PROLOGUE
The adventures of Ulysses begin many years before the opening of this book. He was the
master strategist of the Greek forces in their war against Troy, the war that started with an apple,
ended with a horse, and was fought by a thousand kings for the love of a single woman. It left an
ancient city in flames that still burn in man’s imagination after three thousand years.
The war started when Peleus, mightiest hero of his time, was married to Thetis, the most
beautiful naiad that ever sported the waves or fled the embrace of Poseidon. It was a magnificent
wedding, attended by all the gods on Olympus. Unfortunately, however, Thetis had neglected to
send an invitation to Eris, Lady of Discord and sister to the God of War. It was an omission that
was to cost a river of blood. For Eris came without invitation and threw upon the banquet table a
golden apple inscribed “To the Fairest.” Mischievous words! The apple was claimed immediately
by Hera (Queen of the Gods), Athene (Goddess of Wisdom), and Aphrodite (Goddess of Love).
The feud between the three goddesses waxed so bitter that no god dared attempt
mediation but passed judgment to Paris, a shepherd boy of Troy, and son of King Priam, whose
royal birth had been kept secret. Paris was said to be the most beautiful of all the lads of the
Inner Sea.
Bribes came his way immediately. Hera offered him power, promising to make him the
mightiest king the world had ever seen. Athene offered him wisdom. All the lore of heaven and
earth, and all the lore beyond death too – all that has been written and spoken, and also that too
secret to be uttered, would be his. Aphrodite said little. She came close to him and whispered in
his ear. When she had finished whispering, he gave her the apple. She smiled and kissed him.
Hera and Athene flew off, screaming their rage.
What the Goddess Aphrodite had whispered to Paris was a promise – that he should have
any woman he looked upon with desire. She then recommended the most desirable, a Spartan
queen named Helen, who the goddess said was the mortal most resembling herself. In fact, Helen
was by way of being a relative, for she had been born of Leda, who had been loved by Zeus
disguised as a swan, and so she herself had the radiant stature of the gods, a swan’s soft
muscularity, and her mother’s eyes. Paris straightaway gave up being a shepherd and resumed
his rank of Prince of Troy. He demanded of his doting father a treasure ship and a piratical crew.
Thereupon he sailed to Sparta on a diplomatic mission to King Menelaus, Helen’s husband. Paris
and Helen met at a state banquet. By dawn she was aboard his ship and it was sailing for Troy.
Now, Helen had been courted by all the kings and princes of the Greek islands. Her father
had hesitated long before allowing her to accept any suitor. He was afraid that the rejected
suitors would band together to destroy the successful one – and himself and his kingdom in the
bargain. So Helen flirted with them all, encouraged them all, and accepted none. Finally, Ulysses,
who was one of the suitors, offered a plan. All Helen’s admirers would swear a mighty oath to
refrain from murdering the successful suitor and would join to defend Helen and her husband –
whoever he might be – against any attack.
Thereupon Helen chose Menelaus, King of Sparta, most powerful of the Greek chieftains.
Thus it was that when Paris made off with Helen, a thousand kings were summoned to keep their
oath. They assembled a huge fleet and sailed for Troy.
The Greeks camped outside the walls of Troy. And for ten years tried to fight their way
into the city. But the walls were strong and the Trojans brave. The defenders were led by King
Priam’s fifty warrior sons. The great Hector was their chief. And even after Hector was killed by
the Greek hero, Achilles, the Trojans refused to be defeated - until they were tricked into
defeating themselves.
The author of that fatal trick was Ulysses, sharpest tactician among the invaders. The
Greeks pretended to lift their siege. They struck their tents, boarded their ships, and sailed
around a headland out of sight, where they anchored and waited until nightfall. Behind them on
the beach they had left a giant wooden horse. The Trojans reacted just as Ulysses had calculated.
They began to celebrate and quickly lost their wits. They thought the wooden horse an offering
to Poseidon, God of the Sea, and dragged it through the gates into the city, so as to anger
Poseidon against the Greeks and spoil the voyage home. But the wooden horse was hollow, and
so artfully made that Ulysses and a company of armed warriors were able to hide inside and
remain undetected as the horse was rolled into the city. That night, as Troy slept, the Greeks
crawled out of their hiding place, killed the Trojan sentries, and opened the gates to the Greek
army, which had sailed back in the darkness.
It was a complete surprise. Troy was taken, its fighting men slaughtered, its women and
children enslaved. Then Ulysses sailed for home, his three ships loaded with booty. But victory
never comes cheap. Poseidon’s anger had indeed been kindled. He roused the winds and tides
against Ulysses and sent word to island ogres and monsters of the deep.
And for ten long years the great voyager had to battle his way through the worst perils
that the imagination of an offended god could devise.
This is the story of that voyage.