My first play for The Well-Educated Mind Reading Challenge was Agamemnon by Aeschylus. This was my first experience with this play, and I knew nothing about the plot ahead of reading.
The setting was Argos, Greece, Atreus' palace, where a watchman waits for news from Troy, to see if Agamemnon, king of Argos, will return. It has been ten long years that he has been away, and he is eager to see the king.
The Chorus, made up of twelve elders, recited the narrative of how Agamemnon had been pressured to choose between victory or shame by sacrificing his own daughter, Iphigenia, to appease Zeus and earn his favor.
Agamemnon "...rather than retreat, endured to offer up his daughter's life to help a war fought for a faithless wife and pay the ransom for a storm-bound fleet."
Soon, news arrived that Argos had captured Troy and the king was on his way home. His wife, Clytemnestra, prepared for his arrival, to welcome him home. When the king arrived, he had with him the young Trojan princess, Cassandra, who was also a prophetess.
While alone, she began a conversation with the god Apollo. (Obviously, very troubled she was, and I don't blame her because...) She saw the ghosts of "children butchered...by their own kindred..." who carr[ied] in their hands "their own flesh....food their father ate!"
She also revealed that Agamemnon was cursed! There was going to be a murder..."Female shall murder male..." Agamemnon was going to "lie dead."
Near the end of the play, Aegisthus, Agamemnon's cousin and now lover to Clytemnestra, told the horrid story of how Atreus, Agamemnon's father, sought revenge on his brother Thyestes for committing adultery with Atreus' wife. He then roasted his brother's children and served them to Thyestes during a feast. When Thyestes realized what Atreus had done, he cursed his whole household, which fell upon Agamemnon.
Aegisthus claimed to have plotted the whole "evil deed" from afar, but it was Clytemnestra who stabbed both the king and Cassandra. For Clytemnestra, it was revenge for the murder of her daughter Iphigenia.
However, it was Zeus who punished Agamemnon (for his father's wicked deed against his brother) by forcing the horrible choice to either disobey the gods and go home to Argos in shame or sacrifice his daughter and earn victory in Troy.
The play Agamemnon is about revenge and man's idea of justice. (Which is more like injustice.) Much like reality, when one seeks revenge to settle what he thinks is injustice against himself, he only perpetuates more injustice. As for the Greek gods, they were the last ones to know anything about justice. They thrived on bloodthirsty revenge.
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| John Collier, Clytemnestra, 1882, |
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The next play for TWEM is King Oedipus by Sophocles.
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