ODYSSEUS
And the others? Telemachus? And my old nurse?
ANTICLEA
Plough the sea’s furrows to reach them, Odysseus.
TIRESIAS
And you’ll sit on your bench with leaves like the ocean,
ANTICLEA
Under the magnanimity of a broad oak,
TIRESIAS
Dispensing justice there, rewarding devotion,
ANTICLEA
Till the bright sea darkens your life’s concluding arc.
(ANTICLEA fading.)
TIRESIAS
Grey age will creep through your body like the grey sea.
ODYSSEUS
I want to die, to hold you again, my mother!
ANTICLEA
Blessed is the storm-tossed heart that ends tranquilly.
TIRESIAS
One breath divides you from her who’s already here.
ANTICLEA
Now I shall fade like an oak leaf in your garden,
TIRESIAS
A stone bench in the oaks, watching your hedges foam.
ANTICLEA
Merciless Poseidon will grant you his pardon.
ODYSSEUS
Elpenor saw all this, through a crack in the storm.
(Trains flash past. Thunder. The sea.)
ACT TWO
SCENE I
Noon. A raft. ODYSSEUS, ragged, badly sunburnt, is singing.
ODYSSEUS
Let his story be told, he’s a mariner bold,
The king of the tumbling foam. He’s been scorched by the sun,
Bones cracked by the cold, but a long, long —
Sing his song, song a long, long way from …
(Stops, gathering strength for the word —)
Home.
(A row of fins passes the raft. Squeaking.)
Dolphins.
(Sings)
Let his story be told, he’s a mariner bold …
(A fish leaps on to the raft. ODYSSEUS scrambles, catches it. Another fish. He wraps both carefully in his shirt for later.)
Been scorched by the sun …
(Behind him, a MERMAID with wet hair climbs aboard. ODYSSEUS staggers, turns. Another MERMAID, identical, appears. He speaks to them.)
Sorry. Do me a favour. Back where you came from.
FIRST MERMAID (Drying her hair)
Why?
SECOND MERMAID
Yes, why?
ODYSSEUS
So I’ll know heat hasn’t cracked my skull.
FIRST MERMAID (About her hair)
It’s knotted. Weeds.
SECOND MERMAID (Helping her)
Are you saying we aren’t welcome?
ODYSSEUS
I’ve had too much raw fish, that’s what.
FIRST MERMAID
We’re beautiful.
ODYSSEUS
You’re very beautiful. But you’re talking fishes.
SECOND MERMAID
You caught us, love.
ODYSSEUS
I didn’t.
FIRST MERMAID
No, we leapt on board.
SECOND MERMAID
Because we felt sorry for you, Odysseus.
FIRST MERMAID
Never dreamt of two girls together in one bed?
ODYSSEUS
Fishes? A technical problem, wouldn’t you say?
FIRST MERMAID
There are ways.
SECOND MERMAID
And means. You know, like tipping the scales.
FIRST MERMAID
And stroking their glittering wet breasts? It’s easy.
SECOND MERMAID
Fish mate with men. Look! We aren’t just old fishwives’ tales!
FIRST MERMAID
Mum was a dolphin. Dad hailed from Nicosia.
SECOND MERMAID
Notice the way his frown forks into an anchor?
(ODYSSEUS grabs a fish from his shirt.)
ODYSSEUS
You’re both going back home.
BOTH MERMAIDS
We don’t want to leave you!
ODYSSEUS
To fight madness with madness is the only cure.
(He hurls one fish away. The FIRST MERMAID screeches, dives overboard.)
SECOND MERMAID
Go on. Tell people you saw us. Who’d believe you?
(ODYSSEUS holds the second fish. The SECOND MERMAID thrashes around on the raft, slippery. He throws her overboard. Silence. ODYSSEUS looks into the water.)
ODYSSEUS (Sings)
Let his stories be told, he’s a mariner old,
And his head’s turning white as the foam.
Scorched by the sun, cracked by the cold
And a long — sing the song —
And a long, long way from …
(Weeps)
Home.
