&&000 Black Ships Before Troy: The Story of the Iliad, by Rosemary Sutcliff
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In the high and far-off days when men were heroes and walked with the gods, =Peleus, king
of the Myrmidons, took for his wife a sea nymph called =Thetis, =Thetis of the Silver Feet.
Many guests came to their wedding feast, and among the mortal guests came all the gods of high
=Olympus.

But as they sat feasting, one who had not been invited was suddenly in their midst. =Eris,
the goddess of discord, had been left out because wherever she went she took trouble with her;
yet here she was, all the same, and in her blackest mood, to avenge the insult.

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The Greeks did not have smooth sailing. Storms beat them this way and that, and more than
once they met with enemy fleets and had to fight them off. But at last they came in sight
of the coast below =Troy city.

Then they made a race of it, the rowers quickening the oar beat, thrusting their ships through
the water, each eager to come first to land. The race was won by the ship of Prince =Protesilaus,
but as the prince sprang ashore, an arrow from among the defenders took him in the throat and
he dropped just above the tide line, the first of the Greeks to come ashore, the first man to
die in the long war for =Troy.

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Below, in the open space between the armies, a rough altar had been set up.  The two lambs were
sacrificed, and a great oath was taken by the leaders of both sides, to abide by the outcome of the
combat, whatever it might be.  Then a square fighting ground was marked off and, while the two
champions stood facing each other, two wooden tablets, one marked for =Paris and one for =Menelaus,
were put into a helmet, and =Hector shook them up to decide who should cast the first spear.

=Paris' lot flew out on to the trampled ground.  There was a deep breath from those near enough
to see. "=Paris! =Paris has first throw!"

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=Hector's world darkened and swam, but he scrambled, gasping, to his feet, his hand going for his
sword. =Ajax's sword was also out, and in a moment more the would have been close locked, blade to
blade, but heralds from both sides came running and thrust their staves between them and bade them
cease, for both had proved themselves worthy champions, and the night was coming on.

Leaning on his sword, with the sunset dazzling his eyes, =Hector agreed to their command. "Let us
stop the fighting for this day. We shall fight on afterward until the gods send one of us the victory.
But now the day ends, and it is good to give way to the night."

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But that charge broke before it reached them, for =Agamemnon had taken a spear gash in his arm, and
the wound bled so much that he must needs climb into his chariot and be driven back to the ships for
tending.

And =Hector, seeing this, shouted the war cry like a huntsman crying on his hounds against a lion,
and rushed forward at the head of his warriors, scattering the Greeks like spray. Indeed, he would
have driven them back to the ships again in one great thrust, but =Odysseus and =Diomedes stood
firm amid the rout, slaying all about them.  Four of the Trojan chieftains went down to the
thrusting of their mighty spears, and the Greeks took heart again and rallied.  As =Hector loosed the
next battle rush against them, =Diomedes caught him a great blow on the helmet, which, though it
did not pierce the shining bronze, sent him crashing to the ground.

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Shouting to the =Myrmidons to follow, =Patroclus was crashing in among the =Trojans round the ships,
slaying as he went, hurling back the flame bearers, thrusting after them as they wavered and gave ground
and streamed away.  And in a while the ships were clear and the fires quenched, and the Trojans once more
beyond the ditch that was now jagged with broken chariots, their horses flying loose across the plain.

After the horses of =Achilles cleared the ditch, and =Patroclus flung them forward to come between the
Trojans and the walls of their own city, cutting them off and herding them back toward the ranks of the
Greeks, who were hastily making ready to receive them.

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But when the feasting was over and all men had gone to their own sleeping places, there was no sleep for
=Achilles; and in the darkness he wept for =Patroclus and the loss of al that they had known and shared
together. At last he sprang up and went down to the seashore and fell to pacing the desolate tide line
until the darkness paled into the dawn.  But there was no comfort for him in the new morning; and like a
man driven out of his wits by grief, he went up to the horse-yard and yoked up his horses and led them to
where the body of =Hector still lay facedown in the dust.  He bound him again to the chariot=tail, and so
drove out of the camp and three times round dead =Patroclus' grave mound, dragging dead =Hector behind him
in the dust.

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When the priestess came past again, the light from her torch fluttered on the small beautiful thing lying
there, and she stooped and picked it up and looked at it curiously.  The stopper seemed a little loose, and
a fragrance stole from it that was like the scent of all the flowers in the country of her youth.

She opened it and sniffed, then tongue-tip tasted the syrupy drug.  It seemed to her the sweetest taste that
ever she had known, and she tasted again and again, more and more deeply, until she found the flask was
nearly empty.  Then, guiltily, she pushed in the stopper and laid the flask own again, and moved on,
murmuring her prayer.

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Then =Ajax and =Odysseus stood up to claim =Achilles' armor, both sure of their own worth, and both of them
the bravest of the brave. And old =Nestor stood up also, saying, "This is a grievous thing, that the best of
the heroes left to us should contend for such a prize. For the loser will be sore at heart and may well feel
that we have rejected him and he is not one of as he was before; and so we shall suffer great loss.  But if
the thing must be, then let us not judge between them ourselves lest, one choosing =Odysseus and another =Ajax,
bad blood should grow between us that way. There are many Trojan captives among us, waiting for their ransoms
to be paid. Let the task of judgement be given to them."

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That made the Trojans yet more curious, and =Priam bade him to go on. So he told them, weeping and shuddering,
that the Greeks had consulted an oracle as to their homeward voyage, and the oracle had bidden them to sacrifice
one of their number to gain fair winds and calm seas.  They had asked =Calchas to choose the sacrifice, and
=Calchas had chosen him, =Sinon. So he had been bound and held fast while the great horse, which was their
peace offering to =Athene, was built, and he would have been dead by now if he had not managed to escape and
hide among the reeds until the ships had sailed.