Warriors in Bronze (40 page)

Heroes mounted and stood beside me. Weapons clashed and battered, shouting dinned the eardrums. We won the width of the parapet, dropped to the rampart walk and went on fighting. Lunge, shield right and parry, withdraw, shield front and cut. A sword-thrust scraping forearm, a cleft skull spouting brains.

We cleared a space and stood in a bunch, shields fronted facing outwards, backed against the parapet. The Thebans retreated on either side and girded themselves for a charge. Blood slipperied the narrow walk, feet stumbled over bodies. I looked to my left. No sign yet of Diomedes' stormers. On the right a raging fight at the head of Tydeus' ladder. A gate tower blocked from view the farther escaladers.

The Thebans charged, and again we fought, and again we beat them back. I nursed a bleeding hand and counted the cost. Of twelve who had gained the ramparts eight were left. Could we cut a way to Tydeus' men and together reach the gate ?

I scanned the fighting where his column's ladder mounted. Tydeus straddled the parapet, swung his sword. A javelin spiked his belly below the cuirass rim. Tydeus dropped his blade, the black beard pointed skywards and he toppled from the wall.

Enough. Whatever happened elsewhere the assault on this gate had failed. I shouted commands. One by one we descended the ladder, an ever-diminishing shield wall warding off assail­ants. I went last, hastened by a wild-eyed Theban hammering an axe on my shield. I chested the parapet edge, scrambled with my legs to find the rungs. The Theban followed, lifted the axe.

Spreadeagled like a landed fish I closed my eyes and awaited death. An arrow whanged. He dropped the axe and clutched a shaft protruding from his throat. My foot found the rung and I went down fast, skinning both hands to the bone. Arrows, stones and throwing spears whistled about my head. I stumbled down the slope and scuttled with my Heroes to the slender line of chariots.

I paused on the way to recover my breath and congratulate our bowmen. Were it not for Cretan marksmanship I wouldn't be telling this story.

I looked for Adrastus, but the king had gone. Collapsing beside a chariot I surveyed the wrack of defeat. Embers of a battle flickered on the ramparts right of the gateway. All the ladders there had fallen; any Argives on the parapet were bound to be killed. Further away Amphiaraus' stormers streamed back across the plain; Polyneices' warband was also retreating.

Just the moment for an enemy counter-attack. Safer within the fort. Wearily I gripped a wheel spoke and hauled myself up.

Diomedes staggered from the dust and flopped at my feet. Blood smeared his face, he held the hilt of a broken sword. 'You didn't support us,' I croaked. 'Your Heroes left us fighting alone on the wall.'

Diomedes said exhaustedly, 'We hadn't a chance. I reached the top and fought on the ladder. They thrust it away. The fall knocked me out. I think my party tried again but...' He dropped the useless sword. 'Why is it, Agamemnon,' Diomedes said despairingly, 'that when their leader falls Heroes lose heart so easily?'

'Our Heroes had better not, because —' I stopped, and bit my lip.

Diomedes started to rise. 'I must find Tydeus and report our failure. Have you seen my father?'

I put a hand on his shoulder and pushed him down. 'I'm sorry, Diomedes. I saw Tydeus die.'

He raised a stricken face, buried head in hands and sobbed. Warriors hurried past, spearmen, Heroes, bowmen, wounded carried on shields. The chariot beside me rocked on its wheels. The occupant said, 'Mind yourselves, my lords. I'm retiring behind the breastworks. Not too healthy here, by the looks of things.' His Companion cracked a whip, the vehicle crunched away.

I lifted Diomedes to his feet. 'Come, my friend. Tydeus, though the noblest, is but one of a host of dead. We'll lament a hundred Heroes before the day is done.'

Borne on a stream of defeated warriors I supported him into the fort.

* * *

Every warband had been repulsed, and the losses were heavy. Besides Tydeus, the Argives Capaneus and Hippomedon and Arcadian Parthenopaeus were dead. The Arcadians, deaf to Adrastus' appeals, loaded baggage and departed.

Three of the Seven remained. Amphiaraus mournfully re­minded us his prophecy was coming true.

Adrastus called a council. The reverse, and Tydeus' death, had totally unnerved the king: he shook all over and stuttered so badly one couldn't sort out what he said. We gathered that he proposed to abandon the campaign. Argive Heroes who re­placed the fallen leaders dejectedly concurred.

