Why, does it matter?
NESTOR
Yes. Athena was that swallow’s inhabitant.
TELEMACHUS
In my small harbour harp songs ripple the water.
CAPTAIN MENTES
With heavy sadness.
TELEMACHUS
An anchor.
CAPTAIN MENTES
Troy’s kings are home.
TELEMACHUS
Their feet are washed by servants. There’s wine, and laughter.
CAPTAIN MENTES
His mother smooths the white sheets, then kneels there for him.
NESTOR
I crashed like a horse in surf, felled by exhaustion.
CAPTAIN MENTES
All the tired kings.
NESTOR
The bed heaving.
TELEMACHUS
Not my father.
FIRST ATTENDANT
You may have lost your father. But he’s lost a son.
NESTOR
Oh, where’s he, my shipmate? His ship! Cyclones toss it.
FIRST ATTENDANT
It’ll turn up.
SECOND ATTENDANT
Keel upward.
NESTOR
Our fleet melted in rain.
TELEMACHUS
Sir …
NESTOR
That sea’s so wide birds take a year to cross it.
TELEMACHUS
Nestor, I’m sorry that I cause you so much pain.
NESTOR
Odysseus’ prow dolphined over black combers.
TELEMACHUS
Does he still remember every ornate detail?
FIRST ATTENDANT
His mind will cloud soon, and then he disremembers.
NESTOR
I watched the snail’s silver of his diminished sail.
FIRST ATTENDANT
He scorned the sea, that is the last irreverence.
NESTOR
Your father reduced to reason every omen.
SECOND ATTENDANT
He defied the sea, where no force can pitch its tents.
NESTOR
Spray spat on great Agamemnon, that king of men.
SECOND ATTENDANT
Two silvery currents fork that sea. He turned left.
FIRST ATTENDANT
Your father turned right.
SECOND ATTENDANT
Apparently right was wrong.
NESTOR
It trembled on the world’s rim, far from those he loved.
FIRST ATTENDANT
He’s tired now. He shouldn’t have spoken this long.
NESTOR
Across the ungirdered sea, the sky’s foundation.
FIRST ATTENDANT
Where the sea-wall has measured its dividing line.
NESTOR
Through twisted pillars of rainspouts his bright wake shone.
CAPTAIN MENTES
Still, all of his old friends pray for his long return.
NESTOR
The ship crawled like a fly up the wall of the sea.
TELEMACHUS
And then?
SECOND ATTENDANT
Then, I suppose, it fell over the edge.
TELEMACHUS
And vanished, for good?
FIRST ATTENDANT
Or evil, evidently.
NESTOR
Through this world’s pillars, the gate of human knowledge.
SECOND ATTENDANT
He’s not the surf. He gets tired of his own speech.
NESTOR
The shame I feel for Odysseus, because I’m home.
TELEMACHUS
He would forgive you.
FIRST ATTENDANT
His mind’s a sea-mist now. Come.
TELEMACHUS (Aside to MENTES)
What have I learned from this foam-haired philosopher?
CAPTAIN MENTES
What the young should learn. Patience.
TELEMACHUS
He’s told me nothing.
CAPTAIN MENTES
You heard what the young need to hear: old men suffer.
TELEMACHUS
Don’t disappear again, Captain. Where’re you going?
(The CAPTAIN exits.)
NESTOR
Give him a chariot. The finest.
TELEMACHUS
Bless you, Nestor.
SECOND ATTENDANT
Where’s your friend?
NESTOR
Blessings on your house.
FIRST ATTENDANT
Sit by your old blue window and watch the waves rust.
NESTOR
Gallop to Sparta and question Menelaus.
(He is led off. TELEMACHUS mounts the chariot. Actors mime two horses. They exit. Enter BILLY BLUE.)
BILLY BLUE (Sings)
On the pebble road through undulant Lacedaemon,
Like a young Nestor, he urges the chariot on.
