King of Ithaca (Adventures of Odysseus) by Iliffe Glyn

Author:Iliffe, Glyn [Iliffe, Glyn]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9780230744486
Publisher: Macmillan Publishers UK
Published: 2009-03-03T21:00:00+00:00

The Spartan wine was strong and had already worked its way to Eperitus’s head. All around him his companions were adding their own noise to the general cacophony as the wine oiled their tongues. Hard-worked slaves brought them a constant supply of meat and drink, and with much-tested patience did little more than grin or nod apathetically at the drunken suggestions and comments that were offered them. The women in particular had grown used to the lewd attentions of the hundreds of men in the palace; they smiled and flirted their way free of their embraces and like a mountain breeze were heading back to the kitchens, larders or wine cellars before the soldiers knew it.

They were soon engaged by the group of warriors next to them, who came from Lindos on the island of Rhodes. They were fascinated with the tales of the Ithacans’ adventures, and sympathetic to the point of anger when they told them their king had been overthrown in their absence. It was an outrage to them that Ithaca, a place they had never heard of before, should be ruled by foreign invaders. Being islanders themselves, they understood what it was like to have a border set by the sea, where the sense of belonging to a homeland was so much stronger. From that point on they adopted the exiled Ithacans as their own, and both parties sought each other every night in the great hall throughout the months they remained in Sparta.

The Rhodians had been amongst the very first to arrive and had already been in the city for several days. Their second-in-command was a brash, fierce-looking man called Gyrtias, who quickly became good friends with Halitherses due to the rank they shared.

‘There he is,’ he announced to Halitherses, though loudly enough for all of the Ithacans to hear. He pointed a thick arm that was stiff with muscles at a slight figure seated behind the higher nobles. ‘Prince Tlepolemos of Rhodes. A more handsome and worthier Greek has not yet been born. That is the man who will marry Helen.’

Eperitus looked and saw a baby-faced youth who was struggling to grow a beard and had not yet developed any muscles to speak of. He simpered at the back of the group with his pale brown locks falling in front of his eyes, and Eperitus could only wonder at how out of place the young prince looked amongst such proud men.

Gyrtias went on to name the other kings and princes who had arrived so far. Never before had Eperitus seen such a magnificent assembly of men. It was almost unbelievable, he thought, that in so short a space of time he had risen from being an outcast from his own land to become an attendant to the highest royalty in the Greek-speaking world. Here before him were men whose collective power was beyond belief. When the assembly was complete they would represent almost every nation and dynasty of importance in the whole of Greece. Most had fathers whose fame was legendary, but many were great warriors in their own right.

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