Polyneices violently protested. Seeing his bid for the Theban throne drowning in a quagmire of despondency he exhorted the king to try again, this time concentrating the Host on a single gate. (Which, I reflected sadly, had been my advice at the start.) A mulish expression settled on Adrastus' shrivelled features. Diomedes said, 'Agamemnon's attack alone won a footing on the wall. Why should a second attempt fare better?'

'After all their casualties,' Amphiaraus moaned, 'I doubt our men will be persuaded to attack.'

'Our victuals are near exhausted,' Adrastus quavered. 'We must march away or starve.'

Polyneices flung out his arms. Then,' he exclaimed, 'I'll chal­lenge my brother to decide our claims by the test of single combat! That, my lords, will save you from endangering your shrinking bodies and craven souls!'

Shaking with anger he strode away, his dramatic departure rather marred by tripping over a chariot pole. Adrastus said, 'I have a mind to clap him under arrest.'

I said, 'Let the idiot go. He can't change anything. Whether Eteocles accepts or refuses, whether he or Polyneices wins the fight, we lose nothing and gain nothing. Thebes won't stake her destiny on the life of a single man.'

The king gave Amphiaraus active command of the Host. After extending the barricades he withdrew the decimated warbands to our enclosure opposite the southern gate and left pickets of mounted scouts in the ring of forts. Obeying Adras­tus' behest he started preparations to raise the siege and depart. Amphiaraus followed my counsel and kept these activities hidden from enemy observation, sending baggage carts to leaguer beyond Asopos after dark.

I could not understand the Thebans' inactivity, their failure to exploit the Argive defeat; and feared the slightest sign of retreat would encourage a sortie in force. A fighting with­drawal through Cithaeron's defiles was something I hated to contemplate. I tried to persuade Amphiaraus the Host should also withdraw by night but, abiding by warfare's rigid con­ventions, he stubbornly refused. It was only decent, he burbled, to stay and watch the duel; and take the road to Eleusis directly it was done. You might have thought he discussed a hunting expedition or arrangements for holiday games on the Field of War.

Polyneices meanwhile sent heralds to his brother, and an­nounced to my astonishment that Eteocles accepted. Heroic codes tempt gentlemen to every kind of foolishness; and I suppose a public challenge could hardly be refused. (Pondering the matter afterwards I concluded that Creon induced Eteocles to risk his life: his nephew's death would leave the throne in the erstwhile Regent's grasp.) The brothers declared a truce for the duration of a contest to be fought on the plain between Argive camp and citadel. The gates would be opened and Theban spectators allowed outside the walls. Moreover, Poly- neices said proudly, he and his brother would fight in the ancient fashion, helmeted and naked, carrying only spears and shields.

I disliked the entire programme. The sooner we went the better: why delay to watch a tussle which decided nothing at all? More important, I could not visualize Theban warriors massed outside the walls, gates open to disgorge more, standing passively inert while the enemy marched away. I pressed my views on Diomedes. Grief-stricken, pale and peaked, he ac­cepted my proposals with an air of numbed indifference.The war is over. What matter if we leave a day sooner or later?' 'Good. Then warn your warband - the palace Heroes - and be ready to march before daylight.'

'I will.' Diomedes raised his head; the lethargy vanished and he said firmly, 'The king must also leave with his retainers.'

I cursed to myself. You could never predict the wavering bent of old Adrastus' mind. 'Can you persuade him?'

'Yes. For years he has depended on my father to make decisions. Lacking Tydeus' direction he's as pliable as clay.'

I left Diomedes staring wretchedly into space, and found Amphiaraus leaning on a breastwork, glooming at the citadel's sullen walls and talking to his Heroes - including, unfortu­nately, Polyneices. Ignoring the Theban's lowering disapproval I urged the Host should decamp forthwith, and succinctly stated my reasons. So angry he was almost incoherent, Poly­neices blared, 'You haven't much confidence in Theban hon­our!'

'None.'

'We have my brother's word.'

'Eteocles? Indeed. And if he falls in the fight?'-

'His promise binds his people.'

'When has a dead man's mandate bound the living? Have you Creon's assurance the truce will be observed?'

