The Story of Troy | Page 5

the assaults of the Greeks. These walls were the work of no
human hands. They were built by the ocean god Neptune. This god had
conspired against Jupiter and attempted to dethrone him, and, as a
punishment, his kingdom of the sea was taken away from him for one
year, and he was ordered to spend that time in the service of the king of
Troy.
In building the great walls, Neptune was assisted by Apollo, who had
also been driven from Olympus for an offense against Jupiter. Apollo
had a son named Æs-cu-laʹpi-us, who was so skilled a physician that
he could, and did, raise people from death to life. Jupiter was very
angry at this. He feared that men might forget him and worship

Æsculapius. He therefore hurled a thunderbolt at the great physician
and killed him. Enraged at the death of his son, Apollo threatened to
destroy the Cyclops, the giant workmen of Vulcan, who had forged the
terrible thunderbolt. Before he could carry out his threat, however,
Jupiter expelled him from heaven. He remained on earth for several
years, after which he was permitted to return to his place among the
gods on the top of Mount Olympus.
[Illustration: NEPTUNE.
National Museum, Athens.]
Though Neptune was bound to serve Laomedon for one year, there was
an agreement between them that the god should get a certain reward for
building the walls. But when the work was finished the Trojan king
refused to keep his part of the bargain. Apollo had assisted by his
powers of music. He played such tunes that he charmed even the huge
blocks of stone, so that they moved themselves into their proper places,
after Neptune had wrenched them from the mountain sides and had
hewn them into shape. Moreover, Apollo had taken care of Laomedon's
numerous flocks on Mount Ida. During the siege, Neptune, in a
conversation with Apollo before the walls of Troy, spoke of their labors
in the service of the Trojan king:
"Hast thou forgot, how, at the monarch's prayer, We shared the
lengthen'd labors of a year? Troy walls I raised (for such were Jove's
commands), And yon proud bulwarks grew beneath my hands: Thy
task it was to feed the bellowing droves Along fair Ida's vales and
pendant groves."
POPE, Iliad, Book XXI.
Long before this, however, the two gods had punished Laomedon very
severely for breaking his promise. Apollo, after being restored to
heaven, sent a plague upon the city of Troy, and Neptune sent up from
the sea an enormous serpent which killed many of the people.
A great serpent from the deep, Lifting his horrible head above their

homes, Devoured the children.
LEWIS MORRIS.
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.
BRYANT, Iliad, Book XX.
To compensate Tros for the loss of his son, Jupiter gave him four
magnificent horses of immortal breed and marvelous fleetness. These
were the horses which Hercules asked as his reward for destroying the

serpent. As there was no other