- ARISTODEMUS, son of Aristomachus, was one of the Heraclidæ. He, with his brothers Temenus and Chrespontes, invaded Peloponnesus, conquered it, and divided the country among themselves.

PELOPS, the celebrated king of Phrygia, lived at this period. Pelops came to Pisa, where he became one of the suitors of Hippodamia, the daughter of king (Enomaus, and he entered the lists against the father, who promised his daughter only to him who could out-run him in a chariot race. Pelops was not terrified at the fate of thirteen lovers who before him had entered the course against Enomaus, and had, according to the conditions proposed, been put to death when conquered. He previously bribed Myrtilus, the charioteer of Enomaus, and therefore he easily obtained the victory. He married Hippodamia, and threw headlong into the sea Myrtilus, when he claimed the reward of his perfidy. Pelops after death received divine honours, and was revered above all the heroes of Greece.

We shall now introduce the reader to the heroes concerned in the siege of Troy. The story is, that Paris, the son of Priam, king of Troy, seduced Helen, the daughter of Tyndarus, and wife of Menelaus, whom he carried to Troy. The whole Grecian states united to revenge this affront offered to a single Greek, and neither the power of Troy, nor the wealth of king Priam, could overcome this confederacy. Troy was taken after a siege of ten years, B. C. 1184. The fate of Paris may inform princes that yielding to an unworthy passion may prove the ruin of their country. We shall first introduce the Trojans, and afterwards the Greeks concerned in this great enterprize.

PRIAM, the unfortunate king of Troy at the time of its destruction, was the son of Laomedon, and when Troy was taken and his father slain, he was carried away captive into Greece, with his sister Hesione. He succeeded to the throne of Laomedon, and to prevent a renewal of the disaster which had befallen his capital, he surrounded it with strong walls. The discovery of a gold mine on his territories enabled him to undertake many public works, and to decorate Troy with stately edifices, so as to render it the most splendid city in that part of the world. He raised and maintained a considerable army, which enabled him to extend his dominions till at length he was regarded as the most powerful prince of Lesser Asia. His first wife was Arisba, by whom he had only one son; but his second wife was Hecuba, who made him father of a numerous family. He lived in great prosperity till the perfidy of his son Paris, in carrying off Helen, the wife of the Spartan king Menelaus, by whom he had been hospitably entertained, brought upon him that invasion from the confederated kings of Greece, which is

so celebrated under the name of the Trojan war. After a struggle of ten years, in which he saw his territories laid waste, his bravest sons slain, and the capital taken, he was himself slain at his own domestic altar by the savage Pyrrhus, the son of Achilles.

HECUBA, the second wife of Priam, and mother of Hector and Paris, was, according to Homer, the daughter of Dymas, or as Virgil, following Euripides, says, of Cisseis, king of Thrace, and sister of Theaio, the priestess of Apollo at Troy during the war. After the capture of Troy, she attempted to revenge the death of her son Polydorus, and was stoned to death by the Greeks. Some say that she became a slave to Ulysses, and that this prince left the unfortunate princess in the hands of her enemies, who caused her to be stoned. It is probable, however, that Ulysses himself was the cause of her death; because, it is said, that upon his arrival in Sicily, he was so tormented with dreams, that in order to appease the gods, he built a temple to Hecate, who presided over dreams, and a chapel to Hecuba.

