The Luck of Troy

by Roger Lancelyn Green, Margery Gill (Illustrator)

Nicostratus, the son of Helen and Menelaus, grows up in Troy, where he faces a conflict of loyalties when the Greeks are about to capture the city

Genres: Historical Fiction, Young Adult, Childrens, Fiction, Mythology, Fantasy, Adventure

Paperback

First published January 1, 1961

About the author

Roger (Gilbert) Lancelyn Green was a British biographer and children's writer. He was an Oxford academic who formed part of the Inklings literary discussion group along with C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien. Born in 1918 in Norwich, England, Green studied under C. S. Lewis at Merton College, Oxford, where he obtained a B.Litt. degree. He delivered the 1968 Andrew Lang lecture. Green lived in Cheshire, in a manor which his ancestors owned for over 900 years. He died in October 1987. His son was the writer Richard Lancelyn Green

Reviews

[Girl with her Head in a Book · Rating 4 out of 5]

For my full review: https://girlwithherheadinabook.co.uk/...

When it comes to Greek mythology, Roger Lancelyn Green's retellings are where it all began for me. It was the late 1990s, we were studying the Greeks at school and I wanted to find out more. It was a family friend who pointed me towards The Luck of Troy, the first time I had ever heard anything about that kerfuffle around Helen and the big wooden horse. I was only nine and it was instant Book-Love. I loved the exotic character names and recycled them repeatedly in my own stories for years afterwards. The high stakes, the action, the drama ... I just thought it was brilliant. Returning to the book two decades on, I was ... puzzled. It was not the way I remembered it. It was far more ... strange.

Roger Lancelyn Green is best known for being one of the 'Inklings' and for his mythic retellings such as Tales of Greek Heroes. He wrote comparatively few pieces of original fiction and even when he did, as with this novel, he tended to root them heavily in classical literature. The Luck of Troy is based on the source which claims that when Helen of Sparta was taken to Troy by Prince Paris, she took her infant son Nicostratus along with her. While it is generally agreed that Helen bore her husband Menelaus a daughter, the existence of the son is only mentioned by a few writers and some even suggest that the boy's mother was not Helen but rather a slave woman. Intriguingly, Nicostratus is referred to as growing up as a brave warrior but precisely nothing else is known about his later life, leaving Lancelyn Green a lot of room for manoeuvre for his own narrative.

The Luck of Troy shows us the conflict from Nicostratus' eye view. Aged twelve, he has almost no memory of Sparta. He has grown up as an outsider among the Trojans, unable to leave the city but hated by most of its inhabitants. As the war draws towards its inexorable conclusion, the risk to Nicostratus grows ever closer. In this telling of the story, Paris is a cruel bully and Helen has never loved him. Nicostratus's only friend and playmate is the Trojan princess Polyxena and he sees her fall in love with Achilles and then have her heart broken by his death. He is heartened by the visits of the disguised Odysseus and tries to help him steal the statue of Athena known as 'The Luck of Troy' which the Greeks believe they need in order to finally bring the city to its knees.


Helen of Troy by Evelyn de Morgan
The idea of Helen in Troy with a child is incredibly thought-provoking. In most tellings of the tale, she is the ultimate Bad Mother. She has a young daughter and she abandons her to run after her lover and does not see her again for ten years. Here though, the dynamic is flipped. She is more akin to Ma in Room, desperately trying to keep her child safe in a city full of people who would do him harm. Yet somehow that maternal protectiveness never really comes across, perhaps because although the reader has only Nico's perspective, she is still always referred to as 'Helen' and there is a certain distance between the two characters.

I think this is something about Helen of Troy though. I have read around five different novels which feature her as a character and ... I've never really felt like what motivated her ever really came through. She doesn't 'make sense' to me. She is the most beautiful woman who has ever existed and we are supposed to believe that she once truly walked the earth. Women did not like her as they were consumed with jealousy. And fear too that Helen would steal away their husbands. Men loathed her too either from frustrated lust or just plain frustration at the chaos she left in her wake. She even gets short shrift in Margaret Atwood's The Penelopiad.

