Iphigeneia Breathes: A Filmic Musing on the Winds
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2022-4855-AJHA-ART 1 Iphigeneia Breathes: A Filmic Musing on the Winds, 2 Breathing, Life, and the Imagination 3 4 Artistic inspiration drawn from both scholarly and experiential research has 5 led me to incorporate a particular approach to classical reception into my art 6 films: while rereading the text itself from different perspectives, I also 7 imagine new endings for old stories. Imagination becomes a powerfully 8 direct element in my films, especially when combined their bases in my 9 personal experience of Greece and scholarly research into aspects of Greek 10 myths, plays, and language. Perhaps (2017) asks viewers to imagine 11 Clytemnestra’s actions before Agamemnon’s return from Troy, and how she 12 might have used the power of the female gaze to enact her revenge and 13 possibly change her own fate. Iphigeneia Breathes (2021) reimagines 14 Euripides’s Iphigeneia at Aulis to change Iphigeneia’s fate. Harnessing the 15 communal power of the warrior’s voices and breathing, Iphigeneia’s 16 leadership brings the winds, and changes the course of history. While 17 working on this film, its breathing theme became unexpectedly entwined 18 with contemporary events: George Floyd, saying he could not breathe, was 19 murdered; the pandemic stole breath from millions of people; and loud, close- 20 packed crowds became a terrifying reality as a source of death. My process, 21 research, approach to reception and imagination ultimately brought 22 contemporary experience into interaction with ancient narrative. 23 24 Keywords: Art film, classical reception, imagination, Iphigeneia, Clytemnestra 25 26 27 Introduction 28 29 As an art filmmaker with an academic background in ancient 30 Greek, a feminist mind-set, and a stubbornly optimistic view that we 31 can still learn from both the wisdom and the mistakes of the ancient 32 Greeks, my work has revolved around feminist reinterpretations of 33 Greek plays and myths, re-visioned in contemporary images. My films 34 surface from the mélange of multiple methods of research: reading 35 Greek plays, defining specific elements that are key to their narratives, 36 and engaging my own visual and aural senses with the eternal aspects 37 of Greek landscape and natural forms, and the power of ancient sites. 38 Most of my films have been “at a remove”— the reinterpretation 39 and re-visioning happens in the third person, my authorship concealed 40 in the voice of the characters. With two of my films, Perhaps (2017) and 1
2022-4855-AJHA-ART – 14 JUN 2022 1 Iphigeneia Breathes (2022), I broke that mold. I personalize my reception 2 of the myths and plays, stating rather than implying my perspective, 3 bringing my contemporary experience into interaction with ancient 4 narratives, and imagining different endings. As the filmmaker, I can 5 draw the viewer into my perspective, not only with visual direction, but 6 also with my words, my emphases, my invitations to imagination. 7 8 Perhaps: An Experiment in Filmmaker’s Perspective and Imagination 9 10 A Misnamed Tholos Tomb Spurs the Imagination 11 12 Perhaps was an experimental precursor to my techniques in the later 13 Iphigeneia Breathes, of inserting my filmmaker’s perspective, and using 14 imagination as a spur to content. The catalysts for my imagination in 15 Perhaps came from personal experience at the ancient site of Mycenae. 16 In several trips over the years, I have visited the so-called “Tomb of 17 Agamemnon” at Mycenae, Its connection to Agamemnon was 18 incorrectly asserted by people as varied as Pausanias in the second 19 century AD, and Heinrich Schliemann in the 1870s and its alternative 20 naming as the Treasury of Atreus is also an incorrect identification. 21 Regardless of attribution, the tholos tomb has a powerful physical 22 presence, visually and emotionally. The architecture is impressive and 23 awe-inspiring, impassive and serene (Figure 1). Because I have been 24 lucky enough to be there at several times when no other people were in 25 the tholos, I have spent solitary time musing on the reverberant space. I 26 filmed and photographed the space (Figure 2), without knowing exactly 27 how I would use the footage and photographs, or what story I would 28 tell. 29 30 2
