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Pirithous, formed a plot to abduct her. The friends suc-
ceeded in their design on the occasion of a festival,
when the maiden was dancing with her companions at
the shrine of Diana Orthia. Theseus bore her through
the Peloponnessus to Aphidnæ, and placed her in charge
of his mother, Æthra, to educate her until such time as
she should reach years of maturity. But it is said on
the other hand that she was of nubile age *
and became by Theseus the mother of a
child, entrusted to Clytemnæstra.

Capture of
Helen by
Theseus.

But Helen was forcibly recovered by her brothers,
Castor and Pollux, who invaded and ravaged Attica.
The inevitable crisis could not, however, be long de-
ferred. The violence of Theseus was but a prelude and
a type of the agitation which was to arouse the princes
of Greece until the great question was decided as to the
matrimonial fate of the peerless woman of the age.
From city to city, from province to province, from isle
to isle, of Hellas, her fame was sung, her beauty was
extolled. The princes and heroes of the land, to the
number of thirty, gathered in succession to
the court of Tyndarus, and offered them-
selves as suitors for the hand of Helen. As
the marriage of her sister Clytemnæstra
to Agamemnon, king of Mycenæ, and the death of her
brothers, Castor and Pollux, had left Helen the heiress
to her father's throne, the question assumed a double
importance. It became a matter of serious moment
how to bestow a powerful throne as well as a daughter
endowed with such charms, and Tyndarus was not the
man to act in a hurry, nor was Helen a woman who
would allow herself to be given in marriage without

The princes of
Greece suing
for the hand
of Helen.

____________________
* Pausanias.

-13-

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Publication Information: Book Title: Troy: Its Legend, History and Literature. Contributors: S. G. W. Benjamin - author. Publisher: Charles Scribner's Sons. Place of Publication: New York. Publication Year: 1880. Page Number: 13.
    
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