'No - nor do I need it,' Polyneices raged. 'His House and mine are one: he would not dishonour the Theban royal blood.'

The fool was beyond persuasion. Exasperated, I said to Amphiaraus, 'At least draw up the Host tomorrow in battle order before the duel begins. Then you'll be ready for treach­ery.'

'Impossible,' Amphiaraus said glumly. 'We march directly the fight is finished; therefore we assemble in column of route.'

The man was clearly driven by a death wish; his own dark prophecy lured him to his doom. Lest he should try to dissuade the irresolute Adrastus I forbore to mention that the king's warband and mine would quit the camp before sunrise.

Our departure roused the Host - five hundred men can't steal silently from a crowded camp - and brought a bewildered Amphiaraus furiously protesting. I endured his rating in sil­ence, and gestured to the column's vanguard vanishing in the dark. 'The king leads. It is Adrastus' will.’

Polyneices barred my chariot at the entrance. 'You renegade rat!' he roared. 'Treacherous deserter! One day I shall find you and slit your cowardly throat!'

- 'An empty threat. You'll be dead before sundown.' I touched Talthybius' arm. 'Drive on.'

Dawn was breaking when the column reached Asopos and collected its share of the transport sent there days before. 'Keep going,' I told Diomedes. 'Make all speed. Don't halt till you've passed Cithaeron. I shall join you at Eleusis.'

Talthybius turned the horses, and together we retraced our

tracks to the grassy knoll whence first I sighted Thebes.

** *

The Argive fort traced a crook-sided square on the faraway plain. Formations filtered out, gathered in irregular clumps - Amphiaraus' vaunted column of route - and halted in front of the breastworks. The citadel gates swung open and emitted a crowd which strung the base of the walls. Sunrise sparkled spears - why should spectators assemble armed? There was a long wait. I imagined a murmur of voices carried on a wind which rustled the twigs of an oak tree shading my chariot. Tiny figures moved from the Argive side and the Theban and met on the ground between: presumably heralds concerting the duel's details.

I turned and conned the country beyond Asopos' gleaming waters. Diomedes' column, small as a thread in the distance, mounted Cithaeron's foothills. When I looked again the heralds had retreated. Two specks emerged from opposite sides and merged in a blob like a fallen leaf.

I was much too far away to discern particulars of the fight; a surviving Argive Hero described it to me later. In an untidy, clumsy scuffle neither Polyneices nor Eteocles displayed the dexterous skill at arms expected of a Hero. So determined was each to kill the other they charged and lunged and thrust with little regard for defence, using shields as battering rams rather than protection. Within moments of the start both brothers were badly hurt.

Polyneices weakened first, gave ground and dropped to a knee behind his shield. Eteocles uttered a gasping shout, lev­elled spear and charged. His adversary in desperation hurled his spear. Although the heavy barb sheared open Eteocles' stomach, his momentum carried him on. He knocked Polyneices flat, kicked aside the shield and lifted his spear. He smashed his brother's breastbone, broke his spine and pinned him to the ground. Then, mortally wounded and pumping blood, he fell across the body.

Creon regained Thebes.

Nothing of this was visible to me beyond a sudden cessation of movement from the dancing specks I watched. Realizing the fight had finished one way or the other I waited in dread for what would happen next. Suspense did not last long. Chariots burst from the gates and pelted towards the unready Argive Host. Even at that distance I perceived the riders naked.

Turn,' I told Talthybius. 'Use your whip and drive like the wind. The Scavengers run loose!'

In a welter of foam we forded Asopos and bounced along the

stony track that climbed to the pass and safety.

* * *

The remains of the Host waited at Eleusis. Adrastus sent sup­pliants to Theseus, sought his permission to stay in Attic ter­ritory and requested he ensure no Theban forces trespassed across Cithaeron. (A fine come-down for Argos to beg Athenian protection!) Theseus, insufferably cocky, visited the camp at Eleusis and scarcely bothered to conceal his satisfaction at Adrastus' heavy defeat. On the king's entreaty, however, he sent a deputation to Creon asking release of the Argive leaders' corpses for burial by their comrades. The body of Amphiaraus, killed by the Scavengers, was never found; Tydeus, Parthenopaeus, Capaneus and Hippomedon were dis­interred from shallow graves and carried on carts to Eleusis.