It was for over 500 years held that this was a measure intended to safeguard the passage of fish, but W. S. McKechnie, _Magna Carta_ (Glasgow, 1914.) pp. 303 ff., 343 ff., has shown that it aimed at removing hindrances to navigation, not to ascending fish. [738] _Op. cit._, 376, but see Chinese chapter. [739] _History of the Chinese Empire_ (Paris, 1735), vol. I. p. 36. [740] Leonard Mascall, owing to his recipes for preserving spawn in his _Booke of Fishing_ 1590, “must be looked upon as the pioneer of fish-culture in England,” according to Mr. R. B. Marston, _op. cit._, 35. CHAPTER XXII THE RING OF HELEN In the countries dealt with in this book I give instances where Fish and Fishing have, according to myth or tradition, played a prominent part in human affairs, and have been the cause, direct or indirect, of important events. Thus in Greece and Rome, to fish is assigned the responsibility for— (A) The death of Homer, from his inability to solve the riddle of the lads.[742] (B) The death of Theodoric, who recognised in the head of a pike which he was eating the head of his murdered victim, Symmachus.[743] (C) No less an event than the Trojan War, which, according to the windbag Ptolemy Hephæstion, happened on this wise. In the belly of a huge fish named _Pan_ (from its resemblance to that god) was found a gem (_asterites_), which when exposed to the sun shot forth flames and became a powerful love philtre. Helen, on acquiring this, had it engraved with a figure of the _Pan_ fish, and when desirous of making a special impression wore it as a signet ring. Thus, when Paris visited Sparta the charm blazed from her finger with the result of the immediate conquest of Paris, the flight from Menelaus, and the Ten Years’ War! [Illustration: THE RETURN OF HELEN. From a Fifth Century _Scyphos_, made by the potter Hieron and painted by the artist Makron, from Furtwängler and Reichhold, _Griech. Vasenmalerei_, Vol. II., Pl. 85.] But, despite Homer, it was _discovered_ (!) afterwards that Helen was not in Ilium at any time during the siege, and that what the Trojans harboured was not her real self, but only her “living image,” εἴδωλον ἔμπνουν.[744] The discoverer of this interesting fact was (so ran the slander) Stesichorus. Struck with blindness after writing an attack on Helen, he recovered his sight by composing a Palinodia.[745] The ghost of Achilles, when raised by that most famous medium of antiquity, Apollonius of Tyana, denied positively that Helen was in Ilium.[746] If Mr. J. A. Symonds be right, “We fought for fame and Priam’s wealth,” and for naught else, then she “with the star-like sorrows of immortal eyes” was neither _causa causans_ nor any cause of the Fall of Troy. Perhaps “Priam’s wealth” is but an intelligent anticipation of Mr. Leaf’s theory that the War was fought for “The Freedom of the Sea” (Euxine), and, incidentally, the capture of another nation’s profits. FOOTNOTES: