BOOK II.
to set Ilion in flames ; and Priam, like Laios, decrees that the child shall be left to die on the hillside. But the babe lies on the slopes of Ida (the Vedic name for the earth as the bride of Dyaus the sky), and is nourished by a she-bear.^ The child grows up, like Cyrus, among the shepherds and their flocks, and for his boldness and skill in defending them against the attacks of thieves and enemies he is said to have been called Alexandres, the helper of men. In this his early life he has the love of Oinone, the child of the river-god Kebren,^ and thus a being akin to the maidens who, like Athene and Aphrodite, are born from the waters. Meanwhile, he had not been forgotten in Ilion. His mother's heart was still full of grief, and Priam at length ordered that a solemn sacrifice should be offered to enable his dead son to cross the dark stream of Hades. The victim chosen is a favourite bull of Paris, who follows it in indignation, as the men lead it away. In the games now held he puts forth his strength, and is the victor in every contest, even over Hektor. His brothers seek to slay the intruder, but the voice of Kasandra his sister is heard, telling them that this is the very Paris for whose repose they were now about to slay the victim, — and the long-lost son is welcomed to his home.
The judgment of Paris. At this point the legend carries us to the Thessalian myth. When Thetis rose from the sea to become the bride of Peleus, Eris, who alone was not invited with the other deities to the marriage- feast, threw on the banquet-table a golden apple,^ with the simple inscrip- tion that it was a gift for the fairest. Her task of sowing the seeds of strife was done. The golden apple is the golden ball which the Frog-prince brings up from the water, the golden egg which the red hen lays in the Teutonic story, the gleaming sun which is born of the morning ; and the prize is claimed, as it must be claimed, by Here, Athene, and Aphrodite, the queens of heaven and the goddesses of the dawn. For the time the dispute is settled by the words of Zeus, who bids them carry their quarrel before the Idaian Paris, who shall decide between them. As the three bright beings draw near, the shepherd youth is abashed and scared, and it is only after long encouragement that he summons spirit to listen to the rival claims. Here, as reigning over the blue ether, promises him the lordship of Asia, if he will adjudge the prize to her ; Athene, the morning in its character as the awakener of men's minds and souls, assures him of
- The equivocal meaning of the
name Arktos, the bear, has already come before us in the myths of the seven arkshas and the seven risliis ; and pro- bably all the animals selected to perform this office of nourishint; exposed children will be found to have names which, like the Greek vkos, a wolf, denote the glossiness of their coats.
- That this name Kebren is probably
the same as Severn, the intermediate forms leave little room for doubting.
' See Campbell's 7'a/t:s of the IVest Highlands, i. Ixxxii., (ic.
