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Authors: Anne Carson

Tags: #Literary, #Canadian, #Poetry, #Fiction

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BOOK: The Autobiography of Red
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RED MEAT:
FRAGMENTS OF STESICHOROS
 
 
I. GERYON
 

Geryon was a monster everything about him was red

 

Put his snout out of the covers in the morning it was red

 

How stiff the red landscape where his cattle scraped against

 

Their hobbles in the red wind

 

Burrowed himself down in the red dawn jelly of Geryon’s

 

Dream

 
 

Geryon’s dream began red then slipped out of the vat and ran

 

Upsail broke silver shot up through his roots like a pup

 
 

Secret pup At the front end of another red day

 
 
II. MEANWHILE HE CAME
 

Across the salt knobs it was Him

 

Knew about the homegold

 

Had sighted red smoke above the red spires

 
 
III. GERYON’S PARENTS
 

If you persist in wearing your mask at the supper table

 

Well Goodnight Then they said and drove him up

 

Those hemorrhaging stairs to the hot dry Arms

 

To the ticking red taxi of the incubus

 

Don’t want to go want to stay Downstairs and read

 
 
IV. GERYON’S DEATH BEGINS
 

Geryon walked the red length of his mind and answered No

 

It was murder And torn to see the cattle lay

 

All these darlings said Geryon And now me

 
 
V. GERYON’S REVERSIBLE DESTINY
 

His mother saw it mothers are like that

 

Trust me she said Engineer of his softness

 

You don’t have to make up your mind right away

 

Behind her red right cheek Geryon could see

 

Coil of the hot plate starting to glow

 
 
VI. MEANWHILE IN HEAVEN
 

Athena was looking down through the floor

 

Of the glass-bottomed boat Athena pointed

 

Zeus looked
Him

 
 
VII. GERYON’S WEEKEND
 

Later well later they left the bar went back to the centaur’s

 

Place the centaur had a cup made out of a skull Holding three

 

Measures of wine Holding it he drank Come over here you can

 

Bring your drink if you’re afraid to come alone The centaur

 

Patted the sofa beside him Reddish yellow small alive animal

 

Not a bee moved up Geryon’s spine on the inside

 
 
VIII. GERYON’S FATHER
 

A quiet root may know how to holler He liked to

 

Suck words Here is an almighty one he would say

 

After days of standing in the doorway

 

NIGHTBOLLSNORTED

 
 
IX. GERYON’S WAR RECORD
 

Geryon lay on the ground covering his ears The sound

 

Of the horses like roses being burned alive

 
 
X. SCHOOLING
 

In those days the police were weak Family was strong

 

Hand in hand the first day Geryon’s mother took him to

 

School She neatened his little red wings and pushed him

 

In through the door

 
 
XI. RIGHT
 

Are there many little boys who think they are a

 

Monster? But in my case I am right said Geryon to the

 

Dog they were sitting on the bluffs The dog regarded him

 

Joyfully

 
 
XII. WINGS
 

Steps off a scraped March sky and sinks

 

Up into the blind Atlantic morning One small

 

Red dog jumping across the beach miles below

 

Like a freed shadow

 
 
XIII. HERAKLES’ KILLING CLUB
 

Little red dog did not see it he felt it All

 

Events carry but one

 
 
XIV. HERAKLES’ ARROW
 

Arrow means kill It parted Geryon’s skull like a comb Made

 

The boy neck lean At an odd slow angle sideways as when a

 

Poppy shames itself in a whip of Nude breeze

 
 
XV. TOTAL THINGS KNOWN ABOUT GERYON
 

He loved lightning He lived on an island His mother was a

 

Nymph of a river that ran to the sea His father was a gold

 

Cutting tool Old scholia say that Stesichoros says that

 

Geryon had six hands and six feet and wings He was red and

 

His strange red cattle excited envy Herakles came and

 

Killed him for his cattle

 
 

The dog too

 
 
XVI. GERYON’S END
 

The red world And corresponding red breezes

 

Went on Geryon did not

 
 
APPENDIX A
 
 
TESTIMONIA
ON THE QUESTION OF
STESICHOROS’ BLINDING
BY HELEN
 

Suidas s.v.
palinodia:
“Counter song” or “saying the opposite of what you said before.” E.g., for writing abuse of Helen Stesichoros was struck blind but then he wrote for her an encomium and got his sight back. The encomium came out of a dream and is called “The Palinode.”

