Agamemnon
Synopsis:
In Aeschylus’s foundational Greek tragedy Agamemnon, the first play of the Oresteia trilogy, a watchman spots the long-awaited beacon signaling Troy’s fall, heralding King Agamemnon’s victorious return after ten years of war sparked by Paris’s abduction of Helen. As the Chorus of elders recounts Agamemnon’s sacrifice of his daughter Iphigenia to appease Artemis, Queen Clytemnestra harbors deadly resentment, welcoming her husband with false warmth while plotting his murder alongside her lover. Agamemnon arrives with the captive prophetess Cassandra, who foresees their doom. Exploring profound themes of justice, vengeance, hubris, fate, and the cycle of blood guilt in a cursed house, Aeschylus gets the Greeks to think about justice and who they are as a people in this post-war story.
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Review
With my reviews for ancient Greek writing, there’s not much I’m going to offer as far as critique, but more of an idea of what you’ll encounter from a normal guy who is learning about the Western canon. I have to say that I would probably not understand or appreciate even half of what I read without the help of Romans Road Press and Ascend – The Great Books Podcast. I do think that reading these works in a group setting will help anyone who is wanting to read and understand in the slow and grow model. The era where podcasts and online teaching is a Godsend.
The story has four portions with only a handful of characters. The setting is set up by the Watchman at the wall. It’s interesting to get someone who isn’t of great importance of stature here to start out the play but he offers some calm before the storm and is a good starting character to give us details of what we’re in store for. Clytemnestra as Agamemnon’s wife has some really dramatic lines concerning the death of her daughter at the hands of Agamemnon about 10 years before and her harboring of hate is clear here. The story is suppose to make one think about what true justice is in the ancient Greek world but the reader will have to really dig in and know some history of the Greek myths and look for what to pull out from the story. There is not going to be a direct keying in of “this is what justice means to me…” lines. Agamemnon plays only a slight role and understanding gained from Roman Road Press’ Wes Callihan gave some good insight on what the audience would have known and understood in watching the play transpire especially when it came to the titled character.
The poor prophetess Cassandra draws us further into the tragedy section of the story. It is interesting to think about that just like the modern-age of “rage bait” and reacting to negative stories over positive stories, Aeschylus shows that has been a product of our human nature as Cassandra’s tragedy allows us to learn more about the negative effects of things like revenge and wrong living, moral corruption, and even of fate or free will (or the mix of the two).
As a 21st-century reader, I do believe there is a lot lost on me here and while I didn’t hate the play I don’t think I would have gotten as much without my commentary aids. However, even after that, I found this as just an okay story with only Cassandra really to feel sympathy towards. As for Clytemnestra, the fact that she only seemed angry and there was no pull or play on justice vs. revenge, as she only felt like a tool of revenge, especially with the inclusion of Cassandra. It’s fine and it will be interesting to see what the other parts of the trilogy pulls from this.
Final Grade
C+
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