Page:History of Greece Vol I.djvu/319

 PARIS AND HELEN. 287 bus, Helenus, Troilus, Polites, Poiydorus ; among the daughter? Laodike, Kreiisa, Polyxena, and Kassandra. The birth of Paris was preceded by formidable presages ; for Hekabe dreamt that she was delivered of a firebrand, and Priam, on consulting the soothsayers, was informed that the son about to be born would prove fatal to him. Accordingly he directed the child to be exposed on Mount Ida ; but the inauspicious kind- ness of the gods preserved him, and he grew up amidst the flocks and herds, active and beautiful, fair of hair and symmetrical in person, and the special favorite of Aphrodite. 1 It was to this youth, in his solitary shepherd's walk on Mount Ida, that the three goddesses Here, Athene, and Aphrodite were conducted, in order that he might determine the dispute respect- ing their comparative beauty, which had arisen at the nuptials of Peleus and Thetis, a dispute brought about in pursuance of the arrangement, and in accomplishment of the deep-laid designs, of Zeus. For Zeus, remarking with pain the immoderate numbers of the then existing heroic race, pitied the earth for the overwhelming burden which she was compelled to bear, and determined to lighten it by exciting a destructive and long-continued war. 2 ed. Schneidewin) : both Euphorion (Fr. 125, Meineke) and Alexander JEtoI us follow the same idea. Stesichorus further stated, that after the siege Apollp had carried Hekabe away into Lykia to rescue her from captivity (Pausa- nias, x. 27, 1 ) : according to Euripides, Apollo had promised that she should die in Troy (Troad. 427). By Sappho, Hector was given as a surname of Zeus, Zevf "Erwp (Hesy- cliius, v. "EKTOpsf ) ; a prince belonging to the regal family of Chios, anterior to the Ionic settlement, as mentioned by the Chian poet Ion (Pausan. vii. 3, 3), was so called. 1 Iliad, iii. 45-55 ; Schol. Iliad, iii. 325 ; Hygin. fab. 91 ; Apollodor. iii. 12, 5. Verses (Trag. 1. Diintz. p. 12; ap. Schol. ad Iliad, i. 4): 'H 6e iaropia napa Sracruy TU ru Kimpta TreironiKOTt, E'IKOVT ovruf (3apvarepvov Tr/larof a?f. Zet)f de iduv e^irjae, KOI ev TniKivaif npanidecfai Zwi9-ero Kowpiacu avdpiJTruv nafipuropa yalav, 'Pnria-if irohepov /zeya/l^v eptv 'I/UcKOto, 'Otipa Kevuaeiev davaTU pupof oi <5' ivl Tpoiq "Hpuef KTE'LVOVTO, A<<>f <T ireheieTO 0ov%,7). The same motive is touched upon by Eurip. Orest, 1635 ; Helen. 38 ; and
 * This was the motive assigned to Zeus by the old epic poem, the Cyprian
 * Hv ore ftvpta fyvha narii x&ova ir%a6[tcva