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. Introduction: Agamemnon as Part of The Oresteia Trilogy .......Agamemnon is a tragedy that was first performed in Athens, Greece, in 458 B.C., along with two other plays: The Libation Bearers (also called Choephori, Choëphoroe, and Choephoroi in English transliterations from Greek) and The Eumenides. These three plays make up a set known as The Oresteia, considered Aeschylus's finest work and one of the greatest works in world literature. Although they are separate plays–each one complete in itself–the second play continues the story of the first and the third play continues the story of the second. In addition. the plays share a common theme: how the justice system of ancient Greece evolved from a crude, "eye for an eye" system to a civilized system with courts and trials. In ancient Greece, three plays with a related theme and plot were called a trilogy. We still use this word today to identify three plays, novels, films, etc., with related themes and continuing plots. The first three Star Wars movies are an example of a modern trilogy. The title of the Aeschylus trilogy is derived from the name of a pivotal character in The Libation Bearers–Orestes. .......Aeschylus
based the plot of Agamemnon and the other plays in The Oresteia
(also spelled Orestea) on a mythological story well known to Greeks
of his time. Because Aeschylus focused his plays only on a later part of
this story, readers need to be familiar with the earlier part in order
to understand the later part. Following is an abbreviated account of the
story up to the time when Aeschylus picks up the story:
Plot
Summary
Biding its time, a wrath unreconciled, A wily watcher, passionate to slake, In blood, resentment for a murdered child. .......While the old men recount these events of a decade ago, Clytemnestra leaves the palace [through a door at the center of the stage] and lights fires on a sacrificial altar. She had decreed that similar sacrificial fires be kindled throughout Argos. When the chorus asks why, she informs them that she has received notice of a Greek victory in the Trojan War. The message arrived via a series of signal fires kindled by sentinels posted by her on mountain tops between Troy and Greece. Even as she speaks, she says, the Greeks are in Troy celebrating victory. She lit her own sacrificial fire, she says, to pray that the Greeks are gracious in victory and respect the gods Troy holds dear.
The lords of Troy, tho' fallen, and her shrines; So shall the spoilers not in turn be spoiled. Yea, let no craving for forbidden gain Bid conquerors yield before the darts of greed. .......Days later, a herald arrives at the palace to confirm that the war has ended and that Agamemnon is in Greece and soon will return to Argos. The herald also reports that other returning warriors are unaccounted for, having apparently been blown off course or lost at sea. There is an implication here that the gods may have punished them for desecrating Troy's shrines. When Clytemnestra comes forth, she pretends that she is joyful at the prospect of reuniting with her husband:
Than this, whereon she flings the portal wide, To hail her lord, heaven-shielded, home from war? .......When Agamemnon finally appears, he is riding in a chariot at the head of a procession that includes a chariot carrying a captive princess, the prophetess Cassandra, who is Agamemnon's concubine. That Agamemnon would bring home a mistress to live in the same house with his wife further enrages the queen. After the chorus greets him, Agamemnon salutes his native land and the gods who helped Greece win its victory and who watched over him when he sailed home. .......Clytemnestra comes out of the palace and says she endured great agonies when rumors spoke of Greek woes at Troy, one of which even reported the death of Agamemnon. (If she did experience agony, it was probably born of disappointment that she would be denied the opportunity of killing Agamemnon herself.) She wept. When sleeping–on the rare occasions when she could sleep–she jumped awake at the slightest sound, she says. After she has her say, she welcomes her husband and orders handmaidens accompanying her to lay down a path of finest purple cloth for him to walk on from his chariot to the palace. Agamemnon thanks his wife for her greeting but declines her invitation to walk on the makeshift carpet. To do so would be to exhibit great pride offensive to the gods:
