In this terrible calamity the king asked an oracle in what way the anger
of the two gods might be appeased. The answer of the oracle was that a
Trojan maiden must each year be given to the monster to be devoured.
Every year, therefore, a young girl, chosen by lot, was taken down to
the seashore and chained to a rock to become the prey of the serpent.
And every year the monster came and swallowed up a Trojan maiden, and
then went away and troubled the city no more until the following year,
when he returned for another victim. At last the lot fell on He-siʹo-ne,
the daughter of the king. Deep was Laomedon's grief at the thought of
the awful fate to which his child was thus doomed.

But help came at an unexpected moment. While, amid the lamentations of
her family and friends, preparations were being made to chain Hesione to
the rock, the great hero, Herʹcu-les, happened to visit Troy. He was on
his way home to Greece, after performing in a distant eastern country
one of those great exploits which made him famous in ancient story. The
hero undertook to destroy the serpent, and thus save the princess, on
condition that he should receive as a reward certain wonderful horses
which Laomedon just then had in his possession. These horses were given
to Laomedon's grandfather, Tros, on a very interesting occasion. Tros
had a son named Ganʹy-mede, a youth of wonderful beauty, and Jupiter
admired Ganymede so much that he had him carried up to heaven to be
cupbearer to the gods--to serve the divine nectar at the banquets on
Mount Olympus.

Godlike Ganymede, most beautiful
Of men; the gods beheld and caught him up
To heaven, so beautiful was he, to pour
The wine to Jove, and ever dwell with them.