As he lies fatally ill in bed, June of 323 B.C., Alexander, in the delirium of his disease, must have envisioned the journey that he was about to take through the underworld of Hades.
By Lake Avernus, a malodorous sheet of bad water, was a cavern leading to the underworld. Make sacrifice to the dreaded goddess of night. On the road frightful forms of disease, hunger, death-dealing war, mad discord. Then innumerable spirits at the juncture of two great rivers begging the ferryman, Charon, for transport to the other shore, he choosing only the properly buried who also had the coin, the remainder doomed to aimless wandering with never a rest.
"The fang,
horn,
claw,
sting,
snarl,
hiss,
roar,
trumpet,
hoof,
all have fallen to me in the hunt.
I scuffle to hold my ground, to stay on my feet.
In my ferocious roaring, howling, grunting in the beast's ear, fear of myself stands my hair on end.
In war,
The thrilling war chants,
cries and shrieks,
dust of plains,
bloody wounds,
singing saber,
splintering lance,
clash of shields,
flesh bruised, broken, stuck,
sweat, stench, terror,
wrenching struggle
all have fallen to me in battle.
But this enemy, here, now, inside,
unseen, silent,
strikes me deep,
stabs me with sure death.
Time is brief. The tether to earthly life is short.
Mother!
One secret of Alexander — not from Siwah, mother!
Foresight! Vigor! Beyond necessary!
Blinds the quickly dead!
Preemptive energy, my life, now of no avail."
There, Hermes! To lead him down.
Cathedral air, where egos go to fly,
grows stale in corners dark and high above,
where spider-priests suck reason's juices dry,
and smothers any scent of earthy love.
In murder zones, where ego-orgies rage,
are found the evil, ignorant and sick,
with pre-death faith in self the only sage.
That height and depth bear ego's painful tic.
Come hurricane, implode the dingy pane!
Suck clean debris from mind-entangling net!
Come 'copter shine, reveal that ego's slain
its tender touch, an inter-conscious debt.
To ego's narrowed purpose flows no air
of superego's civil urge to care.
© 1996 John F. Deethardt II
(Last updated on November 22, 2004 )