[11,45] εἶπον οὖν ὅτι καὶ παρ´ ἡμῖν ταῦτα λέγεται, καὶ προσέτι ὡς αὐτὸς ἑορακὼς εἴην ἐν Ὀλυμπίᾳ ἐν τῷ ὀπισθοδόμῳ τοῦ νεὼ τῆς Ἥρας ὑπόμνημα τῆς ἁρπαγῆς ἐκείνης ἐν τῇ ξυλίνῃ κιβωτῷ τῇ ἀνατεθείσῃ ὑπὸ Κυψέλου, τοὺς Διοσκόρους ἔχοντας τὴν Ἑλένην ἐπιβεβηκυῖαν τῇ κεφαλῇ τῆς Αἴθρας καὶ τῆς κόμης ἕλκουσαν, καὶ ἐπίγραμμα ἐπιγεγραμμένον ἀρχαίοις γράμμασι. (46) Μετὰ δὲ ταῦτα, ἔφη, φοβούμενος τοὺς Τυνδαρίδας ὁ Ἀγαμέμνων· ἠπίστατο γὰρ ὅτι ξένος ὢν καὶ ἔπηλυς ἄρχοι τῶν Ἀργείων· ἐβούλετο προσλαβεῖν αὐτοὺς κηδεύσας, καὶ διὰ τοῦτο ἔγημε Κλυταιμνήστραν· τὴν δὲ Ἑλένην ἐμνήστευε μὲν τῷ ἀδελφῷ, οὐδεὶς δὲ ἔφασκε τῶν Ἑλλήνων ἐπιτρέψειν, καὶ γὰρ προσήκειν ἕκαστος αὑτῷ τοῦ γένους μᾶλλον ἢ Μενελάῳ, Πελοπίδῃ ὄντι. ἧκον δὲ καὶ ἔξωθεν πολλοὶ μνηστῆρες διά τε τὴν δόξαν τὴν περὶ τοῦ κάλλους καὶ τὴν δύναμιν τῶν ἀδελφῶν καὶ τοῦ πατρός. (47) ἐδόκει οὖν μοι καὶ τοῦτο ἀληθὲς λέγειν, ὅπου τὴν Κλεισθένους θυγατέρα τοῦ Σικυωνίων τυράννου καὶ τῶν ἀπὸ Ἰταλίας τινὰ μνηστεῦσαί φασιν· ἔτι δὲ Ἱπποδάμειαν τὴν Οἰνομάου Πέλοψ ἔγημεν ἐκ τῆς Ἀσίας ἀφικόμενος, Θησεὺς δὲ ἀπὸ τοῦ Θερμώδοντος ποταμοῦ μίαν τῶν Ἀμαζόνων· (48) ὡς δὲ ἐκεῖνος ἔφη, καὶ τὴν Ἰὼ ἀφικέσθαι ἐκδοθεῖσαν εἰς Αἴγυπτον, ἀλλὰ μὴ βοῦν γενομένην οὕτως οἰστρήσασαν ἐλθεῖν. οὕτως δὲ ἔθους ὄντος ἐκδιδόναι καὶ λαμβάνειν γυναῖκας παρ´ ἀλλήλων καὶ τοὺς πλεῖστον ἀπέχοντας τοῖς ἐνδοξοτάτοις, καὶ τὸν Ἀλέξανδρον ἀφικέσθαι κατὰ μνηστείαν ἔφη, πιστεύοντα τῇ δυνάμει τοῦ πατρός, σχεδόν τι βασιλεύοντος τῆς Ἀσίας ἁπάσης, καὶ οὐδὲ πολὺ τῆς Τροίας ἀπεχούσης, ἄλλως τε καὶ τῶν Πελοπιδῶν ἤδη δυναστευόντων ἐν τῇ Ἑλλάδι καὶ πολλῆς ἐπιμιξίας γενομένης. (49) ἐλθόντα δὲ μετὰ πολλοῦ πλούτου καὶ παρασκευῆς ὡς ἐπὶ μνηστείαν, καὶ διαφέροντα κάλλει, εἰς λόγους αὐτὸν καταστῆναι Τυνδάρεῴ τε καὶ τοῖς ἀδελφοῖς τῆς Ἑλένης, λέγοντα περὶ τῆς ἀρχῆς τῆς Πριάμου καὶ τῶν χρημάτων τοῦ πλήθους καὶ τῆς ἄλλης δυνάμεως, καὶ ὅτι αὑτοῦ γίγνοιτο ἡ βασιλεία· τὸν δὲ Μενέλαον ἰδιώτην ἔφη εἶναι· τοῖς γὰρ Ἀγαμέμνονος παισίν, ἀλλ´ οὐκ ἐκείνῳ τὴν ἀρχὴν προσήκειν· καὶ ὡς θεοφιλὴς εἴη καὶ ὡς ἡ Ἀφροδίτη αὐτῷ ὑπόσχοιτο τὸν ἄριστον γάμον τῶν ἐν ἀνθρώποις· αὐτὸς οὖν προκρῖναι τὴν ἐκείνου θυγατέρα, ἐξὸν αὐτῷ λαβεῖν ἐκ τῆς Ἀσίας τινά, εἰ βούλοιτο, εἴτε τοῦ Αἰγυπτίων βασιλέως εἴτε τοῦ Ἰνδῶν.

[11,45] I remarked that this was our account also and that, moreover, I had myself seen at Olympia in the rear chamber of the temple of Hera a memorial of that abduction upon the wooden chest dedicated by Cypselus. It represents the Dioscuri holding Helen, who is standing upon Aethra's head pulling her hair, and there is also an inscription in ancient characters. (46) "Thereupon," so he continued, " Agamemnon, who feared the sons of Tyndareüs—because he knew that, though he ruled the Argives, he was a stranger and a new-comer—sought to win them over by a marriage alliance and for that reason married Clytemnestra. Helen's hand he sought for his brother, but the Greeks to a man declared that they would not permit it, since each one of them held that she was more closely akin to himself in blood than to Menelaus, who was a descendant of Pelops. Many suitors came from outside Greece also because of Helen's reputation for beauty and the power of her brothers and father." (47) Now I thought that this last statement also was truc, since the story goes that the daughter of Cleisthenes, the tyrant of Sicyon, was wooed by a man from Italy, and that Pelops, who married Hippodameia, the daughter of Oenomaüs, came from Asia, and that Theseus married one of the Amazons from the banks of the Thermodon and, as that priest maintained, Io came to Egypt as a betrothed bride and not as a heifer maddened by the gadfly. " And," he added, " since the great houses were accustomed, as we have seen, to make distance no barrier in forming marriage alliances with one another, it came to pass that Paris came as a suitor, trusting in the power of his father, who was the ruler of practically all Asia. Besides, Troy was not far distant, and what was especially important, the descendants of Pelops were already in power in Greece and much intercourse between the two peoples had developed. So when he arrived with a great show of wealth and a great equipage for a mere wooing- and he was strikingly handsome too—he had an interview with Tyndareüs and Helen's brothers, in which he dwelt upon Priam's empire, the extent of his resources, and his power in general, and added that he was next in succession. Menelaus, he declared, was but a private individual, since the royal prerogative descended to the children of Agamemnon, not to him. He urged that he himself enjoyed the favour of the gods and that Aphrodite had promised him the most brilliant marriage in the world. Accordingly, he had chosen Tyndareüs' daughter, though he might have taken someone from Asia had he desired, whether an Egyptian or an Indian princess.