The Oracles of Troy (The Adventures of Odysseus)

‘His father was only a little older when he joined the army,’ Eperitus said. ‘And if Neoptolemus is even half the man Achilles was, then wouldn’t he be worth the voyage to Scyros?’

‘Achilles had many qualities, but not all of them were good,’ Agamemnon replied. ‘Do you forget the Trojans broke into this camp while he sat idle and nearly torched the fleet, all because Achilles’s wounded pride would not permit him to fight?’

‘Achilles made the mistake of believing his whims were more important than the war itself,’ Odysseus said. ‘But the gods knew better, and when Achilles’s pride led to the death of Patroclus, his friend and lover, he knew it too. We shouldn’t fool ourselves into thinking these oracles can be ignored. As Helenus says, it’ll require nothing more than a galley or two to fetch Neoptolemus from Scyros and Pelops’s bone from –’

‘The strangest oracle of them all, don’t you think?’ Agamemnon interrupted, narrowing his icy blue eyes as he focussed on Odysseus. ‘I understand the Palladium, and even Neoptolemus; but my grandfather’s shoulder bone?’

‘Who are we to understand the commands of the gods?’ said Nestor. ‘This much I can say, though: Pelops’s shoulder bone was no ordinary bone; it was made of ivory and –’

‘Put there by the gods!’ Odysseus added, his eyes alight with realisation.

‘What do you mean?’ Eperitus asked, confused.

‘I’ll explain another time,’ Odysseus answered in a low voice. He returned his gaze to the Atreides brothers. ‘Whatever the significance, someone has to be sent to Pisa to fetch the bone, and then to Scyros on the return journey to persuade Neoptolemus to come to Troy. We can decide what to do about the Palladium when they get back.’

‘It’s a waste of effort, dreamed up by this Trojan prince to buy Priam more time,’ Menelaus said.

Agamemnon held up a hand to silence his brother’s protests. A moment later, he stood and signalled to one of the attendant slaves, who brought him a krater of wine.

‘If I’ve questioned the significance of these oracles, it isn’t because I was ever in any doubt that we should attempt to fulfil them. After all, didn’t Calchas say we would find the key to the gates of Troy in the temple of Thymbrean Apollo last night? And now, suddenly, three new oracles are revealed to us. No, we must send a ship without further delay.’

‘And who will go?’ Nestor asked.

Menelaus slapped the arm of his chair.

‘Damn it, if we must send someone then let me go. I haven’t seen Greece in ten years, and now the opportunity has arisen I’ll take it.’

‘Would you desecrate our grandfather’s tomb?’ Agamemnon said, angrily. ‘No, you must remain here.’

‘Let me go.’

Agamemnon looked at Odysseus for a moment, then shook his head.

‘Pelops’s tomb is at Pisa in the north-western Peloponnese, just a day’s voyage from Ithaca. Do you think I don’t know where your heart has been through all the years of this war, Odysseus? If I were to send you, the temptation to return home would be too much. You’d never come back.’

Odysseus moved around the hearth to stand opposite Agamemnon.

‘You don’t know that,’ he implored the Mycenaean king. ‘I’m here under oath until Helen is rescued from her captors, and I won’t dishonour myself, my family or the gods by breaking it. Besides, if you want Neoptolemus to come to Troy then you need to send me. Lycomedes, his mother’s father, won’t give him up easily, and I’ve a feeling Neoptolemus himself won’t be simple to persuade. However, if I succeeded with Achilles, I can succeed with his son.’

‘That may be true,’ Nestor said. ‘But I agree with Agamemnon: the lure of seeing Penelope and Telemachus will be too much for you. We can send Diomedes instead.’

Eperitus saw the look of muted exasperation, giving way to disappointment, on Odysseus’s face. Agamemnon and Nestor were right – a voyage to the north-western Peloponnese would take a galley within easy reach of Ithaca, and the temptation of his home and family could prove too great a test for Odysseus. But Odysseus was also right – to bring Neoptolemus to Troy would involve facing his grandfather, the perfidious King Lycomedes, and there was no-one among the Greek kings better equipped for such a task than Odysseus. And then an answer to both dilemmas suddenly occurred to Eperitus. He stepped forward and coughed.

‘There is an alternative.’

The four kings looked at him in quiet surprise. Odysseus, who was not used to being out-thought by Eperitus, raised a questioning eyebrow.

‘Send Odysseus and Diomedes – and me with them – but they should go in one of Diomedes’s ships, with a crew of Argives. That way, Diomedes will captain the galley and can prevent Odysseus succumbing to the temptation to return home.’

There was a moment of silence as the kings pondered his suggestion. Then Agamemnon and Nestor nodded, followed by Menelaus. Odysseus just smiled.

‘And if I protest,’ he said, ‘you can tie me to the mast until Ithaca is far behind us.’