*[Footnote: The death of Laocoön and his sons has always been a favorite subject in art and in poetry. (See illustration.)] *[Footnote: Cassandra was a daughter of Priam, king of Troy. She had been loved by Apollo, who bestowed on her the gift of prophecy; but she had angered him by failing to return his love, and he, unable to take back the gift, decreed that her prophecies should never be believed. All through the siege she had uttered her predictions and always they proved true; but no one ever paid heed to her warnings.] Meantime Heaven shifts from light to gloom, And night ascends from Ocean's womb, Involving in her shadow broad Earth, sky, and Myrmidonian* fraud: And through the city, stretched at will, Sleep the tired Trojans, and are still. *[Footnote: Here Myrmidonian means simply Grecian.] And now from Tenedos set free The Greeks are sailing on the sea, Bound for the shore where erst they lay, Beneath the still moon's friendly ray: When in a moment leaps to sight On the king's ship the signal light, And Sinon, screened by partial fate, Unlocks the pine-wood prison's gate. The horse its charge to air restores, And forth the armed invasion pours. Thessander,* Sthenelus, the first, Slide down the rope: Ulysses curst, Thoas and Acamas are there, And great Pelides' youthful heir, Machaon, Menelaus, last Epeus, who the plot forecast. They seize the city, buried deep In floods of revelry and sleep, Cut down the warders of the gates, And introduce their banded mates.* *[Footnote: These are all Grecian heroes.] *[Footnote: After the Greeks entered the gates the chief Trojan citizens were put to death, and the city was set on fire, Aeneas, with his little son and his aged father, escaped and took ship for Italy, accompanied by a band of followers.] ULYSSES _Adapted From_ THE ODYSSEY NOTE.--The _Odyssey_ is one of the most famous of the old Greek poems, one that is still read and enjoyed by students of the Greek language, and one that in its translations has given pleasure to many English and American readers. Its influence on the works of our best writers has been remarkable, and everybody wishes to know something about it. It is in twenty-four books or parts, and tells of the wanderings and adventures of the Greek hero, Ulysses, king of Ithaca, after the Trojan War. His wanderings lasted for ten years, but most of the _Odyssey_ is taken up with the events that happened in the last few weeks of this time, during which period, at intervals, Ulysses himself tells the story of his wanderings, winning everywhere the sympathy and admiration of those to whom he tells it.