Language in Aeschylus Language is Aeschylus' juggernaut: he uses striking, innovative words to drive an image into the mind of his audience. Clytaemestra, notorious as a villain or perhaps an anti- heroine, effectively acts as a medium for Aeschylus’ brilliant rhetoric in Agamemnon. Clytaemestra’s rhetoric not only invokes vivid imagery, but also confuses and perverts spheres of logic and rhetoric: sacrifice with murder, liquids with cloth, and blood with wine. These images overturn the values
In “The Oresteia” trilogy, the ancient Greek playwright Aeschylus advocates the importance of the male role in society over that of the female. The entire trilogy can be seen as a subtle proclamation of the superiority of men over women. Yet, the women create the real interest in the plays. Their characters are the impetus that makes everything occur. The most complex and compelling character in the three plays is Clytaemnestra. Clytaemnestra is consumed with thoughts of revenge. She seeks vengeance
Interim Assessment – Passage B Part 1 Passage B is taken from Aeschylus’ Persians, which presents the events of The Battle of Salamis. The tragedy was written by Aeschylus, as part of a trilogy, for the festival of Dionysia in honour of the God Dionysus. Being part of the festival the intended audience would have been males, from all social classes, who were attending the theatre as part of the celebrations for the festival. This particular play is one of the two surviving works from the trilogy
Employing an advanced technique, Aeschylus fills his tragedy, Oresteia: The Agamemnon, with layers of multiplicity. Essentially, multiplicity in this tragedy entails using dialogues containing several meanings to convey truths about Greek society and to shed light on situations outside the current action. Aeschylus’ use of this dramatic tool contributes to the success of the novel and adds depth to the meaning of the characters’ conversations. Furthermore, it affords the audience an opportunity to
Aeschylus’ well-known tragedy of Agamemnon allows one to closely look at the treasured polytheistic religious ideas of Ancient Greece and how the Grecians relied heavily on the thought of free will versus fate determined by their gods. With the play being set and written in Greece, the polytheistic lifestyle is apparent and unabashed as the culture of the time would have seen the play to be easily believable; the entire audience would have been familiar with the various gods and goddesses as well
Justice and Aeschylus' Oresteia At first glance, the picture of justice found in the Oresteia appears very different from that found in Heraclitus. And indeed, at the surface level there are a number of things which are distinctly un-Heraclitean. However, I believe that a close reading reveals more similarities than differences; and that there is a deep undercurrent of the Heraclitean world view running throughout the trilogy. In order to demonstrate this, I will first describe those ways
When Agamemnon was put in command he dropped all the friends he didn’t need, and shut himself in. He got what he wanted, and didn’t care about those around him that may have helped him. In this way he wants to be thought superior, and wont associate with any lesser people. Menelaos tries to be the bigger person and tells Agamemnon not to kill his child for his sake, making it seem like he’s doing him a favor. Clytemnestra wants to be there for her daughter’s supposed wedding, She wants to be the
Justice in Aeschylus' The Oresteia How can an endless and violently destructive cycle be just? The concept appears in places along the human timeline as diverse as the Bible and West Side Story. Why do people have a tendency to amplify and repeat violence through a cycle of murder and revenge, and how can this destructive process be called justice? In The Oresteia, the cycle is a familiar one, but is also interweaved with gender issues and a sense of justice that changes within the cycle itself
Analysis of Aeschylus Agamemnon Characters- The Watchman Clytaemnestra The Herald Agamemnon Cassandra Aegisthus The Chorus 1). The Watchman: • The watchman sets the time and place for the play (Agamemnon’s palace in Argos, the house of Atreus); he describes the many miserable nights he has spent on the rooftop of the palace watching for the signal fires that will herald the fall of Troy. • The watchman is one Aeschylus’s small characters, but like the herald he serves an important
Cannibals and Vampires in Aeschylus and O'Neill Aeschylus and Eugene O'Neill have populated their trilogies with cannibals and vampires. Family members feed off one another both literally and figuratively. For the houses of both Agamemnon and Ezra Mannon, this bloodlust is insatiable and inherited, an inescapable curse. A family curse provides the dramatic force necessary to push characters toward pivotal actions and events. At the conclusion of both trilogies the curse is finally broken (or at
