(no subject)

[eeyore_grrl]

This poem is based on the character Penelope from the Iliad and the Odyssey. Here’s the quick and easy version of events. At least one version.

Helen was gorgeous. She was married to Menelaus, of Sparta. At some part she fell in love/lust with Paris from Troy (some versions say she was a prize from the Gods, but we’re going with she left of her own will and volition here). Odysseus was not a Spartan, he was from Ithaca, but owed some favor or another and his ego was stroked, “it’s foretold we can only win with you...oh you are soooooo awesome.”

Penelope is the wife of Odysseus. She waits at home for him to return while he’s off having epic poem worthy adventures. After many years have passed and her husband doesn’t return she gets harrassed by suitor after suitor who take advantage of her handmaidens and eat all her food and disrespect her son, Telemachus (at least he thinks so). Penelope says she will weaver her father-in-law’s death shroud and when it is done she will choose a suitor. Every night she and her chosen maidens tear out her work.

Odysseus returns.
-------



                                    Penelope


Helen was not the most beautiful woman in the world
but go tell that to the spartans
they fought for a decade
they lost men and marriages
even though they won the war

Odysseus tries to return home
Penelope waits
Telemachus grows into manhood

day by day they pay the price for a woman
who left
a woman who lusted
day after day they wasted
but go tell that to the Spartans

this is, perhaps, a tale that only tells
that women should stay in their place
live with the love you are given

(screw your own longings and desires)

because women are chattel
and you best not forget it

women should stay where sold
or death and destruction reign

but Helen lived
and Penelope lived to weave her shroud
(her holy task, but tell that to the suitors)
waiting
waiting
waiting
for her husband’s return

cursing all the soldiers for following Menelaus across the God infested waters

the Ithacans lost lives for a woman that was not theirs
and other women paid in
waiting and widowdom
but go tell that to the Spartans
as they drink to women, wine, and win

the women paid




-----

This was an entry for LJ Idol Exhbit B Week 5. My topic was Go Tell That to the Spartans.
Read more entries at http://therealljidol.livejournal.com/663790.html?nc=32#comments. Will add a voting link when it is available.


VOTE HERE! http://therealljidol.livejournal.com/664951.html

Comments

[ashgaelsonaria.livejournal.com]

There is a third version were she was spirited away to Egypt as well.

[eeyore-grrl.livejournal.com]

I missed that one. Is Paris still in it?

[ashgaelsonaria.livejournal.com]

I believe so.
The only difrince is that instead of her running away with or being carried off by Paris the Gods spirit her off to Egypt and place her in the Pharaoh's care. Years later her husband ends up in Egypt were he finds her safe and sound.
Sorta makes you wonder with all the mystery around Nefaratiti and her own legacy as one of the most beautiful women to have ever lived.

[halfshellvenus.livejournal.com]

other women paid in
waiting and widowdom

An interesting way of looking at it, because it's true... but people rarely even think of how many soldiers lost their lives because Paris was greedy or Helen unfaithful.

[eeyore-grrl.livejournal.com]

Penelope is miserable, but she's one of the lucky ones. Or is she? Odysseus was alive, but he was gone for so long and she put up with a lot of bullshit in the time being and upon his return.

[blythe025.livejournal.com]

Excellent poem. I love when poetry plays and twists old themes. Well done.

[eeyore-grrl.livejournal.com]

I am a HUGE fan of myth revision so this was the perfect opportunity to write about something other than myself. :D

[favoritebean.livejournal.com]

The women always pay. Women and children.

[eeyore-grrl.livejournal.com]

The soldiers pay too, with death and PTSD and time from their families and homes.

[agirlnamedluna.livejournal.com]

Everyone pays in a war, and women are seen as property, hence getting a war done over honour instead of simply divorcing ... that said, women could divorce in Sparta so I still don't understand why they didn't just go that route if she wanted to go with Paris - or maybe that would've been too much dishonour for her because he was not Spartan so not a real man. Hm, to ponder.

[eeyore-grrl.livejournal.com]

that's addressed up there with the chattel reference. which we/they were. i don't know, honestly, about the divorce laws of Sparta, but I'm sure it wasn't an easy choice... and if the the Gods had anything to do with it it clearly wasn't...

[alycewilson.livejournal.com]

This was a creative approach to a very difficult topic!

[eeyore-grrl.livejournal.com]

it was a fairly specific topic (as were the rest) which makes it/them hard.

i think i may have played a losing game going with classic myth and poetry, but we'll see.

[beldar.livejournal.com]

Love your poems even more when you read them, but this was still powerful good (I tried emulating your voice inside my head as I read it).

[eeyore-grrl.livejournal.com]

Thanks. And just for you, I recorded it. :D

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pHikJ2g9Sg&feature=youtu.be

[beldar.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

[eeyore-grrl.livejournal.com]

My pleasure. Did I do your imagination justice?

[beldar.livejournal.com]

In my head, I can never match your inflections. I consider your voicing and gestures to be as much a part of the poem as the words.

[eeyore-grrl.livejournal.com]

awww. i'm... blushing.

[cheshire23.livejournal.com]

I like this take on the myth.

[eeyore-grrl.livejournal.com]

It's what came to me... I had just been reading Margaret Atwood's The Penelopiad. It seemed the thing to write.

[cobalt-00.livejournal.com]

I like this a lot. The "God infested" part almost sounds like a curse itself, the way you read it, and I liked that too. The alliteration in men/marriages waiting/widowdom brackets nicely.

[eeyore-grrl.livejournal.com]

When I teach myth the first thing I tell them is the MAIN reason is "Don't Piss Off The Gods." cuz really. that's the main lesson.

[fourzoas.livejournal.com]

The stories that don't get told are often the most compelling.

[eeyore-grrl.livejournal.com]

I wasn't a huge fan of Jane Eyre, but Wide Sargasso Sea was lovely. It tells the story of Rochester's first wife in a very different tone than Brontë. It's a great take on it.