Tripos

“ Professor Middleton never alluded in any way to this archæological tripos which I was to challenge after one year’s work. All the morning, three times a week or more, I used to sit there with my books that I never read,{258} because he, in his dressing-gown, produced, one after the other, little bits of things which would make me love the Greeks for no other reason than for the artistic joy of their works and days. He knew of course that there was a tripos impending, and this in his view was the best way of preparing for it ”

“ He seemed loath to let it go.
'I was telling her that I should like to go to a woman's college—to Newnham or Girton.'
'Exactly.'
The Tutor nodded his head. He was listening to the girl, but he was looking out of the window.
'No one is educated now—no woman—who does not go to Newnham, or Girton, or Oxford. No one has any chance of success in teaching who has not taken a place in a Tripos or done something in a University examination.'
The Senior Tutor was smiling, but he was only giving her half his attention. ”

“ Solicitor.
Howell, Alexander, 1829, b. 1811. Howell, Oswald John, 1823, b. 1810. Chaplain to the Sussex County Hospital.
Howell (Sir) Thomas (Knt.) , 1815-16. Son of Thomas Howell, of Clapham. b. 1802. Was Director of Contracts in the War Office 1855-74. Knighted 1876.
Howes, George, 1825. Son of Rev. George Howes, Rector of Spixworth, Norfolk, b. 1811 ; d. 1827.
Howlett, John Henry, 1821. Son of Rev. J. H. Howlett, Chaplain of the Chapel Royal, Whitehall, b. 1810. Fellow of St. John's Coll. Cam. Bell Scholar. Wrangler and 2nd Class Classical Tripos. Rector of Meppershall, Beds. ”

“ They were also used as dedicatory offerings to the gods, and in the dramatic contests at the Dionysia the victorious choregus (a wealthy citizen who bore the expense of equipping and training the chorus) received a crown and a tripod, which he either dedicated to some god or set upon the top of a marble structure erected in the form of a small circular temple in a street in Athens, called the “street of tripods,” from the large number of memorials of this kind. ”

“ The Greeks had demanded from Turkey compensation for this shifting of the balance of power, and had prepared to enforce their demand by an appeal to arms. The Great Powers, however, had interfered, and by blockading the Piraeus had compelled Greece to remain quiet. Tricoupis, nevertheless, believed that he could in a few years raise the value of Greek paper currency to par, and upon that assumption all his calculations were based. ”

“ At last, after a very hot and stony ride, with less color and less beauty than we had ever yet found in Greece, we descended into the great valley of Tripoli, formerly held by Tegea at the south, and Mantinea at the north. The modern town lies between the ancient sites, but nearer to Tegea, which is not an hour’s ride distant. The old Tripolis, of which the villages were absorbed by Megalopolis, is placed by the geographers in quite another part of Arcadia, near Gortyn, and due north of the western plain. The vicissitudes of the modern town are well known ”

“ It does not appear that any one actually died.
Two more days' march brought them to the sea, at the Greek maritime city of Trapezus or Trebizond, founded by the inhabitants of Sinôpê on the coast of the Kolchian territory. Here the Trapezuntines received them with kindness and hospitality, sending them presents of bullocks, barley-meal, and wine. ”

“ Now all this time the Greeks, shut up within their wall and fighting from their towers, were looking back across the sea, eager to spy the ship of Ulysses, like men wrecked on a desert island, who keep watch every day for a sail afar off, hoping that the seamen will touch at their isle and have pity upon them, and carry them home, so the Greeks kept watch for the ship bearing Neoptolemus. ”

“ However, when Trypho had gained the management of affairs, he demonstrated his disposition to be wicked; for while he was a private person, he cultivated familiarity with the multitude, and pretended to great moderation, and so drew them on artfully to whatsoever he pleased; but when he had once taken the kingdom, he laid aside any further dissimulation, and was the true Trypho; which behavior made his enemies superior to him; for the soldiery hated him, and revolted from him to Cleopatra, the wife of Demetrius, who was then shut up in Seleucia with her children. ”