2022-4855-AJHA-ART – 14 JUN 2022 1 Figure 1. “Tomb of Agamemnon” (original in color). Photograph by Andrea 2 Eis 3 4 5 Figure 2. Andrea Eis filming at the tomb (original in color). Photograph by 6 Steven Rost 7 3
2022-4855-AJHA-ART – 14 JUN 2022 1 Certain aspects captured in my photographs eventually became the 2 specific catalysts for rethinking Clytemnestra. The floor is an element 3 rarely even mentioned in descriptions of the tomb, and easy to overlook 4 in the powerful presence of the rest. I was particularly intrigued by an 5 image of the rough, uneven floor (Figure 3), and eventually was able to 6 bring that visual detail into a prologue Perhaps. I also pondered the 7 mysterious inaccessibility of the small side chamber (Figure 4) where 8 the burials were actually made, but that we are not allowed to enter. In 9 Perhaps, Clytemnestra has other options. 10 11 Figure 3. The floor of the tomb (original in color). Photograph by Andrea Eis 12 13 14 Figure 4. The side chamber of the tomb (original in color). Photograph by 15 Andrea Eis 16 4
2022-4855-AJHA-ART – 14 JUN 2022 1 I thought about the years of burials in the tomb, and how those 2 buried there might have been treated. A portion of the resulting script 3 mixes my filmmaker’s perspective, my musings on unstable 4 intersections, errors, and later pronouncements of archaeologists, my 5 experiences in the tomb, and the filmic conjurings of my own mind into 6 an imaginative commentary on what Clytemnestra might have planned. 7 Footage overlooks the dromos from above the tomb as I ponder how 8 rejecting the Agamemnon attribution ends up not nearly as intriguing 9 as believing it is the actual “Tomb of Agamemnon,” a place that would 10 have been a powerful source of interest to Clytemnestra. With a point- 11 of-view walk along the curved inner wall, I take the viewer through 12 “the tholos tomb that is not Agamemnon’s,” In an exultant voiceover, I 13 invite the viewer to imagine Clytemnestra there, if this had been a tomb 14 to be used for Agamemnon: 15 16 Archaeologists have determined that this is not the tomb of Agamemnon. 17 18 I understand that. 19 20 It’s not that I don’t get it. 21 22 But can’t you just see Clytemnestra there? 23 24 Can’t you just imagine her having them clear the dirt from the path, 25 having them pull open those doors, 26 having them push aside the previous king— 27 who was powerful, as powerful as Agamemnon, 28 but just a man, and so he died. 29 30 She would have had him pushed aside, 31 and have the floor swept, 32 and made ready for Agamemnon.1 33 34 The voiceover here, and at other times throughout the film, 35 includes sections of doubled readings. The versions have, at times, 36 slightly different wording in the text, and are set slightly off sync from 37 each other. It is as if the story constantly changes, with unstable 38 references to the past, which itself has already been imagined. Even the 39 filmmaker does not have the ability to state the truth, only to present 1 Eis, A. 2017. Prologue voiceover, Perhaps [film]. 0:37-1:14. 5
