An Apology for My Greek Tales
By A.J. Mittendorf
On this Web site are four short stories based on Greek mythology that I wrote between 1995 and 2002: "Onessimus: Troy's Fall Denied," "Memnon and Achilles," "The Judgment of Paris: A Retelling," and "The Calydoniad." ("Priam and Heracles" was written much later.) I have tried for the most part to keep these stories as consistent as possible with the original myths, and, it's fair to say, that I have been successful in spite of some minor faux pas. Laocoon for example, is the Trojan of Greek lore who is famous for warning, "Beware of Greeks baring gifts." He said this concerning the Trojan Horse when many of the Trojans wanted to take it inside the walls of Troy. In "Onessimus: Troy's Fall Denied," however, there is no Trojan Horse. Nevertheless, Laocoon's character remains consistent: he sees the Trojan Horse as a ruse; he sees the presence of Onessimus as a ruse, and in both instances he warns the Trojans to not trust the Greeks.
My integrity remains strong even in the time lines of the myths. "Onessimus" opens during book X of The Iliad: Achilles has not returned to the war; the emissaries are still away trying to bring him back; Agamemnon decides it's time to go home; and Diomedes opposes him outright. So my stories are consistent with the original myths, but there have still been some legitimate complaints made about them for which I wish to either offer explanations or request the pardon of my readers.
The first of these complaints is expressed in the idea that when movies are made that claim to retell a story from these myths, the writers and/or directors insist on changing details of the plot and, to some (including me), often offensively so. And here I am writing stories that do the same thing, even though I claim to be an afficionado of Greek lore. Allow me to explain:
Let us first put aside the fact that the original authors of these tales were often inconsistent with each other; even each writer's own writings were not infrequently inconsistent. The difference in my stories, though, is that I am not writing them to simply retell the originals. It's doubtful, anyway, that rewriting them would serve any literary purpose (although, as educational tools, such writings are invaluable). Instead, I use the characters and their circumstances from the myths up to a certain point, add a new element to the storyline, and take the familiar tale in a new direction. My purpose is to create a new plot out of the old in order to explore different issues, while hopefully sparking some new interest in those original stories. So, while my stories do not compare with the original tales, neither do they compare with the creation of, say, the motion picture, Troy, because, unlike the makers of Troy, I don't try to convince you that I'm telling the story as Homer wrote it; I hope, in fact, to make it clear that Homer and I are at odds.
Another difficulty, also dealing with inconsistency, concerns age issues mostly within "Onessimus" or between "Onessimus" and its prequel "The Calydoniad." Part of the problem deals with Diomedes who is portrayed, both in Homer and in my stories, as a general, a man of standing, equal even to Odysseus or Menelaus, while Onessimus, a character I created, is shown to be a child with little rank of consequence. The problem is that, if all the details, of both the myths and my stories, were "true," Diomedes and Onessimus would be about the same age, being born around the time of Calydon's boar hunt. As a matter of fact, Onessimus would probably be a bit older than Diomedes, since there is no mention of Diomedes in "The Calydoniad," and Onessimus would therefore be placed in charge of the Aetolians at Troy with Diomedes as his adjutant at the very most. I'll have to beg your pardon for this one.
When I began writing "Onessimus," which was the first of my Greek tales, I was writing according to my memory of my first reading of The Iliad, the details of which are not easy to keep straight. I had very few other resources at my disposal, except for what questions my University instructors were able to answer. In fact, it never occurred to me to research Diomedes; initally, he played such a minor role in my story that I felt satisfied with his portrayal.
But really, if inconsistency in age is going to be an issue, let's consider Helen of Troy in The Iliad. She is touted as the most lovely of women, so that Paris is overcome with passion for her, causing the Trojan War. At the same time, Nestor is said to be so old that he does not participate in the efforts of that war except, appropriately, as an advisor to Agamemnon. And yet, in the original myths, Nestor fights along side Castor and Pullox at Calydon when all three of them are in their prime, about thirty. But Castor, Pullox, their sister Clytaemnestra, and Helen are quadruplets, so Helen, Castor, and Pullox are the same age, which means that Helen and Nestor are at least of similar age. Now, Achilles was about five years old during the boar hunt at Calydon, and he's in his prime during the Trojan War, about twenty-five years later. That puts Castor, Pullox, Nestor, and Helen between fifty-five and sixty years old. It's doubtful that a youthful Paris would have been so overcome with passion for a sixty-year-old woman.
So I would have to argue that my tales are not so different from the original myths. Rather, they may be even more consistent with the myths than one may think initially because my tales include all the same inconsistencies as the originals do.
A third argument that also points its fingers at "Onessimus" is that that character didn't need to be invented at all. There is already a valid character in the Greek forces: Teucer. Here we have a man whose half brother is Ajax, who is the lesser of the two brothers (from their father's perspective) because his mother is a concubine, and who has affiliation with Troy because his concubine mother is Priam's sister. It would have been logical, even captivating, for Teucer to try to stop the war. Again, please pardon me.
In all honesty, if I had thought of it prior to creating Onessimus, I probably would have used Teucer. But by the time I learned of Teucer's position in the tale and understood how he would have worked so well in this storyline, "Onessimus" was not only already written, but the tale (rendered as a poem at the time) won an honourable mention in a poetry contest called "Tickled by Thunder." Besides, I had learned to like the character, so I couldn't abandon him. Instead, I added into the story an "honourable mention" of Teucer and Ajax, the sons of Telamon, in the speech of Antilochus in the second segment of the story. It is an attempt at acknowledging that, yes, I missed the mark, but not by much.
The final complaint that has made its way to my ears is that, unlike the myths, my stories could not all "happen" and be "true." If, for example, Onessimus's experience at the Scaean Gate had occurred, there would have been no reason for Memnon and Achilles to fight at all. (My second tale focuses on their battle.) This fact makes it difficult for some readers to appropriately suspend their disbelief. I'll need to explain this one; it is a valid criticism but only up to a point.
You must keep in mind that I have not been trying to create a saga. Rather, I have been trying to see what would happen if a new element were added to the original tales--where else might the story take readers if Priam made his way to Calydon to befriend Nestor? How might a young soldier end a war in which he is only reluctantly involved? Each of these four stories (and perhaps more in the future) must be taken into account with the original tales and without consideration of other stories of my own.
So why, then, did I use Greek mythology as the single setting for these stories instead of a variety of more contemporary settings?
It was beyond my limited imagination to invent a character in, say, WWII to try to confront Hitler the way Onessimus does Priam. The only logical course was to use an ancient war, where the battles would take place in a confined area and where the actions of a single person or a single pair of soldiers could be easily seen and could quickly influence the fighting around them. This answer, of course, presented a new problem: few modern readers would care what happens to fictitious characters in an obscure ancient war, so I had to find a way to create an atmosphere that would interest modern readers. Solution: Greek mythology. Even those who aren't avid readers of the myths are familiar and intrigued enough with the more famous events that they make an effective catalyst for my alterations.
So, as you read these stories, don't look for a saga; don't look for indisputable consistency, don't look for a new rendition of an old tale. Look instead for an incision in the original that I made in order to graft on a new limb. Keep the original tales in mind, but don't cling to them. Look for a new message delivered by ancient characters; cling tightly to them and let them go. Above all, look for a new way to enjoy reading. That is, after all, what literature is all about: enjoyment. So enjoy, have fun, relax, and get into it.
