WEBVTT
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War with Troy: The Story of Achilles
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Told by Daniel Morden and Hugh Lupton.
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Episode 1: An Apple for a Goddess
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[Opening music]
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Imagine a mountain so tall no man or woman has ever seen its summit.
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Imagine the home of the mighty gods and goddesses.
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Imagine Mount Olympus.
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On top of Mount Olympus there was a throne.
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Upon the throne would sit father god Zeus, the cloud-compeller,
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whose temple is the sky.
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From that throne Zeus could see everything.
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One time Zeus looked down and he saw a little island in the blue Aegean Sea.
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And riding a dolphin, as though it was a pony,
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through the shallows towards that island,
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he saw a nymph, a magic woman.
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She stepped from the back of the dolphin.
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She waded up the shallows, she lay on her belly in the sand and she fell asleep.
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Zeus was filled with desire for her.
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He called his brother, the god of the sea, Poseidon.
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He said, "Who is she?"
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Poseidon laughed.
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"This is Thetis.
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Surely you know of her?
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Surely you know of the prophecy that hovers over her?
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They say one day she will have a son and the son will grow up to be greater than his father.
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If I were you, I wouldn't pay her one of your visits."
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Zeus did not like the sound of that.
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He didn't want any son of his to grow up to be greater than him.
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Zeus had an idea.
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He would make some mortal fall in love with this Thetis,
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marry this Thetis, have a son by this Thetis and then,
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once the son was born and safely out the way,
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Zeus could pay Thetis one of his visits.
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And so Zeus caused a Greek king,
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one of the Argonauts, warlike King Peleus,
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was made to fall in love with this sea-nymph Thetis.
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Peleus sailed across the sea until he came to the island.
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He made his way along the coastline till he found the beach.
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He laid out gifts in the sand and he waited
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until he saw, between the sea and the sky, a speck.
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The speck got larger,
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until he saw a dolphin and riding it - Thetis.
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Wearily she stepped from the back of her dolphin.
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She waded through the shallows towards this strange man.
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She looked at the gifts he'd laid in the sand.
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Jewels! She was from the sea!
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She had pearls as big as my hand.
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She wasn't interested in shiny, tiny jewels.
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He'd laid out bowls full of honey.
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Honey! She was from the sea!
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She loved the salty, bitter taste of fish.
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She said to him,
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"If you want me, if you want me to marry you,
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you must prove to me that you are worthy of me.
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Catch me!"
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He laughed.
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He was Peleus, warlike Peleus -
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a great warrior!
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He stepped forward.
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He put his hands upon her waist.
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But suddenly, he wasn't holding a woman, a nymph.
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He was holding an enormous seagull.
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She had changed her shape.
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With her wings she beat at his face.
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With her beak she pecked at his cheek.
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He stepped back.
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He put his hand to his cheek.
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Blood trickled between his fingers.
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She darted into the sky as a tiny seabird now.
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He reached up and by pure luck he grabbed her.
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But now he held an eel,
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a giant eel that twisted round his arm, round his waist, between his legs.
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He fell into the sand.
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It wriggled towards the water.
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He put his arms around it.
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Now he held a lioness that rolled onto its back,
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struck him with its paw,
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scratched him with its claw.
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He staggered back.
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She jumped into the water.
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She swam away as a seal.
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He watched as she swam off.
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But suddenly she turned.
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She looked at him again with her wet pebble eyes and she said,
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"Try again."
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Day after day she came to the beach.
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No sign of that strange man.
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One time she rode the dolphin to near the beach.
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She stepped from the back of the dolphin.
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She waded up the shallows and she lay on her belly in the white sand and she fell asleep.
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Then, warlike King Peleus climbed out of the tree where he'd been hiding.
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Carefully, slowly, silently,
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he made his way across the beach.
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And then, with a piece of rope,
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he tied her hands and feet together behind her back.
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She awoke.
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She knew immediately that he had outwitted her.
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If she tried to change her shape now,
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with her hands and feet tied behind her back,
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she would tear herself in half.
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She would rip herself in two.
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She nodded her head.
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She said, "You have won me."
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He untied her.
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He rubbed her wrists and ankles where the rope had cut.
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And then the two of them kissed.
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On the night of the next full moon there was a wedding -
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a wedding in a clearing on that island.
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At one end of the clearing two thrones -
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on one sat warlike Peleus,
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on the other the sea-nymph Thetis.
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All around the clearing vines, heavy with ripening grapes,
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gurgling streams, cattle grazing.
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All the mighty gods and goddesses had been invited to the wedding -
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gods and goddesses mingling with men and women, horse-loving Greeks.
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Each of the mighty gods and goddesses had brought a gift.
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The first to give her gift was the goddess of war and wisdom -
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owl-eyed Athene.
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She gave them a spear so sharp it could cut through the wind itself.
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Then came the god of battle.
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Red-eyed Ares gave them a golden breastplate emblazoned with silver stars.
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Then the goddess of love herself.
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Voluptuous Aphrodite took from one of her fingers a ring.
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She gave them one of her golden rings,
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a ring curved in the shape of a curling arrow,
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whose sharp point touched its feathered tail.
