Electra

ELECTRA

by

KERRY GREENWOOD

My sandals were made to glide over the marble floor of the Palace of Mycenae, not to walk the road like a common market trader.

Of course, as a princess, I was unused to walking.

Only female slaves and whores are seen in public.

Only female slaves and whores walk.

Electra is forced to flee her home after witnessing the shocking murder of her father, but life outside the palace walls is frightening.

The free and easy ways of her foreign companions disturb her - especially the scandalous relationship between the Trojan woman, Cassandra, and the two men - but she needs their help to survive.

Along the way Electra's travels, driven by a burning desire for revenge, become a different kind of journey.

Kerry Greenwood's Electra evokes the dark perils and pleasures of the ancient world with a contemporary sensual intensity.

ADONIS

the slain God, identical with Osiris; the Summer King, slain and resurrected every year

APHRODITE

'The Stranger', Lady of Cyprus, Goddess of Love

APOLLO

Sun God, the Archer

ARTEMIS

the Hunter, a virgin Goddess; sister of Apollo

ATHENE

Mistress of Battles, daughter of Zeus, also a maiden

DEMETER

Goddess of the Earth, also known as Gaia, the Mother

DIONYSOS

God of Wine and Madness

HADES

Pluton, 'the rich one', Lord of the underworld, husband of Persephone

HERA

wife of Zeus

HERMES

messenger of the Gods

PAN

God of Forests. He and Demeter are the oldest Gods

PERSEPHONE

Kore, the maiden, daughter of Demeter, married to Hades

POSEIDON

Earth-shaker, God of the Sea

THANATOS

angel of death. His brother is Morpheus, sleep

ZEUS

the Father, son of Chronos, Lord of the Gods

ASCLEPIUS

son of Apollo, father of medicine

CALYPSO

a nymph, who rescued Odysseus from the sea

CIRCE

sorceress, who turned Odysseus' crew into pigs

ERINYES

the Furies, revengers of blood

EUMENIDES

'The Kindly Ones', benevolent fertility deities; but previously identified as the Furies

HERACLES

the hero, famous for his labours

HYGEIA

daughter of Asclepius, patroness of medicine

MACAON

son of Asclepius, father of surgery; died at Troy

POLIDARIUS

son Asclepius, father of herbal medicine

TIRESIAS

philosopher, half-man half-woman, consulted by Odysseus in Hades' realm

AEGISTHUS

son of Thyestes by incest, revenge-child, Clytemnestra's lover

ATREUS

twin to Thyestes, cooked his children and was cursed

AGAMEMNON

brother of Menelaus, King of Mycenae

CHRYSOTHEMIS

daughter of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra

CLYTEMNESTRA

daughter of Leda, sister of Elene of Sparta, wife of Agamemnon

ELECTRA

(see Laodice)

