THE SIEGE IS BROKEN

Thessalonike, Cassander, Olympias, Timaeus, Woman #2, Woman #3,
Soldiers, Lachesis-Woman #2, Atropos-Woman #3, The Fates, Allekto-Man
#4, Tisiphone-Woman #4, Megaira-Woman #5, The Furies, The Litae

(Later the same day, on level 2a and
level 3, Thessalonike is resting her
elbows on the parapet with the other
ladies, Demarete, Deïdameia, Sophia,
Pothos, at Level 3, looking down and
then out, passing the time. Olympias,
Roxanê, and Alexander IV have been
joined by Timaeus and are settled on
Level 2a conversing quietly. The Greek
Chorus is huddled DL on Level 1.)

THESSALONIKE

One is coming this way! And many more.

(Thessalonike and the ladies run down
the stairs. The opening of the creaking
main gate is heard, accompanied by men
shouting. Cassander enters and goes up
to Olympias, but on approaching he
notices Thessalonike, hesitates a
moment, bows slightly, before going to
Olympias.)

CASSANDER

You are—?

THESSALONIKE

Thessalonike.

CASSANDER

Of the same blood as Alexander.

CASSANDER

(continuing; aside to Glaucias)

Then here is my queen. Through her, I will join
myself to the house of Alexander. And the throne!

(He turns to Olympias, before whom he
makes a stiff, slight, half nod, merely
acknowledging the presence. He does the
same to Roxanê. Then he goes to
Alexander and pats him on the head.
Roxanê senses a threat to Alexander IV,
goes to take the hand of her child and
retreats offstage. Cassander follows a
way after her. A number of Cassander’s
soldiers have streamed in behind and
engulfed Timaeus and the ladies,
Demarete, Deïdameia, Sophia, and
Pothos, jostling them considerably,
surrounding their prey.

Timaeus and the ladies separate
themselves from the crowd with
difficulty and go to stand behind
Olympias. The Greek Chorus keeps its
distance.)

CASSANDER

(continuing)

Lady, the forces from your native land cannot aid
you. They mutiny. The disaffected were released. Few
oppose me. Most are allied with me. Polyperchon’s
men have been corrupted by bribes. He is powerless.
Eumenes has been put to death for his loyalty to the
king and you.

(As she turns away from Cassander in
disbelief and grief.)

OLYMPIAS

Eumenes dead? My friend, dead? My advisor, my
general, no more?

OLYMPIAS

(continuing; aside to Timaeus)

The poisoner of my son is here. I am powerless to
dispose of him. I hacked the family-body from this
snake, but now the hissing head within his bosom
lurks. I revere all snakes, to stroke them into
peace with me, no threat to me their strike.

TIMAEUS

Save this one!

SOLDIER#1/ATTALUS

My friends and hers, who were in Babylon, say he was
not the cause. She will not believe them.

(She knows what they are saying.)

OLYMPIAS

I know the truth! I know! I spurn their opinion. I
see my son dead. I see that snake was there. With
his brother, my son’s cup-bearer. What was done is
clear. And I was given the true power of a queen to
act.

SOLDIER#5/HECATAEUS

I be Truth, I be dead.

SOLDIER#2/EUXENIPPUS

(continuing)

She lies well.

SOLDIER#3/GORGIAS

Truth sets heads nodding.

SOLDIER#4/GORGATUS

Her truth sets heads shaking.

SOLDIER#1/ATTALUS

She loves the pleasure of vengeance more than the
agony of truth.

SOLDIER#2/EUXENIPPUS

(continuing)

Her truth has fitted her with chains and delivered
her to the grip of hateful At

SOLDIER#3/GORGIAS

I have seen the truth in Babylon. And in Macedon. Of
his friends and kindred, hundreds hanged at her
whim. His allies executed. The wife of the king
executed, The slow-witted king himself, slit. So now
only one king lives, and she owns the boy.

OLYMPIAS

(aside)

Blood of his blood, drained and clotted.

