Two famous stories from ancient Greece

Media

Part of The Young Citizen: The Magazine for Young People

Title: Two famous stories from ancient Greece
Year: 1941
Rights
Fulltext: AucusT, 1941 THE YOUNG CITIZEN ?-79 TWO FAMOUS STORIES FROM ANCIENT GREECE I. THE STORY OF THE WOODEN HORSE FOR TEN YEARS the Greeks had laid siege to Troy and still the city was not taken. It was then _that Odysseus (Ulysses), aided by the goddess Athena,. devised the famous trick of the Wooden Horse. He · had a Greek sculptor build an immense horse of wood, big as a mountain. It was large enough to contain a hundr-ed armed warriors within its interior. Into it crept Odysseus, Menlaus, and others of the Greek heroes. The opening iri its side was closed ·with strong bolts. Then the besieging Greeks broke up their· camp and set sail, leaving t h e W o o d e n Horse. As the priest departed to offer sacrifice, he hurled his spear against the side.of the Horse, and there came back a h�llow sound. ·But his warning was drowned in the shouts of the people, as they watched the approach of some shepherds !Vho brpught a captured. Gr,eek with fettered hands. The Trojans did not know that this cap tured Greek was the trusty friend of the crafty Odysseus, and had been left behind to persuade the Trojans by a fa l s·e story. to take the -Horse within the city of Troy. W h en t h e T r o j a n s , saw the ships, that had so long been d r a wn up on the s a n d s of t h e i r harbor, sail away and disappear in the mist, there was great rejoicing, for they thought the Greeks were "Have p i t y o n m e,'' t h e captive begged. "I escaped from the hands of the Greeks when they were about to sacrifice me to t h e g o d s. The W o o d e n Horse was bui-lt The Wooden Horse Entering Troy as a peace-offer ing to the offended Athena. It was made of such immeme size as to prevent you · from taking it within your gates. �ecause if it were taken into Troy, then the favor of Athena would be transferred to the Trojans." returning to their homes. Had they not left an image of a great Wooden Horse as a peace-offering to AtJ'lena who was ange-red because the Greeks had stolen her statue from Troy? Some said this, and others argued that it was a Greek treachery, as they ran through the gates, joyful and curious, to gather about the great Horse. "Put no trust in the Horse, men of Troy," cried their priest. "Whatever it is, I fear the Greeks, even bearing gifts." Some still doubted, but a thing hap pened before their eyes which seemed an omen from the gods. Two huge s-erpents rose from the water, and, entwining them selves about the priest Laotoon and his (Please tum to page 301.) 280 THE YOUNG CITIZEN AuousT, 1941 11. ARCHIMEDES, ANCIENT MATHEMATICIAN "Don't disturb my circles." ·"GIVE me a place to stand and to rest my lever on," said Archimedes (pronounced ar-ki-me-dez, with the accent on the third syllable), ancient Greek mathematician and inventor, "and I can move the earth., One time, it is said, Archimedes ran naked through the streets of his native city, crying "Eureka! Eurekat', which is Greek for "I have ·found it!'' The ruler of the city had ordered a gold-smith to make a crown of puFe gold; and sus pecting that the gold-smith had cheated him by dishonestly adding alloy, he handed the crown to Archimedes and asked him to find out'ifthis was so. Arch imedes discovered the solution to the problem by observing the amount of water displaced by hi . s own body while taking a bath. It was this observation which caused him absent-mindedly to run . home, without his clothes, to try the same . experiment with the crown. Archimedes proved 'that the goldsmith was dishonest. At the same time he proved this principle of the science . of hydrostatics: "A body immersed in a fluid loses as much in weight as the weight of an ·equal volume of the fluid.n Not only was Archimedes the greatest mathematician and writer on the science of mechanics among the ancients; he was (Please turn to page 30l.) AuGusT, 1941 THE. YOUNG CITIZEN 301 DVORAK ARCHIMEDES THE WOODEN HORSE (Continued from page 285) (Continued from page 280) (Continued from page 279) Out on the plains of the in addition their greatest two sons, crushed them to . midwestern part of the inventor. He was first to death. United States Dvoralt went realize the enormous power "Surely this is a punish to visit a colony of Bohe- that can be exerted by m·ept for the· priest's sac mian immigrants. Som e means of a lever. He also rifege against the sacred ·people gay that the lone- invented t h e compound gift," cried the Trojans. liness of these country-men, pulley, and a spiral screw Since the gates were not living in a foreign land, in- for raising water and other wide enough, a breach was spired the composer to substances which is still made in the wall, and the write the haunting melody called "A r c h i m e d e s' Horse was brought into the of this Largo in his The screw." city. Then there was reNew W or!{/ Symphony. By Now for the famous story JOicmg. All m-en went to all means hear it played by about Archimedes: When sleep, secure in the belief an orchestra or on a phono- Syracuse in Sicily, the that the go<i:s were kind. graph (there are excellent native city of Archimedes, But while they slept, the phonograph records of this was besieged by the Ro- Greek who had been cap· symphony) whenev.er you mans, the Romans took the tur.ed-for so it had been have an opportunity. city, after a siege of three planned-drew the bolts Dvorak should have been years. It is sai.d that what from the door of this "gift happy in America, where particularly angered the to Athena," an.d out came he was appreciated, but Roman soldiers was that the hidden Greeks. Then homesickness drove him when they burst into his a fire was lighted as a signal back to Prague to spend the house, Archimedes was ab- to the ships, which had last years of his life com- sorbed . in the study of turned back to sight of posing and directing the geometrical figures which land. Soon thousands of co n s e r v a t o r y of music he had drawn on the Greek warriors swarmed in there. He died in 1904. sand. To the soldier who the streets of Troy. Dvorak wrote a beauti- interrupted him, he merely All night the slaughter f 1 d Sa.1·d, "Don't disturb my cir- continued, and by morning u s a c r e compos1t10n called Stabat Mater which cles." Archimedes was slain only a mass of smouldering . folruins marked the place. where once had stood· the you should hear when pos- in the massacre which sible. You should also hear lowed. his short co m p o s i t i o n proud city. The Trojan king's headless body lay on H umoreske. He wrote in these things; ( 1) the prop- the seashore. So perished all five symphonies, some er spellin"g and pronuncia- the Trojans except the few symphonic poems, chamber tion of the name Dvorak who escaped. music, and lovely songs, (dvor-zlzall); (2) that he which are popular in the is considered the greatest A REVIEW best sense, for they are be- Bohemian composer; ( 3) I. What do you know of loved by the people.· that he wrote the famous ancient Greec:e? (See the You should remember New World Symphony. encyclopedia.)