The Thessaly Sixty

The Thessaly Sixty is an ancient Greek legend from dating to approximately 850 BCE. The legend deals with sixty soldiers from Thessaly, a city-state in Greece north of Athens on the mainland.
The legend occurs during the ninth year of the Trojan War.
The battle appeared to be in favor of the Trojans, and the Achaeans were suffering heavily. Agamemnon and Menelaus sought help from other city-states in Greece. The Thessalians, friends of the Achaeans, voted to send sixty of their strongest soldiers to help fight the Trojan War. The leaders of the Thessalians were Skaronos and Martanas, two men who were also considered the basileus, or king, of the city state. They were both reputed to be the fiercest soldiers in Thessaly, and could only be bested by Achilles. Following the end of the harvest season they headed to Troy. Zeus discovered the Thessalians plan, and was unhappy with the idea of the Achaeans winning, which he knew would happen if Skaranos and Martanas made it to Troy. He ordered Persephone to use a snowstorm to head off the soldiers. Skaranos and Martanas found a cave to house the men, and they were saved from the snowstorm, suffering only minor losses. The next day, the Thessalians forged on, but it was not long before Hermes informed Zeus of the Thessalians survival. Zeus became very angry and sent a minotaur-like creature the next night to eat half of the soldiers. Skaranos and Martanas woke early the next morning, and discovered the fate of their comrades. The remaining half of the soldiers were frightened at the loss of their comrades, and wanted to return home, realizing that the gods did not want them to go to Troy. After a short conference, Skaranos and Martanas,the leaders of the remaining thirty, knew that they must send soldiers to Troy, because they had promised the Acheans soldiers. However, no one volunteered to go. Saddened by this turn of events, Skaranos and Martanas ordered the remaining living soldiers home with the dead bodies, but they knew that they had to head to Troy to help the Achaeans because they had given their word. Skaranos and Martanas were both killed in Troy, but as Zeus feared, the Achaeans felt stronger by the addition of these strong men, and they won the Trojan War. To remember their bravery and chivalry, an annual festival was celebrated in Thessaly until the victory of Battle of Marathon by Athens. It is possible that this legend never actually occurred, as is the case of all legends, but it was very common for city-states to try to add legends of their own cities that coincided with the Trojan War.
There are no written records of this legend from the contemporary time period, but letters from Manuel Palaeologus indicate that he trusted a man named Skaranos with an important task, likely defense, which provides some evidence of the names in this legend. Most of this story has been put together by images depicted on pottery from Thessaly dating to the fourth century and earlier.

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