Characters
Below is a summary of some of the main characters in my books. If you haven’t read the first three books in the series, beware of plot spoilers.
Achilles
Status: Prince of the Myrmidons and the greatest warrior in the Greek army.
Significant others: His friend and lover, Patroclus; his immortal mother, Thetis.
Characteristics: Recklessly brave glory seeker. His mother dipped him in the River Styx as a baby making him impervious to any wound – except in the heel by which Thetis held him. During the war, he receives a set of magnificent armour made by Hephaistos, the smith god. But it isn’t enough to protect him from his doom.
Most famous for: Killing Hector and dragging his body seven times around the walls of Troy, tied to the back of his chariot.
Agamemnon
Status: King of Mycenae and leader of the Greek army.
Significant others: His younger brother, Menelaus; His wife, Clytaemnestra.
Characteristics: Not satisfied with being the most powerful man in Greece, he uses the “kidnap” of Helen as a convenient excuse to make war on his greatest rival – Troy.
Most famous for: Falling out with Achilles over a slave girl.
Athena
Status: Goddess of Wisdom.
Significant others: Her father, Zeus; her favourite Greek, Odysseus.
Characteristics: Fervent virgin, more masculine than feminine in outlook. She usually wears a helmet, her aegis and carries a spear. She can disguise herself as a mortal, but usually with similar features to her divine appearance. Like all gods, she tends to play games with the lives of men. Favours the Greeks, particularly Odysseus.
Most famous for: Springing fully formed (and armed!) from the head of Zeus at birth.
Eperitus
Status: Captain of the Ithacan Royal Guard. Odysseus’s most trusted friend.
Significant others: Lover, Astynome.
Characteristics: A warrior born and bred. Seeks glory in battle. Fiercely loyal to Odysseus. Despises his father for a traitor and regicide, hoping to face him in battle and wipe away the stain on his family’s honour.
Most significant event: Received supernaturally powerful senses after being restored to life by the goddess Athena.
Great Ajax
Status: King of Salamis.
Significant others: Himself; his cousin, Achilles.
Characteristics: Giant in stature with huge fists and a fearsome expression, Ajax is a born fighter who relies upon brute strength rather than skill in battle. He is proud and not afraid of offending the gods – to his ultimate loss.
Most famous for: His madness and his suicide.
Hector
Status: Prince of Troy and the greatest warrior in the Trojan army.
Significant others: His wife, Andromache; his infant son, Astyanax
Characteristics: A king in the making, he bears the burden of defending Troy – and his beloved family – from the Greek invaders, holding them at bay for ten years. Until he faces Achilles in battle.
Most famous for: Killing Patroclus and incurring Achilles’s wrath.
Helen
Status: Princess of Troy, formerly queen of Sparta.
Significant others: First husband, Menelaus; second husband, Paris
Characteristics: With black hair, blue eyes and fair skin, her beauty is prized by many. But she hates being used as a political pawn and dreams of true love and freedom. She finds this, briefly, with Paris, but is quickly imprisoned again when the Greeks lay siege to Troy.
Most famous for: Running away with Paris and causing the Trojan War.
Menelaus
Status: King of Sparta.
Significant others: His wife, Helen; his older brother, Agamemnon
Characteristics: A fair and decent man to start with, the loss of his wife and the long years of the war harden and embitter him.
Most famous for: Laying siege to Troy for ten years to get his wife back.
Odysseus
Status: King of Ithaca. Commands twelve ships in the Greek fleet. Of limited wealth and power, but valued for his resourceful intelligence. Favoured by Athena.
Significant others: Wife, Penelope; son, Telemachus
Characteristics: With his triangular physique, short legs and red hair, he is not the image of a typical Greek hero. But his intelligence, cunning and limited scruples help him succeed where more hard-headed warriors fail. A home-loving family man, he will do anything in his power to end the war and return to Ithaca.
Most famous for: Devising the idea of the Trojan Horse. His ten-year journey home from Troy to Ithaca.
Paris
Status: Prince of Troy.
Significant others: His wife, Helen.
Characteristics: Dark, bearded and muscular with a pink scar crossing his face, Paris is not the fop of legend. Instead he is a renowned warrior turned reckless lover, prepared to risk war with Greece for the sake of Helen’s beauty.
Most famous for: When challenged to choose who was the most beautiful between Aphrodite, Athena and Hera he chose Aphrodite, earning her favour but incurring the wrath of the other two. Aphrodite’s bitter-sweet reward was Helen. Later, Paris shoots Achilles with an arrow and kills him.
Penelope
Status: Queen of Ithaca.
Significant others: Her husband, Odysseus; her son, Telemachus.
Characteristics: Faithful wife, protective mother and loyal queen. Penelope is a match for Odysseus in cunning and has to use every ounce of it to protect her husband’s kingdom from treacherous nobles while he is away.
Most famous for: Keeping the suitors at bay while Odysseus is believed dead, most notably through her promise to choose one of them when she had finished sewing a shroud for her father-in-law, Laertes (which she then unpicked every night).
