Triptych and Iphigenia (8 page)

A night scene, windless, hushed.

A starlit sky.

A high wall with ladders.

WITCH
   Great Zeus stopped the winds and why. He sends winds to other men's expeditions, winds of sorrow, winds of hardship, winds to set sail, winds to drop sail, and winds of waiting but here upon the black and blasted straits of Aulis he sends no winds and an angry fleet keep asking why are we waiting, why is King Agamemnon hiding from us in his tent—because, because King Agamemnon, marshall of the fleet, made a vow to the goddess, Artemis of the sacred grove, a promise that he reneged on. Disastrous calm has driven him to augury, to Calchas the prophet who scans the flight of birds.

Spotlight on
CALCHAS
the prophet.

On the opposite side
AGAMEMNON
emerges from his tent.

The
WITCH
hides under the wall to listen.

CALCHAS
   King Agamemnon—to Artemis, goddess of the moon, you vowed that you would sacrifice the most beautiful you knew. You shall not unmoor your ships until you pay your dues. Your wife Clytemnestra has a child Iphigenia who in all the radiance of young beauty has been selected by the goddess Artemis to be offered in sacrifice in
order that the Greek ships can leave these narrow straits for the towers and battlements of Troy. Then and only then will amorous Helen be restored to her husband Menelaus, Troy in ashes, her nobles slaughtered, her women slave women, to bring home here to Argos and plentitude of spoils.

AGAMEMNON
   My daughter, the jewel of my heart … no and no and no again.

CALCHAS
   Her mother Clytemnestra must bring her here, intended as a bride for swift-footed Achilles, son of goddess Thetis, nurtured in the watery waves.

AGAMEMNON
   You think I would deceive my wife and child.

CALCHAS
   The gods think it.

AGAMEMNON
   Be gone, you old werewolf.

CALCHAS
   Your daughter's death ensures victory for Greece.

AGAMEMNON
   Unspeakable … unthinkable …

CALCHAS
   In time of war, unspeakable, unthinkable things are done. For the sake of the gods and for our land thus blasted with misfortune, send for her at once and sacrifice her on the altar of divinity.

AGAMEMNON
   Who else have you spoken to of this hatching?

CALCHAS
   Your brother Menelaus and Odysseus of the House of Athens. The goddess Artemis, lovely lady of the woodland and the forest, is growing impatient and your men wrathful at such long waiting.

AGAMEMNON
   I will not do it.

CALCHAS
   It will be done.

Calchas goes.

Agamemnon stands. When he turns, the Witch is in front of him.

WITCH
   Hail, Agamemnon, the sacker of cities … the child shall have garlands put upon her head and sprinklings of lustral water. She comes to nourish with the drops of flowing blood the altar of the divine goddess from her own throat, her lovely body's throat. And grant that Agamemnon may wreathe the Hellene lances with a crown of fame and his own brows with the imperishable glory.

Agamemnon goes.

An
OLD MAN
who has overheard pulls himself up from under the wall.

OLD MAN
   Dark. Darkness. The story goes of how Atreus, father of Agamemnon, had his brother's children foully and horribly slain, then boiled and served up at a banquet, all this, so that his own progeny, so that Agamemnon might rule. No one is safe. A curse is a curse. I was given as a young man with his wife Clytemnestra in all her dazzlement. I saw so much, too much. Oh, the passions, the passions; yet from great houses both were sprung.

Five wild
YOUNG GIRLS
rush in, drenched, laughing.

GIRL ONE
   We have come through the pouring waters to see the long ships, the chariots, the dappled horses, and the spear men delighting in the throw of the discus.

GIRL TWO
   Odysseus, son of Laertes, the chieftain Adrastus, earth-born Leitus, raging Menelaus that …

GIRL THREE
   … lost Helen to Paris the herdsman, on the mount of Ida, lured her away he did with his waxen barbarian pipe and took her to Troy.

GIRL TWO
   And Achilles, a marvel to mortals.

GIRL ONE
   To glut our women's eyes.

OLD MAN
   Where are your husbands?

GIRL ONE
   At home.

GIRL THREE
   They take their pleasure at the draughts board.

They start to climb the ladders.

OLD MAN
   Harlots. Harlots.

Agamemnon comes out holding a book-shaped pine tablet.

AGAMEMNON
   Gone. Gone is every hope I had of sweetness.

He signals to a Messenger
.

AGAMEMNON
   Take this to my wife. Give it into her own hands. Answer no questions. Tell her to do as I command. They are awaited here and she is to bring the dowry gifts for Iphigenia to be married to Achilles. Go. Go.

The Messenger goes.

OLD MAN
   My master, the will of the gods has swerved against you.

AGAMEMNON
   And made me wretched.

OLD MAN
   A king is a mortal too. Power is power, but close neighbor to grief.

AGAMEMNON
   What would you do if it were your daughter?

OLD MAN
   My tongue dare not answer that. A brave deed, yet a fearsome one. The child will need to pray at the shrines along the way.

AGAMEMNON
   (
gravely
) She will.

The Old Man goes.

A
SIXTH GIRL
enters.

AGAMEMNON
   (
to the constellations
) What star are you and you and you? Do you shine into my child's bedroom where she sleeps innocent of all that will befall her? Send her a dream, tell her not to come here, tell her in language that befits her unschooled ears.

