Helen Had a Sister by Penelope Haines

Author:Penelope Haines [Haines, Penelope]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Ithaca Publishing
Published: 2019-11-11T07:00:00+00:00

* * *

Altogether, the first months of the Trojan campaign were a happy and satisfying time for the family Agamemnon left behind. True, Electra sometimes asked after her daddy, but Orestes seemed happy to live in the present. Iphigenia, having a more adult appreciation of what the campaign was about, also seemed content to view it as something men were supposed to do, and left it at that.

We received regular messages about the troops’ progress. Agamemnon had established a system of runners to send news to the Greek kingdoms, so we were well informed of what went on at Aulis. Agamemnon had been right – those kings who had taken the oath at Helen’s betrothal did indeed honour it.

But there were those who tried to evade their obligations. Odysseus, that wily character, pretended he had lost his mind and couldn’t understand the message. He was ploughing when Palamedes arrived and refused to pull over or listen to what he had to say. In frustration Palamedes eventually picked up Odysseus’s toddler son and stood him right in the path of the heavy team of oxen, causing Odysseus to swerve, which put paid to his pretence of insanity.

I was amused when I heard the tale, even though I was sorry Odysseus’s ploy hadn’t worked.

Odysseus, narked at the exposure of his own deceit, was particularly willing to help track down Achilles. Although the boy was only sixteen, he already had a fearsome reputation as a warrior. To protect him from the draft, his mother concealed him amongst the women in Lycomedes’ household. I tried to imagine the rage an adolescent male would feel, forced into this deceit, until I heard his refuge was sweetened by Lycomedes’ daughter, Deidamia. Inevitably the silly girl became pregnant, about which time Odysseus arrived, disguised as a merchant, with a gift of a sumptuous suit of armour. Achilles’ masculine enthusiasm and admiration for the gift betrayed his gender and soon Agamemnon’s army had another conscript.

By the beginning of spring, the Greek army and fleet had assembled at Aulis. The weather grew warmer and more settled, and they waited for the winds that would blow them across the Aegean Sea to Troy. They waited, and they waited. The sun shone brightly, the sea sparkled and the wind blew from the wrong direction. Weather patterns, which should have been a given for the time of year, simply failed to eventuate.

The men had no alternative but to try and keep themselves amused until the wind changed.

The messengers brought us news of this delay.

“Still no wind.”

I imagined Agamemnon’s frustration and was thankful I wasn’t there to share his misery. He would be worried about losing his army if disaffected warriors decided to go home.

We came to accept these regular messages as the norm.

The months passed; messengers arrived with the same dull news, and time went on. If the weather didn’t change soon they would be stranded at Aulis for another winter.

Then I received an unexpected message. Agamemnon had contracted a marriage between Iphigenia and the young warrior Achilles.

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