WATCHMAN

For a whole year now I’ve been asking the gods to release me from this here torment. Oh, yes, it’s been a whole year since I’ve been put up here, on the roof of the palace of the race of Atreus^[1] … flat on my paws, like a dog, gazing far into the distance. Watching the distant distance. Gawking deep into it.
I can tell you for certain: I’m now thoroughly and totally acquainted with all the constellations of the stars. Every single one of them! All those masters of the sky that light it all up and sparkle from on high, as well as all the smaller stars, those that, by their rising and their setting bring to us mortals our summers and winters.

So, now I’m watching out for a message. A sign that will arrive here by a fire.^[2] It’ll be the light of a torch a light that will announce the certain fall Troy.

(indicates inside the palace) These are the orders of a tough woman, a woman whose heart is like a man’s heart, a heart that’s full of… (insinuating illicit affairs) full of manly hopes.

(He begins to hum nervously again for a moment, then gets up and moves about in his restricted space ...)
And whenever this shapeless bed of mine, waterlogged as it is with the morning’s dew, whenever this bed rejects me and scorns me with my need for sleep, when it does that, I usually try to remedy the situation with a bit of singing; but then, when I do that, a bitter taste comes into my mouth, takes control in there and stuffs it full of mournful songs, songs about the suffering of this palace, a palace which no longer rules as virtuously as it used to. Before I mean.

([ ... He is looking towards the audience when he’s talking and so does not notice the torch light moving across the stage behind him.)
This bed! It doesn’t recognise dreams, this bed. And how could it? Fear is my constant companion and Fear, well, Fear won’t let Sleep come anywhere near me to shut my eyelids tight enough for the dreams to venture out inside my skull.

(Finally the light of the beacon becomes bright enough to light up the whole stage at which time he is shocked ... ])
Aha! Finally! There’s the end of them! That’s it! That’s the torch of the night I’ve been waiting for. That’s the end of my troubles. Welcome, welcome torch of the night! Your light shines like a heavenly, like a glorious day! You bring with you a million celebrations of good luck for the Argives!

(He shouts cheerfully at the palace.)
Oi! Oi! Can you hear me in there?
(He jumps down from the roof.)
Oi! Oi! You in there! … I’ll shout as loudly as I can to try and raise Agamemnon’s wife. Get her up out of bed immediately and get her to raise shouts of laughter in the whole palace… and she can give thanks to this torch… that is, if it really does signal the fall of Troy! I’ll be the first to hop into the celebration dance, if it does. Give them a good start because, you see, I consider the luck of my masters to be my luck as well.
To me, that torch out there is like the fall of sixes in a game of dice. [ ... ] Oh, how I wish I could shake my Lord Agamemnon’s hand! Hold it deep into mine… when he returns! As for all the…other things, I am saying nothing! (pokes his tongue out) See? A huge cow is standing on my tongue^[3]…

This house though, oh, this house could make a lot of things very, very clear, if only it could speak! (winking knowingly) Those of you who know what I mean, know what I mean. The others…well, you just don’t know…what I mean!

(WATCHMAN bangs at the gate again [ ... ] a female servant opens the gate [ ... He whispers the good news and then they both exit, the servant shutting the gate behind her. A short pause of utter silence before it is broken by Clytemnestra’s gleeful shouts from within.

Enter the CHORUS.  They are all old and feeble men [ ... ] since the Argive youth has been gone for over ten years.)

CHORUS

It’s been ten long years since Priam’s enemies, the twin yoke of kings, Menelaos and Agamemnon, sons of Atreas, who were honoured by Zeus with twin thrones and twin sceptres, raised a fleet of a thousand battle ships from this land.

Their angry war cries came out of their hearts like the cries of hapless eagles whose eyrie has been emptied of their chicks.^[4]

Look there! Above them the eagles hover again; and again their wings are churning the air like oars churn the sea, desperately looking for their chicks that had lost the warm safety of their nest.

