enus, the son of Priam. Like his sister Cassandra, Helenus
possessed the gift of prophecy, and the unfortunate youth was now coerced
by Odysseus into using this gift against the welfare of his native city.

The Greeks learned from the Trojan prince that three conditions were
indispensable to the conquest of Troy:--In the first place the son of
Achilles must fight in their ranks; secondly, the arrows of Heracles must
be used against the enemy; and thirdly, they must obtain possession of the
wooden image of Pallas-Athene, the famous Palladium of Troy.

The first condition was easily fulfilled. Ever ready to serve the interests
of the community, Odysseus repaired to the island of Scyros, where he found
Neoptolemus, the son of Achilles. Having succeeded in arousing the ambition
of the fiery youth, he generously resigned to him the magnificent armour of
his father, and then conveyed him to the Greek camp, where he immediately
distinguished himself in single combat with Eurypylus, the son of Telephus,
who had come to the aid of the Trojans.

To procure the poison-dipped arrows of Heracles was a matter of greater
difficulty. They were still in the possession of the much-aggrieved
Philoctetes, who had remained in the island of Lemnos, his wound still
unhealed, suffering the most abject misery. But the {300} judicious zeal of
the indefatigable and ever-active Odysseus, who was accompanied in this
undertaking by Diomedes, at length gained the day, and he induced
Philoctetes to accompany him to the camp, where the skilful leech Machaon,
the son of Asclepias, healed him of his wound.

Philoctetes became reconciled to Agamemnon, and in an engagement which took
place soon after, he mortally wounded Paris, the son of Priam. But though
pierced by the fatal arrow of the demi-god, death did not immediately
ensue; and Paris, calling to mind the prediction of an oracle, that his
deserted wife Oenone could alone cure him if wounded, caused himself to be
transported to her abode on Mount Ida, where he implored her by the memory
of their past love to save his life. But mindful only of her wrongs, Oenone
crushed out of her heart every womanly feeling of pity and compassion, and
sternly bade him depart. Soon, however, all her former affection for her
husband awoke within her. With frantic haste she followed him; but on her
arrival in the city she found the dead body of Paris already laid on the
lighted funeral pile, and, in her remorse and des