Triptych and Iphigenia by Edna O’Brien

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.
    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.
    CLYTEMNESTRA    I admire your constraint, Achilles, son of the sea, but you are to marry my daughter Iphigenia, so we are already joined are we not?
    ACHILLES    Madam, you talk like a storybook.
    CLYTEMNESTRA    So formal on the brink of wedlock. Why?
    ACHILLES    Wedlock?
    CLYTEMNESTRA    To Iphigenia.
    ACHILLES    I have not courted your daughter Iphigenia and marriage is far from my mind. Ten thousand girls hunt for marriage with me, but I am a soldier first and last.
    CLYTEMNESTRA    I am sorry if I have overstepped—I am mortified. I took you for my son—an empty hope. You say you are not marrying her, an evil omen for her, for all.
    Clytemnestra goes to leave.
    OLD MAN    Lady, I hold you dear. Your father pledged me to watch over you in danger.
    CLYTEMNESTRA    Not now … That youth has irked me.
    OLD MAN    With cause. Don’t blame him.
    O Gods, save those I once saved. Save the seed of Agamemnon. A horrible deed is contrived, we are undone.
    CLYTEMNESTRA    Riddles.
    OLD MAN    The father that begat Iphigenia is going to kill her … to sacrifice her on the altar to Artemis.
    CLYTEMNESTRA    You’re out of your mind.
    OLD MAN    It’s what the girl from across the straits tried to tell you. All is prepared, the altar, the meal cakes, the cups for the blood … he will slit the child’s throat with a sword before the sun goes down.
    CLYTEMNESTRA    You are mad.
    OLD MAN    No. The King is mad.
    CLYTEMNESTRA    Why would he do this?
    OLD MAN    Oracles. Oracles … so the army can sail to Troy and Helen be brought back restored to Menelaus.
    CLYTEMNESTRA    How do you know?
    OLD MAN    I was