Still, some higher being, Apollo, Zeus or Pan, perhaps, airy neighbours to the eagles, hear their pitiful and bitter cries and, when the right time comes, they might send justice to their enemies

And that’s why Zeus, protector of the stranger, sent to that Trojan Paris, Atreas’ sons! He sent them to bring about justice by setting up many deadly battles, all for the sake of one woman…a woman loved by many men.

There, in Troy, many knees were made to bend to the dust and many spears were broken, even from the very first battles and the miseries were distributed equally between the Trojans and the Greeks.

Well, so much for that. What has been decreed to happen from now on, will happen. No one can placate the ordained and inexorable anger of unholy sacrifices with burnt or unburnt offerings… or with tears!

But we, we of the older and weaker flesh, we were left here, away from the great expedition, without honour and with the strength of a mere child and with the need of the support of a walking stick.

Ah, old age! The young have the bursting heart while the old have the withering leaves^[5] — and where is the battle-loving god, Ares?

The old walk about the streets on three feet.^[6] Not like the young ones, nor are they anywhere near as strong. The old ones? They wonder about like in a day dream.

(Enter CLYTEMNESTRA with attendants [ ... ])

CHORUS

Daughter of Tyndareas!

CHORUS

Clytaemestra, what news do you have?

CHORUS

What have you learnt?

CHORUS

What’s going on? What’s got you rushing about making sacrifices?

CHORUS

Why are all the altars in the city full-bursting with sacrificial fires?

CHORUS

Every altar of every god — the mighty gods and the lowly gods and the gods in between; and all the gods of the heavens and all those of the marketplace…

CHORUS

… all the altars in the city are ablaze with the light of these fires.

CHORUS

One fire here another there, they rise high, nourished by the subtle aromas of the holy, the pure oils from the cellars of your own palace, Clytaemestra!

CHORUS

Tell us whatever you can — whatever the gods may allow you to tell us — and calm this terrible turmoil we have in our soul.

CHORUS

One moment we feel grief, but then, the gentle light of these altars shines and, with new hope, it casts away our soul-crushing misery.
I feel now I can sing about the divine sign that drove our two generals on their way to victory. Age and the gods inspire in me this ability to sing about that bird of war which had sent to Troy’s soils the two young kings of Greece, two leaders both…

CHORUS

…both of a single mind, with threatening iron in hand and with the strength of vengeance.

CHORUS

There, at the spear’s side of the Trojan palaces, two birds — the kings of birds!^[7] — appeared before the kings of ships and men.

CHORUS

One bird white the other black.
Just then, high up on a rock, the two men saw a pregnant hare running.

CHORUS

Then the eagles swooped down and made that hare’s path its very last and there and then, with their deadly claws tore it to bits of blood and gore and devoured it.

CHORUS

Let the song see tears but let virtue see victory.

CHORUS

Seeing the two murderers of the hare, the wise prophet of the army, Calhas, knew that the eagles were the two sons of Atreas, Menelaos and Agamemnon, both of them lovers of battle and both of them leaders of the expedition…

CHORUS

…so he declared his vision:
“In many years to come,” Calhas said, “this here army will take Priam’s Troy and Fate will reap away with a mighty force the boundless wealth within its palaces. Only, let not some divine rage of jealousy rush down to crush this army, this mighty clamp around the city’s wall, before it meets its aim, because the virgin goddess, Artemis, the goddess we all revere, holds a mighty hatred for her father’s flying dogs, those eagles that slaughtered that poor frightened animal and all its young inside her.”

CHORUS

Let the song see tears but let virtue see victory.

CHORUS

“Artemis!” The holy priest continued. “Brilliant goddess who loves so tenderly all the suckling cubs of fearsome lions! Artemis, who is so mightily pleased to see the young of all the wild beasts roaming the valleys free!”

