The Odyssey

What started of as an attempt to read James Joyce's Ulysses ended in me reading "The Odyssey" in all its glory( a translation of course). Although evolutionary psychologists want to pen down everything we do or every behavioural pattern we show on our need to survive, to be the fittest, works like these tell you that things weren't always the same as they are now. Even if we give in to the idea that mythological epics like these and more(read: mahabharata, ramayana...) are mere fiction or perhaps allegorical ellipses, even a fictional work tells one a lot about the social attitudes in existence in those times.


Aside : Am I the only one who dreams (or is it has nightmares) dreams that belong not to me but to the characters and to the plot in the book that I've just read and enjoyed(or in some cases reading and enjoying)?

Tales of Brave Ulysses

You thought the leaden winter would bring you down forever,
But you rode upon a steamer to the violence of the sun.

And the colors of the sea blind your eyes with trembling mermaids,
And you touch the distant beaches with tales of brave Ulysses:
How his naked ears were tortured by the sirens sweetly singing,
For the sparkling waves are calling you to kiss their white laced lips.

And you see a girl's brown body dancing through the turquoise,
And her footprints make you follow where the sky loves the sea.
And when your fingers find her, she drowns you in her body,
Carving deep blue ripples in the tissues of your mind.

The tiny purple fishes run laughing through your fingers,
And you want to take her with you to the hard land of the winter.

Her name is Aphrodite and she rides a crimson shell,
And you know you cannot leave her for you touched the distant sands
With tales of brave Ulysses; how his naked ears were tortured
By the sirens sweetly singing.

The tiny purple fishes run lauging through your fingers,
And you want to take her with you to the hard land of the winter

-Cream