by Hilary Green
The wait that followed seemed endless. The sun was high now and I could feel the sweat trickling down my body under my armour. My excitement failed and I began to feel drowsy and limp, and slightly sick. I remembered that I had not eaten, except for a few snatched mouthfuls while I was getting ready, and sent one of the charioteers to fetch some food. He returned with slaves bearing baskets of bread and figs and flagons of wine mingled with water. We all ate and drank and I felt a little better.
Below us the army sat or lay on the beach, using their shields to keep off the sun. Behind them the main chariot force waited, the horses restless and fretful. Then a point of light winked on a hilltop above us as the sun reflected off a shield. It was the agreed signal.
Alectryon said, ‘They are here.’
I sent the charioteers back to untie the horses. The rest of us flattened ourselves on the hilltop. A moment later the first ship came into sight, driving through the narrow straits beyond the Holy Island. She was a heavy, lumbering vessel, far too broad in the beam for speed, but she was crammed with men. A single figure stood on the afterdeck.
‘Temenos?’ I queried, looking at Alectryon.
He nodded. ‘Probably.’
Two more ships followed in the wake of the first. Alectryon said, ‘I should guess they belong to the other two leaders, Cresphontes and Deiphontes. The whole tribe is here.’
I said, ‘I still find it hard to believe we have got to fight Cresphontes.’
Alectryon said nothing, but his face was grim. Melanthos was counting the ships as they rounded the point. After a little he fell silent and we just watched them coming into the bay, one after another.
Below us the men on the beach were ready for action, a dense line of spears and shields along the water’s edge. Behind them the archers stood ready with strung bows. The leading ships took position across the bay, the first opposite the centre of our line, the other two facing the two wings. Behind them the other ships turned clumsily from column into line abreast. I heard an order shouted and saw the rowers bend to their oars and they all came on as fast as they could go towards the beach.
When they were within range the archers opened fire. We could see arrows finding their mark, but still the ships came on. As soon as the keels grounded men swarmed over the sides and up the beaches, to be met by our warriors with sword and spear. Like waves, the lines of attackers rushed up to the solid barrier of our men and fell back again into the sea, many never to rise again. Yet still more and more flung themselves against the defending line.
Alectryon muttered, ‘Great Gods! They have courage enough, these Dorians!’
At length the rising tide of armed men began to force our line back. Then there was a sudden wild cheer and I saw that at one point the line had broken and the attackers rushed through the breach and up the shore. A detachment of chariotry was on them immediately and the flood was stemmed, only to break through a moment later at another point. Alectryon gripped my arm and pointed.
‘Look. Do you see who is leading the attack on this wing?’
I followed his arm. ‘Cresphontes!’
He looked round and said, ‘I think our moment has almost come.’
I sent the rest of my followers back to their chariots and Alectryon and I stayed on to watch for the right moment to charge. All along the beach now our line was wavering and falling back. Behind it the chariots dashed to and fro, cutting down those attackers who broke through, but they were becoming more and more numerous and here and there I could see groups of our warriors cut off by the hordes and forced to dismount and fight hand to hand.
Alectryon muttered. ‘Our fleet should be here by now! We need them to stop any more disembarking.’
As he spoke a yell went up from just below us and I saw that two ships had grounded beyond the end of our left wing. The crews spilled out into the shallows and charged up the beach to take our men in the flank. The line of defenders wavered, broke and fell back.
‘Now!’ Alectryon said.
We ran back down the hill. I leapt into my chariot and cried, ‘Drive, Neritos!’
We surged forward and the rest of the company closed in behind us. Alectryon took his station on my right, Melanthos on my left. In a tight, compact formation we swept round the shoulder of the hill and up behind the mass of Dorians. As we came in sight of them I raised the war cry and heard it taken up all around me. The Dorians checked and faced about and on the far side our men rallied and returned to the attack. Then we were among them. Faces appeared before me, teeth bared, eyes glittering and I thrust with my spear and dragged it back until my arm ached.
