Agamemnon
Agamemnon is the first play of Aeschylus’ trilogy, the Oresteia. Aeschylus was the first of Athens’ three great tragedians; the others: Sophocles; Euripides. The Oresteia was also the first Greek tragedy trilogy written. As Greeks of this epoch focused on humanist ideas, so did Aeschylus. He devoted his genius to serious contemplations of humanistic questions, such as the nature of justice. Other humanistic values are honor, truth, compassion, loyalty, devotion to family and gods. He credits much of his success to Homer’s epics. It is helpful to have read both the Iliad and the Odyssey to understand the Oresteia. I will relate some background information from Homer’s epics as I recount a summary of Aeschylus’ Agamemnon.
In order to appreciate and understand this play it is essential to know some background information of the characters. A brief summary of the Iliad’s Trojan War is as follows: At the time of the war, King Priam ruled Troy. He was married to Hecuba, who according to legend bore him forty-nine children, including the prophetess Cassandra, and the handsome Paris. Hecuba had a dream that Paris would be the cause of Troy’s destruction when she was pregnant with Paris. Upon confirmation of the oracle that her son would cause the destruction of Troy, she agreed to abandon the newborn Paris on Mount Ida, exposing him to death. Nevertheless, Paris was saved and raised by shepherds.
Just before the beginning of the Trojan War, Zeus arranged to have Thetis, a goddess, marry Peleus, a mortal. All the gods and goddesses were invited except for Eris, the goddess of discord. At the wedding while all the gods and goddesses were enjoying themselves, Eris threw a golden apple into their midst wit...
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...laced a curse on her: although she would remain a prophetess, no one would ever believe her. Cassandra also envisions her own murder. She then goes into the palace after having asked the gods to give her a painless death.
Clymenestra kills Agamemnon and Cassandra, avenging the death of her daughter. The old men of Argos chastise her for killing the king. The chorus blames Helen, Clymenestra’s twin sister, for starting this war. Lamentation for Agamemnon continues regardless of Clymenestra’s claim that his death was justice, for it was her obligation to avenge Iphigenia’s death. Aegisthus, her accomplice, justifies their plot as rightful vengeance for Atreus’ (Agamemnon’s father) wrongs against Thyestes, Aegisthus’ father. The play ends as the chorus condemns Aegisthus and clings to the hope that Orestes will return to Sparta to avenge his father’s murder.
Aeschylus' The Oresteia features two characters burdened by seemingly hopeless decisions. First is Agamemnon, king of Argos, whose army was thwarted by the goddess, Artemis. Agamemnon was faced with the decision to call off the army's sail to Troy, and thus admit defeat and embarrassment, or to sacrifice his daughter, Iphigenia, to satisfy Artemis whom had stopped the winds to delay Agamemnon's fleet. Second is Orestes, son of Agamemnon, who was given the choice by Apollo to avenge his father's murder, thus committing matricide, or face a series of torturous consequences. Although both Agamemnon and Orestes were faced with major dilemmas, their intentions and their characters are revealed through their actions to be markedly different.
A sea nymph, Thetis, was getting married to Peleus, a mortal. All of the gods and goddesses were invited to this great wedding, except Eris, a rather unpopular goddess. When Eris discovered that there was a wedding going on that she had not been invited to she decided to get back at all who went. She decided to roll an apple into the reception of the wedding, but she put an inscription on the apple that intended it for the most beautiful goddess at the wedding. When the apple rolled in and the inscription was read Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite all felt that she, respectively, was the most beautiful and should get the apple. All three goddesses begged of the gathered gods to choose, but all of the gods refused to make an enemy of the other two that he did not choose. So finally, someone made the suggestion that the three goddesses should let a mortal choose; Priam's son, Paris, was designated to choose. The goddesses went to him and each begged him to choose her. Hera offered Paris, if he chose her, the chance at infinite wisdom; Athena offered to let him defeat the Achaeans if they went to war; and finally, Aphrodite offered Paris the love of the most beautiful woman in Greece, Helen.
Odysseus and Agamemnon are heroes who fought side by side to take down the city of Troy during the Trojan War. In Homer’s The Odyssey, why is Agamemnon slaughtered when he arrives home while Odysseus returns to find his loved ones still waiting for him? The reasons for the heroes’ differing fates are the nature of their homecoming and the loyalty of their wives.
The Odyssey by Homer is an epic about a man’s return home after fighting in war. The protagonist of the epic is Odysseus, but interactions with and stories of his fellow veterans abound. The story of Agamemnon’s death upon returning home is retold and referred to numerous times and serves as a warning to Odysseus of the dangers that could exist for him in Ithaka. The ghost of Agamemnon is encountered by Odysseus in the land of the dead and is quite changed from the friend he knew and fought with at Troy. Despite his high place in life and exploits in war, Agamemnon demonstrates the suffering of the returning veteran.