Then the horses rear, at the sight of another omen.
At the sight of another omen, the horses rear,
Nearly pitching the boy, who saw Athena’s omen
As an eagle hurtled and snatched a trembling hare.
Then the horses raced their long shadows over again,
Huts lit their lamps on the hills and the ways darkened.
The sun fell down like a tower on Troy’s black plain,
The stars’ candles fluttered but didn’t go out in the wind.
So haya! he cries, haya! to the frothing horses.
The starlight shines on their sweating flanks, their heads
Plunging like porpoises, until he saw the torches
From the palace of Menelaus, all the kings of Troy in their beds.
(Exits.)
SCENE IV
Sparta. Menelaus’ palace. TELEMACHUS kneels. MENELAUS enters.
TELEMACHUS
I bring you Nestor’s regards. He gave me his whip.
MENELAUS
Ah, Nestor! How is Nestor? Great charioteer.
TELEMACHUS
Tired.
MENELAUS
Nestor. A foaming beard near a black ship.
TELEMACHUS
He mourns his son.
MENELAUS
I know. None knew our fates, back there.
TELEMACHUS
But isn’t home God’s bounty, great Menelaus?
MENELAUS
No. God’s trial. We earn home, like everything else.
TELEMACHUS
Still, you’re back home, with your wife, in a great palace.
MENELAUS
All heaven’s treasury cannot ransom my loss.
TELEMACHUS
What loss?
MENELAUS
They butchered my brother, Agamemnon.
TELEMACHUS
Who, sir?
MENELAUS
A cunning lover. A treacherous wife.
TELEMACHUS
Why?
MENELAUS
I leap up, drenched in cold sweat, I hear him moan.
TELEMACHUS
God!
MENELAUS
The net of his red veins fraying from the knife.
TELEMACHUS
Horrible.
MENELAUS
That enough fortune? For the jealous?
TELEMACHUS
No man should envy your wealth, poor Menelaus.
MENELAUS
Some heartless shadow stalks the House of Atreus.
TELEMACHUS
But love could frighten it, and sunlight flood your house.
MENELAUS
Yes. The cause and cloud of Troy will sail through that door.
(Silence. HELEN enters.)
HELEN
I’m Helen. Or I used to be. You’re most welcome.
(Silence. TELEMACHUS is staring.)
TELEMACHUS
I understand all. Sorry. You confirm a wonder.
HELEN
Ohh …
MENELAUS
Spears should surround her,
not servants. But she’s home.
HELEN
I had no idea he had such a strapping boy.
MENELAUS
Odysseus has spent ten years without coming home.
HELEN
Well, at least he’s travelling.
MENELAUS
She’s bored. She misses Troy.
HELEN
I do not miss Troy.
MENELAUS
Miss being its centre. Its cause.
HELEN
Don’t I look quite happy to you?
MENELAUS
Think he’ll say no?
HELEN
‘Miss Troy’! That’s a stupid remark, Menelaus.
MENELAUS
Sorry, dear.
HELEN
Men. They’ll blame me for everything now.
MENELAUS
I don’t think he came here to watch us bickering.
HELEN
The whole thing was not over me but some sea-tax.
MENELAUS
Oh? Your memory’s fading like your hair dye, darling.
HELEN
Did I say I missed Troy? You and your cheap attacks.
(She exits.)
MENELAUS
She’s a hard time sleeping. She remembers it all.
TELEMACHUS
There’s an Egyptian herb that my mother uses.
MENELAUS
She leaps up. Torches on the water. The black wall.
TELEMACHUS
She caused much pain.
MENELAUS
Including yours for Odysseus.
TELEMACHUS
Do you think he’s dead?
MENELAUS
Too smart. Too acquisitive.
TELEMACHUS
But did he ever take bounty he’d never earned?
MENELAUS (Laughs)
That sacker of cities? He’d say, ‘Kings have to live.’
TELEMACHUS
He did well from the war?
