The Adventures of Odysseus and The Tales of Troy | Page 9

of youths. Then Paris went out
of the City again. Sent by his father he went to Tyre. And coming back to Troy from Tyre
he went through Greece.
Now the fairest woman in the world was in Greece; she was Helen, and she was married
to King Menelaus. Paris saw her and loved her for her beauty. And Aphrodite inspired
Helen to fall in love with Paris. He stole her from the house of Menelaus and brought her
into Troy.
King Menelaus sent to Troy and demanded that his wife be given back to him. But the
people of Troy, thinking no King in the world could shake them, and wanting to boast
that the fairest woman in the world was in their city, were not willing that Menelaus be
given back his wife. Priam and his son, Hector, knew that a wrong had been done, and
knew that Helen and all that she had brought with her should be given back. But in the
council there were vain men who went against the word of Priam and Hector, declaring
that for no little King of Greece would they give up Helen, the fairest woman in all the
world.
* * * * *
[Illustration]

Then the minstrel sang of Agamemnon. He was King of rich Mycenæ, and his name was
so high and his deeds were so renowned that all the Kings of Greece looked to him. Now
Agamemnon, seeing Menelaus, his brother, flouted by the Trojans, vowed to injure Troy.
And he spoke to the Kings and Princes of Greece, saying that if they all united their
strength they would be able to take the great city of Troy and avenge the slight put upon
Menelaus and win great glory and riches for themselves.
And when they had come together and had taken note of their strength, the Kings and
Princes of Greece thought well of the word of Agamemnon and were eager to make war
upon Troy. They bound themselves by a vow to take the City. Then Agamemnon sent
messages to the heroes whose lands were far away, to Odysseus, and to Achilles, who
was the son of Peleus and Thetis, bidding them also enter the war.
In two years the ships of all the Kings and Princes were gathered into Aulis and the
Greeks, with their leaders, Agamemnon, Aias, Diomedes, Nestor, Idomeneus, Achilles
and Odysseus, sailed for the coast of Troy. One hero after another subdued the cities and
nations that were the allies of the Trojans, but Troy they did not take. And the minstrel
sang to Telemachus and his fellow-voyagers how year after year went by, and how the
host of Greeks still remained between their ships and the walls of the City, and how in the
ninth year there came a plague that smote with death more men than the Trojans killed.
So the ship went on through the dark water, very swiftly, with the goddess Athene, in the
likeness of old Mentor, guiding it, and with the youths listening to the song that Phemius
the minstrel sang.

VII
The sun rose and Telemachus and his fellow-voyagers drew near to the shore of Pylos
and to the steep citadel built by Neleus, the father of Nestor, the famous King. They saw
on the shore men in companies making sacrifice to Poseidon, the dark-haired god of the
sea. There were nine companies there and each company had nine black oxen for the
sacrifice, and the number of men in each company was five hundred. They slew the oxen
and they laid parts to burn on the altars of the god, and the men sat down to feast.
The voyagers brought their ship to the shore and Telemachus sprang from it. But before
him went the goddess, grey-eyed Athene, in the likeness of the old man, Mentor. And the
goddess told Telemachus that Nestor, the King whom he had come to seek, was on the
shore. She bade him now go forward with a good heart and ask Nestor for tidings of his
father, Odysseus.
But Telemachus said to her, 'Mentor, how can I bring myself to speak to one who is so
reverenced? How should I greet him? And how can I, a young man, question such a one
as Nestor, the old King?'
[Illustration]

The goddess, grey-eyed Athene, encouraged him; the right words, she said, would come.
So Telemachus went forward with his divine companion. Nestor was seated on the shore
with his sons around him. And when they saw the two strangers approach, the sons of
Nestor rose up to greet them. One, Peisistratus, took the hand of Telemachus and the
hand of the goddess and led them both to where Nestor was.
A golden cup was put into the hand