At Argos it was said that the
royal family was the issue of Pelops to whom Zeus had given a shoulder
of ivory to replace the one devoured by a goddess. Thus each country
had its legends and the Greeks continued to the end to relate them and
to offer worship to their ancient heroes--Perseus, Bellerophon,
Herakles, Theseus, Minos, Castor and Pollux, Meleager, OEdipus. The
majority of the Greeks, even among the better educated, admitted, at
least in part, the truth of these traditions. They accepted as
historical facts the war between the two sons of OEdipus, king of
Thebes, and the expedition of the Argonauts, sailing forth in quest of
the Golden Fleece, which was guarded by two brazen-footed bulls
vomiting flames.
=The Trojan War.=--Of all these legends the most fully developed and
the most celebrated was the legend of the Trojan War. It recounted
that about the twelfth century, Troy, a rich and powerful city, held
sway over the coast of Asia. Paris, a Trojan prince, having come to
Greece, had abducted Helen, wife of Menelaus, king of Sparta.
Agamemnon, king of Argos, made a league of the kings of Greece; a
Greek army went in a fleet of two hundred galleys to besiege Troy.
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