On these rich dyes? I hold such pride in fear, And bid thee honour me as man, not god. .......The chorus, still suspicious of Clytemnestra’s motives, senses that death has entered the palace with Agamemnon, for “these wild throbbings of my heart and breast– / Yea, of some doom they tell.” .......Clytemnestra returns and orders Cassandra to enter the palace. When Cassandra does not respond, Clytemnestra leaves it to the chorus to persuade the girl to accept the invitation, then goes back inside. After the old men importune Cassandra to obey the command, she prophesies that she and Agamemnon both will die if she sets foot inside the palace. Nevertheless, she agrees to go inside, stoically accepting the fate she knows awaits her. Before entering the palace, she makes another prediction: The day will come when deadly vengeance is exacted against those about to murder her and Agamemnon. .......Shortly after Cassandra enters the palace, the chorus hears Agamemnon crying out that he has been struck down. Moments later, he cries out again after suffering another blow. The members of the chorus fear that their own lives are in danger. While they try to decide what to do, Clytemnestra opens the palace door, revealing the corpses of Agamemnon and Cassandra. .......Without qualm, she admits killing her husband, saying she struck him three times in all and that the blood spurting forth was as sweet as “the rain of heaven to cornland.” When the chorus asks what drove her to kill her husband, Clytemnestra, as expected, cites Agamemnon’s sacrifice of Iphigenia as the primary reason. But she says she did the deed for another reason as well: Agamemnon had been unfaithful to her and even had the audacity to bring Cassandra, his paramour, back to Greece with him. Now both of them have received their just deserts. .......The chorus accuses her of having ensnared Agamemnon in a “spider-web of treachery” and predicts an avenger will one day visit its wrath upon her. Clytemnestra answers that she was merely the agent of vengeance, an executioner who carried out a just sentence on a man condemned by his own actions. .......Clytemnestra’s second motive for killing Agamemnon, infidelity, rings of hypocrisy, for she herself was guilty of infidelity when Agamemnon was at Troy. She took a lover, Aegisthus, who conspired with her to murder Agamemnon. Aegisthus had long thirsted for Agamemnon’s blood as a result of the deadly feud between his and Agamemnon’s family. .......Aegisthus now takes his place at the side of Clytemnestra, declaring that he too exults in the death of Agamemnon. Defiantly, he admits “plotting and planning all that malice bade.” The chorus condemns him:
Home-watcher and defiler of the couch, And arch-deviser of the chieftain’s doom!
I and thou will rule the palace and will order all things well.
Setting The action takes place in
Argos, Greece, at the palace of King Agamemnon. Argos is a city on a mountainous
peninsula, the Peloponnese, that makes up southern Greece. The peninsula
is south of the Gulf of Corinth and north of the Mediterranean Sea. Argos
is in the northeastern part of the peninsula. Citizens of Argos were called
Argives.
Protagonists: Clytemnestra, Agamemnon .......A
typical Greek play written by an author after the time of Aeschylus has
only one protagonist, a person of noble lineage who suffers a downfall
partly because of a flaw (or flaws) in his character. Usually, when the
protagonist suffers his downfall, he experiences a moment of enlightenment
in which he acknowledges the flaw.