MENELAUS
For him that’s why Troy burned.
TELEMACHUS
Surely that wasn’t all?
MENELAUS
It meant more than the war.
TELEMACHUS
Outright pillaging?
MENELAUS
Like the shield, he took his share.
TELEMACHUS
He sounds like a rug-seller, not a warrior.
MENELAUS
Oh, he’s coming back well-loaded, you can be sure.
TELEMACHUS
What else?
MENELAUS
He loved to eat. Enormous appetite!
(He laughs.)
TELEMACHUS
What did he like?
MENELAUS
Like? Anything. Ate like a goat.
TELEMACHUS
I’m embarrassed.
MENELAUS
His motto was ‘First eat, then fight.’
TELEMACHUS
What would you do?
MENELAUS
We’d eat. Even Ajax the Great.
(HELEN enters, pushing a golden cart on silver wheels. She sits some distance off and weaves. TELEMACHUS rises.)
MENELAUS
She’ll sit there quietly. Nothing will distract her.
(Silence.)
She cracked the horizon’s heart like any other.
(Silence.)
Now she’s quiet marble, with light for her sculptor.
(Silence.)
Only the sea-breeze stirring the fringe of her hair.
(Silence.)
A flawed vase, now sealed, redeemed by its collector.
(Silence.)
One that sighs sometimes at the hollowness of war.
(Silence.)
But she’s a good wife again. A perfect mother.
(Turns to TELEMACHUS.)
I know you’re thinking, was all Troy’s turmoil worth her?
(Silence.)
To bring her home? All that chaos? What’s your answer?
TELEMACHUS
It was.
MENELAUS
I have a theory about your father.
HELEN
The wool, please.
(MENELAUS picks up the wool, hands it to HELEN.)
TELEMACHUS
Whatever helps twenty years of love.
HELEN
Seals. Fog. And an old man, changing.
MENELAUS
Smile. You weren’t there.
HELEN
Show him the figured vase now.
MENELAUS
Watch this. He’ll dissolve.
(A SERVANT enters with a vase, exits.)
TELEMACHUS
Your sail’s way ahead of mine, sir.
HELEN
It always is.
TELEMACHUS
I see fog. An old man, creeping. What does it mean?
HELEN
Forgive me your pain, image of Odysseus.
TELEMACHUS
I do.
(HELEN exits.)
MENELAUS
Look, the wine-dark sea, veined aquamarine.
TELEMACHUS
Go on.
MENELAUS
Can you knot the mist? Cup fog in your hand?
TELEMACHUS
And this figure sprang from the sea in different shapes?
MENELAUS
He scuttled crab-wise from the surf, burrowing in sand.
TELEMACHUS
Who is he?
MENELAUS
Proteus. He’s fluent. He escapes.
TELEMACHUS
This is my old nurse’s tale, great Menelaus.
MENELAUS
Then consider yourself forever in her debt.
TELEMACHUS
Why?
MENELAUS
The gates of imagination never close.
TELEMACHUS
Even in grown men?
MENELAUS
What are men? Children who doubt.
TELEMACHUS
Go on.
MENELAUS
Dawn. The Nile’s mouth, exhaling. Barking seals.
(Seals bark. Fog.)
TELEMACHUS (Points)
Your ship?
MENELAUS
Blown months off course by a remorseless wind.
TELEMACHUS
Then, through fog, this crawls?
MENELAUS
Net-slinger, he catches souls.
TELEMACHUS
You think he’s caught my father’s?
MENELAUS
It has crossed my mind.
TELEMACHUS
Men aren’t crabs, Menelaus.
MENELAUS
We hid in seal-skins.
TELEMACHUS
My father is alive, alive. He’s lost, that’s all.
MENELAUS
That crooked old man. I wrestled him with questions.
TELEMACHUS
Like what, sir?
MENELAUS
Under stinking seal-skins. We kept still.
