Helen and her suitors

Helen grew into a girl of such remarkable beauty that Theseus carried her off and took her to Aphidnai;* but while he was in Hades, Polydeuces and Castor marched against the city, captured it, and recovered Helen, and also took away Theseus’ mother, Aithra, as a captive.

⁸The kings of Greece came to Sparta to seek the hand of Helen. These were her suitors: Odysseus, son of Laertes; Diomedes, son of Tydeus; Antilochos, son of Nestor; Agapenor, son of Ancaios; Sthenelos, son of Capaneus; Amphimachos, son of Cteatos; Thalpios, son of Eurytos; Meges, son of Phyleus; Amphilochos, son of Amphiaraos; Menestheus, son of Peteos; Schedios [and] Epistrophos[, sons of Iphitos]; Polyxenos, son of Agasthenes; Peneleos[, son of Hippalcimos]; Leitos[, son of Alector]; Aias, son of Oileus; Ascalaphos and Ialmenos, sons of Ares; Elephenor, son of Chalcodon; Eumelos, son of Admetos; Polypoites, son of Peirithoos; Leonteus, son of Coronos; Podaleirios and Machaon, sons of Asclepios; Philoctetes, son of Poias; Eurypylos, son of Evaimon; Protesilaos, son of Iphiclos; Menelaos, son of Atreus; Aias and Teucros, sons of Telamon; and Patroclos, son of Menoitios.

⁹When Tyndareus saw the throng of suitors, he was afraid that if he picked out one of them, the rest would turn to violence. Odysseus promised, however, that if Tyndareus would help him to gain the hand of Penelope, he would suggest a means by which all dissension could be averted; and when Tyndareus promised his help, Odysseus told him to make all the suitors swear an oath* that they would come to the aid of the chosen bridegroom if he were ever injured by another with regard to his marriage. On hearing this advice, Tyndareus made the suitors swear the oath, and while he himself chose Menelaos as a bridegroom for Helen, he asked Icarios to grant Penelope in marriage to Odysseus.

¹By Helen, Menelaos had a daughter, Hermione, and according

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to some accounts, a son, Nicostratos;* and by a slave-woman, Pieris, of Aetolian descent (or according to Acousilaos, by Tereis), he had a son, Megapenthes, and by a nymph, Cnossia, he had, according to Eumelos, a son, Xenodamos.

The fate of the Dioscuri

²Of the two sons born to Leda, Castor devoted himself to the arts of war, and Polydeuces to boxing; and because of their valour,* the pair were called the Dioscuri. Wishing to marry the daughters of Leucippos,* they abducted them from Messene and took them as their wives; and Polydeuces became the father of Mnesileos by Phoebe, and Castor the father of Anogon by Hilaeira. After driving some plundered cattle from Arcadia with the aid of Idas and Lynceus, sons of Aphareus, they entrusted them to Idas for division. Cutting a cow into four, he said that whoever ate his share first should have half of the plunder, and the one who ate his share second should have the remainder. And before the others had a chance, Idas swallowed down his own portion and then his brother’s too, and with his brother’s help, drove the plunder to Messene. The Dioscuri responded by marching against Messene and taking away the plundered cattle and much else besides; and they waited in ambush for Idas and Lynceus. But Lynceus caught sight of Castor* and revealed his presence to Idas, who killed him. Polydeuces chased after them, and killed Lynceus with a javelin throw, but as he was pursuing Idas, he was hit on the head by a stone that Idas had thrown, and fell unconscious. And Zeus struck Idas with a thunderbolt and carried Polydeuces up to heaven; and when Polydeuces was unwilling to accept immortality while Castor lay dead, Zeus granted that both of them should live alternate days amongst the gods and amongst mortals.* After the Dioscuri had been raised to the gods, Tyndareus summoned Menelaos to Sparta and transferred the kingdom to him.

