Agamemnon's Treatment Of Women In Electra

She possesses great vulnerability as victim to Apollo, who gave her powers, Agamemnon, her kidnapper, and Clytemnestra, her murderer. The first group of people she spoke to were the Chorus, who acted as the voice of the common man throughout the trilogy. She described her visions, in detail, of the future. Cassandra tells the chorus how she deceived Apollo by promising to marry him in exchange for prophetic powers but backed out. Upon realizing her deceit, Apollo cursed her so that no one would believe her prophecies. She wails that the House of Atreus is cursed because of the blood-soaked hands of the past fathers. She predicts that Clytemnestra will kill Agamemnon and describes the frantic splashing of Agamemnon in the bath tub while Clytemnestra stabs him. She also predicts her own murder at the hands of two butchers, Clytemnestra and Aegisthus. Cassandra, uninvolved in the family’s ordeals, fears for her own life but then soon realizes that fate is inexorable and accepts her death with courage. The Chorus doesn’t understand her utterances, but know that they are full of sorrow. She also foretells Orestes, the son of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra, will avenge his father’s death by murdering his mother. Cassandra isn’t presented as a citizen but rather as an unstable, dirty (matter out of place) slave. Carson situates women as “pollutable, polluted, and polluting in several ways at once” resulting in the male fearing the woman for lack of personal boundary

Throughout the text, many references are made to a similar situation in the house of Agamemnon. This man, a friend of Odysseus, was killed by his wife and her lover, later to be avenged by his son, Orestes, who killed this same lover. Fatherhood has a powerful effect here as it does with Telemachus; Athena explains, “Haven’t you heard how Orestes won glory throughout the world when he killed

Orestes’ father, Agamemnon, is suffered for the truth of the prophecy, the child is the price: if he kills his child, his country will win the war. Due to this prophecy, Agamemnon is tortured and agonizing between his two important roles: father of his family and father of the country. If he chooses his family and doesn’t kill his child, they will lose the war. All people in the country will be tortured as slaves and colonists. However, if he chooses the win, the peace and the pleasant from a family will not exist anymore. His family will be demolished. Eventually, in the middle of the story, he decides to kill Iphigenia. Agamemnon chooses his country, his subjects, and the win, not his family’s peace. He makes Iphigenia drink three solutions including the pills which make her die. “I feel like I’ve done something so wrong that my whole life, my family, nothing will be able to- the worst mistake. I got it wrong. It was wrong. It was wrong” (Aeschylus, 56.) This demonstrates how he is suffered by the truth that he killed his daughter. His choice, even

The chorus finds Aegisthus guilty of the treasonous act of killing the king and just hopes for Agamemnon’s son, Orestes to return and end this injustice.

Greek society is highly stratified, one where the distinctions between Nobles, peasants, and slaves are explicit. While many people consider women oppressed in the ancient hierarchy, this notion is somewhat contradicted in the Odyssey, where many women act as powerful figures. Penelope separates herself from the suitors that plague her palace, who are relentless in their pursuit for her hand in marriage. Circe has the capability to seduce an entire unit of Odysseus’ men and turn them into pigs. Athena benevolently guides Telemachus over the many obstacles he faces on his quest to seek out his father. Helen defects from Sparta, rallying all of Troy for her cause. Clytemnestra deceitfully plans Agamemnon's death for her new love interest, Aegisthus. Women in the Odyssey show that through seduction, trickery, and wisdom, women of Ancient Greece are able to obtain significant power.

Agamemnon was stabbed to death by the vengeful tag-team. Agamemnon’s son, Orestes, unleashed vengeance upon his mother and her lover. Agamemnon’s family is a foil for Odysseus’ family life. Odysseus’ family loves him very dearly and has done no wrong as he was away. Penelope, unlike Clytemnestra, stays loyal to Odysseus and even creates an ingenious plan to keep the suitors off her back. Telemachos on the other hand has to deal with the suitors who are trying to marry his mother and have been dishonoring his father, Odysseus, eating their fill since they sat their butts on the stools they deem as weapons. Telemachos can’t even stand up to the suitors as Agamemnon’s son took revenge on the people who killed his father. This shows how Telemachos should be as a son and will soon be as he grows up to be more like his father. Menelaos had a long homecoming due to the gods, just as Odysseus had. Menelaos angered the Egyptian gods, due to the lack of knowledge of Egyptian customs. He was able to get home with all of his crew, unlike Odysseus, who was a lone survivor. Although Menelaos had an easier homecoming than Odysseus, he did not have a faithful wife, just like Agamemnon. Helen was the reason for the Trojan War; for Menelaos it was not easy to forgive an unfaithful wife to that degree. He cannot rejoin the present as easily due to all that was lost in Troy, destined to be full of grief for

Euripides was one of the most well-known playwrights of ancient Greece. He was known as a modern playwright because he wrote with realism, and had a doubtful way of portraying the gods in his plays. Euripides’s plays had women as the main character because he had a sympathetic way of portraying women. The women were mainly strong and are passionate in their motives for their actions. Although Euripides is well known now, during ancient Greece Euripides wasn’t an appreciated playwright. When there were play performances men would be the audience since women weren’t allowed to take part in or watch the plays. So with the focus of women in his plays, he gave them a voice, which would throw men off, mainly because they would be terrified if their wives did and said the same things. Euripides supplied a philosophical thought to the women he has written about.

