CHAPTER XXII 



THE RING OF HELEN 



In the countries dealt with in this book I give instances where 

 Fish and Fishing have, according to myth or tradition, played 

 a prominent part in human affairs, and have been the cause, 

 direct or indirect, of important events. 



Thus in Greece and Rome, to fish is assigned the responsi- 

 bility for— 



(A) The death of Homer, from his inability to solve the 

 riddle of tlie lads.2 



(B) The death of Theodoric, who recognised in the head of 

 a pike which he was eating the head of his murdered victim, 

 Symmachus.3 



(C) No less an event than the Trojan War, which, according 

 to the windbag Ptolemy Hephaestion, happened on this wise. 



In the belly of a huge fish named Pan (from its resemblance 

 to that god) was found a gem {asterites), which when exposed 

 to the sun shot forth flames and became a powerful love philtre. 

 Helen, on acquiring this, had it engraved with a figure of the 

 Pan fish, and when desirous of making a special impression 

 wore it as a signet ring. 



Thus, when Paris visited Sparta the charm blazed from her 

 finger with the result of the immediate conquest of Paris, the 

 flight from Menelaus, and the Ten Years' War ! 



But, despite Homer, it was discovered (!) afterwards that 



1 From a splendid vase-painting representing the two sides of a magnificent 

 scyphos made by the potter Hieron and painted by the artist Makron. The 

 original (now in Boston) is of the finest fifth-century (b.c.) art. See Furt- 

 wangler and Reichhold, Griechische Vasenmalerei (Mimchen, 1909), vol. II. 

 125 fi., pi. 85. 



'^ See Chapter III. 



* See mitea, p. 200. 



295 



