upiter made them both stars, the bright ones called
Gemini, or the Twins, and Menelaus reigned with Helen at Sparta, as
Agamemnon did at Mycenae.

These two were sons of Atreus, and were descended from Tantalus, once a
favourite of the gods, who used to come down and feast with him, until
once he took his son Pelops and dressed him for their meal. Jupiter
found it out, collected the limbs, and restored the boy to life; but
Ceres had been so distracted with grief about her daughter, that she had
eaten one shoulder, and Jupiter gave him an ivory one instead. Tantalus
was sent to Tartarus, where his punishment was to pine with hunger and
thirst, with a feast before him, where he neither could touch the food
nor the drink, because there was a rock hung over his head threatening to
crush him. Pelops was a wonderful charioteer, and won his bride in the
chariot race, having bribed the charioteer of his rival to leave out the
linchpins of his wheels. Afterwards, when the charioteer asked a reward,
Pelops threw him into the sea; and this was the second crime that brought
a doom on the race. Pelops gave his name to the whole peninsula now
called the Morea, or mulberry-leaf, but which was all through ancient
times known as the Peloponnesus, or Isle of Pelops. He reigned at Elis,
and after his death his sons Atreus and Thyestes struggled for the rule,
but both were horribly wicked men, and Atreus was said to have killed two
sons of Thyestes, and served them up to him at a feast. There was,
therefore, a heavy curse on the whole family, both on AEgisthus, son of
Thyestes, and on his cousins Agamemnon and Menelaus, the Atridae, or sons
of Atreus.

[Picture: Decorative chapter heading]

CHAP. VIII.--THE CHOICE OF PARIS.

The gods and goddesses were merrily feasting when Ate, the goddess of
strife, desirous of making mischief, threw down among them a golden
apple, engraven with the words, "This apple to the Fair." The three
goddesses, Juno, Pallas, and Venus, each thought it meant for her--one
having the beauty of dignity, the other the beauty of wisdom, and the
third the beauty of grace and fairness. They would not accept the award
of any of the gods, lest they should not be impartial; but they declared
that no one should decide between them but Paris, a shepherd, though a
king's son, who was keeping his flocks on Mount Ida.

Each goddess tried to allure him to choose her by promises. Juno offere