Elektra
Dramatis Personae
Elektra
Orestes
Chorus
The action takes place at the family grave of Agamemnon, Orestes and Elektra.
Enter Elektra and Chorus
Elektra: I remember when I was a child
I would run throughout the palace
High my spirits, wild my nature
No servant, no mother dared stop me
I was a terror that no threat of punishment would abate
Daddy would set me on his lap
To tell me to behave, I tried my best
For him I was good, I wanted him to smile
I'd sketch his face in wax with stylus
I'd play at some other quiet game
I know that he was pleased with me
He would give me a garland of crocuses
A crown made for his princess he'd call it
It made me smile when I was his princess
That all seems so long ago
Six years I have come to this, our family tomb
Again a little girl sitting on her father's lap
Finding comfort in his presence,
As she would after a long absence
I sit again in your shadow, Daddy
I'm still your princess, though I have no crown
Only blossoms of memories bedeck my head
Long were you gone, long have you been dead
My memories of you do not make me sad
I find peace here, I feel secure
There is neither peace, nor security
My mother sits upon the throne
Clytemnestra the bitch Queen of Argos
Her half a man consort calls himself king
Foolish claim from a foolish man
Yet all Argos believes the deception
AEgisthus, smooth skinned smooth voiced paramour
He shame to my father's throne; to my mother's bed
She butcher of my father, ruin of our family
The blood still stains her hand
Her crime remains unpunished
Even stones seem to shout for justice
Were it but in my power to bring
Weak are my woman's hands
Frail is my woman's heart
I am a prisoner to my gender
Unhappy fate has placed this yoke on me
I am my mother's unwanted spawn
I am her bastard princess
Chorus: There is no end to wickedness in this world
It is not right for crimes to remain unpunished
You have suffered much tragedy
It is not right for a princess to live alone.
Have you no husband to carry out your work?
Have you no son to pin your hopes?
Elektra: My loving parents feared that fate
That from my womb would spring a son
Which I would nurse with venom
Sing lullabies with an adder's tongue
They gave me in wedlock to a rude peasant
A man of no fortune, weak and weary from life
His hands worked raw from the fields
His face wrinkled from the sun
Were a son to be born he'd be no threat
A mirror of his father, slow of hand and speech
Chorus: This fate is cruel
Elektra: My parents could compel me to wed
They could compel me to live as his wife
Chorus: Has he consented to this?
How strange honorable man
To cool his lusts in presence of a princess
You are a jewel of Attica
Your eyes are rich as amber
Your skin is smooth as marble
Your lips are sweet as honey
A thousand stars shine in the sky
Not one is as dear as you
Who could resist a woman as such?
Elektra: Our nuptial rites were an ember
Pressed against my tender skin
Slowly burning through the flesh
Until it consumed what was me
And left the burnt remains of pain and rage
As the joyous wedding party departed from me
Clytemnestra's fools with sunshine smiles
I became a fury, roaring raging through the night
I lashed out everywhere I hurled what I could grasp
His dreams of sweetness turned to ash
He swore unto Zeus he'd not touch me
If only my vicious storm would pass
Chorus: A coward to hide from such a treasure
Elektra: A noble coward, he's kept his word
Chorus: Who will avenger your father now?
Elektra: I have a brother called Orestes
He was a boy when Daddy died
I sent him to the court of Strophius
Our uncle, the wise King of Phocis
Lest our dear mother kill him as a cub
Six years ago was that
Every year upon his day of birth
I've sent a letter to him
So he might remember his duty to the dead
Chorus: Duty? You've told him to kill his mother?
Elektra: I've told him to exact justice
The wise love justice more than kin
Justice is a pillar, the king's throne
Unjust and brutal are animals
But man and god bear capacity to be just
Even the fates have ordained such
Let the mouth of justice speak, let her cry out
Wicked and wretched, Clytemnestra mustn't live
That task justice demands
Chorus: Someone comes
(Enter Orestes)
Elektra: Who disturbs the grave of Argos royal family?
All ancestors have been forgotten in this land
The wretched nobles live their lives asleep
Forgetful of their duties to dead or to living
Orestes: I'm from the court of Phocis
Elektra: From King Strophius?
Have you news of Orestes?
Orestes: I bear sorrow's weight
A plague fell upon our city
A pestilence that spared no one high or low
The fever gripped Orestes' brow
Life's breath was choked out of him
He died a few days before his eighteenth year
Chorus: O horror
Orestes: I've brought this marble urn with his ashes
To be lain within the ancestral grave
Elektra: Did he die well, or cowardly?
