An angry man was Menelaus when he found that Paris had stolen from him the fair wife who was to him as his own heart.
To his elder brother Agamemnon, overlord of all the Greeks, he went and told his grievous tale.
And from far and wide did the Greek hosts gather, until a hundred thousand men and eleven hundred fourscore and six ships were ready to cross the seas to Troyland.
Many were the heroes who sailed away from Greece to punish Paris and his kin, and to bring back fair Helen to her own land.
Few there were who came home, for ten long years of woe and of spilling of blood came to the men of Greece and of Troy from the fatal beauty of Helen the queen.
II
THE COUNCIL
That night both gods and men slept long; only Zeus, king of the gods, lay wakeful, pondering in his heart how best he might do honor to Achilles. "I shall send a Dream to beguile Agamemnon," at length he resolved.
Then did he call to a Dream, for by Dreams the gods sent their messages to mortal men.