Hector comes to Troy to shame Paris for abstaining from the war he started and find s him vainly admiring himself and polishing his weapons. His behavior lowers the level of respect the other Trojans have for him, which leads to dishonor. As they rejoin the battle, Hector makes this point clear to Paris. Although he is a strong fighter, the other Trojans exchange hurtful words about Paris for starting the war and not doing his part in the battle. Paris has already dishonored himself by breaking an oath. Now he brings more dishonors upon himself by fighting half-heartedly. It hurts Hector to see Paris in such a state of dishonor, “It breaks my heart/to hear what the Trojans say about you (IX,
Menelaos' brother, Agamemnon, does not have a healthy family relationship. His family is held up to everyone as what a family should not be. It is ironic that the marriages of two brothers, Agamemnon and Menelaos, to two sisters, Helen and Clytemnestra, should be such exact opposite in their outcome. During his absence during the Trojan War, Agamemnon's wife, Clytemnestra, took a lover, Aigisthos. Upon Agamemnon's return, Clytemnestra kills him and his slave-mistress, Cassandra.
In Aeschylus’ Agamemnon there are many different opinions about what kind of king and commander Agamemnon was. Some argued that he was good, while others dispute that his motives were wrong. Clytemnestra, Agamemnon’s wife, gained a strong hatred for him, after he sacrificed his own daughter so he could go to war. Many believe that this was not necessary and could have been overcome. The chorus seems to agree with this to an extent, and feels that Agamemnon could have prayed and requested that he not sacrifice his daughter.
The cyclic thread of vengeance runs like wild fire through the three plays in Aeschylus’s Oresteia. This thread, with its complexity of contemporary and universal implications lends itself quite well to – in fact, almost necessitates – deeply interested study. While a brief summary of the Oresteia will inevitably disregard some if not much of the trilogy’s essence and intent, on the positive side it will establish a platform of characters, events, and motives with which this paper is primarily concerned. As such, I begin with a short overview of the Oresteia and the relevant history that immediately precedes it.
The play is about a strong-willed woman, Antigone, defying the laws of a proud king, Creon. Antigone is torn between her devotion to the gods, her brother Polynices, and her loyalty to the king. Creon, ruler of Thebes, issued the order to leave the traitor Polynices’ body unburied.
After Agamemnon’s death, Aegisthus is next in line to become king and Clytemnestra is his queen. Her desire for power is hidden by her claims of justification. She challenges anyone to take her power. “[H]e who conquers me in fair fight shall rule me” (45). She threatens the Chorus to a fight for power. She knows she has all the power now the king was dead and she is his queen. Clytemnestra is aware she killed him for his power, but her arrogance makes her put the deed on the curse of the House of Atreus and vengeance for
One of the ways Aeschylus builds Clytaemestra’s power at the play's climax is through the involution of murder depicted as a sacrifice. The ritual sacrifice, a sphage, served as a means of purification in antiquity (Lebek 80). In Agamemnon, the symbolic act of sacrifice becomes corrupted and equated with murder. Death, as a sacrifice, is a constant theme. It has been alluded to many times before Agamemnon's demise, always in the form of ritual sacrifice, but never as murder. The most obvious example is the mention of Iphigenia's sacrifice. Therefore, by the time the audience comprehends Clytaemestra's murderous act, it has seen a precedent set for murder mistaken as sacrifice. Clytaemestra boldly presents her position to the chorus: “I struck him twice. In two great cries of agony he buckled at the knees and fell. When he was down I struck him the third blow, in thanks and reverence to Zeus the lord of dead men underneath the ground.” She continues her plea, almost relishing...
Sophocles establishes Electra as the protagonist of this play. Noble birth, yet is not treated as such, isolated in her grief. Both physically and emotionally tormented, Electra’s emotions heighten to a point of no return. Becoming increasingly irrational, maddening to the point where justice blurs with revenge. Embodying this play by Sophocles, is revenge, the central theme focusing on how it affects the perpetrator. Electra is an important example of this central theme. The only way to ease her suffering is to see Clytemnestra and Aegisthus dead. “For her, the living are agents of the dead and hardly to be separated from them” (Scodel, R. 1984. p. 80.). Electra takes it upon herself to see them put to death, with adultery, murder and hatred are moral motivations driving her. However, Electra’s moral corruption could also be rooted in hatred, jealousy and envy. Hatred towards her mother, Clytemnestra for the suffering she is forced to live. Jealousy and envois of her sister, Chrysothemis and brother, Orestes as they live in relative freedom compared to her slave like conditions. Chrysoth...
Aeschylus’ well-known tragedy of Agamemnon allows one to closely look at the treasured polytheistic religious ideas of Ancient Greece and how the Grecians relied heavily on the thought of free will versus fate determined by their gods. With the play being set and written in Greece, the polytheistic lifestyle is apparent and unabashed as the culture of the time would have seen the play to be easily believable; the entire audience would have been familiar with the various gods and goddesses as well as being familiar with the situation that begins the play: the Trojan War. Aeschylus was also able to reveal the Grecian mindset of morality, revenge, and justice through the characters’ actions and dialogue; the idea of jealousy and revenge is particularly notable was it was common for one generation of a family to take revenge for a wrong done to them in a previous generation (Constantakis), such as Aegisthus as he seeks revenge for his father through the act of murdering Agamemnon.
gently sleeping child" (Fagles 80). Athena and Hera are want to destroy Troy because Paris belittled them … "fell into the fatal error of humiliating the two goddesses... by his liking Aphrodite, who offered him the pleasures and penalties of love" (F...