Orestes: He died as the king he would have become.
Elektra (Takes and raises ashes)
Orestes, my brother, I never dreamt this
First our father's death, and now your own
I remember days now long past
I remember the fields we ran through as children
I watched over you as a mother should have
I believed in you; I always did
That one day you'd grow to be a great king
Then our sorrows came: Daddy's death
Our mother's marriage, your exile
What woe, what bitter fate
How kind the gods to strike me down
Our reunion this, a time of tears
Unfinished work is the balance of my thoughts
What can I do, is this my fate?
I shall become you, Orestes; I'll live your life
I'll change my women's weeds for manly garb
I'll learn to fight, I'll learn to kill
Be the fury that my mother fears
I am a storm which rages on the sea
I'll lash the toadies of the court
I'll leave her corpse upon the throne
With blood I'll wash away her crimes
AEgisthus shall join her swift and sure
If only I'd not wasted so much time
If only I had practiced for this day
Orestes: Peace Elektra
Elektra: You know my name?
Orestes: I am your brother
Chorus: What news is this?
Orestes: I have deceived you, forgive me
I knew not the state of this land
If Clytemnestra's spies were everywhere
I dared not hope to find a friend
Even here at the grave of Agamemnon
Chorus: The grief that Elektra showed
Orestes: Could only have come from my sister
Elektra: Orestes, you are alive
I feel the tears of sorrow I have shed
Melt into a font of joy
Like a pool swelled from a bitter shower
But tell me, why have you come?
Orestes: Long did I spend in the court of Strophius
Where I sharpened my skill
I studied among the poets and sophists
I practiced gymnastics with athletes
I learned to fight with the soldiers and slaves
Many of whom had fought the siege of Troy
Every year your admonishment would come
In every pen stroke I felt the force of your rage
They were the world's own weight
That I, as Atlas, was born to bear
As my eighteenth year drew close
My majority, I could be king
I wondered if my cause was just
To kill one's own mother, hellish crime
The woman who had bore and nursed me
Yet to leave my father's death unavenged
Both evils; which was the greater?
What would the gods think of this matter?
Chorus: The dilemma is great
Orestes: And so I sought the word of the gods
To Delphi, to the oracle I went
I asked were it lawful to kill my mother
Should I leave my father without redress
Chorus: A wise choice
Elektra: You dared to doubt me?
Orestes: I did. It might seem different to the gods
Then to you, or to I, or to any matter of men
But to the brilliant god who sees all things
He shall know the truth and aid me in predicament
The seer in her cave told this
Your father's blood must be avenged
I've crept here like a thief
To steal our family's honor back
Chorus: What will you do?
Orestes: I'll go into our home as I have come here
I, the messenger to announce Orestes' death
Joy will reign within the court
As Clytemnestra comes forward for the urn
I'll bury my dagger in her breast
Chorus: That breast that nursed you
Elektra: And nursed a hatred for our father
Chorus: Also true, inconstant is the heart
Filled with love and hate, all turn between them
Elektra: Strong the spirit, the capacity for justice
Stay constant Orestes, and be brave
Your sacrifice is made unto the gods
Sweet will be the hecatomb of Clytemnestra's pyre
Orestes: Weak willed and frightened I go to my task
Comforted by the words of my sister and a god
Elektra: Go with Apollo's strength and my love
(Exit Orestes, Silence for a moment)
Elektra: Please Apollo make him strong and brave
Chorus: You fear your brother will falter
Elektra: My heart is filled with anticipation
I am awake, alive, justice will soon be brought
What if Orestes should lose his nerve?
Chorus: What if he should succeed?
Elektra: Our goal achieved, Orestes will be king
Our ancestor's grave shall be worshipped once more
A suitable match shall be found for me
(Silence)
Chorus: How long the wait
Elektra: I tremble in fear
Chorus: Every minute feels an hour
Elektra: An hour would be unto a year
(Silence)
Elektra: He's failed, I know he's failed
His hand faltered before the blow
Clytemnestra's seen through his disguise
They've killed or captured him
Chorus: Those are the whispered words of fear
Elektra: You're right, he is my brother
He knows my love, he knows his duty
I know that he will succeed
Chorus: Yet you fear
Elektra: Doubt seems to burrow in my heart
As a mole tunneling into the earth
Blind fear, this unnamed dread
(Silence)
Chorus: Time passes slowly
As a flower opening after rain
A feather blown upon the breeze
Nervous the heart, this promised day
The springtime about to bloom
A long anticipated season not quite here
Elektra: My heart is beating violently
Every instant feels like a downpour
Beating upon the open sea
Chorus: Were Orestes hear to bring news
The battle lost or won it would not matter
The terror is in the unknown
That is what causes the heart to stop
Is this the darkness that brings the dawn
Or the eerie calm that comes before the storm
(Silence)
Elektra: Is that him?
