56. Aeneas’s Journey

“Arms and the man I sing, the first who came

Compelled by fate an exile out of Troy…” (The Aeneid, Rolfe Humphies translation)

“Remember what they did”

Said the ghosts of Trojan women,

“Remember the fire.”

“The horse.”

“How they cut down our heroes”

“How they murdered us”

“Tearing our children from our comforting arms.”

Those words haunted him

As Aphrodite’s son escaped the mighty cyclopean walls.

His people burned.

They pleaded for help from Athena

But it was all in vain.

Hera’s hatred sent them to their doom.

Hector appeared to injured Aeneas in a dream.

“My brother,”

The fallen prince told him,

“Fate has given you a chance”

“To get even with those that did this.”

“Go west and you shall see.”

“In the land above Sicily.”

Aeneas and his family

Left the dead and ruined city.

To the ships they went

Eager to find this new promised land.

They came to Thrace

Where the black blood of Polydorus

Gave warnings of greed in the land

Sending them off once again.

Apollo’s island welcomed them

With great earthquake

They were off to Crete, the lonely Isle

Where, in a dream, he was told of Italus’ land.

Passed the turning point they traveled

Where flocks of harpies pestered them.

They followed Greek islands

Up to the lands that Alexander saved.

From there they sailed passed the boot

That will house their future home

To the land where Poseidon’s sons live.

They saved a man from the one eyed one.

Left carelessly by the horse maker on his way home.

Then between the treacherous rocky whirlpool and sister monster.

After surviving those two beasts

They met a storm stirred up by Hera

That brought them to rest on Dido’s mighty shores.

As Aeneas told his story

Aphrodite set the queen aflame.

In a cave on hunting trip

Came Dido’s poor undoing.

Aphrodite’s son promised marriage

But left her to fall to her grave

Cursing the Trojan race

And all who spring from them.

After a visit to Hades’ land

They went north to their promised fate.

42. The Dark Ages of Greece

The age of heroes and marble men

Came to an end

After the fall of Troy

Culture collapsed

Darkness took over the land.

Weeds grew among ancient temples

As thrones were abandoned by kings.

Palaces fell to the ground

As marble men

Eroded from their pedestals.

The armies disbanded leaving the comforting barracks.

The river of trade slowly dwindled to a trickle.

The temples went unfinished

With none to raise up Athena.

None to exalt Zeus.

No prayers to mother Hera

And none to shining Apollo

Where did these proud, vibrant people go?

To Anatolia

Where they waited out this cold, uncertain time

In the warm weather flowing in from the Greek Sea.

While they reveled in the ancient past

The glories of old Odysseus

The glorious fall of Troy.

Still, things were bubbling

Under the Greek mainland’s surface

Geometric pottery

Started directing paths

To and Iron Age revival.

41. The Journey Home

After that famous siege of Troy

The crafty king left for home.

He forgot one special thing

To offer up to the mighty sea king.

It was he that helped the Akhaians win.

It was he that brought the horse inside the Trojan gates.

He could have held his special serpent friends

So it’s only right.

But Odysseus was quick to forget

And Poseidon’s storms set him out to distant lands

Where his party dwindled until

He was the only one to hang on.

The sea god’s one eyed son

Made a tasty meal of some.

Aeolus gave him a bag of winds

To guide him home for good

But Greed had opened it

And they were lost once again.

Some men fell under the spell of flowers.

Others an island witch.

They faced sea monsters and siren’s song

Forever battling the sea god’s mighty gale

Until finally, thanks to the gray eyed goddess,

He made it home

To only see strangers within his palace walls.

Disguising himself as an old beggar,

He revealed who he was in a competition.

Then scattered the men

Who dared to disturb his sacred bed.

Then, with his loving wife and son

He retired to his throne

Satisfied that his duty had been done.

40. The Trojan War

A bloody battle soon ensued

On the plain of Illium.

The Akhaians came one thousand fold.

To take the city and her gold.

Curses and plagues flowed through the Greek camp

As gods played with mice and men.

The weakness of their great champion

Wasn’t only his heel.

Bloody stalemate caused red waterfalls

The fell to Hades’ land.

Pyres burned day and night

Because of the week foot’s stubborn ways.

Achilles, the man with fragile heel

Pouted in his tent

Because his precious trophy was taken away.

He stayed there

Like the man of marble that he was.

Even with his brothers’ cries

He just wouldn’t break.

But then the cracks began to show

When his Petroklos

Was carried to Hades’ hated den.

“Alas, Poor Petroklos!”

They cried in torment.

“Hero to us all.”

“While ours was pouting in his tent”

“Only he answered his brother’s call.”

So Achilles went

To challenge the horse trainer Hector.

“No prayers from you to me.”

He said as he desecrated his body.

Achilles dragged Hector across Illium’s great plain

Never once to let up

Priam’s pleading went unheard

So the gods had to intervene.

Achilles relented.

They had their funeral pyre.

It was an arrow from the Trojan prince’s hand

That helped him follow Hector down to that god-forsaken land.

A crafty island king and his wooden horse

Brought the city’s final end.

39. Hellen and Paris

Love be now your song, immortal one,
For now the war is over.
What once was love
Became the war of ages.
What once was war
Became peaceful ruined silence.
Among Schliemann’s tel
Sprang forth stories like weeds.
Tales of great adventurers
Who scaled those Cyclopian walls
And brought Troy to its knees.
A fair young maiden
Was the start of this great tragedy.
All for the love of a shepherd prince.
This maiden of the tripod city
Was called the fairest of the land.
Her beauty gave her great fame
And suitors came far and wide
To give her their name.
The shepherd prince chose Love
Over gray eyed intelligence and the bright arms of conquest.
He that gave the golden apple bending to Discord’s secret wish.
Bringing to his country
The invasion of a thousand ships.