PARIS, the son of Priam, king of Troy, by Hecuba. When his mother, in the first months of her pregnancy, had dreamed that she should bring forth a torch which would set fire to her palace, the soothsayers foretold the calamities which were to be expected from the imprudence of her future son, and which would end in the ruin of Troy. Priam, to prevent so great a calamity, ordered his slave Archelaus to destroy the child as soon as he was born. The slave only exposed the child on mount Ida, where the shepherds of the place found him, and educated him as their own. Though educated among shepherds and peasants, he gave very early proofs of courage and intrepidity; and from his care in protecting the flocks of mount Ida from the rapacity of the wild beasts he was named Alexander, a helper of men. He gained the esteem of all the shepherds, and his manly deportment recommended him to Enone, a nymph of Ida, whom he married, and with whom he lived in the most perfect tenderness. Their conjugal peace was, however, of no long duration. At the marriage of Peleus and Thetis, Ate, the goddess of discord, who had not been invited to partake of the entertainment, showed her displeasure, by throwing into the assembly of the gods who were at the celebration of the nuptials, a golden apple, on which were written these words, Let it be given to the fairest. All the goddesses claimed it as their own, and the contention at first became general; but at last only three, Juno, Venus, and Minerva, wished to dispute their respective right to beauty. The gods, unwilling to become arbiters in an affair so delicate in its nature, appointed Paris to adjudge their prize. The goddesses appeared before their judge without covering or ornament, and

each endeavoured by promises to influence his judgment. Juno promised him a kingdom; Minerva, wisdom and military glory; and Venus, the fairest woman in the world for his wife. After he had heard their several claims and promises, Paris adjudged the prize to Venus, and gave her the golden apple. This decision drew upon the judge and his family the resentment of the two other goddesses. Such is the fabulous, or poetical account. Soon after, Priam proposed a contest among his sons and other princes, and promised to reward the conqueror with one of the finest bulls of Mount Ida. His emissaries were sent to procure the animal, and it was found in the possession of Paris, who reluctantly yielded it. But he went to Troy, and entered the lists of the combatants. He was received with applause, and obtained the victory over his rivals, Nestor the son of Neleus, Cyenus son of Neptune, Polites, Helenus, and Deiphobus, son of Priam. He likewise obtained a superiority over Hector himself, who, enraged to see himself conquered by an unknown stranger, pursued him closely; and Paris must have fallen a victim to his rage, had he not fled to the altar of Jupiter. This sacred retreat preserved his life; and Cassandra, the daughter of Priam, struck with the familiarity of the features of Paris with those of her brothers, enquired his birth and his age. From these circumstances she discovered that he was her brother, and as such introduced him to her father and to her brothers. Priam acknowledged Paris as his son, and all jealousy ceased among the brothers.

Paris did not long remain inactive; he equipped a fleet as if willing to redeem Hesione, his father's sister, whom Hercules had carried away, and obliged to marry Telamon the son of

acus. This was the pretended motive of his voyage, but the causes were far different. Helen was the fairest woman of the age, and Venus had promised her to him. He therefore went to Sparta, the residence of Helen, who had married Menelaus. He was received with great respect; but he abused the hospitality of Menelaus, and while the husband was absent in Crete, persuaded Helen to elope with him and to fly to Asia. Priam received her without difficulty, as his sister was then detained in a foreign country, and as he wished to show himself as hostile as possible to the Greeks. This affair was soon productive of serious consequences. When Menelaus had married Helen, all her suitors had bound themselves by a solemn oath to defend her from every violence, and therefore he reminded them of their engagements, and called upon them to recover her. Upon this all Greece took up arms; Agamemnon was chosen general of the combined forces, and a regular war was begun. Paris, meanwhile, who had refused Helen to the petitions and embassies of the Greeks, armed himself, with his brothers and

subjects, to oppose the enemy; but he fought with little courage, and at the very sight of Menelaus, whom he had so recently injured, his courage vanished and he retired from the army. It is said, however, that he wounded in battle, Machæon, Euriphylus, and Diomedes; and, according to some, he killed with an arrow the great Achilles. The death of Paris is differently related; some say he was mortally wounded by one of the poisoned arrows of Philoctetus; and that when he found himself languid by his wounds, he ordered himself to be carried to the feet of Enone, whom he had basely abandoned, and who had foretold him that he would solicit her assistance in his dying moments. He expired before he came into the presence of Enone, who threw herself upon his body, and stabbed herself to the heart. According to others, Paris did not immediately go to Troy when he left the Peloponnesus, but he was driven on the coasts of Egypt, where Proteus, the king of the country, detained him. He died about 1188, B. C.

