The Girl From Ithaca Read Online Free PDF Page A

“Perhaps Menelaus admires the way you tried to protect your brother? And with you being a little older than Iphigenia, he must have thought you’d give her support and companionship.”
    “But what if Menelaus didn’t make the choice?” I pulled at a loose thread in my old tunic. “It could be a trick.”
    “Now you’re sounding like your brother. Who’d play a trick on you? No one knows you besides Menelaus and Odysseus.”
    “Palamedes does and we hate each other!” The thread snapped in my hand.
    Penelope leant forward and touched my arm. “Oh Neomene, I don’t think he hates you. He was irritated and impatient with us both, but he was so pleased he’d outwitted Odysseus, I’m sure he forgot about us immediately. And I can’t see he’d be involved in anything to do with the wedding. Agamemnon would be more likely to discuss it with his brother, and I expect that’s when you were mentioned. It all seems genuine.”
    “But how can I help her? I won’t know what to do.”
    “I think you know a lot more than you think you do, though you’re right to suppose your task won’t be straight-forward. There are a few important things I’d like you to know before you leave for the mainland.”
    Penelope was treating me as an adult, almost an equal. For the moment, my pleasure at this new found status chased away my doubts about the task.
    “What do you know about Helen?” Penelope asked.
    That was easy. I’d heard a lot about Helen since her abduction. “She’s the wife of Menelaus and said to be the most beautiful woman in the world. This summer, she was stolen by a Trojan prince and taken to Troy. Agamemnon and the other Greek kings are going to Troy to rescue her, and perhaps plunder gold as well.”
    “Very good, but that’s only the recent story. I spent most of my childhood in Sparta with Helen, because our fathers were brothers. She was always beautiful, even as a child. People said she was too perfect to be a mere mortal and must be the daughter of Zeus. Everywhere she went, men fell in love with her.”
    I nodded my head. “Helen is very lucky. She didn’t need to worry about a lack of suitors.”
    “She attracted too much attention. It was impossible for her to go anywhere unless she was well guarded and wore a veil. Once she reached the age of ten, her parents rarely let her outside the woman’s quarters of the palace.”
    I thought of the times I’d escaped from the confines of the palace by losing Euryclea and joining Lysander and his friends. “Then I think I feel sorry for her,” I whispered.
    “Helen regards her beauty as a curse sometimes, though she makes good use of it when she needs to,” Penelope said, pulling a large silver hair pin from her hair. She shook her head as her long, wavy hair fell loosely around her shoulders. “Now I must tell you a little about Agamemnon’s wife, Clytemnestra, and what to expect in Mycenae.”
    “All I know about Clytemnestra is she’s Helen’s elder sister and unlucky enough to be married to Agamemnon.”
    We leaned forward to talk, but the door burst open and my mother rushed into the room.
    “Has Penelope told you about it all? It’s a great honour and generous of Menelaus and Agamemnon to choose you, “she said, studying my appearance. “It’ll be a wonderful opportunity to meet the princes and you’ll get an idea of the ones you like.” Her eyes settled on the hem of my tunic. “Though you’ll have to be better presented than this. I’ll tell my attendants to work on your hair this evening and I will select your clothes myself. Sometimes I think you’re almost as bad as your father.”
    My heart fell. The attendants would take all night and discuss me as if I wasn’t there, making comparisons with my sister.
    Mother fiddled with my hair. “And it’s a big responsibility. You’re representing Ithaca, so remember what I told you.”
    I wasn’t sure which part of mother’s many lectures I was meant to remember, but I