All Because of a Girl (Excerpt)

by Peter Connolly

The Oath

The oath had been sworn and would have to be kept. There seemed to be no way out of it. Much had changed since Odysseus had made that promise. He was now king of Ithaca and married, with a baby son.

The rocky island of Ithaca lay off the west coast of Greece. Its densely wooded hills were alive with deer and other game, which Odysseus loved to hunt. At that very time he was training a new dog which he had called Argus after the mythical hero with a hundred eyes who saw all and missed nothing. Argus was hardly more than a puppy but he had the makings of a great hunting dog.

Odysseus‘ passion for hunting once almost cost him his life. Some years earlier he had been savagely gored by a wild boar, and the wound had left a ragged scar above his knee. But this had not put him off. He was a superb marksman and would sometimes display his skill by shooting an arrow through a line of twelve axes without hitting one of them.

He was also a great storyteller. He loved to hold an audience spellbound. Some might call him a liar but his friends knew him better than that. He just liked to improve a story, and if sometimes the truth became a little lost — well, that was just unfortunate.

Odysseus was a thick-set man, about thirty years old. His wife, Penelope, was hardly more than half his age. Before Odysseus brought her back to Ithaca he built a bedroom for them both around the trunk of an olive tree, which he had trimmed and smoothed down. The trunk formed the head of a richly decorated bed, which he had made with his own hands. This room was their secret place which no-one else was allowed to enter.