The Libation Bearers

[Greek and Trojan women come to tend the grave of Agamemnon, the victorious leader of the Greeks against Troy. This is an excerpt slightly adapted from Agamemnon Must Die, Createspace, Kindle, and Smashwords, 2014. See tab for BOOKS on this site. I offer this here to give some of my attempts at poetry an airing.]

 [Bust of Aeschylus who lived in the 6th century B. C., probably from the 4th century B.C. Downloaded from Wikimedia Commons.]

We hail and laud thee, O Agamemnon, king of men.

You who returned victorious from your mighty labors

On the broad plains of Troy as you did from

Your many expeditions to establish

The will of Zeus throughout this land.

O king, we have faithfully maintained your shrine,

As enjoined by Lord Aigisthos and his Lady Clytemnestra.

At every new moon, we have come

To honor your memory with fresh libations,

To sweeten the air with boughs of laurel,

And to sweep away grime and filth, from man or beast,

Or from the wind and the weather, that should foul your memorial

Or tarnish your memory.

We implore you to keep the city safe and the plains fertile!

We beseech you to guard over us against pestilence,

As well as hostile swords and spears.

We pray peace be with your spirit for you have

Made all who live in the Argolid proud.

Hail Agamemnon, king of men!

[The Greek mourners.]

Ou-ai, listen also to our woe for our grief overflows.

We, whose fathers, husbands, lovers, and brothers followed you;

We, who have waited in vain for their return.

Our number is great; those here are but the few

Who have sought the protection of the palace

From hunger and homelessness. No one can protect us

From the gnawing pain of sorrow and loss.

It is not greater than those of our number

Who enjoy the comfort of remaining family.

They suffer still from the anguish of their loss.

But our eyes have grown dim from the tears we have shed.

Our voices have become hoarse from the cries we have raised.

Our hearts have dried up with our hopes and love.

Only these shells remain: bereft, benighted, beyond hope.

Are our fathers, husbands, lovers, and brothers with you?

Do they do you honor as we do? As we must, by command

Of our lord and our lady?

They followed you gladly for love of their king;

We beseech you to share with them the libations we have brought.

[The Trojan mourners.]

Ou-ai, ou-ai, hear us, most fearful king of men,

You who led those myriad ships and men against us.

Foolish Paris gave you your moment and you grasped it.

Hector and Priam loved him too dearly to abandon him.

To what end? Ou-ai, to what end?

Those we loved most dearly, our fathers, husbands, lovers, and brothers—

All fell before your swords and flames.

They made you pay dearly, they did.

Us, you and your men gathered as trophies and war brides.

Fully half of us could not bear the thought of such fate.

They embraced us, then threw themselves

Into Poseidon’s watery clutch.

Fully half of those left among us were sick and lost at sea,

Joining their captors in that briny sepulcher.

Yet another half of those who arrived here

Have since succumbed to taunts, torment, and terror

As prisoners of war. We remain,

We do not deserve better. We have seen how

Those captured before Priam’s walls have fared.

We know the cruelties that Troy visited on those who

Fell into its snares or yielded to its armies.

We who are left of your trophies and able still to walk

Have joined in pouring the libations to you,

King of men, to join in your sorrow

And share in your grief. Know this, that the libations we poured

For you, we have poured also for ourselves.

Ou-ai, ou-ai!

[The image of the vase decorated with a scene from the Oresteia is that of an Italian archaeological find from the 3rd century B. C. downloaded from Wikimedia Commons. The last image is that of the cover of Agamemnon Must Die, 2014. Neither this blog extract nor anything in Agamemnon is translated from Aeschylus' Oresteia. I have used the non-prose form to approximate the "Greek chorus" and given such content as I have felt best conveys what its "message" might be in today's vernacular. Comments invited.]

The Dragon Boat Festival

The Northern California International Dragon Boat Festival will celebrate this event in 2017 in September with races on Lake Merritt. In China, the People's Republic has declared May 30 to be a national holiday in 2017. (It has recognized this old but popular folk celebration only since 2008.)

In the Chinese calendar, the festival falls on the fifth day of the fifth month. Hence the festival is sometimes referred to as the "Double Fifth" similar to the celebration of the tenth day of the tenth month as the "Double Tenth" (the day commemorating the end of dynastic rule in China). This is celebrated much more in Taiwan than on the mainland as the ROC has claimed the mantle of Chinese Nationalism despite having lost the civil war. [The painting on the left dates from the eighteenth century and has been downloaded from a Wikipedia article about this festival.]

The dragon boat festival has been associated most frequently with the action of Qu Yuan, a poet and a minister in one of the seven warring states prior to the unification of China by the Qin (late in the third century B.C.). Qu Yuan had opposed a proposed merger of his home state with Qin and when he was dismissed, committed suicide by jumping into the river. It is said that the people of his state tried to save his body for proper burial by roiling the water of the river to distract the fish from feeding on it. Another servant of this state, Wu Zixu, is also said to have died on the same date, thus strengthening tradition regarding the celebration. Indeed, a third death on this date is said to have contributed as well. Cao E, a young woman's whose father had fallen into the river, searched for his body until both were found several days later, an act of filial piety by a daughter. The first two deaths were recorded in Sima Qian's classic history as both exemplified loyalty, a Confucian virtue (though their causes were hopeless).

[More recently, the festival achieved the status of a Google doodle.]

Many other folk beliefs have contributed to this early summer event. These have contributed folklore regarding luck to be earned by balancing an egg on its end and defense against illness by wearing herbs in pouches. Realgar wine was valued for its power to ward off evil as well as disease. It is probably an acquired taste.

Many Chinese folktales include references to this festival including the Legend of the White Snake, said to be one of the "China's Four Great Folk Tales." This folktale has several forms, briefly summarized in a Wikipedia article linked. The story has been brought to American theater most notably by Mary Zimmerman in New York City in 2013, see review in the New York Times, linked.

It would be a shame not to mention that the Dragon Boat Festival is a special occasion - as if one is needed - for special dumplings (glutinous rice with sweet and savory fillings, see image picked at random from very many on the Internet).