Download Agamemnon - UW Canvas

The nostos of Agamemnon and
the Oresteia
Aeschylus, Oresteia (first produced 458
BCE, Athens)
• Oresteia is title of trilogy of plays by Aeschylus:
• the Agamemnon (killing of Agamemnon by
Clytemnestra and her lover Aegisthus on his
return)
• the Libation Bearers (return of Agamemnon’s son,
Orestes, and killing of Clytemnestra and
Aegisthus)
• the Eumenides (Orestes is pursued by the Furies
or Erinyes, finally absolved of guilt by trial at
Athens)
The Agamemnon
• Play opens with fire signal that Troy has been taken
• Chorus and events at Aulis: sacrifice of Agamemnon’s
daughter Iphigeneia to appease wrath of Artemis (pp.
49-53)
• Danger that attaches to being a victor and conquerer
(p.60, 70): theme of excess – hubris (pride, insolent
behaviour) – destruction throughout Oresteia.
• Hubris – koros [“excess, glutting”] – atê [“folly,
destruction”]
• Chorus’ mistrust of Clytemnestra, suspicion and
underestimation of feminine intelligence (pp. 60-61,64)
Agamemnon debates whether to sacrifice Iphigeneia,
Agamemnon p.52
“My fate is heavy either way:
Heavy if I refuse to obey,
And heavy too if I kill my child,
Pride of my house, staining these father’s
Hands with the streams of maiden blood
Spilled at the altar. Which way is free
From evil? Can I desert my ships?
Fail all my allies? For in the eyes
Of heaven, that they, with too eager passion,
should crave a sacrifice, even
Of maiden blood, to still the winds,
Is right. May it all be for the best.”
Chorus describes sacrifice of Iphigeneia, Agamemnon p.52
…and her father,
After praying, though she clasped
His knees, begged him with all her heart,
Ordered his men to lift her like
A goat, face downward, above the altar,
Robes falling all round her, and
He had her mouth gagged, the bit yanked
Roughly, stifling the cry that would
Have brought a curse down on the house…
What happened next I neither know
Nor speak.
Roman fresco painting showing version of myth used by
Euripides. Sacrifice of Iphigenia. In the sky, Iphigenia taken away
at last moment, substituted by deer.
• Secrets of the house: watchman (p.46), chorus
(p.63) refer indirectly to Clytemnestra’s betrayal
of Agamemnon with his cousin, Aegisthus.
• Chorus on Helen and destruction caused by her
(they etymologize her name as being from a
Greek root hel- “take, destroy”), animal imagery
in the story (myth?) of the lion cub
• Older secrets of the house: references to the
story of feuding brothers Atreus and Thyestes and
the meal of the latter’s children served to him by
the former. (p.100)
Chorus on problems of being a victor, Agamemnon p. 60
For the gods
In their own time see to the ones
who kill so many, and the black
Erinyes deliver, piecemeal,
Down into darkness one who thrives
Unjustly, grinding his life away
Until his luck is turned around…
The price of excessive glory is
Excessive peril. The thunderbolt
Strikes truly from the eyes of Zeus.
May I provoke no envy:
Be neither conqueror,
Nor eat my life away
As captive to another,
Chorus on Helen and her name (hel- “destroy”), Agamemnon p.
68
Who can have named her so
Exactly? Someone now
Invisible whose power
To see, so long ago,
What far ahead was fated
To happen, rightly led
His tongue, his lips, to name
That spear bride, source of killing,
Helen: destroyer
Chorus on the story of the lion cub. Agamemnon,p.69
A man raised as his own
A lion cub, not weaned
Yet, robbed of the breast,
Gentle in the beginning,
The children’s pet, and to
The old a quiet pleasure.
And often in his arms
He rocked it like a baby,
Its bright eyes ever turned
To the hand it nuzzled
To ease the belly’s hunger.
But as time passed it showed
The color of its bloodlines,
And in return for all
The kindness it received
From those who fostered it,
It made a bleak, forbidden
Feast, cruel slaughter of all
The cattle, the house foul
With blood, since no one could
Beat back the agony,
And all about them, near
And far, a chaos of strewn
corpses. A priest of death
And ruin [atê], ordained by god,
Was nurtured in the house.
The family of Pelops
The purple carpet scene
• Arrival of Agamemnon, scheme of Clytemnestra
to get him to walk on purple tapestries (pp. 7577). Why is this such a big deal?
• Theme of excess leading to hubristic [prideful,
insulting, blasphemous] behavior, envy of gods
and men, blindness, destruction and ruin.
