Mythistorema - Triceratops Home

72 JOURNAL OF THE HELLENIC DIASPORA
nates as the protagonist refers to events in his past life. In the second,
the tragic fate of Hellenism is more in the foreground, although the
protagonist's personal involvement is also evident. In the last the emphasis
is on the protagonist's painful sensitivity, which sets him apart both
as an individual and as a member of a nation with a long tradition and a
tragic fate.
In presenting the unusual circumstances that make him question
whether he can die "in a normal way," the protagonist—using the impersonal
"we"—starts by mentioning that "many things have passed
before our eyes" and yet "we saw nothing." The implication here is that
he did not have, at that time, the awareness or maturity to realize the
meaning of these images. On the general level this would mean that the
nation did not learn from its misfortunes and tragic mistakes through
the centuries.
From all these past impressions the memory had preserved only some
strange images, as if they were projected on a white screen, passing and
fading, related to an event that occurred one night in a walled place. The
protagonist does not tell us what these images were, but he adds that
they were "more strange than you." This reference connects, indirectly,
the strange images with a certain person. And although the reference is
very vague, the images have a strangeness in common with this person.
In the second stanza the emphasis shifts to the more general level
of national identity and the tragic fate of the Greeks wandering among
ruins.
Because we have known so well this fate of ours,
Wandering among broken stones, three or six thousand years,
Digging in ruined buildings which could have been, perhaps,
our homes,
Trying to remember dates and deeds of heroes.
The broken stones here symbolize the ancient tradition but also the wars
and destruction suffered by the Greek race in its long history. In the
psychological climate of the period this poem was written, after a national
disaster, it is this long history, "Trying to remember dates and deeds of
heroes," which sustained the nation.
On the personal level, the protagonist is presented wandering in an
agonizing search for identity, trying to decipher the broken stones and
to find his own home among ruined buildings. This restless wandering
may be related to the strange event in his past mentioned in the first
stanza, an event which, like an obscure point, remains submerged in his
memory. It is as if whatever happened in the past has left him uncertain,
suspended in the air and feeling as an imperative the need to find his
roots.
In the last stanza the two levels again blend as the poet uses expressions
that can refer both to the Greek nation and the protagonist.