HERO AND LEANDER.
Chicago, Ill.
Please tell the story of Hero and Leander, illustrated in the picture displayed in a window on State street, corner of Adams.
Ignoramus.
Answer.—Hero was a priestess of Venus. Leander was a youth of Abydos, a famous city on the Asiatic side of the strait of the Hellespont, nearly opposite the city of Sestos on the European coast, where he first saw Hero. It appears to have been a case of love at first sight, and an intensely ardent case at that. Hero’s office as priestess, and the resolute opposition of her parents stood in the way of their union, cold and strong as the swift current of the Hellespont, which at this its narrowest point, is swift and deep, and about one and a quarter miles wide. Undaunted by all these obstacles, Leander swam across the strait every night to visit his beloved, who directed his course by holding a torch from the upper window of a tower on the shore. After many delightful meetings, the dauntless lover was drowned one stormy night, and his body was washed ashore at the foot of the tower where Hero stood, expecting him. Heartbroken at the sight, she flung herself from the tower into the sea, and passed with her lover into the immortality of art and song.
XENOPHON AND GROTE.
Petersburg, Ill.
1. Please give a sketch of the lives of the historians, Xenophon and Grote. 2. Describe the scythed chariots of the Greeks and Persians.
Constant Reader.