By the GREEKS. 5-5 



rendezvous at different times during this long period, it is not 

 eafy to fee how they could be fubfifted , befides, it cannot be 

 doubted, that MENELAUS would haften the invafion as much- 

 as poflible. 



AT this rate, the beauty of HELEN mufl have been upon the 

 wane when the fiege began, and~quite over by the time it ended. 

 For which reafon, Mr WOOD regrets, that HOMER introduced 

 the circumftance into his poem, as it is far from being agree- 

 able, and not at all material. He might have added, that it is 

 not confident with the exceflive encomiums which even the old 

 men of Troy beftow on her charms, in the tenth year of the 

 fiege j or the extravagant compliment they pay her, that it was 

 not at all furprifing the Greeks and Trojans mould have fuffer- 

 ed fo much and fo long for her. The probability is, that this 

 circumftance was invented by HOMER to give an air of credi- 

 bility to fome others ; particularly, to account for the abfence 

 of CASTOR and POLLUX. In the third book of the Iliad, HELEN 

 exprefles great furprife becaufe me did not fee her two brothers 

 among the Grecian commanders. This was in the tenth year 

 of the liege; and HOMER adds," But^they had both died at La- 

 cedsemon a long time before." This proves they were alive at 

 the time of the elopement ; and that he thought it neceffary to 

 account for their not being at the fiege. 



THE Greeks, however, did at laft make their appearance be~ 

 fore Troy ; but the town was not taken till after a ten years 

 fiege *. This is the moft puzzling circumftance of all ; efpe- 

 cially when it is confidered, that HOMER tells us it had been 

 taken formerly by HERCULES with only fix mips, and had by 

 him been levelled to the ground. 



THE 



* M. FOURMONT, in. a differtation, in torn. 5. ties Mem. de I' Acad.deslnfcrip. pretends, 

 that the fiege began only three weeks or a month before the quarrel between AGAMEM- 

 NON and ACHILLES, -which happened in the beginning of the tenth year j and that the 

 reft of the time had been fpent in expeditions againft different places in Afia. M. FOUR- 

 MONT fays, unanfwerable objections may be made to HOMER'S account on the other fup- 

 pofition. The Abb6 BANIER has written an anfwer to this diflertation, in which he proves, . 

 from feveral paflages in HOMER, that the fiege lafted ten years ; but has been, by no 

 means, able to anfwer the objections that arife from that fuppofition. See tom-.j. 



