The House of Admetus: Eumelus, The Lost Trilogy of Plays by Agathon

guardian of justice and law, as mighty Zeus is for the gods. To shirk your duty as ruler could only be viewed as the biased application of the law. It was the taking of my life that was the goal of this conspiracy and mercy towards the perpetrators could put my life at risk again. Surely our people would not condone the use of clemency for those accused of odious treason.

  EUMELUS: As King, I decide what is best for my kingdom and my family; this decision is mine and mine alone.

  TEUTHRAS: But even kings must be subject to the will of their people, as many a deposed king can testify. You must be the arbiter and enforcer of he laws as well as leader of our citizens.

  EUMELUS: Your words have merit, but this is more than just a matter of state, it is also a crisis of family. The gods do not sanction the killing of one’s wife and son even though the justification is clear. I cannot act upon this matter until I have some guidance from the gods. If I act without their sanction, I risk sacrilege and their wrath. I will ask the priest of Zeus to take the auspices for my decision.

  Eumelus goes inside the palace. Teuthras and Admetus stay outside.

  ADMETUS: I worry about this message from the priest. I fear the gods may desire that my brother not be put to death, and my father will do as the gods’ desire. I have little trust in the auspices and even less in the gods. I have seen how arbitrary and unjust they can be. I cannot take the risk of my brother surviving this punishment since clemency for him would but put both my life and future rule in peril. But I have a plan that may ensure the desired outcome. I will need your assistance in this, Teuthras.

  TEUTHRAS: You have it, my prince.

  ADMETUS: I will delay my father’s summons while you go to the priest before my father’s word can reach him. Tell the priest what I desire is the death of my brother but not my mother, and for this he will be well rewarded. A prophecy other than this would portent badly for his future. Now, be off.

  Teuthras and Admetus both enter the palace. Chorus appears.

  CHORUS: Our men have returned from war only to continue it at home by other means. Brother now seeks to kill brother with their mother and father trapped in between. Iphthime reluctantly supports her son, and King Eumelus cannot chose between his sons, loving them equally. However, events and actions are pushing the King to choose between his designated successor and his second son: a decision that has plagued many men hoping to pass their possessions on to the following generation, power being the most tenuous possession of all. As King Eumelus confronts the inevitability of his own mortality, he must secure the legacy that he will pass on to future generations through his sons. An issue that he had hoped he would not have to confront for many years when old age should have made the decision easier, but with this conflict between sons, he must face it now to the detriment of mother and sons. Teuthras has succeeded in his task to convince the priest to bring his auspices in agreement with Admetus’ desire, the condemnation of Promachos, though the decision still must rest with the King. Eumelus must face the loss of a loved one, not unlike our losses in the war, though a man’s fate is much superior to that of a woman with similar loss. To lose one’s child by one’s own hands, like Iphigenia at the hands of her father, Agamemnon, is a cruel fate that can only be wished upon those of the worst nature. Such is the fate our King.

  Eumelus exits the palace while the Chorus is off to the side.

  EUMELUS: Oh our gods are cruel. They ask me to spare my Queen and wife, Iphthime, but to kill my son, Promachos, for treason and attempted fratricide. For me to destroy a son I love, even when guilty of these crimes, is not in my doing. His mother would never forgive me, and her love for me would be supplanted by hate. I have sent for the Queen to be brought to me.

  Iphthime in chains exits the palace and joins Eumelus.

  EUMELUS: My beloved Queen, it hurts deeply me to see you chained as if a slave.

  IPHTHIME: It is by your order that I am thus attired. I am no longer your Queen; I am now your prisoner.

  EUMELUS: My love for you has not diminished over the years of separation. I thought of you every night and dwelt on how much I wanted to be back in your arms. We had so few years together before I was forced to leave for war, and I treasured those memories for these lost years. But now I return in triumph only to be betrayed. How could you bring yourself to commit such an act against me? Do you not love me as before?

