All the heroes and their troops gathered in the harbor of Aulis to sail from there to the shores of Troy. A huge army gathered on the seashore. There were one hundred thousand armed soldiers in this army. On 1186 ships it was supposed to sail to Troy. Before leaving, all the leaders of the troops, the great heroes, gathered at the altars under the shade of a hundred-year-old plane tree to make sacrifices to the gods and pray to them for a happy voyage. Suddenly, a terrible snake, red as blood, crawled out from under one of the altars. Wriggling its huge body in coils, the snake quickly crawled onto the plane tree almost to the top. There was a nest with eight chicks and a female. The red snake swallowed both the female and the chicks, and he himself turned to stone. Amazed, the heroes stood under the plane tree; they could not understand what this sign of the gods meant. But the prophetic prophet Calchas revealed to them the meaning of this sign. He told the heroes that they would have to besiege Troy for nine years, since nine birds were swallowed up by snakes, and only in the tenth year, after hard work, would they take the great Troy. The words of Calchas pleased the Greeks. Full of hope for a successful outcome of the campaign they had undertaken, they launched their ships. One after another, ships sailed from the harbor of Aulis. The rowers leaned together on their oars, and the huge Greek fleet quickly sailed to the shores of Asia.
After a short voyage, the Greeks landed on the shores of Moesia. The son of Hercules, the hero Telephus, ruled here. The Greeks came to his possessions. They were sure that they had reached the shores of Troy, and began to devastate the possessions of Telephus. Telephus gathered an army and marched at its head to defend his possessions. A bloody battle began.
Achilles entered the battle with his faithful friend Patroclus. Patroclus was wounded, but, not paying attention to the wound, he fought courageously next to Achilles.
Finally, with great difficulty, Achilles put Telephus to flight.
The coming night gave Telef the opportunity to flee to his city and lock himself in it. Early in the morning the Greeks began to collect the bodies of the fallen soldiers, and then they suddenly learned that they were not fighting the Trojans, but the Mysians and their king Telephus, the son of Hercules. The Greeks were saddened: they fought with their ally, and not with the enemy. The Greeks made peace with Telephus, and he promised to help them. Only Telephus refused to go with them on a campaign against Troy: he was married to Priam’s daughter and did not want to fight against his wife’s father.
Having buried those killed in battle, the Greeks left Mysia and sailed further to the shores of Troy. A terrible storm overtook the Greek fleet on the open sea. Like mountains, menacing waves rose on the sea. The storm scattered the Greek ships like light splinters. They have lost their way. The Greeks wandered around the sea for a long time and finally returned to Aulis. One after another, the ships of the Greeks sailed to the harbor that they had so recently left to sail to the great Troy. Their first campaign ended in failure.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru