May 21, 2004
Greek Tragedies
It is interesting how the word “Dies” is in the word “Tragedies”. Anyway once I read a book called “The Golden Fleece” and it was so depressing, the hero had three beautiful women fall in love with him or him fall in love with them and one he sailed away and left, the other he ceased to love when he met the third girl who was killed by the second girl. Also there was a lot of other tragic stuff. However there is some potential humor in a Greek Tragedy and I think I’ll write one. Not being very good with the Greek writing style I shall simply invent my own Greekish style both for the writing and the names. Prepare for every one dying and a horribly depressing ending.
On an Island near Greece a prince was born named Rincous. This prince grew up to be a great warrior and became a king when his father died by drinking poison in a cup offered by his wife, who when she realized what she had done drank the poison too and died in remorseful agony. (Having two people die in the first two sentences isn’t bad for a Greek Tragedy), Now Rincous loved(or desired) a princess of a nearby kingdom and he decided to send emissaries to ask for her hand in marriage.
The emissaries went and were told that whomsoever brought the Sword of Woricus should have the Princess’s hand in marriage. Therefore the emissaries returned to Rincous and on the way their boat was severely damaged during fierce storms and half the crew was lost. Upon hearing that the sword of Woricus was the bride price of the Princess he was not as glad as he could have been for Woricus was a great prince and warrior and his sword was possessed of a virtue that the owner thereof could never die while he held it. However he resolved to try and attain the sword and as he was leaving in his chariot his favorite dog bounded out to see him and as Rincous was occupied in thinking of Woricus and the Princess he did not see him and ran him down with his chariot and greatly regretted it when he heard the sad whimpers behind him and turning he saw a great tragedy, for the dog died!
With this mournful scene behind him he set out to see Woricus and after many unpleasant adventures he came to Woricus’s city only to find that he was gone from thence and had left for the city where the Princess dwelt.
Then Rincous turned his chariot and sped off to the Princess’s city and this time he did not run over a dog, he just ran over several cute little kittens that were blissfully playing in the street before beginning successful careers in catching mice.
When, after many more unpleasant adventures, he finally reached the city of the Princess he was just in time to behold the wedding of Woricus and the Princess before his chariot wheel hit a large rock in road and tipped over plunging Rincous over the edge of a nearby cliff into the ocean where he and his team of horses died. But Woricus and the Princess lived happily ever after to prove that all dark clouds have silver linings though hundreds of persons get killed by lightning looking for them.
And now that I have thoroughly depressed myself(The poor dog and kittens! I hate it when the dog dies…) I shall say that in most of the Greek stories they seem to pick the wrong person to be hero. Now if Woricus had been the hero instead of Rincous this story would have been a happy one because he was a great warrior with a powerful sword and he married a beautiful princess and lived happily ever after and did not run over creatures with his chariot.