ad spared--to recount their adventures and sufferings,
and reconstruct their shattered States, and mend their broken fortunes--a
type of war in all the ages, calamitous even to conquerors. The wanderings
of Ulysses have a peculiar fascination, since they form the subject of the
Odyssey, one of the noblest poems of antiquity. Nor are the adventures of
AEneas scarcely less interesting, as presented by Virgil, who traces the
first Settlement of Latium to the Trojan exiles. We should like to dwell
on the siege of Troy, and its great results, but the subject is too
extensive and complicated. The student of the great event, whether
historical or mystical, must read the detailed accounts in the immortal
epics of Homer. We have only space for the grand outlines, which can be
scarcely more than allusions.

(M342) Scarcely inferior to the legend of Troy, is that which recounts the
return of the descendants of Hercules to the ancient inheritance on the
Peloponnesus, which, it is supposed, took place three or four hundred
years before authentic history begins, or eighty years after the Trojan
war.

We have briefly described the geographical position of the most important
part of ancient Greece--the Peloponnesus--almost an island, separated from
the continent only by a narrow gulf, resembling in shape a palm-tree,
indented on all sides by bays, and intersected with mountains, and
inhabited by a simple and warlike race.

We have seen that the descendants of Perseus, who was a descendant of
Danaus, reigned at Mycenae in Argolis--among whom was Amphitryon, who fled
to Thebes, on the murder of his uncle, with Alemena his wife. Then
Hercules, to whom the throne of Mycenae legitimately belonged, was born,
but deprived of his inheritance by Eurystheus--a younger branch of the
Perseids--in consequence of the anger and jealousy of Juno, and to whom, by
the fates, Hercules was made subject. We have seen how the sons of
Hercules, under Hyllos, attempted to regain their kingdom, but were
defeated, and retreated among the Dorians.

(M343) After three generations, the Heraclidae set out to regain their
inheritance, assisted by the Dorians. They at length, after five
expeditions, gained possession of the country, and divided it, among the
various chieftains, who established their dominion in Argos, Mycenae, and
Sparta, which, at the time of the Trojan war, was ruled by Agamemnon and
Menelaus, descendants of Pelops. In the next generation, Corin