2022-4855-AJHA-ART – 14 JUN 2022 1 the options. 2 3 A Crumbled Palace Wall is transformed, and Imagination Changes 4 Everything 5 6 Based on my experiential research, I had been able to imagine 7 Clytemnestra’s preparations for the return of her murdering husband, 8 giving me the starting point for the film. However, it was archaeological 9 knowledge gave me its end point. 10 I knew that part of the megaron at Mycenae, the throne room, is 11 now seen as reconstructed (Figure 5). Due to earthquakes that 12 devastated the Mycenaean palace in the late 13th century BCE, the area 13 where archaeologists thought the throne would have been placed had 14 crumbled and fallen into the Havos ravine, southwest of the megaron. 15 Along with the wall and the floor, the king’s throne had fallen. An 16 uninspiring fragment of the throne was recovered in 2014, from where 17 it was buried in the ravine, most of it has been lost over time. For me, 18 however, the personally and archaeologically disappointing emptiness 19 in place of that throne was still enough to spur another imaginative 20 encounter with Clytemnestra for my film. 21 22 Figure 5. The palace at Mycenae. Looking towards the reconstructed floor 23 and wall of the megaron (minus the throne), perched on the edge of the 24 Havos ravine (original in color). Photograph by Andrea Eis 25 26 6
2022-4855-AJHA-ART – 14 JUN 2022 1 I used my knowledge about the crumbled palace wall in an 2 epilogue in the film, to enable me to narrate a new return home for 3 Agamemnon. Clytemnestra’s vengeance would take another route. She 4 would not tangle Agamemnon in a net and stab him in the bath. 5 6 The south side of the megaron—where, archaeologists think, 7 Agamemnon’s throne had stood—it all crumbled, fell into the ravine. 8 The stone seat, the beaten earth floor, that whole side of the megaron. 9 10 Perhaps Clytemnestra knew that her stare, 11 after so many years of waiting, 12 had loosened the supporting wall. 13 Perhaps Clytemnestra knew that, if she waited, 14 her act would prove unnecessary. 15 16 She stared at that mountain, beyond that room, 17 listening for the rumble of the collapse.2 18 19 The combination of archaeological knowledge and archaeologists’ 20 suppositions, the power of place, and my imagination, had led me to 21 envision Clytemnestra anew. In this film, I would make the female gaze 22 the instrument of power. 23 24 Iphigeneia Breathes: 25 Research, Experience, and Expanding the Power of the Imagination 26 27 On Pronunciation 28 29 My recent film, Iphigeneia Breathes (2021), narrates aspects of 30 Euripides’ Iphigeneia in Aulis, but turns in a different direction. A 31 personal experience about learning the modern Greek pronunciation of 32 Iphigeneia’s name led to a revelation of creating an alternate ending, 33 one growing directly from that modern Greek knowledge. The film 34 centers on the intertwined physicality of the human voice, human 35 breathing, and the winds. 36 I accompanied theatre and filmmaking students from Oakland 37 University on a study abroad trip in 2019 to the island of Hydra, where 38 they rehearsed an adaptation of Euripides’ Orestes on the island of 39 Hydra, for a performance in a small outdoor amphitheatre (Figure 6). 2 Eis, A. 2017. Epilogue voiceover, Perhaps [film]. 2:48-3:45. 7
2022-4855-AJHA-ART – 14 JUN 2022 1 The director, Karen Sheridan, wrote the adaptation of Orestes3 that the 2 students performed. She asked a Greek actor, Stathis Grapsas, to train 3 the students in the modern Greek pronunciation of the ancient Greek 4 names in the play, since most of the audience would be Greek. 5 6 Figure 6. Left to right: Oakland University students Dryden Zurawski, 7 Connor Rajan, Mariah Colby, Orestes, at Hydrama, Hydra, Greece, June 8 2019. Photograph by Andrea Eis 9 10 11 While I was a classics major in undergraduate school, I had learned 12 to say Iphigeneia with a tight, hard pronunciation: If-i-je-NI-a.4 You can 13 breathe out, empty your lungs, and still get her name said. I learned 14 that in the modern Greek pronunciation, her name is soft and lyrical: if- 15 ee-YEN-yah. You have to breathe out to say it. It is the breathing 16 required by saying Iphigeneia’s name that spurred a rethinking of my 17 film, but I did not sort out how that could change her story until 18 months later, as I researched another Greek word. 19 20 Experiential Research –Physical Palimpsests of Greece 21 22 I have spent a great deal of time in Greece over many years, often in 23 rural areas on islands. I have become engrossed with the way that 24 natural elements can connect me to Greece’s ancient past, and have 25 employed these connections in my films. The natural world of Greece 3 Sheridan, K. (2019) Orestes. Unpublished play script. 4 Phonetic spelling as noted in Euripides (2012) Iphigeneia at Aulis (Trans. Harrison J., Eckhardt H.) 110. 8
