Sunday, February 24, 2008

The Songs of Demodocus


So the king, Alcinous, had an assembly with the counselors. There had been talk about me around the island I was told and Alcinous had rounded up the men to ask if his guest, me, could use one of their ships to make my journey back home. The council thankfully approved of this and in my honor, Alcinous had a feast with games afterwards. I was very excited to know I would have my ship and then to go have a lovely feast with a little friendly competition afterwards. During the feast, Demodocus began to sing of the hard times between Achilles and myself. Everyone else seemed to enjoy this but me. I broke down at once with the horrible memories of this that haunt me. Alcinous saw me break down and stopped the singing and started the game portion of the celebration. I saw this compassion from him and it helped me settle down but still those memories being surfaced brings up a lot of emotions that I have been pushing down and hiding from everyone and myself. Sometimes, you just need something to remind you what you are really feeling so you can feel it. The song reminded me that I need to greeve and remember what happened during the war no matter how painful it may be. Still, I was in no mood to play games with the other athletes. Broadsea, one of the athletes, insulted me and gave me this fire to compete with them. After winning some events I started to get a little cocky and I challenged a group of athletes to some friendly competition which led to a little argument between us. Alcinous ended it though by suggesting that we all have another feast. They were all so entertaining to me and Demodocus sang another song about Aphrodite and Ares which wasn't upsetting like the last song had been. After the feast everyone was so kind and all gave me gifts to help me with my journey. Then I asked Demodocus to sing me a song about the Trojan horse. Again I broke down and Alcinous noticed and approached me about it. He asked me who I am, where I'm from and where am I going.

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