CHORUS

So the priest begs Zeus. “Let her anger against the eagles be avenged. Let the sacrifice of Iphigeneia be avenged in full.”

CHORUS

“But I ask Artemis’ brother, the Healer, Apollo, to intervene and let not his sister send crashing contrary winds against the Greek fleet and keep them ashore longer still, seeking yet another sacrifice, unholy, of no use to a table, a kill without the sound of a flute to send it off, a kill, the cause of many terrible family feuds yet to be born. Because feuds without the king of the palace being present, are afraid of nothing. They lurk within its halls for a long time and then, cunningly, one day, they emerge and ask for revenge of the sacrifice of a daughter. This daughter is called Iphigeneia.”

CHORUS

Such good and fearful things did Calhas, the priest uttered for the two palaces; things he had seen in the flight of those two fatal birds and so, because of this…

CHORUS

Let the song see tears but let virtue see victory.

CHORUS

Zeus! Whoever you are! If this is the name you love best then I shall call you by it! I beg you! Lift this unholy burden of ignorance from my soul.
I have placed all things on the scales of comparison and found all others wanting. You, alone can help me.

CHORUS

[Uranus], who was mighty once –- mighty in strength and arrogance at every turn — has long gone and can no longer be invoked.
And Cronos who came after him found a threefold greater opponent to send him away.^[8]

CHORUS

But Zeus! Whoever shouts “Zeus is victorious!” will gain wisdom replete. Zeus it was who gave men their knowledge and Zeus who made the rule, “pain is wisdom.”

CHORUS

For here, into our heart, while we sleep, slowly drips the painful memory and even to those who fight it, that pain, that pain, becomes wisdom. Because it is by force that the gods who sit upon their throne in majesty, give us this gift of wisdom.

CHORUS

So then, Agamemnon, the leader of the Greek Fleet, the older of the two brothers, blamed no prophet and set fast his spirit against the ill winds of fortune. There, around the shores of Chalkis [ ... ] the Greeks ached with hunger and with cursed winds.

CHORUS

And as the winds whirl hard from the great river Strymon!

CHORUS

They bring to the men restive indolence, tortuous despondency and a flaring starvation. Such winds shut down ports, rot ships and their oars too, extend their idle stay there endlessly and there they wither, there, the flower of Greece withers.

CHORUS

And so then the prophet spoke to the Greeks about the bitter winter ahead, and told them of yet another hard cure for their woes, uttering Artemis’ name.

CHORUS

At that the two brothers pierced angrily their sceptres into the ground and let their tears flow.

CHORUS

Then, the great Agamemnon, chieftain of the Greeks, shouted:
“It will be a heavy penalty indeed if I do not obey and yet heavier still if I slaughter my own child! My child! The jewel of my palace! And, as well, by doing so I shall pollute the altar with the streams of a virgin’s blood, a blood spilt by her own father. Which of these deeds is not vile?

CHORUS

Shall I abandon my fleet? Shall I abandon our allies? It is their right. It is their right to demand even the most awful sacrifice to calm these winds! True, a virgin’s blood too, is within their right. May the end of all this be good,” Agamemnon, the chieftain of the Greeks said.

CHORUS

But then, when he felt the yoke-straps of Fate tightening faster and faster around his neck, some rebellious winds rushed into his soul and spun it about.

CHORUS

Unholy winds, winds that have no divine authority!

CHORUS

And within that very moment, within a single instant, the king changed his mind and, rejecting all things sacred and all things of heaven, he let unyoked arrogance come and rule his heart.

CHORUS

“No! No,” he screamed. “Artemis shall be obeyed!”

CHORUS

A man in his right mind performs what is right whereas a man deranged, even for a moment, for the shortest instant, well, his mind gives him all the audacity he wants to accomplish evil most horrendous!

CHORUS

And so Agamemnon’s heart was hardened and he called for the sacrifice of his daughter — so that his fleet could sail and he could be victorious in a war!

