HOW TROY WAS TAKEN. 19

the open gates, and death held fearful carnival
within the captured city. Priam was slain at the
altar by Neoptolemus. All his sons fell in death.
The city was sacked and destroyed. Its people were
slain or taken captive. Few escaped, but among
these was Aineas, the traditional ancestor of Rome.
As regards Helen, the cause of the war, she was re-
covered by Menelaus, and gladly accompanied him
back to Sparta. There she lived for years after-
wards in dignity and happiness, and finally died to
become happily immortal in the Elysian fields.

But our story is not yet at an end. The Greeks
had still to return to their homes, from which they
had been ten years removed. And though Paris
had crossed the intervening seas in three days, it
took Ulysses ten years to return, while some of his
late companions failed to reach their homes at all.
Many, indeed, were the adventures which these
home-sailing heroes were destined to encounter.

Some of the Greek warriors reached home speedily
and were met with welcome, but others perished by
the way, while Agamemnon, their leader, returned
to find that his wife had been false to him, and per-
ished by her treacherous hand. Menelaus wandered
long through Egypt, Cyprus, and elsewhere before
he reached his native land. Nestor and several
others went to Italy, where they founded cities,
Diomedes also became a founder of cities, and various
others seem to have busied themselves in this same
useful occupation. Neoptolemus made his way to
Epirus, where he became king of the Molossians.
ineas, the Trojan hero, sought Carthage, whose