Despite their different genre, Agamemnon and The Clouds present contrasting images on the place of individuals in their families. While the tone of Agamemnon creates a more serious picture than the comical atmosphere of The Clouds, the relationships are based on the same precepts and share several aspects. Images of the gods, their prophetic messages, and their execution of justice massively influence the images of relationships while love and memory more directly affect the actions of individuals.
Similarities in the presentations of the relationships are easily noticed. Both families express love for their constituents in varying forms. Strepsiades, though angry at his current predicament, spoiled his son, giving Pheideppides' horse addiction financial priority. "Yes, you and your [Pheideppides'] damned horses! Gigs, rigs, nags, ponytails ....Hell, horses everywhere! Horses in your dreams! But me? I'm bankrupt, broke, ruined, waiting for the end of the month when all these debts come due." (Clouds pg 23) Their sarcastic and interdependent bond is characterized repeatedly be each. "Since you yourself [Strepsiades] admit that loving and lickings are synonymous, it's only fair that I [Pheideppides]- for your own damn good, you understand? - whip you in return." (Clouds. pg 136) These images show us the nature of their love and present a background for comedy. Similarly, the opening impression of Agamemnon is of a queen faithfully waiting for her beloved king to return. "What else/ is light more sweet than this,/ to spread the gates before her husband home from war/... Come, and with speed, back to the city that longs for him,/ and he may find a wife within his house as true/ as on the day ...
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...ainst Clytemnestra, believing the murder of Agamemnon wasn't justified. Memory serves as a minute but unfortunate factor in Agamemnon's return. Clytemnestra has had ten long years to mull over her revenge against Agamemnon.
Few relationships in the Greek world were as important as the relationship to one's family. The Clouds and Agamemnon presented two entirely different views of the connection between parents and family. The Clouds presents a comical view of a love between father and son, prophesized to be stressed and broken by justice, love, and theories on the gods. Agamemnon expressed the relationship between mother and daughter through justice against the father, prophecy, memory, and the work of the gods. The plays arise from different situations but come to the conclusion that the family is the central, most important part of the Greek polis.
In classical Greek literature the subject of love is commonly a prominent theme. However, throughout these varied texts the subject of Love becomes a multi-faceted being. From this common occurrence in literature we can assume that this subject had a large impact on day-to-day life. One text that explores the many faces of love in everyday life is Plato’s Symposium. In this text we hear a number of views on the subject of love and what the true nature of love is. This essay will focus on a speech by Pausanius. Pausanius’s speech concentrates on the goddess Aphrodite. In particular he looks at her two forms, as a promoter of “Celestial Love” as well as “Common Love.” This idea of “Common Love” can be seen in a real life context in the tragedy “Hippolytus” by Euripides. This brings the philosophical views made by Pausanius into a real-life context.
...of Agamemnon’s homecoming. However, there is still reason for doubt towards Penelope’s true intentions based on her behavior throughout her husband’s absence.
In Sophocles' most famous Theban play consisting of two parts, "Oedipus the King" and "Antigone", both parts are necessary in understanding some of the things that happened around them, and what type of man had raised Antigone. She is the main character in the play of “Antigone”.
Sophocles’ Antigone is a Greek tragedy that portrays a conflict between two ancient Greek values. Creon, the king of Thebes, touts the importance of loyalty towards the state, and Antigone, his niece, shows the willingness to sacrifice her life for the ultimate purpose of shining light on the importance of loyalty to one’s family. In Sophocles’ Antigone, Sophocles uses the clash between Creon’s value of loyalty to the state and Antigone’s value of loyalty to family in order to demonstrate not only the potential damage that could result from placing too high of an importance on loyalty to the city-state, but also the challenges involved with being a leader in ancient Greece.
The relationship between gods and mortals in mythology has long been a complicated topic. The gods can be generous and supportive, and also devastating and destructive to any group of humans. Mortals must respect the powers above them that cannot be controlled. The gods rule over destiny, nature, and justice, and need to be recognized and worshipped for the powerful beings as they are. Regardless of one's actions, intentions, and thoughts, the gods in Greek myth have ultimate power and the final decision of justice over nature, mortals, and even each other.
In Aeschylus’s, Agamemnon, there is a great possibility that the death of Agamemnon could have been prevented, had the Chorus simply listened to Cassandra’s prophecy. But the words spoken between the two parties seem to have loss it’s meaning when it fell upon the Chorus; yet, they were obviously hearing what she was saying. But while they were hearing what she had to say, they did not listen to her words. Ironically, in this story, it is the women who posses all the knowledge. But once they try to share it, the men, who later suffer the consequence, ignore them. People only listen to what they want to hear, and a woman’s word is not considered important enough to listen to.
In this essay, I hope to provide answers to how the actions of Hippolytus and Phaedra relate to the gods, whether or not the characters concern themselves with the reaction of the gods to their behavior, what the characters expect from the gods, how the gods treat the humans, and whether or not the gods gain anything from making the humans suffer. Before we can discuss the play, however, a few terms need to be defined. Most important would be the nature of the gods. They have divine powers, but what exactly makes the Greek gods unique should be explored. The Greek gods, since they are anthropomorphic, have many of the same characteristics as humans.
