Warriors in Bronze by George Shipway Page B

guild constructed a close- fitting oxhide casque and sewed upon the outside boars' tusks ranged in rows. Interwoven straps lined the helmet's interior and rested on a skullcap made of felt. A horsehair plume dyed scarlet bannered the crest. I favoured a waisted shield five hides thick, a ten-foot spear and thrusting sword, and brazen greaves fastened at the back by silver wire. The whole outfit cost fif­teen oxen; and until I grew accustomed I waddled beneath the burden like a pregnant woman eight moons gone.
    Though Eurystheus did not evict the men who held the Midean manors, their tributes flowed to Mycenae; Atreus be­came a richer man and the king extremely wealthy. Over­ruling his Marshal, who advised for dynastic reasons that the man was better dead, he banished Amphiaraus. He went to live in Argos; it was rumoured he had foretold Midea's fall, and thereafter earned a reputation as a seer. Following a lenient policy - pointless to sack towns and devastate land whence he intended to gather tribute - Eurystheus allowed Amphiaraus' son Alcmaeon to rule Midea in his stead. Everyone was reason­ably happy; and ox-carts from Midea's cornfields swelled My­cenae's granaries.
    'Which removes for a time the threat of famine,' Atreus said, 'but the people will still go short. Sooner or later we 'll have to break the Theban hold on Orchomenos.'
    About this time - or perhaps a little later; nowadays my memory is apt to go astray - Jason returned from Colchis. Word arrived from Tiryns that Argo had anchored in Nauplia's bay. Jason, the messenger added, resolutely refused to beach his ship or allow anyone on board: he held a cargo for delivery to none but King Eurystheus in person. Rumours of his return had reached us from Iolcos where he first made port; stories of his exploits during a two-year expedition multiplied like maggots in a corpse. He, his ship and crew were names in everyone's mouth; men wanted to meet the mariner and hear the truth from his lips.
    Eurystheus renounced dignity - you don't normally summon kings - and escorted by palace Heroes drove to Nauplia.
    Galleys bristled a sandy beach in rows; every owner had his own particular slip. A wharf of quarried stone jutted from the tide mark a bowshot out to sea; here ships were moored to offload heavy cargo. Seamen clustered in groups on wharf and beach, squatted beside the galleys and cobbled sails and cables, planed the oars. Away to the left reared Nauplia's natural breakwater, a rocky arm of land two hundred foot-lengths high; on the seaward face a cliff fell sheer to the sea. (Aerope's Leap, the people called it, after a doom-laden day in the future.) Solitary in the bay a long black penteconter rocked lazily on the swell.
    Eurystheus drove down the beach till the wheels sank deep in sand, dismounted and greeted Thyestes who, surrounded by attendants, waited to receive him. The Warden of Tiryns wore a gold-embroidered cloak and a vindictive expression, and gestured angrily towards the galley.
    'The harbour master commanded the fellow either to beach or moor at the wharf; he refused both. Spearmen went in a boat to enforce the orders; Jason, damn him, manned the bul­warks and fended them off Is his cargo too precious for ordinary men to see?'
    'It wouldn't surprise me,' Eurystheus said quietly. 'Call to him, my lord: tell him the king is here.'
    Thyestes cupped hands and bawled across the water. The anchor thumped aboard; oars rattled on tholes and paddled Argo to the wharf. Sailors whipped ropes round bollards. Jason leaped ashore and saluted, back of the hand on forehead.
    Sun had burned the mariner's features brown as plough- turned soil, sea rime cindered his beard. Smilingly he said, 'I come to repay my debt, sire. Half of all I brought from Colchis awaits you in the hold. Care to see it?'
    He handed king and Marshal on deck; a jerk of Atreus' head signalled me aboard. Thyestes stayed on the wharf, muttering in his beard and eyeing with growing interest a