Setting: Mythology; Trojan War
Rating: T
Genre: Drama, Tragedy
Characters: Ancient Greece, Troy
Warnings: off-screen rape, violence
Word Count: 616
Adelpha
"Sing, O Muses, of the immortal feud
That hath left countless death,
And brought a proud city to her knees,
Killed by the hands of her own kin."
At last, the seemingly unending carnage was finished. Troy was rejoicing, having brought inside her walls the wooden horse left behind by the Akhaians. It will serve as a suitable gift for Tritogeneia, merciful goddess that she is.
Yes, the whole of Troy was rejoicing.
Except for that solitary figure, set apart not only physically, wearing her chiton as if one in mourning. The noble woman who scorned and was scorned in turn.
Cassandra, Princess of Troy.
"My lady, why don't you join them? I am sure they would welcome you," Adrasteia said as she approached.
"Dear Troy, you wouldn't understand. Letting that accursed gift enter our walls means your death. Our death," Cassandra sighed.
"Cassandra," Troy laughs, "you worry too much. Your visions will surely fail this time."
Cassandra shook her head. She knew of the curse, no one will believe her.
The celebrations continue at the polis' center, while Cassandra cries from within her chambers.
She has failed once again.
"Beware the Greeks bearing gifts," Laocoön once warned.
No one heeded him.
It was now time to pay the price.
It happened in the middle of the night, while the warriors were asleep.
Treachery was something Adrasteia never expected of her sister.
The first hour of assault was the worst.
Troy's warriors were still under Lyaeus's influence. Although they have fought valiantly, it seems that even Dionysos favoured the enemy. Many were left dead.
Only two leaders survived the initial outburst.
Antenor, the traitor, protected by Menelaüs and Odysseus, who hanged a panther's hide outside Antenor's door.
Aeneas, son of Aphrodite, alongside his family was taken out of Troy by his mother. Unfortunately, his wife Creüsa was separated from him by the ensuing chaos and was killed.
Out of all the immortals, only Makhanitis helped a Trojan that night.
"Blood ran in torrents, drenched was all the earth,
As Trojans and their alien helpers died.
Here were men lying quelled by bitter death
All up and down the city in their blood."
Adrasteia was there when the impious Ajax violated her dearest Cassandra in the goddess' temple. She swore on Hektor's grave that his sister's rape will not be left unavenged. And in truth, Ajax will be drowned at sea while trying to return to his home.
Helen of Sparta (no, never of Troy) was doomed to die at the hands of her former husband Menelaüs, but upon seeing her beauty, he dropped his sword, and led her back to the black-sailed Akhaian warships. Adrasteia laughs bitterly at the sight. She hopes she could have revenge on Helen some day, for destroying their lives.
Within her own temple, Adrasteia bides her time, watching her land continue to burn. She knows that it is only a matter of time until her sister comes to settle it once and for all.
She turns her head when she hears a shuffling of armour. Her sister stands at the entrance, a spear in one hand.
"Amynta," she says.
"Adrasteia, I suppose you know why I am here?"
"You have come to finish it," Troy answers.
"It was not my choice. Berenike sent me to do it for her."
Amynta averts her eyes. Her spear-hand shakes.
Adrasteia coughs. Blood comes out of her mouth. She knows that her king has died.
"Promise me you'll let no harm come to my Astyanax."
"I'm sorry... adelpha."
"Dont be."
Adrasteia smiles, and Amynta envies her sister.
By the time it is over, the grieving Eos has already opened her courts.
Troy has fallen.
Adelpha means sister in Greek.
Amynta = Ancient Greece/Athens
Adrasteia = Troy
Berenike = Sparta
Tritogeneia is an epithet for Athena, goddess of strategic war.
Incidentally, even though she sided against them, Athena is actually the patron goddess of Troy.
Lyaeus is an epithet for Dionysos.
Makhanitis is an epithet for Aphrodite.
Eos is the goddess of the dawn. Her son Prince Memnon of Ethiopia was killed by Achilles during the war.
Astyanax, Hector's son, was flung to his death at the top of Troy's wall. According to The Sack of Ilium, it was Odysseus who murdered Astyanax, but Pausanias, with Lescheus as his source, says that it was Neoptolemus, who was responsible for Astyanax's killing.
Neoptolemus had killed King Priam of Troy either in the palace or at the temple of Zeus.
The seeress Cassandra, daughter of Priam and Hecuba, clung to the statute of Athena, but the Lesser Ajax raped her in the temple, incuring the wrath of the goddess, and leading to the events of The Odyssey.
Athens mentions that Sparta told her to finish Troy in her stead. This is because Helen is a Spartan Princess, later Queen.