(NOTE: Refreshed English is used in this post.)
Monologue Title: “Protector of Cities”
From the Play: No More Trojan Wennen, Act I, Scene 1
Genre: Drama
Author: Justy DeForest
Character: Athena, Olympian Godde1 of Wisdom
Setting: Above the ramparts of the ruined palace of Ancient Troy
Background: After the defeat of the Trojan Army, the Greek Commander, Agamemnon, decides to slaughter the remaining Trojan Wennen if they resist being carried off to Greece as slaves. In this monologue, Athena, the Olympian Godde of Wisdom and Patron of Greece, joins Apollo, the Divine Patron of Troy, as he looks over his ruined city from above the palace ramparts. Upon seeing Athena, Apollo turns to leave.
NOTE: This monologue follows immediately after Apollo’s Monologue 1B. In presenting this monologue, no actor other than the one playing ATHENA need be present on stage.
ATHENA
Apollo, wait! We have not spoken two civil words
to each other since this conflict began. Ten years!
That is long enough — even for our kind!
(ATHENA regards the charred and crumbling walls of the Troy.)
I remember the day you and Poseidon completed
these walls. How magnificent they were! And how
proud you were; you beamed like the sun!
Father Zeus named you Patron of Troy, and for
centuries the God of Reason bestowed the Gift of Reason
upon his people. — And they thrived on it! …
until Paris came along.
In Greece, I am called “Protector of Cities.”
The Athenians even named their city-state
after me. — As if they believed that to be
some magical charm against its destruction!
You and I … We know better.
War is a humin solution.
And so runs the mortal mind that when they win,
they claim the goddes have fought beside them.
But when they lose, the goddes have abandoned them.
Greece, itself, shall some day be conquered,
and I will watch as my Athenians are dragged off
into slavery to serve the masters of the new
strongest nation upon the Earth.
The rise and fall of a civilization
is as inevitable as it is unenviable.
Apollo, none of what has happened here was my will.
© Justy DeForest 1987, 2008, 2022
- Godde: (Pronounced God, plural Goddes, pronounced Gods) Gender neuter term for a deity or deities of any gender or none.)
Greetings from Justicea 