Aeschylus was born in 525 B.C. and died in 466 B.C. He was the first of the three Athenian dramatists, the other two being Sophocles and Euripides. The first of Aeschylus’ plays were laid open in 499. He was established as the founder of tragedy, according to Aristotle. He diminished the importance of the chorus and introduced a second actor. Between the years of 484 and 458, he won awards at the festival in the City Dionysia. He wrote more than ninety plays, but only seven survive. The oldest of these is The Suppliant Maidens. The trilogy, Agamemnon, Choephore, and Eumendis, was not long before 458. Aeschylus acted in his own plays.
His family belonged to an old Athenian nobility and, as part of his duty, he fought in at least two wars where the Greeks defeated the Persians: Marathon and Salamis. Some scholars say that he participated in one or more of the northern expeditions in the years following the Persian War. Aeschylus died and was buried in Gela in 456 B.C. A fable state that an eagle dropped a tortoise on his bald head mistaking it for a rock that it could crack its rock on. That is ridiculous.
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The plot section:
A bit of background:
The king of Argos, Atreus, had a very large quarrel with Thyestes, his younger brother. Thyestes had seduced Atreus’ wife, Aerope. Thyestes went into exile. Agamemnon, seeking revenge, welcomed him back, promising forgiveness. When Thyestes returned, Agamemnon served Thyestes’ sons to him in a stew and showed their heads on a silver platter to him. Thyestes went into exile again.
Aerope had previously been married to Atreus’s son Plisthenes and had two children, Agamemnon and Menalaus. The children were raised by Atreus and married sisters: Clymenstra and Helen. Paris stole Helen and Agamemnon arranged the war to get her back. This war lasted ten years and the plot starts at Agamemnon’s return home.
The watchman is sitting on the roof of Agamemnon’s palace awaiting the beacon signaling that the war was over. He is sad that his master is gone and what has been happening in his absence. What has been happening is Clymenstra has been “getting friendly” with Aegisthus, Thyestes’ son. Aegisthus is seeking revenge on Agamem...
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...the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world.” This tells us that lust and pride are of the world. Clymenstra was definitely of the world. She lusted after someone and was prideful in her lies. All of these things are wrong and we know that they are not looked upon favorably by our Father in heaven. We learn that from this book.
Another theme is do not commit adultery. It is in the Bible! Exodus 20:14 says,” Thou shall not commit adultery."This does not mean just sleeping with someone who is not your husband or wife. It can also mean do not lust with your eyes and mind. When you look at someone with lustful thoughts, it is considered adultery.
The last theme I saw was when Agamemnon walked on the tapestries to please his wife although he knew it would displease the gods. This teaches me that we should have an attitude of “no compromise.” He compromised his values for someone else. This is not the way things should be in Christian lives. Too many people compromise and stretch their values to suit everyone else’s needs. Christ did not comprise on the cross, we should not either.
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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.
Antigone and her family have suffered many things. It all began with her father Oedipus. Oedipus has a very confused life. He ends up killing his father, the king of Thebes, while he believes his father is someone else. He ends up as the king of Thebes and married to his mother, Jocasta. He dose this all while believing that his parents are dead. He finally ends up finding all this out; he blinds himself and is banished from Thebes. This is where Antigone's two brothers come in, Eteocles and Polynices. They end up fighting for the throne. Eteocles wins and banishes Polynices from Thebes. Polynices, however, is not done. He goes to Argos and recruits an army to take Thebes. The plan backfires though and Eteocles and Polynices end up killing each other, and the army is driven off. With no male heir to the throne, Creon, Oedipus' brother, takes the throne. This may be a lot for one person to handle, but Antigone's grief has just begun.
Agamemnon and Achilles are having a conflict over a woman. But if you read deeper
Psychological research has recognized the importance of relationships with friends and peers in the development of social skills. Although previous research has looked at the differentiated experiences that children have in play styles, few studies have focused on the precise nature of these differences and how they are manifested as a function of the social context. Fabes, Martin & Hanish (2003) examined social interactions among children. More specifically, they observed children’s naturally occurring interactions over the course of a school year to examine how active-forceful play, play near adults and gender stereotypic activity choices varied among children by the sex of the child, the sex of the partner they interacted with and whether
Euripides is a keen witness to the human character and the father of the psychological theater. His plays were modern at the time compared to others because of the way he focused on the personal lives and motives of his characters, in a manner that was unfamiliar to Greek audiences. His plays have often been seen, in simple terms, bad because critics have been unable to comprehend his visions. The ideas and concepts that Euripides developed were not accepted until after his death.
I believe that the ending of the Aeneid shows that Aeneas is very heroic. According to Webster’s New Dictionary, “a man of distinguished bravery” and “admired for his exploits.” Aeneas is very brave when he fights Turnus, especially because it is known that the gods are on his side. He successfully killed Turnus, which is an achievement that calls for admiration.