The Luck of Troy was the first time I ever encountered Helen's character. I accepted the explanation given in the book that she was 'enchanted' by Paris and bitterly regretted ever having laid eyes on him. It was only later when a succession of other stories contradicted this version of events that I began to question matters. If Helen never loved Paris, why on earth is he still calling her his wife a whole decade later? What has he been keeping her around for? She wears white and sits in her citadel, apparently unmolested. Why have the Trojan people been fighting for ten whole years to keep hold of a woman who calls them all barbarians and treats them with nothing but disdain?

The simple explanation - she must have loved Paris. It's the only theory that explains such an epic level of rashness and stupidity. They have a doomed romance akin to that of Romeo and Juliet. Except ... no. That still does not work. Paris was happy with Oenone the nymph until he was asked to judge the goddesses' contest and he was awarded Helen as his 'prize'. It's hardly a 'meet-cute'. Paris was generally agreed to be a coward. When he is struck by a poisoned arrow, it is Oenone he seeks out and when he dies, Helen seems to move on very quickly. It's not exactly the kind of love story that should have burned down a city.

When you look over the course of Helen's life, you really wonder. She was first abducted as a ten year-old by Theseus. Then she was stolen back. Then not long afterwards, there was a mini-conflict over who would get to marry her during which she had no say at all. From there, she was Queen of Sparta until Paris arrived. She was stolen, she was stolen back. When Paris died, she was even 'inherited' by his brothers. Her beauty made her a commodity, not a person. We accept that just about every other female figure within the Trojan war had absolutely no say on where she went or who she had to marry or have sex with. Why do we still cock an eyebrow at Helen and insist she must have been no better than she should be? As a child reading The Luck of Troy, I never questioned Helen's silent acceptance of what was happening to her. As an adult, I really questioned whether it made sense. But on reflection, what choice did she have? She is trapped in the city and they have her son.

The more I think about it, the more I can feel my hackles rise. So, so many female figures in history have had their reputations trampled through the mud. Look at the Wars of the Roses - Margaret of Anjou was called an adulteress, Elizabeth Woodville was accused of witchcraft, Elizabeth of York had rumours spread about her that she had an affair with her uncle. Even in the twentieth century, Christine Keeler was blamed for much of went on within the Profumo affair even though it was quite apparent that she had been manipulated by various powerful older men. Monica Lewinsky was blamed for Bill Clinton's indiscretions even though she was a young intern. If Time is indeed 'up' for misogyny, women should also shed their suspicion and actually have some sympathy for Helen.

What is striking in The Luck of Troy is quite how much is not said. In the approximately two decades since I last read this book, I have picked up quite a lot about Greek mythology and I have also become an adult. When Polyxena mentions that her brother Polydorus had been sent away from the city to safety, I winced. The poor boy was sent to local king Polymestor, who murdered the child when he heard that Troy had fallen out of fear of retributions from the Greeks. When Cassandra remarks sadly that Hector's son would never learn to speak his father's name, I had no idea what this meant. Nine year-old me genuinely thought how strange that they would not mention the name just because Hector was now dead. I read Adele Geras' Troy about five years later and in all honesty, what happened to Astyanax still makes me teary-eyed. Having had a son of my own has not helped this. That child's death has left a mark on me in a way that few other 'fictional' deaths ever have. My point is that Roger Lancelyn Green is versed in classical literature in a manner that is rare among writers of children's fiction. But when I think back on my early reading of this book, I picture a child walking down a path with pitch darkness on either side. I did not know what dangers lurked just beyond the reach of the story.

It is interesting too how Lancelyn Green chooses carefully what he shows the reader. He does not tell us what it is that Paris said to Helen that made her go back to the citadel and Nicostratus long for a sword. I can guess now but my childhood self was again entirely clueless. Yet what I remember most vividly is how terrifying I found the character of Deiphobus. He takes over 'ownership' of Helen and Nicostratus but has been instructed that he cannot touch either of them until they have observed sixty full days of mourning for Paris. Instead he threatens them in great detail, explaining exactly how he will murder Nico as soon as he is legally allowed. As the days tick by and the Greeks appear to have abandoned the field, Nico has to grapple with the idea that he faces the same fate as so many of Priam's princely sons. Nico is only twelve, not so very much older than I was at the time. It was uncomfortable to realise that war could touch the lives of children too.