Early Trojan mythology

¹Electra, daughter of Atlas, had two sons, Iasion and

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Dardanos, by Zeus. Iasion conceived a passion for Demeter and was struck by a thunderbolt because he wanted to violate the goddess;* and Dardanos, stricken with grief at his brother’s death, left Samothrace and went to the mainland opposite.* The king of that land was Teucros, son of the River Scamander and a nymph, Idaia, and its inhabitants were called the Teucrians after him. Dardanos was welcomed by the king, and after receiving a share of the land and the king’s daughter, Bateia, in marriage, he founded a city, Dardanos; and when Teucros died, he called the whole country Dardania. ²He had two sons, Ilos and Erichthonios, one of whom, Ilos, died without offspring, while the other, Erichthonios, inherited the kingdom, married Astyoche, daughter of Simoeis, and became the father of Tros. When Tros succeeded to the throne, he named the country Troy* after himself, and taking Callirrhoe, daughter of Scamander, as his wife, he had a daughter, Cleopatra, and three sons, Ilos, Assaracos, and Ganymede. This Ganymede* was so beautiful that Zeus used an eagle to carry him off, and made him cupbearer to the gods in heaven. Assaracos for his part had a son, Capys, by Hieromneme, daughter of Simoeis. And by Themiste, daughter of Ilos, Capys had a son, Anchises, who aroused Aphrodite’s amorous desire;* and she slept with him, and gave birth to Aeneas, and to Lyros, who died without offspring.

³Ilos went to Phrygia, and finding that games were being held there by the king, he became victor in the wrestling. As a prize he received fifty boys and as many girls, and the king, in obedience to an oracle, also gave him a dappled cow, telling him to found a city at the place where the cow lay down.* So he followed the cow, and when it arrived at a certain hill, called the Hill of Phrygian Ate, it lay down; and there Ilos founded a city, naming it Ilion. And he prayed to Zeus to reveal a sign to him, and when day arrived, he saw the Palladion,* which had fallen from the sky, lying outside his tent. It was three cubits high; its feet were joined together, and in its right hand it held a raised spear and in the other, a distaff and spindle.

This is the story that people tell about the Palladion. They say that after her birth, Athene was brought up by Triton,* who had a daughter, Pallas; and that both girls practised the arts of war, and this led them into conflict one day. And when Pallas was about to land a blow, Zeus grew alarmed and placed his aegis* in the way, causing Pallas to look upwards in fright and fall victim to a fatal wound from Athene. Greatly distressed at her loss, Athene fashioned a wooden statue in her likeness, and wrapping the aegis which had aroused her fear around its chest, she set it up by Zeus’ side and paid honour to it. Subsequently, since Electra had sought refuge at the Palladion when she was raped,* Zeus threw the Palladion along with Ate* into the land of Ilion, where Ilos built a temple for it and honoured it. That is what people say about the Palladion.

Ilos married Eurydice, daughter of Adrastos, and became the father of Laomedon, who married Strymo, daughter of Scamander (though according to some, his wife was Placia, daughter of Otreus, or according to others, Leucippe). Laomedon had five sons, Tithonos, Lampos, Clytios, Hicetaon, and Podarces, and three daughters, Hesione, Cilia, and Astyoche; and by a nymph, Calybe, he had a son, Boucolion.

⁴Dawn so loved Tithonos* that she carried him off and took him to Ethiopia, where she slept with him and gave birth to two sons, Emathion and Memnon.

Priam, Hecuba, and their children

⁵After Ilion was captured by Heracles, as we mentioned* somewhat earlier, Podarces, afterwards known as Priam, became king there. He took as his first wife Arisbe, daughter of Merops, by whom he had a son, Aisacos, who married Asterope, daughter of Cebren, and so mourned for her when she died that he was turned into a bird.* Priam later gave Arisbe to Hyrtacos, and took as his second wife Hecuba, daughter of Dymas (or according to some, the daughter of Cisseus, or according to others, of the River Sangarios and Metope). The first child born to her was Hector; and when her second child was about to be born, Hecuba had a dream* in which she gave birth to a firebrand and the fire spread through the whole city and burned it down. When Priam learned of the dream from Hecuba, he sent for his son Aisacos, who could interpret dreams because he had been taught the art by his maternal grandfather Merops. Aisacos said that the birth of the child meant the ruin of his country, and advised that the baby should be exposed. So when the baby was born, Priam gave it to a servant (Agelaos by name) to be taken to Mount Ida for exposure; and after it had been exposed by him, the baby was suckled for five days by a bear. When Agelaos found the child still alive, he picked him up and took him home to rear in the country as his own son, naming him Paris. When he grew up to be a young man, Paris, who was superior to many in beauty and strength, acquired the further name of Alexander, for warding off robbers and protecting*the flocks. And not long afterwards he rediscovered his parents.*