“Surf and shore” by Jonson in brief
The tenth year after the end of the Trojan War. On the island of the nymphs of Calypso, where Odysseus has lived for seven years, the Messenger of the Gods Hermes arrives with a message and instructions: It’s time for the Traveler to return home and restore order there. But Odysseus does not aspire to Ithaca, for he realizes that he will be forced to kill again, and he was always not so much a king and a soldier as a plowman. He was forced to leave his homeland and take part in the war of aggression started by the Olympians to show that war is also a “deity”, demanding sacrifice. And Odysseus sacrificed Troy, going to war only to return soon. But now the Wanderer is simply afraid to feel again the run of time, which you do not feel here, at Calypso. Maybe he was her prisoner, although he never tried to leave. Nevertheless, he has no choice: he must obey the will of the gods.
… And in Ithaca in recent years, really messed up. The Penelope Bridegrooms, who
The time of departure of the Traveler is approaching. He will leave the place where he managed to taste peace, and go to the unknown, into a world that has changed, perhaps, too much over the past twenty years. Again for a war that is so sweet to the gods who do not want to see the human race being sublime and gentle, doing everything to bring out the “breed of people where men hastily lighten the heavy
… Political tricks The Spouses did not like the Son, who in many ways was still a boy, naive and straightforward. Telemachus subconsciously felt that his mother. A middle-aged woman, her choice has already been made, and that when the Long-Waiting thinks of young men wishing her, her shuttle runs faster…
On the last night Nymph Wanderer tells her about what he experienced. No, not him, but a man named Utis – Nobody. About how his companions took ordinary girls for sirens, and whirlpools – for monsters, after drinking strong wine on the island of Kirki, behaved like pigs… And also that he was haunted by memories of the murder of the son of Hector, Astyanax. Not remembering who did this. Odysseus tries to convince himself that it was not he, but war.
… The weaving lasted a long time. A middle-aged woman was yearning for more than Spouse, and for men in general. She did not know: to be strong means to wait or take care of your own life? Then she had to gradually dissolve the canvas, not deceiving, but “pursuing politics.” The bridegrooms had seen everything before they officially announced this: they were not averse to using someone else’s good. But anyway, the trick with Tissue was exposed, and Penelope was forced to promise to choose a new husband in a month. Memories do not release Odysseus: he thinks too often about Troy, about the War and about the descent to Hades, which he saw in delirium. Then the prophet Tiresi told the Wanderer that he was waiting for his return home knee-deep in blood, when there would be no desire to return. And Odysseus will be unhappy until he finds people in the west, not knowing the sea and war. Then, maybe, he will become the first man of the new breed, and happiness will smile at him.
Meanwhile, on the advice of a certain Mentes, Telemach decides to go to Nestor and Menelai to learn something about his father and prove to everyone that he himself has already grown up. The attempt to officially achieve this fails: the Progress Party easily manages to dissolve the National Assembly. The son has to go to Pylos in secret.
The swimming of the Odyssey begins well. But soon the storm, the wrath of Poseidon, falls upon him. The Wanderer spends several days in the raging waves, until he lands on the shore. “I am a man far from the sea, I live.”
Pylos and his ruler Nestor deceive Telemachus’ expectations. The young man expected to see a mighty hero, but meets a talkative old drunkard. Confused in his thoughts, he begins his memories with the words: “Well, at first we, of course, killed the children…” Nestor never said anything definite about Odysseus.
The exhausted, hungry Wanderer is in the lands of the Faeians, where he finds Princess Nausica, a young girl dreaming of her only, real hero. “… The real heroes are noble gentlemen, they do not kill children…” The Feiakian king accepts Odysseus as a welcome guest, and he gets a chance to rest a little. But here he continues to remember about Astyanakse, whom the War killed. “I was part of the War, but War is not me.”
The fact that Telemachus left is known to the Progress Party, and the grooms decide to eliminate the Son as an extra obstacle to power over Ithaka as soon as possible. About the plan of the suitors, the spy informs Penelope, and Euryklei immediately sends him to the mainland to warn Telemachus about the danger.
Meanwhile, at the feast of King Alkinoi, the Wanderer discovers his real name: a partially true, partially feigned excitement at the sound of a song about the Trojan War betrays him. Then he tells everyone about his wanderings, having transformed them not in the main, but in details. To believe in him, he creates a legend enveloped in a halo of divinity: the volcano turns into a Cyclops, a strong wine – into a magical drink, whirlpools – into bloodthirsty monsters… Odysseus wants the Faeians to help him return to his homeland. Maybe he would have stayed here, marrying Nausica, but it’s too late. He will return to Ithaca and fulfill the role of the executioner prepared for him.
The first person Odysseus meets when he gets home is the main swineherd Eumaeus. Pretending that he did not recognize the Tsar, he said that Odysseus, once again stepping on the land of Ithaki, still will not return from the war, because he will start it again. He has no choice, because he is just a prisoner of gay, playing gods, whom the people themselves invented. Blood will flood not only the small island of Odysseus, but all other countries as well. But probably. King of Ithaca, having taken away from the suitors power and dividing it among many citizens, it will be possible to lay the foundation of a new human kingdom, when people themselves will understand who they are and what they should do. And then the power of the gods will not be able to draw them into a new war.
Returning from his unsuccessful journey, Telemachus meets his father, but does not recognize him: the man he saw was not like his dreams of the Father, the Hero and the Protector. And Odysseus, when he reveals his secret to his son, understands that the family will accept him, perhaps, he will recognize his body, but never himself.
Under the guise of a beggar, the Wanderer enters his house. Despite the constant insults of the suitors, he still feels that there is no need to kill them all, and many can be spared… Unrecognized, he talks to his wife and realizes that he has come back too late: Penelope will marry of his own free will who will deliver her from twenty years of waiting, anxiety and longing.
According to the planned plan for the extermination of the bridegrooms, Telemachus declares that his mother will become the wife of one who can shoot an arrow from the bow of Odysseus through the rings of twelve axes. Grooms can not do this. They try to turn everything into a joke and, mocking Telemachus and supposedly dead Odysseus, one by one confirm their death sentence. If the Wanderer could leave at least one of them alive, he would have told himself that, by neglecting the divine command, he managed to save Astyanax. But he came to kill. Taking an onion. Odysseus begins to fulfill his mission.
And he kills them all. Subsequently, the rumor exaggerated the number of victims of this massacre almost five times. In fact, there were not more than twenty. A doll in the hands of the gods, the embodiment of war, Odysseus destroys the world for many years, shedding blood under the groans of the slaughtering slave, coming from the servants’ room. And in his room Penelope cries, realizing that no one needed fragment of the war deprived her of freedom of choice and the right to happiness…
When together with the bridegrooms they destroy the slaves, their former lovers, Odysseus learns that she who gives birth to a woman and her child is also wanted to be removed from the “world of those who are clean.” This decision causes the Wanderer to protest, because no child in this world has caused and will not harm him. But it’s’ too late. In addition, he has no time to think about this: he must go on his journey, a distant journey to the west. However, the old wise Eurekaea, smiling faithfully, stops him: “The wanderings are over, my child, the ships are pulled ashore for the winter.” I prepared a bath for you, my beloved lord… “
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