CASSANDER

You are abandoned utterly. With the end of winter,
we can assault your walls. With the famine I see
here, there will be no fight. This stench in the
noses of these fine, gentle, pretty people around
you will turn their disgust into surrender. You must
now put all your interests in my hands.

(Olympias in an aside to her ladies, as
she ponders the situation. Her speech
is interlaced with Cassander’s aside
below.)

OLYMPIAS

An end to liberty.

CASSANDER

An end to her.

OLYMPIAS

I am taken. By this weasel.

CASSANDER

She is taken, this disease.

OLYMPIAS

My son would not have him in his army.

CASSANDER

My father would not have her rule.

OLYMPIAS

He was sickly, and took to the hearth.

CASSANDER

She was adventurous, and forsook the hearth.

OLYMPIAS

He never made the hunt. He fell to plotting. And arrived at treachery.

CASSANDER

She abandoned the Mysteries for debauchery.

OLYMPIAS

What am I doing! I turned my back to him!

CASSANDER

I would kill her outright, at once. But
she is the damned mother. I must be keen about this.

OLYMPIAS

And I feel treachery coming. I must see it as it comes.

CASSANDER

I will send her out to sea, into a storm. That
should finish her.

(Olympias is a juggernaut. She turns
completely around and then abruptly
around again to address Cassander.)

OLYMPIAS

My son was magnanimous with the vanquished.

SOLDIER#5/HECATAEUS

His generosity was legendary.

OLYMPIAS

I ask you for that quality of leadership. If you can
guarantee my safety, I will defy you no longer.

CASSANDER

He was a fool with generosity.

SOLDIER#1/ATTALUS

Only toward worthy opponents.

CASSANDER

My generosity should copy yours. But I will give you
back your ship. I will provide a crew for you and
all your friends. You may sail to Athens.

CASSANDER

(continuing; aside)

Death by drowning at sea, on the voyage,—

OLYMPIAS

(aside)

Death at sea, in Poseidon’s breathless realm.

CASSANDER

(aside continues)

—a punishment she deserves. But caution! Softly now!

OLYMPIAS

(aside)

A watery grave? Rather fire on earth.

CASSANDER

(aside)

There is her rank. And the fickleness of
Macedonians. She must die for her offenses to my
father, to my poor brothers, to the tragic hundred.

(Olympias begins to accede, but thinks
about it a moment. Then:)

OLYMPIAS

I cannot do that. I would appear in the wrong.

(Cassander commandeers the throne.)

CASSANDER

Then these men shall be your judges. How does she
offend the gods and man?

(He assembles the men around Olympias.
Timaeus and Thessalonike try to move to
insulate Olympias but are moved by the
men a distance off to the side of the
throne.)

CASSANDER

(continuing)

You know this woman, now a deposed queen. Murderer
of King Philip Arrhidaeus. Murderer of Eurydice, the
king’s wife. She drugged the child Philip and made
him a half-wit. Murderer of Nicanor, my brother.
Desecrator of the grave of Iollas, my brother,
cup-bearer to Alexander for many years. Murderer of the
hundred, my kin and friends. Murderer of Philip, her
husband, the king. Shameless! Monstrous! Bloody
Olympias! She falsely accuses me of poisoning
Alexander, who, we all know, died after many days of
intoxication. Remember the words of my father:
“Never permit that woman to hold first place in the
kingdom.” What do these offenses merit?

(The soldiers in chorus raise their
sword-points, and shout:)

SOLDIERS

Death!

(They beat their swords on their
shields, shouting.)

OLYMPIAS

Who are these men? Mercenaries! I demand to take my
plea against these accusations to the Macedonian
army. That is the custom, and you shall honor it.

CASSANDER

The army you wish to be your judge is scattered
everywhere in the world. No, lady, that will not be.
I give you overnight to consider the escape I will
allow.