For a few moments it seemed as if we should clear that section of the beach. Then I heard behind me a terrifying, half-forgotten sound – the trumpets of the Dorians. Not one this time but many, braying and shrieking as a fresh wave of men stormed up the beach. The effect was disastrous. Horses reared and plunged and our men everywhere lowered their weapons and cried out with terror.
I tried to shout above the din, ‘Don’t be afraid! It is only their war horns!’
Then the fight surged around me again. There was no longer room to manoeuvre the chariot. I shouted to Neritos, ‘Keep close behind me!’ and leapt down to fight on foot.
The time that followed was filled with one grim encounter after another. Some were brief – a new face, a thrust with my sword and the face disappeared. Others were longer – a bitter duel in which the man behind the opposing shield became for a moment a personality. I thrust and cut and parried, my body wet with sweat and my ears deafened with shouts and the clash of metal. I had lost sight of most of my followers. Alectryon had been at my side to begin with, his shield guarding my right flank, but then he had disappeared. At the back of my mind was the terrible suspicion that he had fallen and was lying somewhere in the mêlèe, dead or wounded. Only Neritos was still with me, keeping the chariot so near that I could feel the breath of the horses on the back of my neck.
Suddenly, among all the strange faces, I found myself looking into eyes that I knew.
‘Xouthos!’
I saw from his wolvish grin that he had recognised me and for an instant I lowered my sword. Only instinct brought my shield up in time to deflect the blow he aimed at me and I felt his blade burn along my jaw. At the same moment I thrust at him and saw the grin vanish suddenly from his face. He fell at my feet. I looked down and saw that my blade had gone in under his ribs and there was no doubt that he was dead.
For an instant no new opponent faced me and I was able to look around me. I realised that my companions and I were a few small islands of resistance in the middle of a great flood of attackers. The main battle line had passed on inland. If we stayed where we were we should undoubtedly perish. I leapt up beside Neritos and yelled to my followers above the din, ‘Follow me!’ Then, to Neritos, ‘Let’s get clear of this. Circle round towards the city, so that we are between them and the palace.’
Neritos touched the chestnuts with the whip and they sprang forward, carrying us clear of the mêlèe. My companions remounted their chariots and followed. On a piece of rising ground, I stopped and the others gathered round me. There was no sign of Alectryon. I questioned them all anxiously but they could only say that, when last seen, he had been on his feet and fighting. In vain I scanned the battlefield. There was only a seething mass of Dorian heads, with not a bronze helmet to be seen among them.
Already the fighting had spread across the flat land and reached the hills and still our men were falling back. Then Melanthos shouted, ‘Look!’
He was pointing seawards and I turned to see the first ships of our fleet sailing into the bay. A cheer went up all round the battlefield. I turned to my friends. ‘One more charge and we shall sweep them back into the sea, and my lord Echelaon and his men can finish them off for us!’
They gave me a cheer, though it was a weary one now, and we swung about and galloped back onto the plain. Everyone had taken new heart from the arrival of the fleet and for a short ti
me we did begin to drive the invaders back. Then we heard shouts of alarm. Neritos gripped my arm and said, ‘Poseidon help us now!’
Out in the bay a second force of Dorian ships, which must have been lying out of sight beyond the point, had closed with our fleet and a fierce sea fight was in progress. Once again our men wavered and the Dorians charged and drove us back. We were fighting on the rising ground now, our forces concentrated on the entrance to the valley where the road led up to the city. The whole of the plain was filled with the enemy. Behind me, and towards the centre of the line, I suddenly heard the war cry raised with fresh power. Looking round, I realised that my father and the Companion chariotry, who had been held in reserve, had charged down from the city. They were the pick of the fighting men and the centre of the Dorian advance was split like a log under the woodman’s axe. This much I saw, and then there was no more time to gaze around me.
