ost famous among them were
Ulysses, King of the island of Ithaca; Diomed, King of Aetolia; Ajax,
King of Salamis, the bravest and strongest man in Greece; his brother
Teucer; Philoctetes, the friend of Hercules; and Menelaus, King of
Sparta. At last, as there was no other way of deciding among them, an
entirely new idea occurred to Ulysses--namely, that Helen should be
allowed to choose her own husband herself, and that, before she chose,
all the rival suitors should make a great and solemn oath to approve her
choice, and to defend her and her husband against all enemies
thenceforth and forever. This oath they all took loyally and with one
accord, and Helen chose Menelaus, King of Sparta, who married her with
great rejoicing, and took her away to his kingdom.

And all would have gone well but for that wretched apple. For Venus was
faithful to her promise that the most beautiful of all women should be
the wife of Paris: and so Menelaus, returning from a journey, found that
a Trojan prince had visited his Court during his absence, and had gone
away, taking Helen with him to Troy. This Trojan prince was Paris, who,
seeing Helen, had forgotten Oenone, and could think of nothing but her
whom Venus had given him.

Then, through all Greece and all the islands, went forth the summons of
King Menelaus, reminding the thirty princes of their great oath: and
each and all of them, and many more, came to the gathering-place with
all their ships and all their men, to help Menelaus and to bring back
Helen. Such a host as gathered together at Aulis had never been seen
since the world began; there were nearly twelve hundred ships and more
than a hundred thousand men: it was the first time that all the Greeks
joined together in one cause. There, besides those who had come for
their oath's sake, were Nestor, the old King of Pylos--so old that he
remembered Jason and the Golden Fleece, but, at ninety years old, as
ready for battle as the youngest there; and Achilles, the son of Peleus
and Thetis, scarcely more than a boy, but fated to outdo the deeds of
the bravest of them all. The kings and princes elected Agamemnon, King
of Mycenae and Argos, and brother of Menelaus, to be their
general-in-chief; and he forthwith sent a herald to Troy to demand the
surrender of Helen.

But King Priam was indignant that these chiefs of petty kingdoms should
dare to threaten the sacred city of Troy: and he replied to the demand
by a scornful challenge, a