(The raft, becalmed. Thin fog. Drowned SAILORS, from his crew, climb aboard.)
STAVROS
You remember us, Captain? We sail with you once.
COSTA
We loosened the winds.
STAVROS
Stavros, sir, from the mountains.
STRATIS
We drift, homeless, down there.
TASSO
We rise with penitence.
COSTA
When the gale swept Elpenor…?
ODYSSEUS
Fog has fouled my brains.
(They work.)
STRATIS
We come to help you steer past them rotten-tooth crags.
TASSO
Ever hear of the Sirens, Captain? Two old crones.
STRATIS
They crouch up there in a yellow field. Real bags.
TASSO
Know what they drag for kindling? Sailors’ skeletons.
STAVROS
Like bone-bleached driftwood.
ODYSSEUS
You’ve drifted this far, Stavros?
TASSO
Their jaws hang like empty purses, but from them, songs…
STAVROS
You listen, Captain; you drown. Don’t be curious.
COSTA
Rolled by changing currents, made homesick for our wrongs.
ODYSSEUS
Poor souls …
STRATIS
The shadow of your raft passed over us.
STAVROS
I hear man sing, I say: ‘Captain Odysseus?’
COSTA
And I said to Stavros, ‘Is that our captain’s voice?’
STRATIS
‘Why that man not reach home after so many years?’
TASSO (Stamping on raft)
This plank’s gone rotten.
COSTA
Cap, this gaff isn’t much good.
STAVROS
This pail make holes like a cheese. Shame on you, Captain.
COSTA (Ear to the raft)
There’s a choir of sea-worms singing in this wood.
ODYSSEUS
Why’re you doing this?
STRATIS
To fetch you home. Screw this tin.
(Hurls away an old tin.)
COSTA
Up them gull-hooked rocks, riddled with spray like sponges.
TASSO
They climb, one claw, then the next, above the surf’s war.
COSTA
To settle for their song. Then, from their jaws’ hinges,
STRATIS
Music comes, Captain, to break your heart with pleasure.
COSTA
See that herd of hills coming like foaming oxen?
TASSO
And those charging waves, the cattle of Poseidon?
COSTA
Look! They’re scrambling up rocks to direct their song!
STRATIS
It pierces a hole in your ribbed heart, then you drown.
(Music begins.)
ODYSSEUS
Tie me to the mast! Cram wax into your ears. Quick!
STRATIS
I crying like sno
w melting into the rivers.
COSTA
Sir, you will forget your loved ones in that music.
STRATIS
Don’t listen like we did, sir, don’t be curious.
ODYSSEUS
Roll the beeswax till it gets hot and plug your ears!
(STRATIS finds the wax.)
COSTA
Don’t do this, Captain. You’ve got to listen to us.
(They tie ODYSSEUS to the mast.)
ODYSSEUS
Tie me up, and if I scream, ignore my orders.
COSTA
He’s hearing.
TASSO
He’s screaming something.
STRATIS
YOU’RE DEAF. ROW HARD!
COSTA
STEER CLEAR OF THE SHALLOWS. IT’S PULLING US LIKE ROPES.
(ODYSSEUS soundlessly screaming.)
STRATIS
HE CAN SHOUT TILL HIS LUNGS BLEED, BUT YOU NEVER HEARD!
COSTA
WHAT?
STAVROS (Weeping)
A shepherd’s flute, dividing blue mountain slopes.
ODYSSEUS
LET ME JOIN THEM, YOU BASTARDS. PLEASE, PLEASE, CAN’T YOU HEAR?
STRATIS
KEEP ROWING, GOD DAMN YOU, WE’RE PASSING THROUGH THEIR SONG.
COSTA
WON’T BE LONG NOW, CAPTAIN, VERY SOON WE’LL BE CLEAR.
ODYSSEUS
TURN! SET ME DOWN OVER THERE, THAT’S WHERE I BELONG.
(They pass through. ODYSSEUS, still tied, has his head down, sobbing. STAVROS revives.)
