Quantcast
Channel: thehouseofvines – The House of Vines
Viewing all articles
Browse latest Browse all 4317

See that you are devouring each other

$
0
0

The hungry sailors put in at the three-foot isle,
after days of calm skies and steady breeze.
Had it not been for their rumbling bellies,
they’d just have continued straight on to Ithaka.
Bellies have led many a man to sin,
and Odysseus’ wayward companions were no different.
Before he let any of them depart to scavenge
fruit and small game, Telemachos’ father
was careful to repeat the warning oracle
spoke by Circe, and again by Empedokles
– take what you need from fertile Sicily
and eat your fill;
but molest not the Sun Wheel’s cattle
and definitely don’t gorge on their flesh.
So under cover of dark,
on what happened to be the longest Night of the year,
the men from the sea donned wolfskins
and crept about on all fours.
When the last of the Danaans got close to the lowing kine
they leapt upon them and tore their throats out
and tore strips of flank with titanic teeth and bare hands
like some maiden maddened by the the stinging oistros.
By dawn’s light, the whole herd was slaughtered,
with much raw meat stuffed in their bellies.
and when they sheepishly reboarded the ship Odysseus cried,
“What the fuck did you false, foolish men do?”



Viewing all articles
Browse latest Browse all 4317

Latest Images

Trending Articles



Latest Images