Triptych and Iphigenia by Edna O’Brien Page A

sent with a second letter to you, in lieu of the first, it said, “Do not come to Aulis, do not bring Iphigenia here.” Menelaus met me and intercepted it … he is behind it … so is the prophet Calchas and crafty Odysseus … Achilles was a husband in name only, the marriage promise was a snare.
    CLYTEMNESTRA    I think I see.
    ACHILLES    I should not have spoken to you as I did. My pride was pricked. I am sometimes hasty.
    CLYTEMNESTRA    As befits a warrior.
    ACHILLES    Your husband used my name and fame for his own base ends.
    CLYTEMNESTRA    Think how I feel, drawn in by his honeyed wooing, a wife of many years, this child is an angel, she thinks her father supreme above all.
    ACHILLES    He will not succeed in this malevolent scheme.
    CLYTEMNESTRA    I fear it is already commenced. He left here hurriedly, no doubt to confer with Calchas the prophet.
    ACHILLES    Prophets serve their own interests, they say what suits the moment.
    CLYTEMNESTRA    Yet they can wreak magic too.
    ACHILLES    Let Calchas wreak good magic then.
    CLYTEMNESTRA    I am at your mercy. Guide me.
    ACHILLES    Act cunningly. When he returns draw him out as to what is weighing upon him, do it with your old sweetness, say you have observed his gloom, bring him round to a better mind.
    CLYTEMNESTRA    And then?
    ACHILLES    Together you will find a way to spirit her off to safety.
    CLYTEMNESTRA    What if we are not together but more divided?
    ACHILLES    As I live, I shall save the girl.
    CLYTEMNESTRA    O prince of princes, can that be true?
    ACHILLES    The army respect me, despite my young years. I will convene the generals, they are not fiends, they are not gutless knaves.
    CLYTEMNESTRA    Would it not be better if you spoke with him in all your prestige?
    ACHILLES    Not yet. My place in the army must not be compromised. Take the course I counsel.
    CLYTEMNESTRA    If I fail …
    ACHILLES    Then you may send for me.
    CLYTEMNESTRA    You are aware how cruel he can be, how ruthless?
    ACHILLES    I was not brought up to flinch in the face of danger. I no longer see him as my master, for I am his.
    CLYTEMNESTRA    For you I garlanded her, I brought her here for you. Let me ask you one last thing—see her and your heart will melt, so young, so shy, so modest, so full of trust.
    ACHILLES    Do not bring her into my sight—a soldier does not court the things that make him weak.
    CLYTEMNESTRA    You will save her from death?
    ACHILLES    I have said so.
    Achilles goes up the ladder. Clytemnestra watches.
    The music and revels from inside grow louder.
    Agamemnon appears on the top rung of the ladder.
    The Old Man goes.
    Agamemnon comes down.
    AGAMEMNON    They are singing within.
    CLYTEMNESTRA    Indeed … singing
and
dancing.
    AGAMEMNON    They seem very merry.
    CLYTEMNESTRA    And you … you seem solemn … would it not help to unburden yourself … to let me know of this gravity.
    AGAMEMNON    Where do I begin. The yoke of circumstance … here in Aulis I am not a free man … a violent rage, a supernatural rage possesses them.
    CLYTEMNESTRA    And has infected you. You have a notion to kill your own daughter.
    AGAMEMNON    Who said such a thing? Who dares accuse me of this?
    CLYTEMNESTRA    It is written across your face. The moment we arrived I saw that some dreadful constraint was upon you … the way you twisted and turned and could not look in my eye or in hers.
    AGAMEMNON    Whoever spread this rumor shall be mortally punished.
    CLYTEMNESTRA    Isn’t one death enough to contemplate in one day, your own daughter’s at that. Who will draw the sword across her child’s neck?
    Echo of
“Who will draw the sword across her child’s