STRATIS (Removing the wax carefully)
We’re out of range now, Captain. Can you still hear it?
ODYSSEUS
No.
STRATIS
You’ve heard it and lived, and no man will again.
ODYSSEUS
Oh, Stratis, I felt such joy, no soul could bear it!
STRATIS
I know. Their song is smoke fluting from a mountain.
ODYSSEUS
And, Costa, after this, any music is noise.
COSTA
It fades from your ears. Like shells that lose the sea’s voice.
ODYSSEUS
Through the veils of their song, I saw my beloved’s eyes.
COSTA
Everything you loved or fought for was in that bliss.
ODYSSEUS
How can I repay you phantoms for all your toils?
STRATIS
This isn’t finished. There’s Scylla and Charybdis.
ODYSSEUS
Where?
STRATIS (Pointing)
Those dark cliffs dividing. Where the channel boils?
COSTA
It’s your only way home, Captain. You have no choice.
STRATIS
These aren’t just sailors’ stories that swirl round shipwrecks.
COSTA
Where those drifting rocks resound with their false thunder.
STRATIS
Scylla, she gobbles dolphins, with six writhing necks.
COSTA
And gargling Charybdis who sucks vessels under.
(Night. Heavy crossing clouds, shadows on the sail. The crew keep watch. ODYSSEUS curls up. On either side, Scylla and Charybdis. EURYCLEIA is rocking a cradle, she and BILLY BLUE sing in turn.)
EURYCLEIA (Sings)
Sleep, my lickle pickney, don’t ‘fraid no monsters,
As me launch your lickle cradle into dreaming seas.
Close your eyes with songs me sing you, lickle Odysseus,
See how the tree of heaven shake down all its flowers.
(A star pitches.)
BILLY BLUE (Sings)
Sometimes, to swaying sea-stars, clouds slowly close,
Their motion making monsters who widen at will.
EURYCLEIA (Sings)
So, cradled in him comfort, a child see what grows
From his shadow to shapes on a nursery wall.
(ODYSSEUS cowers, whining.)
BILLY BLUE (Sings)
Doubt foams into dark forms feeding on phosphorus,
The waves sound like jaws chewing the night.
Sometimes friendly faces turn to fiendish horrors.
Scylla soared on one side, Charybdis on his right.
(In the moonlight, the CREW turn into a six-headed
monster that rises like a changing cloud.)
Now cackling like Kraken from her churning cauldron,
Her six heads searching for a sea-meal of men …
Giant jaws grinding like gates of yawning iron …
EURYCLEIA (Sings)
Are all of these monsters a child’s imagination?
(The six heads approach ODYSSEUS.)
BILLY BLUE (Sings)
Or the madness of a mariner too long alone?
(ODYSSEUS screams. They overturn the raft.)
SCENE II
A SHEPHERD on a rock watches as SAILORS carry ODYSSEUS ashore with his sacks. NAUSICAA in a cloak is waiting. ODYSSEUS sleeps throughout.
NAUSICAA
His head rolls like a seaweed weary of motion.
FIRST SAILOR
Never seen a man sleep so deep. Here’s all his things.
NAUSICAA
Burrow the shield like a turtle. Pile it with sand.
SECOND SAILOR
Good, miss.
(NAUSICAA kisses ODYSSEUS.)
NAUSICAA
You’re home at last. Last of Troy’s tired kings.
(She and SAILORS exit.
Ithaca. Sunrise.)
ODYSSEUS
Shepherd, how did I get here? What island is this?
SHEPHERD
They cradled you in a shell to rest on this coast.
ODYSSEUS
There was this island, a girl, I told them stories.
SHEPHERD
Then slept for a week.
(Pause.)
ODYSSEUS
My fortune! The shield! It’s lost!
SHEPHERD
No, they buried it in the dry sand of that cave.
ODYSSEUS
Did divers paddle down to it? Am I sleeping?
SHEPHERD
You’re wide awake.
ODYSSEUS
They’ll snatch it! The sea’s claws!
SHEPHERD
It’s safe.
