Utter Greekness (Micaela Hoops)

Title/Subject: What is familiar to me about Agamemnon?

Familiarity struck me with Agamemnon’s utter Greekness. It is full of prophecy, tragedy, revenge, murder, of which consist Greek tragedies. I see many parallelisms in Oedipus Rex, the Odyssey, Medea, and Macbeth. Revenge inspires all of these plays; each a mirror to life’s tales of vengeance. Agamemnon sought revenge; Clytemnestra sought revenge; the chorus of old men sought revenge. It is a universal theme.

Revenge seems so arbitrary, since the deed that ignited the desire for vengeance is already done- revenge will not undo any tragedy; yet, it is so fundamental to human history and literature. I thought it interesting the recurring stories; Aeschylus mentions Odysseus in lines 305-310, claiming he is ignorant of whether Odysseus had a safe journey. Agamemnon has a much more poignant similarity with the Odyssey, though, and that is the defiance of the Gods by the humans. A battle between mankind’s hubris and the Gods is a recurring theme. The Odyssey begins because Odysseus defies Poseidon; his journey is made a miserable one by the God of the ocean. Of course, in Agamemnon, the defiance is a much more subtle one; it is one forced upon Agamemnon by his wife when she demands that he walk on the purple pavement she ordered out to celebrate his victory and wealth. He feels it is the God’s privilege to “tread embroidered beauty”; perhaps it is the playwrights’ intention to connect a possible punishment from the Gods. Cassandra suffers the same ailment, having cheated her lover Apollo, and now suffers not escaping his anger. What’s interesting is that “one will come after to avenge my death, a matricide, a murdered father’s champion” and this satisfies her; honor is satiable. In fact, honor demands retribution: Clytemnestra is injured by her husband, just as Medea is, and exacts revenge; however the difference is that Clytemnestra is avenging her child’s murder, while Medea is avenging with her children’s murders.

Children are often the victims of their parents self-destructive actions, especially in Greek tragedies. In the Odyssey, Odysseus’ son is almost the skeleton of his mother’s suitors’ cruel desires. Oedipus is sent off to die by his parents’ fear of the prophecy on their death; ironically, they set up the conditions, which would lead Oedipus to killing his father. Prophecy is always a predicament human’s try to solve, but only fulfill those very predictions. In much of Greek literature is self-fulfilling prophecy a recurrence; it also occurs repeatedly in Western literature. Macbeth is a clear example of this; even though the prophecies seem unrealistic- like his being killed by a man not born of woman. Of course this is part of the genius of Shakespeare: he continues the tradition of making impossible prophecies come true. But this is off topic, just an inserted opinion.

The point is that prophecies are realized continuously. What is inevitably crossed upon is revenge and prophecy; therefore these are familiar to the human condition.
It seems that the Gods have brought nothing but grief to humans; it was because of three Goddesses that the Trojan War began at all. It was for Artemis’ favor that Agamemnon sacrificed his daughter. The originary epic, Gilgamesh, is manifest by the interference of the Gods’ in Gilgamesh’s life. He meets his friend Enkidu because of a God’s manipulations; Enkidu is sent a woman- the first woman he encounters- by a God, to civilize him and send him to fight Gilgamesh. This man profoundly affects Gilgamesh’s life. Humankind has been writing about life and fate explained through direct and indirect influences of divine hand. Even now, we can admit (I know I can) attributing unexplainable events to divine intervention just by asking ‘God’ why something happened. Or justifying decisions to God’s mission; I mean, we are on a crusade in Iraq passing out God’s gift of freedom. This is a familiar recurring behavior of humans. In fact, even revenge plays out in the Iraqi war; didn’t Saddam Hussein threaten George Bush senior? Is President Bush not motivated a little by vengeance? It’s eerie to think that we have not changed much since we started recording history. Anyways, there is just one more thing I will mention; it’s a detail that made me pause. His wife stabs the unwitting Agamemnon; he is betrayed. Julius Caesar was also stabbed by betrayal.

Written by Micaela Hoops
Posted by Kirk Andrew Everist 2/12/07