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Agamemnon--Class Discussion
Major theme:
"We must suffer, suffer into truth." Blood feud will be resolved by reasoned justice-trial by jury. The Erynies (Furies) will become the Eumenidies (the kindly ones).
Net image
Note the image of the net used throughout: the implacable demands of the blood feud
turns everyone into a victim--all are caught in the net of vengeance and revenge.
The Greeks, led by Agamemnon, capture and destroy the city of Troy. The chorus says in
line 129:
Years pass, and the long hunt nets the city of Priam
Again, in lines 361-63 the chorus addresses Zeus:
you slung your net on the towers of Troy,
neither young nor strong could leap
the giant dredge net of slavery,
all-embracing ruin.
Clytemnestra in lines 1393-95 says
How else to prepare a death for deadly men
who seem to love you? How to rig the nets
of pain so high no man can overleap them?
Further down, lines 1401-03 she says
He had no way to flee or fight his destiny-our never-ending, all embracing net, I cast it
wide for the royal haul . . .
What is being portrayed in the Agamemnon?
1. sins of the past (House of Atreus--Thyestian banquet)
2. results of Paris' actions:
a. abduction of Helen
b. destruction of Troy
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3. results of Agamemnon's actions: [ In the Agamemnon "the past is an active factor in the
present" (Kitto 75).]
a. taking men away from their homes (many return as ashes in urns--cause for
public dissatisfaction
b. sacrifice of Iphigeneia (causes Clytemnestra's hate for Agamemnon)
c. destruction of Troy, including the temples of the gods (brings about the anger
of the gods, who make the men's return difficult--many die on the way home)
d. Agamemnon's sacrifice of Iphigeneia is the seed that brings about his own
murder
e. Agamemnon's walking on the purple carpet that Clytemnestra lays out for him
can be seen as an act of hybris (pride) which the gods often punish.
Clytemnestra
A woman with power: she is the character with the most stature in the play: she is a
presence--a force--she has real power.
Clytemnestra steps from the sphere of women's actions into that of men. We see this as
admirable or liberating today, but the Greeks probably would have seen this as evidence
that Agamemnon has allowed the state to become unbalanced--in disarray.
Tragic irony of the action
Both Agamemnon and Clytemnestra believe they are in the right and are acting for justice
and retribution (a clash of two rights); however, they are both caught in the same net--that
of the blood feud /vendetta/ revenge.
The tragic situation: unforseen results that inexorably or inevitably follow a character's
action.
Agamemnon is more a Lyric Tragedy--one which explores an idea, a feeling, or a
circumstance rather than focussing on action. This type of Tragedy is heavy on dialectic
(discussion and debate), not on plot action.
Character or idea? Is Agamemnon being portrayed, or is it his sin that is being
portrayed?
--character is not drawn in great detail in the Agamemnon because
it is the situation that is predominant. The critic H. D. F. Kitto argues:
The theme is not the tragic workings of a mind; it is that men
of violence do things which outrage justice, bring retribution,
and provoke further deeds of violence. (75)
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