i
- We learn of a mysterious wine-bottle covered in fool's gold that now lives in a museum. Is it from a sunken Spanish galleon? Or from the Ville de Paris that sank in the Battle of the Saints?
- The bottle inspires desperate men to dream of finding a galleon filled with silver coins.
- Achille is one of these men—he feels that he can win Helen if he just gets more money.
- He ties a cinderblock to his foot to make him sink faster (eek).
- But even as he does, Achille questions the probability of success. After all, even if he finds coins, does Helen still love him?
ii
- As Achille descends, the inhabitants of the ocean question why he is there.
- Undersea feels like the realm of the dead and Achille feels it. He sees their corpses transformed into items along the seabed: coral for brains and bones, weeds for hair.
- Achille catches sight of the galleon (a.k.a. the silver coins)—or thinks so, anyway—but then drops the cinderblock and surfaces.
- In the end, he gives up his search for the ship… and his hopes for Helen.
iii
- Philoctete attempts to make peace between Hector and Achille, but no dice.
- He appeals to their common bond in the sea and their work, but Hector and Achille are as stubborn as their ancient forbears (the original Hector and Achilles).