Contents
Agamemnon
| Context
Character
List
Agamemnon
| Character
Analysis
Agamemnon
| Plot Summary
Agamemnon
| Themes
Agamemnon | Motifs
Aeschylus
| Biography
Agamemnon
| Prologos |
Summary
Agamemnon
| Episode 1 |
Summary
Agamemnon
| Stasimon 1 |
Summary
Agamemnon
| Episode 2 |
Summary
Agamemnon
| Stasimon 2 |
Summary
Agamemnon
| Episode 3 |
Summary
Agamemnon
| Stasimon 3 |
Summary
Agamemnon | Episode 4 | Summary
Agamemnon | Stasimon 4 | Summary
Agamemnon | Exodos | Summary
Agamemnon
| Quotes
ABOUT THE TITLE
The title Agamemnon refers to the play’s ill-fated
tragic hero. Interestingly, Agamemnon appears on stage only during this death
scene. It may be argued Clytaemnestra is the play’s more influential character.
Agamemnon
| Context
The Trojan War
Like many of his contemporaries,
Aeschylus drew inspiration from ancient Greek mythology. The Trojan War, in
which Agamemnon fights and triumphs, is the backdrop for Agamemnon's plot.
Although modern historians are unsure
about whether the war reflects actual events, its legend has inspired Greek
writers, poets, and playwrights for centuries. The legend's most famous
accounts come from Homer's Iliad and Odyssey. Archaeologists have located Troy
on the western shore of Asia Minor or present-day Turkey. Based on their findings
and on the timeline of Homer's writing, archaeologists dated the conflict in
the 12th or 13th century BCE.
Paris, son of the Trojan king,
incited the war when he abducted Helen—the wife of Menelaus, King of Sparta.
Helen was celebrated as the world's most beautiful woman, and not everyone was
happy with her marriage to Menelaus, including the goddess Aphrodite. As a result,
Aphrodite devised a plan with Paris to steal Helen's heart.
Agamemnon, Menelaus's brother and
ruler of the city of Argos led the Greek soldiers, called the Achaean or
Argive forces by both Homer and Aeschylus, in the invasion of Troy, to recover
Helen. During the war, a storm scattered the Achaean troops, and the remaining
soldiers did not have enough wind to set sail. The prophet Calchas revealed the
reason for the storm: the goddess Artemis, protector of animals, was angry with
Agamemnon for having sacrificed an animal dear to her. As revenge, she demanded
he sacrifices his daughter Iphigenia if he wanted to end the storm. Agamemnon
reluctantly complied.
After 10 years of war the Greeks
tried a final stratagem. They pretended to withdraw, leaving a large wooden
horse as a surrendering gift inside the gates of Troy. The Trojans had no idea
the horse contained a Greek army. While the Trojans celebrated what they
thought was the end of the war, the Greek army escaped from the horse at night
and slaughtered the Trojan men. The expression Trojan horse has survived to mean
"someone or something that hides what is true or real in order to trick or
harm an enemy. “At the start of the play Agamemnon and his few surviving troops
return to Argos from Troy to contend with both the aftermath and the
consequences of violence.
Structure of Greek Tragedy
Plays
in ancient Greece were limited to a household set or scene. Chorus members and
nonspeaking actors, such as soldiers, filled the stage. Violence could not be
shown on stage and was considered unacceptable to represent; therefore, instead
of showing murders as well as distant but relevant events, actors described
them. Aeschylus put his poetry, with its vivid metaphors, to good use, for the
plays are full of invisible violence.
- Greek tragedies are organized into distinct parts:
- ·
First the
Prologos, or prologue, introduces the play's topics.
- ·
Next to the Chorus
sings the Parodos, or Entrance Ode.
·
A number of
Episodes (three to five, usually) follow. In each episode, one or two actors
interact with the Chorus. Though Aeschylus increased the speaking parts in his
dramas,
·
he was still
limited by the conventions of the genre to three speaking actors onstage at
once.
· After each
episode the Chorus presents a Stasimon (stationary song). Stasimon comment on
or react to the episode's events.
· The final section
is the Exodos, or Exit Ode, in which the Chorus reacts to the play music and
dance are important aspects of Greek tragedies. The Chorus, and many of the
actors, sang or chanted their lines. Onstage the Chorus members wore masks.
The choral odes are divided into two parts: strophe and antistrophe. The strophe, or first stanza, is the first half of the debate or argument the Chorus presents. Onstage the actors moved from right to left. The antistrophe, the next stanza, presents a response or an alternate side to the strophe. The actors then moved from left to right. Following the antistrophe, a final stanza, called the epode, is then delivered in the center of the stage.
Orestes appears in the second
play, The Libation Bearers, to avenge his father's death. Clytaemnestra and
Aegisthus now rule Argos. Together with his sister Electra, Orestes murders
them both. The Furies, vengeful goddesses, pursue Orestes, who goes into
hiding.
The final play is The Eumenides
(The Kind Goddesses) in which Orestes stands trial in Athens for the murder of
his mother, Clytaemnestra. The Furies, goddesses of destruction, were eventually
named as the Eumenides or Kind Goddesses to win their favour. The goddess Athena
votes to acquit him and then persuades the Eumenides (or the Furies) to leave
Athens in peace. Athena ends the cycle of bloodshed and restores Athens to just
rule.
The Oresteia thus ends on a positive note—a tragedy with a happy ending, but one in keeping with the Greek the genre of tragic drama, which, rather than a necessarily bleak conclusion, features the exploration of complex universal themes such as righteousness versus evil and the laws of the gods. As they present the saga of the House of Atreus, a cursed Greek royal family from Argos, the Oresteia plays share themes of vengeance, justice, and complexities of family relationships.
The Oresteia Cycle
Agamemnon is the first in Aeschylus's cycle of three plays, known together as the Oresteia. The cycle's name is taken from the name of Agamemnon and Clytaemnestra's son Orestes. Though Orestes does not appear onstage in Agamemnon, the Chorus's hope of his coming anticipates the next instalment.
The final play is The Eumenides (The Kind Goddesses) in which Orestes stands trial in Athens for the murder of his mother, Clytaemnestra. The Furies, goddesses of destruction, were eventually named as the Eumenides or Kind Goddesses to win their favour. The goddess Athena votes to acquit him and then persuades the Eumenides (or the Furies ) to leave Athens in peace. Athena ends the cycle of bloodshed and restores Athens to just rule.
The Oresteia thus ends on a positive note—a tragedy with a happy ending, but one in keeping with the Greek the genre of tragic drama, which, rather than a necessarily bleak conclusion, features the exploration of complex universal themes such as righteousness versus evil and the laws of the gods. As they present the saga of the House of Atreus, a cursed Greek royal family from Argos, the Oresteia plays share themes of vengeance, justice, and complexities of family relationships.
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