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THE city of Troy lay in Asia Minor on the shore of the AEgean Sea. Indeed the whole story of the Trojan war implies that it was a contest between the Greeks of Europe, led by Sparta and Mycenae, and the Asiatic branch of a somewhat similar race, headed by the Trojans. Most of the war seems to have consisted not in any direct attack upon Troy, but in a siege of that city by part of the Greeks while the rest ravaged the other lands and cities allied with the Trojans. Only after destroying the last of these cities did the Greeks, in the tenth year of the war, concentrate their forces against Troy itself. The Trojan warriors were as mighty as those of Agamemnon. The king of Troy was the aged and righteous Priam, who had nineteen children, the chief of whom were the valiant Hector and the handsome Paris, he who had stolen Helen from Sparta. Hector and Paris serve as antitheses. Paris with his wicked love for Helen was also idle, false, and slothful; though the war was waged in his defence he dallied in the bower with Helen rather than take the field. Hector on the contrary was an ideal gentleman, wedded to Andromache, a most noble wife who urged him to do battle for his country. |
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