The difference in Agamemnon’s and Odysseus’s approach of their homeland is a reason for their differing fates. Agamemnon, the king of Argos, returns from Troy after a safe journey. Once he lands on the shores of his native earth, his false sense of security renders him unsuspecting of the possible danger that lurks in his own home. His naiveté leads him to approach his home directly to show his people that he has returned. Since his subjects were no longer loyal to him, his exposure leads to his demise. Their disloyalty is revealed when Aegisthus, the man who plots to kill Agamemnon, gathers the town’s best soldiers to ambush the king. Agamemnon meets Aegisthus, who organized a banquet where the king and his company are mercilessly slaughtered. Because he fails to assess the danger that exists in his homeland, Agamemnon meets his end soon after his return.
Young children are typically raised around specific sex-types objects and activities. This includes the toys that that are given, activities that they are encouraged to participate in, and the gender-based roles that they are subjected to from a young age. Parents are more likely to introduce their daughters into the world of femininity through an abundance of pink colored clothes and objects, Barbie dolls, and domestic chores such as cooking and doing laundry (Witt par. 9). Contrarily, boys are typically exposed to the male world through action figures, sports, the color blue, and maintenance-based chores such as mowing the lawn and repairing various things around the house (Witt par. 9). As a result, young children begin to link different occupations with a certain gender thus narrowing their decisions relating to their career goals in the future. This separation of options also creates a suppresses the child from doing something that is viewed as ‘different’ from what they were exposed to. Gender socialization stemming from early childhood shapes the child and progressively shoves them into a small box of opportunities and choices relating to how they should live their
The greek playwright, Sophocles, was born around 496 B.C., and died in 406 B.C. During his life, he wrote many plays, one of which was Oedipus Rex. Sophocles was the first dramatist to add the third actor to the play. Actors were able to perfrom many different parts, but the play was limited to only three actors and the chorus. (Literature, page 1065)
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.
“The more energy they have to gin up to execute their plan, the harder it will be to do so” (Newman). When “Would be shooters” are faced with a challenge they most likely don’t go through with their plan. The dedicated shooters are those who intend on finding guns and shooting people, those who have the drive. “Totally dedicated shooters” are the type of people who wont give up whether the guns are accessible to them legally or illegally. Dedicated shooters have a plan of action and intend on going through with it. These types of people likely suffer from mental illnesses. “The abnormally high level of school shootings in America is not solely a gun issue a mental health issue, or a media issue, but rather a problem caused by a combination of mental illness problems, social inequality, gun control policies, and the structure of schools”(Gupta, 2016). Structural inequalities in the United States cause stress, which lead people to turn to radical measures. Factors such as economic change, racism and social changes cause constraints on behavior. Mental health is also a leading factor to school shootings. “Metzl and MacLeish’s research shows that up to 60 percent of mass shootings in the United States since 1970 involved shooters displaying symptoms of mental illnesses—including paranoia, depression, and delusions—and the evidence suggests that
When Nestor comes to smooth the thick atmosphere they depart from each other. Upon returning to his ship, Agamemnon sends his men to “go to Achilles’ lodge [and] take Briseis at once” (line 378) illustrating how rude he can be. To take someone at once has an impatient type of connotation. Agamemnon has no intentions of keeping the peace with Achilles because he rudely disobeyed Achilles orders. Achilles tried to comply with Agamemnon, but he refused to do so. Regardless, Agamemnon resorted to his threat. When the men reach Achilles’ lodge, he is grief-stricken and allows for his wife to be taken. He is sad and reluctant, but lets them take her back to Agamemnon. No matter what he does, this event was inevitable. Agamemnon was provoking him making him “blazing … [to] [react] quickly” (line 341) showing that Achilles can be easily angered. Agamemnon tries to use Achilles rage and fury to get him to give up and retreat back to the army he left. Even though Achilles felt rage and sorrow, he keeps to his word. He wants to obey Athena’s orders of to not fight back. Although he is sad, he will not let Agamemnon’s threat get to his
Information about lifes of Sophocles and Euripides are very limited and hard to verify. However, many sources match about following information about their biographies. Sophocles was born at 497 or 496 BCE in Colonus Hippius, now a part of Athens. His father was a wealthy merchant and weapon producer and an important figure in their society. So, Sophocles had the opportunity of taking the traditional aristocratic education and studying art in his early age which was a pr...
Having Agamemnon away at war for so long left Clytemnestra lonely and longing for his return as did many others who thought order had been lost since his departure. And naturally, as she is second in command when he is present, she is head honcho while he is absent. “That woman—she maneuvers like a man” (Aeschylus 13). When comparing Agamemnon and Clytemnestra together they can be on two separate scales. When seen from the outside it is obvious the Agamemnon wears the pants in the house, yet in the dialogues between the two, Agamemnon easily bows to the words of Clytemnestra which tosses up the question of who is really governing Argos. She takes things upon herself to make Agamemnon appear more of a king than he would be without her “aid.” For examp...
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