Agamemnon Literary Devices

Euripides’ Iphigenia at Aulis provides important context regarding the sacrifice of Iphigenia and Clytemnestra’s past with Agamemnon. Clytemnestra is ashamed after talking to Achilles about the wedding between him and Iphigenia that he is unaware of. After discovering Agamemnon 's true intentions, she decides that she will no longer “let shame prevent” her from seeking Achilles’ help to stop Agamemnon because “whose interests should [she] consult before [her] child’s?” (Iphigenia at Aulis 24). Her concern for Iphigenia overpowers the indignity she feels because her child’s well being is greater than her own. Both women’s anger and desire for vengeance grow as their children are endangered or harmed as “vengeance makes grief bearable” (Medea 2.55). The playwrights show each as either a good or bad woman based on if their vengeful actions are ultimately in favor of their children or not.

Agamemnon is the first book in the Orestiean Trilogy written by the famous Greek tragedy writer, Aeschylus. Agamemnon is a story of justice and revenge. The story takes place in a city called Argos. It starts with Agamemnon, the king of Argos, away at the Trojan War. The city is eagerly awaiting the news of their king’s welfare and the outcome of the war. Watchmen are posted in the city, watching for the beacon that would report the capture of Troy and Agamemnon’s return. Beacons are set up from Troy to Argos; when one beacon is lit, the next one will be lit, until the last. The play starts when a palace watchman discovers the beacon and tells Agamemnon’s wife, Clytemnestra, the good news.

Even though Agamemnon made a success for his homecoming, what was waiting for him was her wife’s conspiracy with Aegisthus and his death (262-263). Namely, his nosmos was rather a failure and he also faced fate of his failed household. This Agamemnon’s gives a comparison with Odysseus future success for preserving his family and throne. Furthermore, Clytemnestra’s unfaithfulness and infidelity provides a foil to Penelope’s faithfulness and loyalty. Clytemnestra’s merciless and brutal actions, not sealing Agamemnon’s eyes while he was dying, adds contrasting characteristics between Odysseus and Agamemnon’s wives. Note that here, the story of successful vengeance for Agamemnon by Orestes gives a foil to Telemachus’ weakness and deficiency. Orestes here is depicted as a heroic example with murder of Aegistus after he comes of age (264). On the contrary to Orestes who saved his household and restored order in his family’s kingdom, Telemachus, as he came of age, couldn’t serve as protecting his household and repel his mother’s suitors in the absence of his father. In the light of comparing each heroic figures’ sons, the son of Achilles is also depicted as successful warrior with great strength and fame in the battlefield against Trojan, adding a foil to Telemachus’ unsuccessful position as a son (266).

The first section of Homer’s “The Odyssey” introduces the reader to a character essential to the development of the plot: Telemachus. Having grown up without a father, Telemachus is weak and cowardly. His father left when he was a baby to fight in the Trojan War and had not yet returned. His mother was besieged by suitors and Telemachus was too weak to take control.

Power is the definitive goal for the characters of Homer’s The Odyssey. In a society ruled by gods, relationships are influenced by a gods’ power, which also affects relationships between two mortals. This explains why the relationship between Telemachus and Athena becomes submissive opposed to the dominant and disrespectful relationship, which Telemachus has with his mother, Penelope. The difference in relationships between Telemachus and Athena to Penelope and Telemachus, in Fagles’ translation of Homer’s The Odyssey, is due to the significance of power within the poem.

The Iliad, by Homer, is an epic poem set in the era of the Trojan War, accounting the battle logs during the time of conflict between Agamemnon and Achilles, the text’s tragic protagonist. The heroic outlook on life, in Iliadic terms, is exemplified through the construction of one’s honor through hard work. Being an aspect of the heroic outlook of life, this value is demonstrated through his contribution and dedication to the Trojan War, his experience with neglect from the deities, Achilles’ overall disdain towards Agamemnon, and, lastly, his longingness towards Briseis, his dear lover.

illustrated the struggle between men and women, democracy at play and the rise of a tyrant. With the theme tyranny in mind, we look to find examples that illustrate the former. The most appropriate example of tyranny is the famous carpet scene between Clytemnestra and Agamemnon. It begins with Agamemnon returning from the Trojan war along with Cassandra, is greeted at the palace with a long red carpet presented by Clytemnestra his wife. The carpet symbolizes tyranny in it’s imagery through colour, betrayal and logic.

