A ship with blue sails heads home to Troy from Sparta, after what was supposed to be a trip for peace.

"It is a beautiful morning, Hector. Poseidon has blessed our voyage."

"Sometimes the gods bless you in the morning and then curse you in the afternoon."

"Do you love me, brother?"

"The last time you asked me that, you were ten years old and you had just stolen father's horse. What have you stolen now?"

"I need to show you something."

Paris led his brother to below the ship, where in Paris' cabin, the fate of both brothers was waiting to be found.

"If you weren't my brother I woud kill you where you stand! Turn us back around! Back to Sparta!"

"Wait, brother, wait!"

"You fool!"

"Listen to me-."

"Do you know what you've done? Do you know how many years our father worked for peace? How many brothers and cousins he lost on the battlefield?!"

"I love her."

"Say another word and I'll break your neck! This is all a game for you, isn't it?!You roam from town to town, bedding merchants' wives and temple maids! You think you know something about love? What about your father's love?! You spat on him when you brought her on this ship! What about love of your country?! You'd let Troy burn for this woman?! I won't let you start a war for her!"

"May I speak?What you say is true. I've wronged you. I've wronged our father. If you want to bring Helen back to Sparta, so be it. But I go with her."

"To Sparta?! They'll kill you!"

"Then I'll die fighting!"

Hector grabbed Paris by his tunic, scaring Paris a little bit.

"That sounds heroic to you, doesn't it?! To die fighting?! Tell me, little brother, have you ever killed a man?!"

"No."

"Have you ever seen a man die in combat?!"

"No."

"I've killed men, brother! I've watched them dying! I've heard them dying! I've smelled them dying! There's nothing glorious about it! Nothing poetic! You think you want to die for love, but you know nothing about dying! And you know nothing about love!"

"All the same, I go with her."

Hector let go of his brother, and stared at the deep blue waters of the Aegean Sea.

"Take us to Troy."

Back in Sparta, King Menelaus was searching everywhere for his wife. He charged into her bedchamber to find only Helen's handmaiden cleaning her jewellery.

"Where is she?"

"Who, my king?"

Menelaus grabs the handmaiden by the throat and holds his swoard at her stomach.

"I swear by the father of the gods, I'll gut you here if you don't tell me!"

"My king, this fisherman saw her leave. He says that she left with the Trojans."

"The Trojans?!"

"With the young prince, Paris."

"Get my ship ready."

Menelaus, his advisors, and a retinue of soldiers board the ship bound for Mycenae, where Menelaus' brother Agamemnon is king.

"Your messenger came two days ago, brother. I know what happened."

"I want her back."

"Of course you do. She's a beautiful woman."

"I want her back so that I can kill her with my bare hands. I will not rest until I've burned Troy to the ground."

"I thought that you wanted peace with Troy?"

"I shoud have listened to you, brother."

"Peace is for the women and the weak. Empires are forged by war. Names are made to last by battlescars."

"All my life I've stood by your side, fought your enemies. You're the eldest, you reap the glory. This is the way of the world. But have I ever complained, brother? Have I ever asked you for anything?"

"Never. You're a man of honor. Everyone in Hellas knows this."

"The Trojans spat on my honor. An insult to me is an insult to you."

"And an insult to me is an insult to all Hellenes."

"Will you go to war with me, brother?"

Later on, Agamemnon decided to discus with Nestor, the king of Pylos about going to war with Troy.

"I always thought my brother's wife was a foolish woman. But she's proven to be very useful. Nothing unifies a people like a common enemy."

"The Trojans have never been conquered. Some say they can't be conquered."

"I haven't tried yet. Old King Priam thinks he's untouchable behind his high walls. He thinks the Sun God will protect him. But the gods only protect the strong. If Troy falls, I control the Aegean."

"Hector commands the finest army in the east. And Troy is built to withstand a ten-year siege."

"There won't be a ten-year siege. I'll attack them with the greatest force the world has ever seen. I want all the Hellene kings and all their armies. Send emissaries in the morning."

"One last thing. We need Achilles and his Myrmidons."

Agamemnon had almost forgotten about Achilles, the one thing he needed to win the war against the Trojans.

"Achilles can't be controlled. He's as likely to fight us as the Trojans."

"We don't need to control him. We need to unleash him. The man was born to end lives."

"Yes, he's a gifted killer, but he follows no king! He threatens everything I've built! Before me Hellas was nothing, a province of warlords and cattle raiders! I've brought all the Hellene kingdoms together! With the sword when necessary, with a treaty when possible! I've created a nation out of fire-worshippers and snake-eaters! I build the future, Nestor! Me! Achilles is the past, a man who fights for no flag, a man loyal to no country!"

"He is only loyal to his father and his Myrmidons."

"But there is one other man he'll listen to."

"I will send a ship to Ithaca in the morning."

When Agamemnon's emissaries arrived at Ithaca, they were greeted by no royal party, and no king. They saw a shepherd sitting under an apple tree, with his herd dog beside him.

"Greetings, brother. We were told King Odysseus is here in the hills."

"Odysseus? That old bastard drinks my wine and never pays."

"You ought to respect your king, friend."

"Respect him?I'd like to punch him in the nose.He's always pawing at my wife, trying to tear her clothes off."

The shepherd watches the emissaries walk away, puzzeled by their stupidity. He whispers something to his dog, something that the emissaries were able to overhear.

"I hope Agamemnon's generals are smarter than his emissaries."

"What did you say?"

"You want me to help you fight the Trojans."

"You're? Forgive us, King Odysseus."

"Well, I'm going to miss my dog."

"King Agamemnon has a favour to ask of you, King Odysseus."

"Of course he does."

Odysseus was a smart man, perhaps the most intelligent man of his time. But maybe even Odysseus himself was not prepared for the favour Agamemnon asked of him.