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
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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.
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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
–