Another Odyssey

Odysseus

Mad Odysseus makes us row
To certain death at double speed.
How much further have we to go,
Till into sea our lives last-bleed?

War is the toy of gods and kings,
For us to suffer and regret
We are but low-born wretched things,
Whom wives and children shall forget.

We left burnt Troy to return home,
We hoped at last to find our rest.
Combed out like lice by mother’s comb,
Instead our sighs set in the west.

No poet shall sing in our praise,
We shall die like rats and no more,
Our King shall reap the epic phrase,
And we’ll wash up dead on some shore.

The Minotaur’s Last Chat

I did not ask to be a Minotaur,
I did not ask to live this sort of life,
I did not ask to eat Greek virgins raw
Trapped in this maze – it’s a mad sort of life!
Blame my mother; she slept with a bull,
Anything born from that would be messed up,
Being a monster is really quite dull,
Always the same meal without bowl or cup.
They’re always running, no chance of a chat,
Always running away then getting lost
At least the exercise makes me less fat,
I’m really quite fit as they find to their cost.
But tell me about yourself. You look sweet
And sour. Thesueus you say? Watch your sword!
You could hurt someone. I’d much rather meet
You on safer terms. Ouch! Mind that sword!

Calypso

Men never know what’s good for them,
Odysseus please stay!
Your kisses are my diadem,
Don’t choose the bitter way.

Remain right here with pleasures near,
Beware the graveyard sea,
Immortal lips should hold you dear,
Be my eternity!

Penelope does not need you,
She has other suitors,
I’m a goddess, can’t I please you?
Your taste needs better tutors.

A safe journey then I shall pray,
And wish, though I’m divine,
That I could crack to dust and clay,
If only you were mine.

Ariadne

I should have let that Minotaur eat him!
He was only fit for a monster’s meal,
I thought he’d love me; he made my heart swim,
He could have saved me too, that was the deal.

Theseus, the name that ruined my life,
When I was the budding rose of Crete,
The day misfortune took me as his wife,
When he was brought as sacrificial meat.

I gave him string and I gave him a sword,
I betrayed my own father for that man,
Like a slave I served him as my Lord,
Then he dumped me here – was that the plan?
This is the price of my love unreturned,
Stuck on an island, my heart’s strivings spurned.

Siren

It’s not bad really; at least I can sit,
Which is better than the last job I had,
Singing to sailors has made me a hit,
“A voice to die for,” that’s not too bad.
Yes I admit there have been some shipwrecks,
But my fans know that’s a small price to pay,
They sing from the rigging, dance on the decks,
And then jive down into jigging sea-spray.
They die happy, more than most on dry land,
Have they got anywhere better to go?
My music is heaven, please understand
That I’m worth all dark waters below.
I make a good living, it’s not wrong,
Calm down and listen; I’ll sing you a song.

Helen of Troy

Plain features are a blessing, send no ships
Across the seas, drive no men out of mind.
But blood is spilt to honour my red lips
For my clear skin do men life’s ties unbind.
I did not ask for this, did not ask
Foe mothers, daughters, sisters to taste grief,
I can’t replace husbands lost, whose task
It seems is to please one, fast falls life’s leaf.
My beauty passes but the grave remains
Though they’ll dress this up in heroic song
No flesh body is worth such bloody stains,
Zeus and all may swagger, but they’re still wrong.
In order to be some rich fool’s chattel,
Must I see all good be slain in battle?

Hades on Persephone

Why did I do it? Well lust I suppose,
Made me kidnap her from earth’s warm quarter
Dragging her down where black river flows
I took for a wife life’s blessed daughter.
Persephone, would you not be my queen?
She would not willingly, her mother shed
Wintry tears and above no corn was seen
Her mourning hunger led man to death’s bed.
A compromise was reached eventually.
Her bright skin melts my nights one third of year,
Even Hades wants warmth. Torrentially
I tried to make her love me. Came I near?
No, she cannot love me. Can I blame
Her for despising her grim jailer’s name?

Eurydice to Orpheus

Now why couldn’t you just leave me alone,
Safe in this cave of shady forgetting?
Could you not think I’d have views of my own
And wish to stay in this twilight setting?
Spring, summer and the harvest are all past
My bones are sleeping softly under snow,
Yet you still hunger for what could not last,
And back to earth with your folly I go.
You strum your lyre self-importantly,
Demanding all obey its order,
Dragging me from Hades. Won’t you see?
I wish to stay within its firm border.
Then you look back at me and understand,
That dear death has become my true homeland.

