Tantalus and Agamemnon

Tantalus and His Descendants

• This week's topic is Tantalus and his descendants.
• The reading assignment is Aeschylus' tragedy Agamemnon, as Agamemnon was one of Tantalus' descendants.
• The trilogy that the Agamemnon belongs to is called the Oresteia, which tells the story of Orestes, son of Agamemnon.
• The other two tragedies in the trilogy, The Libation Bearers and The Eumenides, will not be required reading.

Summary of Tantalus and the Tantalids

• Tantalus was a powerful King who sometimes dined with the Olympian Gods.
• Tantalus killed his son Pelops, cut him into pieces, and cooked him in a stew to test the gods.
• All the gods knew not to eat the stew except Demeter, who ate a piece due to her grief for Persephone.
• The rest of the gods realized the stew was made of a person and refused to eat it.
• The gods put Pelops back together, replacing the bit of his shoulder Demeter ate with an ivory prosthesis.
• Tantalus was punished in Tartarus; he was tantalized with food and water.
• He was made to stand in a pool of water which would recede when he tried to drink, and a fruit tree’s branch would blow out of reach when he tried to eat.
• “Tantalize” is the etymology of this punishment.

Pelops

• Pelops grew up and wanted to marry Hippodamia.
• Hippodamia's father Oenomaeus raced suitors in chariots and killed them if they lost, though this gave them a chance to escape if they won.
• Pelops hired Myrtilus, Oenomaeus' charioteer, to sabotage Oenomaeus' chariot, leading to Oenomaeus' death in a crash and Pelops winning the race.
• Pelops then killed Myrtilus for attempting to rape Hippodamia, and Myrtilus cursed Pelops and his descendants.
• Pelops and Hippodamia had two sons, Atreus and Thyestes

Atreus and Thyestes

• Atreus and Thyestes argued over who should be king of Mycenae or Argos.
• Atreus took the throne and exiled Thyestes
• To complicate the argument, Thyestes was having an affair with Atreus’ wife, Aerope.
• When Atreus found out about the affair, he pretended to reconcile with his brother, inviting Thyestes to a feast.
• Atreus had already kidnapped and murdered Thyestes’ sons, cooking them into a stew that Thyestes ate at dinner.
• Atreus told Thyestes that he had just eaten his sons, horrifying Thyestes.
• Thyestes went back into exile with his surviving son, Aegisthus.

The Sons of Atreus

• Atreus had two sons, Agamemnon and Menelaus, also called the Atreides or Atreidae ("descendants of Atreus").
• Agamemnon married Clytaemestra and became king of Argos/Mycenae.
• Menelaus married Helen and became king of Sparta.
• Agamemnon and Clytaemestra have three children: Iphigeneia, Electra, and Orestes.
• Calchas told Agamemnon to sacrifice Iphigeneia for the Greeks to sail to Troy.
• The sacrifice worked, and Agamemnon and the Greek army sailed to Troy, fought for ten years, and won the war.
• While Agamemnon was away, Aegisthus started an affair with Clytaemestra, and they sent Orestes away to live in Phocis.

Aeschylus' Agamemnon

• The play begins when Agamemnon comes back from the Trojan War.
• The start of the play is the watchman in Argos seeing the watchfire lit indicating that Troy has fallen.
• Clytaemestra had set up a relay system of signal fires.
• Agamemnon is the first part of the trilogy: Agamemnon, The Libation Bearers (aka Choephoroi), and The Eumenides.
• The trilogy is called The Oresteia because the main character of the second two plays is Orestes.

Unusual Trilogy

• It is unusual that three tragedies in a trilogy performed on the same occasion as part of a tetralogy at the City Dionysia are a single, continuous narrative.
• More often, each of the three tragedies in a trilogy are each a separate myth.
• Sophocles' Theban trilogy of Antigone, Oedipus the King, and Oedipus at Colonus aren't performed as a trilogy at a single City Dionysia, but as parts of different trilogies over the years.
• The Oresteia is the one surviving trilogy of tragedies that tells a single story over three plays.

