"The Song of Troy" by Colleen McCullough, summary

The Trojan War is presented as a series of monologues by twelve participants in the expedition, deprived of divine intervention and grounded in the harsh geopolitics of the Bronze Age. Control over the Hellespont gave the Dardanian kings a monopoly on the transport of copper and Scythian tin, cutting off the Greek tribes from the raw materials for weapon casting. This book was written in 1998. The author created a historical reconstruction of the epic after working on the Roman cycle, dedicating the work to the memory of her deceased brother, Charles.

The origins of enmity and the birth of heroes

King Laomedon refused to pay tribute to the temple of Poseidon for the construction of fortifications. The sea god unleashed a ferocious lion with a trident on its side onto the pastures, demanding spring and autumn human sacrifices. Heracles and his companions Theseus and Telamon undertook to destroy the predator in exchange for Laomedon’s famous horses. King Hesione’s daughter was already chained to an oak tree. The Achaean hero crushed the beast’s skull with a club. The Trojan ruler broke the agreement. Enraged, Heracles slew the king’s sons and gave young Hesione to Telamon, King of Salamis. The throne passed to his surviving son, Podarces, who took the name Priam.

The ruler did not forget the disgrace. Trade through the Hellespont was closed to the Achaeans forever. Priam’s son Paris was born.

In Thessaly, the High King Peleus forcibly captured Thetis, the high priestess of the sea gods, on a cliff. Six of her sons perished at her hand: the mad mother drowned the infants in a vat of salt water to grant them immortality. Peleus rescued his seventh son during childbirth, breaking down the doors of his bedchamber. The infant was named Achilles because of his lack of full lips. The insulted wife left Iolcus.

The boy grew up on Mount Pelion with the old centaur Chiron. His cousin Ajax studied nearby. The young man eagerly absorbed healing, hunting, lyre playing, and running. His instructor was amazed by the speed of his feet. His right foot sometimes failed him when jumping.

Matchmaking and abduction

The Spartan princess Helen was basking in universal adoration. Menelaus stuttered at the sight of her figure.

A hundred noblemen came to Amyclae to demand the hand of King Tyndareus’s stepdaughter. The Ithacan ruler Odysseus offered a way out in exchange for his assistance in marrying Penelope. The suitors swore on the butchered carcass of a white stallion to protect their chosen one from any wrongdoers. The lot fell on Menelaus. The marriage bed seemed like torture to the girl.

The grown Trojan prince Paris arrived in Sparta under the pretext of purging himself from an accidental hunting accident. His host had sailed to Crete to bury his grandfather, Catreus. The guest shamelessly seduced the royal wife with his words. That night, the woman escaped to the ships, taking with her gold bars from the Lacedaemonian treasury. Priam greeted his daughter-in-law with delight. His son, Hector, insisted on the immediate surrender of the fugitive to her lawful husband. Old Antenor showered the lovers with curses. The city’s doors slammed shut.

Gatherings in Aulis

An insulted Menelaus came to Mycenae to visit his elder brother. Supreme King Agamemnon seized the opportunity to wage war over metal and markets.

The messengers reminded the suitors of the oath sworn on the stallion’s carcass. In Ithaca, Odysseus feigned madness, sowing a field with salt using a team of mules and oxen. Palamedes placed the infant Telemachus under the plow. The father pulled back the ploughshare. The ruse was revealed.

The soothsayer Calchas prophesied the impossibility of victory without Achilles’ participation. His mother hid the Thessalian heir on Skyros among the royal daughters of Lycomedes, dressing him in a woman’s peplos. Odysseus laid out cloths and weapons before the recluse women. Ajax’s sudden battle cry and the clash of blades compelled the recluse to seize her axe. The deception was instantly shattered.

One thousand two hundred ships filled the bay of Aulis. A northern storm prevented the fleet from weighing anchor for many weeks. An albino priest proclaimed the will of the goddess Artemis, demanding the sacrifice of the king’s eldest daughter, Iphigenia, as atonement. Odysseus lured the girl from Mycenae with the promise of marriage to Achilles. The father allowed his firstborn’s throat to be slit before the eyes of the army. The Thessalian prince cursed the leader for his dishonor. The sea became calm at dawn.

Nine years of devastation

The fleet landed near Sigeum. The first to die was the Phylacean leader Protesilaus, who took a blow from the Trojan warrior Cycnus. Achilles strangled the son of Poseidon with the straps of his helmet. The siege dragged on. The city walls, made of smooth hewn stone, thirty cubits high and twelve meters thick at the base, protected the besieged from any battering ram.

The Achaeans built a fortified camp between the mouths of the Simois and Scamander rivers. The army was divided in two. The second army, led by Achilles and Ajax, spent nine years ravaging the coast of Asia Minor from Lesbos to Cilicia. The Greeks burned the cities of Priam’s allies, intercepted grain caravans, and sold the inhabitants into Syrian slavery. The camp was supplied with captured sheep and wine.

The fall of the defenders and the capture of the city

Lyrnessus fell under the attack of the Myrmidons. The king’s daughter, Briseis, was brought to Achilles’ tent. Chryseis was given to Agamemnon. A plague broke out in the camp. Calchas demanded that Chryseis be returned to her priestly father to end the plague. The ruler complied, taking Briseis from the Thessalian leader. Insulted, Achilles led his warriors behind the palisade, forbidding them to enter the field.

The Trojans breached the Achaean wall. Hector set fire to Protesilaus’s flagship. Patroclus donned his friend’s golden armor and led the Myrmidons to recapture the camp. Under the walls of Ilion, an inexperienced warrior stumbled under his heavy cuirass. Hector’s spear pierced the brave man.

Insane grief forced Achilles to forget his strife. Odysseus gave him Daedalus’s wrought iron armor, concealed by a thin sheet of gold. Peleus’s son slaughtered the fugitives in the Scamander River, staining the water brown. Hector fought alone at the Scaean Gate. The point of an ash shaft entered the Trojan’s neck above the collar of his cuirass. The victor tied the corpse by the heels to his chariot, dragging it through the dust before his weeping parents. That night, old Priam crept into the enemy’s tent to kiss the murderer’s hands for the ransom of his beloved’s remains. The dead defender was consigned to the flames with honors.

The peace didn’t last long. The Amazon queen, Penthesilea, fell to the axe of the Thessalian king. Achilles’ son, Neoptolemus, sailed from Scyros to take his father’s place. Paris, lying in ambush, fired an arrow into the hero’s exposed armpit. The deadly feather pierced his lungs. The warrior’s body was rescued by Ajax. The fallen man’s armor was awarded to the Ithacan king. Overcome by madness, Telamon’s son slaughtered a flock of sheep, mistaking the cattle for attackers, and at dawn, he threw himself on Hector’s sword.

Philoctetes struck Paris with Heracles’ arrow. The engineer Epeius carved a hollow horse thirty cubits high from pine logs. A hundred warriors, led by Odysseus, Neoptolemus, and Menelaus, climbed into its belly. The fleet demonstratively sailed beyond the island of Tenedos.

Sinon declared himself a fugitive Greek, convincing the king to accept an offering to Pallas Athena. The townspeople dismantled the top of the Scaean Gate, hauling the massive structure onto the citadel. That night, scouts slaughtered the guards and opened the gates to the returning army. Fire engulfed the sleeping quarters. Neoptolemus cut off Priam’s head at the altar of Apollo. Menelaus lunged at Helen with his sword, dropping the blade at the sight of his wife’s bare breast. Ashes covered the ruined fortress. The victorious ships set out to sea to face the storms.