Lindsay Clarke - The Spoils of Troy

Здесь есть возможность читать онлайн «Lindsay Clarke - The Spoils of Troy» — ознакомительный отрывок электронной книги совершенно бесплатно, а после прочтения отрывка купить полную версию. В некоторых случаях можно слушать аудио, скачать через торрент в формате fb2 и присутствует краткое содержание. Жанр: unrecognised, на английском языке. Описание произведения, (предисловие) а так же отзывы посетителей доступны на портале библиотеки ЛибКат.

The Spoils of Troy: краткое содержание, описание и аннотация

Предлагаем к чтению аннотацию, описание, краткое содержание или предисловие (зависит от того, что написал сам автор книги «The Spoils of Troy»). Если вы не нашли необходимую информацию о книге — напишите в комментариях, мы постараемся отыскать её.

PART THREE OF THE TROY QUARTET Bringing ancient myth to life with passion, humour, and humanity, Lindsay Clarke vividly retells the story of Troy and of the heroes who fought there. Troy has fallen. After ten years of fighting and a savage final massacre, the victors quarrel over what remains and turn their minds to home. Menelaus must decide the fate of Helen, whose incomparable beauty ignited the war. And Agamemnon must return to the fury of Clytaemnestra, who has neither forgotten nor forgiven his choice to sacrifice their daughter. ‘An engaging retelling of the whole story, neatly blending mythic archaism with modern psychodrama and satire’ Mary Beard 1 – A PRINCE OF TROY2 – THE WAR AT TROY3 – THE SPOILS OF TROY4 – THE RETURN FROM TROY

The Spoils of Troy — читать онлайн ознакомительный отрывок

Ниже представлен текст книги, разбитый по страницам. Система сохранения места последней прочитанной страницы, позволяет с удобством читать онлайн бесплатно книгу «The Spoils of Troy», без необходимости каждый раз заново искать на чём Вы остановились. Поставьте закладку, и сможете в любой момент перейти на страницу, на которой закончили чтение.

Тёмная тема
Сбросить

Интервал:

Закладка:

Сделать

THE SPOILS OF TROY

Lindsay Clarke

Copyright Contents Cover Title Page Copyright Dedication Map The Justice of the Gods The Fall A Visitor to Ithaca The Division of the Spoils The Strength of Poseidon An Audience with the Queen The Last of Troy The Ghosts of Mycenae The Bitch’s Tomb Cassandra Death in the Lion House Anxiety on Ithaca Glossary of characters Acknowledgements Also by Lindsay Clarke About the Publisher

HarperCollins Publishers Ltd

1 London Bridge Street

London SE1 9GF

www.harpercollins.co.uk

First published in Great Britain as part of The Return from Troy by HarperCollins Publishers 2005

Copyright © Lindsay Clarke 2005

Map © Hardlines Ltd.

Cover illustrations © Shutterstock.com

Cover design © HarperCollins Publishers Ltd 2019

Lindsay Clarke asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.

Source ISBN: 9780008371081

Ebook Edition © September 2019 ISBN: 9780008371074

Version: 2019-10-01

Dedication Contents Cover Title Page Copyright Dedication Map The Justice of the Gods The Fall A Visitor to Ithaca The Division of the Spoils The Strength of Poseidon An Audience with the Queen The Last of Troy The Ghosts of Mycenae The Bitch’s Tomb Cassandra Death in the Lion House Anxiety on Ithaca Glossary of characters Acknowledgements Also by Lindsay Clarke About the Publisher

For Phoebe Clare

Contents

Cover

Title Page THE SPOILS OF TROY Lindsay Clarke

Copyright

Dedication

Map

The Justice of the Gods

The Fall

A Visitor to Ithaca

The Division of the Spoils

The Strength of Poseidon

An Audience with the Queen

The Last of Troy

The Ghosts of Mycenae

The Bitch’s Tomb

Cassandra

Death in the Lion House

Anxiety on Ithaca

Glossary of characters

Acknowledgements

Also by Lindsay Clarke

About the Publisher

Map Contents Cover Title Page THE SPOILS OF TROY Lindsay Clarke Copyright Dedication Map The Justice of the Gods The Fall A Visitor to Ithaca The Division of the Spoils The Strength of Poseidon An Audience with the Queen The Last of Troy The Ghosts of Mycenae The Bitch’s Tomb Cassandra Death in the Lion House Anxiety on Ithaca Glossary of characters Acknowledgements Also by Lindsay Clarke About the Publisher

The Justice of the Gods Contents Cover Title Page THE SPOILS OF TROY Lindsay - фото 1