The Powerful Clytemnestra in Aeschylus' Oresteia What Price Glory? was the title of a Maxwell Anderson play about World War I. Although the Oresteia deals with the period following a much different war, the same question can be asked of it. In the trilogy Aeschylus presents the reader with a stunning example of ancient Greek society, in which warrior ideals were firmly held, and glory in battle was considered the supreme good. The question of moral justification in the trilogy brings in many
Oresteia - The Issue of Justice in Aeschylus' Eumenides The concept of justice is manifested through the three plays of Aeschylus' Oresteia. The old tradition of justice, the private blood feud, caused an ungoverned succession of violent acts that spiralled uncontrollably. Aegisthus, Clytemnestra's lover, is introduced in Agamemnon; he desires vengeance for the plot contrived by Agamemnon's father (Ag: 1605-1611).1 Neither Agamemnon nor Aegisthus took part in this "plot" and yet as the chorus
The Strong Women in The Orestia by Aeschylus To most readers, the women of The Orestia are evil and vindictive, a disgrace to all chaste and righteous women. Aeschylus portrayed women as equals to men, which was not the opinion of most Greeks at the time. Although he showed some of his women characters as evil, he granted them power, and emasculated the men around them. Unlike Homer, the women of Aeschylus show both ranges of emotions, both the good and the bad. A woman portrayed as a villain
character flaw. In Agamemnon, the only two characters with any weight or backstory are Agamemnon, the returning war hero, and Clytemnestra, the dutiful spouse. So which of these two, if any, are the play’s tragic hero? In the play Agamemnon, by Aeschylus, Clytemnestra, not Agamemnon, is the play’s tragic hero. Yet before the tragic hero can be established, the tragedy must be established. The situation leading to the first of the Orestia’s plays was most certainly tragic. Helen ran off with Paris
Aeschylus’ Oresteia is the chronicles of a cursed family that includes a circle of betrayal, adultery, and murder, among other things. The Greek word oikos can be used to describe the Greek family structure. In Homer’s Odyssey, two polar opposites of oikoi are given. First, the son of Odysseus’ son Telemachus meets Nestor, who symbolizes a near-perfect oikos . The family is involved in a large sacrificial feast upon the arrival of Telemachus . He also utilizes xenia, the Greek word for manners or
In the play Agamemnon, Aeschylus depiction of gender roles are both typical and atypical of a standard male or female behavior in the culture and era because male characters in ancient Greece resemble the powerful nature of a warrior. They are seen as the head of the household where the male role is to go out and do hard labour to provide for the family and bring honor to the country, while females are to stay home to tend the kids and do house chores. This is most typical when looking at the gender
When a person is accused of a crime they are either found innocent or guilty. This is the basic idea of justice and it is what many feel needs to happen if someone has done something controversial. In the play The Oresteia by Aeschylus, the story of Clytemnestra guilt or innocents is questioned. She does many things that people are not too happy with and those controversial actions throughout the story, mainly in the first part Agamemnon get her into the trouble. As we explore the case that builds
In The Eumenides and Agamemnon of The Oresteia trilogy, Aeschylus constructs an over-arching metaphor for elements of the new Athenian democracy. The chorus in each play represents the people who feel under-represented and disrespected, by the society's changing values. In The Eumenides, the chorus of Furies is frustrated with the younger gods and infringements on their power; in Agamemnon the chorus fears more the control of an effective woman in Clytemnestra rather than the leadership of fruitless
The Importance of Gender in Aeschylus' Oresteia Gender is made explicit as a theme throughout the Oresteia through a series of male-female conflicts and incorrectly gendered characters dominated by the figure of Clytemnestra, a woman out of place. This opposition of gender then engenders all the other oppositions of the trilogy; conflicts of oikos and polis, chthonic and Olympian, old and young can be assigned to female and male spheres respectively. In this essay I will look at how the polis
Revenge in Aeschylus' The Oresteia Trilogy and Sophocles' Electra The act of revenge in classical Greek plays and society is a complex issue with unavoidable consequences. In certain instances, it is a more paramount concern than familial ties. When a family member is murdered another family member is expected to seek out and administer revenge. If all parties involved are of the same blood, the revenge is eventually going to wipe out the family. Both Aeschylus, through "The Oresteia Trilogy,"