Of course, it's possible that what I see as a gap in the story is something that Lancelyn Green was not comfortable discussing. Most of the retellings on my Greek Mythology Challenge list are recent publications written by women rather than Oxford dons. There is a certain sterile quality to The Luck of Troy which is probably more of a sign of its era. I was also a little disquieted by the general dismissal of all the Trojans as barbarians. It reminded me a bit of CS Lewis' descriptions of Calormen. If I were ever to read this to my son, I think it would definitely prompt some extra discussion about racial stereotyping and changing times.

The true plot arc of The Luck of Troy comes around Nicostratus. We see him go from young boy who feels out of place in Troy to young man willing to give up his life to see his mother freed. His ultimate reward is that he finally gets that father figure that he has craved for so long. I found that I did not connect with Nico as much as I did during my childhood readings but I wonder if I also found it more difficult to believe in his happy ending. When I read more about Helen's possible offspring, I discovered that the child more commonly believed to have gone with Helen to Troy was a boy named Pleisthenes but nothing further is known of his fate. It is also theorised that she bore children to Paris and that these too perished in the war. There are even some tellings of the story that would have it that Iphigenia was Helen's daughter from her abduction by Theseus, given to Clytemnestra to bring up to protect Helen's reputation. Was the daughter slaughtered in punishment of the mother? The truth is that whatever children Helen brought into the world - none of them had a contented life and nor did they seem to make old bones.

Sadly, I think that the reason that I couldn't enjoy The Luck of Troy as much this time is that I no longer believed that a happy ending could be found anywhere in the slaughter and destruction that went on there and I certainly could not believe that there were any heroes.

[Dave Appleby · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a children's book: it is an adventure story for boys.

A retelling of the last year of the Trojan war, from the 3rd person perspective of Nicostratus, the 12 year old son of Helen and Menelaus. Extraordinarily true to its sources (the author boasts that he hasn't invented a single character) and brilliantly simplified so that it becomes rather clearer than the originals but nothing is lost. There are some brilliant villains: Paris is endlessly cynical about the honour of the old guard and full of victory schemes that involve a certain amount of dishonorable conduct; Deiphobus is a wonderfully bloodthirsty bully, Palamedes a lisping, sly traitor.

On the whole the Greeks are goodies and the Trojans rather nasty oriental types; I suppose it is in the nature of a book about war to divide the world into us, the goodies, and them, the enemy baddies, and this will almost always simplify and divide over nationalistic if not racist lines; nevertheless I would love to find a story telling the Trojan war from the point of view of the Trojans - pace Vergil's Aeneid.

I must have read this book when I was about twelve and I dare say that back then I utterly identified with Nico. I loved the Lancelyn Green oeuvre, including his Robin Hood, his King Arthur, and his Tales of the Greek Heroes. Looking back I can see he wrote this tales well, and the lack of character depth and complexity merely makes it suitable for the genre: boys' adventure stories.

From when I first read it, I can still remember this paragraph: "'Now, Nicostratus!' he cried, exultantly. 'Look! I'll stab you just there, where it'll hurt most; and then there, where it means a slow but certain death; and there, so that you'll not be able to move from the floor. Are you ready? Look, my sword is drawn back for the first and cruellest blow -'" (Ch 8)

If I can recall those lines from fifty years it must be good writing and this is why I am giving it a full five stars.

[Anne Hamilton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nicostratus was a toddler when his mother Helen, the most beautiful woman in the world, was spirited away one night by Paris, the Prince of Troy. He's grown up in a foreign land, in a city besieged by his countrymen. He's seen the great Greek heroes from the battlements and admired them. But his heart is with the friends he's made - Polyxena and her family. Yet as the threats to his life grow in intensity, he realises he has to choose which side he is on: Greek or Trojan.

Paris is a nasty piece of work in this story, as are the majority of the sons of Priam, king of Troy: they are abusers of women, abusers of children and abusers of the sacred rites of hospitality.

