A King Goes to War
After recruiting the various kings of the Greek mainland and islands to go to war with Troy, Agamemnon, king of Mycenae, brother of Menelaus, and leader of the Achean (Greek) forces, gathered the combined Greek forces at the port of Aulis with the intention of sailing to Troy, conquering the city, and recovering Menelaus wife, Helen. Behind him, he would leave his wife, Clytemnestra, his son, Orestes, and his three daughters: Iphigenia, Electra, and Chrysothemis.
Before the Greeks could even leave Aulis, however, they were ravaged by a plague and kept in port by a complete absence of winds. An oracle revealed that Artemis, the goddess of the hunt, caused this plight after Agamemnon boasted that he was as good a hunter as she. Artemis refused to let the Greek forces sail to Troy until Agamemnon paid a sacrifice for his arrogance. That sacrifice? His oldest daughter, Iphigenia.
After great deliberation (and possibly some trickery on Iphigenia's part to avoid being sacrificed), Agamemnon performed the sacrifice and set sail for Troy, leaving behind a wounded family and a wife who, understandably, hated him to the pit of her heart.
After great deliberation (and possibly some trickery on Iphigenia's part to avoid being sacrificed), Agamemnon performed the sacrifice and set sail for Troy, leaving behind a wounded family and a wife who, understandably, hated him to the pit of her heart.
Agamemnon at War
Throughout the war at Troy, Agamemnon exuded a kingly authority that allowed him to retain undisputed leadership over the Achaeans even as the war dragged on for years and years. Also a mighty warrior, he was second only to Achilles in prowess and skill at battle. Matters, however, were not always smooth in the Greek camp, and Agamemnon's dispute with Achilles over a captured slave woman, Briseis, nearly cost the Greeks the war after Achilles refused to participate in the fighting until the dispute was resolved. (This is the main storyline of The Odyssey's precursor, The Iliad.)
Achilles did eventually return to the war, and the Greeks, thanks to the daring and ingenuity of Odysseus, eventually penetrated the Trojan defenses and ransacked the city. Amid the destruction and devastation, Agamemnon captured Cassandra, daughter of King Priam of Troy and recipient of a complicated blessing/curse from the god Apollo: she and all her descendants would all be able to perfectly tell the future, but no one would ever believe them. Her own father did not believe her when she predicted the fall of Troy, and Agamemnon would not believe her when she warned him of the tragedy that would befall him when he returned home to Mycenae. |
Sins and Catastrophe
In the years that Agamemnon had been away at war, his wife, Clytemnestra, had started having an affair with Aegisthus, Agamemnon's cousin. Upon learning of Agamemnon's imminent return after a decade of war, Aegisthus and Clytemnestra laid a trap in which they welcomed Agamemnon home as if all was the same as he had left it. Giving her husband a false sense of security, Clytemnestra then surprises him in the bathtub and stabs him to death. The prophetic Cassandra, meanwhile, is standing outside Agamemnon's palace and envisions Agamemnon's death. Realizing that she, too, is fated to die, she then walks inside the palace, where she receives her death at the hands of Clytemnestra and Aegisthus.
This, however, was not the end of the tragedy that would befall the family. For seven years, Aegisthus ruled the throne of Mycenae, but unrest was growing among two of Agamemnon's surviving children: Orestes and his sister, Electra. After Agamemnon's death, Electra had rescued the young Orestes from Aegisthus, who had planned to kill him as well (seeing as he was Agamemnon's legitimate heir). Years later, Orestes returns home fully grown to find that Electra is desperately looking for someone to help her kill her mother and Aegisthus as revenge for their murder of Agamemnon. Electra's sister, Chrysothemis, refuses to help, but, after some coaxing, Electra is able to convince Orestes to kill both their mother and Aegisthus.
This, however, was not the end of the tragedy that would befall the family. For seven years, Aegisthus ruled the throne of Mycenae, but unrest was growing among two of Agamemnon's surviving children: Orestes and his sister, Electra. After Agamemnon's death, Electra had rescued the young Orestes from Aegisthus, who had planned to kill him as well (seeing as he was Agamemnon's legitimate heir). Years later, Orestes returns home fully grown to find that Electra is desperately looking for someone to help her kill her mother and Aegisthus as revenge for their murder of Agamemnon. Electra's sister, Chrysothemis, refuses to help, but, after some coaxing, Electra is able to convince Orestes to kill both their mother and Aegisthus.
The Violence Comes to an End
After killing his mother and the usurper Aegisthus, Orestes finds himself hunted by the Furies, goddesses of vengeance who want to kill him in return for him killing his mother. Orestes flees from city to city, until, with the help of Hermes, he finally arrives in Athens. There, the Furies finally catch him, but the goddess Athena intervenes in the hopes of bringing this potentially endless cycle of revenge-killing to an end. Orestes is judged by a jury of Athena and eleven citizens from Athens, with Apollo serving as Orestes' lawyer and the Furies as the lawyer for the ghost of Clytemnestra, who is calling for her son's death. With the Athenian citizens voting 6-5 in favor of Orestes' death, Athena herself casts the tying vote, which is enough to acquit Orestes. Athena persuades the Furies to accept the jury's decision, arguing that the endless cycle of revenge must end and that mercy must always be prioritized over harshness.
|