Clytemnestra

My client Orestes, son of the late king Agamemnon and Clytemnestra, is on trial for the murder of his mother. Athenians of the jury, you have heard testimony today that has painted my client as a ruthless murderer who has sunk so low as to have killed his own family. I implore to look past the duplicitous rhetoric of the prosecution and understand that this is not an issue of murder, but rather justice. Orestes may have very well killed his mother, but we must stop and think about why a son, who has always been loyal to his family would be pushed to such drastic actions. Clytemnestra is not innocent mother that the furies depict her as. She herself was a murderer, who plotted and succeeded in killing her husband. King Agamemnon who had to sacrifice…

Medea and Clytemnestra are two iconic transgressive female characters in classic literature. In Euripides’ Medea, the female powerhouse Medea is presented as a ruthlessly strong female whose actions can make the audience squirm. In Aeschylus’ Agamemnon, Clytemnestra is painted as a bold female who seethes revenge and successfully gets it. Both women are undeniably strong, and given their situations, Clytemnestra is the more sympathetic character. As for the theme of feminism in the plays…

Agamemnon suffers an untimely death by the hand of his dear wife, Clytemnestra in the first book, Agamemnon, of the trilogy, The Oresteia. He is very angered by this act of treason and would be likely to seek revenge upon Clytemnestra through his son, Orestes in the book Choephoroe part of the trilogy, The Oresteia. Agamemnon firmly believes people should be held responsible for their actions. Although, Agamemnon would still want Orestes to take revenge upon Clytemnestra, because Agamemnon…

their conclusions and the overarching themes of the trilogy come to their dénouement. One of the strongest overarching themes of the trilogy is the good/bad male/female dichotomy which intended to influence our reading of the text and the way in which we interpret what is right or wrong. This is very much a gendered battle – what is “female” is seen as bad, in the same category as the uncivilised, the chaos and darkness. This is represented through the Furies and Clytemnestra acting under and…

In Aeschylus’ Agamemnon and Lysias 1, the characterization of Clytemnestra and Agamemnon’s relationship is similar with Euphiletos and his wife; however, when we focus on the character’s specific gender roles, they are immensely different. Both marriages are built on deceit and lies. They also revolve around the concept of adultery but each individual responds in a certain way that is unique to their role. On one side, Euphiletos murders the adulterer, Eratosthenes, and defends himself as being…

commit a crime. The play, The Oresteia by Aeschylus, contains question in this idea by featuring a character named Clytemnestra who does something controversial and receives a questionable or unquestionable punishment depending on one’s opinion. Clytemnestra puts forth many controversial actions throughout the story, mainly in the first part of the play, “Agamemnon”. The case that builds against Clytemnestra’s innocence is the killings of Agamemnon and Cassandra with her expression about the…

Short writing #3 The death of Iphigenia was mainly because Agamemnon killed a holy stag which made Artemis, goddess of the wilderness super irate. She had to get him back, so she stopped the winds so that the army could not sail to Troy. Agamemnon had to have his daughter killed in spite of that. Clytemnestra needed revenge for Agamemnon killing her so she killed him. She plans the murder with brutal tenacity and feels no remorse after his death. She is convinced of her own uprightness…

manuscript, is a follow up of the book The Iphigenia and follows Agamemnon’s wife, Queen Clytemnestra, murder of Agamemnon after the Trojan war. The story of the Oresteia is a long Greek play made to explain the new Athenian legal system supposedly made by the goddess Athena in the third act of the play. The main idea of the Oresteia is that injustice and morality, as the blood must be eliminated if society is ever to attain to a high level of social organization. This can only be done by the…

working towards a better society for the citizens of Athens. This is clearly supported through the trial set forth by Athena, the speech given by Apollo during the trial, and the slow deconstruction of Orestes’ family throughout The Oresteia. The argument set forth by Saxonhouse, describes a society envisioned by Aeschylus while the actual Athens was being founded, where its citizens move past the ancient traditions that focused on protecting one’s family, to a society that relied upon its…

though Telemachus hasn’t seen Odysseus since he was an infant, he remained loyal to his father throughout the twenty years that he was missing. With the help of his son’s trust and devotion Odysseus was able to save Telemachus and himself from a tragic ending. Although Agamemnon’s fate was different from Odysseus’, there was a similarity in their lives and that was their sons’ loyalty to them. Although Clytemnestra turned on her husband and ended up ending his life with the help of her suitor,…