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

fight, and taken his kingdom. He would have died hard, or been driven from his people and his wives to
grow old without honor. You saw that he was proud."

I asked, "Was he so old?"

"No." His big wrinkled hand lay quietly on the lion mask. "No older for a horse than Talaos for a man.
He died for another cause. But if I tell you why, then you must listen, even if you do not understand.
When you are older, if I am here, I will tell it you again; if not you will have heard it once, and some of it
you will remember."

While he spoke, a bee flew in and buzzed among the painted rafters. To this day, that sound will bring it
back to me.

"When I was a boy," he said, "I knew an old man, as you know me. But he was older; the father of my
grandfather. His strength was gone, and he sat in the sun or by the hearthside. He told me this tale, which
I shall tell you now, and you, perhaps, will tell one day to your son." I remember I looked up then, to see
if he was smiling.

"Long ago, so he said, our people lived in the north-land, beyond Olympos. He said, and he was angry
when I doubted it, that they never saw the sea. Instead of water they had a sea of grass, which stretched
as far as the swallow flies, from the rising to the setting sun. They lived by the increase of their herds, and
built no cities; when the grass was eaten, they moved where there was more. They did not grieve for the
sea, as we should, or for the good things earth brings forth with tilling; they had never known them; and
they had few skills, because they were wandering men. But they saw a wide sky, which draws men's
mind to the gods; and they gave their first-fruits to Ever-Living Zeus, who sends the rain.

"When they journeyed, the barons in their chariots rode round about, guarding the flocks and the women.
They bore the burden of danger, then as now; it is the price men pay for honor. And to this very day,
though we live in the Isle of Pelops and build walls, planting olives and barley, still for the theft of cattle
there is always blood. But the horse is more. With horses we took these lands from the Shore People
who were here before us. The horse will be the victor's sign, as long as our blood remembers.

"The folk came south by little and little, leaving their first lands. Perhaps Zeus sent no rain, or the people
grew too many, or they were pressed by enemies. But my great-grandfather said to me that they came by
the will of All-Knowing Zeus, because this was the place of their moira."

He paused in thought. I said to him, "What is that?"

"Moira?" he said. "The finished shape of our fate, the line drawn round it. It is the task the gods allot us,
and the share of glory they allow; the limits we must not pass; and our appointed end. Moira is all these."

I thought about this, but it was too big for me. I asked, "Who told them where to come?"

"The Lord Poseidon, who rules everything that stretches under the sky, the land and the sea. He told the
King Horse; and the King Horse led them."
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