TELEMACHUS
While the fog shaped these? A snake, a cloudy lion?
MENELAUS
Shh. Creeping. A crab. Sand-wise. Testing the foam.
TELEMACHUS
Oh, I see him! Through that net of spray. What question?
MENELAUS
What my prayers urged me. The soul’s question. Which way home?
(PROTEUS appears. ODYSSEUS appears. He wrestles with PROTEUS in the fog. PROTEUS points. ODYSSEUS follows his direction. MENELAUS exits. TELEMACHUS sits alone. Torches go out. The vase begins to whirl, with the loud sound of water. TELEMACHUS rises, walks down to the morning beach.)
TELEMACHUS
ECHO ME, ISLANDS! ODYS-SEUS! ODYSEE …
ECHO
SEA, SEA, SEA … ODYSEEEE …
TELEMACHUS
I WANT TO SEE YOU, FATHER!
ECHO
FARTHER,
FARTHER …
TELEMACHUS
CARRY MY CRY THROUGH YOUR CAVE
S!
ECHO
CAVES!
TELEMACHUS
PAST VOLISSOS, CHIOS, DELOS, ITHACA …
ECHO
CARE!
(TELEMACHUS sits on the sand.)
TELEMACHUS
Help him to wrestle the weed-bearded waves …
(Surf, sibilance. TELEMACHUS exits.)
SCENE V
Odysseus’ ship, being loaded. SAILORS STRATIS, COSTA, STAVROS and TASSO chanting.
SAILORS
Get a load of this, boys, handle with care
Gifts our cap’n’s bringing home from Troy to Ithaca.
Bales from cities that he sacked on his way home,
Gifts from King Aeolus, maybe he’ll spare some.
STAVROS
In my mountains, snow. March dreaming of October.
COSTA
It’s mis’rible there. The mountains. Pissing with rain.
TASSO
Who’s warming the wife, Stavros? Ramming it to her?
(STAVROS draws a knife. A scuffle. STRATIS intervenes.)
STAVROS
My wife good woman.
STRATIS
Save the knife for our captain.
(He takes the knife. Loading continues.)
STAVROS
Wonder what stories our captain pitched to the king?
COSTA
Enough for these gifts to weigh down her water line.
TASSO
Done all right by the war, din’t he? Looting, sacking.
COSTA
That’s why he’s ‘Sacker of Cities’. You’ll never learn.
TASSO
Bounty from Troy! See that, Stavros? Widen your eyes.
STRATIS
What’s your salary? Salt. Live off that forever!
(A huge bag is shipped aboard.)
COSTA
Here’s that bag the king gave Captain Odysseus.
TASSO
Aeolus rules this island but not its weather.
STRATIS
He wants to get home, but stops off to plunder cities?
COSTA
Leaving their coasts smoking with his anger. The Great!
TASSO
Just like you, shepherd, he has faith in his missis.
COSTA
He’s making sure old age isn’t singed with regret.
(They stow the bag.
Upper deck. They’re under way. ODYSSEUS hangs the shield on the mast. ELPENOR is at the helm.)
ODYSSEUS
Steer. Elpenor, I’ve forgotten, how old are you?
ELPENOR
Another quarter moon, sir, I’ll be twenty-two.
ODYSSEUS
Twenty-two! My son’s age. Or, rather, half a son.
ELPENOR
Why half a son, sir?
ODYSSEUS
His other half could be you.
ELPENOR
The croak of that mast. Like a crow, crossing a field.
ODYSSEUS
A tower cracking. Troy, Troy! What was it all worth?
ELPENOR
Not a crow. More like a sheep that strayed from the fold.
ODYSSEUS
I’d give up all this heaving for one yard of earth.
ELPENOR
You’ll soon see the sunlight wet those homecoming oars.
ODYSSEUS
Even monsters on the bottom crawl to their bed.
ELPENOR
You’re as lucky as they are, sir. You’re close to yours.