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    Agamemnon
    Agamemnon
    Agamemnon
    Ebook90 pages1 hour

    Agamemnon

    By Aeschylus

    3.5/5

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    About this ebook

    King Agamemnon returns victorious from the Trojan War, where dark foreshadowings develop.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherWilder Publications, Inc.
    Release dateJun 15, 2014
    ISBN9781633840058

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    Reviews for Agamemnon

    3.5/5

    183 ratings7 reviews

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    • 2/5
      Bewerking van Johan Boonen, zeer bevattelijk. Het stuk heeft een zwakke dramatische uitwerking, weinig diepgang
    • 5/5
      This is the more affordable of the two significant 20th Century editions of the Agamemnon, the other one being Fraenkel's magisterial three-volume edition (unfortunately priced only for the library or the specialist). Denniston and Page provide an edition with good apparatus, and engage intelligently with previous critics, providing a usable and helpful presentation of the text.
    • 2/5
      Bewerking van Johan Boonen, zeer bevattelijk. Het stuk heeft een zwakke dramatische uitwerking, weinig diepgang
    • 3/5
      This is the first part of the only Greek trilogy that we have. The play is set after the Trojan War in the city of Argos, of which Agamemnon is the ruler. Agamemnon's wife learns of the defeat of the Trojans and the imminent return of her husband through the use of a series of beacons. However while she is eagerly awaiting her husband's return, it is a different scenario from Odysseus' wife Penelope, who remained faithful to her husband for the twenty years he was away. Instead, while Agamemnon was away, she took a lover, Aegisthus, and is plotting her revenge for the murder of her daughter at Aulis.There is a lot of background to this play, but that is not uncommon for Greek drama in that they are set within a complex historical context that has a lot of past events that all tie in together and also provide the precursor to a lot of other events. This is probably why the trilogy was so popular in that it enabled the playwright to look to the events that arose within the play (and also that Greek plays tend to be quite short).Agamemnon is a man with a lot of enemies, but then that is to be expected in relation to a man that had set himself up as overlord of Greece. However, his father had tricked Aegisthus' father, Thyestes, into eating his children, but Aegisthus managed to escape, and by allowing Clytemnestra (Agamemnon's wife) to take him as her lover puts him in the best position to extract his revenge. However, Clytemnestra did not need much encouraging to murder Agamemnon, as prior to the war, he sacrificed his daughter, Iphagenia, so that the war would be successful (actually it was so that the winds would change to enable the fleet to sail to Troy). This is going to upset most mothers, though to add insult to injury, he brought Cassandra back as his prize, so he effectively arrives in Argos to face an angry wife with a woman that he picked up to take her place when she was not around. However, it is clear that Clytemnestra's actions were not looked upon all that well. While revenge is acceptable to the Greeks, it does not seem to be the case where it is the woman seeking revenge.As with a lot of Aeschylus' plays, it seems to be very little on the action, and a lot on the storytelling. While Clytaemnestra does appear at the beginning of the play, it is not until a quarter of the way through that she first speaks. In fact, most of the major characters only appear for a short time. The only major character that is on the stage for an extended period of time is Cassandra, and she is trying to warn the Chorus of what is to come, but due to her curse nobody believes her. It seems that a majority of the play actually revolves around Cassandra and her prophecies, and also the curse that has been placed upon her to be able to predict the future, but is never listened to. In fact, she is treated like the barbarian that she is.Clytaemnestra and Penelope are two contrasting women in Greek mythology. Penelope is seen as the epitome of female honour however Clytaemnestra is portrayed as the complete opposite. Penelope waits patiently for her husband to return, and uses every trick that she can think of to outwit the suitors who are eating her out of house and home. Throughout all that time she rebukes the advances of all of the man that come, and also resists the social pressure that she is under to remarry. Clytaemenstra is the opposite as she is a very proud and hot headed individual who is seeking revenge against her husband. She takes a lover, and then lays a trap for her husband for when she returns.The play concludes with the idea that Argos has now become a tyranny. This is odd because it never was anything other than a tyranny. Agamemnon is actually not a very nice guy. The best portrayal of him would have been in the movie Troy, where he is portrayed as a vicious imperialist who is looking for any excuse to expand his power. We don't see that here, but rather see a man who has returned from ten years of war to find his house not only in shambles but also turned against him. In a way, this play is another example of returning from war and the difficulties of returning to one's previous life. I suspect that there are a lot of soldiers out there that could sympathise with the plight of Agamemnon, though these days, with much better communication systems, the breakdown of the family unit due to war is evident much sooner, but happens all too often.
    • 1/5


