Text of the Week--The Agamemnon

Sorry I'm doing this last minute. I actually forgot about writing this blog, today. I WAS SO ENGROSSED IN READING DOWN AND OUT IN THE MAGIC KINGDOM THAT I TOTALLY FORGOT!!! (Did you believe that? Well, at any rate, it WAS a really freaking good book. Click on the link; you can download the book for free.)

Well, today, son, we need to have the talk. I'm quite sure your mother's been itching to have this talk with you, but I knew I had to talk to you first.

We need to talk to you about carpets, and walking on them.

... you know, I actually DIDN'T mean for that to sound sexual. But it does. It really, REALLY does.

ANYWAY. Walking on carpets is VERY, VERY BAD, because the gods will SMITE YOU like they did the main character of today's text-- The Agamemnon. It's the first play in the Oresteia, so we'll be covering that group of plays for the entire month of March.

As a little bit of background: All Greek tragic performances were actually performed as a group of three tragic plays, all sort of related to each other, and a satyr play as the last one. (remember that pic of the satyr I had not too long ago? Now, try to imagine what a satyr play is like...) The ONLY fully surviving group of plays that we have, minus the satyr play, is The Oresteia written by Aeschylus. Someone who knows their stuff a little more might argue with me on Sophocles' Oedipus plays, but no, he wrote those three for three different competitions (and for the record, Sophocles is my favorite of all the tragic writers).

With that in mind, let us plunge into the waters of...

SPOILERS!!! (how very Greek of me, what with the "waters" bit...)

Pros:

+DEEP: Nowadays, we consider writers like Ernest Hemmingway and Ayn Rand to be DEEP. All those ancient people? Pah! They just talked about guys creaming themselves all over womens and then the handkercheif from that creaming creates a species of snake people that eventually become an ancient civilization. Actually, that's true, but there was also some DEPTH in them thar hills of Greece. I wish I could take a picture of a few pages of my copy of The Agamemnon and show it to you. I have writing and highlighter marks EVERYWHERE, because there's a lot of DEPTH all over this play! I feel like this is primarily accomplished by the use of symbolism and ambiguity. When you're reading The Agamemnon, watch out for images of light/dark, lions, and nets, to name only a few. As far as the ambiguity goes, pay close attention to the use of the term "justice" or ANYTHING having to do with legal terms, for that matter. It's sort of funny how EVERYONE in this play has a claim to justice. Who will win? Only time (and reading the other two plays) will tell...

+Cassandra: WOW. Just... WOW. The professor who initially taught me the Oresteia said that if he were to go back in time and witness one thing, he would go and watch the Cassandra portion of the Agamemnon. When he first said that, I was a little skeptical, but after reading it nearly forty billion times, I see his point. She's... something. When she's first wheeled into the play, she doesn't say ANYTHING, but watches in despair as Agamemnon, the man who captured her, is led off to his doom (I feel like there's a bit of Stockholm Syndrome here...). Then, once it looks like everything is going to calm down... WHAMMO!!! THERE SHE IS, GO GO GO!!! Yeah, I'm purposefully being vague. I want you to read it and see what I mean. Now. I'll provide a link to an etext online at the end of this post, how about that?? :D

+Cassandra/Clytemnestra Dynamic: For being so mysoginistic, those Greeks had some dynamo women. I put this as its own point because I'm not just talking about Cassandra here; I'm talking about the way these two interact. It's amazing, because it's all silence on Cassandra's part. While the evil Clytemnestra, who was NOT the original "main" villain of the story but is in this play, lures her husband Agamemnon to his doom, Cassandra refuses to submit to Clytemnestra's will. Funny how only a woman can defy Clytemnestra's ALL POWERFUL EVILNESS. Even in the next play, Orestes is duped by her at some point. Neither of the other two main men in this story, Agamemnon nor Aegisthus, can even compare to the strength of these two women. Best of all, she doesn't get all bitchy at Clytemnestra and go off the handle in front of her; Cassandra is silent for the entire exchange, as I suggested earlier. Seriously, it's a wonderfully handled scene. I wish ALL of the scenes in the Oresteia were handled this well, but alas... I'll complain about that next week. =P

+Emotion: Of course, it's not a good tragedy if it doesn't make you feel anything for the characters. (Was I being opinionated again? Whoops, silly me...) Truthfully, I didn't feel much for Agamemnon, except "GOD YOU'RE STUPID!!! GET OFF THAT DAMN CARPET!!!" With Cassandra... if you can't tell, she's my favorite character in this play. You really do feel bad for her at the end as she's dragged off to her doom, KNOWING she's going to die (that's part of her curse. Read more on her here.) You also learn to hate and fear Clytemnestra. I swear, my mental image of her is always Maleficent. I know, I know... the Greeks would have totally hated the kick ass female villain, even more than the kick ass male villain, but eh... you got to admit, someone THAT cunning is pretty scary business. At the very least, I like her as a villain.

Cons:

-... MAAAAAYBE a little too DEEP: Our professor had us read this play first of all the tragic plays for a reason; it's really fracking hard to read. This is mostly caused by the chorus, since they're so dense and chalk full of symbolism. And no, you can't just skip over the chorus. They provide BACKSTORY. At the very least, you've got to read over this play a couple of times. If you're like me, you've read it forty billion times, and can probably quote it by heart. (Actually... I can't.)

-Stupidest way of dying... ALMOST EVER: Actually, that award would go to the dwarf who got swollwed by a hippo. At any rate, it was a Clytemnestra/Aegisthus team up, in the bathroom, with a net. Seriously, Agamemnon and Cassandra die while taking a bubble bath or some stupid shit like that. I suppose I can't fault Aeschylus TOO much for that; that's a detail of the actual story. Still, it's a great tabloid headline: FAMOUS WAR GENERAL KILLED IN TUB BY WIFE.

-The "GODDAMMIT AGAMEMNON!!!" moments: FFFFFFF--!!! One of the aggravating things about this play is the sheer stupidity of Agamemnon. The reason why it was so bad for him to walk on that tapestry is that it would have made him seem like he was acting like a god, and thus giving Clytemnestra and Aegisthus the justification needed for killing him. Now, son, we have had the talk.

~~~

I tried to make this one FAIR AND BALANCED, but seriously, of all three plays, this one is my favorite. I have more negative to say about The Libation Bearers and the Eumenides, but The Agamemnon is actually a pretty damn good play.

E-text version of The Agamemnon

Well, what are you waiting for? Go read it! :D

CARTHAGO DELENDA EST!