HECTOR.

THE first of the three Worthies of the classic world chosen by our forefathers was Hector. It is strange to pass from the most true to the most uncertain, but as we are here trying to tread as far as possible in the steps of our ancestors in our study of great examples; and also since we have just seen the highest models of the Heroic which were held up to those who lived under Divine revelation; it is well to pass to the grandest portraits of character invented by the human mind when left to itself.

It is scarcely true, however, to say that Hector was the highest ideal of the ancients themselves. Circumstances led to his being the favourite in the Middle Ages, partly because the classic heroes had become chiefly known through Latin writings which were favourable to Hector's cause, and partly because there are elements in his nature, as originally depicted, which are more congenial to a Christian than are the dispositions of his enemies.

In order to have any understanding of the persons we have to study. it is needful to know what were the objects of their chief admiration, and therefore, together with Hector, we will try to describe the other two chief Heroes who were admired in ancient times, namely, Achilles and Ulysses, the three together perhaps making the highest perfection that the Greeks could conceive. According to the old attempts at chronology, these personages should

have been placed before, instead of after, David, as they were supposed to be contemporary with Saul; but in very truth the whole of their adventures are so unhistorical, that it is a futile endeavour to assign to them any date. All that we do know is that the glorious poems of Homer which have endeared them to all ages, were current among the Greeks, and known by heart by every educated man among them, at the time when the kingdom of David had become divided, and was tottering to its fall under the apostasy and misgovernment of his degenerate descendants.

Near the gulf-indented coast of Asia Minor, towards the north-west extremity, there lies beneath the forest-clad mountains of Ida a space of undulating ground, partly woodland and partly glade, and traversed by two mountain streams, yellow, or xanthous Simoïs, and the lesser Scamander, on their way to the sea. The place has been looked on for the last 2,500 years, by every man of culture and spirit, with an affection and enthusiasm such as have centred equally on no other spot upon the earth. There was the site of the mighty city of Asiatics, which for its crimes was besieged and taken by the united forces of Greece under the leadership of her greatest heroes, and the places and scenery are so exactly described in the great poems respecting it as to be traceable even to the present hour.

The facts, thus supported, were firmly believed in, so far as they did not involve manifestly fabulous incidents, and only in late ages did any question arise of the main event. Of late, comparison has made it evident that all those imaginative nations, who have sprung from the same source as ourselves, love to believe in grand and noble forefathers, half divine, and performers of magnificent feats. Certain likenesses between these exploits and between the heroes who achieved them have further led learned men to the

conclusion that they are all different traditions, of the same original story; and further investigation of the names borne by the different personages has brought some to the belief that, instead of being founded on any doings of men or women on earth, these tales arose from a sort of allegorical way of speaking of day and night, sunrise and sunset, or else that these allegorical stories fastened themselves upon some real persons or events, and embellished them, as well as confused them.

No one can now tell whether there were any kernel of reality around which the poetic and heroic tales fastened themselves that were sung of and believed by the ancient Greeks. There were many tales and songs of them that were stored in the memory of the bards or poets who went from one chief city to another, chanting them to the lyre. One of these poets, blind Homer, made his songs of such exceeding force and beauty, so grand in character and so true to nature, that they could not be forgotten. After some generations they were collected and written down, and though they only related the history of a fortnight's discord in the camp and the return of one wanderer to his home, yet all besides that can be learnt of the stories of the whole war seems little more than mere explanation of them.

And now, forgetting all that has been said of the doubtfulness of the story, let us give ourselves up to the interest of it, and look well at the three who were chiefly esteemed by the men of old Greek times.

Once upon a time, there lived at Sparta a most beautiful Queen, whose name was Helen, and who was married to a prince called Menelaus. There came to Sparta a young prince named Paris, one of the handsomest men in all the world, but selfish, cowardly, and deceitful. He returned all the kindness that Menelaus had shown to him by basely stealing his beautiful wife, and carrying her away to his

own home on the shores of Asia Minor-Ilium or Troy, of which his father Priam was king.

The cruel wrong that Menelaus had suffered stirred the spirit of all the other Greeks, and they demanded that Helen should be given back, and all amends possible made to her husband; but the Trojans chose to stand by their prince, bad as was his cause, rather than own him or themselves in the wrong. The brother of Menelaus was Agamemnon, king of Mycena, the chief king in all Greece, and all the princes brought together their ships and their men under his command to sail for Troy. Among them came Ulysses, the wisest of all the Greeks, from his little island of Ithaca; and Achilles, the son of Peleus, king of Phthia, most beautiful, most brave and gifted, as befitted one who had no mortal mother, but was born of a nymph of the sea. It had been foretold that if Achilles did not go to this war, he would have a long, prosperous, but inglorious life, but that if he joined in it, his glory would be very great, but his days would be few. He chose glory rather than length of days, and with his bosom friend Patroclus, and all his brave warriors, joined the Grecian host.

Hector was the most valiant and the most beloved of all the many sons of old King Priam of Troy, far nobler than Paris, in whose cause, nevertheless, he was obliged to peril the loss of his life and throne. At first, it would seem as if the Greeks had chiefly occupied themselves in conquering the outlying possessions and the allies of Troy, but in the tenth year of the war they had their ships all drawn up on the sea-shore, close before Troy, and were living in tents in front of them, fighting whenever the Trojans sallied out against them, but not daring to scale the walls, because they were supposed to have been built by two of the gods, who would certainly take revenge on any one who assaulted them.

It is at this time that Homer's great poem of the Iliad

begins, by telling that in one of the attacks upon the coast two damsels had been carried off as slaves, and given, one to Agamemnon and the other to Achilles, as their part of the spoil. But soon after a deadly pestilence fell upon the camp, and it was made known to Agamemnon that it would not cease till he had restored his captive to her father, priest of the god Apollo, who had power over sickness and death. Agamemnon was forced to part with his prize; but he declared in his pride that he would not lose his share, and would have instead the damsel who had been given to Achilles. This was a great insult to a king like Achilles, and especially to the very man whose bravery had won all that the Greeks had yet gained. Achilles' wrath was great. He was too dignified not to let the fair Briseis be quietly led from his tent by Ulysses and the other princes whom Agamemnon sent to bring her away, but he made a deep vow that he would not again draw his sword in the cause of Agamemnon or his brother, and would leave them to fight their battles without him.

The Greeks were the bravest warriors in the earth, but none of them was quite the equal of Achilles in strength, swiftness, or the use of their weapons. The cause of Troy began to prosper. The gallant Hector is shown as he was in his own home. Whilst the battle for a time somewhat abated outside the walls, he returned into the town to desire his mother, Queen Hecuba, to repair with her ladies to the temple of the goddess Pallas, to pray for her favour; and he then went in search of his own wife Andromache, a princess whose family had been all killed in the course of the war, but who found that his tender affection for her made up for all she had lost. She, with her little son, Astyanax, and his nurse, had gone out to watch for her husband from the walls, and he met her returning. Then there was a most sweet and loving