Triptych and Iphigenia by Edna O’Brien Page B

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