The divine messenger Iris brings word to Menelaus of Helen's betrayal, and he returns to find his palace empty and his treasury ransacked. Furious, Menelaus rides to Mycenae where his brother Agamemnon reminds him that every king in Greece swore an oath to protect Helen's marriage and Troy will pay. Travelling across Hellas gathering their war coalition, the brothers heed the wise counsel of elder statesman Nestor, who warns that with the Olympians involved, the Achaeans must proceed with extreme caution. Finally arriving in Ithaca, the cunning Palamedes exposes Odysseus' feigned madness by placing his newborn son Telemachus before his plow, forcing the reluctant king to abandon his family and honor his oath, though he swears quietly that Palamedes will one day answer for it.