Page:History of Greece Vol I.djvu/321

 GRECIAN AttMAMENT AGAINST TROY. 289 indignation to consult with his brother Agamemnon, as well as with the venerable Nestor, on the means of avenging the out- rage. They made known the event to the Greek chiefs around them, among whom they found universal sympathy : Nestor, Pal- amedes and others went round to solicit aid in a contemplated attack of Troy, under the command of Agamemnon, to whom each chief promised both obedience and unwearied exertion until Helen should be recovered. 1 Ten years were spent in equipping the expedition. The goddesses Here and Athene, incensed at the preference given by Paris to Aphrodite, and animated by steady attachment to Argos, Sparta and Mykenae, took an active part in the cause ; and the horses of Here were fatigued with her repeated visits to the different parts of Greece. 2 By such efforts a force was at length assembled at Aulis 3 in Bceotia, consisting of 1186 ships and more than 100,000 men, a force outnumbering by more than ten to one anything that the Trojans themselves could oppose, and superior to the defenders 1 The ancient epic (Schol. ad II. ii. 286-339) does not recognize the story of the numerous suitors of Helen, and the oath by which Tyndarcus bound them all before he made the selection among them, that each should swear not only to acquiesce, but even to aid in maintaining undisturbed possession to the husband whom she should choose. This story seems to have been first told by Stesichorus (see Fragm. 20. ed. Kleine ; Apollod. iii. 10, 8). Yet it was evidently one of the prominent features of the current legend in the time of Thucydides (i. 9; Euripid. Iphig. Aul. 51-80; Soph. Ajax, 1100). The exact spot in which Tyndareus exacted this oath from the suitors, near Sparta, was pointed out even in the time of Pausanias (iii. 20, 9). 2 Iliad, iv. 27-55 ; xxiv. 765. Argument. Carm. Cypri. The point is em- phatically touched upon by Dio Chrysostom (Orat. xi. p. 335-336) in his assault upon the old legend. Two years' preparation in Dictys Cret. i. 16. 3 The Spartan king Agesilaus, when about to start from Greece on his expedition into Asia Minor (396 B. c.) went to Aulis personally, in order that he too might sacrifice on the spot where Agamemnon had sacrificed when he sailed for Troy CXenoph. Hellen. iii. 4, 4). Skylax (c. 60) notices the iepbv at Aulis, and nothing else : it seems to have been like the adjoining Delium, a temple with a small village grown up around it Aulis is recognized as the port from which the expedition started, in the Hosiodic Works and Days (v. 650] TOL. I. 13 190C.