Loving Layers of Lies
Excerpt from the novel We First Met in Ithaca, or Was It Eden?
Elle proceeded, “This story starts when the phantom ship was leaving with Odysseus on board. Penelope ran and leapt from the dock. She grabbed hold of a loose-hanging rope and swung back and forth, high above the deck, too high to drop without serious injury.
“Odysseus scrambled up the mast to the yardarm, battling the wind and the billowing sail. He reached for her time and again as she swung past, until finally he grabbed hold of her arm and pulled her toward him. They embraced on that precarious perch, then descended slowly and safely.
“For minutes that felt like hours, they sat on the deck near the base of the mast. Penelope rested silent in his arms as he recounted once again his adventures — the Sirens, the Cyclops, the clashing rocks — this time talking of the future, not the past, for he was certain that the gods meant to send him once again along that route, only this time the two of them would be together, sharing the experience. That was the meaning of Tiresias’ cryptic words that he would leave Ithaca once again, and that he would die a gentle painless death with all his people present in blessed peace around him. Penelope was the only people he needed. They would be together for a golden old age. He was ecstatic.
Penelope asked him, ‘And what will we eat?’
“‘The gods will provide,’ he replied with confidence.
“Penelope chuckled, ‘Perhaps the gods have a simpler solution. Perhaps we won’t feel hunger, we won’t need to eat.’
“Odysseus replied, ‘That’s the kind of solution Athena would come up with.’
“‘Indeed,’ said Penelope. ‘From what you’ve told me, Athena has a special bond with you. She has appeared to you dozens of times in different forms and has guided your adventures with her advice. Did you ever make love with her?’
“‘What?’ This line of questioning took him by surprise.
“‘You are much taken with goddesses. You spent eight years with Circe and Calypso, servicing their physical needs, taking pleasure with them as they took pleasure with you. You’ve made love far more times with goddesses than with me. And what about Athena? Why not her?’
“‘It never occurred to me. She’s known as Parthenos, the virgin. She doesn’t think of sex.’
“‘Are you sure of that? Afterall, goddesses mate with humans whenever they please.’
“‘There are exceptions — Artemis, Hestia.’
“‘But why should Athena be an exception? Wise Athena? Wary Athena? Sly Athena, who lies even better than you do? Did you lie together?’
“‘You’re joking.’
“‘Would you turn her down if she tried to seduce you?’
“‘That’s absurd.’
“‘And if I were Athena disguised as Penelope and you knew that I was Athena, would you turn me down? Or would you make love to me here on this ship until the end of time?’
“‘Penelope, you’re a genius at deception.’
“Then they made love on the deck of the magic ship as it sped across the sea, and they lost all sense of time. Had they been together like this for minutes or days or years? They felt no hunger except for one another.
“Then Odysseus had a doubt, and Penelope was delighted by that doubt.
“‘Are you really Athena?’ he asked.
“‘Does that matter to you?’ she asked.
“‘Penelope and I, you and I are in synch with one another. We’re likeminded. We have a deep bond that can never be broken.’
“‘And as long as you believe that I’m she, we share that bond and that joy.’
“‘You mean you are Athena?’ he drew back in dismay.
“‘Does that matter?’
“‘Matter? Of course it matters. I don’t love the body. I love the person that is Penelope. After twenty years of absence, I finally know that she’s the one, the only one, my true likeminded mate. If you’re Athena, I can’t, I won’t…’
“Penelope smiled and wrapped her arms around him. And the more he struggled to get away from her, to resist the advances of the supposed goddess, to remain true to his soulmate wife, the closer she felt to him.
“But when that game became tiresome, and she confessed that she was really Penelope pretending to be Athena pretending to Penelope, he didn’t believe her. And nothing she could say or do could unconvince him.
“So they sailed together and yet apart, then reached land, and traversed a boundless desert, until they died a gentle, painless death together.”
