Once upon a time there was a certain King of Sparta who had a most beautiful 
daughter, Helen by name.  There was not a prince in Greece but wished to 
marry her.  The King said to them:  "Now you must all swear that you will be 
good friends with the man whom my daughter shall choose for her husband, and 
that if any one is wicked enough to steal her away from him, you will help 
him get her back."  And this they did.  Then the Fair Helen chose a prince 
whose name was Menelaüs, brother of Agamemnon, who reigned in 
Mycenæ, and was the chief of all the Kings of Greece.  After a while 
Helen's father died, and her husband became King of Sparta.  The two lived 
happily together till
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there came to Sparta a young  prince, Paris by name, who was son of Priam, 
King of Troy.  This Paris carried off the Fair Helen, and with her much gold 
and many precious stones.

Menelaüs and his brother Agamemnon sent to the princes of Greece and 
said, "Now you must keep your oath, and help us to get back the Fair Helen." 
  So they all came to a place called Aulis, with many ships and men.  Others 
also who had not taken the oath came with them.  The greatest of these 
chiefs were these:—

Diomed, son of Tydeus;  Ajax the Greater and Ajax the Less, and Teucer the 
Archer, who was brother of Ajax the Greater.

Nestor, who was the oldest man in the world.

The wise Ulysses.

Achilles, who was the bravest and strongest of all the Greeks, and with him 
his dear friend Patroclus.

For nine years the Greeks besieged the city of Tory, but they could not 
break through the walls;  and as they had been away from their homes for all 
this time, they came to
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be in great want of food and clothes and other things.  So they left part of 
the army to watch the city, and with part they went about and spoiled other 
cities.  Thus came about the great quarrel of which I now going to tell.