“ Dismayed at the fall of their great leader, the Trojans give ground; the trench is recrossed, and the Greeks breathe again.
Jupiter awakes from sleep just in time to see the mischief that has been done; the Trojans in flight, the Greeks with Neptune at their head pursuing; Hector lying senseless by the side of his chariot, still breathing heavily, and vomiting blood from his bruised chest, and surrounded by his anxious comrades. He turns wrathfully upon Juno—it is her work, he knows. ”

“ When I came back to Trapezus, the winter had begun, and there were no more ships sailing westward. I should have written when communications were opened again, but I was always in hopes of being allowed by the physician to start, and I had a fancy for bringing my own news. And how are you?”
“I am well enough,” replied Hippocles, “but we have been passing through times bad enough to shorten any man’s life. I don’t speak of trade. ”

“ Fighting with the energy born of fanaticism, he wounded Trippe no less than eleven times, and at last Trippe went down with one knee on the deck, but while in this position he caught the Tripolitan with breast unguarded and thrust him through with a pike. And that ended one of the most remarkable fights recorded in the annals of the navy. For Trippe367 and his ten men killed fourteen of the Tripolitans, and made the remainder, twenty-two in number, prisoners. ”

“ Abrotonum is by Strabo called πολις, by Scylax πολις και λιμην, by Pliny, Oppidum: Leptis Magna is rarely mentioned as a port, although it is well known to have been one; and many more examples might be adduced by those who would take the trouble to collect them.
What is now called modern Tripoly has been said by some writers to have been built by the early inhabitants of Northern Africa, under the name of Tarabilis or Trebiles; and the same authors have stated that the Roman term of Tripolis is derived from the name which they bestowed upon it. ”

“ For example, in the games of the Triopian Apollo they used formerly to set bronze tripods as prizes for the victors, and the rule was that those who received them should not carry them out of the temple but dedicate them then and there to the god. There was a man then of Halicarnassos, whose name was Agasicles, who being a victor paid no regard to this rule, but carried away the tripod to his own house and hung it up there upon a nail. On this ground the other five cities, Lindos, Ialysos and Cameiros, Cos and Cnidos, excluded the sixth city Halicarnassos from sharing in the temple. ”

“ TRITON, in Greek mythology, son of Poseidon and Amphitrite, the personification of the roaring waters. According to Hesiod (Theog. 930) , he dwelt with his parents in a golden palace in the depths of the sea. The story of the Argonauts places his home on the coast of Libya. When the Argo was driven ashore on the Lesser Syrtes the crew carried the vessel to Lake Tritonis, whence Triton, the local deity, guided them across to the Mediterranean (Apollonius Rhodius iv. 1552) . He was represented as human down to the waist, with the tail of a fish. ”

“ Another well-known tripod was the “Plataean,” made from a tenth part of the spoils taken from the Persian army after the battle of Plataea. This consisted of a golden basin, supported by a bronze serpent with three heads (or three serpents intertwined) , with a list of the states that had taken part in the war inscribed on the coils of the serpent. The golden bowl was carried off by the Phocians during the Sacred War ”

“ Venezelos would in any case have done well, because he is a clever man with an excellent power of judgement; but acuteness is a common Greek virtue, and if he has done brilliantly, it is because he has the added touch of genius required to make the Greek take ‘No’ for an answer, a quality, very rare indeed in the nation, which explains the dramatic contrast between his success and Trikoupis’ failure. Greece has been fortunate indeed in finding the right man at the crucial hour. ”

“ Here, then, Dido was building a temple to Juno, very splendid, with threshold of bronze, and many steps thereunto; of bronze also were the doorposts and the gates. And here befell a thing which gave much comfort and courage to Æneas; for, as he stood and regarded the place, waiting also for the queen, he saw set forth in order upon the walls the battles that had been fought at Troy, the sons of Atreus also, and King Priam, and fierce Achilles. Then said he, not without tears, “Is there any land, O Achates, that is not filled with our sorrows? Seest thou Priam? ”

“ Meanwhile, the army burned their huts and launched their ships, and with oars and sails made their way to the back of the isle of Tenedos.
XIV THE END OF TROY AND THE SAVING OF HELEN
From the walls the Trojans saw the black smoke go up thick into the sky, and the whole fleet of the Greeks sailing out to sea. Never were men so glad, and they armed themselves for fear of an ambush, and went cautiously, sending forth scouts in front of them, down to the seashore. ”