Slide 7's Facts about The Oresteia

• The author of the trilogy is Aeschylus, the first and oldest of the three Athenian tragedians.
• Aristotle credits Aeschylus with increasing the number of actors in tragedy from two to three.
• The title of the whole trilogy is the Oresteia.
• The title of the first of the three tragedies is the Agamemnon.
• The first production of the Oresteia was at the City Dionysia of 458 BCE.
• The original production was in Athens and in Attic Greek.

Slide 8: Oresteia Summary

• Agamemnon returns from Troy with his prisoner Cassandra, a Trojan princess who is now Agamemnon's enslaved sex slave, while he lives with Clytaemestra.
• Apollo loved Cassandra, giving her the gift of prophecy but cursing her so that nobody would ever believe her prophecies.
• Agamemnon arrives home with Cassandra, and Clytaemestra welcomes him home and pretends to be happy, but then she and her lover Aegisthus kill him.
• Clytaemestra emerges from the house and gives a speech to the chorus justifying her actions.
• Clytaemestra says that she had good reasons to kill Agamemnon, especially his punishment for killing their daughter Iphigeneia.

The Libation Bearers

• Orestes returns from Phocis with a friend, Pylades.
• Electra and a chorus of women carrying jars of oil as libations arrive at Agamemnon's grave; they decide to pray for vengeance.
• Orestes vows vengeance against Clytaemestra and Aegisthus for killing his father, Agamemnon.
• He goes to the palace, confronts Clytaemestra, and kills both her and Aegisthus.
• Orestes sees the Furies appear, though nobody else can see them.
• The Furies are chthonic goddesses who punish people who have harmed family members or guests.

The Eumenides

• The Furies persecute Orestes for killing his mother, so he flees to Athens for sanctuary.
• Orestes has gone to the temple of Apollo and been purified for killing his mother, but the Furies refuse to respect that and keep chasing him.
• Athena sets up a jury trial in Athens at which the Furies prosecute Orestes and Apollo defends him.
• The jury is tied, so Athena casts the deciding vote for acquittal.
• Athena placates the Furies by giving them a home under the ground in Athens, where they will be called the Eumenides or Kindly Ones.
• instead of persecuting people in Athens, they will ensure that internally the Athenians get along with each other, and instead they will direct their aggression outward against non-Athenian enemies.
• They used to be the goddesses who protected the family and punished people who did violence within the family, but now they'll be goddesses who protect the polis, punishing people who do violence within the polis to preserve the integrity of the whole community.

The Oresteia as a Story of Domestic Violence

• The Oresteia is a story of a cycle of domestic violence that passes from generation to generation, until the Athenian state apparatus steps in to halt the cycle.
• Agamemnon killed his daughter Iphigeneia, and in revenge his wife, Clytaemestra, killed him.
• Then in revenge for that, Orestes killed Clytaemestra.
• Violence begets more violence, and people who suffer violence in one generation become perpetrators of violence in the next generation.
• State intervention tries to stop these cycles.
• The state tries to stay out of internal family affairs.
• The oikos is its own thing, and it is ruled internally by a head of the household, and what happens in the family stays in the family.
• But sometimes, what happens in the family is illegal, and the polis steps into the oikos to halt the cycle of violence.

Themes in the Trilogy

• Family vs law
• Transition from chthonic to Olympian gods
• Cycles of violent vengeance and how to end them
• Building a larger community out of multiple households

Slide 10: Excerpt from Choir Ode

• The chorus quotes Calchas, the prophet of the Greek army, who told Agamemnon to sacrifice Iphigeneia.
• Calchas prays to Apollo, the healer to allow the Greek army to sail without sacrificing a child.
• He remembers they couldn't sail without sacrificing Iphigeneia and knows that's bad news, as there awaits an avenger who will avenge the child.
• He knows violence begets more violence, so he prays not to have to sacrifice another child.
• Journeys home, the nostoi did not go smoothly, but at least they weren't kept in Troy by an adverse wind.
• Unfortunately for Agamemnon, it was already too late for him.
• He killed Iphigeneia, and an avenger waits for him at home.

