Greek Tragedies
Title/Subject:Agamemnon
Throughout theatrical history, themes of death, power, greed, betrayal and fate reoccur time and time again. Agamemnon proves itself no different. As I read on, the similar themes kept showing themselves; behold is Helen's power of beauty, in Greek Mythology, the goddess of love, Aphrodite expelled beauty's power to achieve her goals. During this play, I found multiple instances of common Greek myths. The prophecies reminded me of Oedipus Rex and Oedipus' journey to escape his fate, yet ironically only traps himself into the situation. Another play where prophecies play a crucial role was Shakespeare's MacBeth, the three haggard witches prophesize MacBeth's greatness and rise to power, thereby deeply impacting MacBeth's future. Death played a vital role as well, reminding me of oh so many Shakespearean and Greek Tragedies, the best examples I think of are Hamlet and Medea - where Death not only creates drama, but character motivation and reactions which broaden the storyline. When Aegisthus' brothers are served as dinner, this reminded me of the Greek Myth of Zeus, eating his children.
Shakespeare seemed to be one of the most prominent authors whose stories correlated with Agamemnon. Not only the themes, but the lyrical type which the play was narrated, connecting sharing links. But like I already stated, this also seemed like a typical Greek Myth, complete with death, fate and just a dash of cannabalism to spice it up a bit.
posted by Taylor @ 10:02 PM
2 Comments:
Your references to shakespeare's work is well founded in that most of his stuff is adaptatioin or versions of ancient myths. In Midsummer Night's Dream he even has the player do the play Pyramus and Thisbe, a classic Greek love story. By alluding to other plays you set up a base by which we can see historical progress from ancient greece to today.
I really liked the way you wrote this mediation. It felt like I was talking to you when I read it, not like it was some technical essay. You might want to include some quotes to back up you idea about Shakespeare and Agamemnon being connected by the way they are written. Overall it was a strong mediation, you might want to reread it, there are a couple of places that were kind of awkward to read. I marked the places that need to be looked at again. I loved the last line, it summed up exactly what you were talking about in your meditation, especially the “… and just a dash of cannibalism to spice it up a bit.” Very nice!
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