by Iliffe, Glyn
Eperitus backed his whinnying horse away from Odysseus’s outstretched hand and shook his head.
‘No, my lord. You’ll be shot down before you get anywhere near them. I can’t let you ride to your death.’
‘It’s an order, Eperitus, not a request!’ the king snapped angrily.
Eperitus stared down at him for a moment, then dismounted smartly. But before Odysseus could reach for the reins, he slapped his hand down hard on the mare’s flank and sent her galloping towards the gates of Troy.
‘The plan has failed, Odysseus,’ he said. ‘Penelope will have to wait a little longer.’
Odysseus watched the last of the Trojan cavalry crowding back into the city and nodded slowly, a hint of despair in his usually confident eyes.
‘You’re right, Eperitus,’ he sighed. ‘But for how much longer?’
As he spoke, the Scaean Gate slammed shut with a heavy thud.
The siege of Troy had begun.
AUTHOR’S NOTE
The events that take place in The Gates of Troy are based, for the most part, on original myths. There are several versions of the events that led up to the Trojan War – many of them contradictory – so I’ve chosen the accounts I enjoy most or feel contribute best to the story. For example, some have it that Helen was kidnapped by Paris and taken to Troy against her will, while others say she went readily, having fallen in love with the Trojan prince. I’ve opted for the latter, as there’s nothing like love for starting a fight.
The other events in the book that I’ve taken direct from myth include Odysseus’s failed attempt to feign madness and avoid the war, the embassy to Troy, the gathering of the Greek fleet at Aulis, and the sacrifice of Iphigenia. There was never any question in Greek mythology that Iphigenia was Agamemnon’s daughter, but the tales do differ widely on her fate. Aeschylus, for example, makes it clear in the Oresteia that Agamemnon sacrificed his daughter to appease the wrath of Artemis. While Homer is silent on the matter, Euripides in Iphigenia at Aulis has Artemis replace the girl with a deer at the last moment. Unfortunately for Iphigenia, I haven’t been quite so merciful in my retelling of the story.
Moving on, according to ancient tales Achilles killed King Tenes after he hurled a rock at the Greek fleet. He then murdered his manservant, Mnemon, for failing to remind him not to kill any son of Apollo! Shortly afterwards, Philoctetes was bitten on the foot by a snake and, because of his constant groaning and the stench of his wound, was then marooned on Lemnos by Odysseus. And Protesilaus was the first man to hit the beach at Troy, and consequently the first casualty of the war.
Eperitus, on the other hand, comes from my imagination. When retelling a series of popular and well-known tales, it’s often useful to have an unknown element to skew events a little. I also hope the straightforward and honourable Eperitus acts as a foil to Odysseus’s often unscrupulous cunning. Certainly both men will need all these qualities and the strength of their unique friendship if they are to survive the long and bloody war with Troy, of which we’ve seen only the opening skirmish in The Gates of Troy. They have another ten years of fighting ahead of them before Zeus tips his golden scales in favour of one side or the other.
But that’s a different story.
Praise for Glyn Iliffe ‘King of Ithaca is a great read which embodies the finest elements of war, friendship and betrayal that can be found in Homer’s great works . . . This is a must read for those who enjoy good old epic battles, chilling death scenes and the extravagance of ancient Greece’
Lifestyle Magazine
‘The world of this novel appears as many scholars see that of Homer: a rich melange of different eras . . . It has suspense, treachery and bone-crunching action . . . It will leave fans of the genre eagerly awaiting the rest of the series’
Harry Sidebottom,
author of the bestselling Warrior of Rome series ‘This daring debut is a stirring retelling of classic Greek mythology complete with all its adventure, passion, battles and, of course, the characters who have remained fascinating over thousands of years. King of Ithaca proves to be a voyage of discovery – both for Odysseus and the readers. It’s an epic tale told with an academic’s eye for history and a born storyteller’s feel for credible dialogue and the power of suspense’
Lancashire Evening Post
‘The reader does not need to be a classicist by any means to enjoy this epic and stirring tale. It makes a great novel and would be an even better film’
Historical Novels Review
Glyn Iliffe studied English and Classics at Reading University where he developed a passion for the ancient stories of Greek history and mythology. Well-travelled, Glyn has visited nearly forty countries, trekked in the Himalayas, spent six weeks hitchhiking across North America and had his collarbone broken by a bull in Pamplona.
