1920] Smulyan — An Immediate Cause of the World TT'ar 85 



1843. HoiPHREYS. British Moths, VoL I. 

 1869. LixTXER. '■23rd Rep. State Cabinet of Xew York, p. -214. 

 1916. MosHER. Bull. Illinois State Lab. of Xat. Hist., Vol. 

 XII, Art. II. 



AX IXSECT AXD LACK OF EXTOMOLOGICAL 



KXOWLEDGE AX IMMEDIATE CAUSE OF 



THE WORLD AVAR. 



By M. T. Smi-lyax, 

 U. S. Bureau of Entomology. Melrose Highlands, Mass. 



"What dire offence from amorous causes springs, 

 What mighty contests rise from trivial things!" 



— Pope. 



Those familiar with the beliefs of the ancient Greeks doubtless 

 recall the highly fascinating bit of tradition dealing with Peleus 

 and Thetis and the events which grew out of their marriage: how 

 Peleus, King of Thessaly, wooed and finally overcame the scruples 

 of the divine Thetis; how that mortal, in order to please his bride, 

 invited the gods of Olympus to attend the nuptial rites and festiv- 

 ities on Mount Pelion; how the vindictive Discordia, previously 

 expelled from heaven for so^xnng dissension and stirring up strife, 

 in revenge, for not having been included among those invited, 

 threw an apple in their midst, with the inscription, '*To the most 

 beautiful"; how this aroused the en\y and jealousy of the proud 

 and powerful divinities. Juno, Venus, and Minerva; how the dis- 

 pute was carried for arbitrament to the shepherd Paris, son of 

 Priam, King of Troy; how Paris decided in favor of Venus who 

 offered the most tempting bribe, that of the fairest woman as wife; 

 how later, with the assistance of the goddess, he contrived to visit 

 the court of ^Nlenelaus, King of Sparta, husband of Helen; how the 

 base prince then, violating all laws of hospitality and honor, car- 

 ried the beautiful Helen away to Troy; and, finally, how all Greece 

 rose to avenge the insult and the wrong. 



Thus did a mere apple cause that mighty commotion, the 

 Trojan War. 



Historians and others interested in tracing the cause and origin 

 of the late war, the great human convulsion of modern times, 