CHORUS

A war declared to avenge the honour of a woman.

CHORUS

And neither the poor girl’s cries and pleas to her father nor her young virginal life were considered by the commanders whose heart was more eager for war.

CHORUS

After the sacrificial prayers, Agamemnon told his slaves to lift his young daughter, Iphigeneia, from his feet and place her, face down, upon the altar like a suckling goat, her mouth sealed tightly that no fatal curse may be heard against his household. Face down so that the blood may wash over the stone.

CHORUS

Iphigeneia let her saffron robe fall to the ground and, with glances like arrows dipped in pity, she shot one at each of her sacrificers.

CHORUS

She was like a painting eager to speak.
The girl was often called upon to use her pure, sweet, chaste voice to sing the Third Libation, the final hymn of the feast at her father’s dining halls when he was being hospitable to strangers. A hymn she’d sing with much love.

CHORUS

I neither saw nor will tell what followed after that sacrifice. Calhas’ prophecies have never failed. Such is the way of Justice.

CHORUS

Justice leans her scale upon us so that we may learn through suffering. We see the future only when it’s upon us.

CHORUS

Why cry before it comes? When it does come, it will reveal itself like the bright morning sun rays.

CHORUS

Well, let all this come to a good end.

CHORUS

Just as this guard-tower of Argos, Clytaemestra wishes!

(Enter CLYTEMNESTRA)

CHORUS

Here she is now!

CHORUS

Clytaemestra, I have come with respect for your royal authority. It is only fair that we honour the king’s wife when the throne is left bereft of a male.

CHORUS

I will happily hear your words whether they contain good news, or if you have made sacrifices in the hope of them. But, if you choose to be silent, I will not hold that against you.

CLYTEMNESTRA

May Dawn, as she leaves the arms of her mother, Night, bring us joyful news, as the saying goes. And these are truly most hopeful news: The Greeks have won! The Greeks have conquered Priam’s city!

CHORUS

What was that?
No!
That’s unbelievable!
[ ... ]
Do you have confirmed proof?

CLYTEMNESTRA

Of course I do. Most certainly –that is unless this is some trick of the gods!

CHORUS

Do you perhaps believe too easily in the visions of dreams, my Lady?

CLYTEMNESTRA

I never pay much heed to the messages of a sleeping brain.

CHORUS

Perhaps some gloated word, a word unable to fly off on its own has come and fed your hopes?

CLYTEMNESTRA

You are accusing me of having the brain of a small child!

CHORUS

How long ago did they enter the city?

CLYTEMNESTRA

I told you: during the night that gave birth to this very light.

CHORUS

But what herald could get here so quickly?

CLYTEMNESTRA

The great god of fire himself, Hephaistos! He has sent a bright light from Mount Ida, in Troy. Then, torch to torch, like a human herald, this light first shone in Trojan Ida, then on Mount Hermes in Lemnos and from that island, the third torch arrived at Zeus’ Rock at Mount Athos [ ... ] After that, the flame, the very descendant of the flame of Troy’s Ida can be seen up there, on the roof of this house, the house of Agamemnon, of the family of Atreidis.

My husband and I have arranged this method by which I would be notified when Troy fell and these were the orders we gave to all the torch bearers in this relay race. Equal in dignity to both, the first and the last of them.

[ ... ]

Only one task is left for [the Greeks] now if their fate must not be turned and they become the vanquished: to honour solemnly the gods and temples of the defeated city and not to be overtaken by the soldier’s greed to pillage what they should not. They’ve still got to make the return trip home safely and so they should remember that it is a double course they must run. Still, even if all goes well and they show due respect to the gods of Troy, there’s still the anger of those suffering for their slaughtered sons. Let’s hope then that no new dreadful acts occur.
(ironically and with disdain which the CHORUS notices) I’m a mere woman and these are a mere woman’s words but, before me there’s a wide choice of blessings and I’ve chosen this: Let the good win and win most clearly so that everyone can see it.

