The Week Before the Trip: Wednesday

Wednesday: Agamemnon

    The week before the trip, the excitement is building. The group met for the first time on Monday and we got to know each other. 20 or so of us are traveling together with a few unaccounted for in class due to being alumni. 20 of us, with different majors, interests, backgrounds, insight. It's hard not to be intimidated by those around me, when listening to their thoughts about concepts we talk about. I'm intrigued, because I have never thought that way before and wonder is it because I have not been exposed to the things they have been exposed to? The answer is yes. And with that I, I have comfort. Comfort in knowing, that my fellow peers have never been to Greece either and that is something I have in common with these seemingly strangers, soon to turn friends. 

    Monday, we studied Aeschylus’ Agamemnon. For some background, Agamemnon is the first play in a trilogy, the Oresteia,  which is perhaps one of the greatest Greek tragedies. From the beginning, a sense of impending doom is felt through the Watchman's opening speech. This play is centered around the theft of Helen wife of Greek king Menelaus, to which the Trojan War followed; again and again. After 10 years of war, Troy did eventually fall to Greece and the King's brother, Agamemnon, is called to come swiftly by his wife, Clytemnestra, only after finding out a terrible storm seized the Greek Fleet on the way home and left the King and others missing. Unfortunately, news from the chorus, recall how Agamemnon sacrificed their daughter, Iphigenia to the god Artemis to obtain favorable outcomes for the Greek fleet. Agamemnon did not return home empty handed however, but with a woman named Cassandra who was a prophecies and a bitter attitude towards his wife.

    The play goes on with the chorus expressing a sense of trepidation, and Clytemnestra eventually calls Cassandra inside. Cassandra tells the new Queen of incoherent prophecies about a curse on the house of Agamemnon. Cassandra tells the chorus how they will see the King dead; and how she is fated to die, all the while seeming very content about this. After speaking these prophecies, she seems content with her fate and leaves the chorus in fear. Soon, they hear Agamemnon cry out in pain from inside, and the door swings open with Clytemnestra standing over the corpses of her husband and Cassandra, declaring that she killed him to avenge Iphigeneia. Clytemnestra and her lover, Aegisthus, Agamemnon's cousin take over the government and the chorus declares that Clytemnestra's son, Orestes will return from exile to avenge her.

    Looking at this tragic play from a feminist point of view, I recognize the misogynies that are inadvertently present. I'll start with how Clytemnestra is represented. Clytemnestra is represented as this character who within the first few lines of the play are described by the watchman as a "woman in passionate heart and man in strength of person." This statement shows a clear distinction between gender roles but also presents Clytemnestra as having 'manly' qualities. You can clearly observe these 'manly' qualities particularly in her use of language in her monologue, specifically in the line "Right where I struck, I stand, on my achievement I acted - I'm not going to deny it - to trap him so he couldn't fight off death." It seems that in Greek mythology, women are oppressed, evil or portrayed as manly. 

    It is true that Clytemnestra is represented as all the above. In the case of Clytemnestra. Reading the line, of "woman in passionate heart," seems like a gentle way for the watchman to say "oh you know women, always emotional." Some readers might read this tragedy and think that Clytemnestra overreacted, asking why kill Cassandra too? Maybe it was a mercy kill, Cassandra prophesized that she was fated to die anyways! Another interesting point brought up by a peer, that Cassandra and Clytemnestra alike were portrayed to be evil. Cassandra with her prophecies, in that time were considered to be witches and were considered as evil, and Clytemnestra is portrayed as this meditative murderer, i.e, evil. 

    I found out that we will be visiting Clytemnestra Tomb while in Greece, and I am more than excited. To be able to recite the her monologue almost feels like I will be saying to her "I see you, and I understand you." I am ready to embrace the tragic story of Agamemnon. I'm excited to listen and see through the lens of Clytemnestra, and invite my mind to wonder curiously with my peers. Although, it is uncertain that this is the final resting place of Clytemnestra, it would be ill advised to guard my senses to what I am about to experience.