Rachel Swirsky - A Memory of Wind

After Helen and her lover Paris fled to Troy, her husband King Menelaus called his allies to war. Under the leadership of King Agamemnon, the allies met in the harbor at Aulis. They prepared to sail for Troy, but they could not depart, for there was no wind.

Kings Agamemnon, Menelaus, and Odysseus consulted with Calchas, a priest of Artemis, who revealed that the angered goddess was balking their departure. The kings asked Calchas how they might convince Artemis to grant them a wind. He answered that she would only relent after King Agamemnon brought his eldest daughter, Iphigenia, to Aulis and sacrificed her to the goddess.

I began turning into wind the moment that you promised me to Artemis.

Before I woke, I lost the flavor of rancid oil and the shade of green that flushes new leaves. They slipped from me, and became gentle breezes that would later weave themselves into the strength of my gale. Between the first and second beats of my lashes, I also lost the grunt of goats being led to slaughter, and the roughness of wool against calloused fingertips, and the scent of figs simmering in honey wine.

Around me, the other palace girls slept fitfully, tossing and grumbling through the dry summer heat. I stumbled to my feet and fled down the corridor, my footsteps falling smooth against the cool, painted clay. As I walked, the sensation of the floor blew away from me, too. It was as if I stood on nothing.

I forgot the way to my mothers rooms. I decided to visit Orestes instead. I also forgot how to find him. I paced bright corridors, searching. A male servant saw me, and woke a male slave, who woke a female slave, who roused herself and approached me, bleary-eyed, mumbling. Whats wrong, Lady Iphigenia? What do you require?

I had no answers.

I have no answers for you either, father.

I imagine what you did on that night when I paced the palace corridors, my perceptions vanishing like stars winking out of the night sky. You presided over the war council in Aulis. I imagine you standing with the staff of office heavy in your hands-heavy with wood, heavy with burdens.

Calchas, priest of Artemis, bowed before you and the other kings. I have prayed long and hard, he said. The goddess is angry with you, Agamemnon. She will not allow the wind to take your ships to Troy until you have made amends.

I imagine that the staff of office began to feel even heavier in your hands. You looked between your brother, Menelaus, and the sly Odysseus. Both watched you with cold, expressionless faces. They wanted war. You had become an obstacle to their desires.

What have I done? you asked Calchas. What does the goddess want?

The priest smiled.

What would a goddess want? What else but virgin blood on her altar? One daughters life for the wind that would allow you to launch a fleet that could kill thousands. A child for a war.

Odysseus and Menelaus fixed you with hungry gazes. Their appetite for battle hollowed the souls from their eyes as starvation will hollow a mans cheeks. Implicit threats flickered in the torchlight. Do as the priest says, or well take the troops weve gathered to battle Troy and march on Mycenae instead. Sacrifice your daughter or sacrifice your kingdom.

Menelaus took an amphora of rich red wine and poured a measure for each of you. A drink; a vow. Menelaus drank rapidly, red droplets spilling like blood through the thicket of his beard. Odysseus savored slow, languorous sips, his canny eyes intent on your face.

You held your golden rhyton at arms length, peering into redness as dark as my condemned blood. I can only imagine what you felt. Maybe you began to waver. Maybe you thought of my eyes looking up at you, and of the wedding I would never have, and the children I would never bear. But whatever thoughts I may imagine in your mind, I only know the truth of your actions. You did not dash the staff of office across your knee and hurl away its broken halves. You did not shout to Menelaus that he had no right to ask you to sacrifice your daughters life when he would not even sacrifice the pleasure of a faithless harlot who fled his marital bed. You did not laugh at Calchas and tell him to demand something else.

You clutched the staff of office, and you swallowed the wine.

I lost so much. Words. Memories. Perceptions. Only now, in this liminality that might as well be death (if indeed it isnt) have I begun recovering myself.

All by your hand, father. All by your will. You and the goddess have dispersed me, but I will not let you forget.

Next I knew, mothers hands were on me, firm and insistent. She held her face near mine, her brows drawn with concern.

She and her slaves had found me hunched beside a mural that showed children playing in a courtyard, my hands extended toward the smallest figure which, in my insensibility, Id mistaken for Orestes. The slaves eyed me strangely and made signs to ward off madness.

It must have been a dream, I offered to excuse the strangeness which lay slickly on my skin.

Well consult a priest, said Clytemnestra. She put her hand on my elbow. Can you stand? I have news.

I took a ginger step. My foot fell smoothly on the floor I could no longer feel.

Good, said mother. Youll need your health. She stroked my cheek, and looked at me with odd sentimentality, her gaze lingering over the planes of my face as if she were trying to paint me in her memory.

What is it? I asked.

Im sorry. I just wanted to look at you. She withdrew her fingers. Your father has summoned us to Aulis. Achilles wants you as his wife!

The word wife I knew, but Aulis? Achilles?

Who? I asked.

Achilles! Clytemnestra repeated. Well leave for Aulis this afternoon.

I looked into the familiar depths of mothers eyes. Her pupils were dark as unlit water, but her irises were gone. They werent colored; they werent white. They were nothing.

Green, I remembered briefly, mothers eyes are like new green leaves. But when I tried to chase the thought, I could no longer remember what green might be.

Where are we going? I asked.

Youre going to be married, my heart, said mother. Everything changes all at once, doesnt it? One day your daughters a girl, and the next shes a woman. One day your family is all together, and the next theres a war, and everyones leaving. But thats how life is. Theres stasis and then theres change, and then before you even know what the next stasis is, its gone, and all you can do is try to remember it. Youll understand what I mean. Youre so young. Then again, youre going to be a wife. So youre not that young, are you?

Who is Achilles? I repeated.

But mother had already released my hands and begun to pace the room. She was split between high spirits and fretting about the upcoming preparations, with no part of her left for me. She gave orders to her attending slaves. Pack this. Take those. Prepare. Clean. Polish. The slaves chattered like a flock of birds, preening under her attention.

I was not quite forgotten; a lone young girl had been assigned to prepare me for the journey. She approached, her hands filled with wedding adornments. Youre going to marry a hero, she said. Isnt that wonderful?

I felt a gentle tugging at my scalp. She began braiding something into my hair. I reached up to feel what. She paused for a moment, and let me take one of the decorations.

I held the red and white thing in my palm. It was delicately put together, with soft, curved rows arrayed around a dark center. A sweet, crushed scent filled the air.

This smells, I said.

It smells good, said the slave, taking the thing gently from my hand. I closed my eyes and searched for the name of the sweet scent as she wound red and white into my bridal wreath.