oenone

in ten minutes
a man will bring a child here
and i will fall in love with him.
ten years ago I fell in love with the man
who will bring the baby in ten minutes
whom i will love in ten minutes for thirty years
in the way i once loved the man
but he has gotten older.
i do not love old things.
but the baby
before he becomes a man
will be a boy who will love me.

in ten minutes, thirty years.
when i see him,
i will love him for twenty
he will love me for four
then forget me for ten.
in his final moment
a man will bring a man here
when he needs me again,
when his Beauty has fled
and he’s been poisoned by life.
only i hold the remedy.
but i will refuse him.
thirty years from next tuesday
beneath a tree i planted
a thousand years ago
he will die.
and with him
everything
save my memory
of a boy at sixteen

Why Greek mythology is like your neighborhood bar.

The Greeks from the classical era were remarkable at tying things together. Their plays fit nicely into one room on one day, and they always come to some satisfying–if rarely merry–resolution, in which no mysteries remain unsolved. Most characters appear in multiple plays and multiple myths, and if not them then some family member pops up. The fictional pawns of classical lore are all part of one big screwy lineage, full of heroes, monsters, and human/deity half-breeds.

Discovery of the day: Achilles was the son of the king of the Myrmidons, Peleus the Argonaut (meaning he was besties with Jason), and the immortal sea-nymph Thetis. Thetis was like a super-nymph: she knew everybody. She saved Hephaestus when he was cast out of Olympus by Zeus; she protected Dionysus from angry Edonians; and she helped guide the Argonauts away from the Sirens and Charybdis & Scylla. She even saved Zues’s ass from a coup! So of course Zeus and Poseidon wanted her bad. Fortunately for her (knowing how relationships with Zeus usually unfold), there was a prophecy that her son would be mightier than his father, and Zeus (remembering his own little rebellion against his father) wanted none of that. Yadayadayda. This isn’t even the interesting bit. This is just genealogy!

What I discovered is that it was at the wedding reception for Peleus and Thetis that a pissed off Eris (Discord) tossed that golden apple (for which Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite competed) that was the ultimate catalyst for the Trojan War! So, in a sense, Achilles was there at the beginning AND at the end of the Trojan war (although he died before the war ended). Nice job, Greeks! Way to go with the whole closing the circle thing. Of course time is a bit wonky. Achilles didn’t become the glory-warrior of the War when he was in diapers; he was a ripe old 15. He had to have time to train with Chrion, the wise, civilized, and decidedly sober centaur, who ALSO happens to know everyone and their mom. He trained Ajax, Aeneas, Jason, Peleus, Telamon, Heracles, and Dionysus, and those are just the names I recognized. Love it! High-five, Homer!