by Zenovia
and you touch me.
PENELOPE: I would not touch you,
let alone play with you.
You do not understand.
It is not about sex,
it is about my mind, my heart, my spirit,
desire, passion, and vision,
my seeking, searching, longing.
My longing for Ulysses
and that he find his way home.
As for being alone, I sing to the sea,
and the sea carries the song to my husband.
The sea keeps my life afloat;
Therefore, we have an intimacy
that few would understand or want.
AGATHY: I have come at the right time in your life.
This morbid melancholy,
this foreign language that you speak,
this solitude that you live in,
it will drive you mad.
It will dry you up as a woman.
PENELOPE: You know nothing about women’s fluids,
and you are starting to make me angry.
AGATHY: My dear Penelope, to be a little wild is exciting,
but to be so unrestricted, unbridled,
and unharnessed is frightening.
You cannot live the rest of your life on the past.
I will not allow you.
PENELOPE: How can it be the past
when it prevents you from having what you want
in the present and the future?
How can it be the past
when every moment, every thought and action,
is alive and electric with the substance of Ulysses?
My lover is not of the past;
he is of the present and now
and I have the seeds of his soul and body
under my tongue and in the wilderness of my soul.
When I am surrounded by aloneness and darkness
I bite on these seeds from eternity
and I am no longer afraid or alone.
He is swimming in me.
He lives; he lives in me.
Are you so blinded
by your own ambitions and vanity
that you do not see Ulysses swimming in me?
How can that be the past?
He is in the heat of the moment,
he is in the fire of yesterday
and he is of the spark of tomorrow.
He is in front of me, preventing your claim on me.
He is behind me, preventing your betrayal of me.
He is inside me
and keeps me alive
and passionately in love.
AGATHY: When you speak like that, Penelope, you frighten me.
How will you ever settle
into a calm and domesticated relationship with me?
Let me help you and your son.
Real people do not love as you say.
These are poems from poets who make things up.
Such people have invented love
because the world is too barren and lonely for them.
They suffer from anomalies
because of the long hours and years in living alone.
I see you have been speaking
with the old men who dote on you.
I don’t know why they came here.
Maybe just to get away from family and relatives.
PENELOPE: Or demanding mistresses?
AGATHY: The old men.
Did they come here to seduce you or to nurse you?
What is it about you and older men?
The older they are, the more time you spend with them.
PENELOPE: They are impotent—or so they tell me.
What they lust for is prestige and power
rather than sexual satisfaction.
Do you think you will be saying that you are impotent
when you get to their age?
AGATHY: Never!
I suppose you are going to tell me
that one gains wisdom in life
when one can no longer light the fire of the body.
I think you are shrewd,
cunning, and clever,
and you have seduced
the only thing that still works—their minds.
PENELOPE: Well no one can accuse me
of seducing your mind.
It would mean that I would have to find it first.
AGATHY: Penelope. You do make me suffer.
But I think you enjoy the little suffering
and the little deaths that you inflict on me.
I am happy to suffer this for you,
for you will choose me in the end.
You will be pleading with me to help you.
PENELOPE: You don’t understand
that once you have experienced
this love from the absolute,
you can never be with anyone else.
To have experienced soul immortality,
the seed from eternity,
it is this that you and lover
are always connected to in absence.
Ulysses is here.
Can’t you see him in my eyes?
Can’t you see him on my body?
Can’t you hear him in my voice?
Ulysses is here because he has never left me.
When I sleep he is next to me,
when I awake he plays with me
and while I am talking to you
he is shaking his head and saying,
“Why are you wasting your time with such a fool?”
AGATHY: Penelope. Stop this madness.
You are not going to frighten me
with your ravings that Ulysses is here.
PENELOPE: How could you stand it
to want to be with me
when you know that I would only see Ulysses?
What type of man does that?
AGATHY: One who has weighed all the benefits and profits
from marrying the beautiful Penelope.
