Triptych and Iphigenia (12 page)

IPHIGENIA
   Let's get Orestes and run away.

CLYTEMNESTRA
   We can't … we are watched on every side. I will have you escorted to Achilles' tent … to plead with him.

IPHIGENIA
   No … no … the shame is too much … the shame on him and on me.

CLYTEMNESTRA
   Show him how you feel … reveal it … give him the bait and he will take it … he is young, virile.

IPHIGENIA
   I can't do it, Mother.

CLYTEMNESTRA
   This is no time for delicacy.

IPHIGENIA
   My father will save me.

CLYTEMNESTRA
   Your father killed my first husband Tantalus … the babe of that first husband he wrenched it from my breast and smashed it to the ground. Pray that you do not cause me a bitterer grief.

A
PRAYING GIRL
comes on.

Agamemnon returns.

IPHIGENIA
   How far is Troy … I will come with you.

CLYTEMNESTRA
   Let her hear it from your own lips … tell her that she is to be slaughtered in order to bring Helen back.

IPHIGENIA
   I know nothing of Helen … I love life … why would I have to die for her sake?

AGAMEMNON
   Artemis wills it.

IPHIGENIA
   Why would Artemis pick on me?

AGAMEMNON
   On account of being ripe for beatitude.

IPHIGENIA
   Beatitude.

Iphigenia crosses to the Praying Girl muttering the word “Beatitude.”

Praying Girl kneels and rings the bell repeatedly.

Witch starts to sway, working herself into a trance.

PRAYING GIRL

So gentle are you, Artemis the holy

So loving are you, to dewy youth to tender nursling.

The young of all that roam the meadow

Of all who live within the forest

You protect

Hear us, Artemis

Do not have your altar stained

With human blood.

Praying Girl waits and they all wait.

Sounds like thunderclaps offstage.

PRAYING GIRL
   (
cont.
) Sshh. Sshh. The goddess speaks …

Witch tears open her coat to reveal her goddess attire.

Artemis speaks through the Witch.

ARTEMIS

Would that Paris had died

On the lonely mountain where he was left

Cast out to die on an oracle's command

Hapless, unmothered

Paris the shepherd lad, prince of Troy

Would that he had died

By the lakeside

By the nymph-haunted fountains

By the meadows, starry with roses

Would that he had perished

But no

Beauty's queen came

Child of the long-necked swan

The blame for all those troubles.

Iphigenia

Child without blemish

Blessed above all the maidens

Undo these wrongs.

The altar is well prepared

The blood of the lamb upon the pyre

Say your farewells

For it is time

For it is time

Swap your raiment

Revere the sacrifice

Not with wailing

But with prayer

When you have fulfilled your destiny

You shall be raised among the blessed

And our dear land will honor you for ever

For it is time

For it is time.

Iphigenia runs to her father.

IPHIGENIA
   Save me.

AGAMEMNON
   I can't.

CLYTEMNESTRA
   Vile Helen, I curse you now in whosoever's arms you bask, the swan's neck I hack with daggers, those gray dreaming eyes I gouge from their sockets; or better still, O daughters of Nereus, bring her here that I may maul her with my own hands.

AGAMEMNON
   A mother in name only, harken to the child with soothing prayer.

O golden hair, what burden Phrygia's town has laid upon you.

IPHIGENIA
   No, the Greeks my own people are doing it to me.

AGAMEMNON
   That rage of my army is not against you, child, but a mad rage to sail to the barbarian land, to quash them and put an end to their rape of our women … Greek women … Greek wives … Greek daughters defiled. Greek men will not permit that most loathsome of crimes. It is not for Helen, not for Menelaus I sacrifice you, it is for Greece. She must be free. If it is in our power, yours and mine, to make her so, we must.

IPHIGENIA
   It falls to me alone … without you.

AGAMEMNON
   It does.

IPHIGENIA
   If I had Orpheus' eloquence … the voice to charm the rocks …. if I could bewitch with words, I would bewitch now … but I only have tears and prayers … and these I offer … like a suppliant … O Father, I press against you now … this body of mine … which my mother bore … do not destroy me before my time … I love the light … do not despatch me down to the netherworld … hell is dark and creepy and I have no friends there … I am your child … I basked in your love … the little games we played … you would close the folding door and I would squeak squeak and you would come back in with sugar plums and put them under my pillow … you were never cross with me … never haughty … never the King … I could coax you out of your moods and when you grew a beard, I studied it … I counted the hairs, I pulled on it and clung to you as I cling to you now, my first and last and only hope. In your old age I will
welcome you into my own house with my own husband—whoever he be—I will have children to lighten your weary heart … look at me … give me a kiss … at least let me have that as a memory of you … if am to … if I am to die.

SOLDIER
rushes in.

SOLDIER
   The anger of heaven is nothing to the anger of men. They had heard that Achilles wanted to save the young girl and they leaped upon him, seizing him by his helmet, swung him from his feet and as the first stone was thrown, a hail of stones were aimed at him to decapitate his head from his neck.

Menelaus comes in during his speech.

