Beauty's Daughter: The Story of Hermione and Helen of Troy Read Online Free PDF Page A

Princess Hermione, not a thing,” said the older of the pair. “A night like any other,” added the younger.
    “You didn’t hear any odd sounds? Didn’t notice that the treasure house is empty? That all the boats and boatmen are gone? That Queen Helen and our guest, Prince Paris, left while you were on duty, and took Pleisthenes with them?”
    The guards stared at me, stunned. “Has an alarm been raised?” asked the older one.
    “No. No alarm was raised. But tell me—did you have a visit from a goddess?”
    They looked at each other in confusion.
    “Aphrodite?” I prompted. “Perhaps you saw her.”
    “The mist . . .” mumbled the younger. “Do you remember the mist?” he asked the older guard. “We spoke of it, how strange it was.”
    “I do remember, yes! But nothing after that. Nothing until the last star had been extinguished and Dawn came.”
    Later, when Zethus reappeared, bathed and dressed in clean clothes and looking quite respectable, I told him what the guards had reported.
    “That was certainly Aphrodite,” he said. “She spreads a fine mist that makes men forget everything. You must not punish them. It was the work of the goddess. The guards aren’t to be blamed.”
    “Tell that to Father when he comes home!” I exclaimed. “He’ll need some convincing not to order the death of every man who failed him. Starting with his vizier.” I wondered what had become of Pentheus.
    We sat in the anteroom brightened by sunlight flooding through openings in the walls. Servants brought us a meal of cheese and fruit. I saw now that Zethus was not much more than a boy, only a few years older than I. I watched him devour his food. It was obvious that he’d been brought up simply but well. I asked about his family, and he smiled, showing strong, even teeth.
    “My father is King Priam, as I’ve told you. My mother is a servant to Priam’s daughter, Cassandra. I admire Princess Cassandra—she doesn’t have an easy life.”
    “Why is her life hard? She’s the king’s daughter.”
    “She has the gift of prophecy. She can foretell the future.”
    “A useful gift, surely?”
    “It might be, but the problem is that no one believes her. It was the god Apollo’s doing, my mother told me. Cassandra received the gift of prophecy from Apollo, but when she resisted his advances, he spit into her mouth so that no one would ever believe her. At any rate, Priam is convinced that Cassandra is mad, and he keeps her locked up in a tower with only my mother for company. I’ve seen her—she’s very beautiful. They say that Cassandra is the second most beautiful woman in the world.”
    “The only one more beautiful is Helen?”
    “Yes,” Zethus admitted. “And since I’ve seen them both, I know it’s true.”
    “Now you must tell me about Paris,” I said. “Why has he won Aphrodite’s favor?”
    “I’ll tell you the story,” Zethus said. He pushed away his empty bowl, and I leaned forward to listen.
    “The gods and goddesses had gathered on Mount Olympus to celebrate the marriage of Thetis, a beautiful sea nymph, to Peleus, king of Phthia, a grandson of Zeus. The only one not invited to the wedding was Eris, the goddess of discord, whom nobody likes because she is always causing trouble. Furious at being excluded, Eris hovered above the gathering on a cloud and tossed a golden apple down onto the banquet table. The apple was marked ‘For the fairest,’ and three of the goddesses tried to claim it: Hera, Zeus’s wife; his daughter Athena, the goddess of wisdom and warfare; and Aphrodite, the goddess of love. They asked Zeus to choose the fairest, but he wasn’t willing to anger the two not chosen. Instead, he suggested that the decision be made by Paris. Foolishly, Paris accepted Zeus’s challenge, and the competition began.
    “Each goddess tried to bribe him. Hera promised to make him lord of Europe and Asia if he’d award her the apple, but Paris wasn’t interested in power. Athena