ULTRAMARINE 



ULYSSES 



assure dominance in the country and control 

 of the food supply, so sorely needed in Ger- 

 many. The Ukraine legislative body was forci- 

 bly dissolved, and German dictatorship was 

 substituted, in May, 1918. 



The defeat of Germany m the fall of 1918 

 brought about a liberation of the country from 

 German control, but it was not possible to 

 establish order. The Ukrainians endeavored to 

 set up a stable government, but the conserva- 

 tive, radical and social revolutionary factions 

 not only disagreed among themselves, but were 

 beset by outside enemies. The Poles and 

 Ukrainians came into conflict over Galicia, and 

 the Ukrainians and Rumanians over Bukowina 

 and Bessarabia. In the spring of 1919 a bolshe- 

 vik invasion resulted in the conquest by Trotz- 

 ky's army of practically all of the Ukraine, but 

 a counter-revolt liberated a large portion of the 

 country. In September, 1919, the situation was 

 confused and uncertain. The Ukrainians are 

 known as Little Russians. There are about 30,- 

 000,000 in the Ukraine. See RUSSIA. 



ULTRAMARINE, ultra mareen' , a blue pig- 

 ment formerly ground from the lapis lazuli, a 

 rare stone. It is valued by painters because 

 of its brilliancy of tone and durability of color, 

 for oil as well as water-color painting. The 

 process of extracting the blue pigment from 

 lapis lazuli, which was practiced as early as the 

 eleventh century, consisted in grinding the 

 stone, reducing it to a powder by heat, and 

 again grinding it in a mill or with a porphyry 

 slab. This was an expensive procedure, for the 

 lapis lazuli is rare, and the yield amounted only 

 to two or three per cent of the mineral used. 

 The old masters were accustomed to utilize 

 the residue of the lapis lazuli, after the chief 

 color had been extracted, as a neutral tint for 

 skies and draperies. Now artificial means are 

 employed in the manufacture of ultramarine. 



ULYSSES, ulis'eez, in Greek mythology, 

 the king of Ithaca and the most famous of the 

 Greeks in the Trojan War. He was one of the 

 suitors of Helen, and proposed the compact 

 which bound the Greeks to support the hus- 

 band of Helen, whoever he might be. When 

 he found that he could not be successful in his 

 suit for Helen, he married Penelope, the daugh- 

 ter of Icarus, with whom he was very happy. 

 Then he returned to Ithaca, received the 

 crown from his father, and began to enjoy life 

 in ease and quiet. 



When Helen was abducted by Paris, he knew 

 that he would be called upon to fulfil his part 

 of the compact, and desiring to remain at home 



with his wife, he pretended to be insane and 

 spent his time plowing the seashore with a 

 horse and a bull yoked together, and in sowing 

 the shore with salt. But Palamedes suspected 

 the fraud. He put little Telemachus, Ulysses 1 

 son, in the furrow, and when Ulysses turned 

 the plow aside to save his child, Palamedes was 

 confirmed in his opinion, that the insanity was 

 pretended. He urged upon Ulysses the binding 

 force of his vow, and Ulysses accordingly went 

 to the war. 



Throughout the Trojan War he distinguished 

 himself not only by his great valor but by the 

 wisdom of his counsel and the keenness of his 

 insight into Trojan methods. He fought with 

 Ajax, and won the glorious armor of Achilles. 

 He stole into Troy and assisted Diomedes in 

 carrying away the Palladium, though in that 

 expedition he did not figure very honorably;, 

 and it was he who proposed the building of the 

 Wooden Horse. After the fall of Troy, like 

 most of the Greek chieftains, he suffered many 

 hardships and wandered in many lands, where 

 he had marvelous adventures which formed the 

 subject of Homer's famous Odyssey. 



On his return, he found his wife faithful to 

 him, though besieged by many suitors. She 

 had persistently put them off by many strata- 

 gems, and finally declared that she would ac- 

 cept no one who could not bend the massive 

 bow which her husband had left with her. At 

 this time Ulysses, who had been absent for 

 twenty years, appeared on the scene disguised 

 as a beggar and known only to his son Telema- 

 chus and a faithful herdsman. In this guise 

 he entered the room where the suitors were 

 striving to shoot with his own mighty bow. 

 When he asked permission to try his skill, the 

 youths laughed at him, but Telemachus per- 

 suaded his mother to let the old man try. To 

 the astonishment of all, Ulysses easily bent the 

 bow and shot the arrow through the twelve 

 rings which she had pointed out. He quickly 

 made himself known, then turning toward the 

 handsomest and most treacherous of the suit- 

 ors, he shot him through the heart, and by the 

 aid of his son and Minerva slew all the other 



wooers. 



A.MCC. 



Related Subjects. The following articles in 

 these volumes will explain the references in the 

 above discussion of Ulysses and give added in- 

 formation : 



Achilles 



Ajax 



Calypso 



Circe 



Cyclopes 



Helen of Troy 

 Lotus, subhead The 



Lotus-Eaters 

 Odyssey 

 Palladium 