Antagonists: The Curse, the "Eye for an Eye" Ethic .......The overall theme of the Oresteia–the evolution of the Greek justice system–suggests that the forces operating against Agamemnon and Clytemnestra are the antagonists. These forces include the curse of inherited guilt that dogs Agamemnon and the overpowering desire for vengeance that drives Clytemnestra and the gods offended by human actions. Retribution and Revenge The gods of ancient Greece required humankind to pay for its sins. Sons and daughters of sinners could inherit the sins of their parents, just as the descendants of Adam and Eve were destined to inherit original sin in Christian theology. But of course each Greek also had free will, enabling him or her to choose good or evil. Agamemnon inherited the sin of his father, Atreus, in the form of a curse pronounced on Agamemnon by his brother, Thyestes. In the Aeschylus play, Agamemnon thus seems doubly cursed. On the one hand, he bears the guilt of his father; on the other, he bears his own guilt for sacrificing his daughter, Iphigenia, and for participating in the destruction of Troy’s holy places. One could argue that the circumstances forcing him to decide whether to sacrifice his daughter arose as a result of the curse pronounced on the House of Atreus by Thyestes. Whatever the case, Agamemnon lives under the weight of inherited sin and sin that he wills. Of course, killing his daughter and defiling Troy’s altars are not his only sins; he also commits adultery and indulges his own pride by walking on the purple carpet. After Clytemnestra murders him, she defends her action by saying she represented the gods carrying out a divine sentence. But it is obvious that she is also a human avenger getting even for the murder of her daughter and for Agamemnon’s infidelity. Ironically, Clytemnestra has also been unfaithful–with the son of the man who was wronged by Atreus. At the end of the play, the chorus declares that another avenger will appear to exact revenge against Clytemnestra. Evolution of Personal
Vengeance Into a Civilized Court System
Gender Rivalry In Agamemnon, Argos is a male-dominated society that reduces women to subservient roles. However, Clytemnestra is a strong woman who rules the kingdom while Agamemnon is away. When he returns from the war to resume his rule, Clytemnestra is expected to yield to him. It may well be, though, that Clytemnestra is wedded to the throne, as it were, and has decided to kill Agamemnon not only as an act of vengeance but also as an act of ambition. This motif receives further attention in The Libation Bearers. In this play, Clytemnestra is described as a tyrant who oppresses the citizens of Argos and enslaves her own daughter. It almost appears as if testosterone, not estrogen, drives her. When Orestes plots her death, he cites reclamation of the throne from a woman as one of one of his goals. After killing Clytemnestra, Orestes is pursued by female deities, the Furies, and saved by a male deity, Apollo. Of course, a female deity has the last word: In The Eumenides, the goddess Athena votes to acquit Orestes, the pacifies the enraged Furies. Her action not only establishes a new order of justice but also reconciles the warring sexes. Importance of Heeding the Will of the Gods In Agamemnon, the title character faces doom in part because he sometimes failed to respect the gods and their laws. First, he killed an animal sacred to Artemis (an act alluded to but not described in detail in the Aeschylus play). For this offense, she prevented Agamemnon and his armies from gaining favorable winds for their voyage to Troy. The only way for him to reverse her action, she decreed, was to sacrifice his daughter. Second, he exhibited excessive pride on several occasions as commander of the Greek forces. Third, he allowed his soldiers to desecrate the holy places of Troy. After his return to Argos, he allowed his pride to get the better of him again, this time by walking in triumph on the purple carpet. Pride was considered a grave sin in ancient Greece because it placed too much emphasis on individual will, thereby downplaying the will of the state and endangering the community as a whole. In The Libation Bearers, Orestes hesitates when the time comes to kill Clytemnestra. His friend, Pylades, convinces him of the necessity of the act by reminding him that Apollo ordered the killing. In The Eumenides, everyone–including the Furies–accepts the will of Athena. Fickleness of the Gods The gods of Greek mythology could be fickle and hypocritical, just like humans. Not infrequently, they violated laws which they commanded humans to obey. For example, they frequently committed infidelity. They also lied, promoted violence, and displayed inordinate pride. In Agamemnon, the goddess Artemis exhibited hypocrisy when she withheld favorable winds from Agamemnon for killing one of her sacred animals. To understand her hypocrisy in this case, one must understand what her roles were. First, she was a protector of wild animals while also serving as the patron deity of hunters. She herself was a huntress. Yet she penalized Agamemnon for doing what she often did: kill an animal. Second, as a virgin goddess, she was the patron of chastity. Yet she told Agamemnon that she would not cancel her penalty unless he sacrificed his daughter Iphigenia, a virgin. Artemis thus exhibited hostility toward two humans she was supposed to favor: a hunter and a virgin. In Agamemnon, Aeschylus does not explicitly address the issue of divine hypocrisy, but he does allude to it–intentionally or unintentionally–in choral songs. Infidelity: A Motif in
Agamemnon and The Libation Bearers
  The climax of the play is the murder of Agamemnon and Cassandra. Darkness and Light Aeschylus uses images of
darkness and light to symbolize the emergence of Greece from the primitive
age of personal revenge and vigilante justice, during which powerful monarchs
ruled city states, to the civilized age of law courts, during which the
people ruled through democracy. In the Oresteia, the transition
from one age to the other begins in the first play, Agamemnon, when
the watchman observes a mountain-top signal fire lighting the night sky
to alert Argos that the Trojan War has ended. Dawn follows shortly thereafter.