Fire is not only used to show destruction but to describe human emotions. A fire ignites in Dido’s heart when she falls in love with Aeneas. Similarly, Homer describes Achilles’ anger as a raging flame.

Finally, in the play “Agamemnon,” Clytemnestra murders her husband after learning he sacrificed their daughter to Artemis. Gaea,

At first, Aeschylus invites the audience to sympathize with Clytemnestra, but this changes as the play progresses. In the beginning of Agamemnon, Clytemnestra emphasizes the fact that there had been a multitude of rumors about the death of Agamemnon while he was at war. An audience typically feels sympathy towards anyone who has a spouse out at war, and even more so when that person finds out their

The poetic depiction of the first woman emanates a feeling of mystery, because she exists within the poem but not the setting – that is, she appears only for the effect of comparison – and because of her mysterious circumstances: why would she feel so pained as to be “wailing”? Who, and what, is her “demon-lover”? The speaker’s illustration of the second woman also exudes mystery, for she too exists but not in the scene, and because she originates from an unexplained vision and sings of the non-existent “Mount Abora” (739.I 41). This musical woman also appears to embody creativity, both as a creator of music and as the inspiration for the speaker to build a vast dome. Through such inspiration, the male speaker directs the creativity of this woman toward his own, thereby deriving from her his own generative impulse; thus, the speaker attempts to, in a word, appropriate her creativity for his own use. He deepens this appropriative effect by admitting that his power stems from “[drinking] the milk of Paradise” (739.I 54), which the previously mentioned females essentially prepare through the succession of powerful female images. The layers of the male’s exploitation of the females’ power bring to light the speaker’s own incapacity for original emotion and creativity, and, as a result, expose his true frailty.

In spite of the virtuous and honorable picture that the chorus presents of Agamemnon, it is not long before we see that Agamemnon is flawed yet again. When Agamemnon makes his victorious return from Troy he proudly parades Cassandra, his mistress, before his wife and the chorus. Agamemnon is represented as a man who is extremely arrogant and disrespectful to his wife, of whose infidelity he must be ignorant. Agamemnon speaks to his wife disrespectfully and with contempt.

In a crime, a person is accused and shown as innocent or guilty. In this act, this is the simple ideas of justice, which many feel need to happen to someone who has done something contentious. In the play, “The Oresteia Trilogy by Aeschylus”, the first play “Agamemnon” has a female character known as Clytemnestra who causes great debate over her controversial actions that continue through the rest of the plays. In an examination, we will explore Clytemnestra’s case and build against her innocence by going into depth of the killings of Agamemnon, Cassandra, and the expressions.

According to the article, “In raising these questions of commensurability around the figure of Helen, Dr Faustus provides entry into the Iliad 's own troubled representation of Helen as an excessively valued object of desire and the cause of the Trojan War” shows how women play a very powerful part in this book but as the same time they are represented as object being thrown around by men (Rynearson 4). Homer’s poem demonstrates how the women in the poem are recognized as objects and thrown around to different men because of different reasons.

In this paper, I will discuss the different ways Clytemnestra isn't your typical female character. In most of Greek mythology women were mostly seen as passive, weak, and constantly taking orders from men. She was the complete opposite, she was really a one of a kind. More masculine than some of the men in the stories, and definitely more masculine than feminine she was a very strong, solid, independent, powerful character throughout Agamemnon. The story definitely wouldn’t be as controversial as it was if it weren't for the boldness, extremely deceptive tactics, manipulative ways, and ruthless acts of Clytemnestra. She constantly defied the role that was given to women in the art of ancient Greece, she paved the way for powerful women characters for the future.