Ulysses then dressed himself like a Phoenician pedlar, with his pack on his back:  he only took a stick in his hand, his long hair was turned up, and hidden under a red sailor’s cap, and in this figure he came, stooping beneath his pack, into the courtyard of King Lycomedes.  The girls heard that a pedlar had come, and out they all ran, Achilles with the rest to watch the pedlar undo his pack.  Each chose what she liked best:  one took a wreath of gold; another a necklace of gold and amber; another earrings; a fourth a set of brooches, another a dress of embroidered scarlet cloth; another a veil; another a pair of bracelets; but at the bottom of the pack lay a great sword of bronze, the hilt studded with golden nails.  Achilles seized the sword.  “This is for me!” he said, and drew the sword from the gilded sheath, and made it whistle round his head.

“You are Achilles, Peleus’ son!” said Ulysses; “and you are to be the chief warrior of the Achaeans,” for the Greeks then called themselves Achaeans.  Achilles was only too glad to hear these words, for he was quite tired of living among maidens.  Ulysses led him into the hall where the chiefs were sitting at their wine, and Achilles was blushing like any girl.

“Here is the Queen of the Amazons,” said Ulysses—­for the Amazons were a race of warlike maidens—­“or rather here is Achilles, Peleus’ son, with sword in hand.”  Then they all took his hand, and welcomed him, and he was clothed in man’s dress, with the sword by his side, and presently they sent him back with ten ships to his home.  There his mother, Thetis, of the silver feet, the goddess of the sea, wept over him, saying, “My child, thou hast the choice of a long and happy and peaceful life here with me, or of a brief time of war and undying renown.  Never shall I see thee again in Argos if thy choice is for war.”  But Achilles chose to die young, and to be famous as long as the world stands.  So his father gave him fifty ships, with Patroclus, who was older than he, to be his friend, and with an old man, Phoenix, to advise him; and his mother gave him the glorious armour that the God had made for his father, and the heavy ashen spear that none but he could wield, and he sailed to join the host of the Achaeans, who all praised and thanked Ulysses that had found for them such a prince.  For Achilles was the fiercest fighter of them all, and the swiftest-footed man, and the most courteous prince, and the gentlest with women and children, but he was proud and high of heart, and when he was angered his anger was terrible.

The Trojans would have had no chance against the Greeks if only the men of the city of Troy had fought to keep Helen of the fair hands.  But they had allies, who spoke different languages, and came to fight for them both from Europe and from Asia.  On the Trojan as well as on the Greek side were people called Pelasgians, who seem to have lived on both shores of the sea.  There were Thracians, too, who dwelt