opement.
Paris carried away with him both Helen and a large sum of money
belonging to Menelaus, made a prosperous voyage to Troy, and arrived
there safely with his prize on the third day.

Menelaus, informed by Iris in Crete of the perfidious return made by
Paris for his hospitality, hastened home in grief and indignation to
consult with his brother Agamemnon, as well as with the venerable
Nestor, on the means of avenging the outrage. They made known the event
to the Greek chiefs around them, among whom they found universal
sympathy; Nestor, Palamedes, and others went round to solicit aid in a
contemplated attack of Troy, under the command of Agamemnon, to whom
each chief promised both obedience and unwearied exertion until Helen
should be recovered. Ten years were spent in equipping the expedition.
The goddesses Here and Athene, incensed at the preference given by Paris
to Aphrodite, and animated by steady attachment to Argos, Sparta, and
Mycenae, took an active part in the cause, and the horses of Here were
fatigued with her repeated visits to the different parts of Greece.

By such efforts a force was at length assembled at Aulis in Boeotia,
consisting of 1,186 ships and more than one hundred thousand men--a
force outnumbering by more than ten to one anything that the Trojans
themselves could oppose, and superior to the defenders of Troy even with
all her allies included. It comprised heroes with their followers from
the extreme points of Greece--from the northwestern portions of Thessaly
under Mount Olympus, as well as the western islands of Dulichium and
Ithaca, and the eastern islands of Crete and Rhodes. Agamemnon himself
contributed 100 ships manned with the subjects of his kingdom Mycenae,
besides furnishing 60 ships to the Arcadians, who possessed none of
their own. Menelaus brought with him 60 ships, Nestor from Pylus, 90,
Idomeneus from Crete and Diomedes from Argos, 80 each. Forty ships were
manned by the Elians, under four different chiefs; the like number under
Meges from Dulichium and the Echinades, and under Thoas from Calydon and
the other AEtolian towns. Odysseus from Ithaca, and Ajax from Salamis,
brought 12 ships each. The Abantes from Euboea, under Elphenor, filled
40 vessels; the Boeotians, under Peneleos and Leitus, 50; the
inhabitants of Orchomenus and Aspledon, 30; the light-armed Locrians,
under Ajax son of Oileus, 40; the Phocians as many. The Athenians, under
Menestheus, a chief distinguish