REPETITIONS, SECOND SERIES
The End of Theseus
Returning from his last deed, his greatest deed, his descend
to Hades —
no one welcomed him in the roads of Athens, as it was
customary
and as he expected. Mnistheas (long as the hero was away
glorifying his motherland)
managed with promises, flatteries, with popular demagogue
to turn the people against him.
And him, sad and pissed off
sent his two sons to Elphenor, king of Avanda, exiled too
and he ran to the village Gargitos, which since then they called
Aratirio
in other words place of worship. Then, unescorted, he went to
Skyros to meet his old friend Lycomedes, king of the Dolopians,
hoping to find a bit of hospitality and protection, to reclaim a few
fields that his father had left him.
He dreamed that there he’d
escape from useless concerns, the futility of glory, and the empty
words
the conniving, the double-faced people, the slander, working
the lands,
barefoot, with ripped undergarments (and this with plenty of
sadness for himself
and like revenge against something general and faceless).
He even imagined, with pleasure, during the summer noon,
that he’d moist his dry bread in a clear creek. And suddenly
he remembered: fresh, ripen, black figs and he felt his appetite
was aroused;
and perhaps he had a dog to keep him company. And the sparrows
picking the crumbs from around him. And when the evening star,
like a slivery drop, would come among the pine trees.
However
Lycomedes, say because of the fear of the Athenians, say
due to his personal hatred, led him to a high mountain,
supposedly to show him a few fields — “look how green
they are, how fertile — I looked after them for many years”
and there he pushed him down to his death.
Manolis Aligizakis 