Summary

At the start of Chapter VIII, Paris arrives with some other Trojans, including Aeneas, the son of Aphrodite. Paris rains blessings and kind words on Helen and begins to flirt with her more and more. They ask about Anaxandra, and Helen tells them she thinks she is an impostor while Menelaus tries to defend her. Paris flirts with Helen and then the men tell stories about their conquests together, including about Hesione, Paris’s aunt, who was a princess in Troy who was perhaps taken by Sparta when Hercules defeated a section of Troy. Menelaus rubs it in Paris’s face that he is the youngest of Priam’s sons, meaning he will likely never become king. In the ensuing days, Anaxandra overhears one of the generals, Kinados, telling Menelaus that Paris and Aeneas “have warriors on their ships” (107). This leads Kinados to...