Triptych and Iphigenia

by Edna O'Brien

  I passed along by the grove of Artemis

  Whose shrine is in the hollow of the hill.

  Shelter of Leto’s travail

  Soft tossed palms

  The sweet laurel and silver swill of olive

  The earth red-hued, stained

  From much sacrifice.

  Overhearing that

  I would rather not speak of.

  CHORUS GIRL TWO

  The Danaan warriors

  The oared ships of the Argives

  The fleet of Ajax

  The breezes soon

  To fill the sails

  To plough the unfriendly sea

  To the walls of Troy

  For the greatness of war is great.

  SIXTH GIRL Caring nothing for sacrifice.

  SCENE THREE

  The sound of men shouting, disputing, off-stage on the other side of the wall.

  Sixth Girl is by a little brazier where she is boiling eggs in a long narrow saucepan.

  Agamemnon emerges.

  Sixth Girl takes boiled eggs from the saucepan, haws on them and cracks them on the ground. She offers one to Agamemnon, who eats it with relish.

  AGAMEMNON This … husband … of yours?

  SIXTH GIRL What about him?

  AGAMEMNON What about him … did you give him boiled eggs?

  SIXTH GIRL Sometimes … if we had any … The morning he left I did because he was on a grand expedition.

  AGAMEMNON And now, you’re giving me boiled eggs … is that a … (Instead of the word he traces her lips.) Little serpent.

  She starts to dance. He joins her in the dance but is not as carefree with the steps as she. She darts up the ladder.

  She peers over the wall and looks down, then turns back.

  SIXTH GIRL These soldiers of yours … they’re mad … they want to kill kill kill.

  AGAMEMNON I cannot stop them.

  SIXTH GIRL If you cannot, who can?

  AGAMEMNON I play the role expected of me.

  SIXTH GIRL O … King.

  Agamemnon turns away, sits, and starts writing on the tablet.

  SIXTH GIRL Are you writing to me?

  AGAMEMNON No. (pause) To my daughter.

  SIXTH GIRL Is she beautiful?

  AGAMEMNON Yes.

  Sixth Girl squats and stares directly at him.

  SIXTH GIRL Teach me the ways of the court … how to dance and be a lady.

  AGAMEMNON There is no time.

  SIXTH GIRL Don’t send me home … there is no one there for me … Only rock and goats.

  AGAMEMNON You can’t stay here … it’s too dangerous … my men spy and gossip and would make trouble for us.

  SIXTH GIRL I will find a hole where I can hide and sometimes you will send for me.

  AGAMEMNON What makes you so sure that I will send for you?

  SIXTH GIRL Because the blood wills it.

  He kisses her. She goes.

  SIXTH GIRL (cont.) A king. A king.

  Agamemnon goes back to his letter.

  Old Man comes in.

  OLD MAN A father again … you have kindled your heart.

  AGAMEMNON Sshhh … these walls have ears.

  OLD MAN You can trust me … I am a faithful friend.

  AGAMEMNON Find me a messenger.

  OLD MAN My son … the fastest boy in all of Argos.

  AGAMEMNON When you give it to him, tell him to learn it by heart in case he is set upon by thieves.

  OLD MAN Teach it to me, master … we do not have your learning.

  AGAMEMNON I send you this tablet, O daughter of Leda.

  In lieu of the former.

  Do not come to Aulis with the girl.

  The wedding celebrations are no longer.

  We shall feast our daughter’s wedding another time.

  The Old Man murmurs it after him then hides the tablet under his jacket.

  AGAMEMNON (cont.) When he comes to a fork in the road, tell him to look in all directions in case they have already set out. If so, tell him to turn the carriage, the horses toward Atreus, to pilot them hence. Speed, speed.

  Agamemnon goes.

  WITCH (from her bastion) The gods are not fooled. Upon the battlements of Troy and around its walls the Trojan guard now stand, but soon from over the sea the goodly ships of Argos will draw into the channels of Simois to wreak slaughter. When Agamemnon has cut the head of Paris from his neck and has overturned that city there will be gnashing and tears among the maidens and wives. Lydian ladies in their golden robes cursing Helen, child of the long-necked swan, cause of all their disasters.

  A Man shouting offstage. Hearing it the Witch hides herself once again as MENELAUS pushes the Old Man onstage.

