Tragic Heroines: Medea and Clytemnestra

Aristotle (384-322 B.C. believed that tragedy, as an imitation or mimesis of life as it could be, held more importance than history, which simply records the past. He considered that performance of a tragedy provided the perfect cathartic experience for an audience, leaving them spiritually purified and inspired. He felt spectators seeing and experiencing great hardship befall the play’s hero or heroine would achieve this emotional state and benefit from it.

The tragic hero, according to Aristotle, must be essentially good and be of high or noble birth. The misfortune that precedes their downfall must evoke compassion and pity. The tragic hero must experience a peripeteia. Two of the most famous Greek tragic heroes (heroines) were Medea and Clytemnestra. They share characteristics Aristotle deemed essential for the heroic character in a tragedy. They are both of high rank. Medea is a princess and a sorceress, and Clytemnestra was the de facto ruler of Argos in Agamemnon’s absence. Their tales initially evoked sympathy, but hamartia and hubris were instrumental in each woman's downfall. Both suffer significant peripety as victims of their overly passionate natures.

Clytemnestra is obsessed by the desire for vengeance over the death of her daughter at the hands of her husband, Agamemnon. While Clytemnestra's passion is for vengeance, Medea's is her unreasonable love for Jason, which turns into seething hatred.

Clytemnestra’s peripeteia begins the moment Agamemnon sacrifices their daughter, Iphigenia. Heartbroken and grieving, Clytemnestra schemes, plotting vengeance for her daughter’s death. She obsessively plans her husband’s murder for so many years that it becomes a fait accompli. Clytemnestra greets his return with fa...

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...s got to be done, -- do it without flinching. Whatever I do, my life will be unhappy. I’ll armor my heart with callousness, and take the sword in my hand...try to forget that they are my children and that I love them. I only need forget for a short time. And then I can remember all my life.” (Medea, pg. 343, 344).

Revenge is at the core of the Greek tragedies Agamemnon, the first play in the trilogy Oresteia (Aeschylus (525 - 455 BC), and Medea (Euripides (431 – 480 B.C.). The protagonists in each play are women who carry out horrifying acts of revenge on their husbands. Both characters – Clytemnestra and Medea – are at once heroines, villainesses and victims.

Works Cited

Corrigan, Robert W. Classical Tragedy, Greek and Roman: 8 Plays in Authoritative Modern Translations Accompanied by Critical Essays. New York, NY: Applause Theatre Book, 1990. Print.