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Vol. 36 : Menelaus accepts Paris' challenge

"I will fight with Paris."

One of the Greeks stepped forward. It was Menelaus, looking like a lion that had just come across a fresh carcass of a goat. Paris took one look at him and ran back to the Trojans.

"I cannot fight him," he said to his brother.

Hector looked at him in disgust.

"You may be good with women, Paris, but you're hopeless at war. Your looks and your lyre are of no use here. I love you as a brother, but sometimes I wish you'd never been born. Look, the Greeks are laughing at us now. They think you're our strongest fighter."

Paris looked down at his feet in shame.

"Hector, you're right to say those things. I will fight Menelaus. I will fight him for Helen — in single combat. Whoever wins can take Helen as his wife. The war will end and everyone must swear pacts of friendship and return home."

Hector's face softened. He now looked at his younger brother with a mixture of pride and pity. He walked forward and shouted the challenge to the Greeks.

Menelaus and Agamemnon agreed.

"To honor this arrangement," said Agamemnon, "Let sacrifices be made to mighty Zeus, god of oaths."

As the sacrifices were prepared, a servant ran to Helen's palace and found her weaving a blood-red robe.

"My lady, you must come quickly," she said. "Paris is going to fight Menelaus."

Helen looked up in wonder. For a moment, she was flooded with memories of her beloved husband of long ago, her former home, her parents. Her eyes filled with tears.

"Like a dream ..." she murmured.

Helen put down the robe and went to the walls. There in sight of the two armies, her beauty took everyone's breath away.

"Little wonder that we have suffered for so long," people thought. "So beautiful is the goddess of our sorrow."

Once the sacrifices had been performed — by Priam and Antenor on the Trojan side, Agamemnon and Odysseus on the Greek side — the fight began.