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
Clytemnestra fits the character of one of the Argos’s contaminations because of her adulterous acts with Aegisthus and her psychotic murderous plans to kill her husband Agamemnon. In her point of view, justice will only be obtained of she avenges the death of her daughter Iphigenia by killing the one who murdered her, Agamemnon. Cassandra mentions this cycle of fertility and decay when she talks about “the babies wailing, skewered on the sword, their flesh charred, the father gorging on their parts” referring to Thyestes’ babies (A 1095-1097). More blood vengeance and violence only fuels what becomes a never ending cycle of death and decay within the House of Atreus. When Clytaemnestra finally kills Agamemnon she cries, “So he goes down, and the life is bursting out of him—great sprays of blood, and the murderous shower wounds me, dyes me black and I, I revel like the Earth when the spring rains come down, the blessed gifts of god, and the new green spear splits the sheath and rips to birth in glory!”, and she feels reborn from his death and even calls it a gift from the god (A 1410-1415). Not only does Clytaemnestra feel renewed from murdering Agamemnon, but she feels that it was the proper and just thing to do. Although the Furies don’t go after her since this is not a crime of matricide or patricide, killing her husband is unwise and unfair because in Agamemnon’s
While Agamemnon believes that Clytemnestra has sinned by having a sexual relationship with another man, he evidently does not view his own adultery as a negative action. The stark contrast between how Agamemnon views his own adultery of that of his wife exposes the complicated nature of adultery and sexual relations in The Odyssey and Stanton echoes a similar stance in her document. Stanton details how “the same amount of virtue, delicacy, and refinement of behavior that is required of women in the social state, should also be required of man, and the same transgressions should be visited with equal severity on both man and woman” (36). Stanton’s desire to add a
Clytemnestra’s overwhelming hate for her husband deepens because Agamemnon shows no feelings of remorse and believes that Iphigenia’s sacrifice “[is] for the best” (216-224). Aeschylus recalls the final moments of Iphigenia’s sacrifice: “her pleading, her terrified cries of “Father”!/[…]/ Her eyes threw a last pitiful glace at her sacrificers,/ but like a figure in a painting,/she could not call to them for help” (228-242). Consequently, Iphigenia’s heartbreaking sacrifice motivates Clytemnestra’s “unforgiving child-avenging Rage” (155) upon her husband, Agamemnon. Clytemnestra’s maternal instinct implores her to take revenge against Agamemnon for his mistreatment of their daughter. Furthermore, Clytemnestra views Agamemnon’s sacrifice of Iphigenia as a betrayal of their marital love. Clytemnestra believes her husband deserves the same fate as Iphigenia because Agamemnon “[has] sacrificed [their] own child, [Clytemnestra’s] labour of love, to charm away the cruel storm-winds of Thrace” (1417-1417). To Clytemnestra, Agamemnon must “suffer, deed for deed,/ for what he [has] [done] to [their] daughter,/Iphigenia, his own flesh and blood!”
The female characters portrayed in Aeschylus and Sophocles’ works have considerably different personalities and roles, yet those females all have the common weaknesses of being short-sighted and stubborn. They intensify the conflicts within their families while being inconsiderate of the impacts that they may bring to their nations and societies, which leads to consequences that they are incapable of taking responsibilities for. Clytemnestra and Antigone, two major characters in their respective author’s works, possess different motivations for their deeds in the stories. While Clytemnestra is driven by the desire of revenge to murder her husband Agamemnon, Antigone acts against Creon’s will and strives to properly bury her brother. Despite having different motivations and personalities, Clytemnestra and Antigone both commit
Hermia, originally the Apple of all Athens’ eye, put on an impossible pedestal by both Lysander and Demetrius, seems to trade social standings with the outcast Helena. It seems that Hermia doesn’t fully appreciate the quality of her state. She complains that her father will not allow her to merry her true love Lysander, and pawns her off to the inadequate Demetrius. Never can she accept the flattery of Demetrius’ unrequited love which her best friend would do anything to sincerely receive. Instead she revels in wonderment: “The more I [Hermia] hate, the more he [Demetrius] follows me” (I.i.198). Her unhappiness is far heightened when her two followers are given the love potion, turning them against her and beckoning to Helena. The cruel swap of fates lets the two female characters feel as though in the others’ shoes. It’s Hermia’s karma for being ungrateful at the attention bestowed upon her all these years that leads her to this harsh lesson.
