phyllostachys fourteen: Fathers Day

I was hard at work yesterday morning...when my wife came in and said "What are you doing???!!! You said you'd be out cutting the lawn!!!" Well, back into the doghouse! :-)

What I was doing was attempting to put together appropriate music (in GarageBand) for one of the oldest and most eventful father's day stories of all time: the homecoming of Odysseus, who hadn't seen his wife Penelope and son Telemachos for nearly 20 years (10 years for the Trojan War, 10 years for the trip home). There are scads of references to fathers in the Odyssey: Zeus is a Father, Odysseus has a father, Telemachos has a father, Polyphemus the cyclops has a father (Poseidon [or Neptune, depending on a Hellenic or Roman bent of the translator], who causes so many travails for Odysseus), and each of the Greek kings reference their fathers (kings of Sparta and Pylos, where Telemachos travels in the first book of the Odyssey).

It's really almost too much for an aspiring bard to comprehend! So, what follows are the lines I've adapted for a later-to-be released musical compilation (there are arguably more appropriate lines...further re-reading will bring those to light).

Since I could not finish the musical masterpiece for your listening pleasure....I dissuaded my young son from watching a movie, took him with me while I went up to take a shower, and proceeded to tell him the short version of the trials of Odysseus:

-- of Telemachos' travels to Sparta and Pylos for news of his father,
-- of Odysseus' homecoming (on Fathers Day, of course),
-- of how he identified himself definitively to his wife Penelope (the construction of their bridal bed, and the stringing of his hunting bow),
-- and of how he, Telemachos, Athena (in earthly garb) and several helpers dusted off the scores of suitors eating and drinking in the household that day.

Happy Fathers Day, Dads!

..phyllostachys.

Telemachos' Fathers Day:

"The gods were discussing
in the halls of Olympian Zeus,
the fate of Odysseus, of the tears of
his wife Penelope and his son Telemachos

The goddess, grey-eyed Athene, said to Zeus
"Father, son of Saturn, King of kings,
I will conduct Telemachos to Sparta and to Pylos,
to see if he can hear anything about the return
of his dear father --
for this will make people speak well of him."

"My mother," answered Telemachus, "tells me I am son to Odysseus,
but it is a wise child that knows his own father.
Would that I were son to one who had
grown old upon his own estates,
for, since you ask me, there is no more ill-starred man under heaven
than he who they tell me is my father."

"I will tell you the truth, my son," said Odysseus to his son. "It was
the Phaeacians who brought me here. They are great sailors, and
are in the habit of giving escorts to any one who reaches their
coasts. They took me over the wine-dark sea while I was fast asleep, and
landed me in Ithaca, after giving me many presents in bronze,
gold, and raiment."

http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext99/dyssy10.txt