The Story of Troy | Page 2

arranged in after years in two separate books, form the poems known as
the Iliad and Odyssey.
Homer's poetry is what is called epic poetry, that is, it tells about heroes
and heroic actions. The Iliad and Odyssey are the first and greatest of
epic poems. In all ages since Homer's time, scholars have agreed in
declaring them to be the finest poetic productions of human genius. No
nation in the world has ever produced poems so beautiful or so perfect.
They have been read and admired by learned men for more than 2000

years. They have been translated into the languages of all civilized
countries. In this book we make many quotations from the fine
translation of the Iliad by our American poet, William Cullen Bryant.
We quote also from the well-known translation by the English poet,
Alexander Pope.
The ancients had a very great admiration for the poetry of Homer. We
are told that every educated Greek could repeat from memory any
passage in the Iliad or Odyssey. Alexander the Great was so fond of
Homer's poems that he always had them under his pillow while he slept.
He kept the Iliad in a richly ornamented casket, saying that "the most
perfect work of human genius ought to be preserved in a box the most
valuable and precious in the world."
So great was the veneration the Greeks had for Homer, that they
erected temples and altars to him, and worshiped him as a god. They
held festivals in his honor, and made medals bearing the figure of the
poet sitting on a throne and holding in his hands the Iliad and Odyssey.
One of the kings of Eʹgypt built in that country a magnificent temple,
in which was set up a statue of Homer, surrounded with a beautiful
representation of the seven cities that contended for the honor of being
the place of his birth.
Great bard of Greece, whose ever-during verse All ages venerate, all
tongues rehearse; Could blind idolatry be justly paid To aught of
mental power by man display'd, To thee, thou sire of soul-exalting song,
That boundless worship might to thee belong.
HAYLEY.
II. THE GODS AND GODDESSES.
To understand the Story of Troy it is necessary to know something
about the gods and goddesses, who played so important a part in the
events we are to relate. We shall see that in the Troʹjan War nearly
everything was ordered or directed by a god or goddess. The gods,
indeed, had much to do in the causing of the war, and they took sides in
the great struggle, some of them helping the Greeks and some helping

the Trojans.
The ancient Greeks believed that there were a great many gods.
According to their religion all parts of the universe,--the heavens and
the earth, the sun and the moon, the ocean, seas, and rivers, the
mountains and forests, the winds and storms,--were ruled by different
gods. The gods, too, it was supposed, controlled all the affairs of
human life. There were a god of war and a god of peace, and gods of
music, and poetry, and dancing, and hunting, and of all the other arts or
occupations in which men engaged.
The gods, it was believed, were in some respects like human beings. In
form they usually appeared as men and women. They were passionate
and vindictive, and often quarreled among themselves. They married
and had children, and needed food and drink and sleep. Sometimes they
married human beings, and the sons of such marriages were the heroes
of antiquity, men of giant strength who performed daring and
wonderful feats. The food of the gods was Am-broʹsia, which
conferred immortality and perpetual youth on those who partook of it;
their drink was a delicious wine called Necʹtar.
The gods, then, were immortal beings. They never died; they never
grew old, and they possessed immense power. They could change
themselves, or human beings, into any form, and they could make
themselves visible or invisible at pleasure. They could travel through
the skies, or over earth or ocean, with the rapidity of lightning, often
riding in gorgeous golden chariots drawn by horses of immortal breed.
They were greatly feared by men, and when any disaster occurred,--if
lives were lost by earthquake, or shipwreck, or any other calamity,--it
was attributed to the anger of some god.
Though immortal beings, however, the gods were subject to some of
the physical infirmities of humanity. They could not die, but they might
be wounded and suffer bodily pain the same as men. They often took
part in the quarrels and wars of people on earth, and they had weapons
and armor like human warriors.
The usual place of residence of the principal gods was on the top of

Mount O-lymʹpus in Greece.