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    Aphrodite: A Play
    Aphrodite: A Play
    Aphrodite: A Play
    Ebook107 pages52 minutes

    Aphrodite: A Play

    By James M. Guiher

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    About this ebook

    THE APHRODITE OF MELOS (VENUS DE MILO), THE LARGE MARBLE STATUE OF THE GODDESS OF LOVE, CARVED IN THE 1ST OR 2ND CENTURY B.C., NOW IN THE LOUVRE, HAS BEEN THE MOST FAMOUS WOMAN IN THE WORLD SINCE SHE WAS DUG UP IN GREECE IN 1820.

    Ben Hastings, an American art history professor, thinks she holds deep secrets that he can discover if he lives alone with a full-sized copy of the statue.

    But three women wont let him alone. Helen, his wife; Silvia, a curvaceous young blonde; and Xenia, a dark-haired woman with a mysterious past, try to divert him from his obsession with Aphrodite and possess him for themselves.

    Do they succeed? Or does the power of the goddess prevail?

    Ben considers her to be the essence of woman, but she is replete with contradictions: whore or nurturing mother; a fragmented figure that yet forms a magnificent work of art; an iconic female but carved by a man.

    Although fast-paced and comical in tone, the play investigates many of the issues pondered by the ancient Greeks: the ideal vs. the real; sacred vs. profane love; one vs. many (which is more fundamental?).

    Is woman forever to be a mystery? Is the truth knowable? Are there some things we should not know? Read the play and decide if Ben finds out what he is searching for.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisheriUniverse
    Release dateAug 18, 2010
    ISBN9781450248068
    Aphrodite: A Play
    Author

    James M. Guiher

    When James M. Guiher visited the Parthenon, he was so overwhelmed that he eventually fired himself from his corporate job to write about the beautiful art and profound wisdom of the ancient Greeks.

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      Book preview

      Aphrodite - James M. Guiher

      Contents

      Scene 1

      Scene 2

      Scene 3

      Scene 4

      Scene 5

      Scene 6

      Scene 7

      Scene 8

      Scene 9

      Scene 10

      Scene 11

      Scene 12

      Scene 1

      SKU-000175482_TEXT-7.jpg

      Ben is standing by the couch. Casually dressed in a tweed jacket, rumpled pants and a button-down shirt with no tie, he looks like the middle-aged college professor he is as he stares intently at the statue, brightened by an overhead spotlight. Slowly circling, he carefully examines the statue from every angle. He crosses to the table beside the couch, opens a drawer, removes a tape measure, returns to the statue, and measures the distance between her breasts. HELEN enters. A handsome woman in her mid-forties, she watches him measure the distance from the statue’s breasts to her navel and from her navel to her crotch. BEN pulls a small notebook from his coat pocket and writes down the measurements.

      HELEN

      Ben.

      (He frowns at the figures in his notebook.)

      I’m sorry to bother you.

      (He pulls out the tape and places the end of it in Aphrodite’s navel.)

      BEN

      Here, hold this.

      (She grasps the tape as he stretches it up to Aphrodite’s left breast, checks the distance and glances at his notebook.)

      Now the other one.

      (He measures the distance up to her right breast, looks at his notebook, then has HELEN move the tape up to her right breast so he can measure the distance across to her left breast. Referring to his notebook, he scowls and shakes his head.)

      HELEN

      Is there something wrong?

      BEN

      The distance between her breasts and from her breasts to her navel and from her navel to her crotch are all supposed to be equal.

      HELEN

      Is that it? I’ve often wondered why you find her so fascinating.

      BEN

      The downward angle between her breasts throws it off.

      HELEN

      You’re the only person in the world who cares about the space between them.

      BEN

      What appears to be a realistic torso is actually constructed with great geometrical precision.

      HELEN

      If you ask me, I say her breasts are rather small, for a woman her size. Of course, now she could easily have that deficiency corrected.

      BEN

      With their acute eye for geometrical relationships, the Greeks created the classic proportions that have become the standard of beauty ever since.

      HELEN

      You mean we’re all supposed to look like that?

      BEN

      Nature of course rarely follows the laws of classic proportions.

      HELEN

      How far off am I?

      (She stretches the tape across her chest.)

      BEN

      You’re fine.

      HELEN

      I’d really like to know.

      BEN

      It only applies to works of art.

      HELEN

      It’s just another way to make women feel there’s always something wrong with us.

      BEN

      No woman can hope to be perfect.

      HELEN

      But she is?

      BEN

      The Greeks thought so.

      HELEN

      I guess the rest of us just have to live with what we’ve got.

      (She cups her breasts.)

      Not bad for forty-three.

      BEN

      Look, I have a lot of work to do.

      HELEN

      Do you know what today is? Roger’s birthday. He’s made a special trip from school. Why don’t you come home and help us celebrate?

      (BEN takes the tape measure, crosses to the table, and drops it into the drawer.)

      I haven’t told him. I don’t know how to explain it.

      BEN

      You know our agreement.

      HELEN

      He’ll be very disappointed.

      BEN

      He’ll have lots more birthdays.

      HELEN

      I think you should tell him. If you tell him, maybe he’ll understand.

      BEN

      (Slamming the table drawer.)

      Roger?

      HELEN

      He’s matured a great deal now that he’s away from home and on his own.

      BEN

      Still wants to be an engineer doesn’t he?

      HELEN

      You can explain how she’s put together just like a well- constructed building.

      BEN

      You know I can’t.

      HELEN

      Please darling, just for one night. Remember when Roger was ten and after his birthday party he slept over at Ted’s.

      (She caresses his chest.)

      You’d been away for a week at a conference and.. .well we never got to the bedroom but made love there on the couch.

      BEN

      You agreed you know.

      HELEN

      Yes, but I didn’t realize how difficult it would be to come home from work to an empty house with no one there.

      BEN

      It’s not easy for me either you know.

      (SILVIA enters. A lovely young girl whose crisp white

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