As soon as he appeared, the maidens gathered about him and began examining the jewels. But one of the group eagerly seized a weapon, and handled it with much skill and pleasure. Satisfied that this was the young prince of whom he was in search, the pretended peddler announced his name and told why he had come. Achilles, for it was he, gladly agreed to take part with his countrymen in their great expedition, and he immediately returned to Phthiʹa, the capital of his father's kingdom of Thessaly. There he lost no time in making all necessary preparations. Soon afterwards he sailed for Aulis with the brave Myrʹmi-dons, as his soldiers were called, accompanied also by his devoted friend and constant companion, Pa-troʹclus.
Full fifty ships beneath Achilles' care,
The Achaians, Myrmidons, Hellenians bear;
Thessalians all, though various in their name;
The same their nation, and their chief the same.
Pope, Iliad, Book II.
Agamemnon, the commander in chief of the great host, sailed with a hundred ships from his kingdom of Mycenæ, and his brother Menelaus, eager for vengeance upon the Trojans, sailed with sixty ships and a strong force of brave Spartans.
Great Agamemnon rules the numerous band,
A hundred vessels in long order stand,
And crowded nations wait his dread command.
High on the deck the king of men appears,
And his refulgent arms in triumph wears;
Proud of his host, unrivall'd in his reign,
In silent pomp he moves along the main.
His brother follows, and to vengeance warms,
The hardy Spartans, exercised in arms:
. . . . . .
These, o'er the bending ocean, Helen's cause,
In sixty ships with Menelaus draws.
Pope, Iliad Book II.
Among the other great warriors of Hellas who joined the expedition was Nesʹtor, the venerable king of Pyʹlos, distinguished for his eloquence, wisdom, and prudence.
In ninety sail, from Pylos' sandy coast,
Nestor the sage conducts his chosen host.
Pope, Iliad, Book II.
The ancients believed that Nestor outlived three generations of men, which some suppose to have been three hundred years. From this it was a custom of the ancient Greeks and Romans, when wishing a long and happy life to their friends, to wish them to live as long as Nestor.