I have attempted a form of hexameter, in imitation of Homer. But Greek meters are very different from English; they depend on vowel length as opposed to "stress" in English. I hope for comments on how to improve on these. They have been posted, along with several chapters from the project on Authonomy.com. This link is to the chapter from which the following is excerpted. Small differences show the restless reworkings indulged in by an author.
I
What insanity drove the Greeks to
sail against
Troy? A thousand ships and a
hundred thousand men!
Half the principalities sent their
best warriors,
Leaving enough to man their walls,
and those too old
Or too young for the expedition.
Fewer than half,
A quarter or a tenth would return years
later.
The others had listened to Atreus’
sons, Agamemnon
And Menelaus, pleading for support
to punish the violation
Of the law of hospitality—the
abduction of
His wife Helen by the Trojans! Having
listened,
They firmly declined. Truth be
told, they were wise.
Troy was a storied legend of
wealth and power. No Greek
Had ever measured strength against
Priam’s walls,
Or even braved the blue-green seas
to assess the dangers
They would face. Brilliant Achilles
agreed to go;
He sought his own glory for it had
been foretold
That he alone could vanquish
Hector, the doughty defender;
He scorned the oracle that tied
his fate to this matchless deed.
He would not live long beyond this
glorious moment,
Perfidious Paris, a mere archer,
would fell this hero.
II
Insanity, the Judgment of Paris
they called it, a divine jest
Was perhaps intended, but it
brought tragedy:
Three goddesses who should have
known better, vied
For the golden apple inscribed “To
the most fair.”
And Paris the clueless presumed he
could decide among
Goddesses which one should win
this worthless prize.
So he chose Aphrodite who promised
the fairest woman—
Helen, Menelaus’ wife—spurning
wisdom and domestic
Bliss as promised by Athena and
Hera respectively,
As bribes! Thus was set in motion
events that would bring
Shame and pain, all the worst in
gods and men.
The earth was young, gods and men still
consorted;
Helen herself was said to have
been sired by Zeus.
Who, insatiable, lusted also for Thetis,
spirited
Goddess of the sea, beloved of
Hephaestus
God of craft. But an oracle warned
that any male offspring
Born to Thetis would eclipse his
father. So Zeus
Chose brave but mortal Peleus
whose son by Thetis, Achilles,
By brilliant and heroic deeds
would slay Hector and rip out
The heart of Troy’s resistance and
defense.
But to the wedding of Peleus and
Thetis, Zeus decreed
That Eris, goddess of discord and
strife not be invited.
III
The “Judgment of Paris” would
cause the Greeks much hurt.
It also broke the heart of the
wood nymph whom Paris had
Seduced. She had tripped gaily
through the woods
On Mount Ida when a Trojan hunting
party
Led by Paris wandered, lost and confused
by the
Trails cleverly fashioned by elves
and nymphs in mischief
Within the forest. Mother Ida’s
child was o’erwhelmed
By the beauty of the Trojan prince
and allowed
Him to catch a glimpse of her. He
loved her then
And came often to the sloped
woods, until
Those three goddesses came shamelessly
to seek his “Judgement.”
Olympians though they were, they
could not escape the malice
Of Eris, provoked by exclusion from
the wedding. Forlorn
And joylessly did the wood nymph
wander around the valleys
Near Troy. What of Menelaus, brave,
prudent and loyal?
He was left to bay like a young
wolf wounded and lost,
Straining with every atom of his
being and energy to find
The world he lost—Argos, Agamemnon
and Helen.
Did all-seeing Zeus or far-seeing
immortal Apollo,
His son, think they could out-wit
Eris by dismissing her?
Big mistake, to belittle the
goddess. The gods were foolish,
The goddesses no less, Eris alone
did not
Deserve the blame. Agamemnon too,
with his
Compliant brother, might have
stepped back from war.
