¹⁰Elais, Spermo, and Oino,* the daughters of Anios, son of Apollo, are called the Wine-Growers. Dionysos granted them the power to draw oil, corn, and wine from the earth.

¹¹The army assembled at Aulis. Those who took part* in the expedition against Troy were the following: of the Boeotians, ten leaders, who brought forty ships; of the Orchomenians, four, who brought thirty ships; of the Phocians, four, who brought forty ships; of the Locrians, Aias, son of Oileus, who brought forty ships; of the Euboeans, Elephenor, son of Chalcodon and Alcyone, who brought forty ships; of the Athenians, Menestheus, who brought fifty ships; of the Salaminians, Aias, son of Telamon, who brought twelve ships; ¹²of the Argives, Diomedes, son of Tydeus, and his companions, who brought eighty ships; of the Mycenaeans, Agamemnon, son of Atreus and Aerope, a hundred ships; of the Lacedaimonians, Menelaos, son of Atreus and Aerope, sixty ships; of the Pylians, Nestor, son of Neleus and Chloris, forty ships; of the Arcadians, Agapenor, seven ships; of the Eleans, Amphimachos and his companions, forty ships; of the Doulichians, Meges, son of Phyleus, forty ships; of the Cephallenians, Odysseus, son of Laertes and Anticleia, twelve ships; of the Aetolians, Thoas, son of Andraimon and Gorge, who brought forty ships; ¹³of the Cretans, Idomeneus, son of Deucalion, forty ships; of the Rhodians, Tlepolemos, son of Heracles and Astyoche, nine ships; of the Symaeans, Nireus, son of Charopos, three ships; of the Coans, Pheidippos and Antiphos, the sons of Thessalos, thirty ships; ¹⁴of the Myrmidons, Achilles, son of Peleus and Thetis, fifty ships; from Phylace, Protesilaos, son of Iphiclos, forty ships; of the Pheraeans, Eumelos, son of Admetos, eleven ships; of the Olizonians, Philoctetes, son of Poias, seven ships; of the Ainianians, Gouneus, son of Ocytos, twenty-two ships; of the Triccaeans, Podaleirios [and Machaon, sons of Asclepios], thirty ships; of the Ormenians, Eurypylos [son of Evaimon], forty ships; of the Gyrtonians, Polypoites, son of Peirithoos, thirty ships; and of the Magnesians, Prothoos, son of Tenthredon, forty ships. So in all there were one thousand and thirteen ships, forty-three leaders, and thirty contingents.

¹⁵While the army was at Aulis and a sacrifice was being offered to Apollo, a snake darted from the altar to a plane tree nearby, which contained a nest; and after swallowing down the eight sparrow chicks in the nest along with their mother, the snake turned to stone. Calchas said that this sign had been sent to them by the will of Zeus, and he concluded from the incident that Troy was destined to be taken after ten years.* And they made ready to set sail against Troy. ¹⁶Agamemnon himself was commander of the whole force, while Achilles, at fifteen years of age, took command of the fleet.

The attack on Mysia; the Greeks assemble for a second time

¹⁷Lacking any knowledge of the route to Troy, they landed in Mysia* and put it to the sack, in the belief that it was Troy. Now the king of the Mysians was Telephos, son of Heracles,* and when he saw his country being pillaged, he armed the Mysians and pursued the Greeks in a body to their ships, killing a large number of them, including Thersandros, son of Polyneices, who stood his ground. But when Achilles rushed to the attack, Telephos failed to hold firm and was put to flight; and during the pursuit, he became entangled in a vine branch* and suffered a wound in the thigh from a spear.

¹⁸Leaving Mysia, the Greeks put out to sea, and when a violent storm set in, they became separated from one another and returned to land in their own countries. Because the Greeks turned back at this time, the war is said to have lasted twenty years;* for it was in the second year after the abducttion of Helen that the Greeks, when they had completed their preparations, launched the expedition [for the first time], and following their withdrawal from Mysia to Greece, it was eight years before they returned to Argos and went back to Aulis.

