strong spear in his hand.

Then he and Menelaus stood face to face, on the ground which Hector and
Ulysses had meted out; and they brandished their spears, with wrath
against each other. Paris drew the lot to be the first to cast his
long-shafted spear; he threw it, and it struck the round shield of
Atreides Menelaus, but did not pierce it; for the point of the spear was
turned.

Then Menelaus, poising his lance, prayed to Zeus, "O Father Zeus! grant me
to take vengeance on goodly Paris, who did me such foul wrong--_me_, who
had shown him so much kindness!" He said, and hurled his strong spear,
which struck the bright shield of the son of Priam; and the sharp point
passed through it, and through his breastplate, and rent the tunic, close
to the side of his body; but Paris swerved from it, and shunned the black
fate of death. Then Menelaus drew his sword from the silver-studded
sheath, and smote on the helmet of Paris, but the sword was shattered, and
fell in pieces from his hand. Then he looked up to heaven, and exclaimed,
"O Father Zeus! thou art the most cruel of all the Gods!"

So saying, he caught Paris by his horse-hair crest, and dragged him
towards the well-greaved Achaians, and the embroidered strap of the helmet
went nigh to strangle him. But Venus, daughter of great Zeus, who loved
the beauteous Paris, drew near him, and tore the strap of leather; and the
helmet came away, empty, in the strong hand of the son of Atreus. Full of
wrath, he hurled it towards his trusty companions, and they took it up. He
then rushed back again, to slay his enemy; but golden-haired Venus, being
a goddess, easily caught up Paris, and hid him in thick darkness, and
carried him into Troy, to his high and fragrant chamber.

Venus, the golden Goddess of Love, then went to summon Helen, in the
likeness of an old woman, a wool-comber, who had worked for Helen in
Lacedaemon, and whom she greatly loved. She found the white-armed Helen on
the high tower, and spake: "Come hither to Paris, who sends for thee; he
is there in the fragrant chamber, shining in beauty--

"Not like a warrior parted from the foe,
But some fair dancer from the public show."
(Pope's Translation of the _Iliad_.)

But Helen's heart was greatly moved; she knew the golden Venus, saw her
fair neck and sparkling eyes, and called her by her name. "O thou strange
Goddess! wouldst thou again deceive me? Now Menelaus hath conquered Paris,
and will carry me