Creative writing piece inspired by Iphigenia’s myth
By Mara Palaghiciuc, EEB4, S6FRA
An empowering sense of duty Springing from the uneven clutch Of the man standing right beyond my touch; For the scenery is so morbid, Even the heavens are struggling To keep an open eye, To the injustice hereby Young Iphigenia, In a harbour, at Aulis Was sacrificed, to appease My, of course the gods! As she stood in disbelief A man tethered her lovely limbs “Sweat and tears adorn this land Waves of misery wash the ground For hope has been erased Even from the most convinced gaze Wind is blowing in my hair Has the wrath been cleared away? Oh! death encircled me in my youth Trapped in silk, couldn’t move Alas! This journey is coming to an end… If only… If only… If only I had the time… To bid farewell to my hopes and dreams- Goodbye, drowning future Goodbye hurtful success; I shall not have the luck To adore you, to my distress Goodbye! to everything I could have done…” The cries of the desperate and slain ideals Shatter like glass, on the cutting cliff… All living creatures mourn the loss, Of the one who loved them most The Sun does not shine as bright Being clouded by profound blight; The weeps of every rock, and every plant, flooded the entire mainland A lonely volcano burst into tears And covered the earth with a fierce -stretch of magma… Should beauty reveal after injustice? Does it have the right to outshine sadness?
~Cooling off, after years A part of the lonesome magma, -which covered the spot of Iphigenia’s demise- turned into gems, that were scattered by the sea, upon any available shore One day, while the sun rose beyond the horizon And the warmth embraced the longing shade, A girl named Thalia wandered along a trodden path which took her to a godforsaken land There, on the beach, She found a most lovely gemstone, and Dazzled by its beauty, Hypnotized by its gleam, -which foretold a bright future, and weaved a tragic past- She clung onto it, Feeling as if, through a dream, the bewitching gem could speak; A whirl of thoughts and feelings Reflected on its rough skin More than a thousand words of pain And a thousand more of hope Desired to live on, In the heart of this girl Once she came back home, Thalia’s father discovered the precious stone; And to her surprise, He wished to make it a ring for his dearest child Blending gold with lively colours, Encompassing the delicate young finger The ring sat on the throne And ruled the kingdom of bloom Rising higher through the years, Thalia wished to sail the seas; Her beautiful hands, adorned by the ring, wanted to put down the intricacies of history Waves breaking on the ships Which took her from island to island Land to land Where she described everything, she’d seen or heard; And, wherever she went She wouldn’t forget That one object; The small ring, which carried Iphigenia’s oblation, Lived on, through its master Thus, knowledge and culture were breathed Into an apparently meaningless item Should beauty reveal after injustice? Does it have the right to outshine sadness? Let’s not forget that life does not understand unfairness Because every personal injustice is slowly forgotten and drowned Into the immeasurable sea of existence Another injustice among endless others Yet, beauty and purity spring from imbalance And create the stability that starts everything anew; Once a drop in the ocean of torments Comes back as a flooding bliss, onto the newly sown land of dreams This is the story of a cursed ring That could not forget its origin Fallen hope, now renewed into a new form of life Goodbye misery; youth, welcome back!
Source for the featured image: https://www.wikiart.org/en/valentin-serov/iphigenia-in-tauris-1893