ODYSSEUS
You’re lying.
(The SHEPHERD shakes his head.)
My fortune’s gone. That’s why you’re smiling.
SHEPHERD
Go and look.
ODYSSEUS
I’m afraid to. The sea’s done them harm.
SHEPHERD
Salt does its work. You expect them bright and shining?
ODYSSEUS
Look, I’ve a kingdom to manage when I get home.
SHEPHERD
Correct.
ODYSSEUS
I’m not like the others. I’m a small king.
(He looks for his goods, finds them.)
SHEPHERD
Of this honeycombed rock which is your small kingdom.
ODYSSEUS
Where?
SHEPHERD
The sand under your cracked feet.
ODYSSEUS
Ridiculous.
(He dusts and polishes his goods.)
SHEPHERD
You slept for a week, tight as a nut in its shell.
ODYSSEUS
There was a girl. A generous king … Alcinous.
(He holds up the shield.)
Look at this!
SHEPHERD
What?
ODYSSEUS (Laughing)
The turtle shell’s found its turtle.
SHEPHERD
Can you hear a crystal noise, clear and refreshing?
ODYSSEUS
I hear wind like surf swaying the sails of poplars.
SHEPHERD
This is Raven’s Rock, next to Arethusa’s spring.
ODYSSEUS
And those poplars are Mount Neriton’s, I suppose?
SHEPHERD
What tongue are spring and poplar talking, can you tell?
ODYSSEUS
From the crackle of their consonants … Ithacan.
SHEPHERD
Why should they speak your tongue, green leaf and clear vowel?
ODYSSEUS
I am in Ithaca? I’m home?
SHEPHERD
Weep, weary man.
(ODYSSEUS weeps.)
ODYSSEUS
Why for ten years did my head roar with the sea’s noise?
SHEPHERD
Ask yourself, for ten years, what did the bitterns scream?
ODYSSEUS
All I know is, I’m sick of the sea’s bitterness.
SHEPHERD
The waves were homeless, the bitterns envied your dream.
ODYSSEUS
My tears are the salt that drenches those shaken trees.
SHEPHERD
Turn. What is the hoarse shale of your own surf sighing?
SURF VOICES
Polumechanos, polutlas, polumetis, Odysseus.
Polumechanos, polutlas, polumetis, Odysseus.
SHEPHERD
That’s you, man of evasions, man skilled at lying.
(Birds sing.)
ODYSSEUS
The swallows are screaming …
SHEPHERD
To deafen you with joy.
ODYSSEUS
I’m nobody.
SHEPHERD
Change into the nobody you were.
ODYSSEUS
You’re not a shepherd, are you? You’re Athena, boy.
SHEPHERD
Now grime your face with sand and act like a beggar.
ODYSSEUS
Why?
SHEPHERD
To save your house and your fortune. Hurry now.
(Distant, then nearer, dogs yelping.)
The old man’s a good soul, but a bit talkative.
ODYSSEUS
Which old man?
SHEPHERD
Hear his dogs yapping? He herds your swine.
ODYSSEUS
Eumaeus. Poor Eumaeus! Is he still alive?
SHEPHERD
He won’t be if you don’t act to save wife and son.
(He exits. EUMAEUS enters.)
EUMAEUS
Ay! Back! Mash!
(He throws stones. The dogs run off.)
Lucky they didn’t tear you to pieces.
ODYSSEUS
My friend …
EUMAEUS
Rip you to bone like teeth tearing a chop.
ODYSSEUS
Not much here but bone, sir. Very little to seize.
(He collects his things, covers his head.)
EUMAEUS
Odysseus, my master. For him they used to stop.
ODYSSEUS
Think it’ll rain?
EUMAEUS
That’s how rain starts. With a drizzle.
ODYSSEUS
What work do you do, sir?
EUMAEUS
Keep hogs. Name’s Eumaeus.
(The sky darkens. Rain.)
ODYSSEUS
Those clouds are building a storm. God help every sail.
EUMAEUS
Know the sea well?