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Then came the god of the sea,
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the king of the tumbling foam, the girdler of the earth.
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Poseidon gave them four white horses,
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immortal horses who once had been the crests of waves,
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whose father had been the west wind.
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Now Zeus -
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father Zeus, whose temple is the sky -
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Zeus the cloud compeller transformed a hill of ants into warriors.
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Black eyed, black toothed, black tongued, black armoured,
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the bodies of warriors but the minds still of ants.
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Silent, obedient, absolutely unfearing, untiring, undoubting -
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an army that fought with one mind.
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The fiercest army in the world -
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the Myrmidons.
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They were Zeus' gift.
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The last god to give a gift was the last god of all,
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the lord of the realm of many guests,
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the god of the dead.
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Hades gave them a black urn.
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Inlaid in silver across its front, a picture -
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an image of three goddesses, the three fates.
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The first, who spins out the thread of a life;
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the second, who measures out its length;
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and the third, who cuts it.
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King Peleus and the sea-nymph Thetis gave thanks.
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They stepped into the centre of the clearing.
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They held each others' hand.
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And the nine muses began to sing.
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They danced and all around them in a looping, curling spiral,
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mortal and immortal holding hands, dancing in harmony.
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I said all the mighty gods and goddesses were there.
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One had not been invited.
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For would you invite the goddess of strife and arguing to your wedding?
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From up above Eris watched.
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She saw this happiness.
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She saw the laughing, the joy.
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And it was disgusting to her.
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She felt sick.
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She thought to herself,
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"Everyone else has given a gift.
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Why should I not do the same?"
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She reached into her pocket and took out something and dropped it.
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It fell through the sky.
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It fell through the clouds.
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It landed with a thump at the feet of the bride and groom.
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The music stopped.
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The dancing ceased.
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Everyone turned and watched as Peleus bent down and picked up…
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"A golden apple," he said.
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"A golden apple has fallen from the heavens.
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Another gift for us!
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There are words written upon it -
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'to the fairest'.
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I must give this golden apple to the most beautiful of all of you!"
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As soon as he'd said those words,
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he knew he was in terrible danger.
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For suddenly, standing in front of him,
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the three most powerful goddesses of all:
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here, owl-eyed Athene, the goddess of war and wisdom,
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her grey eyes blazing with light.
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She had stretched out her hand toward him.
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Standing beside her, Zeus' wife, the queen of heaven.
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She with the eyes of an ox -
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ox-eyed Hera -
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she too was showing him her empty palm.
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Standing beside her, the goddess of love.
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Voluptuous Aphrodite had stretched out her hand.
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She was looking at it.
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She was looking at him.
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He knew the moment he chose one of them,
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the two he had not chosen would turn against him and they would not rest until he was dead.
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He looked from one to the other, to the next.
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His mouth went dry.
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Zeus stepped forward.
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He took the golden apple.
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He put it in his pocket and said nothing more of it.
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He nodded his head at the nine muses.
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The music resumed.
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The dancing continued.
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But now it was not graceful,
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for often the dancers could not hear the music.
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For now there was another sound,
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the bickering of those three goddesses as to which of them was the most beautiful.
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Zeus soon found himself with a headache.
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Nine months later the bride gave birth to a beautiful baby boy.
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Of course she consulted oracles to find out what would happen to her son and she learned, to her horror,
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if her boy grew up and went to war,
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though he would win great glory,
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he would die young.
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Her husband was a warlike man.
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He would want his son to follow in his footsteps.
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Thetis took the baby to the end of the world.
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She took the baby to a dark river.
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She held the baby and dipped him head-first into the dark waters of the River Styx.
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The water flowed even over the bottom of the baby's foot.
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Wherever the water touched,
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his skin became invulnerable.
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But of course there was a place the water could not touch -
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the place where she held him, his heel.
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She took the child back to her husband.
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Warlike Peleus was furious that she had stolen the boy away.
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He banished her.
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And so the baby never again sucked on his mother's breast.
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And so his name means 'no lips'.
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He was taken up into the mountains,
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where he was trained by centaurs in the arts of war.
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He was fed on the marrow of bears to make him strong,
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the guts of lions to make him fierce,
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the milk of does to make him run swiftly.
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On his sixth birthday he killed his first boar and from then on he was always dragging thrashing beasts into the centaurs' cave.
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On his twelfth birthday, he chased a full-grown stag through the forest.
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He killed it with his bare hands.
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When his mother heard that,
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she was terrified that soon her son would be taken off to some war where he would die,
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and so she kidnapped him.
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She took him far away.
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She thought to herself,
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"Where can I hide my son where he won't be found?
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I will hide him among women."
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And so she dressed her young son as a young woman.
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Before she left him,
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she slipped onto his finger that wonderful golden ring -
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the wedding gift of Aphrodite -
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the ring carved in the shape of a curling arrow whose sharp point touched its feathered tail.
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For five years that young man lived the life of a young woman.
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During those years he became best friends with a warrior,
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whose name was Patroclus.
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He liked Patroclus so much he gave Patroclus that golden ring.
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Patroclus wore it proudly,
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the ring given him by his friend Achilles.
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[Closing music]