Of Cities and Citybred Monsters
By © E. Antons
Benjamiņš, 2017
The Great Grandson
of God* (a
play)
*God—see
Post Script
(A
retelling of the story of King Oedipus)
Master
of Ceremony:
According to myth, King Agenor’’s
daughter Europa, was kidnapped by a white bull and taken ‘West’. White, as we
know, is the color of purity. As we have learned by now, ‘West’ is an illusion
that no longer holds.
Cadmus, Europa’s brother,
went looking for Europa. Cadmus, among other things, is said to have been the
founder of the Holy City of Thebes. In the process of founding the city, Cadmus
gave himself in sacrifice, when he slew the Serpent sent against him by the
‘pure’ political powers of the West. The Serpent, having been implanted with a
chip of artificial intelligence at the headquarters of the North Atlantic
Treaty Organization in Brussells, lied to one and all: “I am of the protectors
of Civilization.”
Cadmus cut out the tongue
of the Serpent, and threw the tongue between the rows of armed men, who had
risen from the teeth of the serpent: the teeth siezed not only the tongue (it
speaks crooked to this day), but Cadmus as well. Thus, the holy city of Thebes
was founded on the efforts of a King willing to sacrifice himself.
Be that as it may, the
abduction of Europa started a long chain of events that the West has since
tried to deny. It is possible that once brought to the West, Europa was renamed
Joan from Ark and
burned by the Catholic English at a stake in France. Today
the Pope has tried to resurrect Joan by making her a Saint.
King Cadmus was survived
by a son named Laius, possibly pronounced Ludis or Ludwig, who too died a
sacrificial death, when he was killed by his estranged son Oedipus at the cross
roads in a forest near Thebes.
Oedipus, legalistically
speaking, was the great grandson of King Agenor. On the other hand, from the
point of view of a more intimate perspective, Prince Oedipus was but the son of
his mother Iocaste, who had saved him from possible death as a child sacrifice
on Mount Citheron, a sacred mountain on a mountain range that lay between two
temple cities—that of Thebes and Corinth. It has been rumored that Europa, when
unable to bear children, bore a mythic twin sister, and Iocaste was her.
Before their marriage to their
respective kings (Iocaste to King Laius, Europa to King Polybus), the sisters
had served as temple whores at the temple of the holy city of Corinth. Both
sisters (well versed in the art of make-believe love) had lucked out and persuaded
the kings of two kingdoms (Thebes and Corinth) that the Goddeses of Fate, the
Moirae, had created them solely for their pleasure, upon which the kings
married them. Still, unlike men, who for the lack of a womb are born to be dedicated
to the entire community, the women were loyal only to their children and
immediate family. Therefore, Queen Iocaste’s refusal to go along with her
husband, King Laius, when he wished to expose his son to the test of the Gods (Will he or will he not survive the night
alone in his crib?) was natural enough. Instead of leaving Oedipus in his
crib on the altar on Mt. Cytheron, Queen Iocaste secretly spirited him away to
Corinth, where she left him in the care of Europa.
By the way, Oedipus had
been likely conceived before Iocaste married King Laius. One of Oedipus’
possible fathers was the husband of Queen Europa—King Polybus.
Indeed, our play, “The Great
Grandson of God”, is based on one of the most complex stories the world has
ever known. The psychologist Sigmund Freud, to whom we owe the survival of the
story in our day, hardly knew what he was getting into when he discovered the
story useful to his own purposes.
(The Master of Ceremonies leaves the stage. He is replaced by a Chorus
of Luds of the Wood or people of the forest. The Chorus is of two parts, the
Strophe and Antistrophe. Queen Ismene enters after the Chorus has taken its
place. Ismene is the only survivor of the Court of King Oedipus.)
Chorus:
So many dead!
How can it be?
Every mother desires
For her children more
And better!
Did they drink
Too much of
Henbane laced beer?
Tell us—what happened,
Queen Ismene.
Queen
Ismene:
Before my mother,
Queen Iocaste,
Returned
from sacred Corinth,
And threw
her witche’s mask
into the ditch,
she and her sister,
Queen Europa,
Conspired
And told Prince Oedipus,
(Queen Europa’s
Adopted son)
That
the King of Thebes
Owed Queen Europa
a pot of gold
From the days of old.
The Prince was to go
To Thebes
And collect the debt.
If King Laius responded
That he did not remember
Any such debt,
Prince Oedipus
Was to tell him
That Queen Eiropa
vouched that
It
was a debt
To
the sacred whorehouse
Of
Corinth.
King Laius ought not
Bring dishonor on himself
By not giving love its due.
If the King still
did not remember,
She, Queen Eiropa,
matron of the temple
of love’s make believe
would tell the world.
Strophe:
The twin sisters
Also contracted
for Prince Oedipus
An armed guard.
Its captain was
An accomplice of theirs:
Queen Eiropa had
Given him of her love.
Queen
Ismene:
For her part,
My mother, Queen Iocaste,
Disguised as a witch,
Told my father,
Then but a prince,
That King Laius,
My grandfather,
Scoundrel that
He was said to be,
Would not bring
A pot of gold,
But a palanquin full
Of motherless
Children sired
in the whorehouse
at Thebes’s
holy of holies.
Antistrophe:
Queen Iocaste,
soon hastened back
To Thebes
And told,
Nay, whispered
Into the ear
Of her husband,
King Laius,
Who was old
And nearly blind
from cataracts:
“My beloved, Laius,
King Polybus,
The King of Corinth,
Is sending us
a divine present
--a palanquin full
Of orphans,
Borne by temple whores.
“The orphans are
for sacrifice
On holy days
And days of need.
“To epress our thanks
Be so good and
Take a pot of gold
And give it
To the Conduit,
Of the palanquin
caravan.”
Queen
Ismene:
In truth, mother
Had another plan.
She drugged the orphans
With milk seeped
In henbane leaves,
And instead
Of a pot of gold,
Loaded the palanquin
Meant for baggage,
full with
a fast asleep bunch
Of children.
My father
Had no idea that
He was the victim
Of a plot
By women in revolt
Against men,
Who had come to power,
By trying to fool them
With a trick
That claimed:
They’d overcome
Fear of death.
Strophe:
Furthermore,
The captain of
King Laius’s
Body guards,
Complicit in the plot
Of the queens,
Would surprise
Prince Oedipus and
offer to sellll him
(In return for
A pot of gold)
Ten children
for temple sacrifice.
Queen
Ismene:
Pure horror followed.
My father
saw himself again
As one of the children
Raised for sacrifice
And drew his sword.
In the fight
My grandfather,
King Laius, was killed.
Antistrophe:
Of course, King Oedipus
Did not know,
That he,
By arrangement
of our mother
had killed our father.