ENS.2015.5 | 18′
Poem by Anne Carson
Voice & Piano
I. Geryon
II. Meanwhile He Came
III. Geryon’s Parents
IV. Geryon’s Death Begins
V. Geryon’s Reversible Destiny
VI. Meanwhile in Heaven
VII.Geryon’s Weekend
VIII. Geryon’s Father
IX. Geryon’s War Record
X. Schooling
XI. Right
XII. Wings
XIII. Herakles’ Killing Club
XIV. Herakles’ Arrow
XV. Total Things Known About Geryon
XVI. Geryon’s End
Palinode
recording from a private reading by Eliza Bagg (voice) and Timo Andres (piano)
Geryon was a monster. Everything about him was red.
So begins Anne Carson’s retelling in verse of the story of the monster Geryon, killed by Herakles for his magical red cattle as part of his labors. This composition sets Red Meat: Fragments of Stesichoros from Autobiography of Red, the first of two novels in verse Carson has dedicated to reimagining Geryon’s saga, originally told in a lost poem known as the Geryoneis (The Geryon Matter) by the Greek poet Stesichoros in the seventh century, B.C.
All that remains of Stesichoros are some fragments and a story that he was struck blind by Helen of Troy for slandering or abusing her in print. An enconium then came to him in a dream and, having written it, his sight was restored. The palinode reads simply: No it is not the true story./No you never went on the benched ships./No you never came to the towers of Troy.
Red was written in the summer of 2015 and is dedicated to Rebecca Morgan, without whom it would not exist.