  OLD MAN My master will make you pay for this.

  MENELAUS Traitor. Lackey.

  OLD MAN I serve Agamemnon and none other … unbind me.

  MENELAUS I should bloody you here and now.

  Agamemnon appears.

  OLD MAN Master. He snatched the letter from my hand as I walked to my son’s hut … broke the seal and read it like a thief.

  MENELAUS Oh, brother.

  AGAMEMNON Hand it over.

  MENELAUS Not before I show it to my comrades.

  AGAMEMNON I am in command … I rule the army … I give orders.

  MENELAUS Rule! You are ready to ditch them for your own crooked ends.

  Agamemnon grabs the wooden tablet and smashes it in rage.

  MENELAUS (cont.) They should see you now in dread and shame, trying to cover your tracks … remember how eager you were to curry favor, to be their commander … clasping every hand, keeping open house for every citizen to visit you … high and low all welcome.

  AGAMEMNON And still are.

  MENELAUS Phfff. You hide behind walls … you are seldom seen … when trouble started you showed yourself a man of straw … your ships were grounded and what solution did you arrive at—disband the army … send them home and only then did you come to me pleading, “What am I to do? What am I to do?,” and when I suggested Calchas the prophet you rejoiced and when he told you the ships would sail if your daughter would be sacrificed you agreed after a few fatherly tears and sent a letter and slept on it and sent another—traitor, coward. The Trojan barbarians will not be assailed for the very simple expedient of you and your daughter’s happiness. You are not a king.

  AGAMEMNON Nor you a brother.

  MENELAUS A weakling.

  AGAMEMNON You call me that but what are you—a cuckold, a husband unable to keep his wife … something I am not charged with … no woman makes me wanting in the eyes of the world. You crave Helen back for lust or pride, or both, your so-called love of Greece, your great heroics a mere ploy that hides your basest need. I will not kill my child to fulfill your urges.

  MENELAUS Nor will our plans be scuttled … a wind will blow us safe unto Troy’s coast.

  The young Messenger from Scene One rushes in.

  MESSENGER My lord, Clytemnestra the Queen has just arrived. She was supported from her chariot holding the baby Orestes lest she stumble. Soft maidenly arms reached up to receive your daughter Iphigenia so that she would not be frightened by so many strangers. They are now bathing, the fillies let loose to drink and the army are asking, asking, because a rumor has spread that the young girl has come.

  AGAMEMNON What rumor?

  MESSENGER They gape to catch sight of the golden young girl and ask why has Agamemnon sent for her, is it that he misses her or is it that some marriage has been arranged for her by Artemis, goddess of Aulis. They shout, let there be a wedding to relieve the wretched waiting hours, let the pipes sound in the tents, let the earth thud with dancing feet, they are happy at the maiden’s arrival … some see in it a deliverance.

  AGAMEMNON Run and see if they are still bathing or if they are on their way toward the house.

  The Messenger runs off.

  AGAMEMNON (cont.) I am undone. (to Menelaus) What shall I say to my wife? How shall I receive her? What expressi
on shall I assume? And my little daughter? It is when she pleads with me that I will break. Argument such as her mother excels in, merely hardens my resolve, but pleading … Iphigenia pleading, her trusting eyes, her innocence, no father should be asked for this.

  MENELAUS Give me your hand.

  AGAMEMNON Take it. For you there is victory, for me a compact with ruin …

  MENELAUS By my father and yours, by Atreus who begot us, by the gods and goddesses, I see the tears that drop from your eyes and I am not your enemy. I withdraw the harsh words I spoke. It is not right that you should suffer this agony—I do not want your child to die. Am I to win Helen back by losing my brother’s loyalty—no. Or sacrifice my brother’s child—no. What has Iphigenia to do with all this—nothing. Let us disband the army, let them leave these bitter straits of Aulis, scatter their ships, and go home. I say this out of love for a brother and a deeper honor than winning back a faithless wife. I will search for her myself and drag her back to our homeland by her cursed hair.

  AGAMEMNON I welcome your words as a loyal brother, but make no mistake we have come to a point where necessity dictates our misfortune. We must carry out this bestial command.

  MENELAUS Who is forcing it?

  AGAMEMNON The army.