Chorus: A mouse scampers in the field
Elektra: What's that noise?
Chorus: Nothing but the song of wind
(Silence)
Elektra: Will he not come, will this task not end?
This trial, my mother's sentence, when will it come?
When will her debt be paid?
(Silence)
Chorus: Time passes slowly
As an autumn leave fluttering to the earth
Flakes of snow drifting down
See how our hands tremble
Is this day the end of our dreams
Is life to be ended in its prime?
I fear the dreaded season is upon us
Elektra: Oh shackles of patience, I hate them
I am filled with fear and dread
But powerless, as if I am held in a cage
(Enter Orestes, looking bedraggled)
Chorus: Orestes!
Elektra: Relief is a well that flows from my heart
The delight the joy of seeing you, Orestes
Is your work done? Have you killed our mother?
Has the wicked Clytemnestra breathed her last?
Orestes: I am sorry Elektra, forgive me
I could not do it, I could not slay her
I stepped and slew AEgisthus without regret
He turned and groaned with dying breath
I saw the surprise as victory was snatched from him
His long dreamt happiness, Orestes dead
Face first he lay upon the palace steps
A stream of blood, in cascades began
From that the entire court turned ashen and scattered
They left me alone with our mother
I saw the look of terror in her eyes
Those eyes had gazed upon me lovingly in my cradle
Those eyes had watched me take my first steps
And weak as those infant steps grew my arms
I stabbed, but my blow was like a child's
I heard her shriek, I heard her scream
I dropped my dagger, turned and fled
Tears marred my eyes, I was remorse
Elektra: Oh coward you shameless coward
I shall be the man that you are not
Orestes: Elektra please, she is our mother
(Exit Elektra)
Orestes: I could not do it
I could not kill the woman who gave me life
Chorus: Your sister will
Orestes: I cannot stop her, no force of nature could
She's like a full force gale, a raging fire
She's not subject to the will of man or god
I cannot save my mother
Chorus: Then she will surely die
Orestes: As all will, someday
Sister to Castor and Pollex
Sister to Helen of Troy
The faithless wife of Agamemnon
So great, so terrible a woman
I cannot save my mother
Chorus: You wish you could
Orestes: Weak willed and fearful, I dare not confront
Kill my mother to please my sister
Stop my sister to please my mother
One gave me life, one saved my life
Clytemnestra would have robbed me of life
But Elektra, she has done worse to me
Brutal family filled with hate
Is there no love for me? I am alone
Could I but fly above the mountains
Or sail beyond the ocean sea
Chorus: Even there your fate would remain
Beyond the land, or air or ocean sea is conscience
The sense of duty haunts both man and god
Orestes: I can only be free for a short time
Among you here at my Father's tomb
Miserable man, I hardly knew him
Unhappy spent years outside Troy's gates
Unhappy died by his wife's dagger
Breathed his last in her tender arms
Only one brief moment of victory
When he was the conquering King of Troy
Wretched fate, was this my moment?
To shine heroic among my mother's screams
Was that victory?
(Enter Elektra)
Elektra: Behold the head of Clytemnestra
Behold those eyes that hid deception
Behold the tresses that charmed AEgisthus
Behold the tongue which spread poison
Where is your treachery now?
What have your lies earned you?
What has all your wickedness bought?
Orestes: What have you done?
Elektra: There was horror in her eyes when she saw me
She grasped your dagger, and tried to stand
But had lost much blood, and collapsed
The blade clattered on the palace floor
I snatched your dagger from the ground
And thrust it into her back
Her tortured screams were a sweet melody
Like gentle pipes her dying gasps
Orestes: Clytemnestra, my mother
I am a beast, no worse than a beast
For no animal would devour his parent
I have become a monster
(Orestes runs off stage)
Elektra: I pinned false hopes on you
You're more of Clytemnestra than of our father
Weak willed and fearful, you loved her
Despite her gross inhuman crime
What good such love? You see her fate
Let the dogs come to lick her blood
Let the vultures pick her bones
She'll not defile my daddy's grave.
(Elektra turns and walks offstage.)