(3) a trois

(3) a trios



Were she innocent or lean and lean as cut fine loin
I can’t know her mind she god-essed into higher fortune
he one lover one comer one come crazily
so say three bodies (lets not forget Ape-Ollo)
three bodily jargons just ready, ready set go
three bodies in two stories but what’s the third
not knowing who cares but three again three

{Oh-Ryan + Ape-Ollo} jealous lovers zeal
{Oh-Ryan + Art-A-Miss} jealous brothers lovers zealed

and so it goes combine and dine
chop chop dice and slice and two to bed is three
one jealous man caused the death of another
this much is known, this much can still be seen
overhead randomized regalia star lit she weep it
where wipe at the brow or bruises burst
what stars will know will want a show
so man map heaven’s door to speak below
a name so far as moved on high to where it can’t
be touched or ledgered into fit fine
purgatory his story is sorry for making
of a fine ripe man to meat is legend

I’m not sure I’m capable of writing in a “time period” other than as an observer firmly planted in the present and looking back. That being said, I’ll take the posture of an omniscient rewriter of time and space that’ll be carried out in a modern voice through out the course of the poem. I don’t claim to be an expert on dialect and as such I don’t want to assume or even try writing in a vernacular that I don’t know, even if it were just a matter of saying “groovy” and “out-a-sight”.

What I do know is that this particular myth, the story of Orion, Artemis and her jealous brother Apollo does have several “versions” out there. The differences between these versions are what delights me about this story, and also because as a child I saw an artist rendition of Artemis that stirred my youthful passions and became a sort of puppy love if you will.

The story goes something a little like this: boy meats goddess, goddess proclaims she’s a virgin until some boy can match or best her in the hunt and athletics as she’s not one to be trifled with. Boy and goddess become fast friends and hunting companions, and ultimately, something else. This part isn’t clear, but what is clear is that the goddess has a jealous brother who doesn’t want to see his vestal virgin sister romantically involved with a mortal. Jealous brother invites sister to an archery competition on top of a mountain overlooking the sea. The jealous brother points to something in the water, way in the distance, and like a two year old says “bet you can’t hit that.” The sister, being a goddess and all, says “of course I can” and shoot an arrow, true to her word, into the target, which happens to be mortal boy. Upon discovering that she has killed the apple of her eye she casts him into the stars, clutching a club and a lion’s mane, for all eternity.

Version two is very similar to version however with it has a twist. The story is that jealous brother meets mortal boy and winds up lovers with the mortal boy. As the old saw goes, “an army of lovers can not be defeated” and institutionalized homosexuality didn’t exist simply among the mortals, gods in the Greek pantheon were just as liberal as their mortal inventors . Eventually, mortal boy meet’s his lover’s virgin sister goddess who takes a shine to him. At this point you can pretty much deduce what happens, slighted lover tricks sister into killing Orion. In either case, Orion dies by Artemis’s hand, but the fact that he was lovers with Apollo significantly changes the story.

The lover’s quarrel and the fact that this story revolves around three beings complete with the clichés of any good archaic romance, seemed to be “sing-song” in nature, so the language of the poem is rhymed and done so in a cheeky manner. One must be mad to try and seduce a goddess; being mortal Orion must’ve known that no good will come of it. However, being a hunter, and having a disposition that there is prey out there to be hunted and to be killed, means that the challenge, and his life hanging in the balance define the boundaries of the hunt; he has no choice but to hunt the goddess even at the expense of his own demise.

The cut, or meat, what is mortal is meat, and what is divine can not be just meat, as divine meat more often than not leads to mortal slaughter in Homer, is a humanizing act in the poem to call “she” innocent or lean and lean as cut fine loin. Thus godhead aside, Apollo’s jealous makes him Ape-Ollo, the play on the Ape, and as such a mortal if we are to forego mythological, religious or other creation stories and stick to scientific theories concerning evolution. Striped of metaphor the play of mortals and men is confined to that of people. The act of turning to meat, of the cut or the kill becomes that which makes of men legends, as in the sense of martyrdom.

If you were to ask me why I decided to butcher a myth for sport, then I’d say I was think of The Cook, the Thief, his Wife and her Lover. What finer epicurean delight is there than watching a revenge play out on a glutton by his wife in serving him the man he killed?! His sensibilities and palate, those things that a boor of a man prides himself on, are completely offended, so too is the fact that Apollo as precocious god has to suffer a mortal’s timeless journey in the night sky, after he has been forgotten.