WEBVTT
00:00:02.880 --> 00:00:08.760
Episode 3 – Stolen Love
00:00:08.760 --> 00:00:27.010
[Opening music]
00:00:27.010 --> 00:00:30.980
In the city of Troy, there was Paris,
00:00:30.980 --> 00:00:33.770
the youngest son of King Priam,
00:00:33.770 --> 00:00:35.600
and he was in love with Helen,
00:00:35.600 --> 00:00:39.100
the wife of Menelaus, the king of Sparta.
00:00:39.100 --> 00:00:43.760
Every day he would go to the temple of Aphrodite, the goddess of love,
00:00:43.760 --> 00:00:45.410
and he would say prayers,
00:00:45.410 --> 00:00:47.970
and he would make offerings.
00:00:47.970 --> 00:00:53.540
And Aphrodite was not deaf to his prayers.
00:00:53.540 --> 00:00:57.520
And some little while later, as chance would have it –
00:00:57.520 --> 00:01:04.350
if there is such a thing as chance when three goddesses are watching any human being –
00:01:04.350 --> 00:01:09.100
there was a message that had to be taken from Troy to Sparta.
00:01:09.100 --> 00:01:11.460
And Paris went to his father, King Priam,
00:01:11.460 --> 00:01:14.590
and he begged to be allowed to take the message.
00:01:14.590 --> 00:01:17.250
And Priam nodded his head and he said,
00:01:17.250 --> 00:01:19.510
“I see no reason why not.”
00:01:19.510 --> 00:01:22.840
And a ship was prepared and the sails were lowered,
00:01:22.840 --> 00:01:24.530
the anchors were lifted.
00:01:24.530 --> 00:01:27.040
Paris stepped onto the deck of the ship.
00:01:27.040 --> 00:01:34.570
The prow of the ship cut a path through the churning, blue waves of the sea from Troy to Sparta.
00:01:34.570 --> 00:01:42.620
And Paris made his way to the palace of red-haired Menelaus and Menelaus welcomed this Trojan prince and he took the message.
00:01:42.620 --> 00:01:46.000
And he told Paris to sit down at the feasting table,
00:01:46.000 --> 00:01:50.160
and meat and bread and wine and honey cakes were served.
00:01:50.160 --> 00:01:52.900
And Paris ate and he drank.
00:01:52.900 --> 00:02:00.780
And then the door of the feasting hall opened and in came Helen.
00:02:00.780 --> 00:02:03.290
And when Paris saw her,
00:02:03.290 --> 00:02:08.000
it was as though all sensation faded.
00:02:08.000 --> 00:02:10.820
His eyes were filled with her beauty.
00:02:10.820 --> 00:02:13.740
His ears were filled with the sound of her voice.
00:02:13.740 --> 00:02:16.410
His nostrils were filled with her scent.
00:02:16.410 --> 00:02:19.510
She sat down opposite him at the table.
00:02:19.510 --> 00:02:21.530
Without knowing what he was doing,
00:02:21.530 --> 00:02:23.720
with the tip of his finger he reached across
00:02:23.720 --> 00:02:28.800
and, in the spilt wine on the tabletop, he wrote ‘I love you’.
00:02:28.800 --> 00:02:32.400
And she read it and she smeared it with the back of her hand.
00:02:32.400 --> 00:02:34.480
When she set down her drinking cup,
00:02:34.480 --> 00:02:38.560
Paris seized it and he kissed the place her lips had touched.
00:02:38.560 --> 00:02:40.820
And she turned and she looked at her husband, Menelaus,
00:02:40.820 --> 00:02:43.540
but Menelaus was talking to somebody else.
00:02:43.540 --> 00:02:45.120
He hadn’t seen.
00:02:45.120 --> 00:02:46.320
When the meal was over,
00:02:46.320 --> 00:02:50.180
Paris seized her hand and he pressed it to his heart.
00:02:50.180 --> 00:02:52.030
But she pulled her hand away.
00:02:52.030 --> 00:02:56.720
She took her husband’s arm and she walked out of the room.
00:02:56.720 --> 00:03:00.600
But the next day, as chance would have it –
00:03:00.600 --> 00:03:07.630
if there is such a thing as chance when three goddesses are watching any human being –
00:03:07.630 --> 00:03:12.070
King Menelaus was called away urgently, on urgent business.
