Description
Agamemenon, the first play of the classical Oresteia trilogy, which focuses on the cursed House of Atreus, raises troubling questions of sacrifice and betrayal, murder and revenge. Written by the Greek poet Aeschylus, the tragedy opens with a homecoming: Agamemnon, the King of Argos, returns home to his wife and city after the Trojan War. What should be a happy event, however, is darkened by the rage of his wife, Clytemnestra. In addition to having taken a lover during her husband’s 10-year absence, she is furious that Agamemnon sacrificed their daughter, Iphigenia. When Agamemnon brings back a Trojan slave, Cassandra, as his concubine, Clytemnestra grows more enraged. She becomes determined to murder her husband in revenge for his sacrifice of their child. Part of Clytemnestra’s plan involves tricking Agamemnon into walking across a colored tapestry—an act that would indicate his hubris. Though he initially resists, Agamemnon eventually does cross the carpet into the house, where his wife murders him brutally. As the frantic chorus tries to come up with a course of action, the Trojan concubine prophesies the bloody fate of the house of Atreus. In the aftermath of the violence, we are left with a profound sense that these deaths are only the beginning.
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Opening Lines (Experimental)
The year's divisions, bringing frost or fire.
She in whose woman's breast beats heart of man.
The soft repose that would mine eyelids seal.
Not now by honour guided as of old.
With beacon-fire of hope deferred no more.
All hail!
Greetings to fortune, hail!
The hand of him restored, who rules our ...
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Oresteia: Agamemnon
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