SOLDIER
   (
cont.
) They would have killed him but that Odysseus said that even if Achilles had turned coward the sacrifice would be performed and so a few of his men that were loyal to him made a wall before him and took the stones.

AGAMEMNON
   Did his own guard not save him?

MENELAUS
   They were the first to turn against him—they called him lovesick because he pleaded for the girl.

Achilles is carried in in the arms of two bodyguards
.

PRAYING GIRL
   O healer Phoebus, make great Achilles well again.

GIRL TWO
   Thetis, come down and save your godly son.

Iphigenia crosses and stands over him. She begins to take out the stones from his wounds. This is the turning point for her.

Soldiers have climbed on the far side of the wall, calling her name.

AGAMEMNON
   Get Odysseus to fend them back … tell him that …

MENELAUS
   Tell him what?

IPHIGENIA
   I will die.

Let me save Hellas if that is what the gods want. What is one life compared with thousands. I will do it gloriously … I will put frightened thoughts out of my head.

ACHILLES
   Shining one.

IPHIGENIA
   Don't stir.

ACHILLES
   I swore to save you.

IPHIGENIA
   You will be my chariot on the path across …

ACHILLES
   I will die with you.

IPHIGENIA
   And fail Greece—no. You risked your life for me and that is everything.

ACHILLES
   Iphigenia … Pure star of our destiny.

Clytemnestra slaps Iphigenia on the face to put sense into her.

IPHIGENIA
   Mother, I am happy … and one must not love life too much.

CLYTEMNESTRA
   Child's talk … babble … you do not know what this means.

IPHIGENIA
   I do know (
pause
) it is the end for me. Achilles tried to save me, one against all, and now I am alone.

CLYTEMNESTRA
   When the blade rips into your flesh you will cry for mercy.

IPHIGENIA
   Pray that I don't. Pray that I draw courage from you and you from me, Mother. If we can't give each other
courage, who else can? We have lived a long time since we set out from home, the horses so frisky, the morning so young. Do not cut your hair, Mother, and do not go into mourning … you have my sisters and little Orestes who will grow into a man.

OLD MAN
   Diverse are the natures of the mortals, she willing to die for valor and they willing to kill.

Clytemnestra in a last desperate attempt holds Iphigenia's face in her hands.

CLYTEMNESTRA
   Death is a fearful thing.

Iphigenia kisses her mother.

Agamemnon stands like someone in a trance.

AGAMEMNON
   There will be much adornment … she will be bathed in yellow oils, the tawny mountain honey will anoint her body … she shall rest upon the cenotaph; laurels, roses, and hyacinths all around her.

CLYTEMNESTRA
   The man has gone mad. He speaks as if it is a wedding feast.

IPHIGENIA
   O, poor Father. O, poor King.

CLYTEMNESTRA
   Man of stone.

AGAMEMNON
   In death I shall hold you dearer than in life.

Agamemnon embraces her.

Over that embrace the death ritual commences.

Menelaus takes a sword. Clytemnestra runs to grab it from him and risks her own hand to seize it. They fight over it.

MENELAUS
   Seize her.

Two men lift Clytemnestra up and pull her backward as she screams. One puts his hand across her mouth to muzzle her.

MENELAUS
   Discord between brothers must never be allowed to fester, we are our mother's sons. She too presides above the altar of Artemis, wishing us godspeed to Ilium.

Iphigenia is raised up and carried offstage toward the altar.

Agamemnon follows.

AGAMEMNON
   Even now this heart breaks.

Menelaus gives Agamemnon the sword.

Death shrieks—all female.

The blood begins to drip.

That sound held for a moment.

A breeze gusts along the stage, raising the trampled feathers from Scene Two.

The men let go of Clytemnestra.

The death shrieks and music continue.

WITCH
   Fortunes now attained … the glittering seat of Atreus awash with victory.

PRAYING GIRL
   (
coming out
) The blood from her gashed throat matted the curls of her hair.

MENELAUS
   (
coming out
) Wise men ride their luck; they seize the chance to be great, to win fame and honor.

As he climbs the ladder he shouts triumphantly to the men.

MENELAUS
   (
cont
.) Hoist the sales … let the trumpets blare.

Agamemnon returns, a Girl pouring water over his bloodied hands. When they are washed he smells them and goes to Clytemnestra.

AGAMEMNON
   Noble Queen.

Clytemnestra stands with a cold, still loathing.

CLYTEMNESTRA
   Killed for a charm against the Thracian winds.

AGAMEMNON
   Will you not kiss a king goodbye. (
pause
) A husband then … Farewell. It will be long before I address you again.

Agamemnon climbs the ladder—she does not watch.

Clytemnestra stands utterly still.

Sixth Girl wearing a veil stands a little away from her as if to ask her something.

GIRL ONE
   There is no one left for her here.

CLYTEMNESTRA
   She may follow us. Her cunning will serve some purpose.

Sixth Girl lifts the veil, bows and goes off.

Bloodied rain starts to fall and Clytemnestra is drenched in it.

The Young Girls rise vivified, climb on to the ladders, speaking the prophecy of the fate to come.