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and, furthermore, to imperil themselves and wage war, not for their own countries and kingdoms, but ostensibly for Helen, wife of Menelaus, though in reality for Hellas,1 that she might not again suffer such an outrage at the hands of the barbarians nor such as befell her before that time in the seizure of the entire Peloponnesus by Pelops or of Argos by Danaus or of Thebes by Cadmus.2 For what other man in the world will be found to have had forethought in these matters or to have taken measures to prevent any such misfortune in the future except one of Agamemnon's character and power?
1 Cf. Isoc. 10.51.
2 According to legend, Pelops, the Phrygian, settled in the Peloponnesus and gave his name to that territory; Cadmus, the Phoenician, founded Thebes; Danaus, the Egyptian, became king of Argos—types of foreign invasion and conquest.
Isocrates. Isocrates with an English Translation in three volumes, by George Norlin, Ph.D., LL.D. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1980.
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