Interesting cultural notes:
The gods would express their anger at the violation of hospitality duties, involving the murder of guests or ambassadors. (p 26)

Slain bodies are cremated so the flesh is quickly destroyed and the spirit is free to pass to the kingdom of Hades. Bodies buried in tombs experience a long wandering of the spirit while the flesh decays. Wine, cakes and honey are left in the tomb so that, when the spirit returns to the body as it must from time to time, it will be able to taste of the offerings. (p 45)

The rites of hospitality include a divine bond of honour between host and guest. (p 47)

The "Luck" of Troy is a meteorite. (p 55)

Odysseus tells Nico to advise Antenor that, when the Greeks enter Troy, he is to place a leopard skin in the upper window and those who shelter with him will be safe. Antenor has previously invoked the sacred rites of hospitality to save the lives of Odysseus and Menelaus when they came as ambassadors to Troy. (p 81)

Odysseus takes the dread oath of Styx, which even the gods dare not break, when he tells Theano, Antenor's wife, to put a leopard skin over the door and no Greek will enter their house when Troy is invaded. (p141)

[Vishy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved Roger Lancelyn Green’s retelling of the Greek and Egyptian myths and the Arthurian legends. There was one book of his that I hadn’t read and that was ‘The Luck of Troy’. It is a novel version of the Troy legend and the story of Helen, Menelaus and Paris. So, I thought I will get started with this.

‘The Luck of Troy’ is the story that we have all read about – the tale of Helen, Paris, Menelaus, Achilles, Agamemnon, Patrocles, King Priam, Hector and others including the Trojan horse. But it is different in one perspective. It tells the story from the perspective of Nicostratus, the son of Helen and Menelaus, whom Helen carries with her when she leaves for Troy. So, we see the important events of that age unfolding through the eyes of young Nico. Roger Lancelyn Green says that he has done his research and though young Nicostratus is not mentioned in the Troy story in general, he is mentioned by one or two authors. All the major events of the Troy story are covered in this book – the eloping of Helen with Paris, the Greek kings deciding to go on war, the siege of Troy, the quarrel between Achilles and Agamemnon, the duel between Menelaus and Paris, Odysseus appearing in Troy disguised as a beggar, Patroclus and Hector fighting and dying like heroes, the story of Palamedes, the treachery against Achilles, the Trojan horse and others. It was amazing to see how Green has managed to squeeze most of these stories into this slim book. My favourite parts of the book though were the scenes involving the children – the conversation between Hermione (daughter of Menelaus and Helen), Iphigeneia and Elektra (daughters of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra and cousins of Hermione) in the first chapter and the conversations between Nicostratus and Polyxena (daughter of King Priam). I especially loved reading about the friendship between Nicostratus and Polyxena, as Nico, who normally thought like a Greek and didn’t like the Trojans, loved Polyxena like his own sister, though she was Trojan, and wanted to save her from the Greeks. His mother Helen says in one scene – “My poor Nico! Neither Greek nor Trojan, it seems!” That made me smile :)

Though I enjoyed reading ‘The Luck of Troy’ and found it interesting to look at things from young Nico’s perspective, for some reason, the book as a whole didn’t work for me. Maybe because I was familiar with most of the events of the story (though I had also forgotten most of them) and the retelling wasn’t fresh enough. Or maybe because it is an old story which we have heard so many times, there is no way to get a new fresh perspective here. I don’t know. Or maybe there was some other reason. I also felt that as Green was trying to stay loyal to the original story and so gave the original events a lot of importance, he missed out on exploring the relationship between Polyxena and Nico and Hermione and her cousins in more depth. Also, I wasn’t sure about his portrayal of Helen. When I first read about her in primary school, the story was that Paris kidnapped her. So, I thought that Paris was the bad guy, while Helen was a good woman. But after growing up the version I read said that Helen eloped with Paris. That made things more complex. It made me think whether what Helen did was right – abandoning her family and her daughter and running away with another man. Now, my thinking of the story has changed again. I feel now that Helen probably fell out of love with her husband and was attracted to another man and wanted to explore that relationship. By our modern day standards, there is nothing wrong with that. It happens all the time with normal people. So, why can’t a queen do that? Well, as we grow old, our points of view keep changing. But I wasn’t sure what the book said. It seemed to depict Helen as an innocent person, who also eloped with Paris, but then blamed him for the elopement, thus making him to be the bad guy. I wasn’t exactly convinced with that. I don’t know whether that is the original version of events. The book also showed Paris to be a bad man – someone who seduced Helen but who is nasty everyday to her and to others. That is not the Paris I remember at all. The Paris I remember was a handsome, sensitive man whom women found attractive, who played the flute and melted their hearts, but who was also not a soldier or a warrior, who was not somebody who can fight a battle and shed blood and win, but someone who avoided fighting. So, I am not sure whether my perception of Paris is true or whether Green’s description is.

