Triptych and Iphigenia (9 page)

NURSE
   Sea eyes, no color and every color.

SISTER
   Can I come?

CLYTEMNESTRA
   No … Iphigenia and baby Orestes and I will travel … the rest of you remain here.

SISTER
   She gets everything.

CLYTEMNESTRA
   You will have a husband, in time.

SISTER
   I want him now.

NURSE
   Hush, child, hush … this is her hour.

Clytemnestra goes.

The Nurse unfolds a corset. Iphigenia lifts her arms for her nightgown to be taken off, the Nurse pulling tightly on the corset strings.

IPHIGENIA
   Ouch. Ouch. I can't breathe …

SISTER
   What does he look like?

Nurse continues dressing Iphigenia
.

NURSE
   He has a coat of arms made of gold, given him by his mother. The story is known throughout, in Lesbos, Tenedos, Chryses, and Cilla, in all Apollo's cities and Skyrus too, how the nereid who was his mother took him down as a baby to the River Styx and submerged him in the water to protect him from all injury and so he was except for the little heel which she had held him by … then fearing he might be killed in the wars she had him dressed as a girl and hid him in the palace of a king who was her friend, where he lived among the king's daughters, but, one day a peddler came in to the palace forecourt with a tray of trinkets, ribbons, and scarves plus a spear and a shield and while all the girls loved the fallals, Achilles picked up the spear and the peddler, who was really the scheming Odysseus dressed in rags, saw the young boy's excitement and had a servant shout out an alarm to say the palace was under attack, whereupon Achilles tore off his woman's clothing and rushed to defend the gates and so Odysseus knew he had come to the right palace and Achilles was recruited into the Greek army, given noble rank and a vast host to command.

IPHIGENIA
   He might change his mind when he sees me.

NURSE
   Fate, my little one … the tiny threads of fate from heaven's loom, ordained this … This.

GIRL
   What else, nurse?

NURSE
   They say, that at the sight of him hearts are transformed.

GIRL
   How?

NURSE
   I daren't say.

IPHIGENIA
   How?

NURSE
   I lack the words, child.

GIRL
   What else?

NURSE
   His taste is to be solitary … he only shows himself for the tournaments and the championships and he always wins, being half a god.

IPHIGENIA
   Will you miss me?

NURSE
   More than I would my own children. The night you were born a rayon of gold shot across the sky, my name was the first name you said … not your noble mother Clytemnestra and not your noble father Agamemnon.

Sister One has taken out a veil yards long, is winding it around herself, both showing off and treading on it.

The Nurse rushes and takes it back.

NURSE
   You mustn't tear it … it's her wedding veil … it's sacred.

SISTER ONE
   Achilles might prefer me to her.

GIRL ONE
   You're jealous.

SISTER ONE
   It's you that said she was a sly one coaxing the Queen.

GIRL ONE
   I did not.

Iphigenia lets out a cry—her menstrual blood has started to flow, running down her legs.

SISTER ONE
   Oh, look. Look.

NURSE
   Sweet Iphigenia … sweetest Iphigenia … you mustn't cry … this husband of yours has secured the rarest prize … a girl just become a woman … a treasure.

The Nurse rocks Iphigenia in her arms and sings a soft lullaby as she leads her away.

The Girls lie on the floor on their bellies and one starts a pre-wedding hymn, gradually the others join in and slowly with balletic precision they make their way on their bellies along the stage and off.

Change of light.

Two
CHORUS GIRLS
enter.

CHORUS GIRL ONE

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.

S
CENE
T
HREE

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.