Palamedes: the Lost Muse of Justice

By Kemmer Anderson

Palamedes: The Lost Muse of Justice follows the unsung life of Palamedes, a character ignored by Homer in the Iliad. However, Euripides tells the heros story in a play that survived only as a fragment. Through a variety of mythic voices from Homers epics, these poems tell the tale of Palamedes. Following a path from Ithaca to Troy, I have tried to breathe life into this just man who gave the spoken word an alphabet.
From Prometheus and Palamedes
Now I give you consonants to construct the sound
That makes letters speak meaning and hold memory
Beyond the string sound harp and tongued poem.

With these poems Anderson has again shown that in capable hands the mythic landscape, the deep stuff of our humanity, is ever relevant, ever fresh, and ever telling of our common nature. Lawrence Mathis, Architect-Poet

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Aug 1, 2016
• ISBN: 9781524526931

Kemmer Anderson

Kemmer Anderson, a graduate of Davidson College, has for years taught Homer’s Odyssey and Iliad at McCallie School, in Chattanooga, Tennessee. In 1991 while studying for a M.A. at St. John’s College in Annapolis, Maryland, he learned about Palamedes from Plato’s dialogues. Since that time he and his wife Martha have wandered through Greece in pursuit of his story. The author of 2 poetry books, Wing Shadows Over Walden Ridge and Songs of Bethlehem: Nativity Poems, he continues to work on series of essays: Milton at Monticello.

Book preview

Palamedes’ Prologue

Marshal a Muse for armies and actors

To fall in columns of print on this page

And make these lines of demarcation

A phalanx of sound and order.

I am not a poet, just the inventor of an alphabet

With signs that allow me now to tell my story

And imprint my words on your conscience.

A military order blots out my name,

Alters my acts, and stones my body.

Why shape truth around a literary form?

Though my narrative offers you more argument

Than plot, listen to how the poem inscribes your eye.

Through the noble lies found in Homer’s epic,

I am removed from memory, roll call, and command –

Wiped clean from the catalogue of ships.

His poem projects shadows across my intelligence,

Because the blind bard always sings of Odysseus

And his tactics during the Trojan War.

This hero never stood before the law

Since he will deceive you with his rules

Of evidence and pervert your senses

To turn the meaning of any sentence.

His clever tongue will manufacture lies

And deceive the very structure of language.

No speech of mine remains, no similes of my nature exist:

Only lost lines, fragments form my identity.

My words are gone. I am a ghost without urn or rite.

Palamedes, the Boy

Here in this harbor where I played by the docked ships

Phoenician traders came with their jewels, fabrics,

Pomegranates, objects of desire and cost.

While sailors unloaded their cargo and merchants

Weighed their products with the bartering talk of commerce,

Ship captains swapped stories with my father Nauplius.

They discussed nautical passages and the use of signal fires

To guide ships at night along the coast. My father,

Invented these light houses, ground stars. He wanted to map

The harbor he built, to plumb line the depths, and draw

The Peloponnesian coast line for seafarers to know

By sight and image what they learned from memory.

I fell in among the traders. An old man whose hands

Moved across papyrus with a stick, a stylus he called it,

Showed me how he traded with letters and numbers.

His marks corresponded to the number sold, and how much.

His ledger accounted for what he sold by name. His record

Kept track of everything he sold and bought. Symbols, signs.

He gave me papyrus and stylus; I played among the letters.

I drew and scribbled shapes. I imitated his marks and matched

The sound of his words with the forms on this document.

He held out his tablet and called this evidence and proof of sale.

He gave me clay to make a written log of cargo pictograms.

At night I dreamed of figures, alphabets, and hieroglyphics.

Nauplius’ Gift: Proverbs

I give you this mountain, this rock, my son,

That you may learn the elements of height.

Let this refuge teach you the steps to sight,

Virtue, and invention. Make this mountain

A metaphor for perception. Master this piece

Of geography, and you will rule your soul.

If sure feet lead the people, then guard your feet

From the slippery edge of power that causes men

To stumble and fall from the precipice of pride.

On this rock learn the grammar of blood,

Fire, water, earth, and air. Let your respect

Surrender to their shape and sound.

Up, Palamedes, the sea winds call you, thistles

Long to scratch your young legs with the natural

Signature of briars. The horizon calls you to a

Distance known only to the clouds and people who dream.

From this promontory examine your place

In the cosmos. Know where your destiny

Intersects with the designs of envy.

Delphi is the navel of the universe:

Nauplion can be the center of the sea

During this increase in trade and travel.

Study the boundary stones of our kingdom

And never extend your borders past the line

That nature drew for us at creation.

Observe the geometry of this rock.

See how terrain establishes our defense

And reinforces the security of our frontier

By limiting the approach of any enemy.

Environment evens the force of military might.

For some this rock is nothing but a fort,

A military observation post. Study the eyes

Of our wakeful watchman. These coastguards

Sense the changes in weather, warriors, and power.

Welcome their report. Do not command them; they know

Their work. Learn their language and loyalties.

When you speak, remember they are soldiers

With a particular angle of sight.

These men form a human shield, a network

Of light: their best weapon is their eyes.

Be a man of vision, Palamedes:

A lookout and a statesman who perceives the whole

Of the politics that forms the needs of our people.

This army will watch out for the enemies to our state

While you conceive a form for justice

That persuades citizens to believe in their union

Between land, family, country, and home.

On this rock build a fortress for your dreams,

A monument to invention – a lighthouse fire