00:03:12.070 --> 00:03:13.540
And so he called to his wife Helen.
00:03:13.540 --> 00:03:14.660
He said, “Helen, my wife,
00:03:14.660 --> 00:03:18.500
you must entertain this Trojan prince.”
00:03:18.500 --> 00:03:23.360
And so it was that Paris found himself alone with Helen.
00:03:23.360 --> 00:03:27.200
And he took her hand and he pressed it to his lips.
00:03:27.200 --> 00:03:32.180
And in that moment Aphrodite loosed a second arrow,
00:03:32.180 --> 00:03:35.290
which struck Helen in the heart,
00:03:35.290 --> 00:03:40.750
and she melted into Paris’ arms and they kissed.
00:03:40.750 --> 00:03:47.820
And together they stole what treasures they could from the palace of red-haired Menelaus and they made their way,
00:03:47.820 --> 00:03:52.110
running and running, across Sparta and down to where the ship was waiting.
00:03:52.110 --> 00:03:55.450
They loaded the golden treasures onto the deck of the ship.
00:03:55.450 --> 00:03:56.710
The anchors were lifted.
00:03:56.710 --> 00:03:58.080
The sails were lowered,
00:03:58.080 --> 00:03:59.920
and they sailed away.
00:03:59.920 --> 00:04:01.860
But they didn’t go far.
00:04:01.860 --> 00:04:07.510
They went to the island of Cranae and there they lay on the soft grass,
00:04:07.510 --> 00:04:09.730
locked in one another’s arms,
00:04:09.730 --> 00:04:13.030
each one lost in the other’s beauty.
00:04:13.030 --> 00:04:15.060
And they kissed.
00:04:15.060 --> 00:04:20.900
And from Cranae they made slow progress across the blue Aegean sea,
00:04:20.900 --> 00:04:24.600
stopping at every single island,
00:04:24.600 --> 00:04:36.920
until there wasn’t one island between Sparta and Troy on which they had not slept for a night together.
00:04:36.920 --> 00:04:47.220
[Opening music]
00:04:47.220 --> 00:04:50.450
When Menelaus returned to his palace,
00:04:50.450 --> 00:04:53.230
he found his treasure rooms empty.
00:04:53.230 --> 00:04:55.150
His wife had gone!
00:04:55.150 --> 00:04:58.800
They had been stolen by that pretty Trojan prince!
00:04:58.800 --> 00:05:01.970
Menelaus travelled across Greece to the palace of his brother,
00:05:01.970 --> 00:05:04.530
the high king of all Greeks –
00:05:04.530 --> 00:05:06.240
Agamemnon.
00:05:06.240 --> 00:05:07.910
Menelaus said,
00:05:07.910 --> 00:05:11.210
“Years ago, when we Greek kings first heard of Helen’s beauty,
00:05:11.210 --> 00:05:15.730
we gathered in the palace of her foster father in the hope that we could win her hand.
00:05:15.730 --> 00:05:19.110
Her foster father slaughtered a stallion before us,
00:05:19.110 --> 00:05:28.050
laid out the severed pieces across the floor and each of us kings stood upon the severed limbs of that horse and swore
00:05:28.050 --> 00:05:30.110
that, when Helen chose a husband,
00:05:30.110 --> 00:05:33.220
we would accept her decision and we promised
00:05:33.220 --> 00:05:35.750
that, if ever she was stolen from her husband,
00:05:35.750 --> 00:05:37.900
we would come to his aid.
00:05:37.900 --> 00:05:42.130
Helen chose me that day.
00:05:42.130 --> 00:05:47.220
The time has come to make those other Greek kings honour the oath they swore.
00:05:47.220 --> 00:05:48.580
We will gather an army,
00:05:48.580 --> 00:05:50.930
the like of which the world has never seen.
00:05:50.930 --> 00:05:54.340
We will sail across the sea and we’ll fetch back my wife,
00:05:54.340 --> 00:05:59.460
even if we have to flatten Troy to do so!”
00:05:59.460 --> 00:06:04.200
Agamemnon was less anxious to risk life and limb.
00:06:04.200 --> 00:06:06.500
He sent envoys to Troy,
00:06:06.500 --> 00:06:09.140
demanding that Helen be returned.
