The Odyssey: A Stage Version Read online

  CAPTAIN MENTES

  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

&
nbsp; 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

&nb
sp; CARRY MY CRY THROUGH YOUR CAVES!

  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