House of Names

by Colm Toibin

  Aegisthus and I often went through each possibility of disruption or deception. We discussed in detail what would happen on the day of my husband’s return. Once Agamemnon was preparing to enter the palace, we agreed, Electra was to be distracted and confined somewhere until it had all ended. And Orestes was to be removed to a safe place so that he too would not witness what was to transpire.

  Aegisthus told me that he had five hundred men waiting, each one fully loyal to him. These men would follow orders down to the letter.

  I held Aegisthus in my arms then, still worried that something might happen in those first hours when my husband came that would spark his suspicion. It must be open welcome, I thought, it must be all festive. Neither Aegisthus himself nor any of his followers must appear. Thus it would be up to me to make the returning warrior feel that everything was as it should be.

  Having charted a great choreography of welcome and good cheer, we made love ferociously, aware of the risks we were taking, but aware too of the gains, the spoils.

  *

  We could see the chariots in the distance glistening as they came. We sent the guards running out to meet them as we, each of us, rehearsed our roles. First, Orestes with his sword. Then his sister, Electra. Then each elder, each with a different sentence of welcome or praise. I would stand above all this, watching, smiling. Eventually, I would move towards Orestes, who was nervous now, excited, and I would approach my husband and confirm what Electra had said, that his kingdom was as he had left it, peaceful, loyal, waiting for his command. Inside the palace, in the floor below our quarters, Aegisthus and some of his followers would wait, not making a sound, not even a whisper. But in the main corridor, he would leave a number of guards who would be ready to do our bidding.

  Agamemnon stood straight in his chariot. He seemed to have grown larger. He was all swagger as he watched us waiting. When I saw that he noticed me, I made sure my look was of pride and then humility. Even when I saw that in his chariot there was a woman standing with him and she was young and beautiful, I gave a grand, distant smile to both of them and then let it soften into warmth. Agamemnon laughed as Orestes approached. He took out his own sword and began to joust with his son, shouting to his followers to come and help him overcome this famous warrior.

  We had trained Orestes to move aside and return to the palace and wait in my room, where he believed that he would be joined soon by his father. Electra then stepped forward. She exuded gravity, pomposity, seriousness. She bowed to her father and the woman who was at his side and spoke the words on which we had agreed and then bowed once more while her father greeted each of the elders. Soon, he had a group of them gathered around his chariot as he described some battle he had won and detailed the golden strategies that had caused victory to be his.

  And then I signalled to my women and they came with tapestries and set them down between where Agamemnon’s feet would land and the entrance to the palace. He took the hand of the young, proud woman beside him, who pushed aside her cloak to reveal a red robe of enormous richness. She let her hair hang loose as she stepped with him onto the tapestries. She let her eyes range around, as though this were a country that in her dreams had always belonged to her and had become real merely to satisfy her.

  ‘This is Cassandra,’ my husband said. ‘She has been captured. She is one aspect of the gifts and spoils that have come to us.’

  Cassandra lifted her beautiful head and haughtily caught my eye, as if I had been placed on earth to serve her; then she looked at Electra, who stared at her in wonder. Many other chariots had come by now, some bearing treasure and others filled with slaves, their hands bound behind them. Cassandra stood apart from this, glancing with disdain at the slaves who were being led away. I moved towards her, and invited her to enter the palace, signalling to Electra that she should follow.

  As soon as we were inside, having left Agamemnon to tell more stories and wave his hands in triumph and set about dividing some of the slaves among his men, Cassandra became concerned. When she asked if she could go out to find my husband again, I said no, we the women must stay inside.

  This was the moment where all could have been lost, as she spoke in a frightened tone of nets of danger, of snares and dangerous weavings. She lowered her voice as she mentioned murder. She could see murder, she said; she could smell murder. When Electra appeared, she was too excited by her father’s arrival to hear what Cassandra was saying. I asked Electra to check the tables for the feast. I knew that Aegisthus’ men would be waiting for her. And I knew also that Orestes would be taken from the palace by two of the guards.

  As Cassandra continued to speak, her tone more and more strident, demanding that she be allowed to return to my husband’s side, I told the guards to remove her to one of the inner chambers. I instructed one of them to tell my husband, if he asked, that Cassandra had sought a place to rest and had been given the most comfortable room for guests and that this seemed to have pleased her.

  And then I stood alone at the palace entrance, waiting as lines and lines of chariots approached, as the sounds of cheering rose again and again, as my husband repeated a story he had already told to the men hungry for his winning smile, for his familiar touch, for the rich sound of his voice.

  Everything I knew I used now. I did not speak or move. I did not frown or smile. I looked at Agamemnon as if he were a god and I was too humble even to be in his presence. It was my task to wait. One word of warning from one of the men would be enough to have changed everything. I watched them, but I saw that they had no chance to speak. Agamemnon was boasting of some danger that he had survived. No one could have punctured the bloated sound he made.

  The longer he stayed with them, however, the more comfortable they became and thus the more dangerous. If he does not leave them soon, I thought, one of them will whisper a warning and it will be enough. He had all his guards with him. They were laughing too and showing off their slaves. One word and all that could transform.