Beginning of the Play

• The watchman notices the signal fire announcing Agamemnon is coming home.
• Clytaemestra, who set up the fire signal system, tells the chorus of elders that that's the news.
• They're kind of skeptical.
• She is sure of herself and she's not stupid.
• Eventually, the chorus is persuaded that she's probably right, and the chorus leader tells her to give thanks for the good news.

Slide 11: Chorus leader's statement

• "Lady, you have spoken wisely, like a sensible man; and having heard trustworthy evidence from you, I am preparing to address the gods in an appropriate manner, for a reward, which ought not to go unhonoured, has been given in return for our sufferings."
• This passage helps set up a gender dynamic in the play.
• The leader of the chorus tells Clytaemestra that she has spoken wisely, like a sensible man.
• The implication is that men are sensible and women are not, but Clytaemestra is a good woman here because she is acting and speaking sensibly.

Clytaemestra's Authority

• In normal circumstances, the elders would demand that a man be in charge of Argos, but while Agamemnon was away, they have accepted Clytaemestra's authority.
• The elders do not think that women are normally capable of occupying leadership roles.
• It's appropriate for a woman to have some authority while her husband is away, but they have to give thanks when he returns to take over.
• When she's capable and clever, the chorus compliment her by saying that she's like a man.
• That will be a thing to watch out for in the trilogy, where Clytaemestra gets presented as a masculine woman.
• It makes her sensible and capable, but it also turns out to be bad, because when a capable woman takes charge, it upsets the normal order of power, and men like Agamemnon had better watch out.

Zeus, hospitality, and Hubris

• The chorus offers their prayer of thanks and their comments on Zeus, the god of hospitality.
• The chorus comments on the Trojan War and Alexander/Paris violating hospitality.
• Alexander visited Menelaus and seduced and went away with Helen.
• Zeus took vengeance on Alexander, killing him in the Trojan War.
• The chorus continues that same ode and the theme of the gods punishing serious violations of the principles of good civilization, and they also talk about hubris.
• They sing about how some mortals trample underfoot the grace of sacred things because they have no respect for sacred things.
• Paris just disrespected hospitality—he trampled on it.
• The gods punish Paris for criticizing excessive wealth.

Orientalism: Stereotypes About Asia

• In Ancient Greek literature and culture, one of the negative stereotypes about Asia is that Asian people are rich and arrogant about their wealth.
• The cities and kingdoms east of the Aegean were wealthier than Greek cities.
• Greek literature associates that with arrogance

Paris and Wealth

• The Persian Empire had a king, which made everyone else unfree, a wild arrogance and hubris on the part of the king.
• One orientalist stereotype is that the Persians are all wealthy and therefore lazy and decadent.
• Another is that the Persian Empire is ruled by an arrogant king who has all the wealth and makes everyone else in Persia unfree.
• Aeschylus could imagine that the Greeks had been victorious and resisted conquest by the Achaemenid Empire because they were free and democratic, or at least oligarchic, while the Persians were softened and corrupted by their wealth.

Warning to Athenian Audience

• The passage talks about how when one generation puffs itself up and displays wealth in excess of what is right, they, or future generations of that family are punished by the gods.
• That makes sense for democratic Athens, as a highly unequal society hoards wealth and power for the one percent.
• Societies pass sumptuary laws limit the display of wealth to not incite jealousy.
• It's not wise to be so arrogant in your display of wealth.
• The chorus sings that there is no defense against surfeit or excess of wealth.
• It's a warning to the Athenian audience.

Lack of Trust for Clytaemestra as a Woman

• The chorus questions whether Clytaemestra is correct that Agamemnon is on the way home.
• They decide that they can't trust her because she is a woman.
• "It is just like a woman in command"
• "A woman's ordinance is too persuasive, gaining much ground and quickly flourishing; but quickly perishing, a rumour proclaimed by a woman vanishes."