My memories of the battle after that are fragmentary. For a while we seemed to be winning, but the sheer weight of their numbers drove us back again. We fought on, in the city itself now, giving ground step by step up the steep streets, deserted by those who had lived there. Here, among the houses, it was no longer possible to see the general pattern of the battle.
Neritos and I had just fallen back to the top of a steep and narrow street. The chariot blocked it completely and I had dismounted to face seven or eight Dorians below, who were trying to make up their minds to rush us. Then behind me I heard the rumble of chariot wheels and looked round. It was Alectryon, alone and driving his own chariot. I cried out with relief at the sight of him.
He reined in his horses and called, ‘Come! You must come back to the palace at once.’
I stared at him. He had a cut over one eye and his face was streaked with blood.
‘Back?’
Below us the Dorians began their charge. Neritos cast his spear at the leader and felled him, which checked the others for a moment. Alectryon dismounted and seized my arm. ‘Do as I ask you. You must come!’
Dazed, I let him drag me to his chariot and shouted to Neritos, ‘Follow!’ As Alectryon wheeled his horses and galloped up through the town I asked, ‘What is it? What do you want me to do?’
He did not answer until we reached the hilltop. Then I saw that our forces, or what was left of them, had fallen back inside the wall and fierce fighting was already going on at several points around it. One or two more chariots thundered up behind us. Alectryon jumped down and flung the reins to a waiting soldier. He led me inside the wall and, as soon as we were through, the heavy barricade that had been prepared for the purpose was dragged across the opening.
Alectryon led me across the courtyard, now crowded with weary and wounded men, towards the portico of the palace. As we reached it one of the Royal Companions ran up.
Alectryon said, ‘Have you found them?’
‘Some,’ the other man answered harshly. ‘The Lawagetas is dead.’
‘Dead!’ I exclaimed.
We were in the inner court now. Alectryon took me by the shoulders and looked into my eyes. ‘Alkmaion, your father is dead also.’ I gazed at him speechlessly. He went on, ‘He was killed in that first charge. He insisted on leading it and, of course, every Dorian in the army aimed a spear at him. He fought magnificently and made it possible for the Companions to break through the line, but then there was no way back.’
I stared hard at the baldric from which his sword hung, and murmured, ‘Only when all seemed lost, he said.’
Alectryon let me go and went suddenly on his knee. ‘You are the King now. You must be crowned at once.’
I stared at him, bewildered. ‘Crowned? Now? Don’t be a fool! We must fight.’
He rose and said tensely, ‘Listen. The men are disheartened. Your father’s death seems to them a mark of the disfavour of the Goddess. They must see you, the new King, sanctified by Her blessing. Everything is prepared. We have gathered as many of the Royal Kin as possible. Come!’
Too stunned to argue any further I allowed him to lead me into the megaron. There a handful of men were waiting, and they all fell on their knees as I entered. I looked round. Peisistratos was there, Antilochos and Perimedes, Melanthos, a few of the Companions – and the priests. Peisistratos rose and led me to my father’s chair.
The ceremony was hasty and perfunctory and I remember little of it, except that as Antilochos kissed my hand, along with the rest, in sign of allegiance I was struck by the irony of the situation. All the time the noise of battle grew louder and closer.
As soon as the rite was over I leapt up and drew my sword, crying, ‘Now! Let us drive this Dorian rabble out of my palace!’
As I did so the door burst open and Neritos flung himself inside.
‘It is useless,’ he shouted. ‘They have broken through the wall. We cannot hold them back.’
I ran to the porch and as I reached it the gates of the palace burst open and the Dorians charged through. At their head was Cresphontes. I would have rushed out to meet him and found my death there and then but Alectryon seized me in a grip of iron and shouted, '‘No!'
Someone said, ‘This way! The chariots are on the road.’
Perephonios, always one of the bravest of my father’s Companions, leapt forward with a shout into the courtyard. Others followed him and for a moment Cresphontes’s advance was checked. Alectryon thrust me back towards the ante-room. I protested and Melanthos seized my other arm. I remember that I tried to fight them off, until Alectryon shouted, ‘What profits your death now? Pylos needs her King.’
