that Jason undertook the Argonautic Expedition. Jason obtained the golden fleece and married Media, a daughter of the King of Colchis.

THE ARGONAUTS.

The most important event of the early period of Grecian history was the famous Trojan War, the knowledge of which we derive chiefly from Homer's Iliad. The beautiful Helen, wife of Menelaüs, King of Sparta, was carried away by Paris, son of Priam, king of Troy, or Ilium, in Asia Minor. The Greek princes, indignant at this outrage, and bound by a previous promise, assembled their armies, and having appointed Agamemnon, one of their number, commander-in-chief, crossed the Egean Sea, and laid siege to Troy (B. C. 1194). The chief of the Greek leaders besides Agamemnon, were Achilles of Thessaly and Ulysses of Ithaca. During the siege of Troy many bold exploits are said to have been performed by both. Of these exploits the most celebrated was the killing of the Trojan Hector by the Grecian Achilles. Finally, after a siege of ten years, Troy was taken by a stratagem of Ulysses. The Greeks, after having constructed a large wooden horse, filled it with soldiers, and then retiring a short distance, pretended to abandon the siege. The Trojans then brought the wooden horse into the city. During the night the Greek soldiers got out of the wooden horse and opened the gates of the city, which was then entered by the Grecian army. Troy was reduced to ashes, and its inhabitants were driven away or put to death (B. C. 1184). But the conquerors met with many misfortunes: Achilles died in Troy; Ulysses wandered about for ten years before he was enabled to reach his native shores; and Agamemnon was murdered by his own faithless wife, Clytemnestra, who had formed an attachment for another person in his absence.

In Homer's poetical narrative the gods are represented as participating in the struggle. Modern historians have doubted whether such a city as Troy ever existed, and the story of the Trojan War consequently receives little credence from them. In recent years, however, some remarkable discoveries have been made in the Troad which may perhaps aid in settling this uncertainty. A series of extensive explorations have been conducted by Dr. Schliemann. upon the reputed site of ancient Troy, and his excavations have disclosed the remains of a city dating evidently more than a thousand years before Christ. These ruins lie from twenty-three to thirty-three feet below the surface of the earth, and seem to bear marks of a destructive conflagration. Many articles of domestic use, arms, ornaments, etc., have been un