The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-05-22


of pseudo-criticism was directed against
the very existence of such city as Troy
I've sat upon Achilles tomb and heard
Troy doubted-tine will doubt of Rome,
wrote Byron before the explorations OF
archaeology had revealed the verify of
the towers OF Iliumr and explored the
tombs of Mycenae There is no doubt
that the story of the siege of Troy told
IN verse is older than Homer, or that
"When Homer struck his bloomin Tyre
He'd heard men sing by land and sea;
And what he thought he might require
He went and took-the same as me-"
But there Is also rational clause to
doubt that the 'Iliad' as we now have 1t
was the work of Homer; that he was a
literary man scantily appreciated in his
life. and that after his death seven
Grecian cities claimed a Homer dead"
The "Illad' only incidentally aludes to
the causes of the Trojan war. is occupied
entirely with some of the battles before
Troy and ends before the capture of the
city.
X MANY and great were the woes to
MI Greece which sprang from the
i wrath of Achilles at the tyranny
and injustice of Agamemnon, the great
King of Mycenae and Communicated
of the Grecian forces which were besieg-
ing the city of Troy. To the court of
Agamemnons brother, Menlaus, King of
Sparta, had come as a guest the young
and beautiful Prince Paris, son of Priam
King of Troy. In return for the lavish
hospitality of Meneiaus, Paris had eloped
with the Kings wife, Helen, most beauti-
full of all the women of her time, and
taken her back to his fathers court-to
"Ilium's proud towers And now Ilium,
or Troy was besieged by the assembled
and confederated kings of the Grecian
states, all aroused to war by this act
Of outrage against the rites of hospital
ity.
Among the great captains who led forth
the enbattled power of Greece upon the
Trojan plain none was so furious in fight,
so skilled in war and so dreaded by the
foe as Achilles, son of Peleus, King of
Thessaly. and the sea-nymph Thetis. He
had brought over to the war the famous
soldiers of his realm, the Myrmidons, and
he was himself invulnerable-except in
one place, his heel. When he was boy
his mother Thetis had given him this in
vulnerability by dipping him in the River
styx, holding him by the heel the while,
and in this heel, the only part of him
which was not plunged under the Stygian
waters, alone could be harmed.
For nine years the Greeks had been
Fl. 4--z haA lad
their victorious arms now to the very
walls of Ilium. Many cities subject to
Trojan sway had they taken and sacked
meantime, and shortly before the story
OF the "Iliad" opens they had in the
sacking of a hostile city taken captive
two beautiful maidens, Chryseis an6
Briseis. Chryseis had BEEN allotted tc
spoils of war after the barbarous man
ner of those early times. Achilles was a
once captivated with the manner ant
beauty of Briseis, and her friend Patro
clus promised the maiden in the name o
the King of Thessaly that Achilles woult
make her his lawful bride and, when thu
war was over, take her across the Sc,
The father of Chryseis was Chryses
priest of Apollo, the god of the silye
bow. and he officiated in the temple o
that divinity, which reared its marbl
porticos where the wine-dark sea lavet
the sacred shores of Chrysa. The age,
priest, upon learning Of the captivity o
his daughter. came to the Grecian CAM
ing the symbols and ensigns of Apoll,
In his hands, bowed down and EXTENDED
to the great King the sceptre and div
crown. Then he begged of all the chiefs
but principally of the brothers, Aga
memnon and Menelaus, that he might b.
permitted to ransom his daughter.
The other chiefs were in favor of tn
ransoming, but Agamemnon haughtil.
replied that Chryseis was his captive an,
should remain so, and drove the prizes
OF Apollo from his presence with threats
ard harsh words, so that the old maj
entered his ship again and returned
broken-hearted, to his own land. There
in the temple of the sun-god. he offere,
up his prayers for vengeance upon tn
Greeks, and the god of the silver boy
heard him and sent a great pestlenc
into the Grecian camp. Through the vas
army the pestiience ragged undated an
the Trojans had nothing to do but 81
secure behind their walls and watch tn
constantly burning funeral pyres which
day and night. famed and smoked alon
the shore. The Greeks were dying OF
like flies. and even the stout heart Q
Achilles failed him as he saw the siaugh
ter which disease was making in tn
ranks of the invaders.
A great council of the chiefs was Gale
to decide upon what. should be done 1
the extremity to which they seemed re
duced. Achilles saw no way but t
rather what remained of the Greeks, re
embark on board their ships and, waite
by the winds let their keels cut tn
bright waters on the road to Greece Blu
first, he said he would have some mar
wise and sage, declare, II he could, tn
reason of the frightful pestilence whic
had SO devastated the forces.
Chalcas, a much revered Grecian priest
whose comprehension embraced the past
tho present and the future, arose and
saving received permission from Aga