The Chorus's Misogyny

• The misogyny of the chorus becomes clearer.
• They link good sense with masculinity and criticize Clytaemestra for celebrating Agamemnon's return too early.
• The signal fire message is unreliable, so they can't be sure Agamemnon is really on the way home, but women's lack of good sense makes them too quick and credulous to believe it.
• The chorus is wrong about this.
• Clytaemestra is right and Agamemnon really is on the way home.
• The context of the play suggests that the chorus are wrong about women.
• The Oresteia is not that feminist either.
• Clytaemestra is a smart, capable, and strong woman, but she's also the villain of the first part of the trilogy, killing her husband and being punished for that in the second tragedy.

Slide 15: Clytaemestra's Words

• With Agamemnon's arrival imminent and even the chorus believes he's there, Clytaemestra says “Damn right he's here. I told you that twenty pages ago!"
• Passage: "I raised a cry of triumphant joy long ago, when the first nocturnal fire-messenger came, telling of the capture and destruction of Ilium; and some rebuked me and said, “Have beacon-watchers persuaded you to believe that Troy is now a sacked city? How very like a woman, to let her heart take flight!” By such words they tried to show me up as one deranged; but nevertheless I made sacrifices, and throughout the city one person here, another there, began loudly raising the auspicious cry of triumph according to women's custom, while they lulled the altar-flames in the gods' abodes by feeding them with sweet-smelling incense. And now what need is there for you to tell me about it more fully? I shall hear the whole story from the king himself. I will make haste to give my honourable husband the best possible welcome when he comes home. What light could be sweeter than this for a wife to behold, when she opens the door to a husband whom god has brought safe home from the wars?"
• This passage is a vindication for Clytaemestra; she throws it in the chorus' faces that they were wrong.
• Passage makes us feel uncomfortable about her vindication and makes us feel uneasy.
• Clytaemestra is not actually happy that he's coming home, because she has a chance to kill him.

Slide 16: A Trap

• Clytaemestra continues to pretend that she's happy that Agamemnon is here.
• Agamemnon stops just outside of town and sends messengers to get the lay of the land, and Clytaemestra sends back word that everything is good, and he should come home.
• Here is what she says: "Report this back to my lord, and tell him to come with all speed, for his city passionately desires him. May he come to find the wife in his palace just as faithful as when he left her, a watchdog of the house, friendly to him and hostile to those who wished him ill, and loyal in all other respects too, having broken no seal in all this long time; and I know no more of pleasure from another man, or of scandalous rumour, than I do of the tempering of steel. Such is my boast, and, being full of truth, it is not a disgraceful one for a noble woman to utter."
• She says that she knows as much about tempering steel as she does about having sex with anyone but Agamemnon, which is to say that she is lying.
• Clytaemestra has been having an affair with Aegisthus.
• The chorus knows they should interpret her speech differently and it's plausible, but also deceptive.

Slide 17: Agamemnon Arrives

• Clytaemestra welcomes him and gives a long speech about how wonderful it is that he's home.
• Agamemnon replies: "Daughter of Leda, guardian of my house, you have made a speech that was like my absence-you stretched it out to a great length; but to be fittingly praised is an honour that ought to come to me from others. For the rest, do not pamper me as if I were a woman; do not fall to the ground before me and utter open-mouthed cries in the manner of a barbarian; and do not strew my path with clothing and thereby make it invidious. It is gods, you know, who should be honoured with such objects; to my mind, for a mortal to tread on beautiful embroideries cannot be anything but perilous. I tell you to revere me like a man, not a god. It is cryingly obvious that the words “embroidered" and "doormat" don't go well together; and good sense is the greatest of god's gifts. A man should be called fortunate only when he has finished his life in the prosperity that all desire. If I am one who will act consistently on these principles, I have nothing to fear."