OLYMPIAS

But your word is not honorable. I am a queen doing
a king’s work. As a king would do it. As kings have
always done it. As you are doing now to clear your
path to a legitimate throne. Those who join you are
prey to your terror and treachery. You are the
master of it. You are the traitor and usurper!

(Cassander merely sniffs. He arises and
turns to go. He sees Thessalonike. He
takes her by the wrist.)

CASSANDER

Come, Thessalonike, I’ll show you the world. You
shall someday be queen.

(He grasps her arm and starts to pull
her away. She wrests her arm away from
him.)

THESSALONIKE

That will not be, sir. My world is with Olympias, my
queen. I will stay with Olympias and share her fate.

CASSANDER

You shall not, lady.

(He motions to two soldiers standing by
and exits.)

CASSANDER

(continuing)

Take her and follow!

(They restrain her. She resists. They
use great force and take her off.
As Cassander and his men exit with the
struggling Thessalonike, Demarete plays
a lament for Thessalonike. Olympias
climbs to the rampart above, waving to
Thessalonike and looking again for a
way out.)

DEMARETE

Dear friend, keep our love in your blushing heart—

EPHTHALIA

—where sweet innocence makes modest silence eloquent.

POTHOS

Those hands that rough you are attached to the burly
beasts of power.

SOPHIA

Seeing you go like that makes me
wish for some divine power to instill reason and
compassion in all people, those powers you
controlled—

DEÏDAMEIA

—those tender perfections powerless
against brutes. Must I now doubt the existence of
such a divine power?

(As Demarete’s playing fades in sadness,
Olympias paces the parapet.)

OLYMPIAS

These stones are cold, my son. The evening’s dark
and cold, dear spirit. Roxanê is cold. Alexander
shivers. And I am cold, my son. Thessalonike taken.
My generals down. The friends grow cold now. Their
bony limbs freeze. The warmth of spring, too far
away. O, for some wine, to warm the blood, to dull
the sharp edge of painful thought.

(She drinks imaginary wine from an
imaginary cup and paces frantically.)

OLYMPIAS

(continuing)

Pfaw!

(In a sudden fit of rage, she slings the
imaginary goblet across the room.)

OLYMPIAS

(continuing)

There, drink with me, you grim-faced orgiasts! The
demon men who haunt me deny me the peace of the
frenzied dance.

(The Ladies advance toward her.
They feel the welling up of their
courage to confront the person
responsible for the disaster enveloping
them.)

SOPHIA

O dismal queen, pray tell me why I die. What brought
me to the horrors of this place? Please show me
reasons that can justify your deeds, Olympias! Your
deeds!

DEÏDAMEIA

Wanton evil, folly and sin—

POTHOS

—only for the sake of it?

OLYMPIAS

deeds? Deeds? DEEDS? You grow bold as you think me
weakened. My revenge has not reached its end. Deeds
are for kings, not for queens in this land. Acts are
for rulers. I rule. I acted, as the queen, with no
king at the side. I was free to act. I was a mother
separated from her son, by murder. Our land was
separated from the rule of Alexander, by treachery.
By oligarchs who lined their purses at the public’s
expense. Alexander called the wealthy to accounts in
Babylon, and he was poisoned by them, by oligarchs,
my son’s enemies, who ruled by wealth. I acted as a
king would have acted, against Antipater and his
like. I walked with Dionysus in the ways of justice.
To hold the peace. But one betrayer remains to feel
my sting.

