Mythistorema - Triceratops Home

6o JOURNAL OP THE HELLENIC DIASPORA
enjoying our reward." In contrast, the protagonist has lived "the life
which was given to [him] to live," and he seems to feel remorse for
that.
The epigraph of the poem, "Quid nACcCrIyein opacissimus?" brings
together the various aspects of this poem. The green leaves wrap around
the woman he is with and he is losing her. "Under the heavy planes" is
buried symbolically a person whose memory shadows the protagonist's life
like an enormous tree and frustrates his attempt to bring his journey to
a successful end.
16
Poem "16" of Mythistorema, with the epigraph "The name—Orestes,"
presents the symbolic journey as a perpetual cyclical wandering that leads
nowhere, since the protagonist is involved in a vicious circle of hubris
from which he cannot escape.
This circle is symbolized by the circular movement of a chariot as
Orestes is presented participating in a chariot race in Delphi. Like the
epigraph of the poem, the chariot race is taken from Sophocles' Electra."
Seferis uses it as a metaphor for Orestes' predicament, his involvement
in the perpetuation of crime in the Atreus family by the slaying of his
mother."
Again, again into the track, once more into the track !
How many turns, how many laps of blood, how many black
Circles of faces watching: the people watching me
Who watched me when, upright in the chariot,
I raised my hand, brilliant, and they roared applause.
Certain aspects of this poem become more understandable by comparison
with the section "Wednesday" of the sequence "Notes for a Week,"
with which it has several similarities. The central similarity is the vicious
circle in which the protagonists are caught up and which they wish to
break. In both poems the protagonist is surrounded by a crowd of spectators,
and he feels that he is constantly under observation. Also, in both
poems, the only way the circle could be broken is through love. In
"Wednesday" this is explicitly stated: "If we were to love, the circle
""What becomes of the shady plane-tree grove?" Pliny, Letters, 1.3.
"Orestes, admonished by the Delphic oracle to avenge his father's murder, goes
to Mycenae and sends his old tutor to the palace to announce to Clytemnestra that
Orestes has been killed in a chariot race at the Pythian games.
"Modern Orestes' predicament is also inlirectly presented in the section "Saturday"
of "Notes for a Week," where the actor interrupts the reenactment of an ancient
tragedy and questions his role, which requires him to murder for justice.