of Fredricksmeyer
Masterpieces Greek Literature
Aeschylus. Agamemnon
Aeschylus 524--456 (supposed death by concussion): a bird dropped a clam on his head from wealthy Eleusinian family: 14 miles north of Athens, schol/scholar-someone who devotes their mind and time to creation, writing etc. From a Greek word meaning free time, rich people had more free time=scholars historically were wealthy ca. 90 tragedies of which we have 7 relatively complete, and fragments of others proudest of his own patriotism--epitaph: "I fought at Marathon": Greek sense of patriotisim (Greeks as political animals/non-political = idios): idios- people uninterested in politics(only idiots are not interested in politics) innovations-- added second actor (and then third under influence of Sophocles, as in the Oresteia) diminished role of chorus (12 members) increased importance of dialogue probably invented trilogy :he has the only surviving trilogy typical features include-- highly dramatic vs. narrative--not what people do, but how they do it: much bigger stress on character than plot, not what people do but the psychology of why they do it tragedy of tension--long crescendo(building up of tension) followed by swift and often brutal denouement: everything leading up to that conclusion intense interest in crime and punishment (and the workings of divine will and justice): roughly coincides with the establishment of a homicide court in Athens frequent use of "double motivation": gods help bad men to destroy themselves and helps great men succeed, human and divine will working simultaneously frequent use of "overdetermination": Many factors that end up with the same result, factors working to effect the same result elevated style (satirized in Aristophanes:a little bit perverse pompous): difficult language to read, he can say a lot in relatively few words
Agamemnon 458 Diachronic Reading(reading line by line and imagining how the audience responds to each line,in poetry each line is inviting you to reshape what you have thought so far and inviting you to anticipate what is coming) of prologue through line 103 of parodos*, which introduce and begin to develop the trilogy's central themes, imagery, and so on: Background: Agamemnon is returning from the Trojan War -back to the judgment of Paris: Peleus(human) and Thetis(goddess) don't invite eros who is the goddess of strife to their wedding. She flies over the wedding and drops a golden apple. Three of the immortal goddesses argue over who should get it (Aphrodite, Hera, and Athena). They go to Zeus and ask him to decide who should get it. They each offer Paris a bride: Aphrodite offers the most beautiful woman in the world (Helen) but she is married. Paris abducts her from Menelaus. This is the cause of the Trojan War - Menelaus goes to his brother Agamemnon for help to get his wife back. Agamemnon gets his army and the other princes of Greece's armies and all meet at a place called Palos on a Greek beach. They can't set sail because week after week the winds are blowing against the shore. The prophet of the Greeks says the reason is because the goddess Artemis is causing the winds to blow the wrong direction and won't let you sail unless they sacrifice Agamemnon's daughter Iphigenia. Agamemnon really struggles with the decision. At is what makes him decide to kill her in the end. At means divine sent following, a form of temporary insanity sent by the gods. He ends up sacrificing his daughter. The winds start blowing in the right direction and they take off for Troy. The play Agamemnon picks up 10 years later. He is one of the few to get home. *slide: -a painting of Paris, Stone relief of Aphrodite (naked woman usually is Aphrodite) - Helen and Paris abducting Helen(taking off with her in his chariot, Helen is the figure closest to audience - Mask of Agamemnon prologue (1-43) dramatic tension: the term pain is immediately alerting to the fact that something is wrong improper running of oikos(house): oikonomia=running of the household particularly its finances... turned in to economics, the palace is not being run the way it should be because the watch man should not be treated like a dog because he is a member of the house hold dog simile light/dark: runs throughout the play male/female (light = Ag/dark = Klyt.): troches set up in a relay to show his return, light and fire is a sign of Agamemnon male/female (guard/Klytemnestra): watchman sees himself under Klytmnestra allied with Agamemnon against Klyt.?? reversal-she's like a man: gender role reversal, Klyt. Acts like a man, depicted as having male strength and a male's heart. Later on Agamemnon is characterized as weak like a woman dramatic tension: fear=dramatic tension improper running of oikos: "no longer as once administered in the grand way" just/unjust: Klyt. Is being associated with injustice, she is not running things the way she should and things are not right or the way they ought to be in the kingdom
