THE DARDANELLES.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXV, Issue 60, 13 March 1915, Page 8

THE DARDANELLES.

MYTH AHO LEGEND. Alyth and legend, chiefly Greek, cluster about the Dardanelles. The older name, “Hellespont,” derives from Helle, a persecuted maiden who, when in flight through the air on the back of the ram with the golden fleece, lost her nerve at the crossing of tliis strip of water, fell off and was drowned. “Dardanelles” is from Dar. danus, father and founder of the Trojan race. The Troad, with the site of Troad city, is hard by ; the whole area within which transacted itself the ten years’ Trojan war lies under the v guns of our squadron and could bo swept bare by their fire. On the headland of Sigeum, which from the Asiatic side overlook's the opening of the straight, is theAchilleum ,the barrow or tomb of Achilles. Somewhere near this spot it must have been that the hero manifested nimseif to his chief biographer, the poet Homer, and blinded him with the blaze of his shining armor. Great warriors have paid homage here. Alexander the Great, passing thjs way for the conquest of Asia, crowned the tomb with

garlands, and thou —instead of mak-

ing a speeca from the. top of it, as the Kaiser would have dine—worked off Jus■ leelings by running naked round it, Ins nody aniioijite' l with oil, after tiie fashion of a Green athlete. Other times other manners. One of the warships now disturbing with their thunders the repose of Achilles is the Agamemnon. An odd coincidence. On this classic shore Achilles and Agamemnon quarrelled before the dawn of history.

Xerxes, the Persian—-who, they say, is, the Ahasueurs of the Book oi I'-stiier—when marching upon Europe for the conquest of Greece, sent his myraids across the Hellespont on a bridge of boats —o(j(J small craft tied head and tail. With a three-knot current the fine must have sagged badly in the middle. However, cross they did, to he handsomely beaten by the Greeks at Salamis:

A king sat on the rocky brow Winch looks o’er sea-born Salamis; And ships by thousands lay below, And men by nations—all were his. He counted them at break of day, And when the sun set, where were they ?

Alexander, at the return visit, got over the Hellespont by lielpo of a fleet. Cut Leander, under a mightier impulse than that which stirs in conquering kings, used to get over by swimming. Erom Abydos, at the narrows, his habit was to swim'across, guided by a light which Hero, the priestess of Sestos, showed from the other side. One luckless night the light failed. Leander, losing his way, was drowned, and Hero, to round off the story, Hung herself into the sea. Hence Byron, in “The “Bride of Abydos” :

The winds are Idyll on Hello’s wave, As on that night of stormy water When Love, who sent, forgot to save The young, the beautiful, the brave, The lonely hope of Sestos’ daughter.

The possibility of swimming the strait, Byron himself, in company with Lieutenant Ekenhead, of the frigate Salsette, proved by experiment, taking seventy minutes to cross. Ho could, perhaps, have passed the Hellespont, As once (a feat on which ourselves we prided) Beamier, Mr Ekenhead, and I did.

Ekenhead is no heroic name; but Byron’s line has given this navy lieutenant a surer immortality than he would have got by winning a battle. —“Civis,” in the Otago Daily Times.