The Junior Classics, Volume 3: Tales from Greece and Rome
General
The Junior Classics, Volume 3: Tales from Greece and Rome
Children's literature; Mythology, Classical -- Juvenile literature
And when they had ended talking, the heralds came and told King Priam
that the armies called for him. So he went, and Antenor with him. And he
on the one side, for the Trojans, and King Agamemnon for the Greeks, made
a covenant with sacrifice that Paris and Menelaus should fight together,
and that the fair Helen, with all her treasures, should go with him who
should win. Hector and Ulysses marked out a space for the fight, and
Hector shook two pebbles in a helmet, looking away as he shook them, that
he whose pebble leapt forth the first should be the first to throw his
spear. And it so befell that the lot of Paris leapt forth first. The
two warriors armed themselves and came forth into the space, and stood
over against each other, brandishing their spears, with hate in their
eyes. Then Paris threw his spear. It struck the shield of Menelaus, but
pierced it not, for the spear point was bent back. Then Menelaus prayed
to Jupiter, “Grant, Father Jupiter, that I may avenge myself on Paris,
who has done me this wrong; so shall men in after time fear to do wrong
to their host.” So speaking, he cast his long-shafted spear. It struck
the shield of Paris and pierced it through, and passed through the
corslet, and through the tunic close to the loin; but Paris shrank aside
and the spear wounded him not. Then Menelaus drew his silver-studded
sword and struck a mighty blow on the top of the helmet of Paris, but the
sword broke in four pieces in his hand. Then he cried in his wrath, “O
Jupiter, most mischief-loving of the gods, my spear I cast in vain, and
now my sword is broken.” Then he rushed forward and seized Paris by the
helmet, and dragged him towards the host of the Greeks. And truly he had
taken him, but Venus loosed the strap that was beneath his chin, and the
helmet came off in his hand. And Menelaus whirled it among the Greeks and
charged with another spear in his hand. But Venus snatched Paris away,
covering him with a mist, and put him down in his chamber in Troy. Then
Menelaus looked for him everywhere, but no one could tell him where he
might be. No son of Troy would have hidden him out of kindness, for all
hated him as death.
Then King Agamemnon said, “Now, ye sons of Troy, it is for you to give
back the fair Helen and her wealth, and to pay me besides so much as may
be fitting for all my cost and trouble.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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