Aeschylus Trilogy Agamemnon: Themes
Sami ul Haq
Madam Atyha Rehman
Greek and Classical Drama
30 August, 2014
Themes of Agamemnon
by Aeschylus
Before going for the themes of Agamemnon,
let us have a look at the history of drama. It is traced back to Greek, 6th
century BC, Thespis Aeschylus and Euripides.
Aeschylus wrote about seventy
plays . Agamemnon is a part of “The
Orestia of Aeschylus”, it begins with a watchman on the duty at the roof of the
palace at Argos, waiting for a signal “Fall of Troy to Greek armies”. A bacon
flashes, and he rushed to inform
Clytemnestra[1],
Chorus enters and tells how a Trojan prince stole Helen [2],
leading to 10 years of war between Greek and Troy. Chorus then recalls how
Agamemnon sacrificed Iphigenia, resultantly his wife killed him and his
Cassandra then she joined Augustus.
Major themes of Agamemnon are the
following:
(i)Payback/ justice and revenge (ii)Fate ,curse/ Fate and free will (iii)Maturity through suffering (iv) Crises
of domestic life (v) Fear and (vi) Gender: Sparta king and God versus Argos
Queen . Brief discussion of these themes are as under:
Payback/ justice and revenge:
(I)
Agamemnon shoot down a bird which was sacred to
God Atreus: plague and stopping of wind happened (payback/Justice/Revenge)
(II)
Agamemnon sacrificed his daughter Iphigenia and
get a favorable wind for Greek fleets (payback/Justice/Revenge)
(III)
Agamemnon and Cassandra killed by Clytemnestra
to avenge death of Iphigenia. (payback/Revenge)
(IV)
Agamemnon commanded the united Greek armed
forces in ensuing Trojan war ,upon return he was murdered by Augustus[3]
(according to odyssey) and in some versions Clytemnestra did the killings
herself , some says they both did that. Augustus told Agamemnon: “Your dad hurt my siblings and my dad; so I hurt you”
(payback/Justice/Revenge)
(V)
Chorus declares that Clytemnistra’s son Orestes
will return from exile to avenge his father: and Orestes did the same by killing Clytemnestra and Augustus with
the encouragement of Electra (payback/Justice/Revenge)
Fate
,curse/ Fate and free will:
Atreus kill Thyestes children
and served to him for dinner; Thyrestes then calling out “so perish all the race of Pleisthenes ! ” this
was a curse and
It was the fate due to which Agamemnon shoot down a bird sacred to God. The
result was curse in shape of plague and stopping of wind. Chorus says that
before Iphigenia’s sacrifice Agamemnon “Put the
yoke strap of compulsion”[4]. This means that he
considered it as right and according to his free will so we can say that fate
,curse/ Fate and free will is also a main theme of this drama.
Maturity
through suffering:
It
is said that maturity comes through sufferings as was the case of “Adam Bede”
but there is also a wise saying that do
not learn by your own mistakes, but learn from the mistakes of others. In
Agamemnon chorus declares that Zeus makes mortals “Suffer
and learn”[5] so it also is another of the theme.
Crises
of domestic life:
Thyestes[6]
had an affair with Atreus’s wife ; in revenge Atreus[7]
kill Thyestes children and served to him for dinner; Augustus kill Agamemnon
directly or through Clytemnestra; Clytemnestra
kill her husband and joined Augustus; later Orestes avenge by killing
Augustus and Clytemnestra: in all these affairs we can see family and domestic
affairs side by side so this also is one
of the theme of this play.
Fear:
A common saying that spare a rod
and spoil a child : Agamemnon was believer in this saying as for as his wife
was concerned. He thought that one could be a good ruler if one mistreats his
family . killings of children is a fear, Iphigenia’s sacrifice was also a
sacrifice and fear, Plague a fear, stopping of wind a fear, Agamemnon and
Cassandra’s murder a fear, Chorus predictions about Orestus return for avenge
is also a fear so we can see that fear is prevalent throughout the play which
is a major theme.
Gender : Sparta king and God versus Argos
Queen:
Agamemnon
was regarded as highest monarch and in Sparta he was worshipped under title
“Zeus Agamemnon”but his over exalted opinion of his position led him to insult
Chrysies and Achilles and brought disaster upon Greek. On the other hands
females were treated badly and considered irrational as chorus described “How women are irrational and do not pay attention to
facts” we can also see how Clytemnestra kill her husband and join
Augustus so this is another shade of the theme of this play.
References
and Bibliography
1.
Garvie,A.F.
Choephori:Introduction.London:
Oxford U. P,1986.Print
2.
Knox,
Bernard. The Odyssey:Trans by Robert Fagles,Penguin Books,1996. ISBN 978-0-14-026886-7.
3.
Aeschylus,
Agamemnon, 1389
4.
Aeschylus,
Agamemnon, 1602
5.
Wikipedia
the free Encyclopedia
No comments:
Post a Comment