by Roger Green
This good man, however, felt that marriage
with him would be an insult to the daughter of so great a king.
‘Princess,’ he said to Electra. ‘Let us pretend to have obeyed the wicked commands of Queen Clytemnestra: but it need only be a pretence marriage – then when some brave Prince comes along, to help you, you will be able to marry him.’
So matters stood for seven years. Aegisthus reigned in Mycenae, though very much under the powerful thumb of Clytemnestra, and boasted often that he feared no vengeance; but in fact he was in constant terror lest Orestes should return and slay him. Electra desired above all things that this should happen; and whenever she could do so in safety sent messages to her brother reminding him that vengeance was still to be accomplished.
Orestes grew up at his uncle's court, and his dearest friend Pylades, the son of King Strophius, swore to stand by him in whatever he might do.
At last Aegisthus grew so angry with Electra for her constant threats and taunts that he declared he would send her to a distant city and shut her up in a deep dungeon. Then she sent in haste to Orestes, and he knew that the time had come to act.
First of all he visited Delphi to consult the oracle of Apollo: for he was in a great dilemma. According to Greek beliefs it was his duty to avenge his father's murder by killing the murderers; this was all right so far as Aegisthus was concerned – but to kill his mother was the worst of all crimes, and he knew that if he committed it, the Furies would pursue him and drive him mad.
Nevertheless Apollo, speaking through the mouth of his priestess at Delphi, commanded him to proceed and fear nothing, for though suffering would follow, all should be well in the end.
Consequently Orestes set off in disguise, accompanied by Pylades, and arrived at Mycenae where Electra was overjoyed to see them.
‘Let Pylades go to the palace with the news that Orestes is dead,’ suggested Electra, ‘then Aegisthus will be off his guard and you will soon find a chance to kill him. As for our mother, I will send word that I am ill, and she will certainly come and visit me: all you have to do then is to lie in wait here at the cottage.’
All worked out just as they had planned. Both Orestes and Pylades went to tell the false news to Aegisthus, who was so pleased that he invited them to help him offer a great sacrifice of gratitude to the Immortals. And at the sacrifice Orestes slew him, and revealing who he was, won instant forgiveness from the people of Mycenae, who were thankful to be rid of the tyrant and have the son of Agamemnon as their king.
But when Orestes, urged on to the deed by Electra, killed Clytemnestra also, the Mycenaeans were not so anxious to have him. Indeed they were prepared to stone him to death: but before they could do so, madness fell upon him and the Furies came up from the realm of Hades to haunt him, and to pursue him wherever he might go until at length he should die.
While matters were still in doubt, old King Tyndareus of Sparta, Clytemnestra's father, arrived at Mycenae, bringing with him his granddaughter Hermione who had been promised in marriage to Orestes. Tyndareus came because news had reached him that Menelaus and Helen, after long wanderings, had been sighted off Cape Malea. But when he learned what Orestes had done, he urged the people of Mycenae to stone him and Electra without further delay.
In desperation Electra captured Hermione, brought her on to the roof of the palace and when the people arrived with Tyndareus at their head she cried:
‘I have the Princess of Sparta here, and I will kill her before your eyes unless you let Orestes go free!’
At this crucial moment Immortal Apollo appeared to them, and told the people of Mycenae that Orestes had done the deed by his command.
‘He must wander as an exile for one year,’ Apollo concluded, ‘and at the end of that time come to Athens for judgement. But when all is ended, he will return here to be your king, and he shall marry Hermione.’
All happened as Apollo directed. Orestes set out on his wanderings, pursued by the Furies and accompanied by his faithful Pylades. He visited many places during his year of exile, but could never stay anywhere for long, since always the Furies would overtake him and drive him onward, ever onward.
When the year was over, Orestes came to Athens, and there the great court of the Areopagus met on the Hill of Ares to try his case. Erigone, daughter of Aegisthus and Clytemnestra, hastened from Mycenae to plead for the punishment of Orestes, but nevertheless the twelve judges were equally divided. Then Athena, the Immortal Lady of Athens, appeared on the Hill of Ares and spoke to the Areopagus:
‘You just and mighty men of Athens, hear my decree! Long may this Court remain, and ever shall it be famous for the justice and righteousness of its judgements. And when, as now, the judgement falls equally on two sides, the casting vote shall rest with me: and my vote shall be the vote of mercy. Orestes goes free, pardoned and acquitted: and so shall all after him who stand before this Court and find equal judgement!’
