their minds how they might avenge themselves.

"Back to his watery kingdom, and his golden palace beneath the sea,
went great Poseidon. He harnessed his steeds to his chariot, and rode
forth upon the waves. He loosed the winds from their prison house, and
sent them raging over the sea. The angry waters rushed in upon the
land; they covered the pastures and the rich plain of Troy, and
threatened even to beat down the walls which their king had built.

"Then little by little, the flood shrank back again; and the people
went out of the city to see the waste of slime and black mud which
covered their meadows. While they were gazing upon the scene, a
fearful monster, sent by angry Poseidon, came up out of the sea, and
fell upon them, and drove them with hideous slaughter back to the city
gates; neither would he allow any one to come outside of the walls.

"Then my father, in his great distress, clad himself in mourning, and
went in deep humility to the temple of Athena. In much distress, he
called unto the goddess, and besought to know the means whereby the
anger of Poseidon might be assuaged. And in solemn tones a voice
replied, saying:

"'Every day one of the maidens of Troy must be fed to the monster
outside of the walls. The shaker of the earth has spoken. Disobey him
not, lest more cruel punishments befall thee.'

"Then in every house of Troy there was sore dismay and lamentation, for
no one knew upon whom the doom would soonest fall. And every day a
hapless maiden, young and fair, was chained to the great rock by the
shore, and left there to be the food of the pitiless monster. And the