‘Make it so,’ he said with a heavy sigh and an irritated flick of the hand.
Hesione was taken and chained to a rock in the Hellespont to await her fate at the jaws of the sea beast.fn12
All Troy held its breath.
Salvation and Destruction
SEE, THE CONQUERING HERO COMES
At exactly this time, the very moment that Hesione, shackled to her rock, began to cast up prayers to Olympus for her delivery from Poseidon’s sea dragon, Heracles and his band of followers arrived at the gates of Troy on their way back from his Ninth Labour, the acquisition of the girdle of Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons.fn1
With his friends TELAMON and OICLES by his side, Heracles was ushered into the royal presence. Honoured by the visit of the great hero as the Trojan court was, Laomedon’s mind was more on his plague-ridden and beleaguered city’s depleted storerooms than on the privilege of playing host to Heracles and his followers, however famous and admired they may be. It was a small army that travelled with him, but Laomedon knew that they would all expect to be fed. Heracles alone had the appetite of a hundred men.
‘You’re very welcome, Heracles. Do you plan to honour us with your company for long?’
Heracles looked about the sombre court in some surprise. ‘Why the long faces? I had been told that Troy was the richest and happiest kingdom in the world.’
Laomedon shifted on his throne. ‘You of all men should know that we are but playthings of the gods. What is a man but the hapless victim of their petty whims and vengeful jealousies? Apollo sends us contagion and Poseidon a monster that chokes our sea channel.’
Heracles listened to Laomedon’s self-pitying and largely fabricated version of the events leading up to Hesione’s sacrifice.
‘Doesn’t seem so difficult a problem to me,’ he said. ‘All you need is for someone to clear the seaway of that dragon and save your daughter – what did you say her name was?’
‘Hesione.’fn2
‘Yes, her. The plague will blow through soon enough, I dare say, they always do …’
Laomedon was dubious. ‘That’s all very well, but what about my daughter?’
Heracles bowed. ‘The work of a moment.’
Laomedon, like everyone in the Greek world, had heard stories of the Labours that Heracles had undertaken – the cleaning out of King Augeas’s stables, the taming of the Cretan Bull, the trapping of the great tusked boar of Mount Erymanthus, the killing of the Nemean Lion and the eradication of the Lernaean Hydra … If this lumbering ox of a man with a lion skin for clothing and an oak tree for a club had in truth performed such impossible feats and defeated such terrible creatures, then he might be able to free up the Hellespont and rescue Hesione. But there was always the question of payment.
‘We’re not a rich kingdom …’ Laomedon lied.
‘Don’t you worry about that,’ said Heracles. ‘All I would ask for in return is your horses.’
‘My horses?’
‘The horses my father Zeus sent to your grandfather Tros.’
‘Ah, those horses.’ Laomedon waved a hand as if to say, ‘Is that all?’ ‘My dear man, clear the channel of that dragon and restore my daughter to me and you shall have them – yes, and their silver bridles too.’
Less than an hour later Heracles, blade between his teeth, had dived into the waters of the Hellespont and was breasting Poseidon’s rising surge. Hesione, chained to her rock, the waters now coming up to her waist, watched in astonishment as a huge, muscled man, kicking hard, headed straight towards the narrowest part of the channel, where the dragon lurked.
Laomedon, Telamon and Oicles, with the rest of Heracles’ loyal company of Greeks behind them, watched from the shore. Telamon whispered to Oicles, ‘Look at her! Did you ever see anyone more beautiful?’
While Hesione did present a most alluring sight, Oicles had eyes only for the spectacle of his leader engaging a great sea dragon in the simple, direct and violently confrontational manner for which he was celebrated. Heracles headed directly towards the creature, but far from showing fear the dragon opened its mouth wide and itself made for Heracles.
Oicles thought he had the measure of his friend and commander, but what Heracles did next was entirely unexpected. Without breaking stroke he swam straight into the monster’s open mouth. The cheers from the shoreline were choked into a shocked silence as Heracles disappeared from sight. With a gulp and a snap of its colossal jaws the creature rose up with a roar of triumph before diving down into the deeps. Hesione was saved – for the moment at least – but Heracles … Heracles was lost. Heracles the greatest, strongest, bravest and noblest of heroes swallowed whole, without so much as a struggle.
Oicles and the others should have known better, of course. From inside the animal’s stinking interior Heracles immediately busied himself hacking hard with his blade. After what seemed an eternity, scales and chunks of flesh came bobbing to the surface.fn3 Telamon was the first to see them and pointed with a great shout as the sea began to boil with blood and torn flesh. When Heracles himself at last arose with a heaving gasp, seawater streaming from him, the assembled Greeks and Trojans gave a mighty hurrah. How could they have doubted the greatest of all the heroes?
A short while later the shivering Hesione gratefully accepted Telamon’s cloak and supporting arm as she and the cheering soldiers accompanied Heracles back to Laomedon.fn4
Some people are constitutionally unable to learn from their mistakes. When Heracles demanded the horses which had been agreed would constitute his payment, Laomedon sucked in through his teeth with a hiss, just as he had done with Apollo and Poseidon.
‘Oh no, no, no,’ he said shaking his head from side to side. ‘No, no, no, no, no. The agreement was that you free up the Hellespont, not leave it all clogged with blubber, blood and bones. It’ll take my men weeks to clean up the mess on the shoreline. “Free up the Hellespont” – those were your very words and those the terms. Can you deny it?’
Laomedon jutted out his beard and gave a piercing glance around the room towards the assembled courtiers and members of his elite royal guard.
‘His very words …’
‘“Free it up,” he said …’
‘As ever, your majesty is right …’
‘You see? So I can’t possibly pay you. Grateful to have Hesione back, of course, but I’m sure the dragon would have done her no harm. Could have collected her from the rock ourselves in due course, and certainly without making a mess like that.’
With a roar of indignation Heracles took up his club. The soldiers of Laomedon’s guard immediately drew their swords and formed a defensive circle around their king.
Telamon whispered urgently in Heracles’ ear. ‘Leave it, my friend. We’re outnumbered a thousand to one. Besides, you have to be back in Tiryns in time to start your Tenth and last Labour. If you’re so much as a day late you’ll forfeit everything. Nine years of effort wasted. Come on, he’s not worth it.’
Heracles lowered his club and spat at the semicircle of soldiers behind which Laomedon was cowering. ‘Your majesty hasn’t seen the last of me,’ he growled. Executing a low bow he turned and left.