Agamemnon Essay

Agamemnon is a character who does not show any good virtue but he shows evil virtue. He is very selfish, hot tempered and prideful and is consumed by his own feelings and isn’t the best leader to lead an army he is not very virtuous. Agamemnon at the end of the book changes a little bit but is still very much the same. Another character who does not show any virtue is Paris.

In book one of the Iliad, a plague is placed on the Achaian army because Agamemnon wouldn’t release Chryseis, a maiden he’d taken as a prize for sacking a Trojan-allied town. Agamemnon refuses to give up Chryseis until Achilleus surrenders Briseis, another maiden, to him as consultation. This insults Achilleus’ pride and is the first event in the epic to fuel his burning rage (1.8-1.611). Due to his leader, Agamemnon, wounding his pride, he refuses to fight for the Achaians for the first 15 books. However, the tide turns in book 16 when Patroklos, Achilleus’ friend, is killed (16.816-16.821). His rage causes him to join the Achaians once more and develope aristeia, where a hero in battle has his finest moments. He nearly single-handedly slaughters the Trojan army by splitting their ranks and pursuing half of them into the river, where he recognizes Lykaon (21.1-21.35).

Sharon Rice Engl 2111 9/1/2014 Response Essay Blame it on the Gods The signs, dreams and visions from Book II in the Aeneid help Aeneas determine what the gods have in store for him and Troy, from the death of Laocoon to Creusa’s spirit. The Gods’ determination and fate they have set in place for Troy and Aeneas cannot be changed or averted. Despite all attempts by Laocoon, Aeneas and the others who attempt to change it, fate is unwavering; the path cannot be altered Laocoon’s death is the first sign of the gods’ plan for the fall of Troy.

After reciting Agamemnon’s speech to Achilleus, Odysseus chooses to change the last words spoken by Agamemnon from asking Achilleus submission to asking to “take pity on all the other Achaians, who…will honor you as a god.” (book 9 302-303) Homer includes this action by Odysseus to show how the dishonor that Achilleus has been brooding on for nine books still exists, and hasn’t changed. It brings to present the reasons that Achilleus still chooses to sit aside from his friends and not fight, though he knows they are struggling with out him.

The fact that he recognizes and regrets, at least a little bit, his crime makes Agamemnon seem more like an ill-fated man than a bad man, which shows that the gods are naturally inclined to be prejudiced against those who hold power. He goes on to wage war and destroy innocent lives, angering both the people and the gods. The chorus predict his downfall: “The gods fail not to mark those who have killed many. The black Furies stalking the man fortunate beyond all right wrench back again the set of his life and drop him to darkness” (Aeschylus, Agamemnon, 461-466). He does come to a bad end in an ironic twist as Agamemnon, the sacrificer, becomes the victim when his wife Clytemnestra murders him.

The House of Mannon Eugene O’Neill’s Mourning Becomes Electra is a play of revenge, sacrifice, and murder conveyed through visible references to Aeschylus’ House of Atreus. O’Neill alludes to The House of Atreus in order to ground the play; attaching the plot to well-known aspects of history. As well, it brings a certain significance that otherwise would be neglected if their underlying manifestations went unnoticed. The most prominent of these allusions is that to Aeschylus’ House of Atreus. O’Neill specifically modeled Mourning around Aeschylus’ work, modernizing it, applying it to a new generation of readers. Agamemnon, a general in the Trojan War, becomes Ezra Mannon, a Civil War soldier of the same rank.