  I watched calmly, and as Agamemnon moved directly towards me, his face weathered but his bearing open and friendly and sweet, I knew that I had prevailed.

  ‘Cassandra has asked for a bath,’ I said, ‘and a bed where she might rest before this evening’s feast. Electra has gone with her, and some women too.’

  ‘Yes, that is good.’

  For a few seconds, something clouded his expression, but then he relaxed again.

  ‘I have waited for this day,’ he said.

  ‘Everything is prepared for you,’ I said. ‘In the kitchen they have been working. Come with me to our inner quarters. I have ordered the bath to be filled for you and I have fresh clothes waiting so that when you appear later at the feast the triumph will be complete.’

  ‘Cassandra’s quarters must be close to mine,’ he said.

  ‘I will arrange that,’ I replied.

  ‘It was her warnings that caused me to be fiercer in later battles,’ he said. ‘We would not have been victorious without her. That we won those last battles is partly due to her.’

  He was so involved in the conversation that he barely noticed where we were going. Once again, one warning shout, one strange sound or sight, would have stopped him. But there was nothing except his own voice as he began to describe the details of battles and tell me what spoils were still on their way to us.

  As we entered the room where the bath had been filled, I knew not to embrace him or touch him. The time for that had passed. I was his servant now as I helped him to remove his robes, as I tested the water for him. What was unusual was the small pang of desire I felt as he stood naked in the room, talking all the while. He had once been beautiful. I felt the old ache of tenderness and it was that very ache, or that change in me, that strengthened my resolve and made me realize even more sharply that if my mood could change, then his could easily shift too. It reminded me how quickly he could become suspicious. Once that happened, he would see how blindly he had been led here, and how vulnerable he was in this room without
any guards.

  I had planned to wait until his bathing was over and he sought towels to dry himself, but I knew now not to hesitate. I waited for that second when his back was turned. I had the netted robe on a hook on the wall. When he had one foot in the bath, I came behind him and pulled the net around him and tightened it as though I were seeking to protect him. The knife was secreted within my robes.

  I saw him trying to struggle and call out. But because of the robe, he could not move and his voice could not be heard. I caught his hair and pulled his head back. I showed him the knife, pointing it first towards his eyes until he flinched, before I stabbed him in the neck just beneath the ear, moving aside to avoid the jet of spurting blood, and then, pushing the blade further into his neck, I began to drag it slowly across his throat, slicing deep into him as blood flowed in easy, gurgling waves down his chest and into the water of the bath. And then he fell. It was done.

  I went quietly along the corridor to the floor below and found Aegisthus at the place we had agreed.

  ‘I have done it,’ I whispered. ‘He is dead.’

  I retreated to my own quarters then, telling the two guards that I was to be disturbed by no one except Aegisthus.

  Some minutes later, Aegisthus came to assure me that both Orestes and Electra had been escorted to safety.

  ‘And Cassandra?’ I asked.

  ‘What do you want done with her?’

  It was my turn to smile.

  ‘Do you want me to do it?’ he asked.

  ‘Yes, I do.’

  She had come to us in glory and now, in ignominy, she was running through the palace seeking Agamemnon, having divined that something had happened to him. Aegisthus followed her at a slow pace. When I saw her, I calmly ushered her into the bathroom, where she could see my husband bent over naked, his head in the bloody water. As she howled, I handed Aegisthus the knife I had used on Agamemnon and indicated to him that I would leave him to his task.

  I returned to my chamber. I found fresh clothes and prepared for the feast that we had planned.

  Aegisthus had further work to do. Five hundred of his followers, as promised, had come from the mountains. Once darkness fell, he would lead them directly to the palace. They would surround the houses of the elders and prevent them from meeting until they came to our table. He would have others round up the slaves and protect the spoils.

  The soldiers who had returned with my husband would be greeted with fanfare and a great feast in one of the halls on the palace grounds, with rich food and strong wine. As the night wore on, and they grew drunk and distracted enough by the welcome not to notice that the doors of the hall had been locked, Aegisthus’ men would lie in wait for them.

  At first they would think it was a mistake and they would shout for help. When the doors were opened and they came out in the dark night air to relieve themselves or check their safety, they would be set upon. It would be easy to tie each one up and take them to where the slaves were kept. At first light, slaves and soldiers would be marched away under the guard of Aegisthus’ men.

  There was rocky land beyond the mountains to be cleared, Aegisthus said, for vines and fruit trees. It would take some years. Most of the slaves and soldiers would remain there under guard, we agreed, but some of the soldiers would be swiftly brought back here as soon as they had been identified as those closest to Agamemnon. We would seek out the ones who knew about the new territories under our control and had the names of the men he had left in charge. These soldiers would know best how to consolidate and keep what had been taken in the wars. They would work for us under our direct protection and watchful eyes.

  Some of Aegisthus’ other men would stay here to detain troops as they straggled back from the war. They would march them away, to follow the others. They would confiscate what spoils they could and keep the peace, ensuring that nothing untoward occurred by day, ensuring also that there were no secret meetings or small conspiracies by night. They would guard the palace as they would guard their lives. Ten of them, the most loyal and the strongest, who were detailed to be my personal guards, would be instructed to remain always at my side.

