Background to the story of Agamemnon's return

• Tantalus
• Thyestes and Atreus
• Agamemnon and Aegisthus
• Clytaemestra (=Clytemnestra) and Cassandra

Aeschylus: 525 B.C. - 455 B.C.

Oresteia (=Agamemnon + Libation Bearers + Eumenides): 458 B.C.

Ancient Tragedy: the beginnings of drama

• The use of the chorus: song, dance, poetry
• The "cinematic" function of poetry in drama
• Agamemnon & Iphigenia: 206-247 (compulsion to sacrifice?)
• Fall of Troy: 320-337 (cycle of revenge)
• Soldier's life: 558-566 (Hell of the siege: Agamemnon's leadership)
• Helen 414-26, 737-42, 681-747, 1455-60 (a dream-like things, or desires urged on by a dream, lead to the killing of men)
• Atreus and Thyestes: 1095-97, 1186-1193, 1526-1533
• Such images are not mere background, but are central images raising central questions: (1) what led to the murder (near causes, ancient causes)? (2) on whose side does justice lie? (3) will the cycle of killing ever end? Humans learn through suffering. pathei mathos.But if one killing / punishment leads to the next, where is the learning?
• Poetry, drama, and the construction of meaning
• Example 1: lions
• 140-41: Artemis, "kind to the tender young of ravening lions"
• 716ff. The lion cub: who is it?
• 826ff: lion of Argos lapping the blood of Trojan kings
• 1224ff: Aigisthos, "strengthless lion" rolling in his master's bed
• 1258: Clytaemestra as the woman-lioness, who goes to bed with the wolf.
• Lion image should be a proud one, image of the power and stability of the Mycenaean kingdom & of Mycene's king-- but here emphasis on bestiality, blood, cruelty.
• Since lion = Zeus-cherished king = instrument of justice in the society, the perversion of the lion symbol becomes an image of moral chaos in the society
• Example 2: Light / Darkness
• "Justice is a shining in the smoke of mean men's houses" (772); "Justice-bringing day"
• Several times characters will salute the day, or the light, or Justice itself, as though all was finally vindicated and the slate of ancient crime and suffering is wiped clean: but (like the coming of night upon day) that brightness never lasts, and is almost immediately assaulted with images of shadow and darkness
• Herald: 503-509, cf. 519, 522
• (Agamememnon: 814-818)
• Clytaemestra: 1431-35
• Aigisthos: 1577
• Example 3: Male / Female
• Clytaemestra a woman with the heart and speech of a man; Aegisthus is a man with a strengthless heart
• Spring rain: Clytaemestra's perversion of the ultimate image of fertility: p. 50, lines 1385ff.
• Will Justice be associated with
• Zeus of the upper air/Male/Heaven/Light/Reason, OR
• Earth-Zeus of the underworld/Female/Dark/Blood revenge/Irrational
• What is justice? What is the nature of justice? What sort of justice is right? By linking this to the male / female divide, Aeschylus brings these sets of questions, surreally, to the point of cosmic conflict: so, in the Eumenides, Apollo (Male/Olympian/Light/Reason) debates the nature of what is right with the Erinyes = Furies (Female/Earth/Darkness/Irrational blood revenge) before, of all things, a human court of justice, overseen by Athena (female but without a mother, allied with the male).
• Question of the rationality of justice: why do we condemn murderers to death? In what sense is that "right"?

IMPORTANT:

Questions to ponder for Monday:

1. Who is the hero of the Agamemnon? In what sense a hero?
2. Why exactly does Clytaemestra kill Agamemnon, and are there problems with the justice of this killing? Collect specific passages to support your claims.