Two Tales of Return

The absence of the dark knight didn’t go unnoticed. Questions were wandering in people’s minds as the quiet days passed after the sudden leave. Why did he resign from the sacred game? Was he defeated by the villains he sworn to battle or has he surrendered to the enemy within? Little was known about the dark knight’s true intentions owing to his reclusive nature, yet life moved on in the peaceful city. After all, one can care so much to find answers for problems which are not theirs, just like the nearby river shifting tirelessly streams of water into the sea of indifference.

Once the dark knight appeared out of thin air, he shared the following with his fellow townsfolk: ”Heroes will always return, what matters is how. My dear friends, let me tell you two tales of return inspired from Greek mythology. The first is of Agamemnon, king of Mycenae, when he emerged victorious from the Trojan War. Agamemnon was a man of great pride and obstinacy, a bold warrior who wouldn’t hesitate to sacrifice anything, even his daughter Iphigenia, for the sake of the mission. He fiercely led the army of all-Greek  alliance in front of the bewildering walls of Troy. However, his demise did not start until overwhelmed by insidious power he disrespected an enemy’s pleading priest and the bravest of his combatants, Achilles. As soon as the besieging was over, he headed back to his kingdom bringing along the same arrogance of a ferocious conqueror under his lavish cape. The oblivious Agamemnon expected to be lauded for his military achievements but failed to realize something more crucial, he won the war at the cost of losing his people, his family, the very ideals he fought for. He ended up slain without any remorse by a conspiracy of his vengeful wife and her lover. Thus, his ruthless reign was forever gone instigating a series of other tragedies.

“There is now a second tale of Odysseus, king of Ithaca, who happened to be one of Agamemnon’s generals, who also took part on the Trojan war and in fact it was due to his masterful plan, a hollow wooden horse, that Troy eventually fell. Odysseus was of course not an impeccable character. Although most of the times composed, moderate and shrewd, a moment of anger costed him years of torture when he blinded a cyclops in order to escape from his cave. Inflicted by the wrath of cyclops’ father, god Poseidon, Odysseus was dragged on a long, dreadful journey which left him exiled without his crew on a mythical island desolate and desperate. The gods intervened once again deeming his punishment sufficient enough and set him free to fulfill his return. The was one last catch, the connived suitors of his wife Penelope had been established at his palace disgracing his legacy and plotting kill his son Telemachus. Unlike Agamemnon, the thinking Odysseus did not enter the royal gates as an vacuous champion, he rather decided to disguise himself as a weary, old beggar unbeknownst to everyone expect for his son. Together they trapped the suitors and slain them one by one along with the treacherous servants“.

Thick silence stifled the room when the dark knight finished his narration. People were squirming since they had observed his tattered clothes which eerily resembled that of a vagabond while dense clouds surrounded Tomkins County, Ithaca NY. The dark knight then concluded: ”My dear friends, as you can see the burning question is not why a hero returns, it is how. And perhaps why did the noble Odysseus show no mercy upon arrival. Happy Halloween!”.

Α.Δ.