2022-4855-AJHA-ART – 14 JUN 2022 1 makes up nearly all of the images in Iphigeneia Breathes, from the 2 constant flow of the sea, to the variations on fluttering, stilled, and 3 dying flowers, the visual effects of the winds, and the intense cicada 4 songs. For films without traditional scripts and dialogue, these elements 5 often serve as objective correlatives suggesting thoughts, emotions, and 6 ideas. The mountains and trees, the winds and waves, the birds and 7 cicadas—they also appear or sound as they did in ancient Greece, so the 8 experience of being in Greece is continually connected to the layers of 9 its past. The myths inhabit the same place as we do. 10 11 Linguistic and Textual Research 12 13 Linguistic and textual research are also significant in the meaning, 14 imagery, and construction of my Iphigeneia film. I started with reading 15 multiple translations of Greek plays and epics, and doing my own 16 translations of certain key passages. I delved into detailed analyses of 17 Greek words that seem to relate to my ideas. Conversely, I use the 18 study of specific Greek words to generate ideas. For Iphigeneia Breathes, 19 the research at times forms only a latent subtext; at other times, it serves 20 as a central element in the meaning of the film. 21 Experiencing the strong presence of the winds on Greeks mountains 22 and islands spurred me to look into “wind” as a generative idea for a film. 23 I had long known the story, from various sources, of the warriors 24 headed for Troy being stalled at Aulis, due to issues with the winds. 25 This story led me to begin researching various Greek words for wind, 26 including a fascination with ten Homeric words for various kinds of 27 winds, from breezes to blasts: “The semantic range of Homeric wind is 28 broad, ranging from the most neutral and pervasive term, ἄνεμος (wind), 29 to πνοιή (breath, breeze, blast), αὔρῃ (breeze), οὖρος (favorable wind for 30 sailing), ἀϋτμή/ἀϋτμήν (breath of wind), ῥιπή (rush of wind), ἀήτης (blast), 31 ἀέλλη (whirling or stormy wind), θύελλα (rushing stormwind), λαῖλαψ 32 (storm).”5 33 A discovery central to Iphigeneia Breathes was that one of the non- 34 Homeric words for wind, πνεῦμα (pneuma), was used for a myriad of 35 other meanings as well: breathing, life, breath, spirit, the air we 36 breathe.6 All of these come into my film, some foregrounded, and some 5 Purves, A.C. (2010). Wind and Time in Homeric Epic. Transactions of the American Philological Association, 140(2). 326, footnote 7. 6 Liddell, H.G. & Scott, R. (1849) A Greek-English Lexicon based on the German Work of Francis Passow, with corrections and additions by Henry Drisler. NY: Harper & Bros. 9
2022-4855-AJHA-ART – 14 JUN 2022 1 buried within it. The poetic concatenation of meanings, the linguistic 2 fusion of human qualities and the power of nature, along with the 3 modern Greek pronunciation of a name, are all keys to my Iphigeneia 4 film. 5 Besides the linguistic interest of wind words, cicadas had become a 6 strong, fascinating aural presence for me in Greece. The cicada (τέττῖξ) 7 origin myth was that cicadas were originally men who were so 8 enthralled with the singing of the Muses that they forgot to eat or drink, 9 and so they died. The Muses, in turn, brought these men back as 10 cicadas. This past life explanation generated a reasoning for the unusual 11 insects, who only surface after 13 or 17 years, and who sing 12 continuously while alive. Recording their songs on one of my trips to 13 Greece, led me to do some