• Purple from murex, sea mollusk, and expense and
difficulty of producing this dye.
L. Red carpet unrolled for President. R. Agamemnon about to tread on purple
wall hangings, production of Peter Hall for National Theatre, London
Cassandra (pp. 79-91)
• Daughter of Priam, given prophetic powers by
Apollo in exchange for sex, but she later
refuses to go through with deal. Punishment
of never being listened to.
• Foresees death of Agamemnon caught in net
by Clytemnestra and murdered in his bath.
• Also sees history of house and bloodshed
surrounding Atreus’ killing of Thyestes’
children (pp. 86-87)
Killing of Agamemnon
• Clytemnestra’s claim to be a spirit of vengeance,
exacting justice for killing of Iphigeneia.(p.92-99)
• References throughout play to figure of the Fury
or Erinys (plural is Erinyes), blood-drinking female
spirits of vengeance that pursue the killer and his
family and descendants.
• Aegisthus and Clytemnestra’s vain hope that the
cycle of vengeance is broken and Erinyes
satisfied.
Death of Agamemnon, trapped in net-like garment. Aegisthus wields
sword. Clytemnestra is behind Aegisthus. How does this differ from the
version in Aeschylus’ play? Athenian red figure krater, 5th c. BCE
Variations on the killing of Agamemnon
• Homer (Odyssey Book 11, pp. 344): Clytemnestra is
merely Aegisthus’ accomplice (?)
• [Hesiod: Clytemnestra is primarily responsible]
• [Stesichoros: Clytemnestra is dominant, Apollo
instigates her murder]
The shade of Agamemnon talks to Odysseus in the Underworld,
Odyssey 11, pp. 344-345
Aegisthus was the cause of my death.
He killed me with the help of my cursed wife
After inviting me to a feast in his house,
Slaughtered me like a bull at a manger.
…The floor steamed with blood.
But the most piteous cry I ever heard
Came from Cassandra, Priam’s daughter.
She had her arms around me down on the floor
When Clytemnestra ran her through from behind.
I lifted my hands and beat the ground
As I lay dying with a sword in my chest,
But that bitch, my wife, turned her back on me
And would not shut my eyes or close my lips
As I was going down to Death. Nothing
Is more grim or more shameless than a woman
Who sets her mind on such an unspeakable act
As killing her own husband.
Aeschylus, The Libation Bearers
(text is no longer required reading, just content below)
• Orestes, son of Agamemnon, spirited away out of Argos as
child to avoid being killed, returns as a young man with
friend Pylades.
• Electra, his sister, and servant women forced by
Clytemnestra to bring offerings to her father’s tomb to
propitiate him for dream she has had (p.126) of giving birth
to a serpent, whom she suckles at the breast, and who
bites her breast. (Hence title “Libation Bearers”.)
• Orestes kills Aegisthus, then Clytemnestra
• He then is pursued by the Erinyes (p.145-146) and goes in
search of purification.
• Is there any way to break free of the cycle of vengeance
and killing? See last speech of chorus, p. 146
Opposite side of vase showing killing of Agamemnon. Orestes
kills Aegisthus. Clytemnestra moves up behind with ax.
Orestes at Delphi, surrounded by Erinyes. On the left is Athena, on the
right Apollo
Apollo purifies Orestes at Delphi with a piglet. Sleeping Furies
surround them, ghost of Clytemnestra tries to rouse them
Aeschylus, Eumenides
(text is no longer required reading, just content below)
• Though Orestes is purified by the god Apollo, he is still pursued by the
Erinyes, who refuse to recognize this purification.
• Note connection to Athens and Athenian myth: motif of the wandering
hero (e.g. Herakles, Oedipus, Io) connected to local myth
• The first ever trial for homicide is set up in Athens (origin myth of
Athenian institution of assembly of Areopagus, body that eventually deals
with cases of homicide)
• Apollo pleads Orestes’ case [note argument p.174 on question of role of
mother: the father is he who mounts, the mother is just a receptacle for
the seed], the Erinyes plead their side. The jury of Athenians is split;
Athena lends her vote in favor of Orestes.
• Erinyes threaten to inflict infertility and disease on the land. They have to
be persuaded by Athena to respect the outcome; they become revered
goddesses who “send up good things” from below and help with
agricultural and human fertility (worshipped as the Semnai “revered ones”
[cf. their grove at Colonus, connection with Oedipus myth) or as the
Eumenidai (“kindly ones”))