of beauty upon Venus. She, therefore, bade him return to Troy, where
his family was ready to welcome him, and sail thence to Greece to
kidnap Helen, daughter of Jupiter and Leda and wife of Menelaus, King
of Sparta. So potent were this lady's charms that her step-father had
made all her suitors swear never to carry her away from her husband,
and to aid in her recovery should she ever be kidnapped.

Shortly after his arrival at Sparta and during a brief absence of
its king, Paris induced Helen to elope with him. On his return the
outraged husband summoned the suitors to redeem their pledge, and
collected a huge force at Aulis, where Agamemnon his brother became
leader of the expedition. Such was the popularity of this war that
even heroes who had taken no oath were anxious to make part of the
punitive expedition, the most famous of these warriors being Achilles,
son of Thetis and Peleus.

After many adventures the Greeks, landing on the shores of Asia, began
besieging the city, from whose ramparts Helen watched her husband and
his allies measure their strength against the Trojans. Such was the
bravery displayed on both sides that the war raged nine years without
any decisive advantage being obtained. At the end of this period,
during a raid, the Greeks secured two female captives, which were
awarded to Agamemnon and to Achilles in recognition of past services.

Although the above events are treated in sundry other Greek poems and
epics,--which no longer exist entire, but form part of a cycle,--"The
Iliad," accredited to Homer, takes up the story at this point, and
relates the wrath of Achilles, together with the happenings of some
fifty days in the ninth year.