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 Computer-modeling specialists have
reconstructed Troy’s citadel and lower
city at the time of the Trojan War.
(Troia Projekt)
[from Was There a Trojan War?
by Manfred Korfmann
http://www.archaeology.org/
0405/etc/troy.html]

The lower city of Troy

was protected by a ditch.
[http://www.archaeology.org/
online/reviews/troy/index.html]

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Radu Gyr
The Return Of Ulysses
(translated into English by Stefan Arteni)

At table's head I sit with myrrh anointed,

but long since am asleep under the walls of Troy.
Feasters do laugh and filled my cup is always
- you drink with the expired and hail the ghostly,
I have remained under the sloping walls of Troy.

I have remained under the sloping walls of Troy

or deep in heavy seas with friends alive no longer;
rams fat and oxen on the roasting spit are turning
to no avail in scented charcoal fire.

I have remained under the sloping walls of Troy

or with the rowers on the sea still errant
- returning home the way of ghosts returning
of them who no more come along by stepping-.

You touch me on the shoulders and the garments,

persuaded now that back I’ve come;
but I am only hundreds of sepulchres
within this walking corpse amidst you all.

You speak to me of temples and pilasters,

of the new gods that in my tracks have grown…

Let me then tell of my blue mates that perished

left far at Troy under the heaps of ashes.

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Oils aromatic with deep scent of flowers
wash not away the staining blood of Troy,
for yonder of all cleansing vessels,
the precious dead I carry whitewash on my body.

To honor me aoidoi will be called to banquet

to praise my deeds like those of all the heroes;
but only shadow mine the cup is raising,
I have remained under the sloping walls of Troy.

And when on the white breast of Penelópe

the brow I lay in burning shelter,
I do bleed still in struggle with the cyclops
or wander on the seas where bones are resting.

With lavishly unceasing and light kisses

the gentle woman randomly caresses
on chest and shoulders the deep wounds from battles,
believing not too painful are their traces.

But I am all an unseen wound still aching

also are wounds these grieving, empty eyes…
Is it the wife or are the dead who kiss me
come home again from Troy’s huge piles of ashes?

I am again on waves with pan flute players,

with sword again I fight the disembodied.
Away I slip from loving thighs’ embracement
and back once more I go under the walls of Troy…
I have remained under the sloping walls of Troy!

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The Episodes:

Ulysses and Athena Journey to the Underworld

The Siege of Troy The Sirens
Battle for Troy Scylla and Charybdis
Ulysses and Diomedes Steal the The Cattle of Helios
Horses of the Thracian King Rhesus Calypso
Ulysses Steals the Palladium Poseidon
The Trojan Horse Ulysses Hit by Storm
The Sack of Troy Nausicaa
Telemachus and Nestor in Pylos The Bard of the Phaeacians
The Ciconians Ulysses Disguised as a Beggar by Athena
The Lotus-eaters Euryclea Recognizes Ulysses
Polyphemus Ulysses and Penelope
Aeolus Ulysses Fights with the Beggar
The Laestrygonians The Bow - stringing Contest
Circe Ulysses Slays the Suitors

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 The term sacrifice, from the Latin
sacrificium - sacer, "holy"; facere, "to make“ - means to make sacred and can also be understood as the act of
sanctifying or consecrating an object; offering is used as a synonym, or as a more inclusive category of which
sacrifice is a subdivision, and means the presentation of a gift; the word offering is from the Latin offerre, "to
offer, present", and yields the noun oblate; the Latin operari, to perform, accomplish, evokes once again the idea
of sacred action:

“…the images are grouped and regrouped, creating and erasing boundaries, in a centripetal process converging
on a unique configuration of forces in a final ‘efficient-moment’ of sacrifice which reveals the underlying
‘common body of the norm’, the efficient centre of creative action,
or ‘embodied-vision’.
The image of sacrifice stands therefore for an activity of eternal return to the radical originating power through
which the multiplicity of perspectives is engendered. It is the efficient centre of the discontinuities of space of
perception and time, or the link between efficient acts and discontinuous acts. It is not a renunciation of
action, but rather a renunciation of the limits of perspectives which interpretations attach to the structured
subject-object sensorium.”

Antonio De Nicolas, cited by Anthony Judge in his

Epistemological challenges: language
from Global Strategies Project – Notes and Commentaries,
www.infinityfoundation.com/mandala/i_es/i_es_UIA_language_frameset.htm

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The name Odysseus (Ulysses in Latin) means
son of pain or man of suffering.

This artist’s book has been digitally created by

Stefan Arteni. It is signed with the artist’s seal.

© 2007 Stefan Arteni & Myriam S.-P. de Arteni

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