side research into the ancient Greeks’ 14 attitude towards cicadas. Of particular interest to me was Socrates 15 noting “the charm of their Siren voices”7 in Plato’s Phaedrus, an opinion 16 not held by many who currently experience cicadas. led me to use the 17 aural pattern of cicada song in Iphigeneia Breaths. The connections of 18 cicadas with life and death, as well as the specific role that they take on 19 after death, of telling the Muses who the men are who honor them on 20 earth, became unexpressed subtexts to the life and death struggles in 21 the film, and to Agamemnon honoring the goddess Artemis by 22 sacrificing his daughter. 23 24 Embodiment: The Fusion of Speech and Physical Action 25 26 In the simplest explanation of its manifestation, human speech is 27 always embodied, in the sense that the work of the body is necessary to 28 make speech heard; the written word is similarly embodied in the 29 actions needed to create letters and words. The power that language has 30 over physical actions, and the cascading results of those actions, are 31 clear in Euripides’ Iphigeneia in Aulis: Calchas’s prophecy spurs 32 Agamemnon’s duplicitous letter to Clytemnestra, telling her to bring 33 their daughter Iphigeneia to Aulis, where she will supposedly marry 34 Achilles; after pleading with her father for her life, Iphigenia articulates 35 her change of attitude, and agrees to be sacrificed for Greece. 36 In Iphigeneia Breathes, it would be the modern Greek pronunciation 37 of Iphigeneia’s name that would ultimately shifts human speech into a 7 Plato, Plato in Twelve Volumes, Vol. 9 (1925). Trans. Fowler, H.N. Harvard University Press. Phaedrus, 259. 10
2022-4855-AJHA-ART – 14 JUN 2022 1 literally embodied force of change. It is the breathing required by her 2 name that spurred my idea for the film, and that I eventually used to 3 change her story. I explain and use both pronunciations in the film. 4 5 The Arc from Iphigeneia at Aulis to Iphigeneia Breathes 6 7 Returning to the Voice of the Filmmaker 8 9 As I started work on an Iphigeneia film, I began rethinking my 10 original film script, based so heavily in Euripides’ Iphigeneia at Aulis. 11 Did I really want to just retell the narrative of Iphigeneia at Aulis as it 12 was, or was this another opportunity for imagining something else—or 13 should it be both? Ultimately, I conceived the film in a structure 14 alternating contemporary and ancient storytelling, as well as switching 15 back and forward in time within the ancient story. The film does retell 16 portions of Iphigeneia at Aulis, with some expanded repetitions including 17 different elements, with elements suggesting the filmmaker’s 18 commentary and musings in the voiceovers. The intertwining of past 19 and present in the film, culling elements from Euripides and others 20 based on personal experience, I eventually formed my imaginative 21 revision from the intersection of the winds, human breathing, and life, 22 from a mélange of imagery from the natural world, and from the Greek 23 language, ancient and modern. The film’s interlaced structure and 24 content reflects the serpentine path of scholarly and experiential 25 research that led me to imagine a new ending, and as the imagined 26 possibility surfaces in the film, I make the possibility “happen.” 27 28 Telling the Story: Structure and Content 29 30 After a short prologue on the various words expressed by πνεῦμα— 31 which also sets up the pattern of variations on a theme—a voiceover 32 representing the filmmaker’s experience on an island narrates the 33 blowing and stilling of winds, the silence and cicadas. The words play 34 over shots that are mostly opposite in imagery and audio (such as trees 35 blowing in the wind while the voiceover talks about the winds being 36 stilled). These types of oppositions recur throughout the film, implying 37 the fluidity of perception and a questioning of knowledge and 38 experience, opening an aperture for imagination. 39 With an intertitle, the film is pulled back to “thousands of years 11
