of the Dead. They then bound the prisoners and sent them back to
Tartarus, to suffer double punishment. Homer wrote an account of
this battle, and gave it me to show it to our people when I went
back, but I lost it afterwards, together with a great many other
things. It began thus--

"Sing, Muse, the battles of the heroes dead--"

The campaign thus happily finished, they made an entertainment to
celebrate the victory, which, as is usual amongst them, was a bean-
feast. Pythagoras alone absented himself on that day, and fasted,
holding in abomination the wicked custom of eating beans.

Six months had now elapsed, when a new and extraordinary affair
happened. Cinyrus, the son of Scintharus, a tall, well-made,
handsome youth, fell in love with Helen, and she no less desperately
with him. They were often nodding and drinking to one another at
the public feasts, and would frequently rise up and walk out
together alone into the wood. The violence of his passion, joined
to the impossibility of possessing her any other way, put Cinyrus on
the resolution of running away with her. She imagined that they
might easily get off to some of the adjacent islands, either to
Phellus or Tyroessa. He selected three of the bravest of our crew
to accompany them; never mentioning the design to his father, who he
knew would never consent to it, but the first favourable
opportunity, put it in execution; and one night when I was not with
them (for it happened that I stayed late at the feast, and slept
there) carried her off.

Menelaus, rising in the middle of the night, and perceiving that his