CHORUS

My Lady you speak like the wisest of men. I’ve heard your words; they are most credible proofs of the matter and I shall now prepare myself to thank the gods for the success they’ve given us.

(The palace gates open and the bodies of AGAMEMNON and CASSANDRA are brought out. CLYTEMNESTRA stands above AGEMEMNON’s corpse. She is covered with blood and as she speaks, brandishes a bloody sword around. Both bodies are wrapped with masses of fishing nets. Soldiers stand on either side.)

CLYTEMNESTRA

Gentlemen, there’s much that I’ve said earlier which I am not at all ashamed to reject now and to say the exact opposite. I said it all so as to serve my own purposes as they were then. Pure expediency. It was something that I just had to do at the time. How else is anyone who wants to kill his enemy, can achieve it? How can he do it without setting the moral bar higher than he can jump? How else can he do this without first presenting himself as a good and kind friend?

(indicating the corpses) This? This is an old enmity. Very old — and I’ve been planning this little battle for just as long. And so, here it is: the battle has finally arrived and so has its result. Here! Look here! I stand above my victim. Here! Here, I stand, on the very spot I did the slaying. Yes, I won’t deny it: I have committed a murder. But I am the victor of the battle.

Listen. I’ll tell you all how I’ve accomplished the deed. I have planned and done this deed in such a way that he could escape neither doom nor death. See? I threw upon him this cloth not too dissimilar to a net for hauling in big fish and wrapped it all around him — oh, what a regal cloth for a bloody murder! –and I struck him twice and twice he coughed up his groans before his lifeless body fell to the ground. And still, while his corpse lay there motionless I struck it once more — this third strike was an old promise I had made to Zeus, the protector of the dead in Hades’ underworld. And there he was, his body vomiting forth its soul and, from its deep gashes his blood spurted out with great might. Oh, his blood! His blood! It drizzled upon me like a refreshing, murderous inky rain. Now I, too, know that wonderful joy that the wheat feels when god’s rain make it stand straight and tall with life!

So, that’s how things stand, honourable Argives. By all means, you too rejoice with me, if that is your wish. For my part, I am proud of what I’ve done. If you consider it proper to pour libations on this corpse, then libations have already been poured over him to excess, because he has filled this house, this cup with countless dreadful deeds and now, now upon his return he has drunk the very last drop of those libations.

CHORUS

Your tongue leaves me speechless! What a daring mouth! What things you say as you stand above your dead husband!

CLYTEMNESTRA

Ha! You attack me as if I were some empty headed woman. But you know me well enough: I speak with a fearless heart and whether you praise me or blame me it’s all the same to me. This is Agamemnon! My husband! He is dead! It is the work of this hand, this right hand, a real master at its work. And that’s the end of the matter.

CHORUS

Oh woman! What evil earth-born herb have you eaten, what poison, nurtured by the salty wave have you swallowed to burden yourself with this sacrifice and with all the curses and rejection of the people? You will become an outcast. They will hound you forever!

CLYTEMNESTRA

You! Now you condemn me to exile, to be hated by all the Argives and to suffer all their curses! Back then, though, back then you gave no resistance to this man when he, without the slightest hesitation and as if he was dealing with an animal and when sheep heavy with fleece roamed in great numbers in our farms, instead of taking one of them for his sacrifice, he sacrificed his own and mine daughter, my beloved birth labour, Iphigeneia. He slaughtered that little girl to throw magic at the [northern] winds. You gave no resistance to him then.

Isn’t it him who you should have punished? Him to have exiled? Should you not have cleared the ugly pollution^[9] by banning him from the city? You’re a hard judge only when you are judging my work. But I warn you, old men: By all means harass me like this but also understand this: that if one uses force to get the upper hand and wins, he rules; but if the Gods declare otherwise, then you shall learn what wisdom really is. You would have learnt this lesson belatedly but you would have learnt it undoubtedly.

