Troy: Our Greatest Story Retold (Stephen Fry’s Great Mythology, #3)

by Stephen Fry

The moment when flowers and fruits are at their fullest and ripest is the moment that precedes their fall, their decay, their rot, their death.

Agamemnon gave an exaggerated sigh, the sigh all leaders give when they wish to express how they are surrounded by fools and eternally burdened with problems that would break lesser men.

‘Apollo Smintheus, lord of mice and men! Golden god of archery and augury. If ever my service and devotion have pleased you, avenge me now on these brutal Danaans. In mocking your devoted priest they mock you. Avenge me and avenge your honour. An arrow of yours for every teardrop of mine.’

How strange is our mortal zest for fame. Perhaps it is the only way humans can be gods. We achieve immortality not through ambrosia and ichor but through history and reputation.

They found Echeon in a crumpled heap, neck broken. He had died instantly. ‘A bad omen?’ said Diomedes. ‘A sign?’ ‘A sign that fools fall heavily,’ said Odysseus.