The Orestia: Agamemnon
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Agamemnon
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Clytemnstra
Character Analysis
Agamemnon:
 A man of daring (ambition) and
indiscretion: sacrificing his daughter,
Iphigeneia (which makes the curse
of his house continues and costs his
life)
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Character Analysis
Clytemnestra:
 exceedingly shrewd
 A manly woman
 Her venom: out of a deep,
inconsolable pain (losing her
daughter)
 A murderer or a fate’s instrument?
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Character Analysis
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Cassandra:
Barbaric, animal, incomprehensible from
other characters’ perception
Note: In psychiatric terminology, when
one believes they have the gift of
prophecy, yet no one believes them, they
are diagnosed with a condition known as
the 'Cassandra Complex'.
Character Analysis
Aegisthus:
 A man of great desire for power and
ambition
 Unfit, even disastrous, as a ruler
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Character Analysis
Chorus of Argive Elders:
 representing the voice of Greek
culture and tradition
 constantly offering opinions on
wickedness, punishment, and
righteousness
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Theme: Divine versus human
justice
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Possibly the most important theme in the
play, justice is left as one huge question
mark when the curtain falls on
Agamemnon. Clytaemestra makes a case
for her own innocence, but is highly
doubtful that the gods have sanction the
joy she took in killing her husband. The
Zeus calls out to Zeus many times to no
avail. What they want to know is, was the
murder of their king divinely caused or an
act of base vengeance.
Theme: Ambition and daring
1.
One of the human flaws discussed
at length in the play, ambition or
daring is the sin of Agamemnon,
the one for which he must
inevitably pay with his life.
Theme: Womanliness and
Manliness
1.
This brings up the idea of ancient Greek
social structure and the socially
determined roles of men and women.
Clytemnestra's manliness should be
given close attention. Alternatively,
there is an over-masculine quality to
Agamemnon in his apparent love for war,
a love so strong he sacrifices his female
daughter for the sake of his campaign.
Theme: Women as
promiscuous
1.
Helen, Clytaemestra, Cassandra are all
three adulterous women. There is a
certain amount of emphasis placed on
the natural weakness of woman in play.
It is mainly the Chorus, however, a
group of old men, who advance this
position. The women themselves are
quick to point out their innocence,
although, there is also much ambiguity
in their reasoning as well.
Theme: corruption and purity
(healing)
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Here one should think of the curse
on the house of Atreus. The original
impurity in the house still has not
been cleansed. The blood of
innocent children has brought
sorrow to the Argos, and there are
many questions as to who will finally
clean it up, that it may heal.
Symbol
1. Fire
 2. Net, web, snare
 3. Beast symbols: the lion, the
eagles, the wolf, the cock and his
hen, the hare tore out of the woman
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Oedipus the King
Character Analysis
Oedipus:
 A man of swift action and great
insight (these qualities make him an
excellent ruler who anticipate his
subjects’ need but also bring his
downfall.)
 a man of confidence and pride:
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Character Analysis
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Creon:
the voice of reason, in response to
Oedipus’s hotheaded foolishness
Representing the very real power of
human law and of the human need for an
orderly, stable society (especially in
Antigone)
Having the secretive, businesslike air of a
politician (in sharp contrast to Oedipus)
Character Analysis
Chorus:
 expressing a longing for calm and
stability
 seeking to maintain the status quo,
e.g., asking Oedipus not to banish
Creon, (not being cowardly so much
as nervous and complacent—above
all it hopes to prevent upheaval)
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Theme: the willingness to
ignore the truth
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Oedipus and Jocasta do not want to
speak the obvious truth: they look at the
circumstances and details of everyday life
and pretend not to see them.
One ≠ many
the servant’s story as irrefutable history.
prophecy
Oedius hears Jocasta binding her child’s
ankles and not thinks of his own swollen
feet.
Theme: Limits of Free Will
A play full of prophecy: the oracle
from Delphi; Tiresias’ prophecy; the
prophecy about Oedipus; the
prophecy about Laius
 Sophocles’ aim: to justify the
powers of the gods and prophets
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Theme: Limits of Free Will
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Oedipus seems only to desire to flee his
fate, but his fate continually catches up
with him. Many people have tried to
argue that Oedipus brings about his
catastrophe because of a “tragic flaw,”
but nobody has managed to create a
consensus about what Oedipus’s flaw
actually is. Perhaps his story is meant to
show that error and disaster can happen
to anyone, that human beings are
relatively powerless before fate or the
gods, and that a cautious humility is the
Symbol
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1. Oedipus’s swollen foot:
symbolizing the way in which fate
has marked him and set him apart.
It also symbolizes the way his
movement have been confined and
constrained since birth, by Apollo’s
prophecy to Laius.
Symbol
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2. The three-way crossroads: a crossroads is a
place where a choice has to be made, so
crossroads usually symbolize moments where
decisions will have important consequences but
where different choices are still possible. In
Oedipus the King the crossroads is part of the
distant past, dimly remembered, and Oedipus
was not aware that the time that he was making
a fateful decision. In this play, the crossroads
symbolizes fate and the awesome power of
prophecy rather than freedom and choice.
Character Analysis
Medea:
 Woman of passion and rage
 Barbarian, sorceress
 Clever, powerful, and ruthless
 Proud
 A cunning and cold manipulator?
 A tragic heroine?
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Character Analysis
Jason:
 a hero of the Golden fleece, leader
of the Argonauts
 an opportunistic and unscrupulous
man?
 full of self-deception and repugnant
smugness?
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Character Analysis
Chorus of Corinthian Women:
 though condemning Medea at times,
on the whole they seem to be more
enthralled than disgusted by her.
 Like Medea, subject to the injustices
that befall women; there is a part of
them that seems to live vicariously
through Medea's terrible revenge.
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Theme: Passion and Rage
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Medea: from extreme passion to extreme
rage
The Greeks were very interested in the
extremes of emotion and the
consequences of leaving emotion
unchecked; they also tended to see
strong passion and rage as part and
parcel of greatness. Medea is an example
of passion carried too far, in a woman
perversely set on choosing rage over
mercy and reason.
Theme: Revenge
Medea’s willingness to sacrifice her
children to revenge—to hurt Jason
(but also in part to protect her
children from counter-revenge of
her enimies)
 A revenge fantasy (in the part of the
audience)
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Theme: Greatness and Pride
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The same traits that make a man or
woman great can lead to their destruction.
Medea’s twisted greatness of intellect and
self-absorption makes makes her into a
monster
Medea’s pride (damaged and distorted,
condescended to for her sex and her
barbarian origin) drives to unnecessarily
brutal action—killing her own children
Theme: the position of Women
The injustices in the ancient Greek
society: using slave labor and
oppression of women
 Medea’s opening speech to the
chorus: the most eloquent
statement about the injustices that
befall women in Classis Greek
literature
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Theme: the other
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Medea’s foreignness:
The other implies the foreign, the exotic,
the unknown and the feared
The other is essential to self-definition:
Euripides destabilizes the easy binaries:
barbarian are savage; we Greek are
not;barbarians are superstitious; we
Greeks are rational
Assignment 2
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1. Compare the character and actions of
Medea to those of Oedipus. How are they
similar? How important is pride to the
understanding of each character?
2. Revenge is an important theme in
Agamemnon and Medea. In your idea,
which one of the two avengers,
Clytemnestr and Medea has more
justified cause for their revenge? Why?