Deceitful Clytemnestra of Euripides' Electra
Agamemnon returns from Troy, a victorious general, bringing home spoils, riches and fame. He is murdered on the same day as he returns. Clytemnestra, his adulterous wife, has laid in wait for her husband's homecoming and kills him whilst he is being bathed after his long journey. During the Agamemnon, large proportions of the Queen's words are justifications for her action, which is very much concerned with the sacrifice of Iphigenia to the gods, in order for the fleet to set sail for Troy. Aegisthus, the new husband of the Queen Clytemnestra, and partner in the conspiracy to murder the war hero, had reasons, which stemmed from the dispute between the Houses of Atreus and Thyestes. Was the murder justified retribution for a callous and dispassionate murder of an innocent girl, as well as the fate demanded by the family curse? Or was the death of Agamemnon an unjust action by the traitorous woman Clytemnestra and her lover carried out in aspirations of his wealth and power?
If we take the former of the arguments as the correct one, then the sacrifice of Iphigenia must be considered. For this, the only sources we have are those of the Chorus' songs and the highly biased accounts by Clytemnestra, who has been left to stew on her hatred for over ten years. The account given by the Chorus is full of pathos and pity "gentle curving lips...gag her hard...her glance...wounding every murderer" (235-239). They remember with sorrow, a flashback to her innocent life, and recount how she once "sang to Saving Zeus - transfixed with joy" 245. Emphasis is very much on the purity of the girl and how she did not deserve to die. However, no reference is made by the Chorus that it was Agamemnon's...
... middle of paper ...
...ght have been a sponge. It is ironic I suppose that Agamemnon, lord of men was brought down by the one thing that neither of the two sons of Atreus were able to control - Women.
Works Cited
Adkins, A.W.H., Merit and Responsibility. A Study in Greek Values, London: Oxford University Press, 1960.
Euripides. Electra. Trans. Philip Vellacott. Medea and Other Plays. Baltimore: Penguin Classics, 1963. 105-152, 201-204.
Nietzsche, Friedrich. The Birth of Tragedy. Trans. Clifton Fadiman. New York: Dover Publications, 1995.
Perseus Encyclopedia. Revised 1999. Tufts University. <www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/encyclopedia?entry=Euripides>.
Powell, Anton, ed. Euripides, Women, and Sexuality. New York: Routledge, 1990.
March, Jennifer. Euripides the Mysogynist? Euripides, Women, and Sexuality. Ed. Anton Powell. New York: Routledge, 1990.
depends on how far along in the pregnancy the woman is. In the very early stage of the
The Chorus sing as Clytemnestra moves around the stage, lighting fires and unmoved to their appeals for news. Their song tells the history of the Greek expedition's problems as they set off for Troy. It would seem that, whilst uplifting the name of Agamemnon ("with the power of Zeus" 47) they also describe the death of Iphigenia with great pity ("gentle curving lips... her glance... wounding every murderer"). They describe his heartache ("pain both ways" 212) between both courses of action, whether to obey the oracle or save his daughter. But undeniably, the Chorus does not approve with what he did ("cause of all our grief" 222) and tell with great sorrow a flashback of Iphigenia singing at the feasts to Zeus ("transfixed with joy" 246). It is with this in our mind that we finally talk to Clytemnestra, the mother of the slaughtered child.
He here practices the common Greco-chauvinistic idea of male dominance over female. He even goes as far as reducing them to a less than human state by using the word creatures. He goes on to say to the Thebans: “I would not choose to live with the female sex either in bad times nor during a welcome peace… The outside is a man’s concern – a woman should not consider it; she should stay inside and not cause damage. Have you heard me or not? Or am I talking to a deaf woman?” (Lefkowitz and Fant, 28) This was furthered by Euripides in the Worthlessness of Women, 428 BCE. Euripides went beyond Eteocles. He said: “I hate clever women. I don’t want a woman in my house thinking more than a woman ought to think…” (Lefkowitz and Fant, 29). Euripides here degrades women as was the custom of Greek men of that...
If women were such beasts as Euripides stated then would women have managed to seize the Acropolis, and prevented the men from squandering them further on the war. Euripides might have referred to the vulgarity of the women’s thoughts and language:
In this essay I will examine the war-of the-sexes taking place in The Eumenides, the final play of The Oresteia. The plot of The Eumenides pits Orestes and Apollo (representing the male gods and, to a certain extent, male values in general) against the ghost of Clytemnestra and the Furies (equally representative of female values.) Of more vital importance, however, is whether Athene sides with the males or females throughout the play.