  *

  By the time the feast in the palace began that evening, these ten men had arrived outside my room. Aegisthus’ other followers had descended and were making themselves busy. He had trained them years before to be sharp, to make no fuss. There was to be no shouting or triumph; instead there was to be ruthless silence, watchfulness, devotion to the task.

  I wore the same dress that I had worn for Iphigenia’s sacrifice, the dress that had been made for me to wear at her wedding years earlier. I had my hair done in the same way and the same whiteness put on my face and the same black lines around my eyes.

  The food was served as though nothing strange had occurred, although the guests and the servants must have known that two dead bodies lay in the bathing place whose floor was covered in their blood. As the meal came to an end, I spoke to the assembled men.

  ‘The boys, your sons and grandsons, will be released. They will be brought back to your houses in the night when they are least expected. If there is any effort to oppose me, even whispering among yourselves, or meeting in small groups, all will be suspended and the risks to their safety will be great. And also, you must warn the boys when they return never to speak to anyone of where they have been, or mention that they have been away at all.’

  The men nodded, not even glancing at one another. I asked them to remain at the table for some time as I arranged with Aegisthus’ men to have the bodies of my husband and of the woman Cassandra, lit by torches, to be displayed outside for all to see, and to be left there through the night and the following day and perhaps beyond.

  I bade each man goodnight, standing at the door to watch as they passed the naked body of Agamemnon and the body of Cassandra dressed in red, with their throats cut. The men walked by without stopping, without a word.

  *

  When I was ready to have the bodies buried, and when all the prisoners had been taken away and the palace was peaceful except for the buzzing of flies, I told Aegisthus that I wished to see Electra and Orestes. I wanted to have them near me now that justice had been done.

  The expression on Aegisthus’ face darkened when a few hours later I had to give the order for a second time.

  ‘I can release Electra immediately,’ he said.

  ‘What do you mean release her?’ I asked. ‘Where is she?’

  ‘She is in the dungeon,’ he said.

  ‘Who told you that you could put her in the dungeon?’ I asked.

  ‘I decided to put her there,’ he said.

  ‘Release her now!’ I ordered. ‘And bring Orestes to me.’

  ‘Orestes is not here,’ he said.

  ‘Aegisthus, where is Orestes?’

  ‘We agreed that he would be taken to safety.’

  ‘Where is he?’

  ‘He is safe. He’s with the other boys who were captured, or he’s on his way towards where they are being held.’

  ‘I want him returned now!’

  ‘That is not possible.’

  ‘We must send for him now.’

  ‘It is too dangerous to travel.’

  ‘I am ordering you to have him returned.’

  As Aegisthus left silence for a few moments, I could see that he was enjoying keeping me in suspense.

  ‘I will decide when it is the right time for him to return,’ he said. ‘I will be the one who decides that.’

  He looked at me with an air of satisfaction.

  ‘Your son is safe,’ he said.

  I had sworn that I would make no more mistakes, but now I saw that I was fully under his power.

  ‘What would I have to do,’ I asked, ‘to have you bring him here now?’

  ‘That is something we can perhaps discuss,’ he said. ‘But in the meantime, do not worry about him. He’s in good hands.’

  ‘What do you want from me?’ I asked.

  ‘What you promised
,’ he replied.

  ‘I want him returned,’ I said.

  ‘It will happen,’ he said. ‘You must not worry beyond what is necessary.’

  He bowed and left the room.

  *

  The palace was quiet in the days that followed. The new guards did not sleep in the night; they were fully alert, prepared to obey Aegisthus’ commands. They were afraid of him, I saw, and this meant that they did not swagger, or talk too much. At night, he came to my room, but I knew that he had also been in the kitchens, or some part of the palace where the women gathered, and I knew that he had been with one of them, or two, or one of the servant boys.

  He slept with a dagger in his hand.

  When Electra came once to see me, she stood in the doorway and stared at me and did not speak before turning away.

  The palace remained a house of shadows, a place where someone could still, it seemed, wander in the night without being stopped by anyone. One morning, I woke uneasily at dawn light to find a young girl at the foot of our bed watching me.

  ‘Iphigenia!’ I cried out. ‘Iphigenia!’

  ‘No,’ she whispered.

  ‘Who are you?’

  ‘My grandmother did the weaving,’ she said.

  I realized then that in all of the care we took in the days since Agamemnon’s death, we had forgotten the young girl and her grandmother.

  Aegisthus was wide awake. He would, he said briskly, soon arrange their return to the village in the blue mountains from which we had taken them.

  I left the bed and approached the young girl. She was not afraid of me.

  As I took her hand in mine to walk to the kitchens, to make sure that she and her grandmother had food, the light of early morning was soft and golden. The silence was broken only by birdsong.

  Soon, I thought, I would find a way to implore Aegisthus to have Orestes brought back to me. Since I could not threaten him, I would not oppose him. I would work with him.