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[11] But at the beginning of his poem Homer says that Achilles came to Troy as a favour to the sons of Atreus,1 and not because he was bound by the oaths which Tyndareus exacted; and in the Games he makes Antilochus say that Odysseus was a generation older than he,2 whereas Odysseus, telling Alcinous of his descent to Hades and other adventures, said that he wished to see Theseus and Peirithous, men of an earlier age.3 We know that Theseus carried off Helen, so that it is quite impossible that Achilles could have been her suitor.

1 Hom. Il. 1.158

2 Hom. Il. 23.790

3 Hom. Od. 11.630

Pausanias. Pausanias Description of Greece with an English Translation by W.H.S. Jones, Litt.D., and H.A. Ormerod, M.A., in 4 Volumes. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1918.

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