light/dark: she makes the house dark and he is going to come back and be the beacon of light dramatic tension: the watch man sees the flame that signals troy being taken and Agamemnon coming home, he warns the queen who rises from her bed where she has been having an affair with a man named Aegistus. The ox on the tongue means there is really bad stuff going on that he cannot talk about. House of Atreus/Curse: improper cuisine: Agamemnon had an ancestor names Tantalus who wanted to test the wisdom of the gods so he invited them to dinner and fed them his own son Pelops to see if they would know what it was. The gods did not eat any flesh at all because they were vegetarian. They ate ambrosia (vegetable matter) and drank nectar. One of the gods eats part of the shoulder before they figure it out. His punishment is that he can never eat or drink and he is tantalized with food. There is a history of promoting cannibalism within this family. The father of Agamemnon, Atreus, has a brother Thyestes who he finds out is sleeping with his wife. To get even he kills two of Thyestes's three sons, cuts them up, cooks them, and invites his brother to dinner and feeds him his own children. At the end of dinner he has their heads and feet brought out on a plate. inherited guilt (cycle of violence):Atreus never paid for what he did. If your father committed a crime and was never punished for it you will inherit his guilt. So Agamemnon inherited his fathers guilt. The third son who wasn't killed and eaten is Aegistus who has an affair with Klyt. He has his own very legit reasons for getting at this family so he is sleeping with Klytemnestra to get even with this side of the family and also maybe regain the kingdom for his side of the family. 44-111 of parodos Legal terminology: contestants: a word they used in Greek for plaintiffs. He is reshaping the whole conflict of the Trojan War as one between a plaintiff and a defendant. The plaintiffs are Agamemnon and Menelaus who want Helen back and the defendants are the Trojans Justice of Trojan War: justified in going after the Trojans since it was Menelaus's wife who was taken by them Zeus' will : the Trojan war is the will of Zeus yoke bird imagery-Agamemnon and Menelaus are eagles shrieking over the loss of a young one which is Helen. In Greek the word means Vulture not eagle which has double implications. On one hand they are birds screeching over the loss of a young one but on the other hand it symbolizes the fact that they are going to impose death on tens of thousands of Trojans. They are called vultures because of what they are about to do which is kill lots of people. Later on they are called eagles because it Zeus's is will and an eagle is the symbol of Zeus. ethical conflicts Fury: a creature sent by the gods to punish somebody when a human being hadn't done it. When someone commits a crime and no human punishes it the gods send fury to punish it. Agamemnon and Menelaus are like the fury but the abduction of Helen isn't about homicide but the death of thousands of Trojans happens as well as Agamemnon sacrificing his daughter. importance of xenia: Zeus-> Xenos: (xenophobia=fear of foreign things and strangers), Xenia: the hospitality that hosts are supposed to show their guests or strangers. Zeus is the
god of hospitality so he punishes violations of hospitality. It is what the host must do for the guest but the guest also has certain obligations. Paris violates hospitality because he abducts the wife of his host. Zeus is behind the expedition to Troy because of xenos. So it is divine will that they have to go there. male/female: the chorus is saying the promiscuity of one woman is not worth the death of men polis (public dispute)/oikos (private dispute): what really ought to be a private issue(the guys wife is stolen) the gods have made a public issue. So there is a criticism here made by the chorus of Agamemnon and Menelaus having dragged all of Greece into something that is really a private matter and not worth it. proper/improper sacrifice: The Trojans can make all the sacrifices to the gods that they want but it's not going to protect them or save them because they have committed a crime and all of troy has violated xenia because they accept Paris bringing Helen back to their city. On the surface of the text it is all anti Klyt. Fate Fury male/female proper/improper sacrifice: the reason for a sacrifice is to make one to the gods and ask for something in return. Klyt. Should be making a sacrifice and ask for his safe return but really she is asking for help in killing her husband but the chorus doesn't understand that yet. Tension: "sorrow that eats at my heart" indicating that something is wrong Synchronic Reading of 112-end according to categories introduced in 1-111: dramatic tension: the play gets increasingly tense as we get closer and closer to knowing what's going to happen. The audience knows he is going to die and it just gets closer and closer to that. The tension climaxes in the murder of Agamemnon but the scene directly preceding that is where the tensions is as high as it gets before the act is committed at ln. 1213. It involves Cassandra who is the girl that Agamemnon brought back with him