"Mary Renault - Greece 1 - The King Must Die" - читать интересную книгу автора (Renault Mary)

belch and gurgle. Simo jumped a foot in the air; he had more respect for the god's presence thereafter.

Kannadis cured his arm, when it festered, with the holy salt water. My wound was inward, and slow to
heal.

I was the youngest of the Palace children; I had never thought to measure myself with any others. Next
time I went home, I began to look about, and to ask people's ages. I found seven boys born in my year
and season. Only one of them was smaller than I. There were even girls who were taller. I began to be
silent, and to brood.

All these six boys, as I saw it, were threats to my honor. If I could not outgrow them, I must prove
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myself some other way. So I would challenge them to dive between steep rocks, to poke wild bees'
nests and run, to ride the kicking mule or steal eggs from eagles. If they said no, I would make them fight.
These contests I won, having more at stake than the others, though I never said so. Thereafter we could
be friends, for me. But their fathers complained of me, that I led them into danger; and I was never two
days running out of a scrape.

One day I saw old Kannadis walking home from Troizen, and overtook him near the ford. He shook his
head and said he heard sad tales of me; but I could see he was pleased I had run after him. Taking heart
from this, I said, "Kannadis, how tall are the sons of the gods?"

He peered at me sharply with old blue eyes, then patted my shoulder. "Who can say? That would be
making laws for our betters. The gods themselves can be what size they choose; Paian Apollo once
passed as a shepherd lad. And King Zeus himself, who got mighty Herakles, another time went courting
as a swan. His wife had swan-children, curled up in eggs, as little as that."

"Then," I said, "how do men know if they are god-begotten?"

He brought down his white brows. "No man can knew. Still less may he claim it. Certainly the gods
would punish his pride. He could only seek for honor as if it might be true, and wait upon the god. Men
are not asked to know such things; heaven sends a sign."

"What sign?" I asked. But he shook his head. "The gods will be known, when they are ready."

I thought much about this matter of honor. Talaos' son, climbing out on a limb which bore my weight but
not his, got a broken arm, and I a beating. The god sent no sign; so it seemed he was not satisfied.

Behind the stables was the pen of the Palace bull. He was red as a pot, with short straight horns and a
look of Simo. We boys liked teasing him through the palings, though the bailiff would clip us if he caught
us at it. One day we had been watching him serve a cow and the show was over, when it came into my
head to jump down in the bull pen and dodge across.

He was quiet after his pleasure, and I got away easily; but it made a stir among the boys, which was
enough to send me back next day. The life I had been living had made me hard and wiry and
quick-footed; and when other boys out of emulation joined the game, I was still the master. I chose my