LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

ATHENÉ SUPPRESSING THE FURY OF ACHILLES

DIOMED CASTING HIS SPEAR AGAINST ARES.
HECTOR CHIDING PARIS

THE MEETING OF HECTOR AND ANDROMACHE .

HECTOR AND AJAX SEPARATED BY THE HERALDS
HERA AND ATHENE GOING TO ASSIST THE GREEKS
THE EMBASSY TO ACHILLES

THE STORY OF THE ILIAD.

CHAPTER I.

OF WHAT BEFELL BEFORE THE QUARREL.

LEDA, the wife of Tyndareus, King of Sparta, bare a daughter, Helen by name, that grew to be the fairest of all women upon earth. She married Menelaüs, son of Atreus, and for a while dwelt in peace with her husband, bearing him a daughter, Hermioné by name. But there came to the court of Menelaüs, who was by this time King of Sparta, a certain Paris, second in birth among the sons of Priam, King of Troy. Him did Menelaüs hospitably entertain, but Paris repaid his kindness with evil, for he carried off his wife, the fair Helen, and took with her many of the King's possessions.

Then Menelaüs, with his elder brother Agamemnon, who was over-lord of all the

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Greeks, went to all the chiefs, and prayed that they would help them to avenge this wrong. Thus was a great host gathered together, even a hundred thousand men, and eleven hundred fourscore and six ships. At Aulis in Eubœa was their gathering; and from Aulis they crossed over to Troy.

The great chiefs of the host were these:First the two brothers, the sons of Atreus. Next Diomed, the son of Tydeus, and with him Sthenelus,

Nestor, son of Neleus, who had outlived three generations of mortal men.

Ulysses, son of Laertes, from Ithaca.

Idomeneus, King of Crete, and Meriones. with him.

Tlepolemus, son of Hercules, from Rhodes. Eumelus, son of Admetus and Alcestis, from Thessaly.

And, bravest and strongest of all, Achilles, and with him Patroclus.

For nine years did the Greeks besiege the city of Troy. They prevailed, indeed, in the heid, but could not break through the walls.