Agamemnon returns from Troy, a victorious general, bringing home spoils, riches and fame. He is murdered on the same day as he returns. Clytemnestra, his adulterous wife, has laid in wait for her husband's homecoming and kills him whilst he is being bathed after his long journey. During the Agamemnon, large proportions of the Queen's words are justifications for her action, which is very much concerned with the sacrifice of Iphigenia to the gods, in order for the fleet to set sail for Troy. Aegisthus, the new husband of the Queen Clytemnestra, and partner in the conspiracy to murder the war hero, had reasons, which stemmed from the dispute between the Houses of Atreus and Thyestes. Was the

From the beginning, the character of Agamemnon appears as a courageous warrior and grand which destroys the heroically powerful army as well as Troy. However, at the outset, we learn to know Agamemnon as a person who has changed the winds to go to Troy, at the price of the sacrifice of his own daughter,

Throughout his speech, Agamemnon is unnecessarily verbose in sharing his predictable point, and the repetitive structure of his speech displays incompetence in leadership. At the start of his address, he poses a rhetorical question, “What grief hath set the jaundice on your cheeks?” (1.3.2), asking his soldiers about why they look so downhearted. He replies to this by stating that all people have their “checks and disasters,” (1.3.5), referring to obstacles and setbacks, and that they should continue to be persistent. He uses the imagery of a knot that diverts the course of growth and how the growth of the Greek army will be prevented with the lack of determination. As the speech continues, he presents another rhetorical question:“Why then, you princes,/Do you with cheeks abashed behold our works/And call them shames,” (3.1.17-19) which was essentially the identical as the opening question. It also has the same word choice of “cheeks,” and

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.

The Concept of Oikos and Polis Embodies Characters With Pride and Leads to Their Downfall What is prominently seen in Greek tragedies is a characters own destruction to themselves and those around them through a fatal flaw of hubris. Hubris, meaning pride, leads characters to oversee their own human limitations, which then results in the characters downfall. Oikos is a concept in which focuses on the unwritten rules or customs tied to ones family while polis is a concept in which focuses on the rules that are set in place by the government and society. The concept of oikos and polis are embodied in each character, which develops, dictates and justifies their actions and views, which ultimately drives the character to commit an act of hubris.

The two scenes in Book VI contrasts the different personalties of Agamemnon and Diomedes. As Menelaus was about to spare the life of Adrestus for a ransom, Agamemnon intervenes, pressuring his brother that “No baby boy still in his mother’s belly,/ not even he escape—all Ilium blotted out,/ no tears for their lives, no markers for their graves!”(VI. 68-70) Agamemnon did not give Adrestus a fair fight, but killed him as he pleaded for his life. Anything in his way is an enemy, and thus does not permit any sympathy or mercy. He does not desire peace after years of war; he wants blood, riches, and glory. In comparison, Diomedes wants nothing but an end to the war. Once realizing that Glaucus’s ancestors were friends of his, “Diomedes spirits

Aeschylus, one of the first Greek dramatists, was born between 525-524 BCE, during the period that the Athenian government was evolving from a tyranny to a democracy. Throughout his whole life, he would alternate between serving in the military and performing and writing dramas. Every year, Aeschylus would attend the Great Dionysia, a competition where three dramatists would perform their dramas or plays and would get ranked from first to third place. Out of his ninety plays, he won thirteen first place awards. Which means that he won about 42 awards because each tragedy entry consisted of four plays. He died at age 69 between 456-455 BCE. Aeschylus deserves to have the title of the “Most Superior Greek because of his great innovations, descriptions

It is interesting to note then, that the argument between Agamemnon and Achilles finds a parallel right at the end of the same book in the fight between Zeus and his wife Hera. This produces a somewhat suprising effect, the first chapter of an epic that is originally about a foreign military campaign is bookended by scenes of internal conflict: dissent within the ranks of the Greek army and a domestic dispute among the immortals. Even

A plague has fallen upon this army, causing pain and suffering. And why? Because Agamemnon had refused Chryses’ offerings of ransom for the return of his daughter. Out of his own foolishness, Agamemnon took a priest’s daughter as his prize, and we all suffer the wrath of the gods. Now, Agamemnon has the audacity to claim that if he must give back his prize to save the people, I owe him mine. I was happy to offer him another prize, whatever he needs to satisfy him, but he will not take my prize, Briseis. I fought for him; I have nothing against the Trojans, I fought only for Agamemnon’s pleasure. I put my own fate on the line, for I am destined to die in Troy, but I looked past that and fought anyway. Briseis was the prize which I earned for