There is some good news too. There were some interesting things that I learnt from the book. Some of these were : Hermione is the daughter of Helen and Menelaus. (It made me wonderful whether Hermione Granger from the Harry Potter series is named after her.) Clytemnestra, Agamemnon’s wife, is Helen’s sister (I didn’t know that!). Penelope, Odysseus’ wife is Helen’s cousin. (Really? I didn’t know that!) It was also interesting to read Palamedes’ story. The book depicts Palamedes as a bad guy – he is a Greek who helps the Trojans to kill Achilles – while when I checked in Wikipedia, it said that Odysseus didn’t like him and committed treachery and got Palamedes killed. Very interesting!

‘The Luck of Troy’ was in some ways interesting, but also in some ways disappointing. I don’t know whether this is because this book is not as good as other books by Roger Lancelyn Green, or whether this is because it is written for younger readers and I have finally grown up and so am not able to relate to it. (I sincerely hope that I have not grown up!) I hope to read Green’s mythological retellings again and find out. I have another book by Francesca Petrizzo which tells the story from Helen’s own perspective. I would like to read that too and see whether I like it more.

Have you read ‘The Luck of Troy’ by Roger Lancelyn Green? What do you think about it? Which version of Helen and Paris do you like more?

[Helena Soares · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an interesting take on the other side of the Trojan War, and what it looked like to Helen, the woman considered the cause of it all, and her son, from inside Troy. This is quite enjoyable, and while it is not quite as good as The Tale of Troy by the same author, it still holds a good pace, and brings an entirely different view to the stage.
I would suggest reading The Tale of Troy, (by the same author), or Iliad and The Odyssey before reading this, as this is more directed to people who already know part of the story, but want to know more of it.

[Rohan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderfully written tale! Not all of it is backed by sources as RLG informs us at the beginning and end of the book. Some even say the son of Helen who went with her to Troy was not Nicostratus but was Plesthine instead.

It is unquestionably true though that the capture of Troy wasn't some sort of happy ending as multiple tragedies were yet to follow. But it still ends on a sort of joyous note, allowing us to believe it would all end well.

[Shandon Mullet]

In the beginning is extremely clunky as characters exposit loads of preliminary detail and character introduction. Gets much smoother further in and ends genuinely excitingly. A good introduction from a unique children's perspective. The scholarship that led to Green's version of the famous Trojan war story is nearly as interesting as the story itself.

[Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's a very short book but very gripping. I wanted to read it again roughly 13.9 seconds after I finished it. I've always been a fan of mythology based books but this is one if my favorites. The prose is excellent, easily understandable but very much in Queen Helen's and Prince Nico's time. All in all, an extremely good but short book that can be read in a matter of hours and can breathe life back into your week.

[Colette! · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Colette, when you were in middle school, did you read books that WEREN'T about pioneers, immigrants, mythology-retellings-so-outrageous-they're-basically-fanfiction, or people who miraculously escaped the sinking of the Titanic?"

No, not really. Every now and then, that narrow list would bring me something delightful, and this is one that I would still read to this day and enjoy every second of it.

[LOL_BOOKS]

MEME, REC RECS FOR BOOKS SET DURING THE TROJAN WAR?

I ABSOLUTELY LOVED THE LUCK OF TROY BY ROGER LANCELYN GREEN WHEN I WAS A BB. IT'S MOSTLY SET IN TROY DURING THE LAST YEAR OF THE WAR, AND THE POV CHARACTER IS HELEN AND MENELAUS'S SON WHO WAS A BABY WHEN HELEN WAS ABDUCTED AND GREW UP IN TROY. IT'S A VERY KID-FRIENDLY VERSION OF THE STORY (NO RAPE) BUT VERY WELL DONE.

[Maretta · Rating 5 out of 5]

amazingcouldn't put the book down... so gripping was the story, that i had to check up on the historical facts even looked up 'The Iliad'... i now wish i hadn't looked up history.. and just stayed with the story........... Confused much

[Diane · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very nice book. I really like that it is from Nico's point of view. I also enjoy the portrayal of Odysseus and Helen a lot. Odysseus is one of my favorite characters. Palamedes makes a great villain.

[Redd Cami · Rating 5 out of 5]

looooved this book as a kid