The Oresteia of Aeschylus Critique - Essay Example

The Oresteia of Aeschylus Written by Aeschylus, The Oresteia of Aeschylus is a trilogy comprising of, Agamemnon, Libation Bearers and Eumenides, which are a series of related stories of revenge spanning over three generations. Justice occupies a central theme in the trilogy as the story develops from the beginning till the end. When the play begins, Agamemnon is away from his palace at Argos due to his participation at the Trojan War which has been going on for ten years. A fire burning at the distance signals the watchman, who is on his duty on the roof of the palace, to notify the Queen, Clytemnestra of their successful capture of Troy (Aeschylus, 24-25). Not long after Agamemnon arrives, he is killed along with the captured Trojan princess named Cassandra, by Clytemnestra and Aegisthus. Subsequently, there begins an effort to avenge the death of the king, Agamemnon, as the Chorus hope for Agamemnon’s son, Oretes, to get back from his exile. Two conflicting ideas of revenge and justice are visible from the stories; Aegisthus and Clytemnestra avenge the death of their siblings and daughter respectively while the Chorus along with Oretes scheme to bring down the order established by Aegisthus and Clytemnestra thereby avenging the death of Agamemnon. Therefore, to conclude who is the real tyrant or victim is a hard judgment in the trilogy as the history of revengeful actions reveal how the feuds originated generations ago and still persist. Agamemnon had just returned from a victorious capture of Troy in the decades-long Trojan War. Earlier he had sacrificed his and Clytemnestra’s daughter, Iphigenia, as a token to ask the goddess, Artemis to bring good winds for the Greeks. This sacrifice saddened Clytemnestra who plotted to kill Agamemnon with Aegisthus who also wanted revenge from Agamemnon. However, on the war end, Troy had been successfully captured and the news was brought home and Agamemnon returned to Argos with Cassandra, daughter of Prius, as a war prisoner. Clytemnestra asks Agamemnon to enter the palace walking over a purple fabric however the King was apprehensive of angering the Gods by this act of extravagance. However, Agamemnon is finally made to walk over the purple fabric as it leads into the palace. Cassandra however refuses to enter the palace while stays quiet and unresponsive of Clytemnestra. Agamemnon has thus entered the palace while Cassandra remains outside with the Chorus. Cassandra, who has prophetic powers of seeing into the past and future, prophesizes that she will be killed if she enters inside the palace. As Cassandra speculated the past, it appears that Agamemnon’s father, Atreus, had killed his brother, Thyestes’ children and then fed them to him because Thyestes had slept with his wife. This evil deed by Agamemnon’s father had earned the anger of the Gods and had thus brought upon a curse on the King’s palace. Cassandra feared that the curse will take her life too along with Agamemnon and this concern proved to be legitimate as he later killed by his own wife along with Cassandra who accepts her fate and enters the palace. Soon after Cassandra entered the palace, loud screams are heard and it is found that the king and Cassandra both are dead over whom stood Clytemnestra. Although people outside the palace could sense that there was something wrong, they are unsure until the doors of the palace open and the dead bodies of both individuals are visible by the Chorus. Clytemnestra accepts that she has killed them both to avenge Iphigenia’s death however she says that it was because of the curse that had been lurking upon the palace ever since Atreus unlawfully killed his brother, Thyestes’ children. Then appears in the scene, Thyestes’ son, Aegisthus. Aegisthus, being the only remaining live offspring of Thyestes was seeking to avenge Agamemnon for what was done to his siblings by his father, Atreus. As Cassandra narrated earlier, it is evident that Agamemnon and Cassandra’s life were in danger because of Clytemnestra (Aeschylus, 1117). Her prophecy turns out to be true and both Cassandra and Agamemnon are killed as a result of deeds done in the past by Agamemnon and his father. Clytemnestra and Aegisthus both had plotted to kill Agamemnon together and now that both individual’s interests matched, they headed towards a more committed partnership. Clytemnestra convinces Aegisthus, who is now her lover, that both will rule from Argos together. Eventually, Agamemnon’s fate brings him to the point where he is killed in revenge due his