Steepholm's Dream Diary: 21

[steepholm]

I am explaining the plot of The Iliad to my daughter. As I tell it, it's a poem of two halves. In the first, Achilles kills Hector. But then, in a change to our scheduled programming, the second half turns out to be about Agamemnon ordering Patroclus to kill Achilles in revenge. (I know, I know.) Patroclus isn't happy about his commission, and appeals to the gods, but Agamemnon points out that as Patroclus's king it's up to him what orders he gives. As he puts it later (and for some reason I'm now reading this in a book):

This stonied them, for well they knew
I was his king, by descent as trew
As theirs from th'Ash Tree.*

The next two books of the poem are devoted, I explain apologetically, to a lengthy description of Patroclus putting on his armour. Eventually, however, the two heroes fight, in what seems to be (and here I slip into movie mode) a vegetable market. There is much spilling of tomatoes and many topless towers of apples kiss their feet. In the end, Achilles has Patroclus at his mercy, but realises that in giving him the lethal blow he will inevitably destroy a very fine marrow. His hesitation is momentary, but fatal.

I realise that this whole narration has been overheard by a woman, who is looking at me sceptically, but with amused tolerance. I think it is my daughter's piano teacher.

* Yes, wrong mythology I know, but I'm actually very proud of my id for coming up with this, and happy to forgive it for yesterday's nightmare. What Shakespeare had Ulysses say about degree in thirty lines or so, this packs into two and half tetrameters, innit?

Comments

[nineweaving.livejournal.com]

...and many topless towers of apples...

Your id rocks.

Those two and half tetrameters (and the marrow) are magnificent.

Nine

[kalypso-v.livejournal.com]

Agamemnon ordering Patroclus to kill Achilles in revenge.

Oh dear. Couldn't Patroclus kill Agamemnon? After all, Achilles was his king by then, I suppose, though he originally came from somewhere else, didn't he, and had to leave in a hurry after accidentally killing another child in a squabble... actually, that could make a good plot, if somehow the childhood murder were used to force his hand.

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

I'm afraid my dreams come with no guarantee of mythological accuracy! For the purposes of the war Agamemnon was commander-in-chief, at least, but no doubt there would have been much murmuring among the Myrmidons had the episode actually worked out that way.

Then again there are other mythological tales of best friends being forced to fight which probably flavoured it. Ferdiad and Cúchulainn were in there somewhere, I suspect.

[kalypso-v.livejournal.com]

I'm sure Homer would have been deeply impressed by the marrow, though.

I dreamed that the West Wing Democrats were voted out of the White House, and Donna cheered up Josh by taking him to his favourite bookshop where he discovered that the political section had been reorganised using different shelves, thus uncovering a long high window, letting much more light into the room. I can see where the bookshelves came from - my own recent reorganisation - but am not sure how Josh got into it.