Forgotten Ground Regained

Great-hearted Odysseus

Ruth Aylett
Such a stupid war for a start:all bruised male egos overpoor pass-the-parcel Helen.
Priestess of Hermes, I recordedthe boredom and the blood; I was notblind to all that stinking foulness.
If Odysseus was ready to go home,he pointed his prow wrongly; wanteda little winding-down rape and pillage
if you ask me, though no warrior givesan unraped priestess the time of day,or asks a question with the answer ‘guilty’.
What good is cleverness used fordeadlier destruction, quicker killing?Or persuasive words for excuses:
women who could not resist him,kept him captive – so he claimed;for tall tales of strange sights and terrors.
My priestess god-given truth is this:War wrecked him, made farming green Ithaca a vision of ball-breaking boredom.
What brought him back was the prospectof more murder. The suitors’ blood once shed,you think he stayed? Ask Penelope.
Odysseus killing the suitors, by the Penelope PainterPhotograph by ArchaiOptix
Copyright © Ruth Aylett, 2025
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