All would unite in arms, and lay his town
Level with the ground.

EURIPIDES (Potter's tr.).

The Grecian princes consented to this proposal. They all, including
Ulysses himself, took the required oath. Helen then made choice of
Menelaus, to whom she was immediately married with great pomp and
popular rejoicing. On the death of Tyndarus, Menelaus became king of
Sparta, and he and his beautiful queen lived and reigned together in
prosperity and happiness until the ill-fated visit of Paris.

Menelaus was the brother of Ag-a-memʹnon, king of My-ceʹnæ, one of the
most powerful and wealthy of the kings of Helʹlas, as Greece was
anciently called. Their father, Aʹtreus, was a son of the hero Peʹlops,
who conquered the greater part of the peninsula named from him the
Pel-oponneʹsus, and who was the grandson of Jupiter. Agamemnon, or
A-triʹdes (son of Atreus), as he is often called, was commander in chief
of all the Greek armies during the siege of Troy. From his high rank and
authority Homer calls him the "king of men" and the "king of kings." He
is sometimes also called "king of all Arʹgos," a powerful kingdom near
Mycenæ, and from this name the Greeks are sometimes called "Arʹgives."
The royal scepter which Agamemnon bore in his hands when addressing his
soldiers was made by Vulcan for Jupiter.

The king of kings his awful figure raised;
High in his hand the golden sceptre blazed;
The golden sceptre, of celestial flame,
By Vulcan formed, from Jove to Hermes came:
To Pelops he the immortal gift resign'd;