(NOTE: Trailblazing English is used in this monologue.)
Character: Agamemnon, Commander of Greek Forces
Setting: Agamemnon’s hut in the Greek Camp outside the ruins of Ancient Troy
Background: Agamemnon speaks candidly to Odysseus of the troubling sacrifice he made in order to sail to Troy.
AGAMEMNON
What homecoming can I expect?
I killed my own daughter in order to sail to Troy.
No other way would the goddes grant me the winds…
and I chose the winds!
A reasonable decision,
considering the “Greater Glory of Greece.” —
Sacrifice one femele — a mere girl — to gain a city full!
And each of these is some man’s daughter…
Some man’s daughter.
I remember her eyes as I led her away.
I, of all people, should have protected her!
There are olive trees in my groves
that I would not trust myself to prune.
Yet, when it came to Iphianassa —
a seed of my own planting,
my first harvest —
with my own hand I cut her down.
Tell me, Odysseus,
why should a man hesitate to destroy the world
once he has killed his own daughter?
There have been times since,
when I’d meet an opponent in battle —
for an instant —
just before striking a lethal blow —
I’d see her face and catch myself shouting,
“You are not she!”
And so is my history these past ten years,
that in every prize I gain I find no daughter,
yet each life I take is Iphianassa’s.
© Justy Fairfield 2008, 2021
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