_The beautiful Helen._
XLVIII. Let us begin to clear up these mistakes and contradictions, where
profane history begins. It is generally assented to, that the rape of
Helen, executed by Paris the son of Priam, and the refusal of the Trojans
to deliver her up to her husband Menelaus, was the cause of the Trojan
war. The common opinion supposes, that, after this transaction, Helen
lived in Troy with Paris during the whole time of the war.
XLIX. This fact, which is taken for granted, is not so certain as not to
admit of serious doubts respecting the truth of it. Herodotus, although
he allows of her having been carried away forcibly by Paris, denies
that she ever was in Troy. He says, that from Greece Paris carried his
beautiful prize to a port in Egypt, where king Protheus took her away
from him; and says likewise, it is true the Greeks commenced the war
against Troy, upon a supposition that Helen was confined there; and that
although the Trojans, with great positiveness and truth, denied the
fact, the Greeks could never be prevailed on to believe them; but that,
after the war was concluded, and they were convinced of their mistake,
Menelaus sailed to Egypt, and recovered his wife out of the hands of
Protheus. I know very well, that Herodotus is not reputed an historian of
the greatest veracity; but who of equal antiquity to Herodotus, favours
the common opinion? I believe none but poets; and these deserve much
less credit than Herodotus in the case of an historical event. Servius
likewise, not only denies that Helen ever was in Troy, but asserts also,
she was not the occasion of the war, for that it arose from the ill
treatment of the Trojans to Hercules, in refusing him entrance into their
city, when he went in search of his beloved Hylas.