become wife, that they will join to assist him, if any one should depart from his house taking [her] with him, and excluding the possessor from his bed, and that they will make an expedition in arms, and sack the city [of the ravisher,] Greek or barbarian alike.”  But after they had pledged themselves, the old man Tyndarus somehow cleverly overreached them by a cunning plan.  He permits his daughter to choose one of the suitors, toward whom the friendly gales of Venus might impel her.  But she chose (whom would she had never taken!) Menelaus.  And he who, according to the story told by men, once judged the Goddesses, coming from Phrygia to Lacedaemon, flowered in the vesture of his garments, and glittering with gold, barbarian finery, loving Helen who loved him, he stole and bore her away to the bull-stalls of Ida, having found Menelaus abroad.  But he, goaded hastily[6] through Greece, calls to witness the old oath given to Tyndarus, that it behooves to assist the aggrieved.  Henceforth the Greeks hastening with the spear, having taken their arms, come to this Aulis with its narrow straits, with ships and shields together, and accoutred with many horses and chariots.  And they chose me general of the host, out of regard for Menelaus, being his brother forsooth.  And would that some other than I had obtained the dignity.  But when the army was assembled and levied, we sat, having no power of sailing, at Aulis.  But Calchas the seer proclaimed to us, being at a loss, that we should sacrifice Iphigenia, whom I begat, to Diana, who inhabits this place, and that if we sacrificed her, we should have both our voyage, and the sacking of Troy, but that this should not befall us if we did not sacrifice her.  But I hearing this in rousing proclamation, bade Talthybius dismiss the whole army, as I should never have the heart to slay my daughter.  Upon this, indeed, my brother, alleging every kind of reasoning, persuaded me to dare the dreadful deed, and having written in the folds of a letter, I sent word to my wife to send her daughter as if to be married to Achilles, both enlarging on the dignity of the man, and asserting that he would not sail with the Greeks, unless a wife for him from among us should come to Phthia.  For I had this means of persuading my wife, having made up a pretended match for the virgin.  But we alone of the Greeks know how these matters are, Calchas, Ulysses, and Nestor.  But the things which I then determined not well, I am now differently writing so as to be well, in this letter, which by the shadow of night thou beheldest me opening and closing, old man.  But come, go thou, taking these letters, to Argos.  But as to what the letter conceals in its folds, I will tell thee in words all that is written therein; for thou art faithful to my wife and house.

OLD M. Speak, and tell me, that with my tongue I may also say what agrees with your letter.

AG. (reading) “I send to thee, O germ of Leda, besides[7] my former dispatches, not to send thy daughter to the bay-like wing of Euboea,[8] waveless Aulis.  For we will delay the bridals of our daughter till another season.”