The Oresteia Prior to leaving to the Trojan war, Agamemnon sacrifices his daughter Iphigenia to the goddess Artemis to secure victory. Clytemnestra, the wife of Agamemnon, takes Aegisthus as a lover and plots her husband’s death. In his return, Agamemnon brings Cassandra, his concubine and a prophetess which angers Clytemnestra even more. However, she invites them warmly knowing the fate that awaits them. Cassandra gets a vision of Agamemnon’s and her death, but no one believes her. When Agamemnon follows his wife inside the place, it is said that Clytemnestra cuts his head off with an axe and the same goes for Cassandra. Orestes, the son of Agamemnon was exiled, but returns to avenge his father’s death with the help of Apollo. He meets his sister at their father’s grave where they plot their revenge. Electra helps him get into the palace where he kills both his mom and Aegisthus. Orestes wonders around the land with guilt. Hunted by the furies, Orestes goes to Apollo who directs him to Athena. He prays for forgiveness which is granted thus ending the curse of the house of Atreus. The Colossus- Sylvia Plath “A blue sky out of the Oresteia Arches above us. O father, all by yourself You are pithy and historical as the Roman Forum. I open my lunch on a hill of black cypress. Your fluted bones and acanthine hair are littered” "Oresteia." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 17 Aug. 2012. Web. 20 Aug. 2012. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oresteia>. Plath, Sylvia. "The Colossus: by Sylvia Plath." . N.p., 2003. Web. 20 Aug 2012. <http://www.americanpoems.com/poets/sylviaplath/1441>. "Google Images." Google Images. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Aug. 2012. <http://www.google.com/imgres?q=oresteia>.