Women of Greece, Part 3: Book Release Party
The conclusion of the saddest and gladdest satire you've ever read. (Now available independently and on Amazon.)
Women of Greece is a play in verse, written by poet Joffre Swait. It is a satire of Greek mythology and pagan concepts of glory, masculinity, and femininity. Initially cynical and depressing (yet somehow hilarious) study, it searches for some sort of redemption as it moves toward a reconciliation in the War of the Sexes, and perhaps saves all of Creation in the process.
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As promised, here is the conclusion of the play, the shortest of the three acts, and truth be told, the only sincere bit. The entire work has been published for free on this Substack. You can read Acts 1 and 2 by clicking below.
Women of Greece
Act 3.
X. Mother of All Living The Bard and The Mocker are in place, on a darkened stage. The Bard speaks, his timbre changed and brighter: And God said, Let there be light, and there was light. Lights brighten. The light was good, and he split light from dark. There was a day: first light and first dark. He called the Day light and the darkness Night. A man and a woman, simply dressed, enter beside each other and stand upstage center. The woman is the same woman, identically dressed, as the woman in act 1, scene 1. Let us make man in our image, to our likeness like. So God in his own image Man created, Male and female, to each the other mated. Fill the earth, be fruitful, be multiplied. The Lord God formed the man from dust And breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. It was not good that he should have no wife, So God made him one, from the same gust Of wonder: part of him apart from him. From deep sleep she was formed from his flesh and bone, Both The Bard and The Mocker speak: At last, this is flesh of my flesh, bone of my bone. Here is she whom I sought, limb of my limb. The Bard and The Mocker exit. All lights go out, except for a spotlight center stage. The man and the woman remain in place, out of the light. Augustino takes center stage and speaks passionately: They are wise who say that both the sexes shall rise. For before they sinned, the man and the woman were naked And unashamed, and all the world awaited Their names, their places, fulfillment under their eyes. From heavenly bodies lust shall be laid aside While womanly nature shall be preserved in favor. For the sex of a woman is not a vice, but nature. Her beauty, made new, praise to God shall excite. For at the beginning of humanity’s creation The woman was made of a rib taken from the side Of the man while he slept; this prefigured Christ and his Bride. For it seems that sleep, that rib pierced, was salvation. He hung lifeless upon the cross, was violated With a spear, and there flowed from it blood and water, Which we know to be the sacraments, the altar On which the Church is built and consecrated. Scripture uses this very word, he built, Not saying he formed or framed, but built her up Into a woman, so the Church heavenward erupts Into her glory, free of sin and guilt. The woman, therefore, is as creature of God as man; And by her creation from man unity is commended. The manner of her creation was clearly intended To show us Christ and the Church for all time’s span. He who created both sexes, both will restore. Have you not read that he who made them at the start Made them male and female into one heart? They two shall be one flesh, becoming more. It is certain then that from the first, men were created Two sexes as we see and know them to be, Whether by her origin or matrimony. Woman is man’s end: she is that for which he’d waited. It is by this original example, which God condones, That the apostle admonishes all husbands to love their own wives; Their own wives in particular, and to give up their lives For the flesh of his flesh, and his own bone’s bone. The man and woman exit. XI. A Mother’s Prayers Monica enters, and standing before her son, speaks: I am the mother of Augustino, revered Among all men for his wisdom and perspicacity. I prayed for him every day, with tenacity Still spoken of today. I persevered. My son, like Eve, stole fruit. To Christ I brought his suit. My son, like Rahab, was a whore. I hammered at Christ’s door. My son, like Martha, was world-weighted. My prayers to Christ rose unabated. Pandora! Hear! I see you weaving at your loom. You really were a wicked girl, don’t deny, Taking after your father like that, his lies. Come away from there, and find your perfect Groom! A brief silence. A chorus of men and women, from offstage: And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away. And I saw the holy city coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. Behold, I make all things new. End. Composed for Pride Month, in the two thousandth and twenty-fourth year of the reign of our Lord Jesus Christ.