Agamemnon's Misogyny

• Agamemnon's first words to his wife after he hasn't seen her for ten years is rude.
• There's a hint of misogyny there too, in that it is an Ancient Greek stereotype that women talk too much, also combined with orientalism.
• Pericles said that the greatest virtue of Athenian women was their silence.
• Women enjoy luxury and softness, and that it's not masculine to want or receive those things.
• Men are tough and aren't barbarians, but also do not display excessive wealth.
• Agamemnon does not want to enter the house by walking on these expensive robes because he thinks it's too arrogant a display of wealth and will provoke envy.
• It's connected with his misogyny and orientalism, because he thinks that walking on soft cloth is a luxury that women and barbarians indulge in, but austere and tough Greek men don't, displaying toxic masculinity.
• He should be revered as a man and not a god.
• He says, "for a mortal to tread on beautiful embroideries cannot be anything but perilous” to trigger the earlier memory of the chorus and hubris.
• Nobody should be counted fortunate until they are dead.
• He thinks his life is pretty good, and he doesn't want to become so arrogant or hubristic that he invites the gods to punish him with a great misfortune.

Cassandra

• Agamemnon walks into the house on the robes, a mistake. Clytaemestra kills him.
• Violence that happens inside the building gets reported in words rather than being acted out.
• Cassandra reports that Agamemnon goes inside and reports it on the stage, saying: "Oh, oh! See, see! Keep the bull away from the cow! She traps him in the robe, the black-horned contrivance, and strikes-and he falls into the tub full of water. I am telling you of the device that worked treacherous murder in a bath."
• This passage shows us that Agamemnon really shouldn't have walked on the robes.
• Clytaemestra is able to use the robes to tangle him up so that he can't fight back and then trip him into a bath full of water and kill him.
• Slide 19: Cassandra talks more about the royal house of Argos. "There is a group of singers that never leaves this house. They sing in unison, but not pleasantly, for their words speak of evil. Moreover, this revel-band drinks human blood, thus emboldening itself, and then remains in the house, hard to send away- the band of the house's kindred Furies. Besetting the chambers of the house, they sing a song of the ruinous folly that first began it all, and one after another they show their abhorrence of the brother's bed that worked harm to him who defiled it. Am I in error, or have I, like an archer, scored a hit? Or am I a lying prophet, a doorknocker, a worthless blabberer? Testify, on your oath, that you have not heard tell of, and do not know about, these old crimes of this house."
• We get a preview of the role of the Furies in the third play as a group of singers, a chorus, unseen until The Eumenides.
• The passage is about the cycle of violence within a family.
• Slide 20: More from Cassandra "And now he, the Seer, has collected his debt from me, the seer, by hauling me off to this deadly fate; and instead of my father's altar, what awaits me is a butcher's block, still warm with the bloody slaughter of the man cut down before me. Nevertheless, we shall not, in death, remain unavenged by the gods. There will come yet another to take vengeance for us, an offspring that will kill his mother and exact requital for his father. An exile, a wanderer, banished from this land, he will return to put the coping-stone on these disasters for his family; for the gods have sworn a great oath that his father's corpse lying helpless will draw him back."
• Cassandra knows that Apollo has punished her and she is about to be killed.
• She foretells that Orestes will kill his mother, that he will be a coping-stone on the disasters for his family.