00:06:09.140 --> 00:06:13.060
But the envoys reached the city long before Paris and Helen,
00:06:13.060 --> 00:06:17.520
who were stopping on every little island in the blue Aegean.
00:06:17.520 --> 00:06:22.560
And so the envoys came back with this message.
00:06:22.560 --> 00:06:27.310
“I, King Priam, father of Troy,
00:06:27.310 --> 00:06:30.830
have no knowledge of this Helen.
00:06:30.860 --> 00:06:34.210
But, if my son has chosen to take her from you,
00:06:34.210 --> 00:06:38.160
it must have been with good reason and I will defend his decision,
00:06:38.160 --> 00:06:41.860
no matter what the cost.”
00:06:41.860 --> 00:06:50.440
The high King Agamemnon had no choice then but to send messengers to all the other Greek kings.
00:06:50.440 --> 00:06:53.520
High, proud ships were built.
00:06:53.520 --> 00:06:56.180
Armies were mustered.
00:06:56.180 --> 00:07:02.290
Agamemnon had a prophet, a seer, a wise man.
00:07:02.290 --> 00:07:14.850
Far-sighted Calchas announced that the Greeks would only be successful in this venture if they had among their number the son of Peleus and Thetis,
00:07:14.850 --> 00:07:18.850
the young man Achilles.
00:07:18.850 --> 00:07:21.950
Achilles’ father, warlike Peleus,
00:07:21.950 --> 00:07:27.640
was anxious for his son to go and fight but his mother had stolen him away.
00:07:27.640 --> 00:07:35.090
Rumour had it that he was hidden on the island of Skyros.
00:07:35.090 --> 00:07:38.830
The high king of all Greece, Agamemnon,
00:07:38.830 --> 00:07:41.730
sent for one of the Greek kings,
00:07:41.730 --> 00:07:46.000
a man famous for his tricks,
00:07:46.000 --> 00:07:49.370
for his love of deceit and intrigue,
00:07:49.370 --> 00:07:52.280
a man of nimble wits.
00:07:52.280 --> 00:07:55.700
His name was Odysseus.
00:07:55.700 --> 00:08:01.570
King Odysseus was sent to find this hidden Achilles.
00:08:01.570 --> 00:08:11.110
Odysseus disguised himself and his ship as though he was a merchant and then he sailed across the sea to the little island of Skyros.
00:08:11.110 --> 00:08:13.390
Odysseus, in his disguise,
00:08:13.390 --> 00:08:17.630
searched the court of the king of Skyros, with no success.
00:08:17.630 --> 00:08:19.600
Then he went down to the harbour,
00:08:19.600 --> 00:08:21.540
to his crew in his ship.
00:08:21.540 --> 00:08:23.030
And he said,
00:08:23.030 --> 00:08:28.550
“My friends, I go now to the palace of the princess of Skyros.
00:08:28.550 --> 00:08:32.790
Give me the morning and then I need you to make a great commotion.
00:08:32.790 --> 00:08:35.510
I want swords clashed against shields.
00:08:35.510 --> 00:08:38.240
I want the sound of bronze trumpets,
00:08:38.240 --> 00:08:39.880
as though you are attacking,
00:08:39.880 --> 00:08:42.770
as though you are invading.”
00:08:42.770 --> 00:08:46.480
Then Odysseus went to the palace of the princess of Skyros.
00:08:46.480 --> 00:08:53.870
He asked for an empty room and he covered the floor of that room with things a merchant might bring,
00:08:53.870 --> 00:08:56.400
things a merchant might sell –
00:08:56.400 --> 00:09:06.870
bolts of embroidered cloth, beautiful rugs, mirrors, jewels, food, wine.
00:09:06.870 --> 00:09:15.730
Under one of those rugs he slipped a battered, rusty old sword.
00:09:15.730 --> 00:09:19.580
Then he told the servants to fetch the princess and her friends.
00:09:19.580 --> 00:09:21.210
In came the women.
00:09:21.210 --> 00:09:23.600
They fell upon the merchant’s wares.
00:09:23.600 --> 00:09:28.140
They wondered at these beautiful things that had been brought from so far away.
00:09:28.140 --> 00:09:32.650
They were surprised to see among them a battered old sword.
00:09:32.650 --> 00:09:33.990
They paid it no heed.
00:09:33.990 --> 00:09:36.640
They tasted the food and the wine.