So Orestes went forth, cleared of the blood-guilt and free of the Furies. But they, filled with anger, demanded of Athena whether they were to be dishonoured and deprived of their rights.
‘On the contrary,’ answered the wise Immortal, ‘your honour shall be made all the greater by this day's judgement. Beneath the rock of Ares' Hill shall be your shrine, and there all honour shall be done to the three of you, Alecto, Megaera and Tisiphone. You will preside over Justice, seeing that evil is punished: but no longer will you be called the Furies – I change your name to the Eumenides, the “Kindly Powers”, for it is more noble to cherish the right than to punish the wrong.’
All was at peace now; but Orestes could not yet return to Mycenae. He had still one quest to perform before the madness and the stain could quite be washed from him. By the command of Apollo he must journey to the land of Tauris and fetch back the image of Artemis.
Tauris was at the north of the Black Sea, being the land which we now call the Crimea: and its inhabitants sacrificed all strangers who came there to their cruel idol, and flung their bodies into a fiery pit through which the flames came up from Tartarus.
Orestes and Pylades set out on their voyage in a swift ship with fifty oarsmen. They reached Tauris by night, left the ship ready in a secret cove and started inland by themselves hoping to find the image unguarded and to carry it off before morning. But a band of shepherds surprised them on their way, captured them and led them before Thoas, the savage king of the Taurians. He was delighted at having two Greek victims, and handed them straight over to the virgin priestess of Artemis with instructions to prepare them for sacrifice.
The priestess looked at the two victims pityingly, and when they were alone asked them if they were Greeks. When she learnt that they were, she spoke to them in their own language, saying that she was held there by force, being a Greek herself, and loathed the rites of human sacrifice.
‘I will save one of you,’ she said, ‘if he will promise on his return to Greece to carry a message for me.’
‘What is it?’ asked Pylades. ‘I will surely carry it!’
‘The message,’ answered the priestess, ‘is to Orestes, the son of King Agamemnon. Say that his sister whom men thought was slain at Aulis, lives in this terrible place and begs of him to come with a great fleet and save her. Say that I am indeed Iphigenia!’
As seriously as possible Pylades repeated this message to Orestes himself, and then turning with a smile, said:
‘Lady I have performed your request. Let Orestes himself answer it!’ Then there was great rejoicing and delight as Iphigenia told Orestes how she had been carried away in a cloud from Aulis while Artemis placed a doe on the altar in her place just as Agamemnon's sword was falling.
Orestes told why he had come to Tauris, and Iphigenia nodded.
‘I knew,’ she said, ‘that someone would come. Artemis does not like her sacred image to be drenched in blood by these barbarians: it must be brought to Greece and set in a safe place.’
Reaching up, she lifted down the image which,
like the Palladium, had fallen from the sky as a meteor falls. Even as she did so, King Thoas strode into the shrine.
‘Why are you so long?’ he demanded. ‘And why do you lift down the holy image of Artemis?’
‘Alas,’ exclaimed Iphigenia readily, ‘as I strove to make the victims ready for the sacrifice, the image averted its eyes. Then Artemis spoke to me and said that already her shrine was polluted, since one of these men has murdered his mother, and the other is his helper. So now I must take them and the image to the shore and wash them in the salt sea. And you must bring fire and water to cleanse the evil from this shrine.’
Thoas suspected nothing, and readily believed what she said. So while he remained to purify the shrine, Iphigenia, holding the image, led the way to the shore, Orestes and Pylades following with a guard of Taurians.
But when they reached the sea, the fifty Argives were waiting for them, and easily overcame the Tauric guard. Swiftly, then, they all entered the ship and sailed triumphantly away.
They came after an easy voyage to Greece, and there by command of Athena, the image of Artemis was set up in a temple near Athens, and Iphigenia continued to be its chief priestess. But never again was human sacrifice offered to it.
Orestes and Pylades reached Mycenae in safety, and there Orestes married Hermione: when Menelaus died they became King and Queen of Sparta as well, and both lived happily into old age.
