Melanthius+2

Paying for the Past

media type="file" key="melboy2.mp3"

1. Scene 1 1. Music:	Soft slow music 2. Melanthius: 	I, Melanthius, have served many years in Odysseus’ home but I did not stay loyal to my master when he sailed away to Troy, many years ago. Under Odysseus’ rule I was forever the poor and domestic goatherd and could never find a way out of my life of servitude. However, when Odysseus left and the suitors arrived for the hand of Queen Penelope, I found my way. I betrayed my master and aided the suitors; also helping myself, by my disloyalty did no go unnoticed… 3. Music:	Short dramatic staccato Scene 2 4. Melanthius:	All I feel is pain. My body feels broken and abused as I lie on the    ground, slaughtered like a beast, waiting to die. The irony astounds me, as I have done the same thing to other animals all my life, and never thought anything of it. Even as I lie in an all-encompassing pain my mind remains intact. I remember my story and how it should be told, and I will tell it to you so that I am not forgotten. Scene 3 Not yet a man, but not a boy, I was under the deception of Odysseus’ powers when he left for Troy many years ago. I did not realize until the suitors arrived for Queen Penelope that my sister, Melantho, and I were victims of fate and would never be truly great until we lifted the veil of oppression suffered by us as servants. How was I to know that my deception would cost me my life? When the suitors arrived I thought for sure that Antinous or Eurymachus would succeed in winning Penelope’s hand in marriage and I would not have to worry about Odysseus and his ill-tempered manner. Scene 4 As Odysseus arrived home to rocky Ithaca dressed in shameful beggar rags I treated him with an appropriate disdain. I mocked him, yes, but how could I be blamed when he struts in, demands food, and all the while looking like a dirty vagrant not fit to reside within the same walls that the suitors and I have spent time trying to maintain. Scene 5 However, one day, the manure hit the fan. One day a contest was being held among the suitors to see who would finally win the hand of Penelope for marriage. The contest was of strength and mental ability, using Odysseus’ bow. 5. Sound:		Bow racing through air 6. Melanthius:	No one succeeded and when this disgusting beggar started to try to compete outrage filled my body at the thought. Unfortunately as

soon as the beggar triumphed and revealed himself as King Odysseus, I knew my deeds would not go unpunished. Scene 6 Suddenly I’m being dragged and bound by rope and I can feel the pain starting to course through my body. 7. Sound:		Dragging noises to underscore 8. Melanthius:	Minutes, hours, days, time meant nothing as I hung there, in agony, almost hoping for death. 9. Sound:	Footsteps Scene 7 10. Melanthius:	Then I heard it, footsteps walking towards me and I knew it was the end. What came next is a blur of blood, torment, dismembered body parts, bile rising in my throat yet unable to escape, and finally I’m left on the ground to bleed to death. Scene 8 Waiting is my limbo. Waiting for death, waiting for the pain to end. How dare they condemn me when they made me? I am who I am because they decided it. I lay here waiting for death in a fuzzy haze of pain because of my past transgressions, but I did not do anything that anyone else would not have done if put in my circumstances. Eumeaus, the loyal swineherd, is kidding himself if he thinks that his anguish filled years of waiting for his master will be rewarded with true friendship and reciprocated loyalty. Odysseus will forget him because he has served his purpose. Scene 9 11. Music:		Beginning of closing music 12. Melanthius:	I wanted to be more important than that. I may die a shameful and gruesome death but I will be remembered! 13. Music:	Music fades away