the place of his birth.

Great bard of Greece, whose ever-during verse
All ages venerate, all tongues rehearse;
Could blind idolatry be justly paid
To aught of mental power by man display'd,
To thee, thou sire of soul-exalting song,
That boundless worship might to thee belong.

HAYLEY.


II. THE GODS AND GODDESSES.

To understand the Story of Troy it is necessary to know something about
the gods and goddesses, who played so important a part in the events we
are to relate. We shall see that in the Troʹjan War nearly everything
was ordered or directed by a god or goddess. The gods, indeed, had much
to do in the causing of the war, and they took sides in the great
struggle, some of them helping the Greeks and some helping the Trojans.

The ancient Greeks believed that there were a great many gods. According
to their religion all parts of the universe,--the heavens and the earth,
the sun and the moon, the ocean, seas, and rivers, the mountains and
forests, the winds and storms,--were ruled by different gods. The gods,
too, it was supposed, controlled all the affairs of human life. There
were a god of war and a god of peace, and gods of music, and poetry, and
dancing, and hunting, and of all the other arts or occupations in which
men engaged.