own actions and also those done by his father. Yet, the murder is not justified even though Agamemnon had been wrong in sacrificing his daughter and Atreus in killing his brother, Thyestes’ children. According to Greek beliefs, sacrificial activities were quite common. When Agamemnon decided to sacrifice their daughter, Iphigenia, to pacify the gods and convince them for victory, the action was not considered taboo although it did not please is wife, Clytemnestra, at all. So when Clytemnestra killed Agamemnon after he got back, the Queen justified her actions by saying that she was not responsible for the death but it was because of the curse that was lurking over the palace. Thus, by saying so, she meant that the murder was not her fault but it was the curse which triggered her to do so suggesting that she was shrugging off her the responsibility from her shoulders using the curse to justify her actions. It is true though that Atreus had not been right in killing Thyestes’ children and feeding them to him however Aegisthus’ plot itself was not virtuous and depicted treachery. Although Aegisthus was able to successfully avenge the death of his brothers and sisters, he cannot be said to have received justice as his justice seems to have conflicted with Agamemnon’s justice because he had not been the one who killed Aegisthus’ siblings. It had been his father who had carried out the evil deed and thus, killing Agamemnon cannot be classified as justice that has been served. Agamemnon had tried to please the god through the sacrifice of his daughter, Iphigenia. However, Clytemnestra had not been approving of the decision and this matter was used as a ground to justify the murder of Agamemnon along with Cassandra who had done no harm to the Queen or her daughter. Later, Clytemnestra refused to accept her deeds as wrongful but instead tried to justify her wrong doings by placing the responsibility on the curse as though it had taken away her sanity. Her partnered plot with Aegisthus itself was a show of betrayal and inherently wrongful. While no statement regarding Agamemnon’s personal morality and virtues can be made, both Clytemnestra and Aegisthus were no good taking such revenge. Therefore, in this story, justice takes on a complex role as neither side was justified in their actions of revenge. There is a detailed role played by Agamemnon in The Iliad by Homer where he displays an egoistic and selfish character that angers the gods, brings a curse upon the Greek army, finally setting himself up for a dispute with Achilles. Initially he refuses to give the slave girl taken as a prisoner who happened to be the daughter of a priest. Further refusal to return her to her father brings a dreadful curse on the people of Greece as they die in plague. Later, Agamemnon, being a proud king, demands to have Achilles’ slave girl as a reward because he was unhappy to have lost his prize after he had to give his slave girl away to pacify the curse. So, Agamemnon’s attitude consistently shows that he is a resentful character although the crimes done by his father are washed away after Clytemnestra kills him. Aegisthus is another vengeful character whose morality is kept in a shadow till the end of the story although it is apparent that he is a vindictive individual who had been waiting for the chance to take revenge from Agamemnon. The plot planned by Clytemnestra and Aegisthus was deceiving and cannot be classified as a brave act that avenged the crimes committed by Atreus, Agamemnon’s father. The complexity of characters in the story makes the definition of justice difficult as crimes had been committed by both but it is problematic to conclude who was right or who was wrong. Although Aegisthus received justice after killing Agamemnon, his method of getting the throne with Clytemnestra can be called a treacherous one. On a different note, it can be seen that Agamemnon himself was not a righteous man and that his interests often clashed with others. However, being a King and having the power and authority had made him rather egotistic and self-centered which is why a number of hardships were faced during the Trojan War. With the sacrifice of his daughter, Agamemnon hoped to pacify the gods and convince them to forgive his past mistakes and assist them in winning against Troy. Therefore, justice was not served with integrity but with treachery which Aegisthus employed to get at the throne with Clytemnestra. Works Cited Aeschylus. "Agamemnon." The Oresteia of Aeschylus. Trans. George C. W. Warr. London: Ruskin House, 1900. Read More