Aeschylus’ tragedy  Agamemnon

Agamemnon is the first play in the trilogy known as the Oresteia, written by the ancient Greek playwright Aeschylus. This trilogy, is one of the most significant works of ancient Greek literature and provides a profound exploration of themes such as justice, revenge, and the human condition.

The play is set in Argos, a city in Greece, and begins with the return of King Agamemnon from the Trojan War. Agamemnon is a key figure in Greek mythology, known for his role as the leader of the Greek forces in the war against Troy.

His return, however, is not met with unmitigated joy. His wife, Clytemnestra, harbors a deep and simmering resentment towards him, not least because he had earlier sacrificed their daughter, Iphigenia, to secure favorable winds for the Greek fleet en route to Troy.

Aeschylus’ tragedy  Agamemnon,  certainly has theatrical autonomy, but its analysis presupposes the knowledge of its inclusion in the broader trilogy of “The Oresteia“. Even its quantitative differentiation, against the other two parts of the trilogy “Libation Bearers“, “Eumenides“, can lead to the necessary correlation and consideration of the three parts of the trilogy.
From the point of view of scenography, in “Agamemnon” we have a palace facade with a central gate and side entrances.

In the introduction of the work – it is particularly noteworthy that all three works of this trilogy have a prologue – we have the monologue of the guard. He is a man who cannot contain his complaint about the monotony of his endless service, leaning on the roof of the palace, gazing at the horizon, to catch and convey to Queen Clytemnestra a message that would signal by a bright signal, that Troy has been taken. From the very beginning of the work, through the mouth of the guard, a hint emerges – in verse 11 the guard says that this tiring service is imposed by “the heart of a manly woman who has some hopes” (in the original “female manly hopeful care”).

Also, at the beginning again, the first comment is heard, that something is not right inside the palace. An alternation of emotional states begins: the watchman’s complaint is followed by rejoicing at the signal given by the light signal, but soon the joy is muted by the awareness of some unseen danger and the watchman shuts his mouth tightly, because as he says in verse 36 “big ox on his tongue” (in the original “bush on tongue megas veveken”). In these few verses of the preacher’s monologue, the dominant contrast that constitutes the essence of the work has been woven.

However, the Chorus of the elders weaves the main thread of the play. His position in the passage and throughout the work is dominant and is characterized by a crescendo, an increasing scale, which at the end of the work will exceed its natural limits, when with youthful vigor he will face, first with sharp speech and then with the hands, the power of the usurper of royal power, Aegisthus.

The Chorus, not having yet been informed of the message of the light signaling, refers to the long war caused by the abduction of the queen of Sparta, Helen, by the son of the king of Troy, Priam, Alexander-Paris. The Greek revenge, with its uncertain, for the Chorus, outcome, is in development, but without the participation of the weak old men who wander “like a daydream” (verse 82, in the original “onar ymerofanton”).

The Chorus has noticed that an atmosphere of anticipation has been created within the city: the altars are being prepared for sacrifices. As nothing is explained to him, he turns his thoughts to the past, to the beginning of the Trojan campaign. This move reveals another major contrast centered on the sacrifice of Agamemnon’s daughter, Iphigenia. Agamemnon then faced the great dilemma: to choose the role of leader or the role of father.

Aeschylus, with the mouth of the Chorus, shows how much man is under the inevitable yoke of necessity, how he is at a crossroads, on two dead-end roads that must nevertheless give way. The way out is facilitated, not painlessly for people, by Zeus, the one who “made a law that the sin should be done”, the one who causes the heart of the people to drip “bitter memory pain”.

For the Chorus, however, the overcoming of the dilemma by Agamemnon is the sign of freedom of choice and at the same time a hypothesized continuation: it has wounded the mother’s soul, opened the curtain of hatred and is a prelude to future revenge. The Chorus fully gave shape to the obscene conception of the tragic message of life which is a chain of action, guilt, atonement and knowledge.

THE CAUSE OF CLYTAIMNISTRA

With the first episode, where Queen Clytemnestra’s speech dominates, the set-up of contrasts culminates: the queen expresses her joy at the news that Troy has been conquered. The Chorus wants to make sure of his joy and stands wary, Clytemnestra is sure of the event and shows joy, ostensibly as the wife of the leader of the expedition, in the background as his future assassin who rejoices in the joy of revenge, in advance. Her subjective feelings and the objective need to respond convincingly to the pressure of the Chorus make her analytical: the message of the traffic light is asphalt and the image of conquered Troy convincing, the army and Agamemnon return. Clytemnestra receives the praise of the Chorus and leaves.