per

CASSANDRA, daughter of king Priam, a celebrated sonage, appears to have had a real part in the tragedy of the Trojan events. She seems to have laboured under a fancied inspiration, which made her, during the siege of Troy, utter various predictions of impending calamities, disregarded at the time, but many of them naturally verified in the event. During the plunder of that metropolis, she took refuge in the temple of Minerva, where she was barbarously violated by Ajax, son of Oileus. In the division of the spoil she fell to the lot of Agamemnon, who brought her home, where she excited the jealousy of Clytemnestra. In consequence, when that prince was assassinated by the contrivance of his wife and her gallant, she also fell a victim. She is said to have been very beautiful, and to have had several suitors in the flourishing time of Troy. HECTOR, the son of Priam and Hecuba, and the father of Astyanax, celebrated for the valour with which he defended the city of Troy against the Greeks. He was killed by Achilles, who dragged his body, fastened to his chariot, thrice round the walls of Troy, and afterwards restored it to Priam for a large

ransom.

ANDROMACHE, the wife of the valiant Hector, the mother of Astyanax, and daughter of Eetion, king of Thebes, in Cilicia. After the death of Hector and the destruction of Troy, she married Pyrrhus; who afterwards gave her to Helenus, the son of Priam, with part of the country of Epirus.

ASTYANAX, the only son of Hector and Andromache; after the taking of Troy he was thrown from the top of a tower by the orders of Ulysses.

HELENUS, a celebrated soothsayer, the son of Priam and Hecuba. He married Andromache, the wife of Hector and

slave of Pyrrhus, who gave her to him in marriage, because his predictions had been favourable to him. He was the only one of Priam's children who survived the ruin of his country. After the death of Pyrrhus he reigned over part of Epirus, called Chaoniæ. His son, Cestrinus, succeeded to a part of his father's dominions, called Cestrina. Helenus is said to have learned the art of divination from Cassandra his sister, the priestess of Apollo. Possessed of this art, he was much respected by the Trojans; and was at length prevailed upon to inform the enemies of his country, that Troy could not be taken while it was in possession of the Palladium, nor before Polydorus, leaving his retreat at Lemnos, joined in supporting the siege. When his country was ruined he became the property of Pyrrhus, whose life he saved, by warning him to avoid a dangerous tempest, which proved fatal to all those who set sail. Thus, as we have already said, he gained the favour of Pyrrhus, and his favour was introductory to the other events that occurred. It is said that Helenus received Æneas when on his voyage towards Italy, and predicted to him some of the calamities that befel his fleet.

MEROPS, a celebrated soothsayer of Percossus in Troas, who foretold the death of his sons Adrastus and Amphius, who were engaged in the Trojan war. They slighted their father's advice, and were killed by Diomedes.

POLYDORUS, a son of Priam and Hecuba. As he was young and inexperienced when Troy was besieged by the Greeks, his father removed him to the court of Polymnestor, king of Thrace, and also entrusted to the care of the monarch a large sum of money, and the greatest part of his treasures, till his country was freed from foreign invasion. No sooner was the death of Priam known in Thrace, than Polymnestor made himself master of the riches which were in his possession, and to ensure them the better, he assassinated young Polydorus, and threw his body into the sea, where it was found by Hecuba.

THYMETES, a Trojan prince, whose wife and son having been killed by order of king Priam, he, in revenge, advised the Trojans to admit the wooden horse of the Greeks, by which Troy was destroyed.

EUPHORBUS, a famous Trojan, son of Panthous. He was the first who wounded Patroclus, whom Hector killed. He perished by the hand of Menelaus, who hung his shield in the temple of Juno, at Argos.

HELEN, the most beautiful woman of the age in which she lived, was the daughter of Tyndarus, king of Sparta, and Leda, his wife. Helen was so universally admired, that she was carried off, when very young, by Theseus. Pausanias records that she had a daughter by Theseus, who was entrusted to the