The Glory of Athens: The humour and inspiration of the ancient Greeks

By James Taris

Can Pericles save the glory of Athens? If not, then who?The Glory of Athens is a comedy on overcoming adversity that has six Ancient Greek geniuses come back to life and display the characteristics that made them so successful. The six characters include Pericles, Archimedes, Socrates, Demosthenes, Homer and Odysseus. The play has some hilarious monologues from these six characters and Demi, a modern-day accountant, who is burdened with a seemingly impossible task. The year is 2004 and Athens Inc. has chosen Demi to revitalise their ailing sales force by giving them an inspiring speech leading them into a new era of sales success. But 'sales' is something Demi has absolutely no knowledge of and is overwhelmed by his new responsibility.In a desperate bid for help, Demi prays to God, who sends the Ancient Greek goddess Athena to his aid. She gives Demi a bag of magical items which enable him to change into each character and go back into time, around 440 BC, when the Parthenon was being built, and see them in action, though not exactly how he had imagined them to be. Pericles teaches him how to tackle problems by soliciting the help of the best minds available. So, when the slaves threaten to strike unless they can get more time off to watch Greek theatre, he contacts Archimedes (by mobile phone) to invent the TeleVision for him and then he contacts Rupert Murdochakis to provide the programs for him. Unfortunately, Pericles' army suffers huge losses in a recent battle, so he is now confronted with a much bigger crisis than Demi's: saving the glory of Athens. So, the focus then turns to finding someone to help Pericles solve his seemingly impossible task ... restoring faith to his people by addressing them with a reassuring public speech.Archimedes is self-centred and obsessed with his own genius, getting excited about even his smallest achievements. And so, determined to succeed that he avoids bathing, and eating, so he will have more time for solving his mathematical and scientific problems. But he cannot help Pericles. Socrates has just been practising his arguing skills with a sock used as a hand puppet, toning up his repertoire of clever arguments to confuse his opponents. He uses much philosophy and wisdom in his monologue but is arrested by soldiers before he can give Pericles the advice he needs. Demosthenes is a smooth talker who has overcome a speech impediment by practising with a mouth full of marbles. But even though he promises to help, he suddenly loses his voice when choking on one of his marbles. In desperation, Demi looks in his magic bag for a replacement, and finds Homer. Homer is very inspiring, and he shares, in verse, how, even though blind, he was able to use persistence and perseverance to realise his dreams. But he fails to make contact with Pericles. Odysseus is Pericles' last hope. And when Odysseus finds that Homer is rewriting his story, changing it from a one-year absence to ten years, he spends most of his time trying to add encounters with women to these new changes, finally, in a flash of enlightenment, concluding that we can have eternal glory by becoming the best we can be.Although each character is placed in ridiculously funny situations, they are all presented as strong role models for Demi, who gleans a little from each one on his journey to tackling the problem his company has burdened him with. And the play builds to a very powerful conclusion, as we find out if Pericles can save The Glory of Athens, and if Demi can solve his own problem too.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B08FV5MK4N
• ISBN13: 9798676519575
• Release Date: August 2020
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 90 Pages
• Weight: 0.29 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.2" x 6.0" x 9.0"