Chapter Four
Olympia
Ολυμπία
Stefanos and Kratos did not train that day, but spent the time building a pyre on the green field for Pandarus.
After washing the body of their friend, and placing a gold coin in his mouth, they said the prayers they knew in honour of their friend and trainer, to Zeus, Herakles, and Hermes who would take his soul to the Underworld. They watched for some time as the fire burned, choked by anger and smoke, and when the flames had fully consumed the body, they left that field behind to follow the line of the Alpheios on the final leg of their journey.
Neither man said much. They would be late, and they had no trainer. Already, they were ineligible. But they marched on anyway, doing as Pandarus would have had them do, training, testing themselves as they went,