2022-4855-AJHA-ART – 14 JUN 2022 1 earlier.” While the viewer watches a darkened sea roiling in hypnotic, 2 slow-motion waves (Figure 7), an omniscient voiceover narrates of the 3 story of the warriors waiting for the winds, Agamemnon’s ruse to get 4 Iphigeneia to Aulis, Iphigeneia finally agreeing to be sacrificed, and the 5 warriors sailing to Troy. It ends with thousands of Greeks and Trojans 6 dying. 7 8 Figure 7. A still of the roiling waves in Iphigeneia Breathes *film+, (original 9 in color). Cinematography by Andrea Eis. 10 11 12 With a vocal change of tone, the narration moves into first-person. 13 explaining new knowledge, the modern Greek pronunciation of 14 Iphigeneia’s name (“a soft exhalation, gliding forward”), which is 15 contrasted with Iphigeneia first being reluctantly “propelled” towards 16 sacrifice, and her sudden change of heart, after which she agrees to be 17 sacrificed8: 18 19 *Iphigeneia+, on the other hand, was propelled forward. 20 Until she takes things into her own hands, 21 and chooses her death. 22 23 Heroically. 24 For Greece. 25 Supposedly.9 8 In Iphigeneia Changes Her Mind (1991), Sausone discusses Aristotle “notoriously” averring, in his Poetics, that Iphigeneia’s tragic character shows inconsistency by changing her mind (161). The author then discusses opposing theories that find a wide variety of reasonable dramatic motivations for Iphigeneia’s seemingly discordant decision to die for Greece (161-62). 9 Eis, A. 2021. Voiceover, Iphigeneia Breathes [film]. 4:05-5:19. 12
2022-4855-AJHA-ART – 14 JUN 2022 1 Matched with a close-up of a chaotic pile of intensely colored 2 flowers, spread in a across the frame on a rough stone wall, the lines of 3 the voiceover punctuate a series of dissolves, as one by one the flowers 4 disappear, in reverse, until there are none left by the end, and we are 5 left only with the rough stone wall upon which they had been spread. 6 This slow visual and aural slow march to death is followed by a defense 7 of Helen, the alleged cause of this need for Iphigeneia’s sacrifice. 8 Footage of waves roll diagonally across the frame softly but inexorably, 9 during a voiceover speaking of the pronunciation of Helen’s name in 10 modern Greek, which, similarly to Iphigeneia’s name, softer and more 11 lyrical (eh-LAY-nee) than in ancient Greek. Cicadas compete with the 12 voiceover. An assertion follows that neither Iphigeneia nor the warriors 13 are sacrificed for Eleni’s sake, who “never asks for any of this,” as the 14 camera pans over fallen flowers, the cropped into a thin horizontal slice 15 trapped within a black frame. Helen’s lack of culpability takes on even 16 more resonance in a later scene on Agamemnon’s motivations. 17 We return to the warriors at Aulis, and their increasing impatience 18 with the long wait for the winds, their seething frustration. In this 19 sequence, as with much of the imagery in the film, nature images serve 20 as objective correlatives, physical representations for thoughts, 21 emotions, ideas. A softly lit, peaceful, almost mythical white horse, 22 wanders through a golden field and stops at the edge of a sunken wall 23 of haphazardly placed stones. The horse calmly raises its head for a 24 moment (Figure 8), almost as if responding to a small ruffle of wind, 25 then drops it again to sniff at the ground. (Voiceover: “To the warriors 26 waiting at Aulis, the stilling of the winds was a relief. At first.”) The 27 camera then explores more unsettled imagery—a tangle of plants, 28 weeds silhouetted against dramatic backlit clouds, and a flower in high 29 contrast, protected by a ring of spiky thorns, and shaking anxiously, as 30 if in direct correlation to the warriors’ intense emotions (Figure 9). 31 32 13