After Death

• Slide 21: Clytaemestra makes her case for why she killed Agamemnon to the chorus. "I have said many things hitherto to suit the needs of the moment, and I shall not be ashamed to contradict them now. How else could anyone, pursuing hostilities against enemies who think they are friends, set up their hunting-nets to a height too great to overleap? This showdown was something that had long been in my thoughts, arising from a long-standing grievance; now it has come-at long last. I stand where I struck, with my work accomplished. I did it this way-I won't deny it-so that he could neither escape death nor defend himself. I staked out around him an endless net, as one does for fish-a wickedly opulent garment. Then I struck him twice, and on the spot, in the space of two cries, his limbs gave way; and when he had fallen I added a third stroke, in thanksgiving to the Zeus of the underworld, the saviour of the dead, for the fulfilment of my prayers."
• Clytaemestra explains to the chorus that she was lying about welcoming Agamemnon home.
• She was setting a trap for Agamemnon, setting a net.
• She set up a net of robes and she tangled Agamemnon up in them, and she stabbed him three times with her own hand, and he died.
• This was a chthonic sacrifice, killing him in thanks to the Zeus of the underworld, that is, to Hades.
• The chorus are shocked and appalled that Clytaemestra has killed her husband, their king.
• Slide 22: _"Chorus: We are amazed at your language-the arrogance of it-uttering boastful words like these over your husband! Clytaemestra: You are making trial of me as if I were a stupid woman. But I say to you, with undaunted heart, what you know to be true-and I am indifferent to whether you choose to praise or condemn me: this is Agamemnon, my husband, a corpse, the work of this right hand of mine, an artificer of justice. That's how it is."
• The chorus blame Clytaemestra and can't believe how arrogant she is. But she doesn't care what they think.
• She is confident that she has done the right thing.
• Slide 23: Clytaemestra continues to make her case. "You will now also hear this righteous oath I swear: by the fulfilled Justice that was due for my child, by Ruin and by the Fury, through whose aid I slew this man, no fearful apprehension stalks my house, so long as the fire upon my hearth is kindled by Aegisthus and he remains loyal to me as hitherto; for he is an ample shield of confidence for me. Here lies this abuser of his wife, the charmer of Chryseis and the rest at Troy, and with him this captive, this soothsayer, this chanter of oracles who shared his bed, this faithful consort, this cheap whore of the ship's benches. But they have not gone without their due reward: he is as he is, while she, after singing, swan-like, her final dirge of death, lies here, his lover-and to me she has brought a choice side-dish to the pleasure in which I luxuriate."
• Clytaemestra was angry because of the justice due to her child from Agamemnon killing Iphigeneia.
• Clytaemestra was angry at Agamemnon’s abuse of wife, Chryseis, etc and Cassandra. Like Odysseus, Clytaemestra doesn't care whether Chryseis or Cassandra consented to sex with Agamemnon.

Cycle of Violence

• Clytaemestra and the chorus: Slide 24 "Insult comes in return for insult, and it is a hard struggle to judge. The ravager is ravaged, the killer pays; it remains firm while Zeus remains on his throne that he who does shall suffer, for that is his ordinance. Who can cast the seed of the curse out of the house? The family is glued fast to ruin."
• If insult returns insult, when violence is punishment for violence, they can no longer tell what the right side is.
• This family is stuck in this curse of violence.
• The chorus turns on Aegisthus, but Clytaemestra steps in to stop the fight.
• “Dearest of men, please let us not do further harm. What we have is enough to have reaped, a terrible harvest. There is sufficient grief already: let us not get blood on our hands. Go now, honourable elders, to your homes, before you suffer."
• She prevents further violence--to prevent Aegisthus and the chorus from fighting.
• Violence has been necessary and she didn't have any choice.
• It was an untenable situation.
• It was necessary the murder of Agamemnon.
• She hopes that this can be the end of the violence.
• Reminiscent of the end of the Odyssey.

The Libation Bearers

• Slide 27: Excerpt from The Libation Bearers _"Chorus: Then mention those guilty of the murder, and against them- Electra: What should I say? Explain and instruct me; I have no experience. Chorus: Ask for some god, or some mortal, to come against them- Electra: Do you mean a judge, or an avenger? Chorus: Say simply: one who will take life for life. Electra: And is this a righteous thing for me to ask of the gods? Chorus: How could it not be-to return your enemy evil for evil?"

Revenge

• Electra in this passage is not sure if it's right for her to pray for an avenger.
• Should she just let things lie as they are and not hope for more violence?
• The chorus say that of course it's not wrong.
• Violence for violence is right.
• Violence for violence is right.
• It is good to wish for harm upon your enemies.
• That is vengeful justice is associated with chthonic deities. "Well, it is certainly the law that when drops of gore flow to the ground, they demand other blood; for slaughter cries out for a Fury who comes from those who perished before to bring further ruin upon ruin."
• The chorus call for ruin upon ruin; if blood has been spilled, it calls out for more blood and vengeance. O misery bred in the family! O bloody, discordant stroke of Ruin! Ió, lamentable, unbearable sorrows! Ió, pain so hard to bring to an end! It is the house that must provide the plug for this wound, and the cure cannot come from others outside, but from members of the house itself, through cruel, bloody Strife. This is the song of the gods beneath the earth. Now hear this prayer, blessed underworld powers, and send aid willingly to the children, for victory!"
• The chorus prays to the gods below for vengeance, lamenting the cruel.
• The cure of violence must come from inside the house and not from outside of it.

