Triptych and Iphigenia (10 page)

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 expression 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 thrown 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.

S
CENE
F
OUR

C
lytemnestra 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.