2022-4855-AJHA-ART – 14 JUN 2022 1 Figure 8. A still of the horse responding to a breeze (original in color). 2 Cinematography by Andrea Eis 3 4 5 Figure 9. A still of the thorn-protected flower (original in color). Cinematography 6 by Andrea Eis 7 8 9 This passage focusing on the warriors’ emotions leads to the one 10 speaking of Agamemnon’s motives and ambition. Starting small within 11 the frame of a large black field, waves roll relentlessly towards the 12 viewer, as the image slowly increases in size, to fill the frame, ending 13 with a fade out as the scope of the resulting tragedy unfolds. 14 15 For Agamemnon, 16 the sacrifice of 17 his daughter’s life is necessary. 18 19 To get those warriors moving. 20 21 To give them their reason for being. 14
2022-4855-AJHA-ART – 14 JUN 2022 1 To give him his reason for leading. 2 3 They rush forward 4 to what, for many, 5 is the sacrifice of their lives. 6 7 Sacrificed for Agamemnon. 8 9 For Menelaus.10 10 11 The camera pans across the folds of a crumpled bedsheet. The 12 palpable sound of the cicadas, though not heard on the soundtrack at 13 this point, is referenced in the voiceover as “a physical weight, a 14 temporal wait.” Vividly pink flowers interact with the path of the 15 voiceover to suggest the beauty, power, and fragility of life, and the 16 inevitability of death, as they are held, softly crushed, dropped on a 17 white bedspread, and then set in a line. 18 19 Wait. 20 For Agamemnon 21 to sacrifice one woman— 22 a girl, really— 23 so a goddess will restore the winds. 24 So they can sail to Troy. 25 The songs of the cicadas are abundant. 26 Insistent.11 27 28 A black frame fills the screen, as a voiceover invites the viewer to 29 use their imagination: 30 31 Just suppose. 32 Just imagine. 33 If it had been different.12 34 35 And what to imagine? Iphigeneia gives the warriors a different 36 task. She has them say her name over and over, like an incantation—in 37 the modern Greek pronunciation, so that they have to breathe out. 38 With thousands of warriors, and thousands of repetitions of her name, a 10 Eis, A. 2021. Voiceover, Iphigeneia Breathes [film]. 7:05-7:36. 11 Ibid. 7:52-8:18. 12 Ibid. 8:20-8:26. 15
2022-4855-AJHA-ART – 14 JUN 2022 1 wind is created that fills the sails. 2 3 Imagination Breaks through a Barrier 4 5 Wind in bodies is called breath, outside bodies it is called air. It is the most 6 powerful of all *bodily nourishments+ and it is in all, and it is worthwhile 7 examining its power
2022-4855-AJHA-ART – 14 JUN 2022 1 A Man’s Voice, a Woman’s Voice, and And Hope 2 3 The viewer is invited to join with me in imagining, the warriors’ 4 incantation of Iphigeneia’s name, tied to the words of wind, and 5 echoing: 6 7 Soft If-ee-YEN-yas. 8 9 Nearly silent If-ee-YEN-yas. 10 11 Great gusts of If-ee-YEN-yas. 12 13 A surge of If-ee-YEN-yas. 14 15 All of them breathing, 16 as one. 17 The sails fill with their voices, 18 their breathing. 19 While she, of the lyrical breathing name, 20 will herself be able to continue breathing.14 21 22 Over a “sea” of agave plants, their leaves elegantly curved but 23 edged with thorns (Figure 10), with the “abundant, persistent” cicadas 24 on the soundtrack, the possibilities emerge: 25 26 And maybe, when the embodied winds die down, 27 If-ee-YEN-ya says her name again. 28 29 If a man’s voice can send them to war, 30 perhaps a woman’s voice can turn them towards home. 31 32 If-ee-YEN-ya would not die. 33 34 Thousands would not die.15 35 36 14 Eis, A. 2021. Voiceover, Iphigeneia Breathes [film]. 8:48-9:27. 15 Ibid. 9:28-10:01. 17
2022-4855-AJHA-ART – 14 JUN 2022 1 Figure 10. A still of the agave plants (original in color). Cinematography by 2 Andrea Eis 3 4 5 The cicadas fade out, the sounds of waves fade in, there are three 6 more, magic-suggestive repetitions of if-ee-YEN-ya. The cicada sound 7 returns, and intertitles appear: 8 9 Thousands of years later. 10 11 Sitting by the water 12 on an island in Greece 13 14 I imagine 15 16 that 17 Iphigeneia 18 breathes.16 19 20 The film ends with sea glass being gathered up and then dropped 21 from my hand in slow motion (Figure 11), visualizing the past in the 22 shards of glass whose edges have been smoothed by water and time. 23 The heightened intensity of the slow-motion sound of the falling glass, 24 is a rare synchronous audio passage, and it lasts after the image has 25 faded out. 26 16 Ibid. 10:37-10:45. 18