Medusa

I turn folk to stone, what’s a girl to do?
Cold snakes hold sway above my head and reel
Over my cursed scalp. There is none who
Can love me, none whose kindness I can feel.
Once I was beautiful, and that is why
Poseidon raped me. Yet Athena’s rage
Ran on his victim before time to cry
For pity; thus my life began this stage.
Life? A girl is dead but a monster prowls
In her place with reptilian tresses,
All breathing joy turns dead before my scowls
Due to a god’s assaulting caresses.
What can I do but haunt this clammy cave
And pray at least to find peace in my grave?

Athena and Arachne

She was the better weaver. Arachne
Knew her own worth all too well. That vile smirk
She wore at me with those teeth and acne
But ugly mortals beat me at their work.
The muses can be cruel, though born of Zeus
I was not blessed as greatly as that cow,
Audacity like hers can make no truce
To genius so rude I could not bow.
Those tales she wove, of snared Aphrodite
With Ares, and her husband laughing on
Should peasant maids mock gods almighty?
Impudent witch your laugh was quickly gone.
Her work continues, I’d never hide her
Weave on my dear, you’re my darling spider!

Marsyas

How could we let him lose? Apollo’s spite
Decided the result, such a contest
Was never about music. The piping
Still keeps me awake at night, I’ll divest
With caution what made men hard tears’ wiping
Marsyas could not win, we heard a dirge
In his playing, the victor with poor grace
Fulfilled the funeral, performed his purge
For artistic ambition. All our race
Was taught a lesson: unsheathed of his skin
The musician carcass shone in the sun.
Apollo’s sun at which we must not stare
The wretch played better, that was his great sin
(Such sent Arachne to a spider’s lair)
And there are some who find this rather fun.

Prometheus

The screams of burning children curse my ears
Was it for this I gave the gift of fire?
Stole it from heaven against gods’ fears
Am I the one who lit this grisly pyre?
Each day an eagle comes to eat my liver
Which grows anew for torment, worse the pain
My ingenuity did deliver.
Monsters I created, can I explain
Extinguished forests, and plumes of smoke
From death-camp ovens, people worse than pigs
Whom I wanted to make gods? I must choke
On my arrogance, a talon digs
Tear out my vanity not my entrails!
I gave humans fire, set them light to burn
A brightest darkness, my ambition fails
Such is the legacy to which I turn.

Atlas

The weight of the world on my shoulders
Never gets easier to bear.
I hold this accursed of boulders,
And try not to look like I care.

I grasped to snatch great Zeus’s power
To set myself upon his throne
So now with groans and sweat I cower
So now ring aches in every bone.

Pride pays its price; I’m paying in full,
The Titan who would crush the gods,
During my task I start to mull
The strokes of Heaven’s beating rods.

My burden I must bear at all times,
No I can’t shrug, no I can’t flee,
She insists that I suffer for my crimes –
That hag responsibility.

As Rich as Croesus

“Count no man happy until he is dead.”
These words honked in my head as absurd sound
No dainty flattery had Solon said
Its heavy truth would soon enough be found.
My cup was full, my treasury supplied
No, gorged, with gold, I was a happy man
I thought, my smiling crowned with King’s pride.
Solon was right, Atys my son was slain
His glory fleeting fell into the grave
Then fell my kingdom, broken was my reign
From King of Lydia to Persia’s slave.
All earthly leaves shall fade and take their flight
The only gift that lasts is heaven’s light.

Megara

My children are dead, all of them
Killed by my maddened husband. Why
Do I still breathe? The days condemn
My emptiness, wrath-drunk Hera,
Dread goddess, you cannot deny
Screams of infants hymn your era.

Hercules, why did you marry
A woman of sheer flesh and blood?
Hopes of long years a day miscarry
Because of divine spite, the whim
That against pity quite withstood
If only she had just killed him.

Gods and heroes, more than less than
Human, you make a fine story
Or two for idlers, sure you can.
At a safe distance darlings sleep
Hades is kinder, it’s glory
Restful, to its bounds I’ll quick-creep.

I will have my babies back when
Death exhumes me from this graveyard
He’ll be all right, he’ll make his den
In other females on his tour.
His kind escape with lives unscarred
Only bystanders bleeding raw.

Hercules

“Heroics” can be rather vile indeed,
The things I did to flaunt my lion-skin,
How many wretches did I cause to bleed?
It does not seem so fun now time wears thin.
Zeus is my father, that accursed state
Beyond my choice drew jealous Hera’s rage
From birth she held me guilty for my fate
Before even, she’s struck me at each stage.
Megara, can you ever forgive me?
I killed our children under Hera’s trance,
This shirt of Nessus stings my memory,
Now can I die please? Death’s a second chance.
If only I had been a shepherd’s brat
Unseen from Mount Olympus. Snap an end,
Kill my mortal part, obliterate that,
Then to the gods I’ll go and protests send.

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