The Wooden Walls of Thermopylae by Nick Brown

Author:Nick Brown [Nick Brown]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781909477629
Publisher: Clink Street Publishing
Published: 2014-08-29T04:00:00+00:00

We never knew where his plays would take us: you could start on Olympus with the laws of stern unbending Zeus and end in the Athenian council chamber. But after this play, we knew where we would be going next day. We’d be at Piraeus by dawn and look to the sea.

Dawn wasn’t what we expected: there was a thick sea fret so the massed Demos picked its way gingerly through the huge mason’s yard that Piraeus was in those days. The bay had changed beyond recognition in the previous years and Themistocles’s dream of a protected harbour was close to becoming a reality. So we gathered in the miasma of the sea cloud and the unwashed stink of the Demos. As we waited, the stench and crowd grew. I can’t remember how long we stood muttering. But I do remember the moment the sun burnt through.

The fret dispersed in an instant to reveal Themistocles in the middle of his supporters standing like a magician on the quayside. There was some cheering; above us the temples on the acropolis, hitherto invisible, were struck by the sun and sparkled. Themistocles raised his arms then lowered them, demanding silence which gradually settled over us. I saw his brother, Lysias, and to my surprise Cimon, amongst those around him.

But the greatest surprise and certainly the most shocking for any Alkmaionids present must have been the sight of the man standing at Themistocles’s right hand. Cleinias!

Yes, the very same: the man who you will probably only remember today as the father of that uncontrollable whelp Alciabiades who onion head adopted and couldn’t keep in order.

Back then he was infamous for being married to the untameable minx Deinomache, which of course made him the son in law of Megacles! How in Hades Themistocles had got him there was a mystery no one could work out and you could hear different attempts at answers all round Piraeus. Cleinias had the good manners to look embarrassed while Themistocles radiated delight. He let us drink in the drama of this alliance for a while, then again raised his arms for silence.

When the harbour was quiet he made a signal to some men behind him in response to which there was the harsh blare of horns. Then as the discordant noise dissipated he gestured seawards and a number of men scattered about the harbour, obviously planted by Themistocles, shouted.

“Athenians, look towards the sea, for there lies your deliverance.”

It was as if the Dionysia had become reality and we were all players. We looked to the sea. At first nothing. It wasn’t easy as scattered patches of haze still hung above the waters. Then someone shouted and, still obscured but just visible, there were two pinpricks. The sun rose, the sea cleared and we saw pulling hard towards us two triremes.

As they drew closer it seemed to those of us amongst the crowd who’d crewed on triremes that there was something strange about these two, but we couldn’t agree on what.

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