The myth of Agamemnon becomes, in Agamemnon and Iphigenia, a metaphor for giving over to the forces one’s soul, in return for present material success. Is it given to the ruler be damned in order to be the savior of his people? The Third Revival style of the play may be antique, but the question, is very real. The people of Long Count 877.4 gave this play second place, but it has remained on the stage because the demi-urge is always on our minds.
1001 Nights of Tragedy and Comedy Euryonymous, Written Long Count 995.11
Clytemnestra:
I call upon the winds of torment, To come and eat your heart, Even as the winds of fortune take this fleet To its appointed destination.
If I could make it there a doom upon you, I would, and be happy to sell My maiden bed, and every night there after, To see you consumed by monsters of the sea,
I would spindle myself upon the reef To know you dashed on rocks there. 1110 I would part myself and take in the ocean, If it would drown you and your crews.
Agamemnon
You will see all of these things, but not yet.
Clytemnestra
You are doomed.
Agamemnon
We are all doomed, but not today, and probably not tomorrow.
Clytemnestra
Where will it end, this ceaseless consumption This burning of what you have for what you want.
Agamemnon
We might die in fire or ice, In sloth or frenzy, to no good end. It is only ours to choose betwixt them 1120
Chorous
Don’t you hear the trap you’ll find Agamemnon? Don’t you realize that gaining fortune You’ve lost your virtue? Don’t you see that who the gods would destroy, They first give choice to?
Clytemnestra
Then you choose what, your titles and your war?
Agamemnon
It was not I who chose this war, Nor is it I who desires it. Do you not see that I am dragged to it, By that worthless brother, Who wed Helen, bedded Hera, 1130 And then lost them both to Zeus’ wrath?
Would that I would not go, Would that lies would not take me there. Would that I not have no choice, But to this, Zeus’ will accomplish. I am leader of men, not master of fate. And I go where my appointed time has sent me.
Clytemnestra
Why could you not turn aside, And let go this small insult, no insult. For Helen will keep there, 1140 And we are better without her here.
Agamemnon
Do not be foolish, for she is the future And if men will die for the past, Live for the present, But kill for the future.
We must have her, for that seed planted Whence grows to fruit from her earth, And springs from between her legs, Shall rule the world and all that is in it.
Clytemenstra
You should know, you too plumbed that mine. 1150
Agamemnon
So would any man, knowing that the line of kings That shall come from her, will be king of kings.
Clytemnestra
So being not the head of heads, you would choose
Chorous
Death!
Agamemnon
If my blood will not reign, Better it shall be spilt.
Clytemnestra
I will see that both of these as prophecies, Run true to the very words you speak.
Chorous
Self willed, and self fulfilled. Strike her now Agamemnon!
Agamemnon
Hear me, as a father to bury a child, Hear me, as a king to bury his kingdom Hear me, as a man to bury his dreams. 1160 This act of pollution was forced upon me, Gods having willed it, through me, Though not with me, they have done it. Forgive me for being their tool.
Clytemnestra
I can forgive the tool But will not forgive the fool – This war was made on the day Odysseus and thee conspired, To bind the princes together in unholy bond 1170 Against the one who should take the prize From the bed of her husband, But then to delay that wedding day, Until both of thee should have a chance to test Your drills upon her wetness.
Chorous
Is it true, is it true Agamemnon? Did you seek to rob the gift you gave?
Agamemnon
I did it, and the world is better for it. For now, at least, though not of my line, The future will belong to the line of which I am of. 1180 And whence we rid the world of fabled Ilios, Rid it of Paris and his perfidity, All will praise the day the deed is done. None, I tell you none, shall damn us for when We topple Priam, Paris and Hektor, From the Peacock Throne.
Clytemnestra
It will take ten years of war.
Agamemnon
It will take ten years and more.
Chorous
How many young men shall you feast to the birds 1190 Agamemnon?
Clytemnestra
And so one more death more or less will not matter?
Agamemnon
It is easier in a Kingdom, for I am King. One death more or less will not matter, For without Helen, all are, already, dead. Now hinder me not, for I, I am sent on holy errand Wrath to forge to weapons of consuming fire, Quenched by blood which falls from heavan, That is the rain before the battle.
Chorous
For the rain before the battle is the blood of angels. 1199
(all exit)
Agamemnon and Iphigenia lines 1100-1199 First of the Agamemnon Trilogy of Perimachus, Long Count 877.4