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Opening Text: A time of apparent magic... Bard: A face... a fleet... a war... a man... a thought... a trick! A trick to break the walls of Troy... and burn it, screaming to the ground!

Dialogue

Sinon: [dying by the Trojan Horse ] A gift. For Athena. Trojan calvaryman: [thwarts a comrade's sword blow] Common Gods. Respect their offering. [to calvary] Save it from the waves! Take it to Athena's temple! The war is over!

Dialogue

Telemachus: [walks up to mother at banquet] I want to remind them of whose wine they're drinking. Penelope: I don't want Odysseus' song. I want Odysseus! Telemachus: Then why do you entertain suitors in his house night after night? Penelope: In this world, a man does what he chooses. I do what I can. Telemachus: I am a man now, mom. Penelope: So throw them out. Break Zeus's law and see what they do to you if you give them that excuse. I've already lost a husband. I don't want to lose a son. Telemachus: My dad's coming back. Penelope: Where is he? Eight years since Troy fell. Almost twenty years since he left us.

Dialogue

Telemachus: [walks up] He deserves the same welcome as all of you! Polybus: Are you calling us beggars? Telemachus: I'm saying you've been welcome here for three years. Antinous: We've only enjoyed your hospitality for so long. Because your mother won't choose. Telemachus: She's already married. Antinous: Odysseus is dead. Telemachus: What do you know about my dad? Antinous: I know he kept stringing cattle in bad wine. Telemachus: You had the best of it the first two seasons. Antinous: I know he never came home. Telemachus: Not yet. Antinous: [leans in] You're pining for a daddy you didn't even know. Like some sniffling bastard. Telemachus: Well, since none of us can really know who our fathers are. Don't cling to one. Antinous: But I did know him. As boys. We watched him hunt. I tried to volunteers for his expedition to Troy. He told me to stay here and keep an eye on you. Telemachus: Oh, me and my mother? Antinous: You can't blame me for looking. Telemachus: My dad is coming home. An

Dialogue

Eurylochus: Do we have enough provisions? Odysseus: We've taken enough from Troy. Another stop or two won't kill us.

Dialogue

Odysseus: Come back as a prince, call a banquet. I'll be there. Telemachus: What will you do at the banquet? Odysseus: Beg. The clearest view of men is from below.

Dialogue

Odysseus: Why can't gods speak in ways we understand? Athena: Who doesn't understand thunder? Fire? A child's smile? A good harvest?

Dialogue

Polyphemus: [sobbing and turned away from Odysseus and his men] Father Poseidon, they blinded me... Vengeance, father, vengeance for me... Poseidon, vengeance for me...! Polites: [observing the Cyclops' cries to Poseidon ] It can talk. Why didn't it talk before? Odysseus: Do you talk to ants?

Dialogue

Odysseus: Are there any loyal servants? Telemachus: Some. When Odysseus shows himself, all.

Dialogue

Agamemnon: Odysseus. Odysseus: How are you here? We won the war; you headed for home. Agamemnon: Odysseus, the most brilliant of all my generals. You would never be snared as I was. Odysseus: Were you cast adrift, like us? Agamemnon: No. My misfortune was to make it home. Be welcomed by my beautiful wife. Bathed, anointed, made soft. To learn the hardest lesson. That I left a poison in her heart years before. A good part of her heart had gone to another. She and her lover had plotted my murder for years. Odysseus. Odysseus: Yes. Agamemnon: My son Orestes, did he avenge me? Odysseus: My lord, how could I know? I'm still trying to get home. Agamemnon: Don't make my mistake. Don't walk in the front door expecting garlands and praise. Come in disguise. Take your time. Assess.

Dialogue

Tiresias: Your men don't want you to defy the gods. But the gods say only you make it home. Odysseus: Then I defy the gods.

Dialogue

Eurylochus: What was the song of the sirens like? Odysseus: All the things you wanted to be and then all the things you wished you never wished for. It was a delicious itch you want to scratch but you find it under the skin and can't reach it. So the delicious itch becomes unbearable. It told you what you most want is what you most can't have and that the most you can't have is what you already had and lost. It was a song of all the promises I failed to keep. And it told me I don't really want to go home.

Dialogue

Penelope: Lock the door, set a fire, and burn the bastards. Do you think if I remarry, life goes back to the way it was? That world is gone. And in this one? They're not giving up power to you or Odysseus! If he'd return, he'd have to kill them. Like you will. Telemachus: If I kill them, their families will demand revenge. I'd be exiled. And without me, the throne will be lost-- Penelope: Because only a man can sit on it? Empty throne? I've been sitting on that empty throne for twenty years! My knowledge, my years of experience, that's all nothing compared to the bristles on your chin! Telemachus: Do you want peace, or do you want revenge? Penelope: I WANT ODYSSEUS!

