‘Yes,’ cried Podarces, ‘I was bought. You may say it was my sister, you may say it was the gods. There is a reason for all things. I, Podarces, of the blood of Tros and Ilus, tell you this. Troy will rise again. We will build her up so that she is finer, richer, stronger and greater than she ever was before. Greater than any city in the world in all mortal history.’
Despite his youth, and the dirt and dust that clung to him, the Trojans could not fail to be impressed by the strength and conviction that rang in his voice.
‘I am not ashamed that my sister bought my freedom,’ he went on. ‘It may be that time will prove me worth the expense. I prophesy that, in buying me, Hesione ransomed Troy itself. For I am Troy. As I grow to manhood so Troy will grow to greatness.’
Ludicrous for one so young to be so self-confident, and yet no one could deny the lad had presence. The Trojans joined Podarces in kneeling down and casting up a prayer to the gods.
So it was that, from that day on, Podarces led his people and directed the rebuilding of their ruined city. He did not mind that everyone now called him ‘the One Who Was Bought’, which in the Trojan language was PRIAM. In time that became his name.
We will leave young Priam, standing proud amongst the ashes and rubble of Troy, and travel over the sea to Greece. Things worth taking note of are happening there.
THE BROTHERS
We left Telamon sailing to Salamis with his new bride Hesione. Telamon and his family play an important enough role in the story of Troy to justify our going back in time to look at their origins. Once again I charge you not to remember every detail, but following these stories – these ‘origin stories’ as we might call them now – is worthwhile and enough will stick in the memory as we go. Besides, they are excellent stories.
Telamon and his brother PELEUS grew up on the island of Aegina, a prosperous naval and commercial power situated in the Saronic Gulf, the bay that lies between the Argolid to the west and Attica, Athens and mainland Greece to the east.fn6 Their father AEACUS, the island’s founder king, was a son of Zeus and Aegina, a water nymph who gave the island its name. The boys grew up in the royal palace as loyally close as brothers can happily be, and as arrogantly entitled as princely grandsons of Zeus can less happily be. Their mother ENDEIS, a daughter of the centaur CHIRON and the nymph Chariclo, doted on them, and a future of comfort and easy power seemed assured. As usual, the Fates had other ideas.
King Aeacus turned away from Endeis and consorted with the sea nymph PSAMATHE, who presented him with a son, PHOCUS. As ageing fathers will, King Aeacus doted on his youngest child, the ‘consolation for my old age’ as he lovingly called him. Phocus grew into a popular and athletic boy, the darling of the palace. Endeis could not abide the role of neglected first wife and became consumed by a jealous hatred of Psamathe and her child, a jealousy shared by the boy’s half-brothers, Telamon and Peleus, now in their early twenties.
‘Look at him, swaggering around the place as if he owned it …’ hissed Endeis, as she and her sons, from behind a column, watched Phocus march down a corridor, making trumpet noises.
‘If father gets his way, he will own it …’ said Telamon.
‘Loathsome little brat …’ muttered Peleus. ‘Someone should teach him a lesson.’
‘We can do more than that,’ said Endeis. She lowered her voice to a whisper. ‘Aeacus is planning a pentathlon in honour of Artemis. I think we should persuade little Phocus to enter. Now listen …’
Phocus had never been more excited about anything. A pentathlon! And his big brothers were urging him to take part. He had always imagined that they didn’t like him very much. Perhaps it was because he had been too young to join in with their hunting expeditions. This must be a sign that they now thought him grown up enough.
‘You’ll need to practise,’ Peleus warned.
‘Oh yes,’ said Telamon. ‘We don’t want you to make a fool of yourself in front of the king and the court.’
‘I won’t let you down,’ said Phocus earnestly. ‘I’ll practise every hour of every day, I promise.’
From the shelter of a stand of trees Telamon and Peleus watched their little brother throwing his discus in a field outside the palace walls. He was disconcertingly good.
‘How can someone that size throw it so far?’ asked Telamon.
Peleus held up his own discus and weighed it in his hands. ‘I can throw further,’ he said. Taking aim, he turned, twisted his body round and released. The discus flew flat and fast through the air and struck Phocus on the back of the head. The boy went down without a sound.
The brothers raced to the spot. Phocus was quite dead.
‘An accident,’ whispered the panicked Telamon. ‘We were all practising and he ran in front of your throw.’
‘I don’t know,’ said Peleus, white in the face. ‘Will we be believed? The whole court knows how much we resented him.’
They gazed down at the body, exchanged glances, nodded and grasped each other firmly by the forearms by way of sealing an unspoken bond. Twenty minutes later they were spreading dried leaves and twigs over the bare earth beneath which their young half-brother’s body lay buried.
When word spread around the palace and grounds that Prince Phocus was missing, no one could have been more anxious to find him than Endeis and her sons. While Endeis patted the hand of her hated rival Psamathe and poured words of hope into her ear, Telamon and Peleus noisily joined the hue and cry.
King Aeacus had climbed onto the roof of the palace and from this high vantage point he called down in an ever more frantic voice the name of his beloved young son into the fields and woods on all sides. He was interrupted by a shy cough. A dusty and begrimed old slave was approaching him.
‘What are you doing up here?’
The old slave bowed low. ‘Forgive me, lord king, I know where the young prince is.’
‘Where?’
‘I come up to these roofs every day, your majesty. It’s my job to keep everything watertight with thatch and pitch. Around noontide I chanced to look down and I saw it. I saw it all.’
The roofer led the king to the spot where Phocus was buried. Peleus and Telamon were summoned, confessed their crime and found themselves banished from the kingdom of their birth.
TELAMON IN EXILE
Telamon made his way to the nearby island of Salamis, ruled over by King CYCHREUS, whose mother, the sea nymph Salamis, gave the island its name.fn7 Cychreus took a liking to Telamon and – as only kings, priests and immortals could – he offered to cleanse him of his abominable blood crime of fratricide.fn8 This done, he appointed Telamon his heir, giving him his daughter Glauce’s hand in marriage. In due course Glauce presented her husband with a baby son of magnificent size, weight and lustiness, whom they named AJAX, a name which would one day be known in every corner of the world (usually prefixed by the words ‘the mighty’).fn9
We have already followed Telamon’s later adventures and seen how he helped Heracles revenge himself on Laomedon. After the sack of Troy and the slaughter of the entire Trojan royal male line (save Priam), Telamon returned to Salamis with his prize, Hesione, by whom he had another son, TEUCER, who was to make a name for himself as the greatest of the Greek archers.fn10