Pirate

Author: Xu Dewei / Country: Mainland China
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-08-01
Features: In the distant era of ancient Greece and Rome, the gods of the upper world ruled the world, while the affairs of the mortal realm were governed by heroes. Those who roamed the azure Aegean Sea were not only heroes of immense courage and indomitable spirit but also pirates of avaricious plunder. They were a people born to the sea: strong, fierce, and unyielding. Thus began the history of piracy, and the legend of invincibility soared. They were heroes, and they were also pirates.
In the legends of ancient Greece, the gods on Mount Olympus ruled the world, and the offspring of gods and mortals were the heroes. The most renowned heroes of ancient Greece were Achilles and Odysseus—one invincible in battle, the other extraordinary in wisdom. Yet, you might not have realized that these two legendary heroes were also pirates. In fact, the Greeks usually called any man who made a living at sea a "pirate." To be a pirate was one of the five basic means of livelihood at the time, alongside nomadic life, farming, fishing, and hunting. "Pirate" was merely a profession at the time, and no one considered the profession dishonorable.
The most famous ancient Greek poet, Homer, wrote the epic poems still celebrated worldwide today—The Iliad and The Odyssey. The long poems primarily tell the story of the Greek coalition besieging the city of Troy in Asia Minor. From a modern perspective, this military campaign was essentially a large-scale, organized piratical activity, and even their warships were identical to ancient pirate ships.
The Iliad tells the story of the Trojan War. Paris, the prince of the ancient Asian city of Troy, was sent as an envoy to Greece and was warmly welcomed by the king of Sparta. However, he grew infatuated with the beautiful wife of the Spartan king, Helen, and abducted her to Troy. Helen's husband, the Spartan king, felt this was a profound humiliation and swore to avenge it. His brother, King Agamemnon of Mycenae, also vowed to support him and offered to lead the Greek coalition, uniting the city-states of Greece and assembling over a thousand ships to sail across the Aegean Sea to attack Troy. However, the Greeks did not expect that when the war began, the Trojans, led by the heroic Hector, fought valiantly. The battle was evenly matched, and Troy remained unconquered for ten years.
The protagonist of this epic is the famous Achilles. As the main general of the Greek coalition, he was the son of the sea goddess Thetis and the mortal Peleus. At his birth, the Fates prophesied that he would become a great hero but would also die in battle at a young age. Distressed, his mother dipped his heel in the divine river to make him invulnerable except for that spot, granting him extraordinary strength. Thus, in the West, "Achilles' heel" means a fatal weakness.
With such divine abilities and armor and weapons forged for him, Achilles was invincible on the battlefield of Troy, scattering his enemies before him. Even Hector, the greatest hero of Troy, feared to fight him. The Greek coalition, with Achilles as their divine son, could have won the war swiftly, but when it came time to divide the spoils and prizes, Agamemnon, the coalition leader, seized Achilles' favorite war captive. Enraged, Achilles refused to fight. As a result, the Greek coalition suffered consecutive defeats, and even Achilles' closest comrade, Patroclus, was killed by Hector's sword. Filled with fury, Achilles returned to the battlefield and killed Hector, the main commander of Troy. But when Troy was finally breached, Achilles fulfilled the prophecy of the Fates and was shot in the heel by Paris, the Trojan prince, and died.
In The Iliad, Achilles bears no shame and proudly admits to being a pirate. He says, "I sat in my warship and destroyed twelve cities in one breath, and on this rich and beautiful plain of Troy, I destroyed eleven cities, in which I took countless treasures." P2-5