from troy. She rejected Apollo so he gave her the gift of prophecy that no one would believe. She sees the houses past and future and knows Agamemnon is going to die and all the carnage that has been committed in this household. She says all this out loud but no one listens to her. Agamemnon is not killed in sight of the audience his death is recounted so in a way this is the dramatic scene with Cassandra. yoke/net/robe/bridle: Imagery about things that trap or restrain. Yoke: put on an ox to pull, the chorus speaks of a yoke or a hunting net being thrown on troy by the Greeks. Klyt. Throws the robe over Agamemnon so that he is caught and then she kills him, there is a robe wrapped around Iphigenia. male/female light/dark: Agamemnon is light/ Klytemnestra is dark. Ag. Enters his house as it is getting dark just/unjust: the chorus and the watchman are associating Agamemnon with being just and Klytemnestra as being unjust. There is also a male alliance against Klyt. And this all climaxes when she kills Agamemnon. improper running of oikos: she mistreats members of the house hold like the watchman improper exercise of political power: the chorus mentions several times that she has disrespected her elders
Gender-role reversal--tapestry scene: Klyt. Has a tapestry rolled out for him to walk over. The tapestry was woven in honor of the gods and is supposed to hang on the wall and no mortal is supposed to walk over it because it is a disrespectful act to the gods. At first he says its wrong but she convinces him to do it. He says if he walks over the tapestry he has given into her. She does things like a man such as kill a man with a weapon instead of poison. She is the only strong male figure in the story, the males are depicted as weak. Aegisthus: also depicted as a female Duplicity (two faced)--lying to and feigning loyalty to Agamemnon dog imagery marks the latter--"watch-dog" vs. "hell-hound": : she describes herself as a gentle, faithful watch dog for her master when really she is an accursed bitch who turns on her master and kills him improper sacrifice: the chorus knows that she is sacrificing and thinks it must be for the safe return of her husband but the audience knows it's really for help in killing him murder of Agamemnon: her killing of Agamemnon was a form of sacrifice to benefit Iphigenia and avenge her death anticipated by images of yoke/net/robe/bridle anticipated by and marked as an improper sacrifice yet Agamemnon in some ways unjust, or at least involved in ethical conflicts-- improper sacrifice of Iphigenia: The audience will remember that he improperly sacrificed his own daughter, he puts his own glory over the life of his daughter by choosing to go to troy instead of save her culinary imagery, marked by bird imagery: they are referred to as vultures who feed on dead flesh which alludes to the future guilt of Agamemnon because he goes to troy and kills a lot of people many of them innocent. At one point they are referred to as eagles which makes sense since that is the symbol of Zeus and it is Zeus's will sacrificial imagery overkill at Troy : him being called a vulture alludes to Agamemnon killing innocent people at troy polis/oikos--Ag makes private dispute public: all these people died and his daughter was sacrificed because of one promiscuous wife being stolen tapestry: he walks on it making him feminine and an act against the gods polygamy: a patriarchal society with a double standard of what men and women could do. Men couldn't bring another woman inside the house so bringing Cassandra into his house is wrong causation (Agamemnon's death "over determined"( many things all conspire to make the same result) I. divine will Zeus (xenios): it is Zeus's will that Agamemnon go to troy but if he goes to troy he will assume self guilt because of the overkill of Trojans legal terminology: Agamemnon is a plaintiff in court bird imagery--eagles: they are the agents of Zeus Artemis (protectress of young things/huntress): if he is to go to troy he assumes guilt by having to sacrifice his own daughter At: divine sent following or divine sent temporary madness, a decisions that's so horrendous he can't make it on his own
II. III.
Peitho: means persuasion, a divine being or goddess that persuades him Furies: are also pushing culinary imagery bird imagery Fate: it is his fate to die human will Agamemnon desires-- Trojan War: he wants to go to troy so he decides to sacrifice Polygamy: wants to have a second woman in the house Klytemnestra avenges-- she wants to avenge her daughter improper sacrifice of Iphigenia, marked by bird imagery sacrificial imagery Agamemnon's polygamy: resents the polygamy Aegisthus-- avenges crimes against his family seeks political power
*basic scenes into which tragedies divided: I. prologue: (watchman) an actor speaking and hinting at what the story is about II. parodos: (chorus) the entrance of the corresponding stage III. episode 1 (or kommos) IV. stasimon 1 (or kommos) strophe-antistrophe-strophe-antistrophe-etc. episode 2 stasimon 2 etc. IV. exodus: the exit of the corresponding stage