"Tepper,.Sheri.S.-.Gate.To.Women's.Country" - читать интересную книгу автора (Tepper Sherri)

ANDROMACHE There, baby, there. Take the nipple. Suck. Oh see, Mother Hecuba, he's too tired to suck. Poor baby. All the smoke and noise. . . .
HECUBA And howling. We've all been doing that. It's the crying's kept him awake, daughter. Well, I'm through crying. I cried for Hector, my son, and I cried for King Priam, my husband, and I cried for the city of Troy, and then I cried for me, and that's enough of it.
ANDROMACHE I'm dry of weeping, too. (She looks up at the walls above her where a group of people have paused to gawk) Bitch!
HECUBA (Looking up) You mean Helen.
ANDROMACHE Well, she's not down here in the dirt with us, is she? She's not trying to find food for a baby or worrying whose slave she's going to be.
HECUBA That one is no man's slave. Still, Menelaus vows he'll kill her.
ANDROMACHE He'll not kill her. Kill the source of so much glory? Kill he topic of ten thousand poets' songs? She'll go back to being wife and honored queen, shown off like a prize cow. She'll sit in a carved chair with a silver sewing box and spin purple wool when all of us are dead. (Looks up at Helen laughing on the battlement) May her womb be closed forever. May she never bear another child. May she have boils in her. . . .
HECUBA Shhh, shhh. Your curses may bear fruit, and if they do you'll bring Erinyes down upon yourself. All those who curse their kin bring down the three avengers on themselves. . . .
"Stop for footnote," said Corrig, flipping to the back of the book. "What are Erinyes? I can never remember."
"Furies," Stavia replied, taking another sip of tea.
"Ah yes. 'Anger, Vengeance, and Jealousy, who return from the underworld to earth to punish certain acts, particularly the murder of relatives, et cetera.' Was Helen a relative? Were the Greeks?"
"She was sort of married to one of their countrymen. I don't know, Corrig. I think in school they said it means all women are kin, sort of."
"Hmm," he mused. "Well. Back to text. . . ."
ANDROMACHE I wasn't cursing kin. I cursed at her and at those Greeks who brought my Hector down. They are no kin of mine.
HECUBA She's a woman, Andromache. A sister of ours. Perhaps she even thinks herself a Trojan. Long years she's walked the torch lit halls of Troy.
ANDROMACHE One day was too long.
HECUBA Even one hour's too long, Andromache, but do not risk what little we have left on her behalf.
ANDROMACHE What little's that?
HECUBA You are my son's loved wife, and you're alive. Your baby Astyanax is alive. And even I'm alive, though that may be sparse comfort for us both.
ANDROMACHE Your daughters, Polyxena and Cassandra, are alive. Such as they are.
HECUBA That's true, so let's not tempt the Furies down for the sake of mere cursing. (She takes the baby from Andromache) Oh, baby, baby. Little Astyanax. He's trying so hard to fall asleep.
ANDROMACHE Speak of reasons for cursing. Here comes Talthybius. (Talthybius enters left)
HECUBA (Fumbling in her skirt) Do you come like the raven, messenger, to croak dishonor in my aged ears?
TALTHYBIUS I bring such messages as I am sent with.
HECUBA They do not ever send you with good tidings, do they, Talthybius?
TALTHYBIUS Priam's wife, if they had good to say, they'd come themselves with joy salving their lips.
ANDROMACHE But you they send with vomit in your mouth and Hector's blood still warm upon your tongue.
HECUBA Shhh, shhh, daughter. The messenger brings only what he's given. What are you given now, Talthybius?
TALTHYBIUS Some word about your children, Priam's Queen. (He casts about for some acceptable part of the message) Cassandra. I bring word of Cassandra.
HECUBA (Nodding) She went quite mad, you know. She ran throughout the palace, up and down, dancing with Hymen's torches in her hands, whirling until she'd set fire to her hair. We threw wet blankets on her, holding her until the flame was out. Her nuptials shall light a funeral pyre, or so she says. What else is there to know about Cassandra?
TALTHYBIUS Agamemnon will take her home with him. She pleases him.
ANDROMACHE One can account so little for some things. He's pleased with her? Then he is likely pleased to taunt the Gods and court his own destruction. What will he do with her?
TALTHYBIUS He will bed her, I think, madam.
ANDROMACHE He'll bed the virgin priestess of Athena! When he is done, then will he curse at Zeus and piss upon the image of Apollo? Or is he turned by madness that he seeks a mate most like himself. . . ?
HECUBA Shhh, shhh, daughter. Do not curse the Greeks who seem well able to proscribe themselves. So, Talthybius. Agamemnon will take Cassandra. What of Polyxena?
TALTHYBIUS (After an uncomfortable pause) She was assigned by lot, as were you all.
HECUBA Where? To whom? What Greek takes Polyxena?
TALTHYBIUS She has been assigned to serve the tomb of Achilles.
HECUBA Slave to a graven tomb! How dreadful for her. She loves the lively arts, Talthybius. Dancing. Eating. To think that she must serve Achilles' tomb.
TALTHYBIUS Count her as happy, Queen. Her fate frees her from troubles that still follow you....
HECUBA What troubles have I? So, I'll be a slave. When thousands lie unburied on the field, when blood runs down to feed the summer trees, does slavery count for much?
TALTHYBIUS You will be slave to Odysseus.
HECUBA His ownership will be as short as my subservience, Talthybius. I am an old woman. See. My hair is white.
TALTHYBIUS (Leaning down to look at her closely) You have years yet.
HECUBA (She fumbles in her skirt again, then removes her hands and clenches them in front of her, staring at them. There is a pause) My daughter Cassandra says not.
TALTHYBIUS No one believes Cassandra. As for Andromache. . . .
ANDROMACHE I'll be a slave. I know it already. I say with my husband's mother that my slavery will be brief.
TALTHYBIUS But you are young yet.
ANDROMACHE So I am.
HECUBA Enough, Talthybius. You have told us enough for one visit. Croak somewhere else for a time.