Jocasta: Wife and Mother by Brian Aldiss

Author:Brian Aldiss
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Science Fiction, General, Historical, Fiction
ISBN: 9780007482153
Publisher: HarperCollins UK
Published: 2014-11-24T00:00:00+00:00

To this Oedipus, leaning forward, asked her if she was not crazed, being frigid. He asked if it was not more likely that they lived in reality, that they were flesh and blood; it was her apparition which was imaginary. The mind, he pointed out, was full of mischievous things. To escape those things, it was necessary to turn to the gods.

‘What comfort did the gods ever give you?’ she asked. She threw back her hair to ask the question, so that her face appeared like the moon from behind a cloud.

His response was to pick up a scroll lying near at hand, and to read a passage to her in an oracular voice.

‘“We have yet to comprehend how the ordinary world can possibly derive from ordered material elements without the aid of the gods. Who would claim that land and sea are somehow natural divisions, occurring of their own volition, without divine intervention? The events in our lives are formed of joy and grief, the metaphysical equivalents of sea and land. We cannot deny that gods have a hand in them also.

‘“It would be wise to have the schools draw up for their pupils a list of all those elements about which Science and a modern mistrust of our natures can furnish no information at all.”’

He asked, ‘Is that not well said?’

Jocasta was silent for a minute. Then she asked, ‘Am I to take it that you believe this philosopher you consult has more authority over me than my own feelings?’

‘Perhaps your feelings are less well thought out than these philosophical writings.’ He thumped the scroll for emphasis.

‘If you believe that, then I can understand why you give your scroll priority over my feelings. My feelings are nothing to you.’

He indicated that he required no more of this kind of conversation.

‘It’s just a normal conversation between a man and wife who have been married too long,’ Jocasta said sarcastically.

They sat in silence, feigning to listen to the music, with its sweet and empty sound.

Antigone, being still rebellious, did not return from her father’s task until the morrow. Accompanying her came Creon and his wife Eurydice, both very serious in their demeanour. With them came a meek tonsured priest in white vestments, his hairy toes peeping from leather sandals. He trailed a small black servant boy, no higher than his master’s thigh. This party stood in the street and would not enter the palace of Oedipus.

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