(She becomes aware of a snarling, a
growling, threatening noise outside,
growing ever louder, like a storm in
the distance coming closer. The Ladies
retreat. Olympias
reacts to it by shrinking away to hide
in a sheltered area. She cringes again
as the shadows of the three restless
Furies move across the setting [the LIGHTING EFFECT],
to sit
like three vultures waiting. Then the
tide of soldiers [SOLDIER#1/ATTALUS, SOLDIER#2/EUXENIPPUS, SOLDIER#3/GORGIAS, SOLDIER#4/GORGATUS, SOLDIER#5/HECATAEUS, and supplemented by SOLDIER#6/EURYDICE, SOLDIER#7/THESSALONIKE, and SOLDIER#8/CASSANDER] floods into the area,
rumbling, some shouting with anger, as
if going into battle, waving their
weapons high. Timaeus and the Ladies
are engulfed by the horde.
Because it is winter, the soldiers are
wearing long cloaks, which serve to
mask from the audience as well as from
Olympias the events taking place in the
midst of the throng. There is turmoil
in the middle of the crowd and after a
moment, a soldiers is seen rushing
after Timaeus who has broken out of the
crowd and is running off. Olympias is
drawn to them as to a challenge to her
dominance and comes out of her
sheltered place. They circle her,
threateningly. She retreats to a step
above them. Their backs are to the
audience, arrayed in a semi-circle in
front of her, she facing downstage.
They turn to each other, saying:)

SOLDIER#3/GORGIAS

Is this the mother of Alexander? Philip’s queen? Of
the house of Neoptolemus? Whom we are to—?

(Olympias throws off her drab, warm
cloak, heaving it into the crowd of
soldiers and revealing a beautiful,
scarlet gown, and her white hair.
The cloak is thrown out, with a shout,
to lie at the side for a later scene.)

OLYMPIAS

I am she! I am she!

(They shout again. Their shouting
interruptions become less loud and less
frequent throughout her speech. She
makes a birthing gesture [two hands swooping out and up from her thighs].)

OLYMPIAS

(continuing)

I gave you Alexander! From me came the King of
Macedonia! My child! Your king! King of Greece! Our
pride! Hegemon of the Corinthian League! Bethink
him! Pharoah of Egypt! Believe it! King of
Babylonia! My boy! Great King of Persia! My joy!
Great King of Asia! Our shield! Conqueror of the
World! Master of all wealth in the world! Commander
of all the peoples of the world! Descendent of
Heracles! Son of God, Zeus Ammon!

(She points to Mount Olympus in the
distance, DS.)

OLYMPIAS

(continuing)

My witness, who came to me as a serpent, watches you
now from the Olympian heights. He fathered
Alexander, your invincible general! The source of
your land, your wealth, your pride, your military
glory and renown.

(She moves down toward them a step, and
the crowd gives way.)

OLYMPIAS

(continuing)

You have your orders from him who poisoned your
God-given king.

(She steps down toward them again. They
back off a bit more. She pulls up on
the sword of one man who steps up
parallel to her. She takes the point of
his sword and places it against her
bosom.)

OLYMPIAS

(continuing)

Follow your orders! Thrust if you must!

(Thus confronted by Olympias, they are
overawed by her exalted rank, her
presence, and shrink from her. She
teasingly holds the tip of the sword
from being withdrawn from her bosom,
then lets it go with a defiant smirk at
its recoil, savoring utter control. The
tide begins to recede. She moves up
to a higher step again at
CS with a regal attitude; then standing
with a triumphant, open gesture of both
arms thrown out and up, her eyes
looking up to the top of Mount Olympus:)

OLYMPIAS

(continuing)

Delicious! The heady wine of triumph! I tremble with
Eros; my abounding joy gives me wings. I exult in
pride! One moment for this house to rule! Duty to
honor done. The beast impaled! I am filled with
passion! I love the world!

(As the crowd of soldiers recedes,
slinking away and off, the bodies of
Demarete, Deïdameia, Sophia, and Pothos
are revealed. They are lying in a heap
DC. As the exulting queen’s gaze is
slowly lowered, her attention is drawn
to the bodies. A LOUD SHOUT OFF LEFT
of a voice being cut off in mid-anguish,
unnoticed by Olympias. Her horror at the
recognition of who lies there before her grows
slowly. She circles the bodies. She
touches each of them. She begins a
tragic moan. She goes to her knees and
cradles each, rocking first one, then
the other.)

OLYMPIAS

(continuing; to Demarete.)

