Penelope and Ulysses by Zenovia Page A

constricts their last free breath,
    for every dear one lost.” 34
    PENELOPE: And what of Agamemnon’s men?
    Ashes and urns come back.
    BOTH: “Blood will have blood.
    A man’s lifeblood
    is dark and mortal
    once it wets the earth.
    What song can sing it back?” 35
    YOUNG PENELOPE: War is a creature
    that has the legs of many men,
    the heads of a few,
    and the arms of millions
    that will tear man, woman, and child into pieces.
    PENELOPE: War is a living creature
    that feeds on human blood.
    It grows in its blind rage, seeking for more human blood.
    It is organised by a select few:
    the keepers of culture,
    the keepers of intellectual power and knowledge,
    the keepers of the secrets of the beast.
    BOTH: It is kept alive by many.
    PENELOPE: They feed it human flesh and human blood:
    the flesh and blood of both
    the kindred and the stranger.
    The creature of war has no voice
    because its mouth is full with human flesh;
    therefore, its makers and keepers
    will speak in a peaceful voice
    “designed to make lies sound truthful
    and murder respectable.” 36
    YOUNG PENELOPE: This creature called war
    grows from all its devouring,
    from all the loss and grief of others.
    It mutates the truth within the rotting corpses
    into a mass rage and grief without relief—
    a blind rage and deep grief
    that words can never give relief.
    PENELOPE: Some doors are not meant to be opened,
    and all who pass those doors
    “abandon all hope.” 37
    BOTH: Once we have lost
    the anchor and the thread to our life
    it is the animals that pity man.
    [ Note: The Chorus has been interwoven with sections from the Chorus from Aeschylus’s The Oresteia and Euripides’s thoughts on war, The Trojan Women .
    This section is not intended to glorify war or to shock the reader; it is there to engender thought and compassion for those caught up in wars or who have come from wars. If enough of us realise the price of war on both sides, we might, as evolved people, consider not making war on our neighbours and realise that we all need to live on this planet, and we all need to share its resources in peace and humanity. I have put this section in to expose some of the horrors of war and to cause reflection, connection, compassion, and a more evolved way of addressing our problems, as a humane world community. ]

Act IV

Under House Arrest 
    Colours of the Sea
    [ The PENELOPE that we meet in this dialogue and scene is more controlled and planning. She is standing by the shoreline, looking into the sea, reflecting on her thoughts. ]
    PENELOPE: The nets of the wolf and the jackal
    have been thrown over Ithaca.
    The hunters, the opportunists, the thieves
    and the murderers live just outside my door.
    I am under house arrest.
    Right across from my courtyard
    they have come, presenting themselves
    as cultivated men,
    as educated men,
    as civilised men.
    While all the while I can see their plans and nets,
    their claws and smiling white teeth,
    the teeth of the jackal and wolf
    before they tear into the soft flesh of their prey.
    They wait for the bait to fall
    into their foaming mouth.
    Are these men, wild dogs, or wolves?
    I watch them from my courtyard.
    They all have become a family that works together
    in secrecy and crime
    for the prize: the fall of Ithaca,
    the bedding and betrayal of me,
    the murder of my son.
    [ AGATHY: About thirty-five. He is handsome and lusts for PENELOPE and her lands. He is a brute. AGATHY has a solid build, the body of a warrior, with dark long hair and dark eyes. He has no scarring on his body, as he has not gone to war, having led a privileged and protected existence. His hands are thick and heavy, like his intellect, and all culture and the fine arts are wasted on him. He is vain, proud, and arrogant and cannot detect when he is being mocked. He truly believes that Zeus gave him birth.
    PETROCULOS: About fifty-five. Intellectual, patient, experienced in political and personal life, he wants to achieve domination, not only of Ithaca