00:09:36.640 --> 00:09:39.500
Odysseus looked from one woman to the next.
00:09:39.500 --> 00:09:42.150
Surely none of these was Achilles in disguise –
00:09:42.150 --> 00:09:43.770
they were all so beautiful.
00:09:43.770 --> 00:09:47.540
Each one was beautiful in her own way.
00:09:47.540 --> 00:09:51.410
Then there came a great commotion,
00:09:51.410 --> 00:09:54.420
the sounds of swords clashed against shields,
00:09:54.420 --> 00:09:56.500
the sound of bronze trumpets.
00:09:56.500 --> 00:09:57.230
The women stood.
00:09:57.230 --> 00:09:58.880
They looked at one another in horror.
00:09:58.880 --> 00:10:00.070
Except for one.
00:10:00.070 --> 00:10:01.360
One knelt.
00:10:01.360 --> 00:10:03.330
She peeled back the corner of a rug,
00:10:03.330 --> 00:10:09.820
grabbed that battered, rusty old sword and bounded out of the palace to attack the invaders.
00:10:09.820 --> 00:10:11.440
Odysseus rushed outside.
00:10:11.440 --> 00:10:12.960
He put his hand upon her shoulder.
00:10:12.960 --> 00:10:13.990
She turned and looked at him,
00:10:13.990 --> 00:10:15.140
her eyes blazing.
00:10:15.140 --> 00:10:19.120
Odysseus said, “You can languish here no longer.
00:10:19.120 --> 00:10:20.720
Your disguise has failed.
00:10:20.720 --> 00:10:22.500
I know who you are.
00:10:22.500 --> 00:10:26.050
You’re the son of warlike Peleus and the sea-nymph Thetis.
00:10:26.050 --> 00:10:28.020
You are Achilles.
00:10:28.020 --> 00:10:29.080
Listen to me!
00:10:29.080 --> 00:10:31.490
I have been sent to find you.
00:10:31.490 --> 00:10:33.640
You know who needs your help?
00:10:33.640 --> 00:10:37.180
The great king, the high king of all Greece –
00:10:37.180 --> 00:10:40.130
Agamemnon needs you to help him.
00:10:40.130 --> 00:10:41.760
There’s a war coming.
00:10:41.760 --> 00:10:45.860
A great wrong has been done us Greeks and we need you to help us.
00:10:45.860 --> 00:10:48.730
We need you to fight against the Trojans.
00:10:48.730 --> 00:10:51.210
If you come with us, I promise you,
00:10:51.210 --> 00:10:57.510
you will be the greatest warrior in the greatest army in the history of the world.
00:10:57.510 --> 00:11:00.780
If you come with us and fight alongside us Greeks,
00:11:00.780 --> 00:11:01.840
I promise you,
00:11:01.840 --> 00:11:10.000
your name will be synonymous with ferocity for as long as men and women speak!”
00:11:10.000 --> 00:11:11.940
As he listened,
00:11:11.940 --> 00:11:14.600
Achilles began to grin.
00:11:14.600 --> 00:11:17.010
He took off the clothes of women,
00:11:17.010 --> 00:11:20.800
and he dressed himself instead as a warrior.
00:11:20.800 --> 00:11:27.480
He and his best friend Patroclus sailed across the sea to the palace of Achilles’ father.
00:11:27.480 --> 00:11:33.510
Warlike Peleus gave his son all the fateful wedding gifts –
00:11:33.510 --> 00:11:36.720
the spear that could cut through the wind,
00:11:36.720 --> 00:11:40.590
the golden breastplate covered in silver stars,
00:11:40.590 --> 00:11:45.140
the four white horses who once had been the crests of waves.
00:11:45.140 --> 00:11:48.460
The ant army, the Myrmidons,
00:11:48.460 --> 00:11:54.200
were put under Achilles’ command and the last gift was given to Achilles,
00:11:54.200 --> 00:11:57.390
the gift of the god of death.
00:11:57.390 --> 00:12:01.710
The black urn inlaid in silver,
00:12:01.710 --> 00:12:09.410
across its front a picture of three goddesses, the three fates:
00:12:09.410 --> 00:12:13.880
the first who spins out the thread of a life;
00:12:13.880 --> 00:12:16.850
the second who measures out its length;
00:12:16.850 --> 00:12:22.100
and the third who cuts it.
