Valerio Mafredi - The Oath

‘Have you been told who I am? The most wicked of men: thief, liar, bloodthirsty plunderer and oath-breaker.’

‘I’ve heard those things. . but my parents have always spoken of you with respect. And they told me that it was you who gave me my name.’

‘That’s right. Because I was full of hatred for everyone.’

I couldn’t say anything else. I wasn’t ready to know the reason for such bitterness.

My uncles didn’t say a word for the whole journey. Their eyes never stopped darting around and their hands stayed on the hilts of their swords. In the end, we reached a house of stone which was set back in a clearing in a thick oak wood and we spent the night there after eating some bread and cheese with a cup of red wine.

‘Tomorrow you’ll eat better,’ said my grandfather and I nodded my head as if to say that anything was fine with me. I was surprised that we’d stopped in such a solitary, unprotected place, but then I thought that grandfather Autolykos had such a terrible reputation that no one would dare come close unless they had sufficient forces to attack or challenge him.

I slept in a bed that smelled of pinewood and I woke up several times in the middle of the night, roused by the sounds coming from outside: grunts, whistles, the cries of nocturnal animals. My hand fell on my dagger more than once. The second time I awoke I saw a sight I would never forget: the peak of Mount Parnassus lit by the full moon. A thin cloud was passing across the snow-topped peak and the reflected moonlight created a play of translucence that enthralled me. I would have climbed to the peak, then and there, but I was certain my grandfather had already done that, and that he knew everything that a mortal man could possibly know. The time after that I was awakened by a rustling of wings: an owl had settled on the windowsill. I got out of bed but she didn’t move. I took a few steps towards her but the bird just seemed to regard me with curiosity. Why didn’t she fly away? We looked at one another for a long time, or maybe a short time, a time suspended, unreal. Maybe I was dreaming. But today I am sure it was my first encounter with my green-eyed goddess, Athena. .

Where are you?

The sky was light long before the sun rose from behind the mountains and I went outside. The birds were beginning to twitter and when I turned towards the sea I saw the blue expanse stretching out before me, rippling in the morning breeze, and the tips of the islands being lit up by the sun, one after another.

‘The one down there that’s still dark, that’s Ithaca, your island,’ said a voice behind me. ‘Do you know why it’s still dark? Because the peak of the mountain behind us is still covering it with its shadow.’

‘Pappo,’ I said, turning around and amazing myself at my use of such an intimate, familiar word with a man who despite being my mother’s father was a stranger to me.

He smiled saying: ‘Pai. .’ and gave me a piece of pork. ‘This is food for men, have some.’

I was finally eating meat and bread for breakfast. I could consider myself a man. ‘Pappo,’ I started up again, ‘have you ever been up there, on the peak?’ pointing to the summit of Mount Parnassus.

‘I certainly have. And I didn’t see anyone playing a lyre surrounded by nine beautiful maidens.’

I dropped my head. ‘Even if they were there you couldn’t have seen them. We mortals don’t have the power to command the waves of the sea or the wind, to stop the stars from wandering in the sky, to change the cycle of the seasons or to defeat death. There’s someone, I think, who rules our world. Someone who’s there but doesn’t show himself, except in disguise.’

‘Listen to my words well, pai: I’ve challenged them time and time again and they’ve never taken me up on it. I’ve done every evil thing a man can do: I’ve murdered, terrorized entire regions and cities, sworn oaths that I immediately broke, and no one has ever punished me. I’m strong and powerful and afraid of no one. If they’ve never answered, you know what? They don’t exist.’

I thought about his words for a few moments and replied: ‘They’ve never even noticed you.’ Challenging the gods is somethingelse.

He said nothing.

We resumed our journey up to the highest part of the mountains and finally reached the home of Autolykos: a palace made of big squared-off boulders like my father’s, surrounded by a wall with a single entrance. When we went inside I saw that someone had got there before us: the servants had killed a bull and were quartering it. ‘Our lunch,’ I thought, ‘and maybe our dinner too.’ A big fire was blazing in the middle of the room and the meat was already roasting on spits. We ate and drank until late that night but I held back; I didn’t want to get drunk or overload my stomach. I’d always preferred to feel vigilant and at the ready. Ready for what exactly, I couldn’t say, but my instincts have always made me careful. I considered who my table companions were: only my uncles and my grandfather were present at the banquet, because — I thought — they could trust no one else. I participated in the conversation when I could. Especially when they talked about the next day’s boar hunt.

‘It’s a dangerous pursuit,’ said my grandfather. ‘Have you ever taken part?’

‘King Laertes my father. .’

‘Whoever taught you to talk that way?’

‘Mentor, my educator. I was saying that my father engaged a Thessalian instructor to train me. In the use of the bow, dagger and javelin.’

‘So how many boars have you killed?’

‘None.’

My grandfather broke out laughing, imitated by his sons. One of them gave me a slap on the back that nearly sent me sprawling. I turned sharply and gave him the sternest look I could, letting him know he should never try that again.

‘Tomorrow you will kill one. The first of your life, but not with those needles you carried here with you. You’ll need this to stop a three-hundred-pound beast.’ He got up, went to the wall and took down a heavy, solid spear. He threw it at me and I caught it in flight. ‘But tomorrow you could die instead,’ he continued. ‘Shall I have someone take you back to the port? You’re still in time.’

‘Have them wake me before dawn,’ I replied and began walking off, spear in hand, towards my room. Before entering, I turned. ‘I have a question for you too. Why weren’t you invited to hunt the boar of Calydon? All of the greatest heroes of Achaia were there.’

‘Tomorrow night, if you’re still alive, you’ll have understood on your own.’

What did he mean by that? I went to bed but kept hearing the laughing and shouting of the revellers until sleep won me over.

There was no need to wake me the next day. The dogs barking, the servants calling to one another, the weapons clanging; all roused me when it was still dark. I got dressed, put on my leather corselet and wristband, pulled my belt across my hips, added my dagger, grabbed the spear in my hand and slung my bow, two javelins and a quiver over my shoulder.

‘I see you’ve decided to come,’ said my grandfather when he saw me appear. ‘We’ll see how you handle yourself. Follow me.’

We walked alongside one another in silence through the forest. I kept thinking of the things he’d said to me the night before and he was surely aware of that. Before the sky started to turn white we had reached a clearing and we stopped there.

‘By this time,’ said grandfather, ‘my sons will have taken position and the beaters will be on the other side of the forest. There are three trails that the boars always favour: the biggest pack come from the south, and will be driven towards my sons, the small pack tend to come up along the little stream we just crossed and they’re for me. Any that separate from the rest will end up here and you’ll be waiting for them. Don’t move from this position; this is the only spot from which you’ll be able to take aim.’ He picked up some boar droppings and rubbed them on my legs and arms: ‘This way they won’t smell you. The wind is against us. Remember: you’ll find them in front of you.’