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Article MASONIC VIEWS IN THE ILIAD AND ODYSSEY. ← Page 2 of 3 →
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Masonic Views In The Iliad And Odyssey.
for a prince ' s son was he , even the son of " Ctesias Ormenides , a godlike chief , " king of the island of Scyros . A not uncommon history ivas his in ancient days . —Stolen when a child from his father ' s hall , by a female slave of the family , herself the abducted daughter of some Sidonian merchant-prince ; the young Eunneus was hurried by her on board a galley to Phoenicia bound , where she doubtless hoped to arrive , and enjoy again her freedom ancl her friends . But with the princely child
she had also stolen three golden goblets , and died mysteriously during the voyage—probably murdered for the sake of her ill-gotten gold . Touching at Ithaca the sailors sold Eumteus to King Laertes , by whose wife and daughter he seems to have been well-treated , till the falling fortunes ofthe royal house reduced him at last to the situation in which we see him . Freer , liowever , he probably felt on the top of his rugged rocks , tending his bristly care , than if he had heen still an inmate of the
suitor-seiged palace of the absent Ulysses—ancl poor as he was , he felt happy to have it in his power to feed the hungry beggar at his gate ; nay , he seems even to have amassed savings enough to buy a boy—for of his four assistant herdsmen , one is stated to have been his purchased slave . Strange concatenation of slavery ! Mr . Mure , of Caldwell , in his recent interesting Tour through Greece , describes an excursion in Ithaca to visit the supposed site of this fold of Eumseus , and on the journey he remarked , that "just where the blending of the fertile ancl the barren soil takes place , the industrious peasantry
were busy m extending the frontier of the cultivated region , by extirpating rocks , gathering loose stones , and building up terraces , " & c . May not these isolated rocks and stones illustrate the materials of which the house of Eumaius was constructed ? He found them in the soil , more or less imbedded , but capable of being dragged by the hands to the place of his building . The habitations of the Ithacan shepherds at the present day , on the same spot , present an appearance singularly similar , though scarcelso imposing as the work of the ancient swineherd
y . " Those I saw , " says the above writer , " presented , it must be allowed , some curious points of resemblance . They consist of one , or at the most , two oblong cottages , sometimes with a ' ' circular court' contiguous , surrounded with a fence , which although neither ' lofty , ' ' large , ' nor ' beautiful / corresponds closely in other respects with that described b y Homer , being a rude wall built with loose stones , and crowned with a chevaux de frise of dead thorns , or other prickly plants . " Speaking
of the site of the ancient swineherd ' s establishment , he tells us , that " on the summit of the cliff ( Corax , beside which Homer says it was situated ) is a small rocky plain , interspersed with olive groves and straggling farm cottages . As a site for the dwelling of Eumaeus the spot corresponds well with the Belvedere , or ' place of open prospect , ' which Homer assigns to that establishment . The face of the cliff is also hollowed out at its summit in various places , partly by nature , ancl partly perhaps by art , into open cavities , or sheltered terraces , where we might figure the swineherd reposing , as the poet describes
him' Encircled by his cloven-footediluck , From Boreas safe beneath tiie holioiv rock . ' The proposal to place the residence of Eumteus upon the little plain above the precipice , also realizes , in a very lively manner to the apprehension , the spirit of Ulysses' protestation to the old man , that if his tale turned out to be false , he might punish him by throwing him from the
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Masonic Views In The Iliad And Odyssey.
for a prince ' s son was he , even the son of " Ctesias Ormenides , a godlike chief , " king of the island of Scyros . A not uncommon history ivas his in ancient days . —Stolen when a child from his father ' s hall , by a female slave of the family , herself the abducted daughter of some Sidonian merchant-prince ; the young Eunneus was hurried by her on board a galley to Phoenicia bound , where she doubtless hoped to arrive , and enjoy again her freedom ancl her friends . But with the princely child
she had also stolen three golden goblets , and died mysteriously during the voyage—probably murdered for the sake of her ill-gotten gold . Touching at Ithaca the sailors sold Eumteus to King Laertes , by whose wife and daughter he seems to have been well-treated , till the falling fortunes ofthe royal house reduced him at last to the situation in which we see him . Freer , liowever , he probably felt on the top of his rugged rocks , tending his bristly care , than if he had heen still an inmate of the
suitor-seiged palace of the absent Ulysses—ancl poor as he was , he felt happy to have it in his power to feed the hungry beggar at his gate ; nay , he seems even to have amassed savings enough to buy a boy—for of his four assistant herdsmen , one is stated to have been his purchased slave . Strange concatenation of slavery ! Mr . Mure , of Caldwell , in his recent interesting Tour through Greece , describes an excursion in Ithaca to visit the supposed site of this fold of Eumseus , and on the journey he remarked , that "just where the blending of the fertile ancl the barren soil takes place , the industrious peasantry
were busy m extending the frontier of the cultivated region , by extirpating rocks , gathering loose stones , and building up terraces , " & c . May not these isolated rocks and stones illustrate the materials of which the house of Eumaius was constructed ? He found them in the soil , more or less imbedded , but capable of being dragged by the hands to the place of his building . The habitations of the Ithacan shepherds at the present day , on the same spot , present an appearance singularly similar , though scarcelso imposing as the work of the ancient swineherd
y . " Those I saw , " says the above writer , " presented , it must be allowed , some curious points of resemblance . They consist of one , or at the most , two oblong cottages , sometimes with a ' ' circular court' contiguous , surrounded with a fence , which although neither ' lofty , ' ' large , ' nor ' beautiful / corresponds closely in other respects with that described b y Homer , being a rude wall built with loose stones , and crowned with a chevaux de frise of dead thorns , or other prickly plants . " Speaking
of the site of the ancient swineherd ' s establishment , he tells us , that " on the summit of the cliff ( Corax , beside which Homer says it was situated ) is a small rocky plain , interspersed with olive groves and straggling farm cottages . As a site for the dwelling of Eumaeus the spot corresponds well with the Belvedere , or ' place of open prospect , ' which Homer assigns to that establishment . The face of the cliff is also hollowed out at its summit in various places , partly by nature , ancl partly perhaps by art , into open cavities , or sheltered terraces , where we might figure the swineherd reposing , as the poet describes
him' Encircled by his cloven-footediluck , From Boreas safe beneath tiie holioiv rock . ' The proposal to place the residence of Eumteus upon the little plain above the precipice , also realizes , in a very lively manner to the apprehension , the spirit of Ulysses' protestation to the old man , that if his tale turned out to be false , he might punish him by throwing him from the