Yet they also quickly undermine their strengths as leaders by focusing overly much on their impulse to take revenge. Revenge is a key theme of Agamemnon, a driving force behind most of the characters' actions. Selfhood is depicted as a journey in Aeschylus' play mainly through the title character. Agamemnon's changing sense of self contrasts considerably with that of his wife. While Agamemnon has let go of the sacrifice of Iphigenia to focus on the present and future demands of his position, Queen Clytemnestra does not. She harbors guilt and resentment to a breaking point, feeling and then acting on an irrational urge to murder. Whereas Agamemnon becomes aware of the destructive power of hubris in the human spirit, his wife does not. He refuses to play into her egotistical demands such as walking with pomp down the purple-plated floor....
By bolstering his image, Queen Clytemnestra only boosts her sense of self with pride; Agamemnon displays more growth as a character but is killed before he can reach true self-realization. Cassandra is instrumental in helping Agamemnon achieve his personal growth. Although taken captive to Greece, she becomes a channel for transformation. She assists Agamemnon on his journey with complete disregard for her self, too. Cassandra is the only ego-less character in the play, and brings out the true natures of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra.
Overall, the destruction that occurs during this homecoming suggests that war is so destructive to the world and family order that it rends the cosmos. The pre-war home cannot be reconstructed. In contrast, Homer shows a home that can be rebuilt. Unlike "Agamemnon," Odysseus returns to an Ithaca that does not appear to be happy on the surface. But while Agamemnon's home appeared to be happy to the general, it
Aeschylus - the Oresteia (Agamemnon, Libation Bearers and Eumenides) The Oresteia offers the reader a close and intensive immersion with a truly pained universe of suffering: each play still has at its core a sense of flush of promise and vibrancy of Athens that was pushing forth and evolving into greatness. Even so, the author Aeschylus is able to captures a sense of the undercurrents of the primal vengeance that still
Character and Personality Traits of Agamemnon Agamemnon's virtue of tolerance and liberalism turns out to be his weakness as a king. Aeschylus' play Agamemnon is actually not the first performance of the story. The tale of Agamemnon's return from Troy and consequent death is handled in Pindar, Hesiod, Homer, Stesichorus, in addition to other poets and was quite familiar to the Athenian audience watching Aeschylus. Aeschylus, however, picks and merges these
Odyssey/Libation Bearers The Odyssey, which was written by Homer, and the Libation Bearers, which was written Aeschylus are some of the ancient Greek writings that act as classic literature. These writings depict events and tragedies that happened in the traditional Greek society and provide important lessons for modern literature given their classical nature. One of the pertinent passages from the Odyssey by Homer and the Libation Bearers from the Greek
Orestia Ancient legends are known throughout the world and retold in versions generation after generation. Authors take an old story and reimagine it and reinvent it to fit the perspective of their own generation. The first known version of the Agamemnon story comes from The Odyssey. In Homer's book, The Odyssey, the author relates the story of King Agamemnon and his untimely death, as well as the resulting familial tragedy that
The imagery she uses also reflects the pain that she experiences as she envisions the murder about to take place and the fact that she too will killed: she speaks of Clytemnestra as a lion: "Vengeance broodeth still, a lion's rage, which goes not forth to kill / But lurketh in his lair, watching the high hall…" Then she speaks of her as a wolf and as a serpent. The
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