CHORUS

Arrogant woman! Arrogant tongue! You speak as if the homicide you’ve committed made you mad. As if the madness came from the stains of blood that have flooded your eyes.

You have no honour and you have no friends and so your murder will be paid with your own blood.

CLYTEMNESTRA

And you listen too, to the laws of my own oath: I pray that the Justice which I have exacted for my child, Iphigeneia and that Ate, the Avenging Spirit for whom I have sacrificed this man here, protect my house from Fear, so long as Aigisthus kindles the fire in my hearth. Aigisthus is my loyal friend now, as loyal as he was before. Aigisthus is my strong and trusty shield, a shield that gives me confidence. The dead man here is the man who has destroyed me, the man who gave pleasure to all the young girls, all those young Chriseis of Troy^[10] –- and here, (indicating CASSANDRA) here this woman, dead also, a captive, a teller of oracles, his bed companion, his trusty wife. Tightly up against him she tread the deck of the ships. Together they walked the decks and, after she sang like a swan her funereal song together they suffered the same Fate. There she is again she lies dead now, next to her beloved. He brought her here to me, to make my bed’s joy even greater.

CHORUS

Oh, come now Death! Swift, pain-free, illness-free Death, come, take me now and give me a quiet, eternal peace!

CHORUS

Come, now that my master, the kindest master of them all, is dead. A woman had caused his suffering, her hand had caused his death.

CHORUS

Empty-headed Helen! The number of lives you’ve destroyed beneath the tall walls of Troy were countless.

CHORUS

(indicating AGAMEMNON’s corpse) Here, Helen! Here’s your ultimate crown! Wear it with pride, its blood will keep it in memory for ever. Indelible blood, ever-unwashable, ever-unatonable blood.

CHORUS

But…it is true. In those days there lived in the halls of the palace some great anger, some hatred that killed its lord.

CLYTEMNESTRA

Why bother with thoughts like this? Why pray for a swift death? Why be angry at Helen? Was it she alone who had destroyed the lives all those Greeks? Was it she alone who had brought about all that dreadful, incurable anguish?

CHORUS

(directing speech at the palace) Evil spirit! You swoop into the chambers of the palace and upon the lives of the two descendants of Tantalus, Agamemnon and Menelaos and you feed yourself from the strength of a woman who’s endowed with a man’s heart. Such strength bites bitterly at my heart.

CHORUS

Look there! Look there evil spirit! She stands above the corpse and sings a cock’s song thinking that she’s singing a sacred hymn.

CLYTEMNESTRA

(she claps sarcastically)Well done! You’ve named names and the names are the correct ones. This Evil Spirit you talk about has thrice fattened this race. It’s in this Evil Spirit’s belly that the thirst for blood grows. No sooner has an old wound stopped bleeding and, whoosh! Another is stretched out wide open. All the more blood for it to lap up.

CHORUS

The Evil Spirit you talk about is indeed very heavy with anger.
What an awful reminder of its insatiable anger!

CHORUS

Ah! Zeus! The cause of it all is ultimately Zeus for Zeus is the cause of everything.

CHORUS

His will, His hand, His deed!

CHORUS

What can be accomplished without the will of Zeus?
What, of all this, is not the work of Zeus?

CHORUS

(addressing AGAMEMNON) O Lord, Lord! With what words do I show my grief? What words of love does my heart hold for you?

CHORUS

Unholy death sprung from inside a spider’s web.

CHORUS

O, Lord, Lord! An unworthy bed, a treacherous death and the hand of a woman carrying a double blade.

CLYTEMNESTRA

Do you think this is all my doing? Are you sure? Do you think I am Agamemnon’s wife? Are you sure of this also? You are wrong on both counts. I am not that man’s wife. Alastor, the Spirit of Vengeance has put me into this body. I do not act as a wife but as an exactor of vengeance. Vengeance for the slaughter of Thyestes’ sons who were served to him by Atreas (indicating AGAMEMNON) — this man’s father! — to eat at dinner! And so, then, Agamemnon was the perfect sacrifice for that crime.