Dialogue

Odysseus: What if... when he left the belly of the horse... and opened the gates of Troy... he saw ten years of rage pour into that city in one night. We left them a gift in offering of peace that they took into their home... We violated all that's ever sacred between people... and turned the fight into a hunt. To burn the walls of Troy was to burn the world entire. Including his home. What if he knew that very night as he walked through fires of anarchy and pain... And in the days of sweaty celebrations that followed, what if he knew exactly what he'd done? Penelope: What all of you had done. Odysseus: One man's idea, one man's trick... to break Zeus's Law forever. We live in a world of palaces, trades, language, blind to its beauty... until we broke it.

Dialogue

Odysseus: Antinous cheated you? Sinon: As he's no doubt cheating you. Odysseus: How? Sinon: Who's in Ithaca looking after your wife and son?

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Antinous: [on Melanthe] You can't expect her to be loyal to Odysseus, someone she's never seen before. Penelope: What about her loyalty to me?

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Penelope: Promise me you will come back. Odysseus: What if I can't?

Dialogue

Antinous: Bring me part of Telemachus as proof. His nose! Irus: Would you know him only by his nose? Antinous: ... His ears, too.

Dialogue

"Sinon" / Odysseus: What happened to Ithaca? Eumaeus: Darkness. Zeus' law smashed to pieces. A kingdom without a king since my master died. "Sinon" / Odysseus: Your master? Eumaeus: Odysseus. "Sinon" / Odysseus: Hero of the Trojan War. But Odysseus is alive. Eumaeus: Beggars giving false hopes! No more, no more, NO MORE! No more, no more...!

Dialogue

Eumaeus: Telemachus... Telemachus, Telem- "Sinon" / Odysseus: Telemachus. Eumaeus: He needs you. He's in danger and I can't help him... "Sinon" / Odysseus: There must be others in Ithaca that would help Odysseus' son. Eumaeus: The palace is controlled by suitors... No one is still loyal to Odysseus... "Sinon" / Odysseus: What about the queen? Eumaeus: Beautiful wise Penelope... Held hostage by the worst men, soon to be forced into marriage. What can she do without even her son? "Sinon" / Odysseus: Here, drink. [gives Eumaeus a drink of water] What's the danger to Telemachus? Eumaeus: He's on his way back from Sparta. The suitors sent bandits in the palace to ambush him in the temple. "Sinon" / Odysseus: Give me food for the road. Eumaeus: You'll- You'll never catch up with the bandits... "Sinon" / Odysseus: If I can get to Pilos before Telemachus arrives, I can warn him. Eumaeus: Why are you helping? "Sinon" / Odysseus: If I tell you, don't be angry. I served with Odysseus at Troy. Eum

Dialogue

"Sinon" / Odysseus: What if the Odysseus you knew lost his way? What if... one night, in a strange city, he saw things that made him think the home he knew couldn't possibly be there anymore. What if... when he left the belly of the horse, and opened the gates of Troy, he saw ten years of rage pour into that city in one night? We left them a gift, an offering of peace, that they took into their home. We violated all that's ever sacred between people. It turned a fight into a hunt. To burn the walls of Troy was to burn the world-entire. Including his home. What if he knew, that very night, as he walked through fires, anarchy, and pain -- and in a daze of sweaty celebrations that follow -- what if he knew exactly what he'd done? Penelope: What all of you had done? "Sinon" / Odysseus: One man's idea. One man's trick to break Zeus's law forever. We lived in a world of palaces and trade, language, blind to its beauty, until we broke it. Penelope: You are the people from the sea. "Sinon" / O

Dialogue

Penelope: [cradling Odysseus as he reunites with her, seeming as if he is dying] Odysseus, my love! Odysseus... My love... You came back... Odysseus: At last... The end... To see my beloved Ithaca, one last time... Penelope: No, no... Oh, no, no, you can't, you can't, you can't, not now! Not now, please, I've waited so long... [sobs] You can't die! Odysseus: Not death... Exile. Telemachus will be King. We'll head into the unknown west, to honor my men, together. Penelope: Take your fastest ship and brightest crew and head for the horizon. Odysseus: Chasing the escaping sun. Penelope: Why will the stories only be sung? Odysseus: Because songs will be all they have to remember those of us who could write. Penelope: Civilization will rise again. Odysseus: A new dawn will break over the darkened world. And our mistakes will once again be forgotten.