake, believed
to have been sent by Athene, came out
of the sea, entwining itself around
LAGOON and his two sons, and killing
all three by its embrace, then the
> Trojans felt convinced that the horse
was consecrated to Zeus, and all fur
ther remonstrance Of Cassandra was
in vain, and the fateful horse was
: brought into the city.
The destruction of the city is pic
tured in a vividly terrible manner.
: Nobody escaped but Aeneast who,
carrying his old father on his shoulders,
: managed, with few of his followers,
to reach vessel. Old King Priamus.
who had sought safety at the sacred
heath of Zeus, was slain by Pyrrhus
= (called Neoptolemus by later historians)
: the brave but bloodthirsty son of the
= noble Achilles. ALI other male Tro-
- jams were likewise killed, and the
;. women became slaves of the victOrs
:. all except Helena, who went back with
:. Menelaus as his wife.
- From the moral point of view
:; Homer's work is above reproach
= What he considered right and wrong
:. = 700 years before Christ-is considered
- so now. In fact, Homer's idea o.
- morality, is of an even higher orde
than that of classics who lived three
- hundred years later, at the time o
~ - Perices, Alcibiades, etc., when Greco
~ ~ had attained the very zenith of cultur
- and refinement. He MUST have beel
!, what Christians would call a good man
-, Unstinted, almost lavish in his praise
!. he is very charitable in his condemna
*Homer always called the Greeks "Danaes,
oy thereby denotng that they were Of divine origil
en- Danae was very virtuous princess, and wa
,st visited by Zeus, In form of shower of gol,
NJ The result was the birth of Perseus, the first
the great Greek heroes, from whom all Greel
Oh were believed to have descended.
" The great Roman poet Virgil, has made II
lis .dventrrss and daefis ~ Aanaas the snbiect
so q celebrated epic poem, called the "Aene!d.''
We Is written in Homeric style and also in hex
- meter, and is the greatest Latin poem. b