Penelope and Ulysses Page 7

  As soon as they fall I can replace them.

  They mean nothing to me.

  I do not know them or their mother:

  one soldier resembles the other.

  They do not question

  and they are happy in their ignorance.

  Common man does not think.

  The ordinary man does not see beyond his backyard.

  His nature is cowardly and weak.

  That is why he obeys and is told what to do,

  told how to think

  and told who to kill.

  The common man obeys and follows!

  Offer them

  the gods’ approval,

  the force of an army,

  and the miracle and promise of a better life,

  to be sealed with the promise

  that the gods will bless them

  with an afterlife,

  if they die for our cause.

  They wear the yoke of service and obedience

  like the dumb ox.

  They don’t think.

  They are content to be rewarded with a little food,

  little ambition, little houses,

  and a little sex.

  Could you imagine having a little of anything,

  especially a little sex?

  What is the matter, Ulysses?

  Do you disapprove?

  Has wifely sex made you impotent in ambition and war?

  I have not known you to be a common man, an ordinary man.

  I have seen you disobey and rage, plan,

  and murder children in front of their fathers

  and women in front of their husbands.

  You had a heart of stone.

  ULYSSES: I am lost, Agamemnon.

  Did I really do those things?

  Did my hands murder children and women?

  AGAMEMNON: This must be a strange humour

  that has fallen upon you.

  It must be because you have stayed

  with the same woman for too long.

  You are vital to me in this war against Troy.

  You think, question, and probe,

  as you are aware. Your intellect and craft

  in manipulating human nature is rare,

  and that is why you are my most important advisor.

  I do not have clever advisors.

  I need your intellectual planning,

  your precision in measuring danger

  and working with it, to achieve our victory,

  at any cost

  to our men, to our enemy.

  You have always in the past

  proven yourself to be clever.

  We call you “The Fox” in war.

  You know how to read human nature

  and outwit all of them.

  You plan and organise,

  and you know the weakness of the enemy.

  You know the weakness in the strongest enemy.

  You set traps in persuasion or gifts

  and they fall onto your sword,

  thinking you are different from me!

  That always makes me laugh—

  when I see the dying eyes of those you have tricked

  into believing your sophistry or accepting your dangerous gifts.

  I do enjoy that moment.

  It has a triple climax for me:

  they realise they are dying

  and there is nothing they can do,

  they realise they have been betrayed,

  and finally, in their dying breath,

  they are aware that all their family will also die.

  ULYSSES: You fascinate me and disturb me

  and you think too much

  of my clever ways.

  When you and I were in battles together

  I was younger and did not measure danger.

  Instead I took it on,

  and by chance and luck

  I managed to remain alive,

  and by manipulation and cunning

  I managed to slaughter many.

  By chance and luck

  the enemy made the mistake of believing me.

  It wasn’t because I can read human nature;

  it was chance and luck.

  Fear makes men believe in the devil.

  If they believe they will be spared;

  there was no great strategy there—

  only deception.

  AGAMEMNON: You have grown humble in your old age, my old friend.

  ULYSSES: Winning a war or losing it

  depends on arriving in the night,

  pretending to be someone you are not,

  gaining their confidence,

  infiltrating and causing conflict within the community,

  and attacking a country that does not have

  the military might we have.

  And if we can’t do it that way?

  We will offer them gifts

  and in the night we will murder all that sleep,

  thinking that the danger has passed.

  AGAMEMNON: I have won all my wars.

  ULYSSES: We have always won

  because we are always planning wars.

  Even in peace we are planning against our neighbours.

  We lived all the diplomatic displays of peace

  while we planned legally,

  ways to net and occupy the lands of others.

  This takes a certain type of methodical

  and organised cleverness,

  a certain corruptive banal evil.

  It doesn’t look evil, but it is,

  for it destroys the lives of many

  for the profit of a few.

  We managed to catch the enemy sleeping,

  unguarded and unprotected,

  and his women and children sleeping—

  so warm, so fresh, so sweet.