      Agamemnon is one of the Oresteian trilogy that followed the story of Agamemnon's homecoming from the Trojan Wars and the subsequent tragedy that lead from his unfaithful wife, Clytemnestra. This play of Agamemnon concentrates on Clytemnestra, the comparison with Odysseus's wife, Penelope and the details of Agamemnon that lead to his foretold demise.

      Since I only read the first part of the series, I do say this book is my least favorite Greek mythology due to the obvious regression of Clytemnestra to a character worth hating. I'm certain the play would be better in Greek than in English and even much better being seen than read.

      Despite my obvious failure in understanding poetry, I am not averse to poetic form of literature but reading this does bores me. There are things that are meant to be said out loud, drama like this deserved to be seen instead of reading it. Since I'm not in a place where I could appreciate Greek literature, hence I am at the disadvantage until I found the perfect translation or prefarably audible translation to accompany with the reading of the famed Orestian trilogy.
    • 4/5
      The Agamemnon of Aeschylus was a play written by Aeschylus in 458 B.C. as part of a series (the Oresteia) that won him first prize in the archonship of Philocles. This version was translated into English rhyming verse by Gilbert Murray who also adds helpful footnotes.

      Given that the original is in Greek, and this version has not only been translated into English but then made to rhyme in English, makes one wonder how true to the original spirit it remains. For example:
      "Paris to Argos came;
      Love of woman led him;
      So God's altar he brought to shame,
      Robbing the hand that fed him."

      Author Philip Caputo offered the Oresteia as his one reading recommendation last year, which is why I wanted to read it. .

      Agamemnon triumphantly returns home from the Trojan War. He is greeted by Clytemnestra who feigns the loving wife longing for her husband. She then lures Agamemnon and then Cassandra, his captured slave, into the house and murders them. The elders and comrades of Agamemnon move to take revenge against Clytemnestra and her lover, Aegisthus. But Clytemnestra halts the dispute and everyone awaits the return of Agamemnon's son, Orestes, from Troy to exact the revenge.

      Early in the play, I found language that sounds biblical enough to make me wonder either about the Greek translation or think about the Gospel authors' exposure to classic Greek literature.

      "But the wise Shepherd knoweth his sheep,
      And his eyes pierce deep
      the faith like water that fawns and feigns."

      My favorite part was when Agamemnon is replying to Clytemnestra, who is trying to tempt him to show hubris by treading on tapestries of crimson and gold. He responds by contrasting the honor he seeks with the respect shown only to gods:

      "'Tis God that hath
      Such worship; and for mortal man to press
      Rude feet upon this broidered loveliness...
      I vow there be danger in it. Let my road
      Be honoured, surely; but as man, not god"

      and:
      "God giveth, for I reckon no man blest
      Ere to the utmost goal his race be run.
      So be it; and if, as this day I have done,
      I shall do always, then I fear no ill."

      But alas, poor Agamemnon:
      "For woman's sake he endured and battled well,
      And by a woman's hand he fell."
    • 3/5
      I found Lattimore's translation difficult to read and ended up supplementing it with the YouTube video of the (British) National Theater production of Tony Harrison's translation, which I found easier to understand. Even that was difficult in places but perhaps because I was busy trying to match up the video with the text...

      So for this particular edition I give 3 stars - for the play itself, I give 4 stars. This is the epitome of what I think of when I hear the term "Greek tragedy" - the inescapable fate, the chorus, the justice and yet the pity.

    Book preview

    Agamemnon - Aeschylus

    Agamemnon

    by Æschylus

    Translated into English Verse by

    E. D. A. Morshead, M.A.

    late fellow of new college oxford, assistant master of winchester college

    ©2015 SMK Books

    All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner without written permission except for brief quotations for review purposes only.

