Atreus

Retributive Justice in Agamemnon and The Sailor who fell from Grace with the Sea The concept of retributivist justice is best understood as the form of justice ruling that “those who commit certain kinds of wrongful acts, paradigmatically serious crimes, morally deserve to suffer a proportionate punishment” (Walen, 2016). In Aeschylus’s Agamemnon and Yukio Mishima’s The Sailor who fell from Grace with the Sea, the concept of retributive justice influences the emotions and actions of the…

satisfy much deeper and far less worthy human urges. The purpose of the first play is to compel the reader to realize that justice based on revenge creates many difficulties, which it cannot solve, as exhibited by the bloody history of the House of Atreus and its self-perpetuating cycle of violence. The end of the Agamemnon leaves us with the graphic image of a city divided against itself. The city seems to be caught in the metaphorical net that keeps cropping up in the trilogy, from which…

These words were spoken by Kreon in Sophocles’ play, Oedipus the King. The recipient of these words was none other than Oedipus himself, the king of Thebes and Kreon’s brother-in-law. At this point in the plot, Kreon had just returned from the Oracle of Delphi, where he sought answers concerning Apollo’s plague, which was destroying Thebes. For the plague to end, Apollo orders the city to be cleansed. This requires either the exile or execution of the murderer of Laios, Thebes’ former king.…

Aeschylus’s trilogy, The Oresteia, presents one reason for Clytemnestra murdering Agamemnon: as revenge for the sacrificial murder of her daughter, Iphigenia. While this is not the only reason for Clytemnestra’s action, it is the most ambiguous; for example, Clytemnestra presents herself as a devoted mother, but she constantly contradicts her actions with her words. For instance, Clytemnestra, acting as a loving mother, vowed to avenge her daughter’s death, but later on goes to curse her own son…

The Iliad, a series of epic poems originated from Homer and rewritten by Robert Lattimore, includes three main characters: Achilles, Hector, and Agamemnon. All three of the courageous men share common traits which variate with their roles in war effort. Of the three, two are clearly heroes whilst one is almost considered a villain. Many details and quotes can prove the past statement of who the real hero is. Achilles is the true hero of the Iliad for many reasons. Not only is he very humble,…

sacrificed his own daughter Iphigenia, which makes Clytemnestra want to murder him. Another act is the most important which led to the Trojan War; that is the kidnapping of Helen. Finally the most tragic acts of violence was when Agamemnon’s father (Atreus) cooked his own brother’s children and served them to him. It seems like the violence that…

She then devoted herself to hunting and nature, rejecting love. She was the protector of nature and hunt, meaning that all the animals were protected by her. Artemis was very protective of the animals with her. Once King Agamemnon (The son of King Atreus) killed one of Artemis’s sacred stags and then boasted to her that he was a “superior” hunter. In anger, while Agamemnon and his forces were sailing to Troy for the Trojan War, Artemis had the ships unable to move and so they were stuck in the…

anger, doomed and ruinous, and crowded brave souls into the undergloom, leaving so many dead men-carrion for dogs and birds; and the will of Zeus was done. Begin it when the two men first contending broke with one another- The Lord Marshal Agamemnon, Atreus’ son, and Prince Akhilleus. (Fitzgerald, 5) Achilles’ pride has been wounded because Agamemnon has taken his bride, Briseis, to soothe his own wounded pride. As Agamemnon refuses to return Briseis, Achilles’ arrogance causes himself to drop…

excuse, especially the murder of a daughter. Orestes could be tempted to side with his mother now, but he could could not do that either, because his mother did much worse to him directly by banishing him from the country. The curse on the House of Atreus must live…

However, Agamemnon had no choice but to sacrifice Iphigenia or face the wrath of Zeus, so Clytemnestra has no right to be angry. Protector of the guest, Zeus will do everything in his power to make sure Troy falls “Yea, so are the twin children of Atreus By the mightier Zeus Hospitable sent Unto Paris, to fight for a woman who knew many lovers” (Aeschylus 251). Had Agamemnon not sacrificed Iphigenia to summon the…