for so
beautiful a lady, and Priam called her "dear child," and said, "I do not
blame you, I blame the Gods who brought about this war." But Helen said
that she wished she had died before she left her little daughter and her
husband, and her home: "Alas! shameless me!" Then she told Priam the
names of the chief Greek warriors, and of Ulysses, who was shorter by a
head than Agamemnon, but broader in chest and shoulders. She wondered
that she could not see her own two brothers, Castor and Polydeuces, and
thought that they kept aloof in shame for her sin; but the green grass
covered their graves, for they had both died in battle, far away in
Lacedaemon, their own country.

Then the lambs were sacrificed, and the oaths were taken, and Paris put
on his brother's armour, helmet, breastplate, shield, and leg-armour.
Lots were drawn to decide whether Paris or Menelaus should throw his
spear first, and, as Paris won, he threw his spear, but the point was
blunted against the shield of Menelaus. But when Menelaus threw his
spear it went clean through the shield of Paris, and through the side of
his breastplate, but only grazed his robe. Menelaus drew his sword, and
rushed in, and smote at the crest of the helmet of Paris, but his bronze
blade broke into four pieces. Menelaus caught Paris by the horsehair
crest of his helmet, and dragged him towards the Greeks, but the chin-
strap broke, and Menelaus turning round threw the helmet into the ranks
of the Greeks. But when Menelaus looked again for Paris, with a spear in
his hand, he could see him nowhere! The Greeks believed that the
beautiful goddess Aphrodite, whom the Romans called Venus, hid him in a
thick cloud of darkness and carried him to his own house, where Helen of
the fair hands found him and said to him, "Would that thou hadst
perished, conquered by that great warrior who was my lord! Go forth
again and challenge him to fight thee face to face." But Paris had no
more desire to fight, and the Goddess threatened Helen, and compelled her
to remain with him in Troy, coward as he had proved himself. Yet on
other days Paris fought well; it seems that he was afraid of Menelaus
because, in his heart, he was ashamed of himself.

Meanwhile Menelaus was seeking for Paris everywhere, and the Trojans, who
hated him, would have shown his hiding place. But they knew not where he
was, and the Greeks claimed the victory, and thought that, as Paris had
the worst of the fight,