Dante's Holy Comedy consists of three parts, but what we all remember is Hell. Among the many characters encountered in Hell, while reading the Holy Comedy as a student, Ulysses is one of those that most impressed me, and I identified with his spirit of rebellion against rules and his passion for discovery. Reading the story of Ulysses today, I still love it, but I cannot avoid thinking that behind every hero there is a multitude of enablers, people who must take care of the dirty, hidden, unsatisfactory, and unheroic daily tasks, so that the destined hero can take his masculine place among the other masculine heroes. For this reason, I decided to tell Ulysses' heroic voyage through the eyes of one of those enablers, making her a woman in love who doesn’t regret having followed her hero to Hell, at the cost of hiding her true self, because her love for Ulysses was second only to her love for discovery and adventure. This is the story of Ulysses' voyage narrated through the eyes of a woman who disguised herself as a man to be allowed to follow the man and the adventures that she loved.

Maria Cristina Marras

On Ulysses' Incredible Voyage

IN ITALIAN: L'un lito e l'altro vidi infin la Spagna,
fin nel Morrocco, e l'isola d'i Sardi, e l'altre che quel mare intorno bagna. Io e compagni eravam vecchi e tardi quando venimmo a quella foce stretta dov'Ercule segnò li suoi riguardi [FROM HERE IT GOES UNDER THE MAIN VOICE FADING OUT] acciò che l'uom più oltre non si metta; da la man destra mi lasciai Sibilia, da l'altra già m'avea lasciata Setta. 'O frati', dissi 'che per cento milia perigli siete giunti a l'occidente... [TRANSLATION: Both of the shores I saw as far as Spain,
Far as Morocco. and the isle of Sardes,
And the others which that sea bathes round about. I and my company were old and slow
When at that narrow passage we arrived
Where Hercules his landmarks set as signals, That man no farther onward should adventure.
On the right hand behind me left I Seville,
And on the other already had left Ceuta.
‘O brothers, who amid a hundred thousand Perils,’ I said, ‘have come unto the West]
MAIN VOICE: Nothing to regret. There is nothing
regret. And don’t look surprised, you know
are. We are in Hell. Because of every and each time that we cursed, and blasphemed heaven and the spirits and the gods...
IN ITALIAN: d'i nostri sensi ch'è del rimanente
non vogliate negar l'esperïenza,
di retro al sol [TRANSLATION: Which is remaining of your senses still Be ye unwilling to deny the knowledge, Following the sun]
MAIN VOICE: I don’t regret a thing. Because I would do it all again, if I could. And thousands of times again I would follow my captain Ulysses among sea waves, storms and hurricanes, and islands.
IN ITALIAN: Considerate la vostra semenza: fatti non foste a viver come bruti, ma per seguir virtute e canoscenza. [TRANSLATION: Consider ye the seed from which ye sprang; Ye were not made to live like unto brutes, But for pursuit of virtue and of knowledge.]
On Ulysses' Incredible Voyage 1
to
where we
MAIN VOICE: I had to hide my true identity, of course, if that’s what you are wondering. They didn’t like women on board of ships, not women like me at least, because they did bring on board women to love and to desire, they liked those women allright, but no one wanted a woman in the crew, and so I pretended to be a man, I concealed my femininity, cut my hair and strapped bandages around my bosoms and I had to hide who I was because I wasn’t allowed to be there, they didn’t want people like me, they didn’t want women like me.
IN ITALIAN: acciò che l'uom più oltre non si metta; da la man destra mi lasciai Sibilia, da l'altra gi m'avea lasciata Setta. 'O frati', dissi 'che per cento milia perigli siete giunti a l'occidente... [TRANSLATION: That man no farther onward should adventure. On the right hand behind me left I Seville, And on the other already had left Ceuta. ‘O brothers, who amid a hundred thousand Perils,’ I said, ‘have come unto the West’
MAIN VOICE: You should have seen it, you should have been there... He didn’t have to incite us because he was our leader, and master, and god, and everything.
We trusted him with our life and with our afterlife. Can’t you see? You see me here tormented in this bolgia, in the eighth circle of Hell, but don’t be scared, because I am not.
IN ITALIAN: d'i nostri sensi ch'è del rimanente
non vogliate negar l'esperïenza [TRANSLATION: Which is remaining of your senses still Be ye unwilling to deny the knowledge]
MAIN VOICE: I don’t regret following Ulysses, even if I knew, we all knew, that he didn’t care to find his way home. And of course I knew of his wife, and his kid, and his dog, as they were waiting for him, the hero to return.
And I did not complain when he took us to islands of witches and cannibals, and those of us that were not turned to pigs, those were eaten alive, and death was often better than what we fear it might happen to us.
And if you see me crying, it is only for joy, because he took us across the Pillars of Hercules where no other human soul had been before, and I was proud, and we were fierce!
IN ITALIAN: considerate la vostra semenza: fatti non foste a viver come bruti, ma per seguir... [TRANSLATION: Consider ye the seed from which ye sprang; Ye were not made to live like unto brutes, But for pursuit...]
MAIN VOICE: And this is the punishment that we share, burnt by the flame that nourishes through this relentless wind, and it is an eternal wind, because everything in here is eternal, and so is eternal my punishment, but also my joy for having shared the time I shared with him, although he never looked at me like a woman, but enough for me, was to be there by him, because my love for Ulysses only equals my love for discovery and adventure, as we were not made to live our lives as brutes, but for pursuit of virtue and of knowledge.
IN ITALIAN: considerate la vostra semenza: fatti non foste a viver come bruti, ma per seguir virtute e canoscenza. [TRANSLATION: Consider ye the seed from which ye sprang; Ye were not made to live like unto brutes, But for pursuit of virtue and of knowledge.]


Long Live the New Sound

On Ulysses' Incredible Voyage