Paris had been brought up in obscurity,
because there were certain ominous forebodings connected with him
from his infancy that he would be the ruin of the state. These
forebodings seemed at length likely to be realized, for the
Grecian armament now in preparation was the greatest that had ever
been fitted out. Agamemnon, king of Mycenae, and brother of the
injured Menelaus, was chosen commander-in-chief. Achilles was
their most illustrious warrior. After him ranked Ajax, gigantic in
size and of great courage, but dull of intellect; Diomede, second
only to Achilles in all the qualities of a hero; Ulysses, famous
for his sagacity; and Nestor, the oldest of the Grecian chiefs,
and one to whom they all looked up for counsel. But Troy was no
feeble enemy. Priam, the king, was now old, but he had been a wise
prince and had strengthened his state by good government at home
and numerous alliances with his neighbors. But the principal stay
and support of his throne was his son Hector, one of the noblest
characters painted by heathen antiquity. He felt, from the first,
a presentiment of the fall of his country, but still persevered in
his heroic resistance, yet by no means justified the wrong which
brought this danger upon her. He was united in marriage with
Andromache, and as a husband and father his character was not less
admirable than as a warrior.
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