Clytemnestra. Poem by Margery Rehman

Restless, pacing panther-like,
I prowl the palace
Preparing for the gods to punish me,
As is my fate.
A fate I fear not.

For I, Clytemnestra, Queen of Mycenae,
Daughter of Sparta and of Leda,
Have avenged my daughter's death!
The blood of Iphigenia,
Shed by her father,
To assuage the fears and whims
Of ignorant, brutal men.
Lordly Agamemnon,
Once my husband but no more,
For I have murdered him.

And with him, Cassandra
Whom he brought as trophy queen to my domain.
Eleven years and more, his absence I have borne,
Ruling this realm
While he sat outside Ilium
Fighting his foolish brother's war.

Yes, Aegisthus is my lover.
He's greedy for power and gold
Like all of them,
But keeps my bed warm, amuses me;
More important, he does as he is told.

My children see only an adulterous mother
Not the years of suffocating rage,
The insults, slights, lies and cruelties
Carelessly thrown by Agamemnon
Upon their mother, whom they in turn will kill.

If Troy could be entirely razed
Because fair Helen made a choice
And Menelaus' honour, almost lost,
Through war was saved.
Greek women sacrificed,
Trojan women enslaved.
And all this at great Apollo's feet is laid.

Why then my right to vengeance
By Zeus, himself, not be assuaged?