Of Cities and Citybred Monsters
By © E. Antons
Benjamiņš, 2017
It has come to be that the
atheist-controlled community of government has become the fake Godhead over the
community of Nature. Likewise, government has made itself to become the People.
The
Great Grandson of God (a play)
(A
retelling of the story of King Oedipus)
Episode
4
Messenger:
Good day, dear people!
Am I come
to The holy city
of Thebes?
Is this the kingdom
Of the Sacred King
Oedipus?
Strophe:
Good day,
Traveller, yes,
This is where
King Oedipus Rules.
All Thebans praise him.
He’s transfoormed
The lone altar stone;
Look! into hundreds of
Living homes.
Prosperity rules here.
People, once abandoned
To the wood,
Build new settements
Over old ravines.
Every day hundreds
Of ludies.
(once known as
‘fairy people’)
Abandon the wood.
Messenger:
Can some one
Go notify the King?
I bring him
Important news.
Antistrophe:
What kind of news,
stranger?
Messenger:
I bring news
About his father.
Strophe:
You must be
From Corinth,
The holy city were
Princes Europa
Found refuge
(At King Polybus’s court)
From the pricks of
Viking stabs.
Guards! Go, hurry!
Run to King Oedipus!
Tell him the king from
Corinth
Sends him a messenger.
(King Oedipus comes on stage.)
King
Oedipus:
News from Corinth
is always
welcome at Thebes.
Hail, messenger!
How goes it with
The King and Queen of
Corinth?
Messenger:
Great King of Thebes,
May children love you
Until the end of time.
Humankind will never
forget
Your heroic deeds.
May forget-me-nots bloom
And remember you
with joy.
I beg your forgiveness,
Great King.
I bring unpleasant news.
King
Oedipus:
As if I don’t already
Have enough of them.
Just yesterday
A desert storm blew
Over the city.
With every bundle of
sagebrush
Another serpent rolls in
for a visit.
Rats infest our granaries.
Good man, start your story
with the good news.
Messenger:
Of course, great King!
If the sun shines
From behind dark clouds,
The clouds are rimmed
By a golden crown.
King
Oedipus:
That makes
A wonderful sight.
However, I need
More than a mirage.
Messenger:
King Oedipus,
The holy city of Corinth,
Sends me to ask you
To become our King.
Our cityzens hope
That I will return
With a ‘yes’ from you.
King Oedipus:
What has happened
To King Polybus?
It is he who is your King.
What’s happened to him?
Messenger:
Great King,
Here’s the bad news:
King Polybus has diedn.
King
Oedipus:
God!
What was the cause
Of his death?
Messenger:
It happened unexpectedly.
Comes a certain age,
Death does not need
An invitation.
To come visit.
Strophe:
Cursed be death!
Nevertheless, tis said
That death brings
People together.
King Oedipus,
It is almost unbelievable!
The holy cities
Of Thebes and Corinth
Will be bound
And become as one.
Your kingdom will double,
great King!
King
Oedipus:
Guards! Go call
Queen Iocaste!
Messenger,
I thank you.
I love my father,
But a crown of gold
Girds his deathbed,
indeed.
No doubt, your reward
For the news’
Will be a tassle
of gold rings.
(Queen Iocaste arrives,)
King
Oedipus (continues):
Queen, Iocaste,
Take a deep breath!
My father,
The King of Corinth
Has died.
Queen
Iocaste:
It is a great loss.
King
Oedipus:
Corinth sends an
invitation
For me to become its King.
Queen
Iocaste:
Did’nt I tell you?
That all will end well?
King
Oedipus:
But my mother
Is still alive,
And I must put up with.
Antistrophe:
Be careful, King,
What you say!
Queen
Iocaste:
King Oedipus,
I was told that you
Had good news for me.
King
Oedipus:
The good news made me
Forget for a moment
The curse of the witches.
Messenger:
Did I hear
your highness connect
your mother’s name
with a curse?
King
Oedipus:
Yes, indeed!
Her paps never gave suck.
She was happy
To pass me on to a
wetnurse.
Her milk was bittersweet.
Messenger:
But your mother, King,
Always spoke kindly of
you.
King
Oedipus:
My father’s death
Reminds me of
a long forgotten
Curse of a witch.
