10.

Croton and his assistants were included in the summons and so was Calchas, who had barely had time to return to his tent. The same obscure wish, or need, to mark himself out, assert his foreignness, made him want to appear looking his best, in full priestly regalia; but he had grown accustomed to the ministrations of Poimenos, especially in the dressing of his hair and the applying of his make-up. These things he now had to do for himself and hastily, with the aid of a hand mirror. He felt conscious as he arrived that he was in disarray, the fringes of his skirt hanging too low, his hair not properly pinned up, the kohl on his eyelids smudged.

Agamemnon opened the proceedings, briefly thanking the assembled chiefs, remarking on the strange coincidence of the calm falling just as the ship was sighted. What could this portend?

By common consent, the first among the chiefs to speak was Idomeneus, commander of the Cretan contingent, which was second in numbers only to the Mycenaean. His support was essential, whatever the ultimate decision. He was known as a pragmatist, with both feet firmly on the ground, and his words now bore this out. 'I think we should make immediate preparations to leave,' he said. 'The wind has dropped, that's the salient fact, there's no need to look beyond it. For whatever reason, it has pleased Zeus to release us from this misery. We've waited long for this moment. For heaven's sake, let's take the opportunity that is presented to us, let's welcome Agamemnon's daughter as befits a princess of Mycenae, and embark her for home again as soon as possible. Meanwhile, let's start work breaking camp and loading the ships. If there's a calm in the narrows we can use our oars to get out into the open sea. Once there, we'll be all right. The breezes will be southerly, as accords with the season. We've lost time enough already, are we going to lose more days while she is got ready for the sacrifice? I am for setting out immediately.'

'Send Iphigeneia home again?' Achilles said. 'I'm surprised to hear you suggest that, Idomeneus. I thought you were my friend. Don't you see, it will be thought she changed her mind about marrying me. As you all know, and as the Singer has given out, for patriotic reasons I allowed my name to be made use of as a means of persuading Iphigeneia to come here. No name but mine could have brought her on such a journey. What sort of figure will I make now if she turns round and goes straight back home again? Think what future generations will say. Think of my image. A girl arrives, looks Achilles over, decides he doesn't come up to scratch and promptly leaves again. No, I can't allow that to happen. I'll kill her myself first. Then at least it will be supposed that she didn't come up to my expectations. With all due respect, Agamemnon.' On this he bowed slightly to the King, who made no answering sign.

'We must rise above personal issues and think of the needs of the alliance,' Chasimenos said. As it happens, I agree with Achilles, though not of course for personal reasons. Let me state my credentials. Let me speak as what I am, what I am proud to be, a top civil servant in Agamemnon's service. In fact, let's not be needlessly modest, I am the head of the whole palace bureaucracy. Mine has been the overall responsibility for arranging this sacrifice. Sending Iphigeneia back again would be both illogical and sinfully wasteful. In fact it would be an absurd thing to do. The knife has been fashioned at considerable cost, in accordance with daily instructions from the King. The sacrificial altar has been built at enormous labour under the personal supervision of Croton, priest of Zeus, who has done a marvellous job. I am sure that all here share my sentiments of gratitude to him for the time he has put in and for his dedication to this project.'

Shouts of 'Hear hear, well done Croton' came from various quarters and the priest raised his staff in acknowledgement.

'Not only that,' Chasimenos continued, 'but a processional way has been laid up the slope to the altar by levies and men working day and night, without remission. In the course of these works five men have been injured, two of them seriously. Think of the planning and organization involved, the sheer human cost in blood and sweat. The knife, the altar, the road, these things have been brought into being for one purpose only. They must be used for that purpose. To divorce the product from the purpose for which it was produced undermines the logic on which our civilization and all its values are based. It makes nonsense of everything. It is unnatural, it is perverse, I might even say it is inhuman.' Chasimenos looked earnestly from face to face. Beads of sweat had appeared on his high and narrow forehead. It was plain to all that he was deeply moved. 'It would leave us with a deficit on the books,' he said. 'There is no way it could be justified in terms of cost effectiveness.'

Chasimenos was not very well liked among the chiefs, being a known intriguer; but one or two 'bravos' were heard at the end of this speech and Achilles went so far as to send Patroclus over to say a word of thanks. In the brief silence that followed all heard the querulous voice of Nestor suddenly raised. 'I remember a similar case many years ago now. It was in the land of the Lapiths. I was young then, I could hold my own with anyone, as a wrestler and spearman my equal was hard to find. My companions were men like Caeneus and Exardius, men such as we don't see nowadays, more like gods than men, or was it Caenichus? I'm sure of his name when he was a girl, he was called Caenis when he was a girl, he was raped by Poseidon, or she, I should say, she was still a girl then, afterwards she asked Poseidon to change her into a boy so it couldn't happen again, but of course that doesn't follow, he didn't know much about life, she, I should say, she was still a girl then, Poseidon liked the look of him as a boy and did it again. I was one of the guests at Peirithous' wedding when the fight broke out between the Lapiths and the Centaurs, we were all drunk, I killed three Centaurs single-handed, this was after that famous cattle raid in Elis when we got away with fifty–'

'Father, where is this leading?'

'Don't interrupt me. My sentence is for death.'

'Death for Iphigeneia?'

'Fool, how does she come into it? The penalty for stealing from a comrade is death. I demand the death penalty.'

'Father, the man whose death you are justly demanding was decapitated the day before yesterday.'

While the old man was still being shushed into silence by his dutiful sons, Calchas raised his hand and waited for Agamemnon's nod. Like Croton he had no authority deriving from command and therefore no automatic right of speech. He had not been sure whether he would speak or not – it was unlikely he would be invited to do so. But after all he had been sent for; and he felt some of the recklessness that visits fearful souls when their fears are realized. No immediate harm could come to him, he knew that: he was protected by the King's hate. Listening to Idomeneus, a practical man and not god-vexed like himself, it had occurred to him that others might see it in the same way and be inclined, after so much waiting, to go at once. It was futile now to argue against the war. But at least the folly of the sacrifice, the offence to Artemis, might be avoided.

'Surely,' he said, when the nod came, 'we do not think of sacrificing a King's daughter only because arrangements have been made to do it? If we go so far along a road and find it is the wrong one, do we continue along the road and make the error worse and weary ourselves to no purpose, or do we stop and look about us and try to find the right way? O kings, the wind has ceased, is it not signal enough? The meaning is plain to see. There was contention between Zeus and Artemis; but there is contention no more and that is why the wind has ceased. What could better show reconciliation than a calm? Idomeneus is right. The way to Troy lies open to us. Why should we wait here a single day longer?'