Also by Glyn Iliffe
King of Ithaca
The Armour of Achilles
FOR ROBIN ILIFFE
GLOSSARY
A
Achilles
– Myrmidon prince
Actoris
– Penelope’s body slave
Aeneas
– Dardanian prince, the son of Anchises
Agamemnon
– king of Mycenae
Ajax (greater)
– king of Salamis
Ajax (lesser)
– prince of Locris
Andromache
– daughter of King Eëtion of the Cilicians, allies of Troy
Antenor
– Trojan elder
Antinous
– Ithacan lad, bullying son of Eupeithes
Antiphus
– Ithacan guardsman
Apheidas
– Trojan commander
Aphrodite
– goddess of love
Apollo
– archer god, associated with music, song and healing
Arceisius
– squire to Eperitus
Ares
– god of war
Artemis
– virgin moon-goddess associated with childbirth, noted for her vengefulness
Athena
– goddess of wisdom and warfare
Aulis
– sheltered bay in the Euboean Straits
C
Calchas
– Trojan priest of Apollo
Chelonion
– flower native to Ithaca
Clytaemnestra
– queen of Mycenae and wife of Agamemnon
Ctessipus
– Ithacan lad, friend of Antinous and son of Polytherses
D
Deiphobus
– younger brother of Hector and Paris
Demeter
– goddess of agriculture
Diomedes
– king of Argos and ally of Agamemnon
Dulichium
– Ionian island, forming northernmost part of Odysseus’s kingdom
E
Eleusis
– port town on the Saronic Sea
Eperitus
– captain of Odysseus’s guard
Eteoneus
– herald of Menelaus
Euboea
– large island off the east coast of mainland Greece
Eupeithes
– Ithacan noble and former traitor
Eurotas
– Spartan river
Euryalus
– companion of Diomedes
Eurybates
– Odysseus’s squire
Eurylochus
– Ithacan soldier, cousin of Odysseus
Exadios
– Trojan soldier
G
Galatea
– a priestess of Artemis
H
Hades
– god of the Underworld
Halitherses
– former captain of Ithacan royal guard
Hecabe
– Trojan queen, wife of King Priam
Hector
– Trojan prince, oldest son of King Priam
Helen
– queen of Sparta, wife of King Menelaus
Hephaistos
– god of fire; blacksmith to the Olympians
Hera
– goddess married to Zeus
Hermes
– messenger of the gods; his duties also include shepherding the souls of the dead to the Underworld
Hesione
– sister of King Priam, abducted by Telamon
Hestia
– goddess of the hearth and protectress of the household
I
Ida (Mount)
– principal mountain in Ilium
Idaeus
– herald to King Priam
Idomeneus
– king of Crete
Ilium
– the region of which Troy was the capital
Ionian Sea
– sea to the west of the Greek mainland
Iphigenia
– eldest daughter of Agamemnon
Ithaca
– island in the Ionian Sea
K
Kerosia
– Ithacan council meeting
L
Lacedaemon
– Sparta
Laertes
– Odysseus’s father
Leothoë
– daughter of King Altes of the Leleges, allies of Troy
Lemnos
– island in the Aegean Sea
Lycomedes
– king of Scyros
M
Medon
– Malian commander
Melanthius
– Ithacan lad, brother of Melantho
Melantho
– Ithacan girl, sister of Melanthius
Menelaus
– king of Sparta and younger brother of Agamemnon
Menestheus
– king of Athens
Mentor
– close friend of Odysseus
Mnemon
– servant of Achilles, employed to remind him not to fight any of Apollo’s sons
Mycenae
– most powerful city in Greece, situated in north-eastern Peloponnese
Myrine
– Helen’s old nursemaid
Myrmidons
– the followers of Achilles
N
Neaera
– Helen’s body slave
Neoptolemus
– son of Achilles and Deidameia
Nestor
– king of Pylos
O
Odysseus
– king of Ithaca
Omeros
– Ithacan boy
Orestes
– son of Agamemnon
P
Palamedes
– Nauplian prince
Paris
– Trojan prince, second eldest son of King Priam
Parnassus (Mount)
– mountain in central Greece and home of the Pythian oracle
Patroclus
– cousin of Achilles and captain of the Myrmidons
Peisandros
– Myrmidon spearman
Peloponnese
– southernmost landmass of Greek mainland
Penelope
– queen of Ithaca and wife of Odysseus
Pergamos
– the citadel of Troy
Perithous
– Mycenaean gate guard
Persephone
– goddess of the Underworld, wife of Hades
Philoctetes
– Malian archer who lit the pyre of Heracles, for which he was awarded the hero’s bow and arrows
Phronius
– Ithacan elder
Pleisthenes
– youngest son of Menelaus and Helen
Podarces
– Thessalian leader, brother of Protesilaus
Polites
– Thessalian warrior
Polymele
– Clytaemnestra’s body slave
Poseidon
– god of the sea
Priam
– king of Troy
Protesilaus
– Thessalian leader, brother of Podarces
Pyrrha
– daughter of Lycomedes
Pythoness
– high priestess of the Pythian oracle
S
Samos
– neighbouring island to Ithaca, also under the rule of Odysseus
Saronic Sea
– body of water between Attica and the Peloponnese
Scamander
– river on the Trojan plain
Scyros
– island east of Euboea
Simöeis
– river on the Trojan plain
Sparta
– city in the south-eastern Peloponnese
Sthenelaus
– companion of Diomedes
T
Talthybius
– squire to Agamemnon
Taphians
– pirate race from Taphos
Tecton
– friend of Iphigenia
Telamon
– former king of Salamis, father of the greater Ajax
Tenedos
– island off the coast of Ilium
Tenes
– king of Tenedos
Teucer
– famed archer, half-brother and companion to the greater Ajax
Thersites
– Aetolian hunchback
Thessaly
– region of northern Greece
Thoosa
– friend of Iphigenia
Troy
– chief city of Ilium, on the eastern seaboard of the Aegean
X
xenia
– the custom of friendship towards strangers
Z
Zacynthos
– southernmost of the Ionian islands under Laertes’s rule
Zeus
– the king of the gods
First published 2009 by Macmillan
First published in paperback 2010 by Pan Books This electronic edition published 2010 by Pan Books
an imprint of Pan Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited
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ISBN 978-0-230-74005-1 PDF
ISBN 978-0-230-74004-4 EPUB
Copyright © Glyn Iliffe 2009
The right of Glyn Iliffe to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
You may not copy, store, distribute, transmit, reproduce or otherwise make available this publication (or any part of it) in any form, or by any means (electronic, digital, optical, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
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