roy from Tyre he went
through Greece.

Now the fairest woman in the world was in Greece; she was Helen, and she
was married to King Menelaus. Paris saw her and loved her for her
beauty. And Aphrodite inspired Helen to fall in love with Paris. He
stole her from the house of Menelaus and brought her into Troy.

King Menelaus sent to Troy and demanded that his wife be given back to
him. But the people of Troy, thinking no King in the world could shake
them, and wanting to boast that the fairest woman in the world was in
their city, were not willing that Menelaus be given back his wife. Priam
and his son, Hector, knew that a wrong had been done, and knew that
Helen and all that she had brought with her should be given back. But in
the council there were vain men who went against the word of Priam and
Hector, declaring that for no little King of Greece would they give up
Helen, the fairest woman in all the world.

* * * * *

[Illustration]

Then the minstrel sang of Agamemnon. He was King of rich Mycenae, and his
name was so high and his deeds were so renowned that all the Kings of
Greece looked to him. Now Agamemnon, seeing Menelaus, his brother,
flouted by the Trojans, vowed to injure Troy. And he spoke to the
Kings and Princes of Greece, saying that if they all united their
strength they would be able to take the great city of Troy and avenge
the slight put upon Menelaus and win great glory and riches for
themselves.

And when they had come together and had taken note of their strength,
the Kings and Princes of Greece thought well of the word of Agamemnon
and were eager to make war upon Troy. They bound themselves by a vow to
take the City. Then Agamemnon sent messages to the heroes whose lands
were far away, to Odysseus, and to Achilles, who was the son of Peleus
and Thetis, bidding them also enter the war.

In two years the ships of all the Kings and Princes were gathered into
Aulis and the Greeks, with their leaders, Agamemnon, Aias, Diomedes,
Nestor, Idomeneus, Achilles and Odysseus, sailed for the coast of Troy.
One hero after another subdued the cities and nations that were the
allies of the Trojans, but Troy they did not take. And the minstrel sang
to Telemachus and his fellow-voyagers how year after year went by, and
how the host of Greeks still remained between their ships and the walls
of the City, and how in the ninth year there came a plague that smote
with death more me