This hand that played so beautifully, silenced
forever? My ears never again to bathe in the sweet
sounds of her strings? When the sun is gone, what
happens to the sunflowers? Sweet Demarete.

OLYMPIAS

(continuing; to Sophia)

This wise head so profound in speech, silent
forever? My dear Sophia.

OLYMPIAS

(continuing; to Pothos.)

This heart that felt the hearts of friends and foes,
beats no more? O Pothos, how I long for you

.

OLYMPIAS

(continuing; to Deïdameia)

This beauty of face and form, fading to decay and
dust forever? My lovely Deïdameia, you are gone.

(Suddenly, two soldiers enter supporting
the limp form of Timaeus. His hands are
tied behind him. They drag him up the
steps to the throne level. Olympias
screams wordlessly at them. They turn
to exhibit him to Olympias below. The
eyes of Timaeus are wide open in shock.
His lips are muttering without sound.
Blood streams down his chin from
his opened mouth, and blood gushes from
his neck.)

OLYMPIAS

(continuing)

Timaeus! Timaeus! My dearest love Timaeus!

(He is shaken like a rag doll by his
supporters, who laugh and yank him
around, his head flopping weakly,
dragging him up the steps to the
parapet, standing him there and shoving
him off. Olympias screams as the men
rush off DR.)

OLYMPIAS

(continuing)

Timaeus! Timaeus!

(Her expression changes. Then, with
sibilance in the name:)

OLYMPIAS

(continuing)

Cassander! Cassander! Cassander! Eight hands you
command have strangled me as well. Your four hands
cut my tongue and slit my throat. Your order sent my
innocents to hell. You now in evil’s satisfaction
gloat. So revel in my grief and celebrate these
senseless deaths as retribution’s prize—

(She stops abruptly, realizing the irony
in what she hears herself saying.
Hesitantly:)

OLYMPIAS

(continuing)

—as — I — once — haughty, base and full of hate
dispatched the hundred innocent likewise.

OLYMPIAS

(continuing; moaning)

These wrongful deaths could be something I have done?

(She begins to shake her head which
slowly becomes a nodding, then more
rapidly.)

OLYMPIAS

(continuing)

Unmoved by acts that moved these friends to hell, I
never saw the fatal end begun, nor even cared on
whom my anger fell. Revenge is taking out a loan of
hate, repaid when enemies reciprocate.

(She goes in sorrow to the cloak lying
on the floor, picks it up and throws it
over the bodies.)

OLYMPIAS

(continuing)

Guards!

(No answer. Two men in shabby cloaks enter, MAN#1/EUXENIPPUS and MAN#2/HECATAEUS.)

OLYMPIAS

(continuing)

Where are the guards?

(They shrug.)

OLYMPIAS

(continuing)

And your men?

MAN#1/EUXENIPPUS

They went out with the army.

OLYMPIAS

I beg of you, take these innocents out, as you would
carry a lamb to the sacrifice, reverently. Then I
would have you go to Alexander and Roxanê. Care for
them as well as you can.

(MAN#1/EUXENIPPUS calls for two more to come here. MAN#3/GORGIAS and MAN#4/GORGATUS arrive to help and move to pick up
and carry out the bodies. They move toward the stairs to the rampart to dump them over the ledge. As they do
so, Olympias responds with a scream of horror at that prospect. The men stop, shrug, and carry the dead Ladies out DR, fearfully, under the following action. The projection of
the three dark shapes, the LIGHT EFFECT of the Furies
that appear silhouetted above,
are moved again—to indicate smelling blood now—
noticeably from one side of the setting to the
other, across the purview of Olympias,
all three together, or singly, as the
name is given. At the
movement of the shadow crossing
Olympias, she cringes to ward off a
flying object above.)

OLYMPIAS

(continuing)

What goes there overhead! Dark shades above that
move and wingless fly!

Implacable Allekto! with eagle talons sharp to pounce and smash.

Relentless Tisiphone! eyes like open sores drip with oozing
pus.

Malicious Megaira! nostrils hissing blasts of fiery breath.