“ Trapezus and the other colonies in the east of the Euxine did not relish the idea of a new Greek city which might turn out to be a formidable rival. So they offered to transport the army to the Hellespont and to furnish pay from the first new moon after the departure. This seemed a good offer, and I recommended the soldiers to close with it, and said that I gave up my scheme. ‘Only,’ I said, ‘let us all keep together and let any one who leaves us be counted a malefactor.’ For I did not choose that my friend the soothsayer should get the better of it. ”

“ And now Tripe began to think he was the whole thing, and that without him and his organ the Liberators and even Wilfridus himself were Small Potatoes; and he ground his organ to suit himself and played wicked and mischievous airs thereon which not only stirred up the Conservers, but annoyed many High Liberators. ”

“ Glaucon ate not because he hungered, but because duty ordered it. As the light strengthened, the [pg 310] strand grew alive with thousands of men at toil. The triremes drawn on shore went down into the sea on their rollers. More trumpet-blasts sent the rowers aboard their ships. But last of all, before thrusting out to do or die, the Greeks must feast their ears as well as their stomachs. On the sloping beach gathered the officers and the armoured marines,—eighteen from each trireme,—and heard one stirring harangue after another. ”

“ The town of Tripoly has been usually considered to occupy the site of the ancient Oea; one of the cities which, with Sabrata and Leptis Magna, the Tripoli Vecchia and Lebida of modern times, composed the three principal towns of a district which took from them the appellation of Tripolis. ”

“ Leptis Magna, a titular see of Tripolitana. Founded by the Sidonians in a fine and fertile country, it was the most important of the three towns which formed the Tripoli Confederation. The remains of the ancient Phœnician town are still visible, with the harbour, quays, walls, and inland defence, which make it look like Carthage. This Semitic city subsequently became the centre of a Greek city, Neapolis, of which most of the monuments are buried under sand. ”

“ And the men of Troy busied themselves in making them ready for the voyage. Even as the ants spoil a great heap of corn and store it in their dwellings against winter, moving in a black line across the field, and some carry the great grains, and some chide those that linger, even so did the Trojans swarm along the ways and labor at the work.
But when Dido saw it she called to Anna her sister, and said, “Seest thou how they hasten the work along the shore? Even now the sails are ready for the winds, and the sailors have wreathed the ships with garlands, as if for departure. ”

“ In fig. 226 there is a mint mark or counter mark of the same design as the triskelion, except that it has but two arms or rays (diskelion) .
Perrot and Chipiez, [227] speaking of Lycia, say:
The device of many of her coins is the “triskelis” or so-called “triquetra” (literally, three-cornered, triangular) , a name derived from three serpents’ heads, which usually figure in the field, much after the fashion of those supporting the famous tripod at Delphi, [228] consecrated by the Greeks to Apollo after the battle of Platæa. ”

“ The trade between Greece and Alexandria, as ye may have heard, is hardly inferior to that between Alexandria and Rome. The people in that part of the world forgot to celebrate the Cerealia, and Triptolemus paid them with a harvest not worth the gathering. At all events, the trade is so grown that it will not brook interruption a day. Ye may also have heard of the Chersonesan pirates, nested up in the Euxine ”

“ The ancient Phoenician city, which we know only by its Greek name of Tripolis, was the seat in Persian times of the federal council of Sidon, Tyre and Aradus, each of which cities had its separate quarter in the “triple town.” In the 2nd and 1st centuries B.C., under Seleucid and Roman influences successively, it struck autonomous coins. These are succeeded by imperial coins ranging from 32 B.C. to A.D. 221. About 450, and again in 550, it was destroyed by earthquake. The Arabs took it in 638 after a prolonged siege, the inhabitants withdrawing by sea. ”

“ Tripods of bronze, moreover, stood in different parts of the room, and vases of water or wine were placed upon them. Fragments of some of them have been found in the ruins of Nineveh, and they are represented in early Babylonian seals. The feet of the tripod were artistically shaped to resemble the feet of oxen, the clinched human hand, or some similar design. At meals the tripod stood beside the table on which the dishes were laid. Those who eat sat on chairs in the earlier period, but in later times the fashion grew up, for the men at any rate, to recline on a couch. ”