  MENELAUS They do not know of it yet. Send her back … go down to the fast-flowing stream and tell your wife the marriage with Achilles was something you dreamed, a father’s folly for his child.

  AGAMEMNON Calchas will tell.

  MENELAUS Not if he is dead.

  AGAMEMNON By whose hands?

  MENELAUS Ours.

  AGAMEMNON To kill a seer invites great disaster and moreover Odysseus knows, that wily cur. Already I can see him standing before the army telling them how I proved false. He will carry them with him and for good measure allow them to kill us all … you, me, and my entire family. Even if we escaped they would follow us, destroy our city, our palace with its immemorial walls, our household and our tribe. She shall be sacrificed.

  MENELAUS When?

  AGAMEMNON Immediately—while this madness reigns over me. One favor, keep my wife away until it is done.

  Over their speech stones have been thrown from beyond the wall and mutinous voices heard.

  AGAMEMNON (cont.) Put an end to their brawls. Tell them to save their murderous rage for the hosts of Troy … for we are presently to sail to that Phrygian land.

  MENELAUS Oh, my poor brother … Oh, my poor king.

  AGAMEMNON As a broken king I go to war.

  Menelaus goes.

  Agamemnon hits his head against the wall, again and again, violently.

  A stone is thrown over which almost hits him. He picks it up, looks at it and throws it back

  Women’s voices offstage.

  Agamemnon rushes into his tent.

  Clytemnestra enters. She turns back to give instructions to a maid.

  CLYTEMNESTRA Put the baby down … rock him … the journey has made him fidgety, and take the dower gifts and carry them into the house, lay them carefully.

  Iphigenia runs in.

  Agamemnon in soldier’s attire emerges.

  IPHIGENIA Father, Father.

  CLYTEMNESTRA My most reverent king, we are come and we are glad to come.

  Screaming of the baby offstage.

  Clytemnestra goes off. Iphigenia holds flowers.

  IPHIGENIA Smell. I picked them specially for you. When we were leaving my sisters clung to me, they wanted to come. You are strange, more than strange, what has happened, has this war made you so distant, so cold.

  AGAMEMNON The war has not even begun. We are paralyzed. The ships are stuck out there idle … no winds to lift the sails.

  IPHIGENIA Blow the winds blow, ho the winds ho … You’re not happy to see us.

  AGAMEMNON Happy. Yes yes.

  IPHIGENIA Take away that frown, Father. You’ve been separated from us too long and we from you. I’ve made this huge embroidery for you … a lamb in a meadow. It has twenty shades of gold … Guess how I got them … guess guess, I followed the turning of the sun from dawn until sunset. It hangs in the great hall, just as you come in. You can’t miss it. We were so lonely without you and little Orestes does not know his father but guess what, I taught him to say your name … he has eight words in all, eight baby words and a lisp. There are tears in your eyes.

  AGAMEMNON The time is not good.

  IPHIGENIA Forget war … give it up … send the men away … come home with us …

  AGAMEMNON If I could I would.

  IPHIGENIA Where is Achilles? Is he in his tent waiting? What shall I say to him? What shall he say to me? Does he have a little beard? Is his voice from down here? … Is his armor really gold … Answer me, Father, answer me.

  AGAMEMNON There is no answer.

  IPHIGENIA I believe you’re jealous … that’s why you’re sulking.

  AGAMEMNON Shut up.

  Iphigenia looks at him appalled. He has never shouted at her before. She runs off.

  CLYTEMNESTRA You have made her cry … why such a mood, such shiftiness?

  Agamemnon turns and climbs the ladder to escape. Clytemnestra follows and pulls him back.

  CLYTEMNESTRA (cont.) Of course you hate to lose her, but think what I feel … I too will feel the pangs when I lead her along the steps to the marriage grove. Yet marriage is a great thing and we should welcome it. Tell me his character.

  AGAMEMNON Reserved. He is quite reserved. Chiron, it is said, reared him under the sea waves so that he should not learn wickedness from men.

  CLYTEMNESTRA Excellent. So no fault is to be found in him.

  AGAMEMNON He sits apart from all the others … aloof.

  CLYTEMNESTRA It is good. It is very good … where does he come from … from which city of Thessaly?

  AGAMEMNON Phthia, by the River Apidanus.

  CLYTEMNESTRA Blessing on them both. Which day are they to be married?