The Chorus, in the victory at this moment, does not triumph, on the contrary with a cool analysis, he philosophizes and reveals the essence of the tragic in human life: there is no cure, if the counsel of evil the blindness of the mind (his “provolous ati”, verse 386) pushes man, that was the incurable evil that Paris caused to his place. Troy paid the great price of her king.

But, in the broad context of the function of “atis” a multitude of Greeks were lost in the foam of youth, the war “sends to the familiar heavily mournful ashes in the place of the man with it filling easy-to-bear urns” (verse 441-444), another contrast here: one is at fault many pay. The praise of the Chorus closes the first stanza of the play with two more remarks: “to be praised excessively is dangerous” (verse 469-469, in the original “to de overkapa klyin ev bary”) “because from the eyes of Zeus rushes the lightning”, “I prefer a happiness that does not cause envy” (verse 471, in the original “krino d’aftonon olbon”), a measured and peaceful life is the ideal of the Chorus.

Anticipation of the return of the army and Agamemnon has peaked. In this context is included the pre-announcement arrival of the herald and the, somewhat interrupted by the Chorus, “angelic saying” which reopens the illusory prospect of joy and the heavy price that had to be paid in a ten-year war, heavy tax and glory of the Mycenaeans .

THE COMING OF AGAMEMNON

There is no longer any doubt for the Chorus that the matter is closed, but not for Clytemnestra who will once again play the role of hypocrisy: her husband is respected and well received (verse 600-604), she girded herself with pain of his absence and her conjugal honor stood flawless (verse 611-614). This hypocritical attitude of Clytemnestra disarms the Chorus of any reserve, when she leaves, he has the comfort of asking questions about the fate of Menelaus.

In the second stanza, a hexapsalm is developed against Helen, which with cute etymological associations (“elenaus”, “elandros”, “eleptolis”, verse 689) is projected as the cause of the great suffering, and against Paris. With the wonderful parable (verse 717-736) Aeschylus gives the harm that Troy suffered by rearing its inevitable conditions.

The Chorus, as before, generalizes his observations, weaves the thread of his reflection: he does not share the older opinion, that excessive happiness attracts the envy of the gods, he separates his position: “separate from others I have my own opinion ( verse 757, in the original “by other monophrons I am”). His own position is that the administration of justice moves the hand of God, when it punishes great error, arrogance, audacity, and that the divine judgment honors the virtuous life (in the original “ton enaisimon tiie bio”, verse 775 ).

With such a spiritual attitude the Chorus faces, in the third episode, the arriving Agamemnon. The maturity of reflection leads him to unspeakable honesty: he has reservations about the attitude of the leader, at the beginning of the Trojan campaign, he unreservedly accepts its outcome. The presence of the winner brings back, somewhat undefined in the speech of the Chorus, the need for some attribution of responsibility to those who were not blameless in the ten-year “vacuum of power”.

The figure of Agamemnon is set up by Aeschylus imposingly: he salutes his country and the native gods, he attributes his Trojan victory to the gods, in response to the observations of the Chorus, he extends the analysis of human characters tested for their quality in difficult times and, finally, he postpones, for a cooler moment, the weighing of the positive and negative data formed during the period of his absence.

Agamemnon, unaware of what awaits him, leaves the image of the ruler of the scene, with the weight of his biotic experience and with his textured personality, with the measured reticence of the leader. Against such an Agamemnon, the ultimate sophistication of Clytemnestra works: defying the opposite experiences of the Chorus, she overemphasizes the love and mental commitment to her husband, her “ten-year mental ordeal with the function of the myth of her husband’s injuries and deaths, the thus preemptive removal of their son, Orestes, from his place.

Clytemnestra completes this sophistication with the successive outbursts of verses 895-901, where one finds an excellent example of the application of the famous Italian aphorism se non e vero, e bon trovato (if it is not true, it is certainly well made), with which the often unclear boundaries between the real and the pretentious are pointed out, Clytemnestra’s feigned joy reaches the point where she herself is seduced by the tricks of her mind.

