But Menelaus’s distrust of Calchas – which had grown greater each time the Trojan drank himself senseless – proved to be unfounded. As they followed the curve of the coast around to the west they passed fleet after fleet, each one belonging to a different king. Some numbered just a handful, while others had as many as two or three dozen vessels; and opposite each mooring were large numbers of tents, where hundreds of soldiers stood watching the lone galley slip by. But even these were just the vanguard. Eventually, the straits closed to form a large bay where the mountainous flanks of Boetia and Euboea almost touched, their independence maintained by a narrow strip of water leading north. Here, finally, they saw the massed might of Greece.
This time even the combined voices of Odysseus and Eperitus could not drag the men back to their seats, as each warrior moved to the prow to gaze in stunned awe at the great armada before them. The whole bay was filled with warships, their black hulls anchored so closely together that a man could almost walk from one shoreline to the other.
‘Zeus’s beard,’ Menelaus whispered, his eyes filling with tears.
‘There must be hundreds of them,’ exclaimed Eurybates.
‘It’s just as I saw in my dream,’ Calchas added, standing with the others and surveying the forest of masts.
‘Look at the hillsides,’ Eperitus said. ‘All those tents. There must be thousands of soldiers up there.’
‘Tens of thousands,’ Odysseus corrected. ‘And look! There’re the dolphin sails of Ithaca. Bring in the sail!’
A great cheer greeted them as Odysseus steered the ship into a gap between the other eleven galleys of the Ithacan fleet. Men flooded out from the camp on the hillside, rushing down to the sandy beach where the beak of the ship slid to a halt. Suddenly men were leaping down from the sides of the galley and dashing through the knee-deep water to greet their comrades.
As Odysseus and Eperitus waded through the surf to the shore – their countrymen cheering them and slapping their shoulders as they passed – they saw Eurylochus waiting beneath the shade of a sycamore tree. He was pink with the heat of the late-spring day, and his fat jowls and forehead glistened with a film of sweat.
‘Thank the gods you’ve returned,’ he said, embracing his cousin and ignoring Eperitus. ‘It’s been five weeks since you left for Troy – we were beginning to fear the worst.’
‘It’s simply a long way,’ Odysseus answered, sitting down against the broad trunk of the tree and accepting a krater of wine from a soldier. ‘Has much happened in our absence?’
Eurylochus pointed to the ships in the bay. ‘Only the gathering of the greatest fleet of ships in history! We were almost the first – only King Nestor of Pylos was here before us – and there’s hardly been a day since that some contingent or other hasn’t swelled our numbers. And you should see the men who’ve come! More warriors than I’ve ever seen before, and all the great oath-takers are among them. Great Ajax is here, with Little Ajax and Teucer, of course. Diomedes arrived last week, bringing Sthenelaus and Euryalus the Argonaut with him. Idomeneus alone brought eighty ships from Crete! Then there’s Menestheus, Tlepolemos . . .’
‘What about Achilles?’ asked Palamedes, striding confidently up the beach with Menelaus. He had been a subdued presence during the voyage from Troy – even though Odysseus had made no mention of the events in Priam’s throne room, realizing that the Nauplian had been acting under Agamemnon’s orders – but seemed to be rapidly regaining his old arrogance and self-importance now that he was back on land.
‘Not yet,’ Eurylochus replied, giving Palamedes an equally haughty stare. ‘And nobody knows where he is. Some say he is in hiding, but others say he didn’t take the oath so isn’t under any obligation.’
‘They’re wrong on that point,’ said Menelaus. ‘His cousin Patroclus took the oath on his behalf.’
‘And if the rumours about him are true, he’d come whether he was bound to or not,’ Eperitus added. ‘One thing’s for certain: he won’t be hiding.’
‘We’ll see about that,’ Odysseus said, shutting his eyes and resting his head against the gnarled bark. ‘Is my tent ready, Eurylochus? And how about something to eat for Menelaus, Eperitus and myself – not forgetting Palamedes, of course?’
‘We’ve just sacrificed a goat. It’ll be cooked by the time you’ve washed the brine from your limbs and changed your clothes.’
‘We’ll refrain,’ Menelaus said, though the smell of meat roasting over a nearby fire brought the saliva flooding into his mouth. ‘I have to find my brother and let him know we’re back. Where’s his camp, Eurylochus?’
‘On the highest point overlooking the bay – you can see his banner on the hillside, up there.’
‘And don’t be long yourself, Odysseus,’ Menelaus called over his shoulder, as he and Palamedes headed towards a path that led up the wooded hillside beyond the beach. ‘He’ll want to speak to you, too, no doubt.’
Odysseus simply shut his eyes and thought of a plate of freshly roasted goats’ meat.
News of the return from Troy spread rapidly and soon the Ithacan camp was besieged by soldiers from every state in Greece, seeking information about the Trojans and their fabled city. As the different Greek armies had spent the previous weeks practising their drills and tactics alongside or against each other, many of the men were greeted as friends and encouraged to share the Ithacans’ food and wine. And thus the rumours grew of the unassailable walls of Troy, with its beetling towers and vast armies, and of the great riches that lay within for any who could raze it to the ground.
Before long, Agamemnon’s squire, Talthybius, arrived at the camp with a summons for Odysseus and Eperitus. They were to leave their weapons behind and come to a council of the Greek kings, where the news from Troy was to be discussed and decisions made on what action to take. Odysseus asked Calchas, who had remained with the Ithacans, to come with them.
The path up the hillside was a steep one, but by now it was late afternoon and the heat of the day could no longer be felt under the dense canopy of trees, where the air was cool and fresh with the smell of pine. This made for a pleasant walk, though Eperitus quickly found Calchas’s company irksome: he often fell behind, and when they waited for him to catch up he would mutter endlessly under his breath. Before long they could smell the smoke from numerous cooking fires, drifting down the hill from the main camp above, and almost taste the roast pork on their tongues. A hubbub of conversation followed it, growing steadily louder until the woodland gloom gave way to patches of slanted light and, suddenly, they were free of the trees and standing atop a high, rocky plateau with a marvellous view of the vast fleet below them to their right. Even Talthybius, who had seen the sight many times by now, had to stop and admire the black silhouettes of the ships floating like coals on a sea of fire. In the west the sky was a brilliant, unblemished sheet of copper, glowing fiercely in the light of the bloated, dying sun. Beneath it, stretching over the boulder-strewn hilltop, were hundreds upon hundreds of white tents, reminding Eperitus of the flocks of seabirds that would gather on the craggy cliff faces of Ithaca. They snapped and fluttered in the wind, as did the flags and pennants of the many different kings that streamed out above them.
‘This way, my lords,’ said Talthybius, leading them down an avenue that drove through the middle of the canvas city.
There were soldiers everywhere. Some wore armour, though most did not, and all carried weapons of some kind – spears over their shoulders or swords hanging from baldrics or tucked into their belts. The majority were cooking or eating, though some were busily burnishing their bronze armour to a high sheen, or drawing whetstones up and down blades to sharpen them to a deadly edge. Occasionally, the laughter or cry of a woman indicated that prostitutes were plying their trade amongst the army.