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

When there was dancing, my troubles always lifted; and I came to music through the dance. I loved the
winter evenings in the Hall, when the lyre was passed about, and was glad when I began to be called on
for my turn. On one such evening, a guest was there, a baron from Pylos. He sang well, and in
compliment gave us the tale of Pelops, the founder hero of our line. It was not the same song as the one
favored in Troizen, which was of Pelops' chariot race for the hand of the Earth King's daughter; how the
King speared all her suitors as their chariots turned the end stone, till the trick with the waxen linchpin
threw him first. This song was about Pelops' youth: how Blue-Haired Poseidon loved him, and would
warn him of the coming earthquake when he laid his ear to the ground; he was called Pelops, so said the
song, from the earth-smear on his cheek.

I kept my thoughts to myself. This, then, was where my warning came from. Not a pledge straight from
the god to me, but an inborn skill, like this man's sweet voice who sang. It came to me in my mother's
blood.

Next day, still sick at heart, I went to look for my friends; but all the youths were wrestling. I stood
beside the ground, seeing the white dust fly up to the poplar leaves; too proud to take a turn with the
boys of my own weight, for those who were worth a match were all younger than I.

I watched them straining and grunting, heaving each other up and tossing each other down; and a thought
came to me, how easily a man is thrown if something strikes the side of his foot just when his weight is
coming on it. It puts him off balance and down he goes; it had happened to me with a wayside stone. I
watched the feet, and then the bodies, and thought about it.

Just then Maleus, a great shambling youth, called out, "Come on, Theseus, give me a match!" Then he
bawled with laughter; not that he hated me, it was his way. I said, "Why not?" which made him slap his
knees and roar. When we were closing, and he reached out to lift me, I moved and made him lean a little.
Then I backheeled him. He went down like a boulder.

For some time, helped by the dust-cloud and by being quick, I threw the youths of Troizen with this one
chip alone; till a day when I woke feeling lucky, and went for no reason down to the harbor. There was a
small trader in from Egypt, buying hides and horns. Two little brown boys, as lithe as snakes, were
scuffling naked on the deck. They were wrestling, not fighting; and though they were only half-taught
children, I saw what they were up to. I got sweet figs and honey, and climbed aboard; and came away
with half a dozen chips as good as my backheel, all fit to throw a heavier man. It was news to me in those
days that the Egyptians know all about this matter. I thought it a portent straight from the god.

Nowadays, it is all Athenian style wherever you go; so once again you must match with your own weight,
if you want to go far. But I still umpire at the Games of Poseidon, because it pleases the people.
Sometimes I wonder who will umpire at my funeral games. I thought once it would be my son; but he is
dead.

Soon, in Troizen, even men were coming to see me wrestle, and I took some on. Though they learned a
few of my holds, I kept a few ahead, for one thought leads to another. And people began to say there
was surely something between the god and me; for how could I keep it up against men so much bigger,
unless Earth-Shaker put out a hand to pull them to the ground?

So, as I neared seventeen, I was in better content with myself, even though I had not grown beyond five
feet and a half. It had not stood in my way with girls; and the children I got were fair and Hellene. Only