    SMK Books

    PO Box 632

    Floyd, VA 24091-0632

    ISBN 13: 978-1-63384-005-8

    Table of Contents

    Preface

    Dramatis Personae

    Agamemnon

    Preface

    The sense of difficulty, and indeed of awe, with which a scholar approaches the task of translating the Agamemnon depends directly on its greatness as poetry. It is in part a matter of diction. The language of Aeschylus is an extraordinary thing, the syntax stiff and simple, the vocabulary obscure, unexpected, and steeped in splendour. Its peculiarities cannot be disregarded, or the translation will be false in character. Yet not Milton himself could produce in English the same great music, and a translator who should strive ambitiously to represent the complex effect of the original would clog his own powers of expression and strain his instrument to breaking. But, apart from the diction in this narrower sense, there is a quality of atmosphere surrounding the Agamemnon which seems almost to defy reproduction in another setting, because it depends in large measure on the position of the play in the historical development of Greek literature.

    If we accept the view that all Art to some extent, and Greek tragedy in a very special degree, moves in its course of development from Religion to Entertainment, from a Service to a Performance, the Agamemnon seems to stand at a critical point where the balance of the two elements is near perfection. The drama has come fully to life, but the religion has not yet faded to a formality. The Agamemnon is not, like Aeschylus’ Suppliant Women, a statue half-hewn out of the rock. It is a real play, showing clash of character and situation, suspense and movement, psychological depth and subtlety. Yet it still remains something more than a play. Its atmosphere is not quite of this world. In the long lyrics especially one feels that the guiding emotion is not the entertainer’s wish to thrill an audience, not even perhaps the pure artist’s wish to create beauty, but something deeper and more prophetic, a passionate contemplation and expression of truth; though of course the truth in question is something felt rather than stated, something that pervades life, an eternal and majestic rhythm like the movement of the stars.

    Thus, if Longinus is right in defining Sublimity as the ring, or resonance, of greatness of soul, one sees in part where the sublimity of the Agamemnon comes from. And it is worth noting that the faults which some critics have found in the play are in harmony with this conclusion. For the sublimity that is rooted in religion tolerates some faults and utterly refuses to tolerate others. The Agamemnon may be slow in getting to work; it may be stiff with antique conventions. It never approaches to being cheap or insincere or shallow or sentimental or showy. It never ceases to be genuinely a criticism of life. The theme which it treats, for instance, is a great theme in its own right; it is not a made-up story ingeniously handled.

    The trilogy of the Oresteia, of which this play is the first part, centres on the old and everlastingly unsolved problem of

    The ancient blinded vengeance and the wrong that amendeth wrong.

    Every wrong is justly punished; yet, as the world goes, every punishment becomes a new wrong, calling for fresh vengeance. And more; every wrong turns out to be itself rooted in some wrong of old. It is never gratuitous, never untempted by the working of Peitho (Persuasion), never merely wicked. The Oresteia first shows the cycle of crime punished by crime which must be repunished, and then seeks for some gleam of escape, some breaking of the endless chain of evil duty. In the old order of earth and heaven there was no such escape. Each blow called for the return blow and must do so ad infinitum. But, according to Aeschylus, there is a new Ruler now in heaven, one who has both sinned and suffered and thereby grown wise. He is Zeus the Third Power, Zeus the Saviour, and his gift to mankind is the ability through suffering to Learn.

    At the opening of the Agamemnon we find Clytemnestra alienated from her husband and secretly befriended with his ancestral enemy, Aigisthos. The air is heavy and throbbing with hate; hate which is evil but has its due cause. Agamemnon, obeying the prophet Calchas, when the fleet lay storm-bound at Aulis, had given his own daughter, Iphigenîa, as a human sacrifice. And if we ask how a sane man had consented to such an act, we are told of his gradual temptation; the deadly excuse offered by ancient superstition; and above all, the fact that he had already inwardly accepted the great whole of which this horror was a part. At the first outset of his

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