The difference in Agamemnon’s and Odysseus’s approach of their homeland is a reason for their differing fates. Agamemnon, the king of Argos, returns from Troy after a safe journey. Once he lands on the shores of his native earth, his false sense of security renders him unsuspecting of the possible danger that lurks in his own home. His naiveté leads him to approach his home directly to show his people that he has returned. Since his subjects were no longer loyal to him, his exposure leads to his demise. Their disloyalty is revealed when Aegisthus, the man who plots to kill Agamemnon, gathers the town’s best soldiers to ambush the king. Agamemnon meets Aegisthus, who organized a banquet where the king and his company are mercilessly slaughtered. Because he fails to assess the danger that exists in his homeland, Agamemnon meets his end soon after his return.
Like other heroes of the war, Agamemnon is a powerful king. He was able to raise men to follow him to Troy. He is referred to by the epithet “sheperd of people” (III, 156). In the underwold, Achilleus tells Agamemnon,
Euripides shows his views on female power through Medea. As a writer of the marginalized in society, Medea is the prime example of minorities of the age. She is a single mother, with 2 illegitimate children, in a foreign place. Despite all these disadvantages, Medea is the cleverest character in the story. Medea is a warning to the consequences that follow when society underestimates the
Euripides. Three Plays of Euripides: Alcestic, Medea, The Bacchae. 1st ed. New York: W.W. Norton, 1974. Print.
After Achilles and Clytemnestra have a conversation, they realize they have been lied to. Finally, the slave enters and explains Iphigenia’s dire fate. Achilles promises that he will not let Iphigenia be sacrificed, and he exits. Iphigenia and Clytemnestra plead with Agamemnon to not kill his own daughter, but Agamemnon refuses to listen. Achilles enters and explains to Clytemnestra that the Greeks want Iphigenia dead, and will “drag her by her hair” if she
Clytemnestra developed a lust for the throne. Clytemnestra made a decision to kill Agamemnon. To justify her killing she brought up the crimes of Agamemnon, sacrificing their daughter Iphigenia. She said, “him who, caring no more than for the death of a beast, though his fleecy herds had sheep enough, sacrificed his own child, the darling born of my pains” (45). She stated that it was this that caused her to kill him as she said, “By the accomplished Justice for my child, by Doom and Revenge, to whom I offered this dead man up” (45). Clytemnestra believes Agamemnon’s death was a punishment for his crimes.
Agamemnon faces a difficult decision when deciding if he should sacrifice his daughter to allow the fleets to continue on to Troy so he can aid his brother. Artemis demands he do so, which leads to some serious family problems to say the least. Is his sacrifice justified? In Greek mythology, Zeus is in charge of the major decision-making. He gets a say in basically everything. There is no court system for the Greeks during that current time, but between Zeus, the gods, and the goddesses, they practically had one. If gods and goddesses demand you to do something, it is in your best interest to listen. So maybe Agamemnon’s sacrifice was justified because he did not have a choice. However, the war against Troy was all about a woman, so was the ending result really that crucial to Agamemnon and Argos? His decision causes his wife Clytemnestra to despise her husband and she now wishes to seek revenge. The text says, “Apollo there! Healer indeed, I call on you, lest make contrary winds for the Danaans, long delays that keep the ships from sailing, in her urge for a second sacrifice, one with no music, no feasting, an architect of feuds born in the family, with no fear of the man; for there stays in wait a fearsome, resurgent, treacherous keeper of the house, an unforgetting wrath which avenges children”. Agamemnon is warned ahead of time what kind of result the sacrifice will bring, so his murder should not have been much of a
Despite the contrast in the characters of Euripedes' Medea and Aristophanes' Lysistrata, the two playwrights depicted how gender inequality can start a fire. As with Medea and Jason, the battle between the two lead to former's madness, leading to the death of the enemies she considered, and, unfortunately, leading as well to the death of her own children. Medea felt betrayed and left behind by her husband Jason, as well as continuously aggravated by Creon despite the fact that i...
Agamemnon kills his daughter, Iphigenia, for power and respect. This power is more important to him than his daughter, thus he sacrifices Iphigenia instead of stepping back and letting someone else lead the armies to battle. The Chorus emphasizes this when they recall his words before he sacrifices Iphigenia “However he did not shrink from slaying a victim daughter in aid of war raged” (Aeschylus 20). He is more worried about losing respect than his own daughter. His lust after power and respect made him insensitive to fair judgement. He tries to justify himself by saying there is no other way but to sacrifice her. He does anything to fulfill the public’s desires to gain him their praise, up to and