Then I allowed them to hustle me into a corridor that ran towards the storerooms at the back of the palace. Already I could hear the Dorians breaking open the rooms leading off the courtyard. I stopped again, abruptly. ‘The women!’
‘Safe already,’ Alectryon said tersely, urging me forwards. ‘They were sent into the hills as soon as the first break through occurred.’
We hurried through the storerooms, between the great jars of oil and sacks of grain, and came to a door leading to the outside. Peisistratos opened it, sword in hand, and looked out. Then he went through and beckoned us after him. As yet none of the invaders had penetrated to the back of the palace. We ran through the olive trees, scaled the wall, which was less than shoulder height at this point, and regained the road above the palace. Here the chariots were waiting and I understood why Alectryon had left them outside the wall.
As soon as we had mounted Alectryon led the way inland at full gallop. As we gained the first rise I looked back. The hilltop swarmed with men. All resistance seemed to be at an end and already I could see bent figures staggering back towards their ships, laden with the spoils of victory. Out in the bay the black hulls or our fleet drifted, waterlogged and burning. The Dorians must have seen us escaping, but no one pursued us. They were too busy carrying off the riches they had once envied from a distance.
Chapter 12
Alectryon led us to a hilltop some distance from the palace where there was a small temple to the Mistress. Already there was a little group of refugees there – my cousins Amphidora and Thalamista; Peisistratos’s wife and their little daughter Klais; some of the palace servants – and the boy Thaleus, Persepolis’s son. These, together with the survivors of the Royal Kin who had been present in the megaron, seemed to be all that were left of the Royal Household. The two girls fell upon me, sobbing, and I longed to thrust them off, for I was suddenly so weary and sick of heart that I would have welcomed death.
Warm lips were pressed to my hand and I looked down to find Andria kneeling at my feet. I found enough spirit to say,
‘You see. You are not going back to Cresphontes.’
Alectryon was beside me and as I looked at him he knelt and bent his head.
‘Forgive me, my lord. I used violence towards you which only your own imminent peril could possibly excuse.’
I turned away and sank down on a rock. ‘Why didn’t you let me stay and die an honourable death?’
‘
Because we need you alive! You are the last Prince of Pylos – now our King. Who else could rally the men?’
‘What hope is there of that now?’ I asked dismally.
‘Have you forgotten the second army at Apeke? And what of our allies in Mycenae? Penthilos will bring their army to help us. After all, he is your brother-in-law.’
I looked round at him and reached out to press his hand. ‘You always see further than I do. I should remember that by now.’
The sun was setting. It was clear that the Dorians were too occupied in ravaging the palace to follow us – or perhaps they had no further interest in us. Wearily we disarmed and the women tended our wounds. When Andria had finished bandaging mine I got up and went to the edge of the rocky platform on which the sanctuary stood, from where I could look down on the city. Alectryon came and stood silently beside me. After a moment I remembered that he had come to find me alone, driving his own chariot. I said, ‘Dexeus?’
‘Dead,’ he said flatly. ‘Killed by an arrow in that first charge. I couldn’t even go back for his body. That was how I became separated from you. There was no one to keep my chariot near me.’
‘Poor Dexeus!’ I whispered.
I heard him swallow and then he said, ‘He had been with me from his childhood – almost from mine. I shall miss him.’
Neritos, who was standing nearby, turned away and sank down with his head in his arms. In spite of their differences, he had grown fond of Dexeus.
I drew a little closer to Alectryon, beginning to shiver from exhaustion and despair. As usual, he had prudently brought a cloak with him while I had lost mine. He made to drape it round my shoulders and then hesitated and said formally, ‘Will you take this, my lord?’
I gazed at him uncomprehendingly for a moment and then shook my head, not in refusal but in mute protest at his tone. He understood and wrapped the cloak round both of us, his arm around my shoulders. I leaned against him, unable as yet to think of the sanctity of the person of the King.