HERMIONE

daughter of Menelaus and Elene, betrothed to Orestes

IPHIGENIA

daughter of Agamemnon, sacrificed for a wind to Troy

LAODICE

called Electra, daughter of Clytemnestra and Agamemnon

ORESTES

last son of Agamemnon

THYESTES

brother of Atreus, father of Aegisthus

CASSANDRA

daughter of Priam, Healer of Troy, captive of Agamemnon

DIOMENES

called Chryse, 'golden' Healer, Priest of Asclepius, from Epidavros

EUMIDES

a Trojan sailor, once a slave in Mycenae

ABANTOS

slave and cook to Electra

ACHILLES

'Swift Runner', the hero

ACHIS

of Thrace, a trader in herbs

AGENOR

sailor in Laodamos' ship

ALCESTE

slave to Electra

ANDROMACHE

widow of Hector

ARION

the Bard, Dolphin-Rider

AULOS

slave to Plyades

AUTESION

son of Gythis and Taphis of Corinth

AZEUS

son of Clonius, freeman working for Pylades

CILISSA

nurse of Orestes

CHRYSEIS

'golden' (fem), wife of Diomenes

CLONIUS

freeman working for Pylades

CYCLOPS

giant with one eye, which Odysseus put out in a cave on Crete

DION

priest of Poseidon, lover of Cassandra in Troy

ELENI

priest of Apollo in Dodona, twin to Cassandra

GLAUCUS

master of Epidavros and Diomenes' teacher

GRAIOS

slave to Pylades

GYTHIA

wife of Taphis, herb-merchant of Corinth

HECABE

Queen of defeated Troy and mother of Cassandra

HECTOR

Prince of Troy, brother of Cassandra

LAODAMOS

sailor friend of Eumides

LAPHANES

slave in Mycenae, in love with Electra

LYSANE

slave to Electra

MENON

apprentice to Arion the Bard

METRODORUS

pirate of Troizen

MOLOSSOS

counsellor of Epirus

NELEUS

head man of Artemisi

NEOPTELEMUS

son of Achilles, King of Epirus

NEPTHA

Electra's nurse in Mycenae

NESTOR

old man of Mycenae

ODYESSEUS

Prince of Ithaca, of the Nimble Word

PARIKI

'purse' son of Priam, brother of Cassandra

PEIRITHE

wife of Scamandros, Queen of Troas

PENELOPE

wife of Odysseus

PRIAM

'priamos' 'the ransomed', King of Troy

PYLADES

of Phocis, cousin to Electra and Orestes

SCAMANDROS

King of Troas

STAPHYLOS

inventor of wine, Minoan king of Blue-Green Island, title for all succeeding kings

TAPHIS

the Corinthian, a herb-merchant

TELEMACHUS

son of Odysseus

TYDEUS

of the lyre, Orphean bard

RACER

a half-wolf bitch

BANTHOS

'Dapple', Electra's gelding

NEFOS

'Black Cloud', Cassandra's horse

WAVERIDER

Eumides' galley

DOLPHIN

Arion's ship

FARSEER

Eumides' first boat

HAND

a pirate galley belonging to Metrodorus of Troizen

PHOEBUS

Laodamos' galleyso

The Gods were quarrelling, as the Gods often do. Olympus, the abode of Immortals, was crowned with the marble cirque where the Wells of Seeing lay, deep waters wherein the Makers could view the earth.

Aphrodite the Stranger, Goddess of Erotic Love, and Apollo Sun-Bright, God of Learning, son of Zeus, had not resolved their wager.

Cassandra, daughter of Priam, and Diomenes the Argive, the Healer-Priest of Asclepius, had been their puppets, acting out the play of the Gods through war and the fall of Troy. The city lay in ruin, and enslaved Cassandra was being brought to Mycenae by Agamemnon, the victorious king. Diomenes followed in the wake of the army.

Aphrodite had wagered the golden apple on her own power, that of love. Apollo had set against this, fate and death. The outcome was still in the balance.

The golden apple spun in the air, the gage of Aphrodite's wager with Apollo Sun-God. As he reached out a hand to catch it, a great bell sounded, shivering the drowsy eternal afternoon.

'Children,' announced Zeus the Father with solemn majesty. 'Leave your squabbling over the daughter of Priam, much-tried Cassandra. Troy is dust.

My son Apollo, your favourite, Diomenes Chryse the Asclepius Priest, shall love or not love as he wishes.

Your favourite, Lady Demeter, Cassandra, captive of Agamemnon, shall live or die as fate wills. Cut the strings of these minor puppets, children, make peace with each other. There is a greater matter to be considered. Your intervention has woven their threads into a tapestry in which
all
the Gods are interested.'

'Lord?' asked Athena of the glittering helmet. 'What matters?'

'The House of Atreus,' the great voice intoned.

The golden apple fell to the marble floor unheeded.

I knew she was going to kill him when she laid out the sacred tapestries.

I stood at the head of the marble stairs and watched them unroll across the floor, blurred by the feet of the children of Atreus. Intricately embroidered, many-figured with holy beasts, bulls and lambs and horses dancing to the altar to die in the worship of the Gods. Black, like the splashed blood of the sacrifice.

Before dawn the watchers had cried that the signal fires were burning to announce the return of Agamemnon, son of Atreus, from the sack of Troy. I went out, wrapped only in a thin chiton, and sighted the points of greedy light on the surrounding hills. He had been long away, my father, the King of Mycenae, and many things had happened in his absence.

She had taken a lover. Queen Clytemnestra, my mother, had welcomed into her bed the revenge child Aegisthus, my uncle. He was the son of incest between his father Thyestes, brother to my father, and his own daughter, a priestess of the river. He existed to enact his father's vengeance on the House of Atreus, for Atreus' murder of Thyestes' children. Before he came, I had not known how well I could hate.

I hate very well.

Part of me did not really believe that she could kill him. My tall father, dazzling in his bronze armour, tall as a giant, strong as a bull. When he had gone with the army to harry Troy, ten years before, I had been twelve and a child, believing that the world was a safe place for Laodice, called Electra, Princess of Golden Mycenae. I had given him my bunch of windflowers and he had fastened them on the shoulder of his harness. He had picked me up and hugged me, smelling of leather and wine, and I had snuggled closer to him, begging to be allowed to come, at least as far as Navplio and the beaches where the black ships lay, keel to keel, waiting for the wind.