CHORUS

So you claim innocence?

CHORUS

Who on earth would ever bear witness to that?

CHORUS

Who will be your witness against such a crime?

CHORUS

How so? How so?

CHORUS

Perhaps…perhaps Alastor the spirit of vengeance, was your father’s helper in this, after all…Rightful Vengeance…

CHORUS

Ah! Look there! I see Ares!

CHORUS

… that mighty menace…

CHORUS

…run midstream in the confluence of the rivers of blood spilled by brothers!

CHORUS

He is looking for the man who shall pay for the slaughter of the children served as meat.

CHORUS

(addressing AGAMEMNON) O Lord, Lord! With what words do I show my grief?

CHORUS

What words of love does my heart hold for you?

CHORUS

Unholy death sprung from inside a spider’s web.

CHORUS

O, Lord, Lord! An unworthy bed, a treacherous death and the hand of a woman carrying a double blade.

CLYTEMNESTRA

So he has met with a treacherous death, has he? And he? What about him? Was it not with treachery that he brought about the total ruin of this house? Treachery? Has he not acted with treachery to my beloved, my darling flower, my Iphigeneia, his own daughter? What he has suffered he made others suffer equally. And I hope he won’t be going about in the underworld bemoaning the fact that, for all the good deeds he did up here, he was paid by a sword’s death.

CHORUS

I am astounded!

CHORUS

Reason has escaped my mind.

CHORUS

Which way can I turn now –- now that the palace has fallen?

CHORUS

I fear the banging of the rain of blood shaking the very foundations of this house.

CHORUS

No more the slow, softly falling showers.

CHORUS

Fate is sharpening her sword of Justice upon other sharpening stones.

CHORUS

Oh, Earth! Oh Earth! Why did you not take me before I saw my Lord, lying on the humble silver burial couch?

CHORUS

Who will bury him? Who will cry for him?

CHORUS

(addressing CLYTEMNESTRA) Will you dare to do it?

CHORUS

You his murderer?

CHORUS

Will you sing a dirge for him?

CHORUS

Will you cap your ugly work upon his body with an even uglier deed still upon his spirit as a deed of false atonement?

CHORUS

Who will sing his grave’s song with true tears for this holy man, whose heart will truly ache at his death?

CLYTEMNESTRA

This concern does not belong to you. He was cut down by us. He fell upon the ground by our own hand. He died by us and so we will bury him below the ground with our own hands. But our song will not be like the wailings of his house, Oh, No! Iphigeneia, the very daughter he has sacrificed, she will spread her arms wide to receive him, down in the underworld where the Acheron flows fast. There she will meet him, hug him and kiss him with joy.

CHORUS

One shameful act follows another and who’s to decide which is the worst.

CHORUS

He who destroys is destroyed and he who kills pays his due in full. For as long as Zeus remains on his throne this law continues: The murderer must pay.

CHORUS

Who then will root out the seed of destruction from this generation?

CHORUS

This whole race is glued fast onto doom.

CLYTEMNESTRA

(applauds sarcastically again)Well done again! That’s another thing you’re right about: This law of reprisal, of vengeance. And I, I am quite happy to agree with it, to pay my dues -no matter how heavy they might be- to the spirit of this house, to the spirit of the race of Atreas, so long as this law of reprisal leaves this house. Let it destroy another race with murders between family members. And, what’s more, I’ll swear that I will live by modest means –- a small part of my estate only, so long as this mania for murder, murder-for-murder leaves us.

(Enter AEGISTHUS and two attendant guards. He rushes in effusively, full of joy for what has been achieved. In contrast to CLYTEMNESTRA, he is clean and looking proud and regal. It’s obvious he played no physical part in the murder. A sword hangs from his side belt.)