Page:The geography of Strabo (1854) Volume 2.djvu/375

 B. xin. c, i. 41. THE TROAD. 367 there, as was the custom every year, a short time afterwards. This however is not told by Homer. Nor was Homer ac- quainted with the violation of Cassandra, 1 but says that she was a virgin about that time : " He slew Othryoneus, who had lately come to the war from Cabesus, in- duced by the glory of the contest, and who sought in marriage the most beautiful of the daughters of Priam, Cassandra, without a dower." 2 He does not mention any force having been used, nor does he attribute the death of Ajax by shipwreck to the wrath of Minerva, nor to any similar cause, but says, in general terms, that he was an object of hatred to Minerva, (for she was in- censed against all who had profaned her temple,) and that Ajax died by the agency of Neptune for his boasting speeches. The Locrian virgins were sent there when the Persians were masters of the country. 41. Such is the account of the Ilienses. But Homer speaks expressly of the demolition of the city : " The day will come when at length sacred Ilium shall perish, 3 After we have destroyed the lofty city of Priam, 4 By counsel, by wisdom, and by artifice, The city of Priam was destroyed in the tenth year." 5 Of this they produce evidence of the following kind ; the statue of Minerva, which Homer represents as in a sitting posture, is seen at present to be a standing figure, for he orders them " to place the robe on the knees of Athene," ' in the same sense as this verse, " no son of mine should sit upon her knees," 7 and it is better to understand it thus, than as some explain it, " by placing the robe at the knees," and adduce this line, " she sat upon the hearth in the light of the fire," 8 1 Poets and mythologists subsequent to Homer supposed Cassandra, the daughter of Priam, to have been violated by Ajax, the Locrian ; that as a punishment for his crime this hero perished by shipwreck on his re- turn from Troy, and that three years afterwards Locris was visited by a famine, which occasioned great destruction to the inhabitants. The oracle consulted on the occasion of this calamity advised the Locrians to send annually to Minerva of Ilium two young women chosen by lot. They obeyed and continued to send them for 1000 years, until the time of the sacred war. 2 II. xiii. 363. 3 II. vi. 448. Od. iii. 130. 5 II. xii. 15. 6 II. vi. 92 and 273. 7 II. ix. 455. 8 II. vi. 305.