Stamp Story No. 133 The Refugee From Troy

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30206, 10 August 1963, Page 8

Stamp Story No. 133 The Refugee From Troy

[Specially written for "Die Press" by

KENNETH ANTHONY]

Refugee Year, a campaign designed to draw attention to the plight of refugees and to encourage more generous support for relief programmes, started in June, 1959. Part of the campaign consisted of the issue of special stamps by many nations of the world—outside the Iron Curtain countries—*the idea being that the countries tak-

mythology. Aeneas was a member of a junior branch of the Trojan royal house and was one of the few Trojan nobles to escape when the city fell to the besieging Greeks. With a small band of supporters he travelled westwards—to Thrace and Sicily, then to Carthage, before settling in Italy. With the formation of the Roman Empire patriotic writers constructed a legend which made Aeneas responsible for the beginnings of Roman greatness. Some stories credit him with the actual foundation of Rome itself: in others this is attributed to Romulus, said to be a descendant of Aeneas. Julius Caesar's family, too. claimed Aeneas as an ancestor.

And so the much-travelled Aeneas was quite an appropriate representative of modern refugees—(Central Press Features. Ltd. All Rights Reserved.)

ing part should donate part of the proceeds to refugee funds.

About 70 countries produced stamps for World Refugee Year, most of them featuring various treatments of the Uprooted Tree, the campaign symbol. But Italy, as the illustration shows. Chose something different, turning to classical legend for one of the earliest refugee stories on record.

The stamp, one of two values in the same design, depicts Aeneas carrying his father Anchises and leading his son Ascanius from the burning ruins of Troy. The scene is taken from a famous fresco in Vatican City. According to Greek