  They never woke up

  with our swords piercing their hearts,

  and in that sleep

  they must have thought

  they were having a nightmare,

  with death,

  a nightmare they never woke up from.

  AGAMEMNON: I remember how I cut them from their lives,

  both women and children as they slept.

  We murdered all the “pretty ones.”28

  ULYSSES: War is about killing.

  How smart do you have to be to kill?

  AGAMEMNON: You don’t have to be smart to kill,

  but you do have to be smart

  to get a whole country to follow your orders to kill,

  to kill men that they have not met,

  men who have never harmed them,

  men just like them, with children and families.

  Now you will have to agree

  that getting a whole country to kill for you

  is a task that requires a man

  who has surpassed the needs and appetites of the ordinary man.

  It takes a certain type of will

  that is not in sympathy with humanity,

  a certain type of heart that needs to be stone,

  and a certain type of courage

  shown in willingness to kill his own daughter

  to achieve more lands for his country.

  I am such a man.

  I have no remorse or regret.

  I am of the strongest of men,

  the most noble and the most respected of men.

  We are the protectors of civilisation and democracy. />
  ULYSSES: We civilised men

  depend on the fear of others.

  We implant fear in our own and in our enemy.

  They respect and obey us out of fear:

  the fear of what we might do to them if they do not obey,

  the fear of what we might do their wives and children.

  Their respect and obedience is based in fear.

  We have the military might.

  We have the persuasive arguments and rhetoric.

  We have the winner’s history.

  We have no opposing voices.

  AGAMEMNON: Why, if we did not have men such as these,

  we would be overrun by the hordes

  of uncivilised barbarians

  destroying the order and balance

  that we have had handed down

  from our forefathers.

  The order and balance

  that we have worked too hard to maintain.

  I want you to accompany me and my army to Troy.

  My brother’s wife, Helen, has been abducted

  from her home and taken by Paris to Troy.

  My brother’s heart is broken by the loss

  of his most loved and faithful wife.

  Helen was taken without her consent.

  A free woman, a faithful and loving wife

  was taken by force.

  What type of man would I be

  if I did not want to storm Troy

  and release her from this barbaric captivity?

  Today it is Helen;

  tomorrow it may be our wives that these barbarians

  can come, rape, and abduct from us.

  ULYSSES: And you will storm Troy! What have you done to prevent this bloodshed?

  AGAMEMNON: How could we ever be called free men,

  defenders of reason and democracy,

  if we cannot bring freedom

  to the oppressed and imprisoned?

  What type of men are we if we cannot free one of our women?

  And since you already speak as a wise man,

  a philosopher, then you clearly understand

  that I have no other choice.

  I have tried political negotiating with them,

  but it has not worked. They are barbarians.

  The Trojans have left me with no other choice

  than to go and bring Helen back

  to her husband and people.

  I have sent messages to King Priam

  asking for the release of Helen

  but the messengers have not returned.

  It is obvious that these poor wretches

  have been killed for taking a message

  of Reason and Concern

  to the barbarian king.

  We have no other choice.

  We are going to Troy to bring back Helen.

  Think how terrible it would be for her,

  for she is a woman of virtue and faithfulness

  to her husband, my brother.

  Think how vile her life must be

  among those barbarians

  that look upon her as their whore,

  and Paris, who forced and forces himself upon her.

  It is too violent to think about.

  Woman is meant to be protected,

  not brutalised and dehumanised

  through submission and rape.

  We are civilised men.

  Women are important in my life and kingdom.

  They all have a purpose,

  and I will not allow such a brutal crime

  as to steal one of our women.

  What type of men would we be

  if we allowed others to steal

  what belongs to us?

  What type of message would we

  be sending to others?

  ULYSSES: My messengers have told me

  that Helen fell in love with Paris,

  for they say that he is young and handsome,

  has a young and strong body

  and is a Prince in his own right,

  with influence and knowledge.

  They say he is educated.

  If that is the case, there is no kidnapping

  or a victim to be rescued,

  is there?

  AGAMEMNON: My poor brother Menelaus is heartbroken.

