The Aeneid By Virgil, The Oresteia, And Sappho By Sappho

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

Through the three plays of The Oresteia, we are exposed to many opposing forces of power. Elements such as darkness, light, fate, patriarchy, and justice are intertwined to make up Aeschylus’ tragic tale, however all of these elements are directed by one central force: balance. The word balance itself suggests a state of equilibrium or a stable environment. Balance is often looked at as a scale; if one side of the scale is overpowering the other, then it creates a state of disorder, irregularity, and even chaos. Aeschylus meddles with the scales of balance but, in the end, reinforces the equipoise of power. I would argue that, not only does The Oresteia include balance as a critical underlying theme and is strategically used in determining the outcome of the play, but that the role of Athena is vital in creating this balance.

Because of Antigone’s despair of the loss of her brother, she becomes a narcissistic women who disregards her king, the authority of her state and her sister.

The Roman epic of Virgil's Aeneid describes the hardship and misadventures of Aeneas and the Trojans quest from Troy to Italy. Like Homer’s famous epics, the Iliad and Odyssey, Virgil’s narrative style and structure portrays similar attributes in the finding of Rome. Aeneas encounters several women on his journey who play a significant role throughout this epic in assisting or destroying his journey to Rome. His representation of female characters provides the readers with a better understanding of gender politics and reasons why some female leaders failed. Each of Virgil's female characters demonstrates a combination of traits throughout the epic; however, such behaviors of these women tend to develop unwanted conflict due to emotions.

On the other hand, Virgil notes that Dido’s love for Aeneas has caused her to suffer. Dido’s emotions have caused her to act like a wounded animal, not thinking about the consequences of her own actions. By being reduced to an animal, Dido has lost all rational thought. Consequently, Dido’s lack of rational thought causes her to begin to ignore other duties she has to fulfill.

The Oresteia and Oedipus Trilogy have characters that either emotionally engage you to feel sympathy or sorrow for them while they go through troubles. There are also characters in these works that make you want to detest them on the basis of their character, actions, or behavior. The character that tugs at my heart strings the most between the works of Aeschylus and Sophocles is Antigone. The character between the Oresteia and the Oedipus trilogy that evokes contempt or anger is Clytemnestra. Antigone has to live with the major effects on her family after her father’s curse compounds itself into the slow deterioration of the city and her family. Antigone’s love for her family despite all odds provides an emotional connection to her since it is relatable to family life and how one wants to protect their close ones despite circumstance. I find her a sympathetic character also due to the fact that she always seems alone in her ideals. Clytemnestra on the other hand is on the other side of the spectrum; she is a manipulative sweet talker that pulls the heart strings of the reader then detaches the readers’ string and sympathy through her actions.

Virgil 's Aeneid takes a character form Homer’s Odyssey and constructs a life for him beyond Homer’s ideas. It is quite obvious that Virgil was heavily influenced by both Homer’s writings, The Iliad and the Odyssey. Both stories tell of parallel journeys home from Troy at the end of the Trojan War. Homer’s Odysseus is returning to Greece and the family he left behind ten years ago. Virgil’s Aeneas, in contrast has been given a direct command by the God, Mercury to create a new Empire. Both men set out on their ships, into the Mediterranean Sea, and both encounter mythical creatures along the way. Sirens and harpies respectively curse and unsuccessfully attempt to lure the men off course. Bad weather however is noted to blow both ships off course. Aeneas lands on an island and lives with the beautiful Dido for a period of time, putting his journey to found a new city on hold. Similarly, Odysseus remained on the Island of Cyclops with the beautiful Calypso for several years, only leaving when the Gods command him to. The love in not everlasting and both tales tell of the men subsequently abandon their loving women waiting for them at home.

    Sophocles' Oedipus the King and Cocteau's The Infernal Machine relate the same story, yet from quite different angles. Sophocles' play is written in heightened language and spends 1,530 lines on an hour of time. On the other hand, Cocteau's characters speak colloquially, and his 96 pages cover 17 years, putting much more emphasis on the events prior to where Sophocles begins his play. Sophocles and Cocteau present Oedipus' character in different lights, and through these characters express contrary themes. Sophocles' proud yet wise Oedipus reveals that a human's future is determined by his actions, while Cocteau's haughty yet immature Oedipus suggests that mortals'

In Aeschylus’ The Oresteia, it dives deep inside the realm of justice, who has the right to do what he or she does. While the fight for justice is the endless battle within the text, family is also portrayed as a weakness, which leads to the struggle of maintaining power and can be shown to inhibit people’s lives.

Agamemnon was killed by Clytemnestra (his wife) and Aegisthus a few years before. Orestes was ordered to go to Argos by the oracle of Apollo that sent him to get revenge on the killers on Agamemnon. Orestes son of Agamemnon went to mourn for his fathers death and then saw a group of women dressed in black walking towards the grave. Orestes discovered that among those women was his sister Electra. Electra went to Agamemnon’s grave because she was sent by her mother to bring libations to Agamemnon in his grave to stop the terrible dreams that Clytemnestra is having.

With help from Aegisthus, the man with whom she had an affair, Clytemnestra devised a plan to kill Agamemnon. One of the reasons Clytemnestra wanted to murder Agamemnon was to avenge their daughter Iphigeneia’s death. Agamemnon sacrificed her in order to have success in the war, but never told Clytemnestra. The sacrifice is why she had the affair with Aegisthus. (Core 23:

of the Odyssey and Book 6 of the Aeneid, since that is when both of

In my World Civilization class, I have studied about the Greek Civilization. Alongside that, my World Literature class studied the following literary works: Medea, Oedipus the King, the Iliad, and Lysistrata. Learning about the Greek's philosophy, democracy, religion, the arts, and society helped to clarify the literature works that I read. The meshing of these lectures has brought forth overlapping themes that connect history and literature together as one. The Greek civilization intertwined throughout their literature by many themes, ideas, and concepts. This combined narrative reveals that history and literature often imitates each other such as the theme wrath among civilizations, the concept of Arete, and the concept of Nike.

Paedagogus, an old servant who looked after Orestes (the son of King Agamemnon), tells Orestes of how he took him from Mycenae after the king was murdered by his wife, Queen Clytemnestra, and her lover. Orestes plans on getting revenge for his father’s death by the command of Apollo. He hears Electra, his sister, crying; however, he ignores her due to his focus being solely on revenge. Electra has been held captive by her mother and Aegisthus—her mother’s lover—since the death of her father. She has mourned Agamemnon’s death for years. The Chorus of women act as a voice of reason for Electra, questioning why she has mourned for so long. Her response is that she has been abused and no one can be moderate or restrained in her situation. Meanwhile,

Virgil’s epic of the classic hero, Aeneas, discusses several women but hardly any fit the cookie cutter literary stereotype of being feeble, passive and submissive. Rather, women in The Aeneid are opinionated, emotional and powerful. Dido, a protagonist in the story of Aeneas, possesses immense power. Dido’s reign as a powerful and governing woman falls once Juno and Venus devise a plan to keep Aeneas in Carthage. Focusing on the dynamic Dido, this paper will explore how her power as a woman is illustrated throughout the story and how her emotions precept her decisions.