his memory by building a temple, within which was a statue of the poet, surrounded by emblematic representations of the seven cities which claimed to be his birthplace. The Iliad,' which is Homer's best and greatest work, is an account of the latter part of the siege of Troy or Ilium, the principal event in the long war between the Trojans, the quellers of the steed,' and the brass-clad Grecians.' The war had originated in the abduction of Helen, wife of Menelaus of Sparta, by Paris, son of Priam, king of Troy. Hecuba, the mother of Paris, while he was yet an infant, had revealed to her some dreadful portents which showed that Paris was destined to be the destroyer of his country. To avert this if possible the infant Paris was abandoned on Mount Ida, but here he was found and taken care of by some shepherds, who were charmed by the great beauty of the child, and Paris remained with them till he grew to manhood. At the dispute of Juno, Venus, and Minerva, as to which was the most beautiful, Paris was chosen to act as umpire-each goddess tried to bribe him in her favour, Juno with power, Minerva with wisdom, and Venus with the possession of the fairest of earthly women. Paris decided in favour of Venus, who thus became possessed of the prize-the famous golden apple of Discord—and by this means he brought upon King Priam and Troy the resentment of Juno and Minerva in the war which shortly after began. Having been acknowledged by Priam as his son, Paris made an expedition to Sparta, where he was received with great hospitality and kindness by Menelaus the king, which he treacherously repaid by carrying off Helen to Troy during a temporary absence of her husband Menelaus at Crete. Helen, the fairest woman on earth, was the daughter of King Tyndareus of Sparta-according to some legends she was the daughter of Jupiter and Leda, wife of Tyndareus-and was of such matchless beauty that at the age of ten she was stolen away by Theseus, who was enamoured with her, but was soon recovered by her brothers Castor and Pollux. The king her father, being apprehensive that a second abduction might prove more successful, bound all the suitors of the young princess, to the number of thirty, by an oath to aid Helen's future husband, whoever she might choose amongst them, by all and every means to recover her if ever such an abduction took place. When therefore she was carried off by Paris, the fulfilment of this oath brought all the princes of Greece to the siege of Troy or Ilium, pre-eminent among these being Ulysses and Achilles. The latter was the son of Thetis daughter of Jupiter, and in beauty and bravery far exceeded all the other princes. During his infancy his mother had dipped him in the river Styx, and thus made every part of his body invulnerable, except the heel whereby she held him. Thetis afterwards gave her son the choice of two careers, either a long life of peace and obscurity, or a short and decisive one of glory and victory, when Achilles chose the latter. Knowing it had been foretold that Troy would not be taken without his aid, and also that if he went he should perish there, Thetis, to keep him from the dangerous expedition, concealed him at the court of Lycomedes, among whose daughters Achilles lived disguised as a girl. Here he was discovered by Ulysses, who offered to the young girls a number of articles, some of feminine attire, and others of arms, when the young warrior betrayed himself by his choice; and soon after he joined the forces of Agamemnon, brother of Menelaus and king of Greece, with fifty vessels manned by his Myrmidons, the bravest of the troops who took the field against Troy. According to various Greek legends the army consisted of upwards of one thousand ships, and as the largest of these contained about two hundred and the smallest fifty men, it is believed that nearly one hundred thousand allied Greeks or Achæans were engaged in the expedition. Agamemnon was chosen general of the combined forces, but the leading princes were admitted into his counsel and aided in directing the operations of the war. When the ships sailed for the plains of Troy, they first lost their way, and were next detained by contrary winds at Aulis. A sacrifice was wanted to appease the angry gods who had thus delayed the ships, and an oracle revealed to Agamemnon that the sacrifice must be his own daughter Iphigenia. To this the king would not consent, and took measures for dispersing the expeditionary force to their several homes, but was at length persuaded by the Grecian princes to sacrifice his daughter for the cause of Greece. As Calchas, the soothsayer and priest, raised the knife to strike the fatal blow, Iphigenia suddenly disappeared, and a beautiful white goat was found in her place for the sacrifice the goddess Diana, on whose altar she was about to be immolated, having borne her away. The gods being thus appeased, the wind became favourable, and the galleys of Greece made their way easily to the shores of Troy, where they disembarked in such numbers that the Trojans were unable to keep the field against them and retired within their city. The Greeks then kept watch and ward around the walls, devastating and plundering the surrounding shores. Here properly commences THE ILIAD. To vary the wearisome character of the leaguer of Troy, which has, at the commencement of the epic, now lasted ten years, the Grecian armies, under the leadership of Atrides Agamemnon, make an incursion upon some of the towns in the neighbourhood, and after sacking and plundering them, carry away many of the inhabitants. Among these captives are the ‘fair Briseis,' who had been taken by Achilles, and Chryseis, daughter of the priest of Phoebus Apollo at Lyrnessus, the prize of Agamemnon. The priest, Chryses, goes to the Grecian camp and requests the freedom of his daughter, but Agamemnon rudely repulses him 'Hence, on thy life, and fly these hostile plains, |