  He cannot eat or drink.

  He wants his faithful and beloved wife back.

  It is important to get Helen back

  for he has become a laughing stock.

  Among our men, he is known as “a cuckold.”

  It is important to our honour

  that we be given the satisfaction

  of revenge and retribution for this crime.

  ULYSSES: Since when has it been a crime to love?

  Since when has it been criminal

  for a wife to fall out of love

  with her older husband

  and lust for a younger and wealthier man?

  Helen lusted for Paris’s body and wealth

  and from what I hear,

  he could have had any woman in either kingdom,

  without abducting or forcing himself upon her.

  Let me get this right:

  Are you saying to me that this war on Troy

  is a war for justice and the liberation of Helen?

  Are you saying that this war must happen

  so that we can correct this evil?

  Are you saying that Paris has brought

  destruction to your home

  and that so many thousands of men

  on both sides need to be involved in this war

  so that you and your brother do not lose your honour?

  But that is not the truth, is it?

  That is the emotional lie that you have given

  as truth to the ordinary man,

  the emotional truth that an enemy has taken one

  of our women, and therefore no woman is safe.

  The emotional truth that we as “civilised” men

  must and need to bring justice to this injustice.

  Or is the truth that Troy is a wonderful and rich land

  to conquer?

  Or do we need to conquer

  so that we burn the truth?

  And in these fires from hell

  we will sacrifice many, many men

  from both our army and the army of Troy.

  AGAMEMNON: I thought I could appeal

  to your sense of liberating a victim,

  liberating one of our women,

  to your sense of honour and duty

  as an educated and civilised man.

  I do not need to defend myself.

  I do not need to explain myself to you.

  It is my family and country

  that has been violated.

  I do not need to give you or any man

  explanations, reasons, or excuses,

  for I have might on my side.

  And with might

  I can shape, transform, or alter the truth.

  ULYSSES: You have not changed, Agamemnon.

  You have twisted and turned the facts

  to fit your ambitions and agenda,

  to accumulate more lands.

  You have corrupted the truth

  and turned night into day

  and day into night

  by telling others

  that this war is to liberate,

  this war is to stop this injustice,

  this war we mus
t have.

  AGAMEMNON: I have the honour of my house and country

  to uphold. This war

  will make things right again.

  will bring justice and retribution

  to the innocent and the guilty.

  These Trojan barbarians will never again

  bring harm or threat to the world of civilised man.

  I will not wait for this crime

  to dissolve or to be forgotten.

  I will not forgive or forget.

  Troy will burn!

  I will not wait for Paris to come with his armies

  and take my home and country from me.

  I believe we are in danger

  of invasion from these barbarians,

  and our world of reason and civilisation

  will flicker and die out, if we do not act,

  if we do not invade them before they invade us.

  The element of surprise will work for us:

  we will net and kill them while they sleep.

  We must protect our people and our world,

  and therefore I will need all my good advisors

  to assist me with this invasion.

  ULYSSES: You do know what you are doing.

  How could you not know?

  For you have planned and convinced

  the army and the population

  that this war that we must have

  is for a noble reason,

  for justice,

  for the fear of being invaded by Troy,

  and for the promotion and spread of civilisation.

  You have convinced the army

  that this war is noble and is blessed by the gods.

  I mean, look at you, you love your country so much

  that no sacrifice is too small or too great for you:

  to even put your blade through your daughter’s heart

  to justify your actions to your gods,

  to convince the army,

  to make them believe in your greatness

  and love for your country.

  That you would even sacrifice

  your own daughter for this cause!

  The cause of justice and the spread of our civilisation!

  This war is not about Helen.

  She is no one of importance to you, or your brother.

  She may have hurt your brother’s vanity

  by leaving with a beautiful young man,

  but this war is not about Helen.

  She is only the scapegoat for something bigger,

  sinister and darker.

  You are not going to war

  for our country and the spread of our civilisation,

  You are going to war for the pillage of Troy

  and her riches.

  This is about genocide,

  for no one will live in Troy again

  once we start the fires of war.