⁶Pelops too arrived to seek her hand; and when Hippodameia saw how beautiful he was, she fell in love with him, and persuaded Myrtilos, son of Hermes, to come to his aid. (This Myrtilos was Oinomaos’ charioteer.) ⁷So Myrtilos, who loved her and wanted to please her, failed to insert the axlepins* into the wheel hubs, causing Oinomaos to be defeated in the race and to lose his life when he became entangled in the reins and was dragged to his death (though according to some, he was killed by Pelops). As he was dying, he cursed Myrtilos, recognizing his treachery, and prayed that he would perish at the hand of Pelops.

⁸So in this way, Pelops won Hippodameia; and when he arrived at a certain place accompanied by Myrtilos, he went away some small distance to fetch water for his wife, who was thirsty; and during that time, Myrtilos tried to rape her. When she told Pelops of this, he threw Myrtilos into the Myrtoan Sea* that bears his name, at Cape Geraistos. As Myrtilos fell, he hurled curses at the house of Pelops.* ⁹After he had made his way to the Ocean and been purified by Hephaistos, Pelops returned to Pisa in Elis and took over the kingdom of Oinomaos, after first subjugating the land formerly known as Apia or Pelasgiotis,* which he now named the Peloponnese after himself.

Atreus and Thyestes

¹⁰The sons of Pelops were Pittheus, Atreus, and Thyestes, amongst others. Now the wife of Atreus was Aerope, daughter of Catreus, and she was in love with Thyestes. And Atreus had once made a vow that he would sacrifice to Artemis the finest lamb born in his flock, but when a golden lamb appeared, they say that he failed to honour his vow, ¹¹and instead, he throttled it, and placed it in a chest* for safe keeping; and it was given to Thyestes by Aerope, who had been seduced by him. For the Mycenaeans had received an oracle telling them to choose a Pelopid as their king, and they had sent for Atreus and Thyestes;* and while they were discussing who should be king, Thyestes declared before the crowd that the man to gain the throne should be the one who possessed the golden lamb. And when Atreus agreed to this, Thyestes produced the lamb and so became king. ¹²But Zeus sent Hermes to Atreus, telling him to reach an agreement with Thyestes that Atreus should become king if the Sun reversed his course, and when Thyestes had agreed, the Sun went down in the east. Since the deity had clearly attested that Thyestes was a usurper, Atreus took over the kingdom and banished Thyestes. ¹³But later, when he learned of the adultery,* he sent a herald to Thyestes suggesting a reconciliation; and when Thyestes arrived, Atreus, pretending friendship all the while, slaughtered Aglaos, Callileon, and Orchomenos, the children whom Thyestes had fathered by a naiad nymph, although they had sat down as suppliants on the altar of Zeus. He then dismembered them, boiled them, and served them to Thyestes without the extremities. And after he had swallowed them down, Atreus showed him the extremities and expelled him from the land. ¹⁴Seeking to gain revenge by any means, Thyestes went to consult the oracle on the matter and received this response, that he would gain his revenge if he fathered a son by intercourse with his own daughter.* So he did that very thing, and by his daughter he fathered Aigisthos, who, when he reached manhood and learned that he was the son of Thyestes, killed Atreus and restored the kingdom to Thyestes.

Agamemnon and Menelaos

¹⁵[But Agamemnon and Menelaos were taken by their nurse to Polypheides, king of Sicyon, and he in turn sent them to Oineus, the Aetolian. Not long afterwards, Tyndareus brought them back again; and they expelled Thyestes, exacting an oath from him, when he sought refuge* at the altar of Hera, that he would settle in Cythera. They for their part became the sons-in-law of Tyndareus by marrying his daughters.*]

¹⁶Agamemnon became king of Mycenae and married Clytemnestra, after killing her former husband Tantalos, son of Thyestes, along with his child. A son, Orestes, was born to him, and three daughters, Chrysothemis, Electra, and Iphigeneia. Menelaos married Helen and became king of Sparta after Tyndareus had entrusted the kingdom to him.

13. The Trojan War

The judgement of Paris and abduction of Helen

¹Afterwards Alexander abducted Helen,* in accordance, some

3

say, with the will of Zeus, so that his daughter would become famous for having brought Europe and Asia to war, or, as others have said, to ensure that the race of demigods* would be raised to glory. ²For one of these reasons,* Eris threw an apple* in front of Hera, Athene, and Aphrodite as a prize for the most beautiful, and Zeus instructed Hermes to take them to Alexander on Mount Ida, to be judged by him for their beauty. They promised to give Alexander gifts; Hera promised him universal dominion if she were preferred above all other women, while Athene offered victory in war, and Aphrodite the hand of Helen. He decided in favour of Aphrodite, and sailed to Sparta with ships built by Phereclos.* ³He was entertained for nine days by Menelaos, and on the tenth, when Menelaos departed for Crete to celebrate the funeral of his maternal grandfather Catreus,* Alexander persuaded Helen to go away with him. She abandoned Hermione, who was nine years old at the time, and loading most of the treasures* on board, she set out to sea with him by night. ⁴Hera sent a violent storm against them, which forced them to put in at Sidon;* and fearing that he might be pursued, Alexander delayed a long while in Phoenicia and Cyprus. When he thought that there was no further risk of pursuit, he went on to Troy with Helen. ⁵It is said by some, however, that Helen was stolen by Hermes in obedience to the will of Zeus and taken to Egypt, where she was entrusted to Proteus, king of the Egyptians, for safe keeping, and Alexander went to Troy with a phantom of Helen* fashioned from clouds.

Agamemnon assembles the Greek army

⁶When Menelaos heard of the abduction, he went to Agamemnon in Mycenae,* and asked him to assemble a force to attack Troy and to levy troops in Greece. So Agamemnon, sending a herald to each of the kings, reminded them of the oaths* that they had sworn, and warned each of them to look to the safety of his own wife, saying that this insult to Greece affected all of them equally and in common. When most were eager to take part in the expedition, envoys also visited Odysseus in Ithaca, ⁷but he was unwilling to go, and pretended to be mad.* Palamedes, son of Nauplios, however, proved his madness to be a sham; for he followed Odysseus while he was making this pretence of madness, and snatching Telemachos from Penelope’s lap, drew his sword* as if he were about to kill him. And Odysseus, fearing for his son’s safety, confessed that his madness was merely a sham, and joined the expedition.

⁸[Later, at Troy,] after capturing a Phrygian, Odysseus forced him to write a treasonable letter, supposedly addressed from Priam to Palamedes; and then, after burying some gold under Palamedes’ tent, he dropped the letter in the camp. Agamemnon read it, discovered the gold, and delivered Palamedes to the allies to be stoned as a traitor.* ⁹Menelaos went to Cyprus with Odysseus and Talthybios to persuade Cinyras to join the allies. He presented a breast plate* to the absent Agamemnon and swore to send fifty ships; but in fact he sent a single ship, commanded by ..., son of Mygdalion, and fashioned the rest from earthenware and sent those off to sea.