Monday, 13 June 2016

Thessaly and the Magic Helmet

Housebreaking sometimes takes place between neighbours and other times people travel far with the intention of burgling a home, especially if they know there's a priceless magic helmet there.
    In one case, at a place called Eleon in ancient Thessaly, King Amyntor had somehow acquired an invisible helmet. It actually belonged to a neighbour called  Autolycus who had lent it to his grandson Odysseus to wear at the siege of Troy.
   Autolycus broke into the armory of Amyntor, who was incidentally the father of Phoinix, snatched the helmet, scuttled off down some tracks, through the woods in the moonlight shadow of Mt Parnassos and returned home without being seen. Autolycus passed it on to his mate Amphidamas of Kythera and he passed it on to a bloke called Molus who gave it to his son Meriones. Meriones gave it back to Odysseus.
   So if it was an invisible helmet it must have been quite tricky to find, although Autolycus had supreme talents for thievery so an invisible helmet locked in an armory would've been a sinch for such a man. Moreover, maybe it only transformed to invisible when you said the magic word. Or maybe you rubbed one of the boars tusks on it. It'd be funny if Odysseus gave it back to King Amyntor.

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