Isokrates
Helen
64: Looking to demonstrate her own power Helen made an object lesson of the poet Stesichoros. For the fact is he began his poem “Helen” with a bit of blasphemy. Then when he stood up he found he’d been robbed of his eyes. Straightaway realizing why, he composed the so-called “Palinode” and Helen restored him to his own nature.

Plato
Phaedrus
243a: There is in mythology an ancient tactic of purgation for criminals, which Homer did not understand but Stesichoros did. When Stesichoros found himself blinded for slandering Helen he did not (like Homer) just stand there bewildered—no! on the contrary. Stesichoros was an intellectual. He recognized the cause and at once sat down to compose [his “Palinode”] ….

APPENDIX B
 
 
THE PALINODE
OF
STESICHOROS
BY
STESICHOROS
(FRAGMENT
192
POETAE MELICI
GRAECI
)
 

No it is not the true story.

 

No you never went on the benched ships.

 

No you never came to the towers of Troy.

 
 
APPENDIX C
 
 
CLEARING UP
THE QUESTION OF
STESICHOROS’ BLINDING
BY HELEN
 

  1.  Either Stesichoros was a blind man or he was not.

  2.  If Stesichoros was a blind man either his blindness was a temporary condition or it was permanent.

  3.  If Stesichoros’ blindness was a temporary condition this condition either had a contingent cause or it had none.

  4.  If this condition had a contingent cause that cause was Helen or the cause was not Helen.

  5.  If the cause was Helen Helen had her reasons or she had none.

  6.  If Helen had her reasons the reasons arose out of some remark Stesichoros made or they did not.

  7.  
If Helen’s reasons arose out of some remark Stesichoros made either it was a strong remark about Helen’s sexual misconduct (not to say its unsavory aftermath the Fall of Troy) or it was not.

  8.  If it was a strong remark about Helen’s sexual misconduct (not to say its unsavory aftermath the Fall of Troy) either this remark was a lie or it was not.

  9.  If it was not a lie either we are now in reverse and by continuing to reason in this way are likely to arrive back at the beginning of the question of the blinding of Stesichoros or we are not.

10.  If we are now in reverse and by continuing to reason in this way are likely to arrive back at the beginning of the question of the blinding of Stesichoros either we will go along without incident or we will meet Stesichoros on our way back.

11.  If we meet Stesichoros on our way back either we will keep quiet or we will look him in the eye and ask him what he thinks of Helen.

12.  If we look Stesichoros in the eye and ask him what he thinks of Helen either he will tell the truth or he will lie.

13.  If Stesichoros lies either we will know at once that he is lying or we will be fooled because now that we are in reverse the whole landscape looks inside out.

14.  
If we are fooled because now that we are in reverse the whole landscape looks inside out either we will find that we do not have a single penny on us or we will call Helen up and tell her the good news.

15.  If we call Helen up either she will sit with her glass of vermouth and let it ring or she will answer.

16.  If she answers either we will (as they say) leave well enough alone or we will put Stesichoros on.

17.  If we put Stesichoros on either he will contend that he now sees more clearly than ever before the truth about her whoring or he will admit he is a liar.

18.  If Stesichoros admits he is a liar either we will melt into the crowd or we will stay to see how Helen reacts.

19.  If we stay to see how Helen reacts either we will find ourselves pleasantly surprised by her dialectical abilities or we will be taken downtown by the police for questioning.

20.  If we are taken downtown by the police for questioning either we will be expected (as eyewitnesses) to clear up once and for all the question whether Stesichoros was a blind man or not.

21.  If Stesichoros was a blind man either we will lie or if not not.

BOOK: The Autobiography of Red
2.78Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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