a sea-change into something rich and strange

Illustration by Charles Folkard

Taken from "Jolly Calle and Other Swedish Fairy Tales"

By Helena Nyblom.

I

Hot through Troy’s ruin Menelaus broke To Priam’s palace, sword in hand, to sate On that adulterous whore a ten years’ hate And a king’s honour. Through red death, and smoke, And cries, and then by quieter ways he strode, Till the still innermost chamber fronted him. He swung his sword, and crashed into the dim Luxurious bower, flaming like a god.

High sat white Helen, lonely and serene. He had not remembered that she was so fair, And that her neck curved down in such a way; And he felt tired. He hung the sword away, And kissed her feet, and knelt before her there, The perfect Knight before the perfect Queen.

II

So far the poet. How should he behold That journey home, the long connubial years? He does not tell you how white Helen bears Child on legitimate child, becomes a scold, Haggard with virtue. Menelaus bold Waxed garrulous, and sacked a hundred Troys ‘Twixt noon and supper. And her golden voice Got shrill as he grew deafer. And both were old.

Often he wonders why on earth he went Troyward, or why poor Paris ever came. Oft she weeps, gummy-eyed and impotent; Her dry shanks twitch at Paris’ mumbled name. So Menelaus nagged; and Helen cried; And Paris slept on by Scamander side.

IPHIGENIA: But your eyes look worried. Are you really happy to see me?

AGAMEMNON: Kings and generals have many worries.

IPHIGENIA: Oh forget them for now, forget them. I am here, put them aside and be with me.

AGAMEMNON: I’m all yours now. I’m nowhere else. (Iphigenia in Aulis by Euripides)

She (Clytemnestra) describes her murder of Agamemnon in terms that invert the usual assumptions about gender roles. She was the hunter, he was the prey; she caught him in a robe as fishermen catch fish. He was in his bath and, therefore, presumably naked and supine; she stood over him, armed, as a warrior. These inversions of gender roles are shocking enough, but then she uses sexual imagery, recasting herself as female, that is more shocking still. She says that she enjoyed his blood splattering on her as flowers enjoy the rain of Zeus.Rain fertilizing plants is a commonplace metaphor for sexual intercourse. Thus, Clytaemestra seems to be saying that she derived sexual enjoyment from killing Agamemnon.