A sane man.
PENELOPE: Why have you decided
to settle for so little, Agathy?
The next question that follows this logic is:
how good are you sexually
when you are willing to settle with the fact
that Ulysses would be in your bed?
AGATHY: You go on and on, just like a woman
who has been given too much freedom
for your own good.
And you are constant
in your defiance and rejection of all
and run threads around the thinking of a simple man.
I can see by your smile that you think me simple?
I know this: that you will have to choose me.
It will be I who you will choose
when all the others start to show you their fangs and claws,
as they grow weary with waiting
for the elusive and cunning Penelope.
There will be no Ulysses to rescue you.
Your son will be killed.
You can barely keep him alive
with your poor excuses.
And while you are eating away at the time
that is running out for you,
they are all pretending,
hiding their claws and fangs
until you step out of the law.
Time will seal you to the law of the land.
Time will seal you to me.
PENELOPE: I will choose my husband to the end
.
I chose him in the beginning
and I choose my husband Ulysses, now.
AGATHY: He will not hear you.
He will not come.
The man you will take to bed will be me.
I have watched you
and smelled your sweetness as you pass.
I have looked at you from a distance
and you are preoccupied with your devotion.
Well, devote yourself to me, I am here.
I am here, Ulysses is absent.
It makes no difference to me.
I don’t want what you have in your mind or heart.
I want what you have here.
[AGATHY touches PENELOPE’S genital area and proceeds to kiss her.
He forces her to kiss him, but it goes horribly wrong
for he is struggling to remove himself from her mouth.
PENELOPE puts her hands on his head and holds him
while he is struggling to get away from her
Finally PENELOPE lets go and there is blood around his mouth.
He falls to his knees, wipes his mouth, and then stands. PENELOPE wipes his blood from her mouth.]
PENELOPE: I swear by the love that makes and breaks me,
if you ever come near me again,
if you ever try to touch me again,
I will cut you while you sleep.
I will make sure I use the same instruments
that we use for our horses.
I will cut away from you
all your generations to come,
and feed them to my hounds.
[AGATHY runs from her wiping his mouth, which is covered with blood.
He is visibly shaken by her response to his sexual advances]
Scene 2 – The Jackal
[PENELOPE is still standing in the same place.
PETROCULOS comes running from the side of the stage to her.]
PETROCULOS: What is that noise?
What is going on?
Penelope, are you alright?
PENELOPE: Oh, my dear friend, Petroculos!
What would I do without your concern?
PETROCULOS: What happened?
I was walking so that I could clear my head
and I heard your voice and a man’s voice,
and I was not sure.
I ran as fast as I could, to see if you were all right.
You have some blood on your lips!
Here let me wipe it off for you.
[PENELOPE refuses and wipes it off with her hand.]
PENELOPE: Agathy tried to convince me
that he was the man for me.
PETROCULOS: Here, let me hold you.
PENELOPE: Do you think that by holding me
it will remove from me this experience?
No, I do not want to be comforted
or sedated from what I feel.
I want to rage so that next time he comes near me
I will fulfil my promise to him.
I will not be unsexed by any man.
And if any man tries to brand me as his,
I swear by all that makes and breaks me
I will cut him while he sleeps.
All enemies have to sleep,
and that is when you bleed them
and drain them from their manhood, or their life.
PETROCULOS: Such rage. Was it as bad as that?
The brute—I will deal with him later,
if one can deal with him.
But I am concerned about you.
Things have changed in Ithaca.
The suitors have become bored
and tired and sexually frustrated
waiting for your decision.
I knew that it would come to this.
Agathy has become restless
and will not follow the ways of the law.
You do know he has an army
waiting to hear from him
so that they can come and attack Ithaca.
I don’t know if any of us here has the ability
to stop the chain of events once they start.
There will be much bloodshed.
But I am not concerned about their blood;
I am concerned about you and your son.
PENELOPE: What can I do to save my son?