THE MURDER OF AGEMEMNON

Clytemnestra’s sophistication wins and this is the first victory of the cunning woman. Her second victory is beyond of Agamemnon’s hesitations to enter the palace by stepping on the carpets. In a “battle of words”, Agamemnon resists, but succumbs. This victory of Clytemnestra is the prelude to her definitive third victory, to lure her husband into the tentacles of deceit and kill him. Agamemnon will enter, for the last time in his life, his palace, just before he can make a discreet gesture to show good behavior towards the booty he carries with him, the Trojan queen who remains curled up inside the chariot.

Here closes the first dramatic scene of the future killer’s preparation. The Chorus of the elders has the bitter taste of unpleasant forebodings, expressing them in a way that opens the curtain for the second dramatic scene that will lead to the double murder. Clytemnestra comes out of the palace again, to complete her task, to lead to the slaughter of the one who could replace her in the “marital duties”, Cassandra.

The Trojan queen is silent, until Apollo, who once gave her the art of divination as a curse, enlightens her mind, Cassandra remained the eternal symbol of the pessimistic oenist. Then with ecstatically visionary song and composed prophetic speech she unfolds, in front of the Chorus, which is impressed by her skill, the prehistory of the sinful house of Atreides: consanguineous adulteries and consanguineous murders.

The Furies enthroned within the palace, who operate with successive blows, in a drunken glee at their sadistic work and, without ending the chain of calamities, Cassandra sees the approach of new evil, which this time involves her own life, which, after the last outburst for her pleasure life, offers her as a willing victim to the inevitable Chorus of calamity.

Her voice now fades away, before she is irrevocably extinguished by the fatal blow, having managed to save Orestes’ avenging act of patricide which will form the center of the second part of the trilogy.

The machine of destruction kicks into action. Soon the cry of Agamemnon will be heard, which will dramatically lead the Chorus in verses 1346-1371 into a long-standing embarrassment, until Clytemnestra comes out, drunk from her act, with the murderous knife in her hand. Then a new “battle of words” is set up between Clytemnestra and the Chorus.

The queen will defend herself, but now intoxicated by the exhilaration of her revenge, she will begin to see the seriousness of her act and the certainty of her punishment. Of course, she doesn’t seem to regret it, but she realizes that she is the next link in the chain of related crimes that, started in the past, won’t stop and she would be willing to give everything, as long as the demon of the house closes the bloody circle that , henceforth, hovers over her head.

There, upon the certainty of the continuity of evil and the uncertainty of the divine response to her desire, Aegisthus appears. The queen’s lover, now master of the palace, basing his position on the former murderous circle of the personal kinship, speaks with glee and arrogance of Agamemnon’s crime and provokes the Chorus, which finds in its rage the strength to confront him .

The argument, which was about to give way to hand-wringing, is interrupted by Clytemnestra, who, now tired, wants to close the circle of evil. And the play ends with the entrance to the palace of the murderers, the Chorus will no longer have the last word of the exit.
The overall consideration of the work must, of course, be done in conjunction with the other two parts of the “Oresteia” trilogy.

In any case, in the independent consideration of this first part of it, we find that the poet completed a cycle, joining it in the chain of overlapping cycles of the mythical context of the Pelopidas: “Agamemnon” is the continuation of a murderous principle that will not close with what happens in this project. The mythical king of Mycenae carries an ancestral curse upon him that he will bequeath to the circle of his direct descendants, to be completed after the conclusion of the trilogy.

The work is dominated by the figures of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra, while the dancing posture of the old men is noteworthy. Agamemnon is a person whose mention, action and fate fill the entire play: from the very beginning his anticipation arouses interest, the mention of his actions, at the stage of starting for the Trojan campaign, creates the pledge of some retribution for the evil that caused him to sacrifice his daughter, the preparation of the murder that comes as the culmination of his unsuspecting concessions.
Clytemnestra, master of plaiting, plays a particularly impressive role: suggestive sometimes, seductive sometimes, hypocritical in every case, her speech is a well-honed net to avoid even for trained eyes.

The Chorus has a dynamic presence in this work, as in no other work of ancient dramatic poetry: it is compared to both Clytemnestra and Aegisthus, with phrasal formulations that go beyond the usual ethos of the Choruss of tragedy. The play is also wonderfully served by the stage presence of the minor characters: the guard, the first to complain about Agamemnon’s return, is also the first to incite concern, the herald tarnishes, with sacrilegious allusions, the Trojan victory, Cassandra connects, with prophetic ecstasy, past and future evils, and Aegisthus, an appearance at the end of the play, leaves, with his arrogance, the impression that the double murderer did not close the bloody cycle that comes inherited from long ago.