  IPHTHIME: Darling husband, my feelings have not diminished in the least over the years; I love you today as much as I did when we were married. The plot I am accused of did not involve your death, only the death of your son and successor, Admetus; I would never have been party to any action that would have encompassed your death. I only agreed to be party to this deceitful intrigue out of motherly love for my son. If your son becomes King upon your death, our son would be considered a rival for the throne whether this was true or not since perception can triumph over truth. One need only look to your ascension to your father’s throne to see what happens to those viewed as rivals to power.

  EUMELUS: When my father died in battle, he had not foreseen is death and thus had not chosen a successor, so his desires were not clearly apparent to those that survived him. He had two sons, the eldest being myself and a younger son, my brother, Xuthos. As is the custom, the soldiers proclaimed me King though I was less than a score years old. My brother, who was born three years after my birth, became my right hand man being closer to me than Patroclus to Achilles. But the threat to my rule came from a different quarter. My mother’s brothers, Gelon and Leodes, felt that they would lose what little power they had in court when their sister went from being Queen to Queen mother and that there was opportunity to wrest power from a young inexperienced King. Informed of the treason, I acted quickly, having them arrested while in their beds at night. I did not hesitate to have them immediately put to death, even though they had always been good to me and I had great affection for them. As to my beloved brother, the gods played a deceitful game against us. A year after the execution of my uncles, I dispatched my brother with part of our army to put down a revolt. Once clear of me, he was seduced by those same men who had supported my uncles but had not been identified as such and escaped execution. He talked of sedition and was overheard by those loyal to me. An assassin stabbed him to death before he could turn his soldiers against me. His loss was felt sorely by me, and his funeral was that due a beloved member of the royal family. I miss him to this very day.

  IPHTHIME: There were many that said that there was no sedition and that he was sent away so that you, his perceived killer, would have excuse that he did not have a hand in his brother’s death.

  EUMELUS: People talk of many things of which they have no knowledge. I would gladly swear before the gods that my brother was a traitor and deserved his fate. It is said that no one believes there is a plot against a king’s life until it succeeds.

  IPHTHIME: You have failed to address the concern of my son to the fate that befell Xuthos.

  EUMELUS: My son, Admetus, loves his half brother and would not let harm come to him by his hand or any enemy. Before the launching of this plot, I had hoped the brothers would become as me and my brother prior to his seduction to power. Promachos could have become ruler of Iolkos and govern in his brother’s behalf, as a most trustworthy of subordinates. But now all has changed. This attempt by our son will have put distrust to the forefront of my son’s mind, preventing any possible cooperation between them. Promachos tasted power at your side during my long absence and has grown a taste for it. When he saw that that power would no longer be his, he moved to secure it. He used your motherly affection to convince you that his life was in danger and that by not helping him you would be contributing to his death. I do not believe he was in fear of his life so much as in fear of losing his power. My son’s and my long absences lessened his affections for us enough for him to attempt Admetus’ poisoning without the feeling of loss one would expect from fratricide. He did not include my death in the plot because he knew that your love for me wou
ld prevent your inclusion.

  IPHTHIME: Upon reflection, your statements have a ring of truth, and my judgment may have been clouded by motherly instincts. Maybe I have not been as observant of our son’s feelings as a mother should be. How can be we come to a solution that is amenable to us all considering the crime attempted?

  EUMELUS: I have sought the advise of the gods through auspices, and the priest has divined that the gods seek the death of our son, but not yours. It would be unwise to go against the gods in this.

  IPHTHIME: The gods are not infallible, and priests even less so. To place one’s decision solely on that of a priest speaking for the gods would be to plant one’s foundation on sand. Men can be made to interpret signs in ways that benefit themselves. Of things we can be sure of is that the death of Promachos will result in my death as well, by my own hand.

  EUMELUS: I do not desire your death or Promachos’, but then what am I to do? The laws state that treason is punishable by death, and the gods have made their wishes known.

  IPHTHIME: If the law is such, then my death must follow upon that of our son. Though not the instigator of the plot, I was