Corpus Delicti* ©09/10/2010
"deed without a name" - McBeth
Once more… once more,
Unto the brink of death are we.
Wisdom has gone by the wayside,
For even great Pallas Athena
Finds reason alluding her.
War no longer honors its god,
And gone are its noble excuses.
Olympus darkens under the shadow
Of Apollo's mired sight.
Zeus, his beard grayed and sooted
From mankind's industrious advance,
Can feel law slip through his grasp.
Demeter's flesh rips with each field
Murdered by the soles of ignorant tramps.
Silent are the forges of Hephaestus,
Drowned out by the machine of man.
Pitiful are the scores of Ares,
Whose paltry offerings pale
Compared to the feast man
Sends to Hades' gluttonous gut,
Burgeoning with the souls of freshly slain.
Where it once brought honor,
War strips men of their pride,
Often rending soul from flesh
And leaving death inside a warm,
Still moving corpse, breathing
A rancid existence and confusing Clotho
With knots in the Tapestry of Life.
Hestia lies ravaged upon the hearth,
And home has vacated its post.
Once, the journey would end
With sanctuary and a prayer, but
Violence no longer knows bounds,
Seeping from battlefield, through innocence,
Until it taints even Poseidon's vast realm.
And where have the heroes vanished?
Their mantle lies abandoned, left
Only with fond dreams of Achilles,
Odysseus with his cunning wit long dead.
Hera mourns for the lost,
No heir arising to be championed.
Even Aphrodite has grown pale.
And I find my own realm faded:
The forests withered and minuscule.
I have retreated into the night.
Walking upon the cool face of the moon
I watch a plague which even I,
Artemis, cannot hope to control.
What has this blood bought us?
Is this the price we paid,
When we Olympians took our throne?
Did the damage to Gaea ever end?
Great-grandmother, you have been silent
Since your grief took hold of you.
When you fade from this sorrow…
Will you take us with you in death?
No answers come to me here,
As I look across great-grandmother's flesh
Of compressed earth and sea.
Perhaps we too have been dethroned,
Repeating the mistakes of the past.
But I know Kronos would sacrifice his rage
To rewind man to a compassionate age.
*corpus delicti – Latin translates as "body of crime", a term used for legality meaning a requirement to show proof of a crime having been committed, bringing to light "guilt"
A/N
Ok, well I've always been a fan of Greek Mythology... and I have never tried my hand at a dramatic monologue, so when I decided to do so I was greatly inspired by "Achilles' Shield" another poem/monologue. (good read, I do suggest it).
Anyhow, I've always enjoyed poetry and this style is really more story telling rather than just purely poetic... so I felt I could post it here. I have an entire storyline that this monologue could go with, but I don't really have the time to do much more than outline it (which I have started doing), so don't expect anything more than this for the time being.
I want to point out a few things before I leave:
First, nearly every one of the Olympians are represented here... Save for Dyonisis. I think that in this world the god of rage, wine, and revelry would still be getting quite a few "unknowning" patron.
Second, the "deed without a name" is actually from the scene in McBeth with the witches, and it refers to witchcraft in that play; however, the reason they speak of it as the "deed without a name" is so that they do not have to admit guilt. IF they don't call it witchcraft... you really can't just burn them without proving it, which is also the concept behind Corpus Delicti. I chose these references because I wanted to convey a sense of guilt, of Artemis trying to find out who was to blame for the world being the way it is? Was it mankind? Was it the Gods? It's a very interesting concept to me, to have a god evaluate herself.
Third, Gaea was the mother of all titans, which makes her the grandmother of Zeus... thus, most accurately that would make her Artemis' great-grandmother. Kronos was also the father of Zeus, whom Zeus had to defeat to gain his throne. (Just a little explanation for the final stanzas)
Anyhow, that's about all... I hope you enjoy it for what it is.
Sarai