From then on, images of darkness and light vie with each other, symbolizing
the cultural and social struggle taking place.
The Purple Carpet and Cassandra's Saffron Robe The color of the carpet on which Agamemnon walks into the palace is significant. This Greek word Aeschylus used to described this color has been rendered in English as purple by some translators and red by other translators. Both translations are correct insofar as some purples appear reddish and some reds appear purplish. In fact, purple is sometimes used as a synonym for crimson, a shade of deep red. Since ancient times, purple has signified imperial, godlike power, as indicated by the purple robes kings and emperors have worn. It has also been associated with strong emotion and blood. (The association of purple–a mixture of blue and red–with blood seems scientifically sound, for deoxygenated blood takes on a bluish or purplish hue–as in cyanosis–and oxygenated blood becomes bright red). The purple carpet therefore appears to symbolize (1) the pride, or hubris, that afflicts Agamemnon as conqueror of Troy and King of Argos; (2) the wrath of Clytemnestra; and (3) the bloody death that awaits Agamemnon. The saffron-colored robe worn by Cassandra also appears to symbolize the coming bloodbath–for her as well as Agamemnon. A saffron is a flower with large purple leaves. Animal and Insect Images In Agamemnon, eagles, hares, spiders, and other creatures exhibit the behavior patterns of humans, figuratively speaking, and thus become symbols for those humans. For example, spiders and snakes are associated with Clytemnestra because she has spun a web of treachery (like a spider) and has poised herself (like a coiling snake) to strike at Agamemnon. Eagles that prey on a pregnant hare are associated with Agamemnon and his brother, Menelaus, because they are fierce warriors destined to destroy Troy (the hare) and its future (the hare's offspring). In the third play of the trilogy, The Eumenides, the spider-web metaphor appears again when the god Apollo describes how Clytemnestra trapped Agamemnon:
And in the endless mesh of cunning robes Enwound and trapped her lord, and smote him down. Figures
of Speech
Metaphor, Personification, Paradox, Hyperbole, Synecdoche As saith the adage, from
the womb of Night................[womb of
Night: metaphor, personification]
–Speaker and play: Clytemnestra in Agamemnon, referring to the Greek victory over the Trojans Apostrophe, Personification, Metaphor O mighty Hermes, warder of
the shades,..................[O mighty Hermes:
apostrophe]
–Speaker and play: Electra in The Libation Bearers while praying at the tomb of Agamemnon. Author
Information
Definition and Background ....."A contest of plays in 535 [B.C.] arose when Pisistratus, the ‘tyrant' whom the common people of Athens invested with power, brought a rustic festival into the city [Athens]," drama critic John Gassner writes in Masters of Drama. Such contests became regular features of the festivals, and the theaters in which they were held were specially built to accommodate them. . Major Sections of the Theater .....(2) A stage called a proscenium. The staged faced the west to allow the midday sun to illuminate the faces of the actors. .....(3) An orchestra in front of the proscenium to accommodate the chorus. . Other Theater Sections . .....Skene: Building behind the stage. First used as a dressing area for actors (and sometimes an entrance or exit area for actors), the skene eventually became a background showing appropriate scenery. .....Paraskenia: Extensions or annexes on the sides of the skene. .....Parados: Passage on the left or right through which the chorus entered the orchestra. .....Thymele: Altar in the center of the orchestra used to make sacrifices to Dionysus. .....Machine: Armlike device on the skene that could lower a "god" onto the stage from the heavens. |