The Justice of the Gods Contents Cover Title Page THE SPOILS OF TROY Lindsay Clarke Copyright Dedication Map The Justice of the Gods The Fall A Visitor to Ithaca The Division of the Spoils The Strength of Poseidon An Audience with the Queen The Last of Troy The Ghosts of Mycenae The Bitch’s Tomb Cassandra Death in the Lion House Anxiety on Ithaca Glossary of characters Acknowledgements Also by Lindsay Clarke About the Publisher

More than fifty years have passed since the fall of Troy. The world has turned harder since iron took the place of bronze. The age of heroes is over, the gods hold themselves apart, and my lord Odysseus has long since gone into the Land of Shades. It cannot now be long before I pass that way myself; but if honour is to survive among mortal men, then pledges must be kept, especially those between the living and the dead.

Thus I Phemius, bard of Ithaca, remain bound by the solemn pledge I made to Lord Odysseus on the evening when a few of us sat by the fire in his great hall discussing whether or not justice was to be found among the gods. I insisted that few traces of divine order were discernible in a world where a city as great as Troy could be reduced to ruin and yet so many of its conquerors were also doomed to terrible ends. What point was there in looking to the gods for justice when the deities could prove as fickle in their loyalties as the most treacherous of mortal men?

‘That Blue-haired Poseidon should have wreaked his vengeance on the Argive host is unsurprising,’ I declared. ‘He had favoured the Trojans throughout the war. But Divine Athena had always been on our side, even in the darkest times. So how could she have forgotten her old enmity with Poseidon for long enough to help him destroy the Argive fleet? Such perfidy would be appalling in a mortal ally. How then can it be excused in an immortal goddess?’

Odysseus studied me in silence for a time. The expression on his face reminded me plainly enough that I might know all the stories by heart but I had never been at Troy myself and was speaking of matters that lay far outside my experience.

‘Even a god’s heart can be shaken by the sacking of a city,’ he said. ‘Even enemies can conspire when they find a common cause. As for myself, I believe that the gods see more deeply into time than we do, and what appears to us as mere caprice may eventually prove to be a critical moment in the dispensation of their justice.’

I saw him exchange a smile with his wife Penelope, who turned to me. ‘Consider,’ she said, ‘what Grey-eyed Athena must have thought as she saw Locrian Aias trying to ravish Cassandra even in the sanctuary of her own shrine. Consider how the goddess must have felt when Agamemnon ordered her sacred effigy to be taken from Troy and carried off to Mycenae.’

‘And those were not the only crimes and desecrations committed that night,’ Odysseus added. ‘If Divine Athena turned her face against us, it was with good cause. I can well imagine that she looked down through the smoke on the destruction of Troy and felt that she had seen enough of the ways of men to know that there could never be peace till they came to understand that the desolation they left behind them must always lie in wait for them elsewhere.’

It falls to me now to show how the truth of those words he spoke about Divine Athena was made manifest in the hard fates that awaited the Argive heroes after they celebrated their triumph at the fall of Troy.

The Fall Contents Cover Title Page THE SPOILS OF TROY Lindsay Clarke Copyright Dedication Map The Justice of the Gods The Fall A Visitor to Ithaca The Division of the Spoils The Strength of Poseidon An Audience with the Queen The Last of Troy The Ghosts of Mycenae The Bitch’s Tomb Cassandra Death in the Lion House Anxiety on Ithaca Glossary of characters Acknowledgements Also by Lindsay Clarke About the Publisher

Odysseus stood in the painted chamber high inside the citadel of Troy, listening to the sound of Menelaus sobbing. Spattered in blood, the King of Sparta was sitting on a bed of blood with his head supported in his blood-stained hands. Helen cowered at his back, white-faced. The mutilated body of Deiphobus lay sprawled beside him. Though the streets outside rang loud with shouts and screaming, here beneath the rich tapestry of Ares and Aphrodite it felt as though time itself might have halted to hear Menelaus weep.

Читать дальше
Тёмная тема
Сбросить

Интервал:

Закладка:

Сделать

Похожие книги на «The Spoils of Troy»

Представляем Вашему вниманию похожие книги на «The Spoils of Troy» списком для выбора. Мы отобрали схожую по названию и смыслу литературу в надежде предоставить читателям больше вариантов отыскать новые, интересные, ещё непрочитанные произведения.


Отзывы о книге «The Spoils of Troy»

Обсуждение, отзывы о книге «The Spoils of Troy» и просто собственные мнения читателей. Оставьте ваши комментарии, напишите, что Вы думаете о произведении, его смысле или главных героях. Укажите что конкретно понравилось, а что нет, и почему Вы так считаете.

x