arch of his destined
bride. The prince said nothing of this quest, but urged his kindred to let
him go; and giving out a rumor that he was to find his father's lost
sister Hesione, he set sail for Greece, and finally landed at Sparta.

There he was kindly received by Menelaus, the king, and his wife, Fair
Helen.

This queen had been reared as the daughter of Tyndarus and Queen Leda, but
some say that she was the child of an enchanted swan, and there was indeed
a strange spell about her. All the greatest heroes of Greece had wooed her
before she left her father's palace to be the wife of King Menelaus, and
Tyndarus, fearing for her peace, had bound her many suitors by an oath.
According to this pledge, they were to respect her choice, and to go to
the aid of her husband if ever she should be stolen away from him. For in
all Greece there was nothing so beautiful as the beauty of Helen. She was
the fairest woman in the world.

Now thus did Venus fulfill her promise and the shepherd win his reward
with dishonor. Paris dwelt at the court of Menelaus for a long time,
treated with a royal courtesy which he ill repaid. For at length, while
the king was absent on a journey to Crete, his guest won the heart of Fair
Helen, and persuaded her to forsake her husband and sail away to Troy, or
Ilium.

King Menelaus returned to find the nest empty of the swan. Paris and the
fairest woman in the world were well across the sea.

When this treachery came to light, all Greece took fire with indignation.
The heroes remembered their pledge, and wrath came upon them at the wrong
done to Menelaus. But they were less angered with Fair Helen than with
Paris, for they felt assured that the queen had been lured from her
country and out of her own senses by some spell of enchantment. So they
took counsel how they might bring back Fair Helen to her home and husband.

Years had come and gone since that wedding-feast when Eris had flung the
apple of discord, like a firebrand, among the guests. But the spark of
dissension that had smouldered so long burst into flame now, and, fanned
by the enmities of men and the rivalries of the Gods, it seemed like to
fire heaven and earth.

A few of the heroes answered the call to arms unwillingly. Time had
reconciled them to the loss of Fair Helen, and they were loath to leave
home and happiness for war, even in her cause.

One of these was Odysseus, or Ulysses, king of Ithaca, who had married
Penelope, and