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Clytemnestra In Aeschylus's The Oresteia

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Aeschylus’s trilogy, The Oresteia, presents one reason for Clytemnestra murdering Agamemnon: as revenge for the sacrificial murder of her daughter, Iphigenia. While this is not the only reason for Clytemnestra’s action, it is the most ambiguous; for example, Clytemnestra presents herself as a devoted mother, but she constantly contradicts her actions with her words. For instance, Clytemnestra, acting as a loving mother, vowed to avenge her daughter’s death, but later on goes to curse her own son, Orestes. Clytemnestra even claims to send Orestes off with loving intentions, rather it was for her own security. Furthermore, The Libation Bearers questions Clytemnestra’s motherhood with a disturbing serpent metaphor. Therefore, Clytemnestra’s actions …show more content…

Clytemnestra’s reason is evident when she states, “[Agamemnon] sacrificed his own child, my labor of love,” and through this comparison, it can hint that Clytemnestra has a deep, loving motherly connection with her children (Agamemnon 1417). Agamemnon’s quick judgment to subject his own innocent daughter to death for his selfish needs, even when Iphigenia passionately sang to him and his crew for entertainment, angered Clytemnestra. Therefore, since Clytemnestra was unable to save her child from death, she pursued justice for Iphigenia by killing Iphigenia’s murderer, Agamemnon. While Clytemnestra may seem to have a strong motherly relationship with her children, her last interaction with Orestes proves otherwise. Before Orestes killed her, she states, “beware the vengeful hellhounds of a mother’s curse” (The Libation Bearers 924). In Iphigenia’s case Clytemnestra seeks to protect her children and their reputation, however she puts Orestes, who is also her “labor of love,” in harm’s way. These conflicting actions reveal Clytemnestra’s detached relationship with her children. This detached relationship is not solely between Clytemnestra and Orestes but is also evident when Clytemnestra married Electra off to a lower-class farmer and essentially forgets about her. Clytemnestra’s masculinity serves to …show more content…

Upon discovering Orestes’ “death” Clytemnestra exclaims, “and now Orestes, though he had the sense not to step foot in this swamp of destruction” (The Libation Bearers 697). Through this exclamation, Clytemnestra seems to send Orestes away out of love so he wouldn't have to live with his father’s death and in the cursed house of Atreus. However Clytemnestra did not send Orestes off with love, as Electra puts it, “Orestes [was] banished from his inheritance” (The Libation Bearers 135). By banishing Orestes from his inheritance, as heir to the throne, Clytemnestra was able to remain in power. Clytemnestra claims to have lovingly sent Orestes off to shield him from the confounded house of Atreus; in reality, she banishes him from the kingdom because she saw him as a threat to her power. Consider the metaphors found in the Agamemnon which compare Clytemnestra to a lion, for example when Cassandra calls her a “lioness reared up on two legs” (Agamemnon 1258). Lions in nature are as territorial and wary of menaces to their territory. Relating Clytemnestra to a lion allows the reader to discern that Orestes would threaten her authority because he would be the direct descendant of the throne and once Orestes rises to the throne, Clytemnestra would lose her jurisdiction. Therefore, like a lion, she exiles the young male cub, Orestes, from the

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