O dismal queen! My fear is the imminence—
no—
presence—
of ruin.
Injustices have overruled life.
Wrathful vengeance of the gods for vengeful rage is upon us—
—me.

(As they are carried off, the dead Ladies have made themselves ready offstage to take the roles of the THREE FATES, who enter, chanting to a rhythmic, moaning complaint.)

THE THREE FATES

O haunted queen! O queen possessed! I turn my eyes
from you.

(The voices of The Three Fates will come
from three hooded Ladies who
have moved on stage along with the two
other trios to follow.)

CLOTHO/WOMAN#1

(continuing)

Can she be honored for deeds most noble?

LACHESIS/WOMAN#2

Is her pride the crown of her virtues?

ATROPOS/WOMAN#3

Has she born herself with moderation toward good or
evil fortune?

CLOTHO/WOMAN#1

By all the gods of heaven and earth,

THE THREE FATES

DENIED!

CLOTHO/WOMAN#1

Her fate goes beyond allotted fate.

LACHESIS/WOMAN#2

Her fate is in her own hands from sins of hubris.

ATROPOS/WOMAN#3

She allowed Ate to knot her thread of life, soon to be snipped from our concern.

LACHESIS/WOMAN#2

She has drawn her fate upon herself.

CLOTHO/WOMAN#3

The Fates have relinquished her care to the Eumenides
hovering near.

ATROPOS/WOMAN#3

It is time, O failed monarch. It is
time. Atropos is poised.

(They look up to the shadows above as
they exit. The voices of THE FURIOUS
ONES, or THE ERINYES, will come from
three hooded chorus members who have
moved forward. They chant with venomous
voices.)

ALLEKTO-MAN #4

Vain fool, seems not to know herself.

TISIPHONE-WOMAN #4

Malicious woman. Impetuous acts led by frenzied
emotion—

MEGAIRA-WOMAN #5

—to murder mothers, wives, daughters, all dead by
her rule.

THE FURIES

It is time, O failed monarch. It is time. Atropos is
poised.

(They exit as their projected shadows
move to a perch above.)

(The voices of The Three Litae will come
from three hooded LADIES: WOMAN#6/DIKE, WOMAN#7/EUNOMIA, WOMAN#8/EIRENE.)

THE THREE LITAE

WOMAN#6/DIKE

Haughty excess of pride expecting to win benefits at
the expense of the many and indulge in the
disgraceful pleasure of revenge.

WOMAN#7/EUNOMIA

The rule of the arbitrary over the deliberated. Passion uncontrolled
by reason.

WOMAN#8/EIRENE

It is time, O failed monarch. It is time.
Atropos is poised.

(They exit. Olympias stands alone,
center stage, statue-like, hands
folded, straight down, head bowed. The
lights darken with a soft highlight of
her figure. During the ensuing, time
passes and evening comes on.)

OLYMPIAS

Alone. The wax melts, to reveal the cracks. Remorse.
Sorrow. Fear. Hunger.

(She goes to the table where the platter
with a bone sits. She takes up a scrap,
looks at it, drops it, and returns to
previous spot.)

OLYMPIAS

(continuing)

Cold. Thirst.

(She retrieves the empty goblet, lets it
fall to her side. She surveys the scene
for her wrap, which is not there. She
wraps her arms around herself with a
shiver.)

OLYMPIAS

(continuing)

Remorse has benefits ere now untold:
release from causes false which brought me strife;
release from burning passions uncontrolled;
a sense of truth of what to do with life.
But hurt returns, evicts what thoughts remain.
Alone my empty heart and vacant mind.
My eyes afire from sorrow’s burning pain.
I failed my friends. I see that I was blind.
What man has ever seen the consequence
before the fatal act was acted out?
Such vision always is the best defense,
to stand as an impregnable lookout.
My friends gave good advice I did not heed.
Where could I go to plant this wisdom’s seed?

(She only now begins to notice the
growing presence around her.)

END OF SCENE 6