Glyn Iliffe - King of Ithaca (Adventures of Odysseus)

KING OF ITHACA

GLYN ILIFFE

KING OF

ITHACA

MACMILLAN

First published 2008 by Macmillan

First published in paperback 2009 by Pan Books

This electronic edition published 2009 by Pan Books

an imprint of Pan Macmillan Ltd

Pan Macmillan, 20 New Wharf Rd, London N1 9RR

Basingstoke and Oxford

Associated companies throughout the world

www.panmacmillan.com

ISBN 978-0-230-74449-3 in Adobe Reader format

ISBN 978-0-230-74448-6 in Adobe Digital Editions format

ISBN 978-0-230-74450-9 in Mobipocket format

Copyright © Glyn Iliffe 2008

The right of Glyn Iliffe to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

You may not copy, store, distribute, transmit, reproduce or otherwise make available this publication (or any part of it) in any form, or by any means (electronic, digital, optical, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

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CONTENTS

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

FOR JANE

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

My thanks go to my editor, Julie Crisp, for her persistence and faith in King of Ithaca , as well as her hard work in making this book what it is. I would also like to thank Professor Helen King of Reading University for providing notes and comments on the original manuscrips.

GLOSSARY

A

Achilles

–

Myrmidon prince; later the principal hero of the Trojan War

Actoris

–

Penelope’s body slave

Aegisthus

–

son of Thyestes; he murdered his uncle and foster-parent, Atreus, the father of Agamemnon and Menelaus

Agamemnon

–

king of Mycenae, and most powerful of the Greeks

Ajax (greater)

–

king of Salamis

Ajax (lesser)

–

prince of Locris

Alybas

–

home city of Eperitus, in northern Greece

Anticleia

–

queen of Ithaca; mother of Odysseus

Antiphus

–

Ithacan guardsman

Aphrodite

–

goddess of love

Apollo

–

archer god, associated with music, song and healing

Arcadia

–

region in the central Peloponnese

Arceisius

–

shepherd boy named after a former king of Ithaca

Ares

–

god of war

Argos

–

powerful city in the north-eastern Peloponnese

Artemis

–

hunter goddess, noted for her virginity and her vengefulness

Athena

–

goddess of wisdom and warfare

Athens

–

city on Aegean seaboard

Atreides

–

the sons of Atreus: Agamemnon and Menelaus

Atreus

–

former king of Mycenae

Attica

–

region of which Athens was the capital

C

Castor

–

Cretan prince

Cedalion

–

former apprentice of Hephaistos, taken by the blind Orion to act as his guide

chelonion

–

flower native to Ithaca

Clytaemnestra

–

daughter of Tyndareus and wife of Agamemnon

Crete

–

island to the south of Greece

Ctymene

–

sister of Odysseus

D

Damastor

–

Ithacan guardsman

Demeter

–

goddess of agriculture

Diocles

–

Spartan warrior

Diomedes

–

king of Argos and ally of Agamemnon

Dulichium

–

Ionian island forming northernmost part of Laertes’s kingdom

E

Echidna

–

monster with the upper torso of a beautiful woman and the body of a serpent

Elatos

–

chief priest of the oracle at Pythia

Eperitus

–

warrior from Alybas, exiled for refusing to support his father after he had murdered King Pandion

Epigoni

–

collective name for the sons of seven Argive heroes who led a doomed expedition against Thebes; the Epigoni, amongst them Diomedes, later avenged their fathers by laying waste to the city

Eumaeus

–

faithful slave to Laertes

Eupeithes

–

ambitious and treacherous Ithacan noble

Eurotas

–

Spartan river, named after the king who drowned himself in its waters

Eurycleia

–

slave to Laertes, formerly Odysseus’s nurse

Eurytus

–

father of Iphitus

G

Gaea

–

earth goddess

Gyrtias

–

warrior from Rhodes

H

Hades

–

god of the Underworld

Halitherses

–

captain of Ithacan royal guard

Helen

–

foster-daughter of Tyndareus (actually fathered by Zeus); renowned for her beauty

Hephaistos

–

god of fire; blacksmith to the gods of Olympus

Hera

–

goddess married to Zeus

Heracles

–

greatest of all Greek heroes (otherwise known as Hercules)

Hermes

–

messenger of the gods; his duties also include shepherding the souls of the dead to the Underworld

Hestia

–

goddess of the hearth and protectress of the household

I

Icarius

–

co-king of Sparta, with his brother Tyndareus; father of Penelope

Idomeneus

–

king of Crete

Ilium

–

the region of which Troy was the capital

Ionian Sea

–

sea to the west of the Greek mainland

Iphitus

–

Oechalian prince who befriends Odysseus

Ithaca

–

island in the Ionian Sea

K

Kerosia

–

Ithacan council meeting

Koronos

–

wealthy Ithacan noble

L

Lacedaemon

–

Sparta

Laertes

–

king of Ithaca

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