... and the passionate love of a beautiful, foreign and strong queen. And, they are connected through the historical figure Augustus Caesar, for whom The Aeneid honors and Antony and Cleopatra portrays.
The Achaeans are more concerned with personal glory and achievement rather than the well-being of the city. Two Characters who definitely display this characteristic are Agamemnon and Achilles. Agamemnon is selfish and is only concerned with his own honor. This is seen almost immediately in the poem. In book one, during the tenth year of battle, Chryses visits Agamemnon and offers ransom for his daughter, Chryseis who was taken as plunder early in the war. Although the ransom is attractive, Agamemnon refuses the money because the girl represents power and glory and that is far more important than wealth. Plunder represents victory; therefore, the more women Agamemnon possesses, the more glorified and powerful he feels. Eventually, Agamemnon returns the girl to her father; however, he insists that someone give him a female to compensate for his loss and restore his honor. He views the situation as a challenge to his authority and complains, "I alone of the Argives go without my honor. That would be a disgrace" (1.139-40). Agamemnon demands, the "Argives will give me a prize, a match for my desires, equal to what I have lost, well and good. But if they give me nothing I will take a p...
The relationships between parents and their sons in the Iliad are not relationships we expect to see in today’s society. The Iliad portrays the relationships between fathers and sons as something more than just physical and emotional. It is based on pride and respect for one another. The expectations of their son are more so to pass on their fathers reputable name and to follow in their father’s footsteps of being noble warriors. These relationships are the driving forces in the Iliad, making each son in the Iliad identifiable first by their father’s name. An outcome of the father–son relationships is ancestral loyalty among the characters which play a prominent role in war. Therefore, not only does the Iliad share a major war story, but the strong relationships among fathers and sons, ancestral loyalty among characters, and relationships between mothers and sons.
It is inferred that the parents should take care of their children and have their best interest at heart. This however, is not the case in Greek and Roman mythology. The killing of ones own children, or filicide, was not viewed as negative upon in their era. The contemporary times contrast with the ancient Greek and Roman’s because it was justified to use any means necessary to obtain a higher status. The Greeks and Romans valued keeping a high social reputation and having respect for those of great power. The motherly union between their children conflict with the reality that the father strives to retain or gain control. These circumstances cause a tense bond between the members of the family. The strained parent to child relationship in Greco-Roman myths is prevalent in the fact that the parents are fearful of being overtaken by their children, and endeavor to limit their upbringing.
In Aeschylus’ The Agamemnon, Agamemnon and Clytemnestra have to make tough decisions throughout the play, decisions they believe are justified. The actions of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra are not justified because they are caused by their blinding hubris and desire for power. Agamemnon makes the choice to kill his daughter just so he could lead his troops to Troy. Clytemnestra kills her husband, not just for revenge, but for his position and power as king of Mycenae. They make selfish choices and do not believe they will be punished for them. By exposing their true motives, Aeschylus makes it clear they are not justified in their actions.
All of the eulogies and speeches within Plato's novel give great insight as to the social workings and aspects of ancient Greek intellectuals. Through The Symposium the reader learns the different aspects and natures of love as viewed by these intellects. The theories and themes within the novel are discussed and compared with the opinions and beliefs of each person present. The more notable themes in the novel are the ideas of physical love and lust, and the importance of the reproduction of ideas as they are filtered through each of the speakers.
Agamemnon is the first part of the trilogy known as the Oresteia. Agamemnon is a story where the main character sacrifices his own daughter to a God, Artemis to win a battle and then his wife revenge him for the sacrifice. The concept of fate plays an important role in the tilogy Agamemnon which led to the tragic endings of the play. According to the meaning of fate it means the development of events outside a person’s control, regarded as predetermined by a super natural power. Fate is what send Agamemnon to the war with Menelaus to fight against Paris, fate is what predetermined Agamemnon to sacrifice his own blood for the sake of his ship and companions and fate is what determined Cassandra his wife to plot to kill him and to revenge him for her daughter.
While the relationship between fathers and sons has been documented at length, the father/ daughter dynamic figures less prominently in literary tropes; in fact the last canonical piece I can recall reading was Euripedes’ Electra in high school. The tenuous relationship between Daddy and his little girl, however, harbors depths more personal and tangible than Greek tragedy and psychological analyses invoking the Electra complex. The emotionally void or aloof father in particular often burdens the female psyche, for his absence proves just as palpable as his sought after presence, shaping the landscape of a daughter’s future relationships and the construction of a self-image fragmented and disjointed by an early and intimate knowledge of rejection and abandonment. Transcending characterizations attached primarily to filial duty as experienced by the matriarch, the father figure remains the subject of mythologization, just as Sylvia Plath turned her father into a Colossus, a cold, inanimate stone edifice revealing none of his secrets or affection.