In his epic poem “The Aeneid,” Virgil details an account of how the great empire of Rome descended from a Trojan leader named Aeneas. It is an action-packed story, filled with tales from the hardships at sea to the brutality of warfare as Aeneas journeys to Italy following the downfall of Troy. Aeneas, the hero of the story, is depicted in mostly a positive light throughout the poem and shown portraying a wide variety of emotions and traits, some seemingly contrasting one another—from scorching, merciless anger to tender, affectionate love. While he is a three-dimensional, rather well-rounded character, Virgil depicts women throughout The Aeneid in a more one-dimensional, usually negative light, establishing a hint of sexism and misogyny throughout

Hesiod leaves no doubt that the existence of women is on balance a terrible thing for men. Zeus ordered Hephaistos to create women as a punishment for his having been decieved.. Women were to be a poisoned gift for men, which "all shall take to their hearts with delight, an evil to love and embrace" (W&D, 57-59). In the Theogony women are called "a great plague" because they are "ill-suited to Poverty’s curse, but suited to Plenty" (592-93), among other flaws. While Hesiod offers some well-turned phrases in praise of womens’ good qualities, it is unmistakable that these positive attributes are all put there by Zeus for the sole purpose of making woman an "inescapable

How much control do women have over their emotions in the Aeneid? In his poem, Virgil frequently shows women in situations where irrational thoughts lead to harmful choices. Specifically, Virgil presents women as being easily influenced by their emotions. Consequently, these characters make decisions that harm both themselves and those around them. Throughout Aeneas’s journey, divinities such as Juno and Venus are seen taking advantage of the emotions of different women, influencing these characters to act in ways that ignore important priorities. Not only does Virgil present women as completely vulnerable to their emotions, but he also shows the problems that arise when these women engage in decisions where they put their own feelings

Charlotte Bronte once said, “Women are supposed to be very calm generally, but women feel just as men feel. They need exercise for their faculties, and a field for their efforts as much as their brothers do. They suffer from too rigid a restraint, too absolute a stagnation, precisely as men would suffer; and it is narrow minded in their more privileged fellow creatures to say that they ought to confine themselves to making puddings and knitting stockings, to playing on the piano and embroidering bags”. In the play Medea, Euripides diverged from the traditional role of Greek women through Medea’s characteristics and response to her plight. In delineating the role of women, Medea was unlike any other Greek character. Medea was portrayed

Besides being invisible, in order to be visible, the society expected women to be obedient, subjective, and silent. Mark Cartwright studied the Greek philosophy and concluded that the freedom of Greek Women was very limited (Mark Cartwright). Women were supposed to be quiet which was the behavior that conformed to accepted standards of respectability and morality for the female gender. The women who for different reasons, refused to take on the submissive role traditionally reserved for them, the women who were brave enough to act strongly and independently, and the women who were stepping outside of the boundaries of the traditional gender roles were generally condemned to be seen as insolent, self-important, traitors, and liars.

Aristophanes and Agathon were peers in Ancient Greece. Aristophanes was the master of comedy, and Agathon was the master of tragedy. They traveled in the same circles and are present in the same works. In looking through the comic lens at Agathon in Aristophanes’ Women at the Thesmophoria, the reader is presented with a portrayal of an effeminate man with a flair for the dramatic and a queenly attitude. Aristophanes’ Agathon is a comic character to be laughed at, a man that is more female than male. In looking at this view of Agathon, Greek views of homoeroticism are brought up and Agathon’s reputation and character in the world of Ancient Greece is brought into question. How much of

The epic genre of literature is notoriously male-dominated. Most traditional “heroes” are male, while female characters are relegated to the background, serving, for example, as villains for the hero to defeat or love interests for him to protect. Vergil’s Aeneid is no exception to this concept - written between 29 and 19 B.C, the portrayal of women in the piece is obviously based in ancient stereotypes and archaic gender roles, which come across to the modern reader as fairly worn out. By nature, the Aeneid tends to minimize the roles of these characters, notably the goddess Juno and Queen Dido of Carthage, and often focuses on how they impact the protagonist, Aeneas, rather than truly exploring the characters themselves. Therefore, from

Amongst Euripides' most famous plays, Medea went against the audience's expectations at his time. Indeed, the main character of the play is Medea, a strong independent female who neglected moral and . She was therefore in all ways different to how women were perceived in Ancient Greece. This essay will explore how Euripides' controversial characters demonstrate that his views were ahead of his time.