00:12:22.100 --> 00:12:28.160
Achilles and Patroclus prepared to go to war.
00:12:28.160 --> 00:12:34.810
[Opening music]
00:12:34.810 --> 00:12:40.180
Finally Paris and Helen reached the shores of Troy.
00:12:40.180 --> 00:12:47.970
They made their way across the plain of Troy and soon the city walls were stretching high above their heads.
00:12:47.970 --> 00:12:49.900
And, ranged along the walls,
00:12:49.900 --> 00:12:53.450
all the men and the women and the children of Troy,
00:12:53.450 --> 00:12:59.990
each person holding in his hand or her hand a rock or a stone.
00:12:59.990 --> 00:13:06.180
They’d heard stories of how Paris had been tricked into falling in love with a Greek queen
00:13:06.180 --> 00:13:10.130
and, fearing that she might be the cause of a terrible war,
00:13:10.130 --> 00:13:15.570
they were going to stone her to death as soon as she entered the city.
00:13:15.570 --> 00:13:20.280
But when Helen came through the great bronze Scaean gates,
00:13:20.280 --> 00:13:22.980
every man, as he looked at her,
00:13:22.980 --> 00:13:25.440
fell in love with her.
00:13:25.440 --> 00:13:28.940
The women were enchanted by her beauty.
00:13:28.940 --> 00:13:31.250
The children fell in love with her.
00:13:31.250 --> 00:13:33.420
And, not only the people –
00:13:33.420 --> 00:13:37.060
the horses of the city fell in love with Helen.
00:13:37.060 --> 00:13:42.100
The dogs, the cats, the pigeons, perched on the gutters,
00:13:42.100 --> 00:13:43.640
fell in love with her.
00:13:43.640 --> 00:13:51.220
Even the stones of the city turned towards her in some strange crystalline way,
00:13:51.220 --> 00:13:55.980
as iron filings might turn towards a magnet.
00:13:55.980 --> 00:13:59.510
And King Priam swore a solemn oath,
00:13:59.510 --> 00:14:02.480
by all the mighty gods and goddesses,
00:14:02.480 --> 00:14:07.970
that nobody would ever take Helen away.
00:14:07.970 --> 00:14:18.340
[Opening music]
00:14:18.340 --> 00:14:22.840
Across the sea there came a thousand ships,
00:14:22.840 --> 00:14:25.380
each one with a bright sail,
00:14:25.380 --> 00:14:32.060
each one crammed with warriors with flashing breastplates and plumed helmets.
00:14:32.060 --> 00:14:38.460
One morning a warrior at the front of the first ship blew a bronze trumpet.
00:14:38.460 --> 00:14:39.840
The men aboard that ship,
00:14:39.840 --> 00:14:42.430
they stood and saw what he had seen –
00:14:42.430 --> 00:14:43.830
land!
00:14:43.830 --> 00:14:47.010
A broad beach of white sand;
00:14:47.010 --> 00:14:51.920
behind it a long flat fertile plain,
00:14:51.920 --> 00:14:58.530
fields, farms, vineyards, shambling cattle.
00:14:58.530 --> 00:15:00.520
On each side of the plain,
00:15:00.520 --> 00:15:02.070
a wriggling river.
00:15:02.070 --> 00:15:03.600
Behind each river,
00:15:03.600 --> 00:15:08.110
a long ridge leading to a headland overlooking the sea.
00:15:08.110 --> 00:15:10.400
At the back of this plain,
00:15:10.400 --> 00:15:13.220
a city wrapped in stone,
00:15:13.220 --> 00:15:17.680
the walls as tall and broad as any they’d ever seen.
00:15:17.680 --> 00:15:22.880
Behind the city, a mountain rose into cloud.
00:15:22.880 --> 00:15:26.770
Those who saw that sight then felt a tingling,
00:15:26.770 --> 00:15:30.720
a mingling in their guts of excitement and terror.
00:15:30.720 --> 00:15:36.160
Surely, they thought, some god or goddess must have had a hand in the building of such a place?
00:15:36.160 --> 00:15:38.990
Surely some god or goddess must watch over it?
00:15:38.990 --> 00:15:45.100
Perhaps this was the dwelling place of the very gods and goddesses themselves!
00:15:45.100 --> 00:16:41.370
[Closing music]