mighty man, king of Mycenae and Argos, and the brother of the wronged
Menelaus. Second to Achilles in strength was the giant Ajax; after him
Diomedes, then wise Odysseus, and Nestor, held in great reverence
because of his experienced age and fame. These were the chief heroes.
After two years of busy preparation, they reached the port of Aulis,
whence they were to sail for Troy.

But here delay held them. Agamemnon had chanced to kill a stag which
was sacred to Diana, and the army was visited by pestilence, while a
great calm kept the ships imprisoned. At length the Oracle made known
the reason of this misfortune and demanded for atonement the maiden
Iphigenia, Agamemnon's own daughter. In helpless grief the king
consented to offer her up as a victim, and the maiden was brought ready
for sacrifice. But at the last moment Diana caught her away in a cloud,
leaving a white hind in her place, and carried her to Tauris in
Scythia, there to serve as a priestess in the temple. In the mean time,
her kinsfolk, who were at a loss to understand how she had disappeared,
mourned her as dead. But Diana had accepted their child as an offering,
and healing came to the army, and the winds blew again. So the ships
set sail.

Meanwhile, in Troy across the sea, the aged Priam and Hecuba gave
shelter to their son Paris and his stolen bride. They were not without
misgivings as to these guests, but they made ready to defend their
kindred and the citadel.

There were many heroes among the Trojans and their allies, brave and
upright men, who little deserved that such reproach should be brought
upon them by the guilt of Prince Paris. There were Aeneas and
Deiphobus, Glaucus and Sarpedon, and Priam's most noble son Hector,