Messenger
Excuse me, Savior King,
If I may ask,
What was the curse?
King
OedipusL
A long time ago,
When I was but a teen,
And lived in Corinth,
A witch visited me,
And foretold
That for lack of
My mother’s teats,
I would sleep with her,
And kill my father
In jealous rage.
Queen
Iocaste:
The news from Corinth
Tells that no such curse
Is in force.
Your mother laments
Your father’s death,
And she needs you
To be beside her.
No less, the cellars of
Corinth
Need to inventirized.
With regard to your
mother’s
Dry paps, it is not
unusual
For women to go dry
When some anxiety
Assails them.
This may cause
grown sons to dream
of foregone suck.
It happens
As all herders know
with buffalo cows.
Do not, my Kin,
Upset yourself
unnecessarily.
Messenger:
Is it really true,
great King,
That you
Fear your mother?
King
Oedipus:
I fled Corinth,
Because I did not wish
To kill my father,
Nor sleep with my mother.
Messenger:
Great King!
I then have
truly have good news
For you!
The curse of the witch
has no truth to it!
You have no reason
To fear it!
King
Oedipus:
How dare you
To contradict me!
Messenger
Forgive me,
Greatest of Kings!
I tell the truth:
The King and Queen
Of Corinth are not
Your true parents!
You are their stepson!
You are a gift
Of the Gods to them!
King
Oedipus:
I just promised
To reward you with gold.
Yet you, miserable scum,
Neither of the wood or the
city,
are already betting
your neck or double the
prize.
Messenger:
I swear
by the mighty Zeus!
And his son Jezeus!
The royals of Corinth
Were childless!
It was the Gods
(mysterious are their
ways)
Who put you in their laps,
as mysteriously
As they put you into mine.
King
Oedipus:
You foul mouthed finch!
Who put me
Into your hands?
Messenger:
It was the chief elkherd
Of King Laius.
He found you laying
On the altar
on Mt. Citheron.
You’d been put there
As an offering to the
Gods.
My friend removed
The loop that bound
Your heels
One to another.
King
Oedipus:
Who bound me?
Messenger:
In those far off days
It was not seldom
That royals,
Even who ruled cities,
were in despair
for their lives.
Still, they held
to the old customs
of the wood,
And offered their children
(To make sure
Of their favor)
to the Gods.
King
Oedipus:
Is this friend of yours
Still alive?
Messenger:
He was with King Laius.
Thebans ought to know.
King
Oedipus:
Queen, Iocaste,
Have you ever heard
Such dreck?
Do you know
Of such an elkherd?
Queen
Iocaste:
Since when,
dear King,
Do you listen
To the fairy tales
Of donkey herders?
Leave the story be
the talk of fools.
It is time you raised
The flag of Thebes
to half mast.
Call the guards
prepare your palanquin
and run to Corinth.
King
Oedipus:
Let the guards wait
awhile.
If that elkherd is alive,
I will soon learn the
truth.
Perhaps
he still has the loop
That crippled my legs.
Queen
Iocaste:
King Oedipus, please,
A funeral
And a new Kingdom awaits
you.
King
Oedipus:
It is time for me to know
If I am the son of a whore
Or of royal blood.
Strophe:
There is an old saying:
‘Kings in a great hurry
May overtake the Gods,
But will soon slip
In their own shit.’
King Oedipus:
Guards, hear!
Bring to me the elkherd.
Let us open the old sack
For its memory.
Antistrophe:
We fear!
A great chill has seized
us!
Something frightful
Is about to happen.
Strophe:
My sweet child,
Is your mother
A maid still innocent?
Or did a goatherd
Already jump her
And tickle her ribs
With his knees?
Sweet, child,
But perhaps
your mother was
a whore already.
Or did she luck out,
And find favor
In the bed of a King?
(From backstage, comes a screech and many voices in great commotion. The
nurse Iananna rushes on stage.)
Iananna:
Gods! Gods!
Where are the Gods!?
King Oedipus,
The princes,
Eteokles and Polyneices.
Are at each other
With knives.
Help! Gods!
Chorus:
All the world
Has gone mad.
A catastrophe is afoot!
Iananna:
Polynices kicked
his foot
into the stomach
of Princess Antigone.
I heard
the child there
cry.
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