Electra married Pylades, and they reigned happily in Phocis, when King Strophius died, and had three sons who were firm allies of King Tisamenes, the son of Orestes and Hermione.
CHAPTER 13
THE ADVENTURES OF MENELAUS
*
Helen, thy beauty is to me
Like those Nicaean barks of yore,
That gently, o'er a perfumed sea,
The weary, wayworn wanderer bore
To his own native shore.
EDGAR ALLAN POE
To Helen
13
When the Greeks sailed away from Troy they did not all sail at the same time or in the same direction, so that various fortunes attended each of them. Menelaus and the majority of the Greek kings sailed later than Agamemnon, Diomedes and Nestor, and were scattered by a great storm.
Many of the ships were wrecked on the coast of Greece: for King Nauplius, in revenge for the death of his son Palamedes, lit false beacon lights on the rocky coast of Euboea, and the pilots believed them to mark the entrance to a harbour and steered their ships on to the rocks.
Neoptolemus with his followers landed safely in the north of Greece, and instead of returning home marched inland and conquered Molossia. Here he reigned for seven years, with Andromache as his queen; and they had a son called Molossus to succeed them. But at the end of this time Neoptolemus grew tired of Andromache and set out for Sparta to claim Hermione as his wife. On the way he visited Delphi, and not receiving the answer he wanted from the oracle, plundered the temple and burnt the shrine. When he reached Sparta Neoptolemus carried off Hermione, for at this time Orestes was still being pursued by the Furies during his year of exile. But returning by Delphi, Neoptolemus met Orestes who had come to consult the oracle: Neoptolemus was killed on the spot and buried under the temple which he had destroyed, and Hermione returned in safety to Sparta.
When the storm scattered the ships, Menelaus actually reached Greece and anchored at Sunium near Athens. But when he tried to sail across the Gulf of Aegina to reach Argos or some port near Sparta, the storm sprang up again and drove him south to the island of Crete.
After wandering about for some time he came to Cyprus, where he met one of the Greek heroes who had failed to reach home after the fall of Troy: Demophon the son of Theseus.
This prince does not seem to have tried very hard to reach Athens, for when he landed in Thrace on his way home, he fell in love with the Princess Phyllis. So he stayed there, married her and became king. But after a while he grew tired of Thrace and told Phyllis that he must leave her for a few months while he sailed down to Athens on a visit to his mother whom he had not seen for eleven years.
‘It is not lawful for the King of Thrace to leave his country,’ objected Phyllis. But Demophon pointed out that he was only king by right of his marriage to her, and that she must remain where she was.
‘But I will not be away longer than three months,’ said Demophon, and he swore the most solemn oaths by every one of the Immortals that he would be back in well under a year.
Phyllis bade farewell to him as he entered his ship, and gave him a little golden casket.
‘This contains a charm,’ she said. ‘Open it a year from now if you have not returned by then.’
Demophon promised to do this, and set sail from Thrace. But he made no attempt to visit Athens; instead he steered straight for the island of Cyprus, and settled there.
He did not keep one of his oaths, but on the appointed day he opened the casket. At that very moment in far-away Thrace poor, deserted Phyllis died of a broken heart, and the Immortals turned her into an almond tree. But Demophon saw something in the casket which drove him mad on the spot. Leaping on a horse, he galloped screaming towards the sea-shore, his drawn sword in his hand; suddenly his horse stumbled, the sword flew from his hand and Demophon fell upon it and was killed instantly.
As he did so, the bare almond tree in Thrace blossomed into green leaves: and ever after that the Greeks called the new green leaves ‘phylla’ after the faithful Princess Phyllis of Thrace.
Menelaus buried the body of Demophon, and set sail from Cyprus. But once again ill fortune befell him, and his ships were scattered in a storm. This time it was much worse than before, since Menelaus was washed overboard; and although he was safely picked up by another of his ships, when the storm ended there was no sign of the royal ship in which Helen was sailing.
Menelaus was in despair: to have sacked Troy for Helen's sake and then to lose her on the way home!