¹⁹When they had gathered again at Argos after this delay of eight years, they were in great perplexity about their route, for want of a guide who could show them the way to Troy. ²⁰But Telephos (since his wound had failed to heal and Apollo had told him that he would be cured when the man who had inflicted the wound became his healer) arrived in Argos from Mysia dressed in rags and begged Achilles to help him, promising that, in return, he would show them the route to Troy. So Achilles healed him by scraping rust from his Pelian spear.* Once he was cured, Telephos revealed the route, and Calchas, by the use of his own powers of divination, confirmed the accuracy of his directions.

²¹When, after sailing over from Argos, they arrived in Aulis for the second time, the fleet was held back by adverse winds. Calchas declared that they would be unable to sail unless the most beautiful of Agamemnon’s daughters was offered in sacrifice to Artemis; for the goddess was angry with Agamemnon, because he had said when shooting a deer at a hunt on Icarion, ‘Not even Artemis* [could have shot as well as that],’ and because Atreus had failed to sacrifice the golden lamb to her. ²²On hearing this oracle, Agamemnon sent Odysseus and Talthybios to Clytemnestra to ask her for Iphigeneia, claiming that he had promised to give her in marriage to Achilles as a reward for taking part in the expedition. So Clytemnestra sent her off, and Agamemnon brought her to the altar and was just about to slaughter her when Artemis carried her off to the land of the Taurians and installed her there as her priestess, substituting a deer for her at the altar.* According to some accounts, Artemis made her immortal.

The Greeks call in at Tenedos

²³After putting out from Aulis, they called in at Tenedos, which was ruled by Tenes, son of Cycnos and Procleia, or according to some, of Apollo. He lived there because he had been sent into exile by his father. ²⁴For after having this son Tenes and a daughter, Hemithea, by Procleia, daughter of Laomedon, Cycnos* had later married Philonome, daughter of Tragasos; and she fell in love with Tenes, and when she was unable to win him over, made false accusations against him, telling Cycnos that he had tried to seduce her and producing as her witness a flute player named Eumolpos. ²⁵Cycnos believed her, and put Tenes and his sister into a chest, which he threw into the sea. When the chest ran ashore on the island of Leucophrys, Tenes stepped out, and he settled on the island, calling it Tenedos after himself. Later, when Cycnos learned the truth, he had the flute player stoned and his wife buried alive in the earth.

²⁶So when Tenes saw the Greeks sailing in towards Tenedos, he tried to turn them away by pelting them with stones; but he was killed by Achilles with a sword blow to the breast, although Thetis had warned Achilles beforehand not to kill Tenes, for if he did, he himself would die at the hand of Apollo. ²⁷While the Greeks were offering a sacrifice to Apollo,* a water-snake advanced from the altar and bit Philoctetes. The wound failed to heal and began to stink, and because the army could not abide the stench, Odysseus, on the orders of Agamemnon, put Philoctetes ashore on Lemnos, together with the bow of Heracles* which was now in his possession; and he maintained himself in the wilderness by shooting birds with it.

The landing at Troy, and the first nine years of the mar

²⁸Leaving Tenedos, the Greeks set sail for Troy, sending Odysseus and Menelaos* ahead to demand the return of Helen and the treasures. But the Trojans, after they had summoned an assembly, not only refused to return Helen, but even wanted to kill the envoys. ²⁹Antenor saved the envoys, but the Greeks, angered by the insolence of the barbarians, took up their arms and sailed to attack them. Achilles had been warned by Thetis not to be the first to disembark from the ships, because the first man ashore would be the first to die. When the barbarians learned that the fleet was sailing against them, they hurried to the sea under arms and tried to prevent the enemy from landing by pelting them with stones. ³⁰The first of the Greeks to disembark* from his ship was Protesilaos, who killed a good many of the barbarians, but died at the hand of Hector. His wife, Laodameia,* continued to love him even after his death, and making an image in his likeness, she lived with it as though they were man and wife. The gods took pity on her, and Hermes brought Protesilaos up from Hades. Seeing her husband and thinking he had returned from Troy, Laodameia was overjoyed at the time, but later, when he was taken back to Hades, she took her own life.