Spencer On A Hot Tin Roof

Old Friends Reunited

When he spoke
an old hound, lying near, picked up his ears
and lifted up his muzzle. This was Argos,
trained as a puppy by Odysseus,
but never taken on a hunt before
his master sailed for Troy. The young men, afterward,
hunted wild goats with him, and hare, and deer,
but he had grown old in his master’s absence.
Treated as rubbish now, he lay at last
upon a mass of dung before the gates—
manure of mules and cows, piled there until
fieldhands could spread it on the king’s estate.
Abandoned there, and half destroyed with flies,
old Argos lay.

But when he knew he heard
Odysseus’ voice nearby, he did his best
to wag his tail, nose down, with flattened ears,
having no strength to move nearer his master.
And the man looked away,
wiping a salt tear from his cheek; but he
hid this from Eumaios. Then he said:
“I marvel that they leave this hound to lie
here on the dung pile;
he would have been a fine dog, from the look of him,
though I can’t say as to his power and speed
when he was young. You find the same good build
in house dogs, table dogs landowners keep
all for style.”

And you replied, Eumaios:

“A hunter owned him—but the man is dead
in some far place. If this old hound could show
the form he had when Lord Odysseus left him,
going to Troy, you’d see him swift and strong.
He never shrank from any savage thing
he’d brought to bay in the deep woods; on the scent
no other dog kept up with him. Now misery
has him in leash. His owner died abroad,
and here the women slaves will take no care of him.
You know how servants are: without a master
they will have no will to labor, or excel.
For Zeus who views the wide world takes away
half the manhood of a man, that day
he goes into captivity and slavery.”

Eumaios crossed the court and went straight forward
into the mégaron among the suitors;
but death and darkness in that instant closed
the eyes of Argos, who had seen his master,
Odysseus, after twenty years.

This is a scene from The Odyssey in which Odysseus returns home after twenty years disguised as a beggar to take revenge on the suitors who have plagued his family. The only one to recognize him is his old dog Argos, who has been neglected by the staff since Odysseus’ departure. Odysseus hides the fact that he is crying for fear of revealing himself to Eumaios, the swineherder. Their reunion is short-lived because Argos dies soon after recognizing his master. This is one of the saddest moments in any story I’ve ever read.

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One day when I’m famous and in the public eye I’m going to go to a vanity press to have a self-published poetry book made. I will have only one copy published. I will then donate that single copy to a library that I’ve never been inside.