The Memoirs of Helen of Troy by Amanda Elyot

Author:Amanda Elyot
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9780307337535
Publisher: Crown/Archetype
Published: 2005-10-03T16:00:00+00:00

SEVENTEEN

Certain that my secret promise covered my face like a veil, I was grateful that Menelaus monopolized Paris Alexandros at the evening banquet. All he could talk about was the wrestling match he had planned for the following day. I asked Aeneas to tell me all about Ilios. “Was it like Sparta?” I asked, knowing that the cities bore little in common, but as the hostess I wanted to give the other Troyan ambassador the chance to shine. The Dardanian-born Aeneas bloomed with pride for his adopted city, boasting that its highly advantageous location at the mouth of the Hellespont made it the center for world trade. From the summit of its twin-towered citadel, King Priam controlled the flow of commerce from the Black Sea to the north and through the Aegean to the south.

“Wilusa has the best of everything,” Aeneas averred. “The finest goods from the Adriatic, Achaea, Egypt, and the Hittite kingdom are at our fingertips. Most important, ships bearing copper from Cyprus and tin from Central Asia pay their tributes to Priam in the form of tolls as well as goods.”

“Why are those ships the most important?” I desired to know. This was something in which Theseus had not completely schooled me.

“We are living in the age of bronze,” Aeneas replied. “And bronze is an alloy. One part tin combined with ten parts copper makes bronze. He who controls the flow of bronze, controls the world.”

“And your King Priam from his towered city on a shining hill sits atop that world.”

“Until someone topples him. Even the great Heracles tried . . . and failed. And Priam was only a boy then.”

I caught Paris Alexandros looking at me. He peered over his wine kylix and touched his lips to the cup as though the lip of the kylix were my own. Momentarily flustered, I lowered my eyes, then raised them to meet his again. Not now, they told him. I touched Menelaus’s arm and favored him with a warm smile. He accepted my gift with an inclination of his head and resumed his impassioned discussion of wrestling.

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