I have kept him safe all these years.
I will not have him slaughtered.
I would rather die than see this happen.
But before I surrender my sword
I will send a few of the suitors to Hades
to find their legal wives.
PETROCULOS: Dear Penelope, how difficult it must be for you,
to have all of us here for so long.
We have become locusts and intruders in your home.
I have been thinking about this situation.
It really cannot continue.
PENELOPE: What do you suggest, my trusted friend?
I always believe in outwitting and out-planning the enemy.
PETROCULOS: One must always keep above and below
the nets they throw.
A warrior of courage and discipline
uses his sword only when they have netted him.
PENELOPE: My sword is the last act of defence
to save my son’s life.
What can I do to keep my son alive
and safe from the dangers
that come with me and his father?
PETROCULOS: I will give you some suggestions,
but the choice will have to be yours and yours alone.
First, I want to tell you
how I marvel at how you have kept you and your son alive
for so long
with so many vultures and invaders
waiting and waiting for you to trip up,
or make a mistake,
or simply give in and give up.
Truly, Penelope, you are a great diplomat.
And the tapestry was a brilliant idea,
for it gave you more time for Ulysses’s return
to conduct yourself as a woman of integrity
following the law of the land.
Now let me see if I can offer you some advice
in which you do not compromise
your position and standing.
We all have followed the law of the land,
but the time is coming that this law will be useless
in the face of conquest and brute force.
Laws do not exist when there is chaos and violence.
Each man makes his own law
and murder is part of their law.
On the other hand, I have always been here for you.
I have even advised you
on the weakness of certain men
and how to avoid them
and protect yourself from their advances
without hurting their vanity.
I have always told all of them to follow the law
and to respect you and your son.
PENELOPE: Yes, Petroculos.
You have proven yourself more than once
a fair man in the face of turbulence and chaos.
PETROCULOS: Dear Penelope, your time is running out.
You will have to choose soon,
and from the struggle I heard
that you had with Agathy,
your decision or your conquest is very near.
Agathy is the strongest here
and he does have a small army
/> waiting to support him when he is ready to strike.
We all have small armies waiting at the port of Ithaca.
You may avoid conquest
and the murder of your son
if you marry me.
PENELOPE: It will be a marriage of convenience,
for I only see you as my sister.
PETROCULOS: Very few marriages have to do with love.
It is about two people seeking security and protection
from the invasion of the outside world.
They combine their skills and territories
and have a better place in the world
because they have more assets and power
and can live in security, comfort, and safety.
So you see, my dear Penelope,
our marriage would offer you all the above.
Marry me, Penelope.
I know you do not love me,
and I am not in love with you.
You are too sensible and disciplined
for such wild flights and fancies of the heart and passion.
I am talking about a marriage of convenience
in which I can offer you safety and protection.
If you do not choose me, I cannot protect you
because all the men have the right of the law to you.
You belong to all of us
and no one will leave this island
until you choose a husband.
PENELOPE: Are you telling me
that if I chose you as my husband
all the others will leave and my son will be safe?
PETROCULOS: Poor, hunted, tormented Penelope.
I have told you from the beginning,
I only came to Ithaca so that there is no bloodshed
and to keep peace in the region.
And I wanted to keep you safe.
PENELOPE: I cannot make this decision at this moment,
I need time to think.
I cannot compromise
the truth and love of my heart.
What of Ulysses? I love Ulysses.
How can I enter a marriage of convenience with you?
What of my love?
PETROCULOS: Ulysses, if he returns,
will understand that you had no other choice.
Besides, I will set you free
to be with your first husband.
Remember, we will not marry for love
but rather that you do not wake to find Agathy
or any other lustful suitor in your bed
and your poor dear son murdered.
PENELOPE: Thank you my dear friend,
for concerning yourself with my son’s protection
and my welfare and safety.
I will think about what you have suggested
and I will speak with you further about this.