2022-4855-AJHA-ART – 14 JUN 2022 1 Figure 11. Still from the shot of sea glass dropping (original in color). 2 Cinematography by Andrea Eis 3 4 5 6 Conclusion 7 8 The embodiment of Iphigeneia’s name in the warriors’ breaths 9 changes history, and the Trojan war never happens—because a woman 10 takes steps to change fate. In this telling, embodied language, in a word 11 that is inseparably connected with breathing, living, and the wind, 12 saves Iphigeneia’s life, and that of thousands of Greeks and Trojans. I 13 found my way to take on the pain that was everywhere in the world 14 around me, making a film about changing a mythic past. My film, 15 finally finished in December of 2021, serves as an embodiment of my 16 fragile hope for a better future, imagined and acted upon. 17 My journey through Iphigeneia’s story as a filmmaker was 18 accompanied by a complex mix of scholarly, experiential, linguistic, and 19 textual research, but also by unexpected personal emotional intensity, 20 the contexts of which are not referenced for viewers. As an artist, I 21 know that I cannot control the connotations or associations of my work, 22 and I should not expect to. At best, I construct and frame my own 23 perspective and craft a significance for my images and words with 24 which I can live. 25 In 1998, Robert Andreach, writing about Ellen McLaughlin’s 26 Iphigeneia and Other Daughters, said that McLaughlin reinvents and re- 27 centers Greek plays. I found a kinship for my film in Andreach’s 28 explanation for how McLaughlin changes the perspective of the plays in 29 more than one way: 30 19
2022-4855-AJHA-ART – 14 JUN 2022 1 The first is that for history to change, its victims – those excluded from it 2 or sacrificed to it – must act. The second is that they do not have to act 3 with the motivation of the dominant culture< 4 5 Killing does not have to be the sole reason for wanting to create history.17 6 7 8 References 9 10 Andreach, R. (1998) Ellen McLaughlin’s “Iphigenia and Other Daughters”: a 11 classical trilogy from a contemporary perspective. Comparative Literature 12 Studies 35(4): 379-392. 13 Egan, R. (1995) Cicadas in Ancient Greece, Ventures in Tettigology, Cultural 14 Entomology Digest 3, as referenced in Zarrarelli, N. (2016) ‘O Shrill-Voiced 15 Insect’: The Cicada Poems of Ancient Greece,’ https://www.atlasobscura. 16 com/articles/o-shrillvoiced-insect-the-cicada-poems-of-ancient-greece. 17 Eis, A. (Director). (2021). Iphigeneia breathes [film]. Toughened Glass Films. 18 Eis, A. (Director). (2017). Perhaps [film]. Toughened Glass Films. 19 Euripides. (2012) Iphigeneia at Aulis (Trans. Harrison J., Eckhardt H.) 20 Hippocrates, Breaths, in Hippocrates, Vol. IV: Nature of Man, (1931) Loeb 21 Classical Library, 150), trans. Jones, W.H.S. 22 Liddell, H.G. & Scott, R. (1849) A Greek-English Lexicon based on the German 23 Work of Francis Passow, with corrections and additions by Henry Drisler. 24 Harper & Bros. 25 Plato. (1925) Phaedrus, Plato in Twelve Volumes, Vol. 9 (Fowler, H.N., Trans.), 26 Harvard University Press. 27 Purves, A.C. Wind and Time in Homeric Epic. Transactions of the American 28 Philological Association, 140(2): 323-350. 29 Sausone, D. (1991). Iphigeneia Changes Her Mind, Illinois Classical Studies, 30 16(1/2): 161-172. 31 Sheridan, K. (2019). Orestes. Unpublished play script. 32 33 17 Andreach, R. 1998. Ellen McLaughlin’s “Iphigeneia and Other Daughters”: a classical trilogy from a contemporary perspective. Comparative Literature Studies 35(4): 391. 20
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