He crosses to a single star.

AGAMEMNON
   (
cont.
) And what star are you?

SIXTH GIRL
   Sirius … still high in the heavens.

Agamemnon turns sharply.

AGAMEMNON
   Who are you?

SIXTH GIRL
   A stranger woman. Sirius … sailing near the seven Pleiads the sisters, seven in number, Electra, Maia, Taygete, Alcyone, Merope, Celaeno, Sterope, whom Orion pursued, but they fled before him and Zeus, pitying them, placed them in the heavens. Only six are ever seen … the seventh hides in the bosom of the sky.

AGAMEMNON
   Come here for what?

SIXTH GIRL
   For what I find.

AGAMEMNON
   Where is your husband?

SIXTH GIRL
   Dead. Killed in the first strike of the war … on a small boat … sent out to reconnoiter in answer to the command of raging Menelaus. Goaded to frenzy on account of losing Helen.

AGAMEMNON
   A good husband?

SIXTH GIRL
   A soldier good and bad.

AGAMEMNON
   So you have heard of Helen.

SIXTH GIRL
   Of course. The legend of how young men went as suitors to Sparta … all desiring her … each one threatened to murder the other if he was successful, so when Menelaus of the House of Atreus won her, he made a pact with all the others that if she should ever be taken, they would all band together and fight. But Paris with Aphrodite's help put the dart of love into her on Ida's mountain among the white heifers and brought her thence to Troy. It is why we are at war and why the thousand ships out there are manned for passage. They say that even old Hector, the father of Paris, worships her … walks with her in the palace halls, bowing and discoursing like a young gallant.

AGAMEMNON
   But you would see her dead for your husband's sake.

SIXTH GIRL
   I would not. I would curry favor with her and verse myself in all her wiles. Women can learn marvelous things from captivating women. I have told you my history … tell me yours … away from the main fleet … here in your own quarters … you must be high up.

AGAMEMNON
   Would you like me to say that I am?

SIXTH GIRL
   Of course.

AGAMEMNON
   That I am King?

SIXTH GIRL
   Of course … every woman desires a king.

AGAMEMNON
   Do they speak of King Agamemnon in your village?

SIXTH GIRL
   Ah no. The women speak of Achilles, the handsomest of all the Achaeans, who races in full armor on sand and shingle, racing against a four-horse chariot, lap after lap until the horses fall down in defeat.

AGAMEMNON
   Which would you rather look on, Achilles or the King?

SIXTH GIRL
   It depends. It may be that the King is old and past his prime.

AGAMEMNON
   What if I said that I were King?

SIXTH GIRL
   You, him? I would fall at your feet. King Agamemnon, leader of the Armada … supreme maneuverer of ships … respected in heaven … worshipped on earth … born for greatness … for war … for love of women … O great one … far from home … no soft bed … to lay your limbs on … turning this way and that in the night … duties to weigh you down … do you not sometimes wish you were a common man?

AGAMEMNON
   I wish it now.

SIXTH GIRL
   So we are equals.

He picks her up. In that embrace they go.

Off-stage the sounds of very young girls singing and playing a noisy game.

S
CENE
T
WO

Early morning.

IPHIGENIA
's chamber, where she and five Girls
(
two of whom are her sisters
)
are having
a
pillow fight. They speak in a made-up
inexplicable language, running in and out, the feathers from the pillows falling through the air.

A
NURSE
comes in.

NURSE
   The Queen. The Queen.

They stop instantly.

CLYTEMNESTRA
enters.

IPHIGENIA
   We're sorry.

CLYTEMNESTRA
   Sorry?

IPHIGENIA
   We won't do it again … we got carried away.

CLYTEMNESTRA
   Dress yourself.

IPHIGENIA
   Oh, Mother … it's only fun.

CLYTEMNESTRA
   Your father wishes you at Aulis. We are to leave immediately.

SISTER
   We are!

CLYTEMNESTRA
   Not you.

IPHIGENIA
   I knew Father would miss me … every night just before I sleep I say to the brightest star—“Please tell the King that Iphigenia misses him and is very lonely in this big palace without him … tell him to come home.”

CLYTEMNESTRA
   Dress yourself.

IPHIGENIA
   Mother … I would miss you almost as much. Did you not sleep … had you a bad dream?

CLYTEMNESTRA
   You are to be married.

NURSE
   Praise be to Zeus, Pelius, Hera, and Aphrodite.

CLYTEMNESTRA
   To Achilles of Thessaly.

IPHIGENIA
   Who is he?

NURSE
   Son of the goddess Thetis and a mortal father Peleus, nurtured in the watery waves of the sea.

IPHIGENIA
   Is it true, Mother?

CLYTEMNESTRA
   The letter says so.

IPHIGENIA
   Why has he chosen me … he's never seen me.

CLYTEMNESTRA
   You are a king's daughter … that is enough.

IPHIGENIA
   And I will take my stand in the dances and the nuptial feast … whirling round and round for three days and three nights … Achilles will be in his own tent and on the fourth morning he will be led to me and I will sit there veiled until my bridesmaid slowly lifts it and Achilles gazes into my eyes. I wonder what color eyes he has.