If you were in ancient Greece, most people would find that to be perfectly acceptable. These gender roles and relationships are major theme in the Oresteia. The murderous female ruler, Clytemnestra, attempts to revolutionize these roles. Understanding these gender stereotypes and relationships are essential in understanding Aeschylus’s the Oresteia. Clytemnestra and Electra display many stereotypes about women in ancient Greece.
Justice and gender are put into relation with each other in Aeschylus’ Oresteia. In this trilogy, Greek society is characterized as a patriarch, where the oldest male assumes the highest role of the oikos (household). The household consists of a twofold where the father is the head, and the wife and children are the extended family. The head of the oikos is the only one who possesses the authority to seek justice. This is because the father acquires the authority through the inheritance law or male lineage. On the contrary, Greek society seems to transform to a matriarch when Clytemnestra solely murders Agamemnon because she, like primitive males, exercises destructive justice and enters the cycle
In the first play, Agamemnon, Clytemnestra murders Agamemnon to retaliate for the sacrifice he made of their daughter, Iphigenia. Clytemnestra did this out of revenge, since the code of getting even demanded that someone’s murder must be avenged by their close blood relative. This called for torment at the hands of the Furies, who were female divinities of a terrible frightening aspect, that came upon anyone who murdered a close blood relative. In the second play, The Libation Bearers, Orestes kills Clytemnestra to avenge the murder of Agamemnon. This act is still maintaining the revenge principle, but it is committed primarily at the instigation of Apollo. Apollo takes center-stage in the third play, The Furies, to argue in defense of Orestes in a trial supervised by Athena. This ultimately leads to the end of revenge killing and the establishment of a new order of justice based on the laws of the
What significant communication and ethical issues surround corporations facing strong public opposition to their activities? Discuss drawing on the BAGAG, WRATD and Cash for Comment case studies (one or more) and at least one major theory studied in this unit. |
The great hero, who is brought low by his wife, Clytaemnestra, a good woman and an evil wife, also an ideal of a murderous wife.
It was a gleaming Monday morning and I was cheerfully walking to the lunch tables where my friends were, until I was suddenly halted by a somewhat familiar person.
• “That woman – She manoeuvres like a man” is the important first reference to Clytaemnestra, it ominously
Lysistrata comes to the conclusion that the only way to save Athens from destruction in war comes with defiance of her husband. In her role of rebel within the family, Lysistrata decides to "...compel [her] husband to make peace" by withholding sex from him until he stops his disastrous warring behavior (Lysistrata, 7). She concludes, "...there are a thousand ways of tormenting [him]" that will lead to the ultimate safety of Athens (Lysistrata, 9). Unlike Antigone, Lysistrata realistically considers the possible consequences of her actions. She understands that the consequences of rebellion against her husband could be dire. Lysistrata recognizes that her husband might beat her or even rape her in order to get physical satisfaction, but she also realizes that her husband would, "...soon tire of the game there's no satisfaction for a man, unless a woman shares it" (Lysistrata, 9). Lysistrata acknowledges that defying her husband will have consequences, but she chooses to realistically face those possible consequences, and continues knowing that her actions will benefit Athens. Aristophanes' reveals that a woman's greatest allegiance lies with her polis through Lysistrata's role of rebel within her family to save Athens.
. Likewise, Aeschylus also illustrates Clytaemestra achieving the role of a mother in Agamemnon. To explain, Clytaemestra serves justice for the death of her daughter Iphigenia, by killing her husband Agamemnon, the man who is responsible for her daughter’s death (Aeschylus, 55). Here, she says “Now hear you this, the right behind my sacrament: By my child’s Justice driven to fulfillment, by her Wrath and Fury, to whom I sacrificed this man,”
The education system is a system brimming with flaws. Children in less fortunate communities are attending institutions known as dropout schools; institutions essentially preparing them for failure. In these schools teachers are seen sitting at their desks, unresponsive and unwilling to aid students who have the drive to succeed. The students themselves, some of which are thirsty for knowledge, are left empty mentally and emotionally. The chance at a better life slipping through their fingers with each passing grade level. A better education is essentially unavailable in these communities that given the chance, would flourish under it. Filmmaker Davis Guggenheim portrays this in his documentary “Waiting for Superman”. Guggenheim utilizes pathos and logos to address the issue, that the education system is unequal and in turn unsuccessful. Children with these lower socioeconomic standings are cast aside and groomed for failure and in turn the education system is consequently coercing these children to walk the line between making their lives better or staying stagnate in their current situation. It is training children to be grade levels behind their peers when they eventually depart from their meager standard of education. Education could change these children’s lives and yet the problems with the education system are left unrectified.