Oikos and Polis

• Oikos=family
• Polis=city

Clytaemnestra and Orestes

• Slide 30: Orestes arrives at Argos and with Electra and the chorus, he goes to the house, but he disguises with his friend Pylades and they act like travellers asking for hospitality.
• "Strangers, please tell me anything you need. We have here just the kinds of things that befit a house like this - hot baths, good bedding to soothe away your fatigue, and the company of honest faces. If anything else needs to be done that calls for more deliberation, then that is a job for men, and we will communicate it to them."

Scene of Hospitality

• Should trigger memories for you: especially as Clytaemestra greets these young men as strangers, as xenoi.
• Clytaemestra is more powerful than Aegisthus, but she still takes care not to step too far out of the place of a woman, noting that she'll step aside if they have men's business to discuss.
• The serious violation of hospitality belongs to Orestes by lying and about to kill his hostess.
• Slide 31: Orestes with who he is: "Orestes: What, you expect to share my home, after killing my father? Clytaemestra: Destiny, my child, shares the responsibility for these events. Orestes: Then Destiny has been the cause of this coming death too! Clytaemestra: Have you no respect for a parent's curse, my child? Orestes: You gave birth to me-and then threw me out into misery. Clytaemestra: I did not throw you out; I sent you to the house of a friend and ally. Orestes: I was the son of a free man, and was ignominiously sold. Clytaemestra: Well, where is the price that I received in exchange? Orestes: Decency forbids me to reproach you with that openly. Clytaemestra: No, you should speak equally of your father's lustful follies."
• The home is by right of inheritance.
• The circumstances are beyond our control.

Double Standard

• Orestes says the home is his and she has to leave, but she says it is destiny.
• Orestes defends the double standard. Orestes: Don't censure the man who toiled away while you were sitting at home. Clytaemestra: It's painful for women, child, to be kept apart from their man. Orestes: But it's the man's labour that feeds the women sitting at home. Clytaemestra: You seem, my child, to be on the point of killing your mother. Orestes: It is not I that will kill you: you will have killed yourself. Clytaemestra: Take care! Beware your mother's wrathful hounds! Orestes: But how am I to escape my father's, if I fail to do this? Clytaemestra: It looks as though I am making a useless living dirge to a tomb. Orestes: Yes, for my father's blood determines this doom for you. Clytaemestra: Ah me, this is the snake I bore and nourished! The dream that terrified me was truly prophetic indeed! Orestes: You killed the one whom you ought not; now suffer what you ought not!"
• The snake dream.
• She is the snake.
• Orestes is now crazy and irrational.

Aftermath

• Orestes kills Clytemnestra, and he immediately has trouble processing it.
• Slide 33: He killed her: "Behold also, you who are hearing of these crimes, the contrivance that imprisoned my wretched father, that fettered his arms and bound his feet together. [To his attendants] Spread it out, standing beside it in a circle, and display the device that made him helpless, the garment to cover a man which he could not strip off, in order that the Father may see it-I don't mean my father, but him who has been watching over all these events-so that he may one day appear for me in a trial, to testify that I was justified in pursuing this killing of my mother. (I don't count the death of Aegisthus; he has received the due punishment of an adulterer, in accordance with custom.)"

Draco's Law

• If a man walks in on another man in the act of having sex with the first man's wife, and if that first man kills the adulterer, that doesn't count as murder and shouldn't be punished.
• Aegisthus is minor or not worth taking into account.
• The deaths must be w/in the family to count such as Clytaemnestra and Agamemnon are important.
• The killings have to do w Furies concerned about violence with families.
• Slide 34
• The Furies finally show up. And they are driving him nuts now. _"I am already, as a horse-driver might say, charioteering somewhat off the track; my mind is almost out of control and carrying me along half-overpowered, and Terror is near my heart, ready to sing and to dance to Wrath's tune - but while I still have my wits, I make proclamation to my friends and