  AGAMEMNON When the moon comes full round.

  CLYTEMNESTRA That is lucky.

  Where shall I make the wedding feasts for the women?

  AGAMEMNON Down on the shore. But better leave all that to me.

  CLYTEMNESTRA Why?

  AGAMEMNON Lady, you will do as I say.

  CLYTEMNESTRA I am used to doing what you say … in everything … have you forgotten? And you have not kissed me. Are you afraid your men will think you weak?

  AGAMEMNON Go back home and take little Orestes with you.

  CLYTEMNESTRA What! Be absent from my daughter’s wedding! Who will raise the bridal torch, who will say the prayers, who will crown her?

  AGAMEMNON I will.

  CLYTEMNESTRA That is not the usual style. A mother does these things … it is her privilege.

  AGAMEMNON I do not want you mingling with this rabble of soldiers.

  CLYTEMNESTRA I shan’t mingle … I shall be with my husband, in his tent, under his protection.

  AGAMEMNON Obey!

  He grips both her hands to convey his resolve.

  She starts to bite his hands to free her own; the bite is both erotic and determined.

  CLYTEMNESTRA Your wife has missed you. A mother loves her children but a wife hankers for her husband once they have been put down to sleep. And have you not felt the same absense?

  AGAMEMNON I am at war.

  CLYTEMNESTRA War. War. War. Why are men so enamored of war?

  AGAMEMNON Go and tell her that I am sorry … leave me to settle something that must be settled. Patience, Clytemnestra … patience.

  CLYTEMNESTRA Is there something … fatal?

  AGAMEMNON No, no.

  Clytemnestra leaves.

  AGAMEMNON (cont.) And so I plot and weave and slither against her that I love so dearly.

  He goes.

  Clytemnestra enters.

  On her way Sixth Girl passes under the wall—they exchange a look.

  They both go.

  Agamemnon comes out and goes to the ladder.

  A huge stone is throw
n and again he picks it up and throws it back.

  He climbs the ladder.

  Music swells the stage as a procession of Young Girls comes on slowly, chanting a wedding song. They circle the stage.

  WITCH

  To the strains of the Lythian lotus pipe

  Daughters of Nereus gather

  To stamp their golden sandals

  On the earthen floor

  For the wedding of Achilles, son of Peleus

  His suit of gold mail

  A gift

  From his divine mother Thetis.

  Daughters of Nereus join to crown

  Iphigenia’s tresses.

  Iphigenia, a young heifer undefiled,

  (shrieks) is for the knife.

  The Young Girls go inside and the music continues within.

  SCENE FOUR

  Clytemnestra enters, goes in search of Agamemnon.

  When she comes out, Sixth Girl is waiting for her.

  SIXTH GIRL May I speak with you.

  CLYTEMNESTRA Who are you?

  SIXTH GIRL A woman (pause) that befriends her sex.

  CLYTEMNESTRA Really! And follows the camp to pick the leavings.

  SIXTH GIRL My bed was cold. I lost a husband on account of Helen. Something is being kept hidden from you.

  CLYTEMNESTRA What?

  SIXTH GIRL Your daughter is to be sacrificed in order that they can hoist the sails and make war on Troy.

  CLYTEMNESTRA You rave.

  SIXTH GIRL Unhappy lady … you will wish you had let me into your confidence and opened that haughty heart of yours.

  Sixth Girl goes.

  ACHILLES in full armor comes down the ladder.

  Clytemnestra draws aside.

  ACHILLES Agamemnon, captain of the army, Achilles stands before your door … the men grow fierce … they curse … their murmurs swell. “How long more, how long more for the voyage to Ilium. What does Agamemnon intend to do, send us home.” Wreak shame on the House of Atreus and leave an army in perpetual desolation.

  Over his speech the Old Man has come on from one side and Clytemnestra from the other.

  CLYTEMNESTRA Achilles, prince of greatness.

  ACHILLES How is this—a woman … So stately and so fair. Revered lady … this is no place for a woman, fenced in by an undisciplined mob.

  CLYTEMNESTRA I am Clytemnestra, wife of the King and mother of Iphigenia.

  Why do you run … join hands with me … as a happy prelude for the bridals.

  ACHILLES Touch your hand! I could not face Agamemnon if I touched that which I have no right to.