He searched for her up and down the Mediterranean, visiting various places in Africa, Asia Minor and Phoenicia, in vain. At last after several years, during which, though he had not found Helen he had collected much treasure, Menelaus came to the island of Pharos, one day's voyage from Egypt. There he landed with the four ships that remained to him, to rest before attempting the voyage home to Greece: for by now he had given up all hope of finding Helen.
But having landed on Pharos, he could not get away. The wind blew steadily from the north – and Menelaus knew that any strangers visiting Egypt were liable to find themselves made into slaves or even sacrificed by King Theoclymenus. Day after day the Greeks remained on Pharos; soon their food ran short, and they were driven to spending all their time catching fish to keep themselves from starving.
At length one day as Menelaus walked by himself on a lonely stretch of the shore, praying to the Immortals for aid, there came up out of the sea the nymph Idothea.
‘You are very foolish and feeble-witted, Greek stranger!’ she exclaimed. ‘Or is it that you and your companions like sitting about on this desert island catching fish?’
Then Menelaus answered: ‘Fair nymph, goddess or Immortal, who ever you may be: I do not stay here of my own will, but because we cannot get away. Therefore I beg you to tell me what I must do to escape from this place: for surely the Immortals hold me here because I have neglected some honour which is their due.’
‘That I do not know,’ said Idothea, ‘but my father Proteus, the Old Man of the Sea, can read both the past and the future. If you can catch and hold him, he will tell you. But he is hard to catch and harder still to hold. Yet I will help you, if you will choose your three best men to accompany you, and meet me here at daybreak tomorrow.’
Menelaus promised readily, and Idothea slipped back into the sea. But she was waiting for them next morning, carrying with her four newly flayed sealskins.
‘You must dig yourselves holes here in the sand,’ she said, ‘and I will cover you with the skins. For at noon the Old Man of the Sea comes out of the wav
es to sleep here on the shore, and with him comes a great flock of seals to sleep also, and to guard him. He will first number them as a shepherd does with his sheep, and then slumber in their midst. When he is asleep, you four must spring out of hiding and catch hold of him. By his magic he will turn himself into all manner of creeping creatures, and maybe into fire and water as well; but if you can hold him tight, in the end he will return to his own shape, and you may ask him what you will, and he will return a true answer.’
So saying Idothea covered them with the sealskins and left them there; nor did they pass a very pleasant morning, for the skins above them stank in the hot sun.
But at last the seals began to arrive and stretch themselves out to sleep on the sunny sands; and when they were all assembled Proteus came himself, the Old Man of the Sea, and counted his fishy flocks just as Idothea had said. When he was satisfied that all was well, he laid himself down to rest in their midst, not far from where Menelaus and his three companions were concealed.
As soon as he was asleep they sprang out and seized hold of him. At once Proteus woke and in a moment turned himself into a fierce lion, and after that into a snake, a leopard and a great wild boar. Still the four Greeks clung to him, and he turned himself into running water, and then into a tall tree. But, seeing that he could not shake them off, he returned to his own strange blue shape, and said:
‘Hmm! Menelaus of Sparta! Doubtless some Immortal has told you how to catch me!’
‘Old Man of the Sea, replied Menelaus, ‘you know everything: so why ask me these vain questions?’
‘Hmm! Exactly!’ grunted Proteus, a merry twinkle in his bright blue eyes. ‘You want to know why you are kept on this desert island? Yes, of course. Well, all you've to do is to fit out one ship and sail in her to Egypt. You've a sacrifice to offer there – and what is fated to happen, will happen! Hmm! Yes. And you'll get safely back to Greece as soon as you've done that, with four ships. You'll find that Agamemnon has been murdered by Aegisthus and Clytemnestra; and unless you hurry, Orestes will have avenged him by the time you land at Nauplia… You want to know about anyone else? Old Nestor got home first: you'll see him. Calchas met a prophet cleverer than himself, and died of fury… You said “How sad”? No, I thought not!… Odysseus? He's a prisoner on Calypso's enchanted isle. But he'll get back to Ithaca after ten years, it's all arranged up in Olympus… You and Helen? Oh yes, you'll live happily ever afterwards in Sparta, and you won't die, either. The Immortals will carry you both to the Elysian Fields which are at the world's end… That's all I can tell you… Now off you go to Egypt… Hurry!’
