Page:History of Greece Vol XII.djvu/102

 70 HISTORY OF GREECE. tesilaus) to tread the Asiatic shore ; but he found no enemy like Hektor to meet him. From hence, mounting the hill on which Ilium -vvas placed, he sacrificed to the patron-goddess Athene ; and deposited in her temple his own panoply, taking in exchange some of the arms said to have been worn by the heroes in the Trojan war, which he caused to be carried by guards along with him in his subsequent battles. Among other real or supposed monuments of this interesting legend, the Ilians showed to him the residence of Priam with its altar of Zeus Herkeios, where that unhappy old king was alleged to have been slain by Neop- tolemus. Numbering Neojitolemus among his ancestors, Alex- ander felt himself to be the object of Priam's yet unappeased wrath ; and accordingly offered sacrifice to him at the same altar, for the purpose of expiation and reconciUatiou. On the tomb and monumental column of Achilles, father of Neoptolemus, he not only placed a decorative garland, but also went through the customary ceremony of anointing himself with oil and running naked round it: exclaiming how much he envied the lot of Achilles, who had been blest during life with a faithful friend, and after death, with a great poet to celebrate his exploits. Lastly, to commemorate his crossing, Alexander erected perma- nent altars, in honor of Zeus, Athene, and Herakles ; both on the point of Europe which his army had quitted, and on that of Asia where it had landed.^ ' Arrian, i. II ; Plutarch, Alexand. 15; Justin, xi. 5. The ceremony of running round the column of Achilles still subsisted in the time of Plu- tarch — u7,Ef)pufievo; 7u7va Kal fxeru tuv kTaipuv ovvavadpafiuv yv/ivb; tjanep e^oc eotcv, etc. Philostratus, five centuries after Alexander, conveys a vivid picture of the numerous legendary and religious associa- tions connected with the plain of Troy and with the tomb of Protesilaus at Elaeus, and of the many rites and ceremonies performed there even in his time (Philostrat. Heroica, xix. 14,15. p. 742, ed. Orlearius — dpouoi^ 6' k^^v^Hia/iivotc uvv 7)7.(17.0^01', uvanaAovvre^ rbv 'kxiTJkia, etc, and the pages preceding and following). Dikffiarchus (Fragm. 19, ed. Didot. ap. Athenteum, xiii. p. 603) had treated in a special work about' the sacrifices off"ered to Athene at Ilium (Ilept TfjQ h 'I7.i(f) ^vffiag) by Alexander, and by many others before him ; by Xerxes (Herodot. vii. 43), who ofi"ered up 1000 oxen — by Mindarus (Xenoph. Hellen. i. 1, 4), etc. In describing the proceedings of Alexander at Ilium, Dikaearchus appears to have dwelt much on the warm sympathy