prologue
~Prologue~
Imagine a party, so grand that no one had ever seen such riches. Imagine a celebration, so full of beauty and enchantment that no one would ever forget it. Imagine a wedding, where Gods and Goddesses and mortals all mingled as equals.
This story starts with such a party.
Held long before the children’s fable of a princess who slept for a hundred years. This was the celebration of the union between one of Poseidon’s sea nymphs, Thetis and her mortal lover Peleus.
Everyone was invited. Everyone except Eris.
Oh there were wedding gifts. You should have seen the wedding gifts.The ring came from Aphrodite; curling arrow-like on Thetis’ finger. From Athene a spear, so sharp it cut through wind. Poseidon, vengeful Poseidon, gave four immortal white Horses that had once been the crests of waves. Ares, the God of war gave the couple a golden breastplate, emblazoned with stars, tempered no doubt, with his savage rage. Hades, the god of the dead, gave a black urn, an image of the three fates engraved on it in gold. With a careless flick of his wrist, a hill of ants were transformed into warriors by Zeus himself. An army that, like ants, fought with one mind. The myrmidons - the fiercest soldiers in the land.
A final gift, unasked for, came from the goddess of strife.
An apple, with a single word enblazened on the side was tossed by an angry, petulant Eris into the heaving crowds.
kallistē ~ for the most beautiful
Of course discord and chaos ensued. Only after seventeen long argumentative years, was a solution found. Prince Paris of Troy, was to choose who was the most beautiful among the goddesses, and thus who the apple should be given to. Paris chose Aphrodite. In return he was promised Helen, famed as the most beautiful mortal woman in all the world. And by making this choice, Paris earned Aphrodite’s utter devotion to Troy, and Hera and Athene’s eternal wrath.
And so Paris stole Helen, poor enchanted Helen, away from the King of Sparta and took her to his home, incurring the wrath of Agamemnon, high king of all of Greece and the hard won truce between the kingdoms of Greece and Troy was fractured.
Even after all the kings of Greece and their armies gathered at the gates of Troy, still the Trojans refused to return her. Rumour had it that Menelaus, the king of the Spartans, was a cruel vindictive husband. King Priam of Troy, was known for his sense of justice and compassion.
Lovers had been married, babies had been been birthed, crawled, toddled and grown into children. Fields had been tilled, crops sown, harvested and eaten, again and again and the war over Helen still raged, for ten long years.
But this story is not about Helen, nor Paris, or any of those people. This is the story of Briseis.
